Schoolies Trip in South East Asia

Today is our last day in Bangkok. We got up an caught a Tuk-Tuk to Chinatown - i have never seen so much pollution in my life - my lungs even started to hurt.

After a while we headed back to the hotel and finished packing before heading back to MBK for one last time. We bought last minute gifts and then returned to the hotel and paid our bills and other boring stuff. Ordered a wake up call for 5am the next morning however i didn't sleep anyway as i couldn't help but think that we'd miss our flight the next day

After another late night we allowed ourselves a sleep-in. I went to confirm our flights for the trip to Vietnam. We walked to MBK again an spent another few hours shopping. We then explore Siam Square and Siam Centre - both contained European stores like Marks and Spencer and Esprit and were ludicrously expensive.

I started to feel a bit sick again and went back to the hotel. I slept for a few hours before heading out to dinner. We headed off to the Hard Rock Cafe - great food and lots of it. We caught a crazy Tuk-Tuk back to our hotel where we cleaned up and started packing. We had an early night getting ready for our last day in Bangkok

Today we had a sleep in - didnt get moving till after 11. We walked down to Pratunam Market and spent the next five hours shopping. Started to feel like a tourist and started to spend my money!

We had lunch but it was awful - it was meant to be a chicken salad- it was a drumstick on a plate of lettuce. As such i spent the afternoon hungry. We went back to the hotel for a few hours before heading off to dinner. It was good but the service was so slow. We caught a Tuk-Tuk to the Night Bazaar where we spent another 3 hours shopping. We then caught a tuk-tuk to Patpong to visit the nighttime shopping scene. By then it was after midnight and the shops were closing so we headed back to the hotel. Spent an hour unpacking our day's spoils before getting ready for bed after a long day and lots of money changing hands.

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.