Backpacking ground zero
Saturday, February 10th, 2007There was really only one reason for going to Bangkok and that was to spend whatever little money we had left. Heading straight for Khao San road the ultimate backpacking area in the world we found a cheap cell like room at one end for the next 3 nights. We had arrived early from our overnight train so had some breakfast and checked out the shopping in the constant market that runs along the street. There’s so much to buy!
I decided to get a dress made for my 21st so we spent a good part of the day sitting around in a tailors because Tash decided she wanted something made as well. It all would have been fine if when Tash tried to pay on credit card we discovered that a travel agent in Vietnam who we’d brought airline tickets from had charged her twice! So we spent ages trying to sort it out and get some money sent over because now her credit card was over the limit. Basically the bank said it was fraud and we’d have to wait till we got home to sort it out. Luckily a few days later the travel agents must have realised and the money was put back in, but a bit stressful at the time. Found some cheap food for dinner, Thailand has the best cheap food, yummy street side noodle for 50 cents and lots of fruit around. The next day was market day! We caught a bus out to the massive weekend market and came back weighed down by bags. We thought there would be lots more fake stuff there but actually there were heaps of funky Thai designed, very cool clothes, which was actually better as our road had all the fake designer stuff we needed. Big morning and came back exhausted. We had a dress fitting and my dress was all finished and looking great, hard to believe I had only ordered it the day before. More cheap food and a bit more shopping before dinner.
The our last day in Bangkok we went for a bit of walk around the river, went out to the grand palace but didn’t go in because of the $10 entrance fee. There’s pretty strict rules about clothing and even though we didn’t go inside I had to borrow a hot looking shirt because I was wearing a singlet. I think it’s a good idea because so many people wear such inappropriate clothes to important places. My singlet wasn’t exactly revealing but some girls turn up in mini skits and tank tops and at Angkor Wat in Cambodia we saw people dressed like that at the countries most important religious site.
Tash picked up her dress in the afternoon and we went out to one of the big malls for a fruitless search for shoes. Back home to try stuff everything in our bags for the flight to Hong Kong the next day. Me and Tash were on different flights, she left a couple of hours earlier so I had a long day waiting around by myself. Left the guesthouse at 7.45am and got to the hotel in Hong Kong at 7.45pm, so long day for a 2 1/2 hour flight.
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