Never assume anything...

Our flight from Sydney to Bangkok was three hours delayed, which meant we didn't land until almost 2am! Luckily for us, Catriona had arranged for us to stay at her friend's, mum's guest house and she was waiting with a driver to pick us up. The 'guest house' turned out to be more of a palace than a house! Our luxury room was just what we needed for a good night's sleep (all four hours of it!), as we set the alarm to wake up early to hit the streets of Bangkok!

The next morning, we had a hearty breakfast that included eggs. bacon, sausages and....Prawn Stir-Fry. Nice! As we only had a day in Bangkok and weren't too sure what to go and see, a private driver was arranged for us for a 'City Tour'. Unbeknown to us, this tour would turn out to an epic day of temples and markets!

Our first stop was the Grand Palace. The former residence of the King, the palace grounds has more than 100 buildings, each ornately decorated with golden, shining Buddhas and shimmering walls and rooftops. Our first experience of the temples here was the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew) which was stunning, totally over-the-top and awe inspiring! The whole place was a bit overwhelming and we jumped back into our air-conditioned mini-van, slightly dazzled and eager for the next experience!

We had 'assumed' that we would only be shown around the centre of Bangkok, but the driver kept driving...and driving.  All his information was lost in translation and we were trying to follow on the map, but the map stopped once we had gone past the airport! Over an hour later, we stopped in a small town in the countryside outside Bangkok. We were in the Ayuthaya Province, an area we wanted to visit, but didn't think we would be able to. We were dropped off outside the Bang Pa In Palace, which had an odd mix of European, Chinese and Thai buildings! Best of all, it had trees with shade for us to cool down!

From here, we went to the Ayuthaya Historical Park, an ancient ruined city, with crumbling temples and head-less Buddhas. It also has an enormous reclining Buddha and a huge 17m bronze Buddha! At this point we were a little Buddha/Templed-Out and when the driver said we were heading back to Bangkok, we felt relieved to be going home for some rest.



But as we were beginning to learn...never assume anything.The driver had one last stop in mind, the crazy and infamous Khao San Road. This street is right in the centre of the old town and  became a haven for backpackers since the film The Beach. We couldn't believe our eyes as we walked past busy bars, stalls selling everything from fake t-shirts to ID's and driving licenses! Catriona....almost got you one! We loved it here and found it really hard not to spend a fortune! We limited ourselves to four t-shirts, a pair of trousers and a necklace....all for a mighty 14 pounds! We will definitely be going back there before we fly home.

By this time we were well and truly shattered. Arriving back at the guest house, we 'assumed' that we could go to bed. But again...we were wrong! After 9 hours, our date with driver still wasn't quite over, as he received instructions to take us to a local restaurant where we treated to a great (and very spicy!) meal.

We finally made it back to our room after almost 10 hours on the road, our minds boggled, eyes fried but a day we will never forget. We are already looking forward to coming back to Bangkok before we come home in three weeks (ARGGH!). We took around 135 photos, so have only uploaded a sample. You'll just have to wait for the slide shows when we get home....you lucky folks!

Today we left Bangkok and flew to Chiang Mai in the north. So far our afternoon here as been incredible! But that's a story for another time...