2 Days in Bangkok

At first, Bangkok was a little intimidating, and our original plan was to book it for the South of Thailand immediately, but, as we were packing up to go, we decided we'd take things a little slower, and spend a day in Southeast Asia's, "City of Angels." Second travel lesson: Create some type of game plan in a "safe" place (i.e. room or restaurant) before heading out onto the street! As soon as you are looking at the Lonely Planet guide, your another floating Dollar sign out there to be taken advantage of. We were mildly "touted" by a taxi cab driver who seamed all so helpful. He also was not running the meter on his cab. He took us to a few different places, all of which were super expensive tourist traps. We reisted, and took matters into our own hands after parting with about 200 b, or $6 USD. At the train station, we purchased our own tickets for the following day. We also got some great advice from the railway staff, and set out to see some wat's (buddhist temples.)

After visiting the temple, we wandered about central bangkok for a bit, taking in the sensory overload in all it's glory. Crossing any street is an excercise in critical mass. It's a delicous banquet for the senses for certain. We wandered back streets, took in amazing and cheap street food, and explored for the better part of the day. We started negotiating public transport. We found our way to the river and took the public ferry back a stop near our guest house on Rambutri road.

That evening, we ate a delicoius little Thai Muslim Curry restaurant in the bangpaulu district of Bangkok. Incredible dining, very little english understood, and a grand total of 169 b.

Yesterday we toured bangkok once again using Tuk Tuk, high speed Sky train, and river taxi. We visited the MBK "mall" which is like an american mall, but you can barter, and the whole experience is absolutely ridiculous! The Thai food court however, was awesome, Jolene particularly liked the iced coffee. I was glad to leave after getting some provisions for our trip!

Last night we began a 17 hour journey south. We started with the overnight sleeper train from Bangkok to Sarat Thani, then got on a 3 hours bus, then a taxi, and we're now oh so close to our final destination, Railay beach. It's been an excerise in Chaos to say the least, but we're reveling in the experience, and filled with the rush of doing something that we've dreamed about for so long.

This internet connection is poor, and we've still got to get on a long tail boat to get to Railay, and then secure accomdation for the evening, and there's only 3 hours of daylight left, so that's it for now. Hopefully Railay will have a better internet connection, but, likely not.... I'd like to put more photos up, but, it's not working to well right now..... More to come.... lah gorn kap! Grant & Jo.