So our 4 nights in Bangkok went very fast. We arrived on Monday after a short flight from Singapore. After shedding a few kilos of luggage weight in Singapore by sending afew bits home and ditching a lot of now 'non essential' items we were able to carry our bags and get on and off, in and out of various modes of transport to arrive at Nira Bankoc Cultural Hostel without breaking our backs! The youth hostel is in the centre of the old town, a very busy and bustling place. Mark did a fantastic but slightly stressful job of negotiating with and refusing a few taxis and tuk tuks that wanted to charge us far too much to take us 20 mins from the staion to the hostel. In the end we took a taxi whom the driver said he stopped and agreed to take us on a meter (the cheapest way of doing it) because he could see Mark is a family man.
So after snacks and showers we settled in our room to talk about the day and the time in Bangkok. We found that we were all slightly culture shocked and overwhelmed by the busyness and again working in a second language of which we speak none! Asia said the city seemed scary to her - such a manic new place for a child i think. After a good nights sleep and a walk around the streets the next day we relaxed (ish) into the bartering Bangkok way and Asia became more confident as the days went on.
Tuesday morning Jamie arrived as a suprise for the girls. It was soooo much fun and such a big relief as we had kept it a secret for nearly 5 months. The girls were completely shocked into silence, then "JAMIEEEE", then tears...it was wonderful!
We spent the next 3 days wandering the streets of Bangkok, eating yummy pad thai noodles, shopping, took the river boat to see the city from a different view and visited Wat Arun - tall pointy shrine decorated in sea shells and broken pieces of porcelin.
The city is a colourful, vibrant place that never sleeps with many people groups living our their culture and beliefs. Bright pink, green, red and yellow taxis and tuk tuks fill every street. Whereever you look there are men, women and children busy working and making a living. The smells of the streets food markets and stalls along side the temples and shrines inscense were a wonderful sensory experience. Bangkok is a very cheap place to eat, shop, buy clothes and get Thai massage.
We only learnt two words during our stay: 'was dee ka' - hello and 'cob khun ka' - thank you. It took us two days to pronounce them correctly but people seemed appreciative when we attempted to use them in the appropriate place!
So we hope to return to Bangkok on our way back through... we hardly touch the surface of this amazing city and i especially want to eat pad thia noodles again...
Love to you all who read this... Hayley x
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