Travel Blog

This blog comes to you from an overnight coach from Bangkok to, err, somewhere we then get on a ferry to Koh Tao. I'm not sure how long we'll be on this coach for, but it's surprisingly comfy so it'd be quite nice if it's all night. It's funny how much your standards change after spending 5 days on a train.

Our flight from Shanghai to Shenzen was delayed (surprise!) for about 1.5 hours, so we got swept off the plane, had our bags thrown at us, and then got sprinted through the airport so that we could make our connecting flight to Bangkok. The poor flight attendant who ran us through was puffing and panting all the way (it's not a small airport), and had big old sweat patches by the end. Thankfully it helps that me and Rich are a runner and a mountain biker, but even we were glad when she stopped running eventually. So both flights went smoothly, with a delicious meal on each leg. Yes, we both enjoy airline food. Standards, remember?

We spent a grand total of 4 days in Bangkok, and are already looking forward to going back there at some point. It's so different to the cities we've been to so far, and so friendly in comparison it's truly baffling. After we landed in Bangkok we took the sky train to our hostel, and walked from the station. It decided to bucket with rain on that short walk, so we stopped to shelter for a while and to ponder why we'd decided to come to Southeast Asia in monsoon season. From the airport up to that point, about half a dozen people had offered to help us on our journey, and not even people looking for business. Just genuinely nice people. Then an old man walked past us and must've just seen two lost people wearing massive backpacks and sitting on the step of a shop, and offered to help us find where we were trying to get to. Emily, you'd have cried he was so sweet, all stooped and wobbly. Rich assured him we were just sheltering from the rain for a while, and we grinned at each other.

We went to the Chatuchak weekend market, and got some mini doughnuts, which I ate most of before realising they were crawling with tiny, light coloured ants. So gross! We also went to Lumphini Park, which was amazing! Thanks for the recommendation Kate! For those who don't know why it's amazing, there are reptiles all over this park that particularly enjoy a swim in the lake that's there. We hired a pedalo for an hour so saw loads of them chilling out in the water and on the bank, as well as turtles, fish and I'm pretty sure we saw a stork too, but I'm not very good at identifying birds. We've eaten some incredible food here already, and written a big old list of things we want to see next time around. Suggestions are always welcome though! 

We're en route to Koh Tao at the moment, an island in the south of Thailand, and we have a room booked without a/c, as it was cheap. I booked this one, so if Rich melts it'll be my fault. Sorry guys! Pretty sure I'll be ok though, hehe! We have a 7 day booking here, then nothing else booked. We'll see how much we like the island before we book anything else, but will be going on to Koh Phangan, then Koh Samui. Plan is to bounce around these islands until this Thai visa runs out, then go on to Malaysia, then maybe the Philippines. But we'll see. That might be hard to do if one of us is just a puddle on the floor.