Dec 2004

Got up early this morning - 6:45 am so we could go to the Chatachuck Weekend Market in uptown Bangkok. We caught the skytrain from our hotel straight to the market. We got there while the shops were still setting up. Had a drink while we waited for the stalls to open. The market was massive - over 10,000 stalls - so it was easy to get lost. Spent 3 hours exploring the market exploring the variety of stalls ranging from woodwork to clothes, food to flowers and even live animals.

Didn't get a chance to buy much as i was hit by a sudden bout of Bali Belly (or i suppose in this case Bangkok Belly). I went back to the hotel and slep for a few hours. Started to feel better so we headed back to MBK super mall. We browsed the stores before heading back to the hotel. Fell asleep really quickly as i still wasn't feeling 100%.

We woke up this morning set for our first cultural day in Thailand. We took a taxi to the pier then hired a boat to take us along the canals to the temples. The ride took forever with little entertainin scenery howver we finally arrived at our first stop.

The Wat Arun or temple of dawn, is really old but spectacularly beautiful. It was then back onto the boat to visit the Grand Palace. The palace grounds were enormous and everything was so ornate and bejewelled. Everything was so decadent and over the top. There were lots of military paraphenalia and an ornate Buddhist temple housing the emerald Buddha - the most revered in Thailand.

After the Grand Palace we headed to Wat Pho temple housing the world's largest reclining Buddha. I bought a jar of coins from some monks which you deposit into seperate bowls in the temple supposedly to bring you good luck. Wat Pho also had a massage school where they train all the massuers. I enjoyed a massage there even though it was quite painful.

From there we took a Tuk-Tuk to Chinatown where we had an asian lunch and walked a few of the market streets - too many to choose from in one day. we spent a few hours looking around before catching a crazy tuk-tuk driven by a really bad drive back to our hotel. We rested for a while before heading out to dinner - a disappointing red curry. Then we headed back to the hotel to turn in for the night.

Today we got up relatively early (9am) and got ready to go on a day trip. We decided on Safari World for the day and hired a driver to take us there. He said it would take an hour and a half to get there. It ended up taking three hours after lots of u-turns, swearing, and even reversing down the entire length of a freeway on-ramp. However we finally got there.

We headed straight onto a tour bus and toured through the open-range zoo which even included a white rhino. We then made our way to a dolphin and whale show which was entertaining. We saw polar bears being fed - i wouldn't want to get in the way when they're eating (or ever). We then headed to a spy show - a ridiculously awful but at the same time hilarious James Bond spoof. We then saw a bird show.

We left Safari World and took a taxi back - it was cheaper and a lot quicker than the way there - under an hour. We got back to the hotel then headed out for dinner. We caught the Skytrain to Sukhimvit Rd and ate thai food at the Thai Pot Restaurant - it was so spicy that even the locals couldn't handle it. We then walked along Sukhimvit Rd before catching the Skytrain back. We went to the multi-storey shopping mall 'MBK' but decided to head back there on another day.
We finally got back to the hotel before having a relatively early night.

We said goodbye to Phuket early this morning and took a bus to Phuket Airport - a short 45 mins away. With a two hour wait at the airport we kept ourselves amused with games (Eye-spy is great at Phuket Airport)

Our flight was pretty uneventful except for the most horrible plane food i have ever tasted. We arrived at Bangkok Airport but we were the last ones to get our luggage. It was a 45 minute ride to our hotel. Our hotel, the Asia Hotel, is in a great location - it has it's own train station.

We went out for lunch and had a look at the local markets. We explored the hotel for a while before heading out to dinner. We hired out first Tuk-Tuk/Rickshaw thingy in Bangkok - so much fun- but we were taken to an expensive restuarant bt we left and headed out to find somewhere on our own.

We ended up at a local bar/restaurant 'Hot Shots' - food was great but they had a realy bad and really loud band playing.

We got back to the hotel and priced tours with a travel desk before watching some telly before heading to bed for the night.