Bangkok!!

We finally arrived in Bangkok and were dropped off on the Khao San Road, famously known as the rowdy backpackers area in Bangkok. We were bombarded with several local taxi drivers shouting in our ears as we stepped off the coach, the last thing we wanted, but decided to attempt haggling with one as we needed to get to The Empire Plaza, our accommodation for the week. After showing a taxi driver the address, he said he would give us the good price of 1500 baht to take us to our destination. We simply laughed in his face as we had paid only 1000 baht to get all the way from Koh Tao to Bangkok! After ringing The Empire Plaza, we found out it should only cost us around 100 baht to get to the apartment block so we decided to head round the corner to find another taxi. After several refusals from taxis saying it was too far, we finally hopped in a taxi who agreed to take us for 250 baht. By this point we were exhausted from the journey, lugging our bags around and trying to haggle with stubborn taxi drivers so we collapsed into the car and within 25 minutes we had arrived. We were instantly greeted, our bags taken from us to be delivered to our room, checked in and we were whisked up to our home for the next week. We couldn't believe our eyes when we walked into the clean and crisp apartment, with marble floors, an enormous limestone bathroom, a fully equipped kitchen, a sitting room and a large bedroom boasting a king size bed with an absurd amount of pillows. We were handed an iced tea and a freezing cold towel to cool us down, before being shown around. We knew immediately that it would be difficult to leave this luxury! After calming ourselves down, we popped to City Viva, a mini-mall, where we bought some instant noodles for dinner before literally sinking into our fluffy bed.

The next day we woke up around lunch time, finally caught up on the lack of sleep, and decided to head out in search of food. We wandered back to City Viva where we both had katsu curry at a Japanese restaurant. The rest of the day was spent in awe of our palatial apartment, making the most of the TWO air-conditioning units, TWO tvs and the complimentary washing machine/dryer that was put to use immediately! In the evening, we had pasta and watched an incredible electric storm from our balcony, with lightning so bright that it lit up the city skyline and thunder so loud is made our whole bodies quiver. Charlie later cracked open a beer and watched Arsenal vs Man City (the first football match he has seen since travelling) whilst Laura skyped her grandparents to thank them for letting us use a week of their timeshare! 

The next morning we decided to head to the pool where we spent a few relaxing hours sunbathing on luxurious sunbeds and swimming in the cooling water, surrounded by towering skyscrapers. We later headed to MBK, a gigantic seven-story shopping centre selling just about everything under the sun, for lunch and a wander round the shops. We were told that cinemas in Bangkok were amazing so paid around £3 each to watch The Hunger Games, in spacious and extremely comfortable arm chairs. Apart from the thai woman at the end of the row who snored throughout the entire film, we decided that a thai cinema experience is much better than an english one, despite watching a pretty average film! Back to the apartment for pasta again and an early night.

Another day by the pool, making the most of the 38 degree sunshine, was much needed especially due to the fact that we were both still pasty white despite having been travelling for nearly 3 months! Once the city had begun to cool down, we headed to the Pantip Plaza for Charlie to browse around the countless camera and electronics shops in search for underwater housing for his camera. Unsuccessful, and after a lovely but sweaty stroll around the stalls at Siam Square, we had dinner at a cosy thai restaurant before getting the sky train back to The Empire Plaza.

Wednesday was yet another day spent relaxing in the scorching heat, Bangkok is known as one of the hottest cities in the world, at the pool with our iPods and kindle. We booked our bus ticket to Phi Phi, where we were due to meet Laura's sister Amy and her boyfriend James, which we had to collect later that evening from Siam Paragon (another of the many impressive shopping malls). Whilst grabbing a quick dinner at Siam Paragon, Laura's Mum rang worried about the Tsunami alert and the fact that Phuket airport, where Amy and James were flying into, was shut! We had read about it on the BBC website that morning and people in Bangkok claimed to have felt the earthquake but we didn't feel a thing. Everyone around seemed pretty relaxed about it, however, we were warned by reception that people were being evacuated from the islands on the West coast. We then popped one stop along the sky train to MBK where we purchased a few classic thai beaters before heading home to bed.

On our last full day in Bangkok we got up fairly early (for us anyway) and headed to Wat Pho, a Buddhist temple and the birthplace of the thai massage, also known as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. We were melting in the 35 degree heat, dressed in full length garments to respect the thai people and their traditions. With Charlie in his jeans and polo shirt and Laura in a tshirt and full length trousers, we were shocked by the number of tourists walking around in strappy tops and tiny shorts, and the fact that they got away with it. We wandered around the grounds for about an hour, admiring the beautiful ornaments, colourful tiled buildings and spires as well as the many golden buddhas. We eventually began queuing up to go into the main attraction, the Golden Buddha. Eventually we made it to the front of the queue, removed our shoes and were whisked around the building in the flow of people, taking a few quick snaps of the 46m long Golden Buddha. It was an amazing cultural visit, and great to see one of the many temples in Bangkok, however the experience was not as spiritual as expected with a huge number of tourists swarming what should have been a very tranquil place. After a peaceful boat trip back up the river, past Wat Arun (another temple) and a floating dead crocodile (?!), we eventually made our way back to the heavenly air-conditioned sky train. Who would have thought getting onto public transport would be such a relief?! Back at the Empire Place we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing by the pool in the sun. We headed to the highly recommended Sara Jane's restaurant for dinner where we enjoyed an excellent chicken green thai curry, pork penang curry and garlic bread. A strange combination but we were craving the garlic bread!

Before catching our overnight bus that evening to Phuket to then catch a ferry to Phi Phi, we both decided to go back to the Pantip Plaza where we found a Canon G12 camera with underwater housing for a very reasonable price, a Bangkok Special! After the two dives on Koh Tao using our instructors camera, we decided it would be worth spending the money to buy ourselves a shared camera and catch our memories on future dives. With big smiles on our faces we arrived back at the apartment, drying off from the Songkram celebrations. One final clothes wash later, we were packed and ready to head to the bus terminal to find our overnight bus down to Phuket. We arrived considerably early at the terminal as traffic during Songkram, the Thai New Year, can be a nightmare so we left plenty of time. A delicious meal and a stock up on snacks from the 7/11 and we were on yet another long and tedious coach journey across the country, this time a much more comfortable journey in the buisness-class equivalent seats on the VIP coach, with armchair-like seats with more than enough leg room.