Apparently traveling by bus is just as easy as the train and slightly more efficient! It was on time and everything. I arrived in Sukhothai at about 4pm this afternoon. I've ended up in this little guest house which turns out is in the lonely planet guide and also rated one of the best guest houses in the town by a few websites. Pretty neat.
I have to be quick because they let you use the internet for free but only for 15 minutes. Sukhothai seems a bit of a change of pace from Bangkok and Chiang Mai. It's like it stepped down a gear. I'm going to go out and have a look around in a minute. Apparently there's a fairly large market and some nice restaurants.
Tomorrow I'm going to head over to the old city and have a look around and take some nice scenic photography.
xx
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
I thought I might melt
Yesterday, and today, have been warm to say the least. I think it hit 37 degrees yesterday. I chilled out by the pool yesterday morning and worked on my tan for a few hours. In the afternoon I walked into town, which turned out to be a bad idea as it was slightly farther than I thought and still very very hot. I was a little bit sweaty by the time I got to town and had to go and get an iced smoothie to cool down. I met up with Stuart (my cousin who has been living in Chiand Mai for a few months) and we went for lunch at a little Thai place that cooked a mean fried rice. After that we decided it was too hot to do anything so went back to where he was staying to chill out for a bit. Once it had cooled down and I had met his friend Jenna (it's her apartment that he is staying at, she is a student at the University here doing a teaching masters and also does Muay Thai, which is pretty hardcore in this weather!) we went out to wander round town. It was nice to see some bits of the town which were mainly Thai. Then we went and had tea and chocolate in a rather extravagant cake and chocolate shop. The chocolates were so so good, and I had a strawberry iced tea, which I have to say, as a non tea drinker was pretty good. After that we went to a bar in the backpacker area and met up with another of Stuart's friends for a few drinks. It was in a nice square with lots of other little bars and a band playing (who weren't actually that good) and pretty lights hanging from the trees. On the way to the main square to get a lift home I came across a band playing in a bar doing a cover of Linkin Park! of all bands. It was a bit odd, but I hung around to watch for a little bit. I got a tuk tuk back to the hostel. They are a more expensive form of travel, but I quite like them. And when I say more expensive, I mean a ride costs a pound, rather than 50p, which is how much it costs on the kind of taxi crossed with a bus but look kind of like large red pick up trucks with a roof over the back.
Anyway. Today I decided that as I'm going to be doign stuff everyday for about the next 2 weeks, and it was really hot again, I would just stay at the hostel by the pool and read for the afternoon. I had lunch at the hostel, which was ok. But not nearly as nice as any of the food I've had from stalls or little Thai restuarants. So I don't think I will be eating at hostel resturants again! This evening I've come in to town to meet up with Stuart again to get some food and then we are going to a jazz bar.
xx
Anyway. Today I decided that as I'm going to be doign stuff everyday for about the next 2 weeks, and it was really hot again, I would just stay at the hostel by the pool and read for the afternoon. I had lunch at the hostel, which was ok. But not nearly as nice as any of the food I've had from stalls or little Thai restuarants. So I don't think I will be eating at hostel resturants again! This evening I've come in to town to meet up with Stuart again to get some food and then we are going to a jazz bar.
xx
Sunday, 9 August 2009
I found really good cake
I've just found an internet cafe that lets me use the internet for a hour for about 10p if I buy a cake, which costs about a pound. And the cake, I have to say, is awesome. Chocolate cheesecake. This is not good, I was not supposed to be eating cake in Thailand! My excuse is that I'm rounding off a two day eating binge the best way. Yeah, thats it.
Cooking today was fun again. We started off with a trip to a local food market. Which was very interesting. But slightly disturbing to see a tiny little, fairly old, Thai woman wrestle a huge fish (probably almost her own height) that looks a bit like an eel (but is in fact called a snake fish, or something) out of a basket and beat it repeatedly with a club until it was dead and then very aggressively chop off it's fins. Not really what you expect to see at 10am. One of the women in the group looked absolutely horrified.
First on the menu for cooking today was Tom Ka Gai, which is a chicken soup, but made with coconut milk and cream. It was really very nice. Next up was thick noodles with pork in a thick oyster sauce. This was lovely but the noodles are fried in whats called sweet soy sauce, but I actually find the taste a little bitter so it wasn't my favourite meal. Lunch was a thai red curry with fish. This had quite a kick but was really nice. We also made a vegetable stir fry, very simple with a fish and oyster based sauce. In fact pretty much everything that isn't a curry has this base. The final two dishes were a papaya salad with sticky rice, of which I liked the sticky rice, but not so much the actual salad, and a steamed banana cake. This was really nice. It was very simple, just mashed banana with coconut cream, sugar, two different kinds of flour that I can't remember the name of and fresh grated coconut. Then it was steamed in a kind of banana leaf boat. Very sweet and very lovely.
Once school was out I stayed in town today. Me and one of the girls from the course spent ages looking around the huge Sunday walking market. And I do mean huge. And also ages. About 5 hours. We did have a break mid shop in a beautiful little courtyard off the main street in a very nice bar. There is just so much to see and so much I could buy. I'm just trying to decided whether to buy things here or to wait until later in the holiday. I will have to carry it, which will be annoying.
So now I'm done with my organised course for the moment. I have another week until my trip starts in Bangkok. So now I just have to find things to do for the week. I don't think it will be hard. I seem to be able to manage to walk around gawking at things without any problem.
xx
Cooking today was fun again. We started off with a trip to a local food market. Which was very interesting. But slightly disturbing to see a tiny little, fairly old, Thai woman wrestle a huge fish (probably almost her own height) that looks a bit like an eel (but is in fact called a snake fish, or something) out of a basket and beat it repeatedly with a club until it was dead and then very aggressively chop off it's fins. Not really what you expect to see at 10am. One of the women in the group looked absolutely horrified.
First on the menu for cooking today was Tom Ka Gai, which is a chicken soup, but made with coconut milk and cream. It was really very nice. Next up was thick noodles with pork in a thick oyster sauce. This was lovely but the noodles are fried in whats called sweet soy sauce, but I actually find the taste a little bitter so it wasn't my favourite meal. Lunch was a thai red curry with fish. This had quite a kick but was really nice. We also made a vegetable stir fry, very simple with a fish and oyster based sauce. In fact pretty much everything that isn't a curry has this base. The final two dishes were a papaya salad with sticky rice, of which I liked the sticky rice, but not so much the actual salad, and a steamed banana cake. This was really nice. It was very simple, just mashed banana with coconut cream, sugar, two different kinds of flour that I can't remember the name of and fresh grated coconut. Then it was steamed in a kind of banana leaf boat. Very sweet and very lovely.
Once school was out I stayed in town today. Me and one of the girls from the course spent ages looking around the huge Sunday walking market. And I do mean huge. And also ages. About 5 hours. We did have a break mid shop in a beautiful little courtyard off the main street in a very nice bar. There is just so much to see and so much I could buy. I'm just trying to decided whether to buy things here or to wait until later in the holiday. I will have to carry it, which will be annoying.
So now I'm done with my organised course for the moment. I have another week until my trip starts in Bangkok. So now I just have to find things to do for the week. I don't think it will be hard. I seem to be able to manage to walk around gawking at things without any problem.
xx
Saturday, 8 August 2009
I cooked Thai food!
I just saw a huge centipede wiggling across the path. And there are frogs and crickets and funny squeaky noises coming from everywhere. It feels kind of like I'm in the jungle because you can't see the main road or and buildings other than that of the hostel.
Today I started my cooking course. It turns out it's at one of the best cooking places in Chiang Mai, it's even in my lonely planet guide! There is about 30 of us doing it and its a huge mixture of people. There are loads of couples, including two guys who are actors and are bickering all the time, a couple of girls on their own and two families. It will change tomorrow though. You can do between 1 and 5 days and they just have 5 different menus to do, so it's kind of hit and miss which one you get if you book in advance. The school is actually a short bus ride away so they bundle us all into mini buses and take us just out of the city. It seems to be on a developing estate where there are lots of individual walled Thai houses, some of which are completely stunning. I've noticed that although Chiang Mai is an old city the buildings seem fairly modern and they are much cleaner than in Bangkok. Although I think I'm basing my opinion on only seeing a little bit of Bangkok.
So when we got there we got an apron and assigned our own cooking station, then we went into a 'classroom' for the first lesson, which this morning was making a Panang curry paste. The head chef Sompon, is supposed to be a kind Thai celebrity chef and he taught us the first dish. So we learnt how to make this curry paste from scratch using all the fresh ingredients and spicies and chillies (well the chillies are dried and then soaked because it gives it a better colour to the paste but doesn't lose any spiciness in the time, apparently) in a huge pestle and mortor. It's actually pretty hard work. After that was ready we were back into the kitchen for lesson number two, making the Panang curry. All of the dishes were very simple to make and definitely something I will try to do at home. Well the dishes that don't have tens of spices in the reciepe anyway. Although at home I wouldn't have anyone to clean up all my mess and make my rice for me! The Panang curry was a mixture of very spicy and also creamy due to the addition of coconut. The flavour was lovely but it was a little too spicy for me. I ate it anyway, we got to eat each dish as soon as we'd made it so I was basically eating all day! The second dish was fried fish with chilli and basil. It sounded very simple, it was a piece of fish (that they fried in a huge wok of oil whilst you made the sauce) with an almost salsa-ish sauce made of onions, garlic and various chillies (but wasn't too spicy this time) with a light sauce of water, soy sauce and fish sauce. In reality it was lovely and so easy to make. I think it would go really well with noodles and some kind of meat. After that we made our actual lunch dish. This was a Chiang Mai curry with sweet and sour vegetables. Again, really nice, not as spicy and was more similar to an Indian curry I thought. After lunch there was more cooking! Although even I was feeling pretty full after this. I wasn't really a fan of the last two dishes, although thats just because of me rather than the actual food. The first was a 'salad' made with glass noodles, which are kind of thin, almost see through, gelly like noodles, corriader, raw onions and tomatoes with pork mince cooked in coconut milk and a bit of fish sauce. Oh, and more chillies! As I don't like onions, tomatoes and corriader I didn't really have a hope here. I was so full I didn't mind though! The last dish was a sticky black rice pudding, which the chef made in a huge vat rather than each of us making our own. I did try it, but rice pudding is not one of my favourites, and although it looks a bit strange as it is black it does taste exactly like rice pudding. But other than eating those dishes the cooking was great! I'm looking forward to making and eating lots more food tomorrow.
All the food made me very very sleepy, when I got back to the hostel I couldn't help but fall asleep. Also, I think the huge amount of chilli I have eaten today has done something weird to my stomach. Therefore, I have decided to chill out here for the evening and get an early night. There is a huge market in the town tomorrow night. I think as I haven't spent very much money yet it might be time for me to!
xx
Today I started my cooking course. It turns out it's at one of the best cooking places in Chiang Mai, it's even in my lonely planet guide! There is about 30 of us doing it and its a huge mixture of people. There are loads of couples, including two guys who are actors and are bickering all the time, a couple of girls on their own and two families. It will change tomorrow though. You can do between 1 and 5 days and they just have 5 different menus to do, so it's kind of hit and miss which one you get if you book in advance. The school is actually a short bus ride away so they bundle us all into mini buses and take us just out of the city. It seems to be on a developing estate where there are lots of individual walled Thai houses, some of which are completely stunning. I've noticed that although Chiang Mai is an old city the buildings seem fairly modern and they are much cleaner than in Bangkok. Although I think I'm basing my opinion on only seeing a little bit of Bangkok.
So when we got there we got an apron and assigned our own cooking station, then we went into a 'classroom' for the first lesson, which this morning was making a Panang curry paste. The head chef Sompon, is supposed to be a kind Thai celebrity chef and he taught us the first dish. So we learnt how to make this curry paste from scratch using all the fresh ingredients and spicies and chillies (well the chillies are dried and then soaked because it gives it a better colour to the paste but doesn't lose any spiciness in the time, apparently) in a huge pestle and mortor. It's actually pretty hard work. After that was ready we were back into the kitchen for lesson number two, making the Panang curry. All of the dishes were very simple to make and definitely something I will try to do at home. Well the dishes that don't have tens of spices in the reciepe anyway. Although at home I wouldn't have anyone to clean up all my mess and make my rice for me! The Panang curry was a mixture of very spicy and also creamy due to the addition of coconut. The flavour was lovely but it was a little too spicy for me. I ate it anyway, we got to eat each dish as soon as we'd made it so I was basically eating all day! The second dish was fried fish with chilli and basil. It sounded very simple, it was a piece of fish (that they fried in a huge wok of oil whilst you made the sauce) with an almost salsa-ish sauce made of onions, garlic and various chillies (but wasn't too spicy this time) with a light sauce of water, soy sauce and fish sauce. In reality it was lovely and so easy to make. I think it would go really well with noodles and some kind of meat. After that we made our actual lunch dish. This was a Chiang Mai curry with sweet and sour vegetables. Again, really nice, not as spicy and was more similar to an Indian curry I thought. After lunch there was more cooking! Although even I was feeling pretty full after this. I wasn't really a fan of the last two dishes, although thats just because of me rather than the actual food. The first was a 'salad' made with glass noodles, which are kind of thin, almost see through, gelly like noodles, corriader, raw onions and tomatoes with pork mince cooked in coconut milk and a bit of fish sauce. Oh, and more chillies! As I don't like onions, tomatoes and corriader I didn't really have a hope here. I was so full I didn't mind though! The last dish was a sticky black rice pudding, which the chef made in a huge vat rather than each of us making our own. I did try it, but rice pudding is not one of my favourites, and although it looks a bit strange as it is black it does taste exactly like rice pudding. But other than eating those dishes the cooking was great! I'm looking forward to making and eating lots more food tomorrow.
All the food made me very very sleepy, when I got back to the hostel I couldn't help but fall asleep. Also, I think the huge amount of chilli I have eaten today has done something weird to my stomach. Therefore, I have decided to chill out here for the evening and get an early night. There is a huge market in the town tomorrow night. I think as I haven't spent very much money yet it might be time for me to!
xx
Friday, 7 August 2009
I spent 18 hours on a train...
Ok I've just realised why they tell you to not touch anything when waiting for DEET based insect repellent to soak in, which takes ages by the way. It sticks to things and makes the colour come off on you. A strip of my arm is now a dark brown wood colour from the chair I'm sitting on. Great. And despite the spray and also mosquito nets everywhere I still think I'm being eaten. I might have to look in to what goes for local insect repellant here to see if that works.
So I made it to the train station. It was exciting getting a train on my own in a place where I had no idea what anyone was saying or if I was actually gettting on the right train! The train itself seemed a bit dated and looked like a large silver can. But it was air conditioned, to the point of being too cold actually, and actually quite roomy. The set up was two large seats facing each other, with a table that the stewards put up when you had food in the middle. Then when it was time for bed, the two seats folded out into and one bed and then there was a bed that basically folded out from the ceiling. Even pillows and blankets and curtains were provided! I had the lower bunk, and I was quite glad in the end because, although you had people walking around most of the night, the train rocked around and shuddered about quite a lot. It was a little bit like being rocked to sleep a little too forcefully. Therefore, I didn't get that much sleep, even in my sleep deprived, hungover state.
In the morning I was very much looking forward to getting to the hostel early, having a shower and a nice sleep by the pool, prefereably in the sun. This was not to be. Firstly, the train was about 4 hours late. I did notice during the journey that we stopped randomly for large periods of time and also that when next to the roads, the train was often overtaken by passing scooters... But I got here eventually and saw lots of jungle on the way, which was nice. As to the sleeping by the pool in the sun. It's raining. Not cold, but raining. It stopped a few times, but it's raining again now. It's much cooler up here than in Bangkok and not as humid. But I'm not sure if that's because it's raining. I guess the heat and humidity could come back once the rain stops.
The hostel I'm in is as lovely as the pictures. It's set a little way out of the city, about a 20 minute walk, so it has huge gardens. It's got a relaxing retreat thing going on. You have to take off your shoes whenever you go into a building and all the buildings have lovely dark wooden floors. I'm in a shared room, but only with one other person, I think it's a girl, judging by the dresses all over the place! I haven't met her yet, but I guess she will be there when I go back.
This afternoon I met an Australian couple, Wendy and Chris, in the common room and we went for a walk into town to go to the night market and get some food. I realised at one point that I hadn't eaten anything all day. We walked into town, in the rain. Chiang Mai is much nicer than Bangkok, it seems a lot calmer. And it doesn't smell. We didn't make it in to the actual centre but the night market was huge enough to entertain us. It was just enourmous. There were stalls all the way down both sides of a long road as well as little side roads that led to kind of large open halls also full of stalls. There were loads of food stalls as well. I had pad thai, which is a noodle dish served with egg, various vegetables and a light sauce, this one had pork in as well. It was cooked right in front of me and was wonderful. After that there was more market browsing. There was just so much to see. I could just buy so much stuff! I'm not sure how I would get it home.
I'm back at the hostel now, it's only 10pm but I'm pretty tired. I think I'm probably going to have an early night. Cooking course tomorrow!
Adellyn: Mitchelin Star restuarant?! Where? And what did you have?
Mum and Dad: It was necessary to explain how I found all the lady boys! I was still being sensible don't worry :)
xx
So I made it to the train station. It was exciting getting a train on my own in a place where I had no idea what anyone was saying or if I was actually gettting on the right train! The train itself seemed a bit dated and looked like a large silver can. But it was air conditioned, to the point of being too cold actually, and actually quite roomy. The set up was two large seats facing each other, with a table that the stewards put up when you had food in the middle. Then when it was time for bed, the two seats folded out into and one bed and then there was a bed that basically folded out from the ceiling. Even pillows and blankets and curtains were provided! I had the lower bunk, and I was quite glad in the end because, although you had people walking around most of the night, the train rocked around and shuddered about quite a lot. It was a little bit like being rocked to sleep a little too forcefully. Therefore, I didn't get that much sleep, even in my sleep deprived, hungover state.
In the morning I was very much looking forward to getting to the hostel early, having a shower and a nice sleep by the pool, prefereably in the sun. This was not to be. Firstly, the train was about 4 hours late. I did notice during the journey that we stopped randomly for large periods of time and also that when next to the roads, the train was often overtaken by passing scooters... But I got here eventually and saw lots of jungle on the way, which was nice. As to the sleeping by the pool in the sun. It's raining. Not cold, but raining. It stopped a few times, but it's raining again now. It's much cooler up here than in Bangkok and not as humid. But I'm not sure if that's because it's raining. I guess the heat and humidity could come back once the rain stops.
The hostel I'm in is as lovely as the pictures. It's set a little way out of the city, about a 20 minute walk, so it has huge gardens. It's got a relaxing retreat thing going on. You have to take off your shoes whenever you go into a building and all the buildings have lovely dark wooden floors. I'm in a shared room, but only with one other person, I think it's a girl, judging by the dresses all over the place! I haven't met her yet, but I guess she will be there when I go back.
This afternoon I met an Australian couple, Wendy and Chris, in the common room and we went for a walk into town to go to the night market and get some food. I realised at one point that I hadn't eaten anything all day. We walked into town, in the rain. Chiang Mai is much nicer than Bangkok, it seems a lot calmer. And it doesn't smell. We didn't make it in to the actual centre but the night market was huge enough to entertain us. It was just enourmous. There were stalls all the way down both sides of a long road as well as little side roads that led to kind of large open halls also full of stalls. There were loads of food stalls as well. I had pad thai, which is a noodle dish served with egg, various vegetables and a light sauce, this one had pork in as well. It was cooked right in front of me and was wonderful. After that there was more market browsing. There was just so much to see. I could just buy so much stuff! I'm not sure how I would get it home.
I'm back at the hostel now, it's only 10pm but I'm pretty tired. I think I'm probably going to have an early night. Cooking course tomorrow!
Adellyn: Mitchelin Star restuarant?! Where? And what did you have?
Mum and Dad: It was necessary to explain how I found all the lady boys! I was still being sensible don't worry :)
xx
Thursday, 6 August 2009
Last night I met lots of lady boys
I am so hungover right now. It's just not funny. And this is the oldest, crapyist keyboard I've ever used and I'm not very happy about it. So, despite all my good intentions, I have become slightly nocturnal. This is not my fault. I blame the people I met in the hostel on the first night. I didn't manage to stay awake all day, I had to have a sleep so I was pretty awake. Once I'd had my nap I went out and had some food, green curry and sticky rice, really good, and watched a guy playing guitar. It was very pleasant. I even drank beer. Tiger is actually quite nice. The thing I didn't like was all the people trying to sell you stuff whilst you're sitting down. It's really irritating. Although it was quite amusng to watch to guys try to trade two paper aeroplanes they had made for a hat. The seller wasn't having any of it. I prefer Bangkok at night. It's quite nice in the dark with all the lights up. The main tourist/backpacker street in this area Khao San Road is still pretty horrible though. It's so crowded and there are so many people selling things and trying to get you to go to stuff. I much prefer the roads next to Khao San, they are much calmer and have a much nicer atmosphere.
Anyway. I got back to the hostel about 11 and was sitting reading in the kind of resturant thing they have when I got chatting to some people who had just arrived. They had all flown from London and met of the plane. There were two girls travelling together, Claire and Chess, a guy called Mel and another girl called Holly. Holly was staying in the same hostel as me, in the room opposite me bizarrely, and the others checked into the hostel next door. Then we all decided to go out a have a few drinks. After spending the day on my own it was really nice to sit around and chat with people. We went to a couple of bars and brought food from the stalls, the spring rolls are awesome, and ended up coming back at 3am.
Yesterday felt like it went on forever! Holly decided to stay in Bangkok for another day and come and see the Grand Palace with me. We walked to it, and although it wasn't far we manged to walk the long way around as we some how missed the entrance road and ended up walking the entire way round the walls. The Grand Palace also has a large temple in its grounds. It was incredible. The colours were so bright and vivid and they are decorated with thousands of brightly coloured tiles and mirrors. It's amazing that a lot of it is nearly 300 years old and looks like it was finished yesterday. They do a lot to maintain it I think though. They were re-tiling several of the smaller buidings and re painting some of the murals whist we were there. I think its for the Queens birthday celebrations next week. Apparently there is going to be a big party. They worship her! There are big pictures of her everywhere. The Palace itself was also incredible. Tourists aren't allowed in the main building but we could go in two throne rooms. The thrones were so ornate. In one room the throne was all gold and in the other it had mother of pearl patterns all over it. I think fabulous is the only way to decribe them.
After chilling out in a park to cool down and being shocked at all the people running, actually running! around the park (I could never run here, it's hard enough to just walk around) we headed back to Khao San for showers and food. Pork fried rice was so nice. It was basic but it so full of flavour that it was lovely. After that we decided we wanted massages. We went to one of the really nice spas so it was probably a bit more expensive (although it only cost 3 pounds) than other places, but the spa was so nice. The massage was half an hour and I had my back, legs, feet, shoulders, head and face, which was a bit weird massaged. It was lovely. Thai massages aren't quite like normal massages, they move you around and stretch you out and crack your back. She also kind of walked on me! I was very chilled out afterwards.
That was when the drinking started. Holly and I found a really nice bar. It's part of a hostel\hotel that I'm booked in to next week. We had really nice crushed ice, tequila based jugs of cocktail. Holly is lovely, we got on really well and it was great to have someone to go out with. At about midnight we decided that we wanted to go dancing, so we went to find a club. We weren't expecting it, but the club was ace. The building was amazing, it had a huge high ceiling with large blacked out windows and a stone dance floor. The music wasn't bad either. It was a mix of dance/electro-y/drum and bass stuff. We spent a lot of time dancing on the stage and made friends with two Australian guys. We also drank quite a lot more. Once this club shut, we went to another club with the guys. It's ok, they were very nice and not creepy and me and Holly were very well behaved. I have no idea where the club the tuk tuk driver took us to was or what it was called. It was more of a Thai club but you could still pick out the tourists. There were a lot of lady boys there. A lot. I don't like that they have better legs than I do. The lady boys were not as friendly as the actual Thai girls there. They were great. There was a lot more dancing on the stage and drinking Smirnoff Ice Blacks. That was the Australians fault. Smirnoff Blacks here aren't as bad as the ones in England and have a 7% alcohol percentage so are a bit leathal when you drink lots of them.
Anyway, Holly and I made it back safely and all in one piece. which is always a bonus. Although I'm not really sure what time it was. Needless to say, I did not make my 12pm check out this morning. I think I've only just sobered up now. Its not good because I have to go and get a train soon. I'm not looking forward to carrying my bag, or moving, anywhere.
Wow this is a long post. Sorry. I have time to kill. It's raining.
xx
Anyway. I got back to the hostel about 11 and was sitting reading in the kind of resturant thing they have when I got chatting to some people who had just arrived. They had all flown from London and met of the plane. There were two girls travelling together, Claire and Chess, a guy called Mel and another girl called Holly. Holly was staying in the same hostel as me, in the room opposite me bizarrely, and the others checked into the hostel next door. Then we all decided to go out a have a few drinks. After spending the day on my own it was really nice to sit around and chat with people. We went to a couple of bars and brought food from the stalls, the spring rolls are awesome, and ended up coming back at 3am.
Yesterday felt like it went on forever! Holly decided to stay in Bangkok for another day and come and see the Grand Palace with me. We walked to it, and although it wasn't far we manged to walk the long way around as we some how missed the entrance road and ended up walking the entire way round the walls. The Grand Palace also has a large temple in its grounds. It was incredible. The colours were so bright and vivid and they are decorated with thousands of brightly coloured tiles and mirrors. It's amazing that a lot of it is nearly 300 years old and looks like it was finished yesterday. They do a lot to maintain it I think though. They were re-tiling several of the smaller buidings and re painting some of the murals whist we were there. I think its for the Queens birthday celebrations next week. Apparently there is going to be a big party. They worship her! There are big pictures of her everywhere. The Palace itself was also incredible. Tourists aren't allowed in the main building but we could go in two throne rooms. The thrones were so ornate. In one room the throne was all gold and in the other it had mother of pearl patterns all over it. I think fabulous is the only way to decribe them.
After chilling out in a park to cool down and being shocked at all the people running, actually running! around the park (I could never run here, it's hard enough to just walk around) we headed back to Khao San for showers and food. Pork fried rice was so nice. It was basic but it so full of flavour that it was lovely. After that we decided we wanted massages. We went to one of the really nice spas so it was probably a bit more expensive (although it only cost 3 pounds) than other places, but the spa was so nice. The massage was half an hour and I had my back, legs, feet, shoulders, head and face, which was a bit weird massaged. It was lovely. Thai massages aren't quite like normal massages, they move you around and stretch you out and crack your back. She also kind of walked on me! I was very chilled out afterwards.
That was when the drinking started. Holly and I found a really nice bar. It's part of a hostel\hotel that I'm booked in to next week. We had really nice crushed ice, tequila based jugs of cocktail. Holly is lovely, we got on really well and it was great to have someone to go out with. At about midnight we decided that we wanted to go dancing, so we went to find a club. We weren't expecting it, but the club was ace. The building was amazing, it had a huge high ceiling with large blacked out windows and a stone dance floor. The music wasn't bad either. It was a mix of dance/electro-y/drum and bass stuff. We spent a lot of time dancing on the stage and made friends with two Australian guys. We also drank quite a lot more. Once this club shut, we went to another club with the guys. It's ok, they were very nice and not creepy and me and Holly were very well behaved. I have no idea where the club the tuk tuk driver took us to was or what it was called. It was more of a Thai club but you could still pick out the tourists. There were a lot of lady boys there. A lot. I don't like that they have better legs than I do. The lady boys were not as friendly as the actual Thai girls there. They were great. There was a lot more dancing on the stage and drinking Smirnoff Ice Blacks. That was the Australians fault. Smirnoff Blacks here aren't as bad as the ones in England and have a 7% alcohol percentage so are a bit leathal when you drink lots of them.
Anyway, Holly and I made it back safely and all in one piece. which is always a bonus. Although I'm not really sure what time it was. Needless to say, I did not make my 12pm check out this morning. I think I've only just sobered up now. Its not good because I have to go and get a train soon. I'm not looking forward to carrying my bag, or moving, anywhere.
Wow this is a long post. Sorry. I have time to kill. It's raining.
xx
Monday, 3 August 2009
Arrival in Bangkok
I'm not actually sure whether I can remember being anywhere quite this hot! Definitely not this humid. And I'm almost certain that I saw a man running a few minutes ago. Crazy person. At 8am this morning when we landed it was already 28 degrees!
The journey went very smoothly. The flights were basically all on time and I watched 5 films over the two flights. Productive.
My hostel is, as expected, very basic and a little scummy. But its clean, has air conditioning and the staff seem to be friendly. And I get breakfast in the morning :) I did learn how to say thank you in Thai about 10 minutes ago, but I've forgotten now. I'll have to ask again.
Bangkok is kind of hard to explain as a city. It doesn't seem quite so manic as Cairo, but the roads are still a bit crazy. There is a mix of big wide streets with several lanes of traffic and small winding streets with cars parked everywhere and street stalls taking over most of the pavement. There are loads of people around asking if I want taxis, all the time. I walked down one street a minute ago that seemed dedicated to wedding dresses and silver. There seem to be a lot of spa type things down this road. I really want to have a massage, but I think I would probably fall asleep and not wake up for ages. I've just hit the being awake for 24 hours mark. And I need to try and stay awake for about another 10 if I don't want to almost completely nocturnal for the first week. There are tattoo parlours and piercing shops everywhere! They remind me of Faliraki. The streets also seem very clean, despite many of the building looking decidedly shabby. Like, really clean. But it does smell a little!
I'm definitely going to have to take up drinking beer, its about 1 pound (there is no pound sign on this keyboard) for a bottle of tiger. Although tonight I think I will probably just pass out. Probably about 8 or 9 o'clock. I think I'm going to go in search of some food now, I should probably try and learn what things are on these little food stalls!
xx
The journey went very smoothly. The flights were basically all on time and I watched 5 films over the two flights. Productive.
My hostel is, as expected, very basic and a little scummy. But its clean, has air conditioning and the staff seem to be friendly. And I get breakfast in the morning :) I did learn how to say thank you in Thai about 10 minutes ago, but I've forgotten now. I'll have to ask again.
Bangkok is kind of hard to explain as a city. It doesn't seem quite so manic as Cairo, but the roads are still a bit crazy. There is a mix of big wide streets with several lanes of traffic and small winding streets with cars parked everywhere and street stalls taking over most of the pavement. There are loads of people around asking if I want taxis, all the time. I walked down one street a minute ago that seemed dedicated to wedding dresses and silver. There seem to be a lot of spa type things down this road. I really want to have a massage, but I think I would probably fall asleep and not wake up for ages. I've just hit the being awake for 24 hours mark. And I need to try and stay awake for about another 10 if I don't want to almost completely nocturnal for the first week. There are tattoo parlours and piercing shops everywhere! They remind me of Faliraki. The streets also seem very clean, despite many of the building looking decidedly shabby. Like, really clean. But it does smell a little!
I'm definitely going to have to take up drinking beer, its about 1 pound (there is no pound sign on this keyboard) for a bottle of tiger. Although tonight I think I will probably just pass out. Probably about 8 or 9 o'clock. I think I'm going to go in search of some food now, I should probably try and learn what things are on these little food stalls!
xx
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