(no subject)
The internet, when compared to everything else over here, is actually relatively expensive, so I've been avoiding it. It's 6.46am here now, I jumped out of bed extra early because I think I actually dreampt about facebook.
Our flights were fine, in hindsite. We realised we'd made it so much harder for ourselves by flying with China airlines because of the stop off in Taiwan. We literally passed Bangkok on the way there, when we could have just flown direct to Bangkok from Syndey and saved ourselves a 3 hour wait at Taipai airport and 4 hour flight from Taipai to Bangkok. Oh well, you live you learn. On the way over I watched Nick and Nora's infitinate playlist with Micheal Cera which was awesome, and the Women with Meg Ryan, Deborah Messing and Annette Benning. That was basically it, the selection was pretty shitty. They didn't even have any good TV shows, so I attempted sleep most of the time. On our 4 hour flight from Taipai to Bangkok I managed to snag a row of 3 seats all to myself, so slept for majority of the time. I thought they were going to get angry at people for lying down without belts on as the terbulance was pretty intense at times (it's the first time I've actually been scared on a plane) but they seemed to encourage it.
So finally the 3-flight-never-ending-journey was over and we landed at Bangkok airport. Virgin had lost Jess' luggage in Sydney (it had gone from Adelaide to Brisbane instead!?) so after Breezy and I got our bags we went searching for her's which we managed to find on a flight from Brisbane to Bangkok a few hours earlier. We asked some vague airport woman to open it for us first to check that nothing had been planted, as Jess hadn't put her locks on yet, so it went unlocked the whole flight. She got really confused but opened it anyway.
That's when we found the 18 grams of crack.
Kidding. After a relatively smooth cab ride from the airport to our Hostel, which isn't that hard to find yet the cab driver seemed to get lost a few too many times, we made it here, got our room after a slight hiccup (we seem to have messed up our accomodation times..) and crashed. This was 3.30am. Lucky we'd had little spurts of sleep on the plane otherwise we would have been zombies. We weren't too bad though. Our room has everything ticked on the checklist: air con, bathroom, tv, mini-bar, balcony.. a lot better than anything we stayed in in europe but granted everything is a lot cheaper here.
We woke up at 9.30am, just in time to snag free breaky. We hit the streets with a bang (cock) and began our journey down Samsen St (right where we're staying) until BANG (cock), we're on a tuk-tuk on our way to an ATM, and then the tourist info centre, and then an array of temples etc etc.. We had bumbed into a couple who seemed to take a liking to us. We told them we planned to head to Ko San Road (the main drag) but they we're all 'It's 11am! You must go there at night.. you must do this first, and then see this, and then..'. At some point we must have said we needed an ATM, and to book our transport to Ko Phang Nang. Our Tuk Tuk (small taxi, but like an open-cart, i'll put photos up) driver was awesome, and we had him for the day for a grand total of $0.45c each, aussie. Or 10 Baht. It was absolute robery. Our own personal driver who waited 1 hour for us to get measured for suits, dresses and jackets (i'm getting a cashmere silk navy suit made.. it's stunning - i won't be eating for the rest of the trip though..), waited an hour for Bree and Jess to buy and resize rings, waited 45 mins for us to eat lunch.. waited an hour while we cruised the harbour of Bangkok by boat, at night (the lights from the temples along the harbour and bridge was spectacular). Granted, all these activities we're suggested by him, and we knew he was getting special perks for taking tourists there. He even told us he would get free petrol for his Tuk Tuk if we bought something at the jewellery factory. I like that sort of honesty though, its refreshing.
Everyone over here is no nice, but its really hard to tell whether they are actually just a really nice race or whether they want something from you as a tourist. Everywhere we go, we're approached. People open doors for us, people shove water bottles in our hand, we're so well looked after but it's probably because we are ferang (foreigner) with large wallet. They know whose putting food on their table.
We also saw a lot of Budda's. Standing Budda, kneeling Budda, legs-crossed Budda. That's actually what they're called. And they have massive shrines dedicated to him, and the actual Budda's are made of gold. Crazy to think that so much money has gone into making these shrines but yet there is still so much poverty. We passed the king and queen's residence too, which goes for like 50 million blocks. I think I may have had my temple fix on the first day though. We're checking out the grand palace today but I think i'm pretty much over them.
There are so many stray dogs around too, really thin. One started barking and chasing us which was f-bomb scary because if they bite you you might get rabies or some random shit like that.
After the cruise he dropped us home, we hopped into bed for a nanna nap with the intention of waking up at 8.45pm to get ready and hit Ko San Road for some dinner and drinks. I woke up at 12.45am and realised my alarm hadn't gone off, the girls were fast asleep. We we're all still so tried from the journey and hadn't pictured such a full on first day. What was meant to be just a quick walk to get our barings turned into a massive day of sight seeing and weaving our way through crazy Bangkok traffic in a Tuk Tuk. Amazing day though.
It's now 7.18am, I'm gonna grab some breakfast.
Sayonnara bitchez. x
Our flights were fine, in hindsite. We realised we'd made it so much harder for ourselves by flying with China airlines because of the stop off in Taiwan. We literally passed Bangkok on the way there, when we could have just flown direct to Bangkok from Syndey and saved ourselves a 3 hour wait at Taipai airport and 4 hour flight from Taipai to Bangkok. Oh well, you live you learn. On the way over I watched Nick and Nora's infitinate playlist with Micheal Cera which was awesome, and the Women with Meg Ryan, Deborah Messing and Annette Benning. That was basically it, the selection was pretty shitty. They didn't even have any good TV shows, so I attempted sleep most of the time. On our 4 hour flight from Taipai to Bangkok I managed to snag a row of 3 seats all to myself, so slept for majority of the time. I thought they were going to get angry at people for lying down without belts on as the terbulance was pretty intense at times (it's the first time I've actually been scared on a plane) but they seemed to encourage it.
So finally the 3-flight-never-ending-journey was over and we landed at Bangkok airport. Virgin had lost Jess' luggage in Sydney (it had gone from Adelaide to Brisbane instead!?) so after Breezy and I got our bags we went searching for her's which we managed to find on a flight from Brisbane to Bangkok a few hours earlier. We asked some vague airport woman to open it for us first to check that nothing had been planted, as Jess hadn't put her locks on yet, so it went unlocked the whole flight. She got really confused but opened it anyway.
That's when we found the 18 grams of crack.
Kidding. After a relatively smooth cab ride from the airport to our Hostel, which isn't that hard to find yet the cab driver seemed to get lost a few too many times, we made it here, got our room after a slight hiccup (we seem to have messed up our accomodation times..) and crashed. This was 3.30am. Lucky we'd had little spurts of sleep on the plane otherwise we would have been zombies. We weren't too bad though. Our room has everything ticked on the checklist: air con, bathroom, tv, mini-bar, balcony.. a lot better than anything we stayed in in europe but granted everything is a lot cheaper here.
We woke up at 9.30am, just in time to snag free breaky. We hit the streets with a bang (cock) and began our journey down Samsen St (right where we're staying) until BANG (cock), we're on a tuk-tuk on our way to an ATM, and then the tourist info centre, and then an array of temples etc etc.. We had bumbed into a couple who seemed to take a liking to us. We told them we planned to head to Ko San Road (the main drag) but they we're all 'It's 11am! You must go there at night.. you must do this first, and then see this, and then..'. At some point we must have said we needed an ATM, and to book our transport to Ko Phang Nang. Our Tuk Tuk (small taxi, but like an open-cart, i'll put photos up) driver was awesome, and we had him for the day for a grand total of $0.45c each, aussie. Or 10 Baht. It was absolute robery. Our own personal driver who waited 1 hour for us to get measured for suits, dresses and jackets (i'm getting a cashmere silk navy suit made.. it's stunning - i won't be eating for the rest of the trip though..), waited an hour for Bree and Jess to buy and resize rings, waited 45 mins for us to eat lunch.. waited an hour while we cruised the harbour of Bangkok by boat, at night (the lights from the temples along the harbour and bridge was spectacular). Granted, all these activities we're suggested by him, and we knew he was getting special perks for taking tourists there. He even told us he would get free petrol for his Tuk Tuk if we bought something at the jewellery factory. I like that sort of honesty though, its refreshing.
Everyone over here is no nice, but its really hard to tell whether they are actually just a really nice race or whether they want something from you as a tourist. Everywhere we go, we're approached. People open doors for us, people shove water bottles in our hand, we're so well looked after but it's probably because we are ferang (foreigner) with large wallet. They know whose putting food on their table.
We also saw a lot of Budda's. Standing Budda, kneeling Budda, legs-crossed Budda. That's actually what they're called. And they have massive shrines dedicated to him, and the actual Budda's are made of gold. Crazy to think that so much money has gone into making these shrines but yet there is still so much poverty. We passed the king and queen's residence too, which goes for like 50 million blocks. I think I may have had my temple fix on the first day though. We're checking out the grand palace today but I think i'm pretty much over them.
There are so many stray dogs around too, really thin. One started barking and chasing us which was f-bomb scary because if they bite you you might get rabies or some random shit like that.
After the cruise he dropped us home, we hopped into bed for a nanna nap with the intention of waking up at 8.45pm to get ready and hit Ko San Road for some dinner and drinks. I woke up at 12.45am and realised my alarm hadn't gone off, the girls were fast asleep. We we're all still so tried from the journey and hadn't pictured such a full on first day. What was meant to be just a quick walk to get our barings turned into a massive day of sight seeing and weaving our way through crazy Bangkok traffic in a Tuk Tuk. Amazing day though.
It's now 7.18am, I'm gonna grab some breakfast.
Sayonnara bitchez. x