11/02
07:30 (23:30 GMT/ +7 hours): Our three hour and forty five minute flight from India to Bangkok was over. We were in South East Asia.
We passed through immigration, collected our bags and had our first meal: tasty fried pork and noodles followed by a dunkin' donuts!
We paid for a metro ride, 90 baht for the both of us to travel the entire length of the city line. I was now changing my seven times table for my five: 50 baht converts roughly to a pound. Easy enough you would think, but seriously struggled to form a coherent sentence let alone multiply or divide by five.
We flagged down a taxi at the other side of the metro station. The driver of the blue taxi demanded 200 baht, he entertained no negotiations. We waved him off as the taxis from the airport were charging 300baht, and we had already come two thirds of the way.
We got into a pink taxi with a metre and drove to Khaosan Road: backpacker central. We were on civilised roads, no honking, no sleeping bodies to avoid.
We hadn't been in the country two hours and the most noticeable thin about this city was the gays. Blair quoted the Lonely Planet as soon as I mentioned this, it has to be my favourite line from the book: "Bangkok is very gay, it makes San Fransisco look like rural Texas"!
As soon as we stepped out of the taxi, we were bombarded with hagglers selling everything from getaway trips to the islands, to tailored suits, to ping pong shows, yep, we were in Khaosan. It was a street of stall of RayBan's, LaCoste, Abercrombie and Fitch for a few ponds. Plastic white tables sat outside bars crowded by beer and shot guzzling tourists. Stalls selling you a variety of scorpions on a stick or change you 20p for a photo. People had travelled thousands of miles to do exactly what they could do in Ibiza or Benidorm but for a fraction of the price.
We pushed through and found our hostel round the corner of Khaosan and opposite a Boots and Seven Eleven.
The downstairs of the Rainbow Hostel was an Indian restaurant. We checked in and paid for our two nights stay in a double room and in suite. We handed over a shocking 720 baht ( £14.40).
We climbed two flights of stairs, and walked to the end of the corridor to 206. We unlocked the door, it rebounded off the bed. Hot air and a stale smell hit us. The floor was sticky. The bathroom door hit the sink. There was a notice above the toilet: kindly save energy and put the used tissue papers and sanitary towels in the bin. Above the toilet, a corner of the ceiling tile was black with wet mould, water (presumably) from the above bathroom dripped down ( it looks like something out of the Grudge). We have booked two nights here. We were so tired, we crashed onto the bed ( which was harder than the bed in Mumbai tenfold!) and slept for five hours.
We showered and had dinner at the Peachy Guesthouse. Apart from two ladies, we were the only Westerners there, the rest were all locals.
The menu was pretty cool, sneak and fish head were featured in a few of the Thai delights. I had Tom Yam ribs in a lemon grass soup, and Blair wolfed down his fried pork with rice and Singha beer.
Our walk back showed us Khaosan after the sun goes down. Cheesy music blasted from bars, promo guys stood with signs offering buckets of vodka and red bull, gin and tonic and whiskey with a mixer for £3. Drunken louts walking up and down in search of their next watering hole. We found it funny, but I was trying desperately to grasp my bearings. We have witnessed three worlds opposing entirely in character. Abu Dhabi - Mumbai - Bangkok, we had witnessed a serious case of bipolar in our destinations.
We turned our fan on to the highest setting and fell asleep to some truly horrendous Thai karaoke across the street and blaring tunes from bars close by.
Today we slept in until the afternoon, recovering from jet lag.
We walked to Ann's Sweets, a bakery and patiserrie owned by a Cordon Bleu chef: Ann. I had a triple chocolate mousse with freshly squeezes orange juice and an espresso. Blair had a decadent and generous serving of brownie banana split.
We walked along the river where an intense crazy Thai dance workout was going on. The instructor was a middle aged woman jumping around and doing some complicated footwork and waving her arms around. Blasting from her stereo system was a continuous stream of dance music. In front of her were a group of plump Thai's hopping about, not having a clue what's going on, but sweating bucket loads. Most of them looked like they were about to pass out. Blair and I sat and watched these miserable looking partakers and chuckled at these pained Thai faces with their heavy feet and flailing arms.
We took photos of the gardens and walked along the river. We found our restaurant for dinner, the recommended Hemlock. It was busy, so we were sat upstairs. We had yummy spring rolls as a sharing starter. I had the popular and traditional Pad Thai and Blair had spicy fried rice dish.
We walked back towards Khaosan, when I decided to indulge in a traditional Thai foot massage. Blair made a quick exit and headed back to the hostel. I opted for an hour long reflexology treatment, and paid upfront: £4.40! I had the dust and a days worth of street grime washed from my flip-flop warn feet. I lay down on a mattress in a darkened room of other pamperees. A peppermint scented oil was rubbed into my feet and legs and for the next hour relaxed, hoping this might help induce a in a deep sleep later that night.
I met up with a hot, clammy and disgruntled Blair back at the ridiculously warm hostel room. He was reading up on Cambodia and we've booked a tree top house on stilts for five nights in the southern Cambodian forests! Check out a video of it or Google it if you fancy a tour of the guesthouses by the Australian owner: Jasmine Valley. We've planned also, that after our two nights in the Mad Monkey hostel of Phnom Penh, we'll bus it down to the south. Blair also found the most beautiful island to stay on too, a bit pricier than our budget but it looks like heaven on earth: the lazy beach ( Wyn Williams crew, you'll fall in love with it).
We had the worst night sleep. The noise from the outside street as well as the dripping from the bathroom ceiling only permitted us a few hours.
We were glad to see the back of the Rainbow Hostel and Khaosan Road.
We walked to the river and hopped onto the river boat taking us to our next and hopefully quieter hostel.
It was roasting. Carrying our backpacks around in 35+degree and humid weather was a good workout. Blair was constantly wiping sweat from his forehead and I could feel the straps of my backpack dampening with sweat.
We checked into the cool Chilli Hostel run by locals. We paid 675 baht for a night (£13.50) and my God what a difference. No rebounding doors, air-conditioning, clean bathroom, no mould or dripping or sticky floors or stained walls. We even had a comfy bed. This is what back backing is about, checking in and out of stink holes so you can appreciate the nicer ones that much more!
Wednesday: sunny and 34 degrees.
Today was an easy day, so not much to report. We took the metro to the MBK mall and went to the food court; another Lonely Planet recommendation. Money is paid at a counter and you're given tokens in return to buy food. We both had a king prawn Pad Thai and a Mr. Doughnut for desert. The multilevel mall was packed with shops and stalls of all types.
Tonight we had our first tuk tuk ride up to China town and indulged finally in some street food.
We sat down on small plastic stools and ordered away: Noodles, duck, rice, beer and freshly squeezed pomegranate juice! We stopped at a little portable stall and watched its owner make pancake-type deserts. Blair ordered from him a gorgeous banana pancake doused in condensed milk. His insatiable sweet tooth couldn't resist another Chinese desert made a few yards further up the street, he described them as deep fried doughnuts and the greasiest thing he had ever eaten.
On our walk home we stopped at can fruit stall, I'd been itching for fresh fruit since we arrived Bangkok and saw all the fruit they had on offer. We were given a big bag of mango, guava and watermelon, for £1! We picked away at it as soon as we arrived back at the Chilli hostel, it was so sweet and refreshing!
Checkout tomorrow is at 12:00. Blair just looked up our accommodation for tomorrow night. He booked somewhere close to the airport because of our early flight Friday morning to Phnom Penh. Costing £16 a night, we'll be checking into a pretty snazzy hotel with a spa. We can check in at 12:00, so as soon as we leave here we'll head on to the Thong Ta Resort and Spa!
Plans over the next few days: Fly tomorrow morning (15th) at 06.55 from Bangkok to Phnom Penh. Check into the Mad Monkey hostel. Spend two nights there. Whilst in Phnom Penh we'll tour the capital and visit the Killing Fields.
We'll bus it down to Kep where we'll spend three nights in the Jasmine Valley, then head down to the coast for beach time!
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