First day proper

After getting a fairly decent sleep on my top bunk, we headed off to the Grand Palace. It was fairly hot, so I was wearing a vest and shorts. This however, proved to be a mistake. The Grand Palace has been the residency of most of the Kings of Thailand, and whilst the current one doesn't live there, its still used for royal functions. This fact, plus the fact it is a place for prayer meant that I had to wear what was basically a janitors uniform. I looked like a right tool. We also narrowly avoided jumping into a Tuk Tuk with the first fella we came across, this according to the Lonely Planet would have meant we would have spent all day being driven around for about a pound, stopping in various places so the driver could pick up commission. We obviously werent game for that, so its lucky we ducked out.


The Grand Palace was pretty spectacular, and summed up how far away from home we were. It basically consisted of massive buildings covered in gems, gold leaf etc, statues of crazy mythical creatures, huge hand painted murals and a model of angkor wat. Other than looking like a right wrongun, this was a good day. You can see a few pics of some of the temples and ting if you scroll down.

That night, things escalated when we went to one of the seedier parts of Bangkok known as Soi Cowboy. We picked up Steve, a cool Aussie guy (who supports Middlesborough), grabbed some food and then headed off. Soi cowboy was basically, stripclub/brothel mania, we went into a couple, saw some things only meant for grown up eyes, all fell in love with a couple of the girls in there, a scary fat thai woman tried to give me a backrub, rob had an awkward conversation and then we got chased out as rob left without paying.

After this crazy experience, we jumped into a taxi and headed to Khaosan road, the infamous backpackers paradise. Due to being mesmerised (for good and bad reasons) we didn't turn up particularly early and so it wasn't as hectic as usual according to Rob. After the usual hassling for Tuk Tuks, suits, massages, sunglasses and everything else, we sat down and got some drinks in at a cool little bar. We were soon joined by 2 Swedish girls and spent the rest of the night smashed with them.

We decided that we might as well get the obligatory Tuk Tuk ride, which almost proved to be a bad decision as I got well over excited and whilst hanging out the side probably nearly got decapitated by oncoming traffic. First proper night out in Bangkok over and I could tell we would be having more fun in this city.