Hello Bangkok!

1st November 2012 

Sleep. That's what we did today. Well, that's what I did today, until about 1pm. In my defence I didn't sleep during the flight and also, I was cosy. Once I eventually got out of bed we went for another quick walk, found the Stray offices where our bus is leaving from and went out for lunch. We were torn between pizza and traditional Thai food. We went traditional and lived to tell the tale which is pretty great. I got a Pad Thai stir fry which I can't really explain, there's lots of noodles, beansprouts, some chicken and a slightly spicy but sweet sauce. Rory went for the yellow chicken curry, it was really nice and kind of like a mild korma. In total the meals and drinks cost about £6 which is more than what you'd pay a street vendor but less than pretty much everything at home!

My Pad Thai and what was left of Rory's curry!

We had a good walk around, came back to the hotel and explored some more, finding that our little hotel has a rooftop pool! We haven't went swimming yet but we sat poolside on a lounger while looking across Bangkok – which is pretty decent when you're paying £15 a night and as an added cultural treat we even heard the call to prayer of the local Mosque!

After that strenuous day we went for another walk and splashed out £3 each for a massage. We went for a neck and shoulder massage but the lady really went to town. She did the usual back and shoulder area but then ended up doing my legs, face, head and... bottom! Rory didn't get the bottom massage but I don't think I was being assaulted, maybe I just looked more in need. At times the massage hurt and she was climbing all over me, literally, so that was interesting, but after I felt pretty good. I wouldn't try it at home though, I don't think I could stand on someone or put my knees in their back while pulling their arms backwards without causing serious injury, but each to their own.

To finish it all off we took a walk down the Koh San Road. The little stalls and shops are pretty amazing, I have a strange urge to buy everything I see. Seriously, today I had to pull myself away from a Chang Beer tank top... The food actually looked much better tonight, still extremely unsanitary, but better. I even thought a little cart looked quite nice until I got closer and realised that the only thing this vendor sold was insects – yep, real life (now dead) insects. I'm no entomologist but I saw worms, something resembling one of the twelve plagues of the Old Testament so probably a locust and even more disgustingly, scorpions! You had to pay to take pictures but maybe I'll pluck up the courage to get some snaps tomorrow! 

One thing I completely forgot about - while roaming the streets several taxi and tuk tuk drivers asked if I wanted to go to a ping pong show. I had previously read about a place in Bangkok where they hold table tennis tournaments and thought this could be pretty cool. It took me all of five seconds to realise that the driver was now saying "lady show, ladyboys show" ... So I'm guessing that he didn't wan to drive me to a table tennis tournament. I'm very glad I walked away. After all that excitement we stopped off for some niceys and made it back to the hotel – we're hoping to get an earlyish night because tomorrow we're hoping to go to the Grand Palace and maybe I'll finally have some decent pictures for this Blog!