I'll try again

  Ko Tao, Thailand
Friday, January 23, 2009

Ok we are at a new place with better internet now so I'll try again.
Our first day in Bangkok we did not do much except sweat alot. We tried to stay up til bed time in orde to beat jetlag but our pan failed and we were both wide awake at 3am. We did eventually get soem sleep though and during the day we took our first Tuk-Tuk ride to Khao San Road. Tuk Tuks are great, they are like a cross between a cab and a motorbike and a suicide attempt. Great fun though. Khao San Road is known as Backpacker Mecca, there are a ton of market stalls trying to sell you anything from tattoos to haircuts to tailor made suits. Unforunately te problem with Thailand is that nearly everyone is trying to scam the tourists out of money. Went back to Khao San road that night where we went to a few bars, however the best bar was the bar that didn't exist. Illegal bars pull up on the pavement and sit a few plastic children's chairs out and serve whiskey, red bull and coke by the bucket.We ended up doing that and getting hammered along with some other brits we met there. We then went to a club and were kicked out because the bar staff accused us of breaking something we did not even touch and told us we had to pay a fine of 300 Baht (6 quid). Like I said there are so many scams here, we just paid rather than cause a fight which kind of tainted the evening.

The next day was a write-off we pretty much slet all day and went to a night market to buy some shirts. Thai's love to haggle and once you get the hang of it it can be fun too but they do charge tourist prices. Though I find it hard to be ripped off when the tourist price for a t-shirt is about 2 quid.

The next day we did some temple visiting, Bangkok has a great rive system where they essentially have a bunch of piers up and down the river which you can use to go visit the various temples etc. We went to Angor Wat which is massive and a steep climb. We also visited the Grand Palace and Emerald Buddha. And finally the famous Reclining Buddha which is absolutly huge. Was good day out. 




That night we took our coach to Chumporn to get the boat to Koh Tao (Turtle Island) where over the next few days we will learn to scuba dive. While waiting for the bus I felt what I thought was a cat or dog sniffing the back of my leg. I looked down and it was actually a cockroach crawling up it. Nice.The bus trip was long and tough but it was worth it when we took the ferry to the islands which were like a scene from Lost. We start the scuba diving tomorrow.


Hope your lives are crap compared to this and I'll update in a few days