1st full day in Bangkok

Hello.

Yesterday was our first full day in Bangkok so we got to experience all sorts of new, smelly and interesting things. It's bloody hot here, 32 degrees today, but because of the smog you can't see the sun. The air is close and thick, so it's nice that so many places are air conditioned.

We had a wander round the area near the hotel to see what the place was about, and got lost within about 8 seconds. There are a million streets here, every single one with the same people on, cooking, sewing or selling. We had a wander round one of the big markets which was quite bewildering.

Every few steps brings a new smell, some nice, some not. We've managed to avoid the Tuk Tuk's so far despite having several kind offers from those nice drivers. Maybe tomorrow...

First mistake of the trip was not bringing the Lonely Planet guide, so we had to buy one. From that we found a restaurant called Le Lys (or something) about 25 minutes down the road that turned out to be very nice. An old converted house serving proper home-style Thai food. Very friendly and tasty .

Today we're going to check out the canal and work out how to get to our next hotel over in Banglamphu - backpacker central, and then attempt to take the Skytrain to Sukhumvit and see what's going on around there. There's a place there where you get a Thai massage (honestly it's a massage) from blind masseuses apparently, so we'll see how brave we feel when we see it...

Charl was quite scared before we set out to discover Bangkok yesterday but it's surprisingly non-threatening and easy. The traffic and the "where you going, cheap cheap!" hassle is about as bad as we've seen so far. It's a bit mental, but fun!

Bangkok

Well, we made it. We arrived in Bangkok at about 6pm last night, after a small delay and then having to stop off at Stanstead for fuel. We got a couple of cracking seats at the back, with just the two of us together. Qantas looked after us really well with plenty of food and pressies. I think we're feeling the effects of such a long time on the plane but we'll attempt to shake that off by going shopping and then lounging by the pool.

The taxi driver (I think his name was My Kael Schoo Makker) brought us to the hotel from the airport at about 500mph, but it only cost a tenner so we just closed our eyes and prayed.

We would have written last night but we got into the hotel room and fell asleep, so we're about to go off and see a bit of the city, starting with the shops on Charl's request.

All is well with us. I hope those of you reading this at work are having a nice time too.

hehehe.

Kev and Charl.

Hello!

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Gawd knows how you stick photos on here, but apparently you can so when we suss that out we'll get some up here.

Panic packing

This time tomorrow we'll be on the plane, heading to Bangkok for the beginning of our 12 month trip. We probably should have finished packing by now, but there seems to be a million things still to do.