Bangkok here we are!

We left on Tuesday 17th January 2017 at 11.00 waved off by Johnny and Prim, no that’s not exactly true,they were jumping up and down with their hands in the air. WE WILL BE BACK!!

We arrived at the airport, courtesy of Cuthbertson Cabs, ie John and Irene, to discover the flight was already delayed. Ian hates being at airports early so this scuppered him getting us there as late as possible.

We arrived in Bangkok at just before 11.30am. Now that we are retirees we decided that we ought to get the train, even though we were both tired from the long flight and lack of sleep. The train and subway was easy enough (£4 for the two of us as for about a 40 minute journey) it was the 25 minute walk, the longway round, hot, humid and lots of traffic that wasn’t so clever. We are at the Royal Hotel Bangkok which is right in the middle of Chinatown and quite a nice place to stay.

We were tired but had to try and stay awake until at least 9pm or we would be up half the night (I did wake at about 3am and only finally went back to sleep sometime after 530). We ventured out for some dinner and were enticed to have some street food by a Frenchman with a pint of beer each all for £8 including a tip. Takes some getting used to crossing the roads which is a case of walking out in front of anything moving and holding your hand out, a bit like the Lollypop Lady does BUT without the lollypop, and having faith they will stop before they hit you.

Looking at the electrical wires we now realise why there’s a torch in our hotel room!

Today, Thursday, we have had a mooch around, been on and off the subway to various places including Lumphini Park and a food market which was quite an eye opener. We went along to Patpong’s Night Market and Ian did some great bartering. He’s never been propositioned so many times, but only be the girls from the Go-Go clubs which are alongside the market.