Arriving in the capital
After having plenty of broken sleep during the night, the bus to Bangkok arrived at around 8am. To be honest, I’ll take any sleep I can get. Before we departed from the bus, we got the numbers of some of the people from the Chiang Mai minivan. Mat and I then took a taxi to our hostel, it was only 10-15 minutes away. Our hostel was called Home Hug Hostel, and it’s only a 10-20 minutes’ walk away from some central points in Bangkok. However, it was still quite early, so we couldn’t actually check in yet. Instead, we set out in search of breakfast, leaving our big backpacks at the hostel.
We actually found a nearby McDonalds, the first we’d seen since China. The service in this particular branch wasn’t the best, they took a while getting people’s orders, and those orders were wrong anyway. We eventually got our food, it was okay, nothing special. It was made worse by the fact I wasn’t eating pork food, so I had to have an egg McMuffin. This consisted of a bun, egg, and cheese. We then headed for Central World, a gigantic shopping centre that has 2 of every shop (I bet!). It opened at 10am, so when the doors opened, the crowd went mental and piled through. I’m sometimes surprised that they let us in; we’re in backpack gear entering a fancy shopping centre. I feel that if it weren’t for being white, we wouldn’t get in.
A walk in the park
As usual, we didn’t actually buy anything from Central World, but it helped to pass a lot of time as it was so big. Next on the agenda was a nearby park. We thought seeing a green area in a metropolis would change the pace of things. It was could Lumphini Park, just south of the shopping centre. Once we arrived, we were surprised at how many tree monitor lizards there were in the park. Some were basking in the Sun, others clinging to trees, and some swimming in the pond. It was pretty cool to see them all; it was also cute to see the little turtles pop their heads above the surface of the water.
After we’d had a good walk round the park, we got a bit peckish. The moment we’d been waiting for had arrived; we strolled into another shopping centre, and entered…Taco Bell! In the UK, we went to Taco Bell every Saturday night, and we’d been gagging for a burrito since. Once we got our hands on our meal, we dug in. After shovelling our burritos down, we determined that it wasn’t as nice (without sour cream), but I still enjoyed it. By now, it was gone 1pm, so we headed back to the hostel. It felt like we’d seen a lot of the city already, and we’ve not even been here 5 minutes!
Seeing from the sky
So, back to what we wanted to do right after the bus to Bangkok, we finally checked into our dorm room. There were a few folks already in here, but people usually keep to themselves. Everyone seems to have a different biological clock in dorm rooms. As we’d already toured around the surrounding area, we were already tired, so we chilled for some time. Mat had been in contact with some of the girls from the bus to Bangkok, and we’d decided to visit the Sky Bar. This was a bar on the 33rd floor of a skyscraper, so it should have a decent view! To get in, you had to dress fairly decent, so I had to don my Sunday best.
We were actually the first to arrive…out of anyone, so we chilled outside the hotel it was linked to. Mat and I were amongst the first in the lift to the top. We took our seats on a couple of sofas, then waited for the girls. They were running a bit late, but they did actually turn up. We all had a cocktail each and sat around, chatting about our travels and our lives. After having seen the sunset from up here, and seeing Bangkok from high up, we decided to go and get something to eat!
Emotions running high
We decided to get a taxi to China Town. It was a bit of a faff as we had to wait for someone’s friend, who was dead late, then get 2 taxis. Eventually we made it to China Town and rendezvoused with the other taxi lot. It was pretty late, and that coupled with a vegetarian in the party meant that there weren’t many options. We must have spent an hour walking around, and eventually didn’t actually get anything. I think emotions and frustration got a bit high, so the bus to Bangkok tribe went their own way, and Mat and I ended up going back to Central World.
There turned out to be a huge food market on, and we were able to find loads of different snack foods. This is the best way to eat sometimes; eating lots of small different things, as opposed to one big meal. I really enjoyed this food. We even got to try some durian, it was mushy and tasted very bad. I don’t know if it was because it’s the end of the day, but it was disgusting. So much for the hype! We ended the night with an Oreo McFlurry on the way back home; this was the best decision we made tonight!
