FLYING AND BANGKOK

18th June

A Month ago I got on the plane and headed to Bangkok for a month of travelling, eating, getting lost and chucked in a river by an elephant.

So wednesday 18th July started at 6am with a 4 hour car journey to Heathrow. We arrived, got lost and finally got through into the airport. I ran straight for the perfume counters and saturated my clothes in perfume, I wasn't going to be able to have perfume for a month and I really love perfume. Before we knew it we were on the plane and heading to Bangkok. The journey started well with the most amazing spicy chicken, it was better than most things I'd ever eaten, so that was saying something and ended with myself getting stuck in the airplane toilet just before the plane landed because a woman had fainted outside the door, I think she got away okay but I did start to panic that id be in the toilet for landing. Ha!

19th June

We landed in Bangkok the next morning, fresh faced and no idea what we were doing. I'd booked a hostel but had no idea where it was or how we would get there. First stop was to find some flights for our trip down south half way through. 

Tip: if you book tickets at the airport in Bangkok, when you arrive there are a lot of people who will give you information if you ask for it, BUT they'll lead you to the "travel agents".  They will add commission onto anything you book, so for flights go to the top level of the airport and you'll see the Bangkok Airways and Thai Airways which is the best place to book. For hotels and trips, book a hotel in advance and you'll be able to organise trips through the hotel or other travel agents away from the airport. 

Once we had the tickets and I had one more thing in my bag I had to not loose we headed for the taxis, we did try the skytrain and the metro but realised we didn't have a clue where the train station was so it was hopeless. 300Baht later and we were buying our tickets for the next day to Chiang Mai. We didnt know how quickly the train would book up so we bought them a day ahead, however you could probably turn up on the day and get a train, we took the special express, which is the nicest one and that had booked up by the next day. However the express trains are just as nice and if travelling in a group they're a bit more social and exciting. 

Next step: get a taxi to the hostel, for our first night we stayed in Sukhumvit, away from Khao San Road and we had no idea where it was, neither, as we later found out did our taxi driver. We paid another 300Baht, which technically you should always get the taxis to use a meter, a pre agreed price will always be a lot more expensive. Turned out we go value for money as we drove around for about an hour and a half collectively trying to find our hostel. After Finally getting there it was a pleasant suprise. Just getting used to the head it was nice to head to a room with air con. 

 This was the view from my little pod bed 

The messy pod bed: 

The 'lobby', I loved this cool little hostel! 

 Movie room:

The night was filled with movies (I fell asleep minutes into the first one and didn't see any), a late night trip to the 7/11 and snoring naked asians. 

See you tomorrow! 
LAURA :)