Sights and Smells of Bangkok

We arrived into Bangkok airport and managed to get through passport control by sneaking into the priority queue - Steve strikes again 😊.

We're staying in a hotel close to Koh San Road. We tried to catch up on some missed sleep then ventured to Koh San Road where we had our first taste of Phad Thai from a street vendor- a really good change from pizza and pasta dishes🍕🍝.

We're already experiencing a big culture change compared with Italy and it's really refreshing. The smells of Bangkok smack you in the face as you walk down the street, from fermented fish (not so refreshing 😝) to the mixed spices which flavour the Thai curries😍.

On our 1st night we couldn't resist getting a 30 minute Thai foot massage for 150 baht (£3)! This was very much needed after all the walking we have done on this trip so far 😊. I don't know how, but I managed to get the more pain inflicting massuse! Whilst Steve had a nice relaxing foot massage next to me, my woman decided to flex my leg up towards my head!!! I had to laugh and grip Steve's hand. Couldn't help but think the woman enjoyed stretching my leg and inflicting this kind of pain on me! I was too scared to go for the full hour Thai message after that!

We have visited several temples in Bangkok including the Grand Palace - Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Pho - The temple of the reclining budda and Wat Arun - The temple of dawn. We got to wear some very fetching outfits at these places because we forgot to cover up (oops).

We also went on a half day tour, firstly stopping at the Maeklong Railway Market 🚂🚃🚃🚃; famous for the daring market vendors who line either side of the railway tracks selling their produce. We walked down the middle of the track and took in the assortment of the fresh produce.

At 9am the horn signaled the arrival of the train. Very quickly the vendors moved their engineered stalls backwards and instructed us to stand back with them as the train went through. We managed to catch this scene on video!

For the 2nd half of the tour we arrived at Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. This place was a hive of activity with vendors lining the water banks. I finally got the 'gondola' experience (minus the singing) that we missed out on in Venice, but instead of €80 for 40 minutes it was £6 for 30 mins to float around the market! Steve and I shared a pork noodle soup made by a little man on his paddle boat 😊🍲.

An evening at "The Calypso Cabaret" was an interesting experience... It was a night of various renditions of camp classics from around the world performed by an equally camp collection of boys and lady- boys. However, even under close inspection, some of the transformations had to be seen to be believed they were incredible!Read more