November 11
Dreading our 3 hour ferry ride to Chumpon, we prepped with some Dramamine a little too early which resulted in extreme grogginess and antisocial behaviors on the taxi ride to the ferry, but also a nice nap on our surprisingly empty and calm ferry ride. Well rested, we then waited a few hours for our bus in the most boring place on earth where we wandered to a market and essentially just got laughed at for being tourists over and over again. With a lot of effort, we managed to order something easy - green tea a from one of the vendors and waited at a little picnic mat on the grass. Instead of the plain green tea we were expecting, we were presented with what basically tasted like melted green tea ice cream which we sipped politely before disappointingly making our way back to the boring bus station. Eventually the bus came and our 8-hour overnight ride to Bangkok went quite quickly! We arrived in Bangkok near Khao San road at around 6am and wandered for a while until we found an acceptable place to stay. Feeling pretty well rested, we managed to find somewhere to eat breakfast (had a really good falafel sandwich?!) and David, one of Hila's friends from home who's also traveling, met us there! Having been to Bangkok before (and only there because he decided to evacuate Vietnam before the storm) he was a phenomenal tour guide and took us around to see the temples! Among them were The Grand Palace and The Big Buddha which were flooded with tourists taking pictures left and right.
Exhausted, we made our way back to the room and napped, with plans to meet our Dutch friends for dinner and drinks later. We couldn't wait for them, as hunger makes us impulsive people, so we set off for a dinner place recommended by David's hotel receptionist. It was literally a hole in the wall (like, literally ... no doors or anything) with plastic tables and chairs strewn around the street and it was CROWDED! We had to wait for a few minutes before a spot for 3 opened up at the end of a shared table. The group we shared the table with was a few older (like 60's) people who told us they'd been coming to eat there for years! It was quite tasty and probably the most authentic dining experience we'd have for the entirety of our trip hahha
Afterwards, we went to Khao San road with our Dutch friends - and ate scorpion!!! Which was surprisingly really tasty haha - and drank and danced at some random bars and had an all around fun time! Now we're hungover.
