Our last adventure of our travels was chaotic, busy and humid Bangkok. The airport was large and the staff, so far, very friendly. Dissapointedly for us we had to wait over an hour to get through customs, not quite what we had hoped in the middle of the night. I had imagined a crazy taxi driver winding his way through lanes and packed roads to deliver us to our hotel but it was very peaceful but maybe this was because it was nearly 3am! We were looking forward to getting checked in and back to our 5 star luxury :-) Our hotel, the Anantara Riverside Bangkok and Spa, welcomed us with open doors, smiles and opulent furnishings as well as a crazy woman outside screaming about something.... The receptionist dismissed it and explained she was a regular annoyance trying to get into the gym without paying and would get escorted off the premises shortly....
Then came the bad news. "We have a lovely double room for you set up" the receptionist chimed happily. Even more grumpy than ever (remember, it was 3am, actually 6am Oz time after an 8 hour flight) I replied instantly "we have paid for a twin room" and swiftly produced the receipt to show her. She seemed apologetic and after a few minutes of pokering about on her computer she informed us that unfortunately we would have to be upgraded to a Junior Suite on the top floor as that was all that was left. Ha - result! We tried to keep the smiles off of our face as we were agreeable and she showed us up to our room. 3am or not, the jacuzzi bath was going on and I was treating myself to a drink!
We discovered that our hotel was a little oasis of calm away from the bustle of Bangkok which was exactly what we wanted. The food was excellent, it had luscious garden grounds and a fantastic facilities such as a 25 metre pool, huge gym and large open air Jacuzzis. We ate copious amounts of the fantastic food at breakfast to keep us going for the day and travelled on the free ferry to the city where we embarked on our own tour of the Chao Phraya river, tuk tuks, temples, Buddhas, Wat Arun (temple of dawn) and of course the bustling markets and street food. A highlight of mine was the Grand Palace, the former residing place of the Thai Royal Family. It was filled with temples and monuments glistening in gold and grandeur. Tourists flocked round this area and you had to pay 500 Baht to enter (approx £10) which was well worth the money. Part of the experience was also wearing traditional Thai dress as it was forbidden to show knees or shoulders in the grounds. If I knew this beforehand I would've worn something more appropriate to save us having to queue to rent clothes but I wouldn't have got to wear a lovely satin, gold embroidered Thai dress so I'm glad I never. The rest of our days were spent relaxing at the pool and hot tub, sunbathing and drinking Mai Thais or Mojitos. Of course these were to cool us down - it was incredibly hot and humid! On the second day, however, that turned into torrential rain which lasted about an hour - I got completely drenched and I must've been in the rain for no more than 3 seconds. I won't complain about Scottish rain again. OK I will, but not for a while. It actually gave me an excuse to get out of the sun and into the gym. No morphine necessary just 3 cocktails consumed and I managed to cope with the pain of 3 miles on the treadmill. It was a start. That was my second consecutive day of trying to run. I decided to be sensible for once and just swim the next few days.
After sunset and watching the Hotel's show of Thai dancers, drummers and candle lighting ceremony we headed back into the city visited the famous Khao San Road and Asiatique markets where we haggled and bartered with the market stall holders for souvenirs. It's amazing how you get into that frame of mind until you suddenly realise you are arguing over 50 pence for an ornament! We also walked down the laneways and streets filled with bars, clubs and sex shows where reps, girls and ladyboys tried to encourage us to come into their establishment. If we weren't flying out in a few hours and we weren't stone cold sober we may have went for a 'viewing' but we were happy to refuse and move along to get food. In the 2 evenings we spent in Bangkok we sampled the wonderful Thai spicy curries, sticky rice, noodles and won tons as well as some delicious, but not very authentic, Oreo McFlurries for about 30 pence. Sometimes Globalisation has it's benefits.
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