Last night i discovered the reason why my hostel is so clean yet so cheap. It's because the bar/club below me is pumping tunes from 9pm and it gets even louder at 2am. So i never slept til 4am, even with ear plugs the base was vibrating my walls! I suppose i am staying on the party street, it's just that i wasn't quite up for a party last night!
Anyway i got up at 8am for my bike trip, free toast & tea at my hostel and off i went to start the trip just round the corner.
There were 6 of us in the group and the tour leader, Nok, was great at telling us lots of different wee stories as we went round the city.
I was a bit apprhensive about going on the crazy roads but to be honest we stuck to the back streets and lanes most of the time, which were so narrow and sometimes alongside the canal (wouldn't have fancied swimming in it!)
For anybody that visits the city i would recommend it since they take you off the main city sights and closer to the real Bangkok, literally through peoples homes and markets. We would just stop at random stalls and try lots of adventurous foods - today i tried some sort of coconut jelly, sticky rice with mango and tried the other people on the tours's sticky rice with fishy breadcrumbs (boak), sweet eggy stuff (nice), durian ((smelly but tasty) http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&rlz=1T4GFRE_enGB391GB391&q=durian%20spiky%20fruit&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1003&bih=332 and some other red spicy stuff. Also tried 'tortoise eggs' which are actually deep fried sweet potato balls - so good!
The local people were all very friendly and shout 'sawasee kaa' (hello) as you go past. We also stopped off at the place where they make copper bowls which looks like the sweatiest job known to man (see pics/videos). Apparently in 5-10 years time they might not make them any longer as the youngest people in the family do not want to learn the craft which is ashame as they are so pretty once finished.
I've uploaded some photos to this of the day trip and they speak for themselves so i'm going off to get ready and eat some dinner. I'm starving after my siesta!
