Bangkok 2

So next after we had indulged ourselves enough in the islands - though it would have been easy to have spent longer - we headed back by night bus to Bangkok. This was to be a slightly less 5 * visit than when we were in the city a couple of weeks ago. Once arrived in Bangkok we headed for Khao San Rd - pretty much the most famous backpacker haunt in Bangkok. We were lucky and found a guest house just off the main rd which had a slightly less hectic feel about it.

Khao San Rd was an experience! It is 1 long street with bustling market stalls, food vendors, bars and tuk tuk drivers (who after midnight offer a ride to the notorious ping pong show at Patpong!) We decided the head out into Khao San that evening and join the countless revellers and see what we could find..... We started off by having the 'traditional' Thai bucket - consisting of Red Bull, Whiskey and Coke.... a lethal combination!!! After a couple of these we found ourselves in a place called the Immortal Bar - a heavy metal / rock club. They had a Thai band rolling out all the classics in their own inimitable style - it was lots of fun - Martha you would have loved it!!

We staggered home late in the night and paid the price of drinking buckets the next day - had a very quiet one - managing eventually to leave the guesthouse and go for some western comfort food in the local Irish Bar - might leave it a while before I have a bucket again.......

The next day we felt a little more human and headed off to the shopping Mall in search of some aircon comfort. We used the express boat followed by the ultra modern Sky Train to get there. The Sky Train was great - it is a monorail that now connects large amount of Bangkok together - much better than the trams in Manchester! We also tried the underground to be able to say that we had taken pretty much every form of public transport available in Bangkok (Some feeling more safe than others!!!!).

When browsing we saw that the bottom of one of the shopping complexes is actually a massive aquarium, so we headed for a look. It was fantastic and much larger than I expected considering there is a shopping centre built on it! After staring at a wonderful array of crabs, fish, jelly fish, penguins and otters, doing a glass bottom boat ride and watching the best 3D (or 5D as they put it) film I have ever seen, we emerged 4 hours later feeling like we could have been anywhere in the world - not strictly a Thai experience - but a great one nevertheless.

We then rounded a thoroughly non Thai day by going to see Star Trek at the mall's cinema! It was a fantastic cinema - and despite being caught out by nearly not standing up for the national anthem we had a great day - and enjoyed a rather western experience for the day - isn't it funny how when you can't easily get something you want it so much more?

The next day we headed to the slightly less classy shopping mall - and enjoyed looking at all the stalls and arcades. We also had fun laughing at the karaoke booths and had a few games of ten pin bowling to round the day off - where I scored a turkey - but this was not enough when Rob showed his true skills and managed to beat me 2 - 1!

Our final day was spent doing a little bit if bartering and shopping before heading to the train station to grab the night train to Chiang Mai.

Snorkelling

While in Phuket we bought a 1 day package tour to visit some islands and do a bit of snorkeling. The whole trip got off to a fantastic start as the wonderful (but slack when it comes to blogs!) Rob managed to get the price of the trip pretty much halved - his bartering skills are really coming on!

The speedboat was fantastic fun - it was incredibly fast and wonderfully bumpy - I lost my stomach several times!!! It was also amusing to see the lack of people without the ability to smile all the way - and the few people clinging on to the side of the boat looking rather green......

The first stop was to Maya beach on Phi Phi Don. For those of you into shit films it is the cove where a lot of the Beach was filmed - it was breath-taking.... I don't think I have the vocabulary to do it justice - but it was idyllic (Rob's blogging job is now to insert photos - I write he sorts out the pictures - so I hope he picks a good one for this) We stayed about 20 mins milled around with a few other hundred tourists and then got back on the boat and headed to a place called Monkey Beach - where you've guessed it - there are lots of monkeys!!! After us all cooing at how cute they were and taking the few obligatory photos while watching the monkeys very dexterously scaling the cliffs we were off again.

We sailed (or should that be sped?) for about 20 mins until were relatively close to the cliffs and then all donned life jackets were given snorkels and dropped into the water. I had never been snorkeling before so was really not prepared for the magic of burying my head in the water. I looked below and saw wonderful coral formations, sea urchins, and so many beautiful coloured fish. I couldn't get over just how close the fish would swim to you. It was great too as the guides from the boat were dropping biscuits into the water where I was swimming - so suddenly I found myself surrounded by a shoals of beautiful fish. After 30 mins we got back into the boat - all carrying large smiles :)

Our next port of call was Ko Phi Phi Lay- we didn't really get to see much of the island but stopped for some food and a quick look round the seafront market.

In the afternoon we stopped at our last beach which wasn't much more than a small golden bar of sand and coral out in the ocean and had a little bit of a snorkel - nothing as stunning as the first snorkel and you had to be much more careful as you were in really shallow water with loads of the spikiest black sea urchins I have ever seen. This too was great fun - then it was back on board the speed boat to blast home.

When home we found a a shisha bar - and rounded off a wonderful day with a lovely apple tobacco - god I hate this travelling thing!