Bangkok and Sticky rice with Mango

My first blog!

Flying never was my strong point, so after a gruelling 12 hour flight I arrived in Bangkok to be met by a flower wielding, very brown (and very thin!) Jon.... The first thing to hit me was the heat! It was boiling and I immediately started to sweat profusley - a troublesome point when it looks like you've wet yourself if you sit down on anything synthetic for more than five minutes - much to Jon's amusement!!

After an hour-long taxi to Kao San Rd (in which I repeatedly looked at Jon and said 'I'm in Bangkok' with a slightly bemused look on my face) we disembarked to walk the short distance to our (luxury) accomodation. Kao san Road is an assault on the senses in every way that it could be, but most of all it's marvellous! I loved the buzz and the sights and sounds. I know it's not everybody's cup of tea, but I really liked it and it certainly made me feel that I'd arrived somewhere very different to home. Several food vendors were selling deep-fried locusts, cockroaches and worm-type grubs to name only those I recognised. Jon - with some encouragement from me - was brave and tried a locust.... Reasonably palatable apparently (I'm sure the soy sauce made all the difference!).

I opted for spring rolls lathered in sweet chilli dipping sauce (Julie you'd love this place!) and banana pancake and pad Thai..... and sticky rice and mango (can't describe how delicious this was) and.... pretty much everything it seems... all for approx. 20 baht which is roughly 30p. Thai people know how to eat and to smile (people ask if you want stuff - I mean pretty much everything including Pat Pong [think ping pong balls] but don't mind when you say 'no' and keep smiling).

Our roof-top pool!
Our hotel was fantastic with a roof-top pool and buffet breakfast included (expensive for here at 2000 baht per night - 30 pounds). We made the most of it before moving to another, more basic and no pool, place for one night which cost 400 baht (just under seven pounds). I can't get over how cheap everything is!

Also had a trip to the King's Palace which was stunning (see pic of Jon there) and walked around (in the heat) for a bit by which point I had to pull the, 'I'm an English lay-dee' line on Jon and declare I was having a day off sleeping and hiding in the shade sipping my drinks and trying not to look like I'd wet myself!

A note on flip flops... anyone who knows me knows I like to spend the majority of my time in flip flops. You can therefore imagine my joy in coming to Thailand where this is the footwear of choice for everyone. Thinking I was a hardened flip-flop wearer, I immediately donned the said footwear (mandatory 'Muji' rationing) and strolled about gayly.... However, to my shock and horror I develped flip-flop blisters! How can this be? I am such an old hand at wearing them that I was rather dismayed to see that i almost looked like a flip flop virgin! I have since endeavoured to build up my flip flop resistence to proove that I can appear as a local - not an occassional flip flopster...

Back to the point... After three days in Bangkok we took the sleeper train to Chang Mai in the North of Thailand... 'Sleeper' is a bit of a misnomer it has to be said as I got little of it as I had the 'cheaper' top bunk. Why cheaper? Because industrial aircon blows in your face all night (actually freezing you) and makes a noise like something out of 'Eraser Head' (by David Lynch). They also neglect to turn the lights off and since you have (not the case for luxury travellers on the bottom bunk (i.e. Jon!) a three inch gap at the top of your 'privacy' curtain, it really is like sleeping in an industrail unit of somesort. i gave up after three hours of wimpering and gate-crashed jon's sleeping party - much to his delight! Then we hit Chang Mai....