Thailand, part one!

The Thai adventure started ridiculously early after a huge night of drinking for Kristal's birthday. First was a cab ride to the border town, Poipet (or the armpit of the east as some like to call it) which is a horrible little dust bowl that thankfully our stay in was short lived. Then it was a bus from Poipet into Bangkok. The whole journey was really uneventful and a lot easier than past travellers made it sound, as long as you're smart about it, the journey doesn't have to take 3 days and thousands of baht, nor do you have to get on any sort of Koh San Road related bus, which generally is correlational to getting screwed!

Once we got to Bangkok we decided to check into the lavish hotel my lovely parents were supplying for Christmas. It was amazing, one of the nicest places I have ever seen in my life (then again I haven't exactly been living in luxury) and the best part, the rents payed. From there we headed to a mall which was attached to the giant hotel, nothing too new as i've been living in Hong Kong, but it was still impressive. We wanted to see Madagascar 2, but in the end it wasn't coming out until the 25th so we settled for Disco Bowling, inside a mall. Interesting, but I sucked, oh well it was technically Kristal's Birthday, i totally just let her win. Then there was Birthday cake, or more to the point cake, a highlight for the both of us. Originally the plan was to wait up until the family showed up, but i couldn't keep my hungover eyes open any longer and so fell asleep to be awoken around 1am. It was fantastic to see them all again, didn't realise how much I missed them, or how much I had to tell them. It was horrible though, my little baby sister is now taller than me, I feel so jipped!

Our first day in Bangkok was not a huge one. It started with a mammoth buffet breakfast in which everything you could possibly ever want for breakfast (and some things you'd never ever want) were ready to be attacked. Next on the list, after much filling in of the past four months, was the National Palace. This place was the most intricately decorated, beautifully gawdy micture of architecture I have ever seen in my life. The place was spectacular, I don't know how the Thai's managed to pull it off, but the place should be aesthetically horrid, instead it is magnificant. Kristal and I also spotted a small replica of Ankor Wat and seeing as we forgot to take a photo of us in front of it in Cambodia we fulfilled our stupid ambitions in Thailand, go figure! Later in the evening we went to a night market. By this point in my travels night markets are somewhat of a bore however, this place was massive, one of the biggest markets I've been to and it was fun to impress the parents with my ruthless bargaining and watch the parents falter. I must have taught them something in the end though as eventually mum got the hang of it and was maybe, just maybe, getting the price us white kids can pull out of the locals. After a few drinks Kristal and I headed to Koh San Road to see what all the fuss was about, have a few drinks and relax as we do best, at a bar, with very cheap drinks

Christmas Day in Bangkok was possibly the most vastly different Christmas to anything I have ever experienced. It was sublime, buffet breakie, street meat, markets, massages, more food, madagascar 2 in IMAX (me and my families first experience), more food and drinking whilst listening to a live band. There is no more words necessary, except that Madagascar 2 was awesome!

Boxing Day was where the real tourism began, getting up at around 530am so we could have some breakfast before a huge day of touring. The first stop was the Bridge over the River Kuai and the Jeath Railway (yes I can spell). It was a really surreal experience, similar to Cambodia where you are well aware of the indignities people have suffered in the past and yet know there is nothing you can do about it. The conditions the Thai and Allies suffered under whilst the Japanese forced them to build the railway were incredible. Lunch was at a floating restaurant along the river and the food was soooooo much better than what Kristal and I are used to with our budget tours, this was actually edible and enjoyable! Amazing what a few extra dollars gets you. From here we went to the Tiger Temple, which is where tigers are reared under the watchful eyes of Thai Monks. There were so many tigers, ranging from adults to cubs, with my favourite being two cubs who were play fighting in a man made pond. We also had the opportunity to have our photos taken with the Tigers, it was incredible, kind of nerve racking in theory but there is no way that the tigers lie there naturally, the Monks can swear until they're blue in the face that they are not drugged, but no animal is that sleepy while there heads are lifted and bodies moved around. Dinner at a traditional Northern Thai restaurant and amazing cocktails at a little hidden bar and we were happy!

The following day was another huge day of touring. We took another early day trip to the Ancient Capital of Ayutthaya about an hour out of the city. We were dropped at three separate sets of ruins, it was a very different environment than what i was expecting, with these ruins incredibly out of place in the middle of a city. I thought they were impressive but having seen Ankor Wat less than a week beforehand they were a little overshadowed by how amazing Siem Riep is. Having said that, Thailand's third largest reclining Buddha is there and that is impressive, huge, so much bigger than I expected of something that's title isn't so impressive. From the ruins, a bus took us to the port where we caught a cruise back to Bangkok, the scenery was nice, but nothing fantastic, the buffet lunch however was great and it was nice to just hang out with the parents for a bit, having not seen them for so long. After a not so Thai dinner we went back to the hotel and watched Titanic, yeah that's right, we're cool!

Another very early start was not everybodies idea of a good time but it was definitely worth the horrible alarm clock going off at 530am to see the floating markets.I was really surprised first up that we didn't end up in the river the way our boat driver was driving and then even more surprised to see locals using the floating markets also. I was under the impression these markets were just for the tourists, however, there were hundreds of locals bargaining for fresh fruit and veggies, lunch and dinner foods. We sampled spring rolls, dumplings, coffee, fruit and Kristal even bought a bag she'd spent all week looking for. The markets were a lot of fun and definitely a must do while in Bangkok as they're not as touristy as the tigers or National Palace. After the markets I had to say good-bye again which sucked, five days wasn't long enough to catch up on six months of missed moments, but, Koh Samui and the Full Moon Party were awaiting us over the next five days, which brings me to Thailand, part two!