Pai: Team China is formed

Beautiful scenery

We set off for a bike ride on a very hot and sunny morning with John from Ireland and it was a scorcher. Jemma and I hired cheapo bikes with only 3 gears (they cost us £1 for the whole day, can't complain), except I was complaining, half way up the first hill, when my lowest gear was 3 and my legs couldn't turn the pedals. Still it was amazing fun, and for every hill we had to push the bikes up, there was another long hill to free wheel down, with the wind in our hair, cooling down our dripping wet bodies and the amazing green mountains all around us. We stopped half way at a view point, with psychedelic swings and chairs and amazing views over the hills. The ride was 8km in total (to get to the waterfalls) and when we got to 6km, I was so exhausted, thirsty (having drank my whole 2 litres of water) and weak, I couldn't pedal any more. What a pleasant surprise it was then, to stumble upon a little farm, in the middle of nowhere, with a sign saying 'stop here for fresh juice and fruit'. 

Boiling hot and served fresh iced juice!

A man waved us over and we stopped, unable to cycle any more. We sat down at a little table in front of a quaint little farm, where we were served as much iced red sorrel juice as we could drink (reminded me of Ribena ice lollies I used to have as a child). He also served us passion fruits, tamarind and potatoes with jam and peanuts. It was so refreshing! I was literally dripping in sweat, on the verge of collapsing, and this lovely local Thai man and his wife were waiting on us, topping up my glass with fresh iced juice every time I finished a cup. At the end they even produced a bottle of red sherry and insisted we all have a taste! And all they asked for was a tip, the amount being at our discretion. We gave him a £2 tip and he was over the moon, telling us to come back after we had visited the waterfalls, which he encouragingly told us were only 1km further away. Revitalised and pumped full of fruit juice, we cycled on along the mountain path until we finally heard the sounds of running water. Jemma and John had gone on ahead (because I don't like going down hills fast) and as I was coming down the last hill to the waterfall, a friendly Dutch girl came past me on a moped and asked if I wanted a lift. She was looking for the waterfalls too and I told her they were just down the hill. Once at the bottom, I saw Jemma and John already in the water, having dumped their bikes and run straight for the river. We chained all of our bikes up and climbed the steps to the top tier, where we saw a massive waterfall coming down from a canyon, with not many people around. 

Jemma and John cooling themselves

We all rushed in and cooled ourselves underneath it, and then I got out and sat on the rocks and got chatting to the Dutch girl (Nicole) and a Brazilian girl (Danielle). Jemma came out and then slipped on the rocks and fell back in, which everyone found amusing (apart from me because I didn't see it). When we had all dried off, Nicole let me and Jemma have a little go on her scooter and told us that we must hire one because they were so much fun. Jemma and I have avoided mopeds like the plague this trip, after meeting far too many people who have had accidents – I just don't feel it is worth the risk. However Nicole insisted that they were quite easy to ride and as long as you went slow and weren't drunk, they were fine. I must admit, it was nice to ride on (for the 6 metres I went on it), but I was still too scared to hire one, even though Jemma really wanted to hire them (they cost £2 to hire for 24hours! That's £1 more than the pedal bikes cost us!). Nicole told us that she was meeting with another Dutch girl that night for dinner, along with Dani, the Brazilian girl and an Aussie boy. I asked if we could join them and we agreed to meet at 7pm outside the bike shop. By this time it was about 3pm, so we'd have to get our move on to get back to Pai in time to shower and make it out for tea. Thankfully the 8km ride home was a lot easier than the ride there and we stopped at our little farm on the way back, where we didn't even have to get off our bikes: they brought the iced drinks to us until we had quenched our thirst! The ride home was mainly downhill, and we got home In time to have a shower, before heading out to meet our group. We all met outside the bike shop. First there was me, Jemma and Nicole from Holland, and then there was Inge, a Dutch girl Nicole had met earlier that day, accompanied by Andre, an Aussie guy Inge had met the previous day, Dani, a Brazilian girl, Nicole had met at the falls and finally John, the Irish boy we had picked up on the bus to Pai., who completed team China, our first proper unenforced team of friends on our rtw trip.

Team China (left to right): Nicole, John, Inge, Andre, Dani

For more photos of the first 2 days in Pai: Pai

First taste of Pai...

The twisting road to Pai

We set off from Chiangmai at 10am in a minibus, and 762 bends later, we arrived in Pai; the most perfect little hippy village I have ever had the pleasure of discovering. Pai is right in the north of Thailand, 4 hours by bus from Chiangmai, and it is nestled in the most stunning countryside of green hills and mountains. When we first got there, we were a bit underwhelmed. We had taken travel sickness tablets for the journey because we had heard it was a winding one, and as a consequence, when we got to Pai, in the midday sun, we were really drowsy and just wanted to sleep. We sat down at the nearest cafe and had some pizza to try and wake us up and then we got in a taxi and asked it to take us to a hostel we had been recommended: Spicy Pai. We took one look at it and decided it wasn't for us. We then drove to another, more luxurious hotel, which was in the same area (out of the town centre) and we really wanted to stay there but they were booked up. Finally, when we were too tired to look any more, the taxi driver phoned a friend and took us to some huts in the city centre that his friend owned. We walked with our big rucksacks, across a precarious bamboo bridge to the huts and checked into the first hut they showed us, for just £1 each a night! At the time I was so tired I didn't realise that the floor of the hut had massive gaps in it and the bathroom was covered in ants and other insects. 

The hut we checked into

Looking back, I think it was fate that the nicer hotels on the outside of the town were booked up, because if we'd have stayed there we wouldn't have ended up having the time we had in Pai... but before we could have an amazing time, we first had to get through the first part of the story. We put our bags down in the hut, and walked out into the town to try and book a trek or some other activity. We had come to Pai for the white water rafting but everywhere that did this was closed because it was the dry season. There was one place offering tubing (where you float down the river in a rubber ring) but I wasn't keen on this (the river looked dirty and we saw a Chinese girl who had just finished it and was far from raving over it. She said it was basically just a long ride down a dry, dirty river). As she was walking back from the river, we saw some locals scold her and tell her to 'put some clothes on, you're not on a beach!' even though she was dressed in a full swimming costume that was not revealing at all. Having ruled out tubing and rafting, we began to look at treks, but they were all more expensive than the ones in Chiang Mai, with one man even wanting £90 to take us on his 'special trek' where he would teach us to make a camp out of bamboo! I wasn't sold on this, although Jemma wanted to do it, in the end we said no. We wandered back to our hut a little subdued, and I lay on my bed under the fan (the hut was like a sauna), reading the guide book. I read about another hotel that was just down the road and cost £2.50 a night, but was a sealed concrete bungalow, with a good fan, tv and bathroom with hot water and flushing toilet. I checked it out online (even huts have wifi) and it seemed to be a popular place among backpackers, so we went down to have a look at it, and decided there and then to take it and check in, and waste the £1 we had paid for our hut. It was dark by this point, and we hauled our bags from our hut, over the bamboo bridge, to our new accommodation.

Our new 'sealed' guesthouse. Mr Jan's

On the way we met John, an Irish boy we had talked to in the minibus on the way to Pai and he was on a bike. He rode with us to our new place and then we went for dinner with him, followed by drinks in a bar called 'edible jazz', which was a bamboo hut with cushions on the floor. We agreed to meet the next day to rent bikes and cycle to Pam Bok waterfalls, which we had read in the guide book were meant to be quite good. By the end, John was quite tipsy and stumbled off back to his hut (which, coincidentally was the same place as we had checked into originally) and we went back to our lovely sealed bungalow. I was so relieved I didn't have to sleep in a hut with holes, especially as it had no lighting on the outside: it would have been a nightmare to get back into in the dark. Also, there are loads of stray dogs in Pai, and on our way back to our bungalow, a pack followed us. Luckily Jemma was able to put them off while I ran back to the room, asserting on the way that I didn't like Pai and would be leaving as soon as possible. The next day, we got up and went for breakfast in the town (our new accommodation was smack bang in the middle which was convenient) and then we met John and rented some bikes. Within the next 24 hours, Pai was to turn from just another town, into one of the highlights of our round the world trip...

Pai town centre

Chiangmai

Learning how to cook my favourite dishes

The blogs have been a bit sparse recently because we have been stuck in Pai, having the time of our lives. We intended to stay here 2 days but its ended up being 6. But before I write about Pai, I need to catch up on Chiang Mai. After Kanchanaburi, we took a bus to Auyttya, or something like that, which is a cultural place, best known for having a Buddha's head in a tree.

Buddha in a tree

We went there just for a few hours whilst we waited for our night train to Chiang Mai. I didn't really think much of Ayutthya: after we had looked around the ruins and the Buddha in a tree, there wasn't much else to do and it was a bit more costly than Kanchanaburi, but we had to kill several hours waiting there as our night train wasn't until 9pm. We did this by having a meal and walking around the markets, and then it started to rain heavily, so we ran back to the tourist agency where we had left our bags and took cover. During this run in the dark, I tripped on a piece of metal and cut open my toe at the nail. I had to sit in the tourist place for a while dabbing away the blood and putting on a plaster. The rain was very heavy, and we caught a tuk tuk to the train station, getting quite wet in the process. Once at the train station, we waited an hour for our night train to come, and to our delight, it came on time!! (Only a 15 minute delay! :o). This night train was a lot better than the other one we had taken to Bangkok: we were in our own little cubicle with another woman, and Jemma was on the top bunk and I was on the bottom. It wasn't too bad at all. The next day, we got to Chiang Mai around 11 in the morning and took a taxi to Litlle Bird hostel - a hostel that had been recommended to us by numerous people around the world, including one boy in South America who absolutely raved about it. Chiang Mai is really cheap for accommodation, so we didn't really need to go in a dorm, but as this place had had such good reviews, we thought we'd check it out anyway.

Food is so cheap here, I am indulging every day

We paid £2 each for a bed in a 4 bed dorm, and we got what we paid for. I absolutely hated it. It was boiling hot, with just a small, rotating fan to keep the whole room cool, ants everywhere and a filthy en suite with a shower over the toilet that you had to flush with a bucket. Luckily, our room mates were lovely (two young girls from the USA) and we got on really well with them. They had been studying in Chiang Mai for the past 6 months and offered to take us out to the weekly night markets and show us around. We went round the night markets with them and had food and then when we came back that night, we stayed awake talking until 3am! After that, I didn't really sleep well anyway because of the intense heat and the next day me and Jemma decided to check out and treat ourselves to a £7 hotel around the corner. For that, we got a hotel room, with air con, satellite TV, a really nice bathroom, a fridge with free water and big comfy beds - it was bliss. The next day, we didn't do much, because we loved the room so much and spent most of the day catching up on sleep from the 2 previous nights and watching TV. In the evening, we met up with Tony, our friend from China, who has been doing a similar route to us and who we have met at various places. We were sad to hear that he was cutting his trip short and going home early because he had caught Dengue fever and had had to be in hospital in Chiang Mai for a few days.

Our teacher showing us around the food garden

The following day we were more productive and did a cookery course which was excellent. we cooked 6 Thai dishes which were all delicious and by the end of it we were so stuffed. The cookery school was in the Countryside and they had their own vegetable garden and it was all very tranquil. At the beginning of the day, the guide took us around the morning market to show us what ingredients we'd be using and at the end of the class we all got a cook book. That pretty much sums up Chiang Mai. We didn't do much there other than cook because we are going back there after Pai and are deliberating over whether to do a trek but probably wont.

More photos of Chiangmai in my facebook album, but for now I am off for an oil massage, got to make the most of cheap massages.

Chiangmai photos

Kanchanaburi - Elephants & Waterfalls!

Me on Mali

After our historical day at Hell Fire Pass, we decided to spend the next day doing something a bit more light hearted; we volunteered with elephants. We heard about Elephant's world off a boy in Bangkok, and when we looked it up on tripadvisor, we found that it was the number one attraction. Elephant's world is a sanctuary for old and abused elephants, many of which have lost their teeth and can't eat normal food any more. There are lots, and I mean LOTS of places in Thailand offering elephant trekking, but a great deal of these places are unethical and treat the animals really badly. For example, they hit them with metal spikes, feed them badly, make them carry tourists on their backs all day on wooden seats (their backs can only hold 50kg comfortably). So we decided to opt for an option that was a little more expensive than your average elephant trek, but a lot more rewarding. We spent the day on a big farm with about 10 elephants, where we worked for them, gathering banana tree stalks, making sticky rice (for them to eat because they have no teeth), feeding them and finally, the highlight of the day, bathing them in the river. We all chose an elephant (I asked for the most gentle one and they gave me 'Mali - the world's happiest elephant) and Jemma got John - a 5 year old, very naughty and playful elephant. I went into the river first, on Mali's neck, with the mahoot (the guy who looks after the elephant) behind me. My mahoot was only about 15 but he was lovely, and very caring with the elephants and I felt safe. We went into the river on her and she kept submerging herself in water and blowing it out of her trunk. Her ears were flapping constantly (which apparently means they are happy) and at one point, she even did a big trumpeting sound out of her trunk, which means she was very happy. It was great fun. I stayed on her the whole time and she was very gentle. John on the other hand, was not so gentle with Jemma. She had great difficulty getting on him in the first place, he kept wriggling around and blowing water. When she finally managed to get on him, he dipped under and threw her off, and also wrapped his trunk around her leg and kicked her at one point! I remember looking over and seeing Jemma behind this elephant, clinging to his back, whilst he put his hooves up on another elephant! I shouted over for her to be careful - if he'd have tipped over backwards she would have been squashed! She loved it though, and they said that he was just playful and loved to mess about in the water.

Jemma riding off on Mali

After a while, we rode the elephants out of the water and back to the farm, and I let Jemma get on Mali to give her a taste of what it was like to ride on a good elephant. When we got back, we said goodbye to the elephants and then we were dropped back at our guest house. We had got along quite well with the people there who were volunteering with us (2 English, 1 Danish and a Swiss girl) so we arranged to meet them the next night to go for food at the night market.

The water was beautiful

The next day, we got up early again, and took a motor taxi (a motorbike, with a little carriage attached to it) to the bus station. We then caught a public bus, for £1, to Erawan national park, to see, what we have been told, are Thailand's most amazing waterfalls. On the bus, we met a Dutch girl and two Belgian girls, who asked to come round with us. So, we all set off together, and climbed to the 7th tier, which took about 45 minutes. By the time we got to the top we were so hot, and got straight in for a swim. The other tiers were lovely to look at but they had loads of fish in them (the kind that nibble your feet and eat the dead skin), so we were a bit too scared to get in. The second tier seemed to be a popular one for swimming, and although it still had a lot of really big fish, we got in for a swim and swam under the falls. There were monkeys in the trees above our heads (the biggest I've seen), that would occasionally come down and steal people's food, even though people had been warned not to bring food! After we had had enough of swimming, it started to rain, which was a nice coincidence and we were glad we had come early and missed the rain. We all got some food and then got back on the bus to Kanchanaburi, which took about 2 hours. That night, we went out for food (in the rain, so we skipped the night market), with the people from the elephants and the Dutch girl from the waterfalls. We then went to a few bars and had some drinks and played pool.

For more of my photos of Kanchanaburi, click here

Kanchanaburi - Bridge over the River Kwai

Getting out of Bangkok wasn't the easiest of missions. We first tried to take a taxi to the northern bus station, but the taxi driver chucked us out after 2 minutes, telling us the journey was too far and not worth his while. We therefore had to get out of the taxi, in the sweltering Bangkok heat, with our big rucksacks, and trek up the stairs to the skytrain, where we got on the train, and then off at the wrong stop, I lost my ticket, we both got a bit tetchy and regretted not having paid for a door to door minibus, got on another train, then got a taxi from the last train stop to the northern bus station, where we quickly found a minibus that was going to Kanchanaburi, and got in, along with a monk who sat next to our bags (women aren't allowed to sit next to or talk to monks). The journey there took about 4 hours but was relatively painless, and when we got there, we shared a taxi with another girl to the guest house we had booked. The driver initially took us to the wrong one and then tried to charge us more for taking us to the right one, but we weren't having any of it and I got out of the taxi, gave him the money and refused to pay the extra. He wasn't happy about it at all. We checked into Apples guest house, which had been recommended by my cousin who stayed there about 12 years ago. The woman on the front desk couldn't speak a word of English and there was a big confusion about our reservation which we had paid for in full online. We were dismayed to find they didn't have a pool, as advertised in the guidebook, but the room was nice enough so we decided we couldn't be bothered to try and find somewhere else. We were so hungry, having not eaten all day, we ate at the restaurant attached to the guest house, which is highly rated and is part of a cookery school. The curry was nice but we were over charged for some blue rice, which we didn't order and also for some cokes, so we never ate there again. That night, we went into town, hoping to book a tour to go to some of the attractions, but we dallied and hesitated for too long and by the time we'd decided on a tour, the agency was shut. We went back to the hotel and emailed the agency, asking if we could join their tour at 8am the next morning. They emailed back saying we could do the tour and asked us what our room number was so they could pick us up. We emailed back and went to bed, ready for an early rise the next day. The next day, we rushed about like mad women, trying to get ready and have breakfast before 8am. 8.00 came and went and the bus never showed up. At 8.15 we decided to ring the company on skype and they said that because we had never called them at 7am to confirm the booking, they presumed we didn't want to go. So we were now left, having gotten up early, with no tour to the Hell Fire Pass (the place where the Prisoners of war built a railway). So we got our guide book out and decided to do it ourselves. We asked the woman in the restaurant at our hotel, who also couldn't speak English, how to get there, and somehow got it out of her that we had to catch a bus from the main street in town. We went to the main street, but couldn't see a bus stop, just a lost Israeli couple who were also looking for a bus stop. In the end, we caught a taxi to the central bus station, where we intended to take a public bus for £1 to Hell fire pass. As we were just about to board the public bus, we were approached by a taxi driver with a sign saying he would take us to Hell fire pass, and all the other places on the tour we would have taken. He offered it to us for £10 each, which was £2 cheaper than the tour, so we took it. We got into his taxi (one of those open tuk tuk-like things) and set off on the two hour journey to Hell fire pass. Half way there, I looked at the driver in the mirror and realised it was the same one from the day before who we had pissed off!

In the end, we had a really good day and the driver turned out to be lovely. We got to take our time looking around Hell fire pass museum and railway cutting (we would have been rushed, had we taken the tour), and the driver also took us to a waterfall we wanted to see and to the Bridge over the River Kwai. It was a historically educational day and we learnt all about the forced labour that took place during WW2, where the Japanese forced the British, Australian, American and Asian prisoners of war to build a railway, in horrific conditions, resulting in the deaths of thousands. It was very moving, and we had a free audio guide, that read out various accounts from survivors as we walked around the remnants of the railway. Hell Fire Pass is so called, because it looked like hell at night, when the prisoners were forced, by the Japanese and Korean guards, to work through the night, and chisel out a railway passage from big mountain in the jungle, with vary basic tools. Many men died from exhaustion, starvation and various diseases such as typhoid. The audio guide said that the guards decided who was too weak to work that day, by making all of the men do a stool sample, and if it contained more than 90% blood, they were allowed to put down their tools for a day. Any less than 90% and they were forced to work through it, being whipped and brutalised all the long. It was actually very interesting to hear about this Japanese brutality, after having visited Japan and the memorial museum in Hiroshima. It almost went some way to explaining why the Americans felt they had to drop the A-bomb – because the Japanese simply would not give in. I'm not saying that this justified the dropping of the bomb, but it was nonetheless interesting to see the other side of the war. After Hell Fire Pass, the driver took us to see a waterfall, which was a bit dried up and unimpressive, and then we had lunch from a 7 eleven and made the 2 hour journey back to Kanchanaburi, where he took us to see the bridge over the river Kwai. It was just an ordinary metal bridge, and it was raining, and we heard a train coming, so we took a few pictures and then got off it quite quickly. They say that the film that was made isn't that accurate and not that many died making the Bridge, but I haven't fully looked into it. At the end of quite a heavy day, we went out in the evening, for a meal in the town and then treat ourselves to an hour -long massage for £5. I had an oil massage and Jemma had her first Thai massage, which I kind of pressured her into, telling her that she couldn't come to Thailand and not try a Thai massage. She didn't like it any more than I liked my one on Koh Tao and the next day she had a bad back. I felt really guilty.

More Bangkok, Bangkok, Bangk....that's enough for now, time to move on from this city

River boat through BKK

The next few days in Bangkok consisted of lots of shopping (we bought new vests for £2 with things like Chang beer on them). We went round the weekend markets, went to the MBK centre more times than I can remember and also went to see a movie at the Cinema there (American Pie the reunion). This was an interesting experience, because at the start of a film in Thailand, everyone in the Cinema has to stand for about 3 minutes, whilst they play a film of the King, documenting his life, from birth until now. Its extremely patriotic. On our third night in Bangkok (the night after we had been on a heavy night out), we let the boys talk us into going out again, but this time we went to Soi Cowboy, on the insistence of the annoying Texan, who had read about it in a guide book and said that it was a must-do. We ended up in a go-go bar, packed with teenage Thai girls writhing all over old, obese Western men. We really didn't fit in, so the three of us girls (me, Jemma and an Ozzie girl) got a taxi back to the hostel. The boys stayed out and ended up doing the same again the next night and spending a lot of money on the Thai women. My impression of them went down quite a lot, not that I had ever had the best impression of the Texan guy anyway. The next day Jemma and I went on a boat ride around the main sights and we also visited another shopping mall called Terminal 21, which is a brand new mall, with an airport theme, where each level assumes the identity of a different city. They have Rome, Paris, Tokyo, London, Istanbul and the Carribean! 

The London section of the Mall (Terminal 21)

It was awesome! We spent the whole time taking photos, and were delighted to find an extremely cheap food court on the top level (San Francisco), where we got a meal for 60p. There were quite a few things we missed out in BKK but we intend to do them on our way back round. By the end of our 6 days, we were both ready to leave and were looking forward to the more cultural and less seedy experiences that awaited us in Kanchanaburi.

Photos: Bangkok photos

Introduction to Bangkok

Grand Palace

We stayed in Bangkok longer than we had intended to due to a mixture of buckets, a nice hostel, good people and the MBK centre (best shopping centre in the world). We had intended to stay 3 days and then spend more time there at the end of the trip, but in the end we stayed 6 days. We checked into an amazing hostel called Smile Society. We didn't have our own room but the dorms were so comfortable, with air con, bed lamps and wifi. The owner was really nice, the hostel was modern, with lovely bathrooms and we met some great people there. It also had a great location: right in the middle of Patpong (the red light district) which was good because there were loads of cheap stalls near bye and we were right next to the sky train (best way to get around the city). We were also one stop away from Siam square, the best shopping area in Bangkok, and the first thing we did after we dropped off our bags at the hostel and had a shower, was head to the MBK centre – a shopping centre that I last visited when I was 17 and it was my favourite thing about Thailand.

Inside the MBK centre

 It is the best shopping centre in the world! It has 7 levels packed with real brands, fake brands, delicious food, and electronics. It has everything you could ever want, both legit and fake, and it is an air conditioned escape from the boiling hot city. It is a shopper's paradise! So, on the first night we went there, we were really tired after our night train, and ended up sampling the Thai McDonalds for the first time in Thailand, looked around a few shops and marvelled at how much there was to buy and talked about how much we were going to buy on the week before we leave to go home. We even decided to buy new suitcases and just pack them full of cheap clothes. We went back to the hostel and got chatting to some people in the lounge and ended up going out for a drink with them. I was really tired and went home to bed and Jemma came back a few hours later.

The next day, we met up with an American boy and a Canadian boy from the night before and went to get our Vietnam visas from the embassy with them. It was going to take 3 days so we booked a few more nights in the hostel. After getting our visas, although we knew we were inappropriately dressed for templing (we didn't have covered shoulders or legs) we decided to go to the Grand Palace. We set off, in the hottest temperatures I have experienced yet, with the two boys, the American guy from Texas insisting on leading us there on foot and by sky train instead of getting a taxi, which I knew would be the cheaper option (taxis never cost any more than £2 to go anywhere in BKK). In the end, he led us to completely the wrong place and we ended up at the King's Palace and had to get a taxi in the end to the Grand Palace, which would have been cheaper to do in the first place, but never mind. When we got there, there was a man outside with a sign, telling us the Grand Palace was shut due to a monk ceremony until 12.00 and that it would be better if we visited the big Buddha instead and came back later. Despite numerous warnings of this scam in all the guide books, Jemma still fell for it, but me and the American guy cottoned on and decided to try another entrance. Then we heard loud speakers playing out a message to the crowds saying 'there will be people outside the Palace who will try to delay your entry, do not listen to them! The Palace is open every day from 9am till 5pm with no exceptions!' This confirmed that we had just been approached by a scammer. The next scam attempt came when we entered the palace and tried to rent some clothes to cover ourselves up (Temple rules). We were sure the clothes should be free, but there was a man telling us all the free clothes had gone and we had to go outside and buy some. Jemma and I nearly got into an argument because I was insistent that I wouldn't pay for clothes and she wanted to go outside and buy some.

In our attractive borrowed outfits

Luckily the Canadian guy said he didn't want to pay either, and when we asked the man again, he let us in and gave us the free clothes. They were awful and sweaty and trekking around the palace in the scorching sun in them was a bit of a nightmare but at least they were free! I had been to the Palace before when I last visited Bangkok, but Jemma was blown away by it and had to borrow my camera to take pictures because she had lost hers. After the palace, the four of us went for lunch at a restaurant, and then to another temple to see a big Buddha lying down. The two boys then had a massage at the place where Thai massages originated, but I thought they were overpriced, and after my painful experience in Koh Tao with a Thai massage, I decided to opt out. Jemma and I caught a taxi back to the hostel, which took about an hour (BKK has the worst traffic ever), but only cost us £2 between us. I then had a nap while Jemma went online. That night, we went out for dinner and drinks on Khoasan road (backpacker ghetto) with the two boys, plus an English guy called James and a Korean guy called Juho. We ended up drinking buckets and had the most hilarious drunken night ever. It was brilliant. We ended up bartering with the sellers wandering around and bought about 15 bracelets between us with various funny sayings on them. We went to a club and got chatting to some Thais, who taught us the words for 'I am very drunk', which the owner of the hostel found hilarious when I said it to her later that night in the hostel. We ended the night with a McDonald's and rolled into bed around 4am.

Khao San Road at night