How to spend money in Bangkok without meaning to...

We had a bit of an interesting night last night and managed to not do at all what we'd planned and spend a lot more money... Chris summarises our interesting shananigans:

http://www.rootfest.com/?p=66

So we had a 'min-spend' day today and limited ourselves to only spending up to 60B each on each meal :-) Brekkie is included at the hotel so that was easy... we've tried to get out of the (easy as everything is so tasty!) habit of having a proper lunch as we end up eating too much, so only had crisps and some yummy thai waffles as snacks through the day. And then had yum yum yum Pad Thai from Mr Yim's stall around the corner from the hotel. 75B (a whole £1.50) for both of us! We then 'treated' ourselves to a Thai massage. The most painful, but best £2 i've spent! She definitely found my dodgy muscles from too much gymnastics (and sitting at a desk) and gave them a good seeing to.... feels sore now, but will be worth it - already my neck and shoulders feel a lot looser.

Since my last post, we generally done some more touristy things in Bangkok - went to Wat Po this morning and saw the 46m long reclining buddha - lots and lots of gold...

Meeting up with our trip people tomorrow and then to Cambodia on Wednesday, so not sure when I'll have t'internet again, so I was going to leave you with a couple of photos but the internet seems to have died so I'll pop them on next time!

Bangkok is MAD

Might as well make the most of the free wireless and blog some more...

Visited the madness that is Siam Square today - massive shopping malls (we were on a (unsuccessful hunt for a cheap little camera) which i found more of a culture shock than the rest of Bangkok - it feels so wrong (and is so wrong) to see McDonalds and Starbucks making stupid amounts of global profit when you can get much nicer tasting food and drink for a fraction of the price in the street stalls and restaurants outside. I do have to admit that the aircon environment was a welcome break from the humidity! We had a heck of a lot of rain this evening which may bring the temperature down to something slightly less resembling the thermal chamber... the rain also thwarted our plans to head to Chinatown - ended up eating in the hotel restaurant which was lovely but a bit more pricey thand we're getting used to. £3 for a main course instead of 50p!

We wandered to Lumpini Park this afternoon which is a lovely respite from the noise and fumes of the roads surrounding it. Saw some weird lizard things in the lake (see below) - no idea what they were but i was glad they stayed in the lake!

Blogging on the balcony

First proper travel blog post!

Well, obviously we made it safe and sound to Bangkok with no dramas at all - even managed to get the bus from the airport to hotel without messing up or getting pounced upon for looking lost!

We arrived yesterday afternoon, and after a quick rest and shower, we headed out onto the streets of Banglampu to search for a restaurant and stmubled across one from our guidebook - a very yummy organic veggie restaurant (i was happy but chris did consider getting some meat on a stick on the way back to satisfy his meat quota...). We managed to stay awake till 9pm until the jetlag kicked it and we gave in and slept for 12 hours through the noise of the aircon, the water taxis and a thai women shouting down the corridor....

So today we decided we were feeling alive enough to embrace some sightseeing and headed to tourist-central - the Grand Palace and Temple of the Emerald Buddha (actually made of jade, but it's all green to me!). It was amazingly decorated - a lot of gold and tiles and mirrors. After blinding our eyes from all the bejewelled buildings, we headed back to the hotel area via express river taxi for some lunch and for Chris to retrieve a new camera battery. Spent the afternoon relaxing and cooling off by the pool and we're about to head out for some more tasty and ridiculously cheap food!

Time flies....

Somehow it is already October 22nd which means today we fly off to Bangkok to start our travels!
It's been a crazy few days packing, moving and cleaning the house to the standards required by the evil inventory people who still manage to find the one door frame you forgot to scrub.. gah. But it's all done now, so we're hanging out at my parents until we head off to the airport later...
Next stop..... Thailand!

14 days to go...

Two weeks to go and finally today I feel like I'm making a dent in my list of things to do... got my typhoid etc vaccinations (ow) and a year's supply of prescription and attempted to get anti-malarials until I realised (whilst stood in the chemist) that I had left my prescription on my desk. gah. Tomorrow for that one...

Tonight we had a practice assemble of the mosquito net - quite considerably simpler than we thought in the end once we figured out that there was only one place that the pole could go! Don't think we'll go the whole hog and sleep under it though... dont think the Fleet mosquito population is anything to worry about!

17 days and counting...

So we have 17 days until we jet off to Bangkok to start our travels. And the list of things to do is never-ending at the moment! Doesnt help having spent the last week running around Salisbury Plain with my clipboard and stopwatch (see pic - practising my blogging photo uploading skills!)

So now there's 10 days left at work to sort all the last bits and bobs out before running away! Exciting and scary...