Bangkok
Wednesday 4th May 2016 – At the airport we were glad we had booked flights to Burma for the beginning of June as we were asked to prove we had onward flights out of Thailand. The flight was only half full and the three and a half hour journey passed quickly. We touched down in Bangkok at 6:15am, cleared customs and took a taxi straight to the Silq Hotel in Sukumvit where mum and dad were staying. The taxi driver was a bit grumpy about having to use his meter and wouldn’t take us on to our hotel which wasn’t really a problem as we walked the 150 yards there instead. Luckily our room was free and we went straight up to get some kip. We later found out that mum and dad hadn’t been able to get into their room until midday and had spent 4 hours trying not to fall asleep into their complementary breakfasts. Our main task for the day was to get some cash. We tried a dozen or so different ATMs but they all wanted to charge a fee of about 4 quid to use them – daylight robbery. We got on the internet back at the hotel and found that the only machines that don’t fleece foreigners in Bangkok were a handful of Citibank ATMs. One was pretty close and a few minutes later we had triumphantly returned to solvency. That evening after an exploratory stroll around the area we celebrated our arrival with a slap up meal at a nice Thai restaurant.
Thursday 5th May 2016 – One of the hotel guests we met had recommended the food hall on floor 5 of Terminal 21 ( a nearby shopping mall) as a good place to eat so we decided to go with mum and dad to give it a try. Past all the chain restaurants there is an area with about twenty small kiosks, each selling cheap, delicious Thai food. It was a revelation; for less than £1 you could enjoy a really good meal and with so much variety we would be back again and again. After lunch we made a list of things we wanted to get done in Bangkok. We were travel weary, out of clean clothes, more than two weeks behind with our blog and needed to fix our camera which was still refusing to charge or upload photos. We decided we would stay at least a week in Bangkok to rest and recharge before moving on. Mum and dad on the other hand were full of energy and posted Whatsapp updates of their late night exploits around Chinatown while we malingered in our room.
Friday 6th May 2016 – Bangkok is probably as well known for its red light districts as anything else and so tonight mum, dad and I took a taxi to Pat Pong while Alysa pampered herself with chocolate and goodies back at the hotel. After fuelling up on some street food we were ready to explore. First we played pool at one of the bars, then we went to another bar where Dad and I got thrashed at pool by one of the bar girls. After a bit of asking around we found a ladyboy bar. Dad got chatting to one of the ladyboys and looked a little disappointed when it was time to go. Mum had heard you could buy insects at some of the stalls nearby and before long we were munching on some rather tasty fried locusts. Another stall was selling pieces of durian, a fruit that I had always wanted to try. It was exactly as people describe it – rather pongy but tasty with a creamy, slightly vanilla flavour. Finally we went to a dimly lit sex show where a couple of rather bored looking ladies went through a checklist of Bangkoks most trademark acts while we as the only audience looked on a little uncomfortably. The highlight was the ping pong routine; dad and I were handed table tennis bats to return incoming balls although unfortunately our motor co-ordination wasn’t really up to the task at this point. After about fifteen minutes we went to the bar to pay and were handed a bill for 5700 Baht (just over 100 quid). This was quickly reduced to 1000 Baht and after paying up we were on our merry way home.
