Thank you Cambodia for a great time, next stop Bangkok for a city break and some long awaited luxury. Our first three days however were as budget as you can get, on the touristy Khao San road.
It was another windowless room, with just enough space for a mattress and a leaking toilet. The heat was unbearable, despite the ceiling fan which was useless at best. The mattress although comfortable, was covered in a plastic liner of some sort. Even though it was covered with a cotton sheet, every inch of skin in contact with it, would sweat profusely. Needless to say we spent little time in the room.
The road was generally closed to traffic, apart from taxis and tuktuks, and was full of bars, restaurants and street stalls. Sophia's priority was of course...the shopping mall M.B.K, which we had visited back in 2003....she wanted a handbag, yes another one!!I of course tagged along, and was just grateful to be in air conditioning.
We ate local food every night, and had an amazing thirty minute foot massage on the street, for only two pounds. We traveled around using local buses, the skytrain and tuktuks. We enjoyed the atmosphere, and concluded that Bangkok is an amazing city.
One of my favourite things about it are the new tuktuks. These are three wheeler 'badboy tuktuks', with alloys, low profile tyres, a sound system, a fat exhaust that sounds like a rally car, and finally the things actually accelerate like a decent car. They are great fun to ride in! The old little yellow tuktuks we remember from 2003 seem to have disappeared :(.
Sophia persuaded me to go sheesha for two nights in a row, that was fun!
We also spend a whole day at the weekend market, a nemesis of stalls and winding passages that literally took hours to get through. Although I can't say I was initially in the mood, things changed once we stumbled upon a 1962 vw beetle. This little beauty was outside a vintage clothes shop, so basically both Soph and I were in paradise!
I was so excited I found the owner, who was setting up the vintage shop with his wife, and asked for a ride...I couldn't resist! Of course his answer was yes!! I jumped in and the 1200cc engine sparked into life...the bubbly sound of the engine reminded me of Ruby, our vw campervan, and so it was a nostalgic moment! We went for a quick spin, and returned with me wearing a giant smile, and Sophia wearing vintage clothes. Perfect!
We were both energised for our six hour marathon in the labyrinth.
After our third day we left the little boiler room, and headed for the luxury hotel we booked on the internet. It's called Lebua state Tower, and is the sort of place where we just looked like a sore thumb with our backpacks...well I certainly did with my unshaven face, dodgy haircut, ripped shorts, damaged crocs, and generally less than presentable.
Soph of course always seems to pull off a good look, so I guess I was the embarrassment. It also explains why at first the doorman reiterated that this was 'LEBUA HOTEL' twice.
The hotel was stunning, 64 floors and overlooked the whole of Bangkok. We were perfectly perched on the 57th floor overlooking the river. While I was in awe of this, Sophia was in awe of the coffee machine. Our room supply of coffee and tea was gone within two hours.
The 3 days and 2 nights passed quickly, the highlight being the breakfast. A buffet which we managed to drag on for over 2 hours, and had 5 to 7 courses each morning. As buffets go, it was uneconomical for the hotel to entertain us.
On our last day in Bangkok we decided to pop into the local shopping malls for some last minute shopping. Our flight was later in the evening and we had a late check out and time to spare. We spent a couple of hours in the shops and as we were about to head back it started to rain bucket loads. This created major traffic jams and it took 2 hours to get home. We were not happy. We then had to quickly collect our bags and head to the airport but our taxi was stuck in the same spot for 15 minutes. Panic set in big time. Luckily, we began to move and the taxi driver would have put Lewis Hamilton to shame. He was great, weaving in and out of traffic and getting us to the airport in under one hour. The check in desk had however already closed but thankfully we had checked in online as a last minute thought. We were given 'priority passes' and told to run all the way to the gate.... we almost passed out but made it. Sydney here we come!!
