Bangkok

The crossing from Cambodia to Thailand was very easy, despite what all the travel guides say, and more importantly it cost us nothing to get in to Thailand. We got our 15 day visa and arrived in to Bangkok in the late afternoon and walked down Khaosan Road where we found our hotel. It was smart from the outside and had got a pool on the roof over looking Bangkok which was great. The room was smart too, nicely decorated, but it did have a bit of a smell of mould which we suspected was coming from the air conditioning unit. Later we would also find out the bed mattress was plastic and we’d sweat all night. We hired a tuk tuk driver who gave us a whistle stop tour of the city centre. We saw big Buddhas little Buddhas, loads of temples and lots of little bridges, very much like the little bridges you get over the canals in Venice. Part of the deal which they don’t tell you about when you get in the tuk tuk, is that they want to take you to certain shops - a tailors and a fancy jewellers mostly. They tell you when you are out and about and plead with you to go along with it as the shops give them petrol vouchers if they bring people in. So we allowed ourselves to be taken along and to be honest, the stuff they sell is lovely and cheap, but unfortunately all way over our poor traveller budget. If we ever came back we would definitely get some clothes made and buy some bling. Time to get some food, Khaosan Road is the hippest part of town and is just packed full of places to eat, both restaurants and street food from carts. Then you have all the market stalls and street traders too, all very nice people. We found a lot of people were just ignoring them, but it was much more fun to have a little banter and a laugh with them even if we did not buy anything from them they laughed with us. We made friends with one of them, a lady called Muna. The first night she tried to sell to us we had no money on us so we said if she found us the following night we would buy a frog from her. To ensure we came good, she tied a bracelet on Jody’s wrist as a bond. Now we HAD to buy it from her! clever lady! True to our word, she found us the next night and we bought quite a bit from her. She was so happy she tied more bracelets on us. She was lovely. We went to China town one day but found we missed the banter and buzz of Khaosan Road so we didn’t stay long but it was very interesting to see the alley ways crammed full of stalls selling weird and wonderful things. The last day before we left, we had to buy up all the gifts and souvenirs we wanted. So we set off looking for silk, elephants, jewellery, nicknacks etc. All at bargain prices of course. I think we did very well. Only trouble is that its too much to carry now so off to the Post Office with our biggest parcel yet - 5kgs!! Our last night in Bangkok and Bryan decided we needed a night out to remember it by. Khaosan Palace Room rating: 7/10 mattress was covered in rubber! Location: 10/10 - The city is huge but the Khaosan Road is definitely where it all happens Staff: 7/10 Value for Money: 6/10 Other comments: room looked lovely when we arrived but had a mouldy smell every time you turned the air con on:-( pool on the roof :-) Stay again? no ???? Room rating: 3/10 tiny and the bed was hard Location: 10/10 - great - on ‘eat street’ Staff: 7/10 - Very welcoming and friendly Value for Money: 5/10 Other comments: shared bathroom :-( Stay again? no way Rambuttri Village Garden Room rating: 8/10 Location: 10/10 - The Khaosan Road is very busy and noisy so this is a much quieter option in the same vicinity Staff: 9/10 - Very welcoming and friendly Value for Money: 7/10 Other comments: Lovely swimming pool on the roof Stay again? Definitely...! Overall city experience: 9/10 we would definitely come back to Bangkok and stay near the Khaosan Road