Sadly the bus didnt serve dinner at all, just a sachet of coffee (with no hot water) and a banana muffin. The trip was long and not the comfiest, but it was so cheap so you can't really complain. On the plus side I absolutely love Bangkok, it is everything I thought it was going to be but more exciting. We arrived on Friday morning around 6am and got a taxi to the hostel. It's a fairly new one apparently so the taxi driver didn't really know where he was going and we ended up going round in circles for a while. We found our way there eventually and checked in. In the morning we walked around the grand palace, the emerald buddha, wat po and wat arun. The grand palace is where the kings used to live and it was so lavish it was fantastic, all gold and intricately decorated. To go in you had to be 'properly dressed' which apparently didn't include shawls so becki and I had to rent two horrible looking shirts from the shop. They were free, we just had to leave a deposit and look like fools for a while.
Wat Po is where the reclining Buddha is. The Buddha was absolutely huge, much bigger than I was expecting and I really liked it. It cost 200 baht (about £4) to get in and they gave us a free bottle of water for some reason. We then wandered down to the river and crossed over on the ferry which cost 2.5 baht (5p) which was amazing. Bangkok is way cheaper than the islands, with a meal for about 50 baht as opposed to 100 - 200 baht on Lanta. Wat arun was way more peaceful than the other two and less touristy than the other two. Sadly they were doing some construction work there which kind of ruined the peace but you can see why people love it there. By this point it was about 3 oclock and we were all exhausted so we wandered back to the hostel and hung around there for a while.
We got ready for the evening and went for dinner at a place down the road from our hostel (Warm White Hostel). The hostel is very basic but the location is so good. We're about 2 minute walk from Koh San Road and not far from anything else really. Although taxis are so cheap here that it wouldn't really matter if we were further. I had fried cashew nuts noodles and everyone else had a variety of pad Thai (Kate had shrimp, Amy vegetable and Becki had chicken). We have pad Thai pretty much at least once a day because its the cheapest thing on all menus and with Amy's dietary requirements its the only thing she can always definitely have.
We then took a taxi to the skybar from the Hangover 2 called lebua. We'd been told to dress as nice as possible as the dress code is quite strict so we were all as dolled up as possible. When we got there they let Kate and I through but told Becki she couldn't wear flip flops and told Amy that she wasn't allowed shorts. We were all pretty disappointed but decided that we'll just try again tomorrow evening. On the way out however, we noticed a stall that rents out skybar appropriate clothes and shoes. Some of them were hideous but Amy managed to find a decent skirt and Becki found some shoes that almost fit her and we got let in this time. When we got up there we could see why the dress code was enforced. It was incredible and by far the coolest bar I've ever been to. We each got a very expensive cocktail (between 12 and 14 pounds) and hung out there for a few hours. By this point we were all so tired so we came back to the hostel and went to bed.
We got up at about 8.45 the next day ready for a full day of shopping. First we went to Chatachuk market which was huge and so cheap. I got a top (for £1) and some new denim shorts (for £4.50). Kate got all sorts, some fake Birkenstock sandals, two tops and some sunglasses. She was very pleased with all purchases, especially the Birkenstocks. Then we took a taxi over to the MBK shopping mall so that Amy could buy a new camera because her 'waterproof' camera broke in the sea. We then took the sky train (basically the tube but way overground instead of being underground) and a ferry back to the hostel which took ages and probably wasn't worth it as it was pretty much the same cost as a taxi would have been. When we got back we found that the hostel had overbooked and had basically kicked us out of our room, throwing all our stuff on the floor. When we explained that we'd already paid they booked us in to their sister hostel about 3 minutes down the road. It was annoying but it was fine. The location isn't as great but the hostel itself is fine and we were only there for a night.
After dinner (delicious Pad Thai all round at a street food stall) we ventured out for the evening. We went to see a show and then we went to some bars down Koh San Road. It was really fun night but probably not the best idea when we had to be up at 6am the next morning for the floating market trip that we'd booked.
The next morning was a struggle. We got packed up, checked out and dragged our big bags down to the travel agents for 7am ready for the half day trip to the floating markets. We booked both that trip and our bus with the same company so we could leave our big bags there for the day and pick them up when we went to catch the bus at 7.30pm. The Damnern Saduak floating markets were about an hour and a half away by minibus so we all slept the whole journey, despite it being quite a creaky and bumpy journey. The markets themselves weren't as great as I was expecting. The stuff for sale was nothing special (except for some cool canvas pictures of elephants) and I thought that everything would be on boats which it wasn't. It was still interesting and definitely worth a trip but perhaps a bit disappointing because I'd been looking forward to seeing them for ages.
We got back at about 1pm so we came back to the hostel to relax for a while. After that we took a taxi down to Chinatown to look around there. It's pretty much the same as the Chinatown in London but with more unrecognisable foods and loads of gold shops. The gold was the same sort as the gold that John and Veve have but we didn't venture in to look at the cost. We were planning to get food there but decided against it in the end and came back to eat near the hostel.
We're now sat waiting for the bus tonight, none of us particularly looking forward to the journey but we have heard that Chiang Mai is really cool so that should be good!
That's all for now. Lots of love.
