Twelve young people, one internship and a whole lot of memories! Walking into my hotel room on the final night to find a blacked out room and ten bodies crammed in watching Oz: The Great and Powerful felt like home (esp when I politely said they all smelled and pulled out my deodorant and sprayed them and they all just laughed). We had become an amazing little family, who obviously had ups and downs but what family doesn't? From Kanchanaburi to Chiang Mai to Koh Samet and Bangkok I can honestly say I've been amazed and so happy that I've had nine interesting, lively and unique people to have traveled with. It doesn't include the people we've met along the way who have made this experience what it was.
Saying goodbye to Olivia, Wilson and Rob early in the morning was a little surreal to know it was the end. It didn't stop there... Roseanne also left after breakfast (my roomy for the last seven weeks... both first time travellers and WiFi hut buddies)! It had been an epic eight weeks. A bunch of people from the UK and Ireland thrown together in Thailand to teach English and absorb the culture (including the food) and develop as individuals too, to which I know I definitely have and going home I know I will be different.
Back in Bangkok:
So from a crappy little hotel (mentioning no names: Trang hotel) to a 'boutique hostel' Chern (actually the most amazing, trendy and comfortable place to stay in Bangkok) we (I say we and I mean Me, Charlotte, Mark, Ed, Amelia and Callum) decided to stay in Bangkok for a few days before continuing our travel. That night we headed out for some food and bumped into Democracy monument where the demonstrators were... they were very peaceful and the sound of whistles could be heard but a little nerve wrecking as we were told by a local to go take pictures next to the broken cars which were alight from yesterday's protest?! We were actually heading towards Kho San Road for a rave night out so we had to cut through (at least it hasn't scared away the tourism). We actually ended up in Subway after being ferociously attacked by club and bar reps trying to coax us in then headed into a tuk tuk to a ping pong show.
Tuk Tuk in Bangkok:
Crazy ass driver ever and I thought Mumbai was mental! We were each paying 10TB for this journey across Bangkok to Siam (well we didn't know exactly where we were heading till we got there). But oh my golly gosh this driver was doing wheelies, speeding, dramatically stopping and laughing his head off at us while we were crapping it. The driver even pulled up next to the other tuk tuk and let some air out of his wheel... so not dangerous at all?! This was one of the moments where I was more scared for myself than my gadgets!
The ping pong show was definitely recommended by others who had adventured out to Thailand and was a total must see (no more on this topic... you'll have to either come here to see it or ask me when I'm back)!
Siam and shopping:
Bangkok day two was a random day. We headed to Siam for a shopping trip via a boat! Its equivalent to the underground system in London but on a boat instead of a train!
We'd been to Siam on a previous Bangkok trip but the hustle of designer shops and the feel of a shopping mall was something we couldn't resist (well for me and Charlotte it was the thought of the sizzler in the Indian restaurant in the food court which was luring us back). It was the best most filling food ever... A sizzler between two and a thali (includes four curries, rice, naan and a gulam jambu. Mmm. Full from that we headed to the MBK centre which is the market place of Bangkok (the hay market equivalent in Leicester) and then a beautiful art centre.
(between swapping between centres I brought a pair of beats headphones for eight quid... I will be happy if they just last me the remainder of my trip)!
Charcoal portraits:
The art gallery was beautiful and full of erm art. There was a little corner which was full of artists drawing portraits so myself and Charlotte got a portrait each with the two of us. He made us look beautiful and gave me my perfect looking wavy hair (hats off to anyone who can make me look good). It genuinely took two hours and in that time we had to say our goodbyes to Callum and Amelia over the phone as they headed off to another hostel before an early start for a visa run to Cambodia.
That night ended with me and Charlotte sharing the honeymoon suite with Ed and Mark before they left for Hanoi halfway through the night.
Where's the food?
So me and Charlotte were on our own. We decided to head out that morning to get some food before we had to make our way to a hotel near the airport for our flight to Vietnam the next morning. If only life went as we planned...
We bumped into a friendly man who started explaining to us the green tuk tuk's will only cost 20TB today because the government has given them all coupons for fuel. He then started jotting down places on my map where we should go and stopped a green tuk tuk and we climbed in (he even had a bird poo on him while he explains what we should do but carried on... How sweet)!
Both hungry, we were hoping he would stop so we could grab some food. Not a chance. He took us on a little tour around Bangkok and we grabbed a coconut ice cream from the first temple. It was the temple with the tall and big buddha. The second temple was the happy buddha temple in which the taxi driver showed us around and gave us a candle, inscent stick and a gold leaf to place in the temple and the leaf onto a buddha. He then took us to two jewellery factories and a suit shop before dropping us back to the hostel where we just ate at the local cafe (after all of that) and then headed to our next hotel for the night.
Honeymooning and trees in the room:
This was definitely a honeymoon suite. A double bed, a pattern tiled bathroom and painted on trees were all a little much. But we decided against going out for dinner so we ate on the balcony. The spaghetti and sausage was delicious. We'd both brought Thai boxing shorts to enjoy and it has now become a pyjama thing!
Goodbye Thailand... Hello Vietnam!
Saying goodbye to Olivia, Wilson and Rob early in the morning was a little surreal to know it was the end. It didn't stop there... Roseanne also left after breakfast (my roomy for the last seven weeks... both first time travellers and WiFi hut buddies)! It had been an epic eight weeks. A bunch of people from the UK and Ireland thrown together in Thailand to teach English and absorb the culture (including the food) and develop as individuals too, to which I know I definitely have and going home I know I will be different.
Back in Bangkok:
So from a crappy little hotel (mentioning no names: Trang hotel) to a 'boutique hostel' Chern (actually the most amazing, trendy and comfortable place to stay in Bangkok) we (I say we and I mean Me, Charlotte, Mark, Ed, Amelia and Callum) decided to stay in Bangkok for a few days before continuing our travel. That night we headed out for some food and bumped into Democracy monument where the demonstrators were... they were very peaceful and the sound of whistles could be heard but a little nerve wrecking as we were told by a local to go take pictures next to the broken cars which were alight from yesterday's protest?! We were actually heading towards Kho San Road for a rave night out so we had to cut through (at least it hasn't scared away the tourism). We actually ended up in Subway after being ferociously attacked by club and bar reps trying to coax us in then headed into a tuk tuk to a ping pong show.
Tuk Tuk in Bangkok:
Crazy ass driver ever and I thought Mumbai was mental! We were each paying 10TB for this journey across Bangkok to Siam (well we didn't know exactly where we were heading till we got there). But oh my golly gosh this driver was doing wheelies, speeding, dramatically stopping and laughing his head off at us while we were crapping it. The driver even pulled up next to the other tuk tuk and let some air out of his wheel... so not dangerous at all?! This was one of the moments where I was more scared for myself than my gadgets!
The ping pong show was definitely recommended by others who had adventured out to Thailand and was a total must see (no more on this topic... you'll have to either come here to see it or ask me when I'm back)!
Siam and shopping:
Bangkok day two was a random day. We headed to Siam for a shopping trip via a boat! Its equivalent to the underground system in London but on a boat instead of a train!
We'd been to Siam on a previous Bangkok trip but the hustle of designer shops and the feel of a shopping mall was something we couldn't resist (well for me and Charlotte it was the thought of the sizzler in the Indian restaurant in the food court which was luring us back). It was the best most filling food ever... A sizzler between two and a thali (includes four curries, rice, naan and a gulam jambu. Mmm. Full from that we headed to the MBK centre which is the market place of Bangkok (the hay market equivalent in Leicester) and then a beautiful art centre.
(between swapping between centres I brought a pair of beats headphones for eight quid... I will be happy if they just last me the remainder of my trip)!
Charcoal portraits:
The art gallery was beautiful and full of erm art. There was a little corner which was full of artists drawing portraits so myself and Charlotte got a portrait each with the two of us. He made us look beautiful and gave me my perfect looking wavy hair (hats off to anyone who can make me look good). It genuinely took two hours and in that time we had to say our goodbyes to Callum and Amelia over the phone as they headed off to another hostel before an early start for a visa run to Cambodia.
That night ended with me and Charlotte sharing the honeymoon suite with Ed and Mark before they left for Hanoi halfway through the night.
Where's the food?
So me and Charlotte were on our own. We decided to head out that morning to get some food before we had to make our way to a hotel near the airport for our flight to Vietnam the next morning. If only life went as we planned...
We bumped into a friendly man who started explaining to us the green tuk tuk's will only cost 20TB today because the government has given them all coupons for fuel. He then started jotting down places on my map where we should go and stopped a green tuk tuk and we climbed in (he even had a bird poo on him while he explains what we should do but carried on... How sweet)!
Both hungry, we were hoping he would stop so we could grab some food. Not a chance. He took us on a little tour around Bangkok and we grabbed a coconut ice cream from the first temple. It was the temple with the tall and big buddha. The second temple was the happy buddha temple in which the taxi driver showed us around and gave us a candle, inscent stick and a gold leaf to place in the temple and the leaf onto a buddha. He then took us to two jewellery factories and a suit shop before dropping us back to the hostel where we just ate at the local cafe (after all of that) and then headed to our next hotel for the night.
Honeymooning and trees in the room:
This was definitely a honeymoon suite. A double bed, a pattern tiled bathroom and painted on trees were all a little much. But we decided against going out for dinner so we ate on the balcony. The spaghetti and sausage was delicious. We'd both brought Thai boxing shorts to enjoy and it has now become a pyjama thing!
Goodbye Thailand... Hello Vietnam!
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| Bangkok adventure which took us to see the tall Buddha |
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| This is the happy Buddha temple where we placed our candle and incense stick and gold leaf |
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| Jewelry place we got taken to. I was so tempted here to buy a ring but Inever did. |
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| Wilson's guitar he left us which we graffiti'd and left at Chern hotel! |
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| Massive dart board in the games room |
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| Democracy monument in Bangkok |
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| Selfie in the elevator up the entertainment complex |
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| Such a good Indian! |
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| Portraits in the Bangkok art centre |
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| So hard just sitting there and looking straight |
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| And again... |
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| And there goes Charlotte posing again! |
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| mmm coconut ice cream! |
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