Back to the Big City

Our flight to Bangkok went smoothly. Ha Noi airport was pretty basic though and the food was ridiculously expensive so we were quite hungry when we touched down. Bangkok airport is relatively new and there is a direct bus into the city which takes about 45 minutes.

It was Adam's seventh visit to the city which alleviated the pressure of finding our feet as he already had a good idea of where we should be heading and what we should do. I was really looking forward to exploring a completely modern city and doing some shopping. We were both in need of some new clothes as the ones we brought by now were one or two sizes too big.

The main traveller area in Bangkok is in and around Kao San Road, although we had no intentions of staying there because it is really, really busy. Instead we headed to a place Adam had stayed in before which was a few roads away. The room we got was a little cell like and reminded us both of the one featured in the book and film 'The Beach' which begins in Bangkok. However it had everything we needed and we didn't intend to spend too much time there.

One of the main things we had to do while we were here was fix Adam's laptop. Somehow the screen got cracked in Ho Chi Minh which has made writing the blog, and taking advantage of any WiFi a little tricky. So for this we caught the bus in to the city. Almost every large building that we passed was a shopping centre, and we passed a lot of them. Bangkok actually lived up to what I had imagined; lots of high rise buildings, lots of traffic, lots of people – a modern city that still felt very Asian.

I instantly liked it and Adam was happy to be back.

We located a mall completely dedicated to all things electronic. It took a lot of searching before we finally found a Samsung repair shop and we managed to get them to drop the price a bit which was kind of surprising. However we were both a little miffed that the insurance wasn't going to cover it as they had some get out of jail free card which we couldn't get round. Still it was done and it was nice to have the laptop returned to us once again fully functioning.

The next couple of days were a combination of shopping and sniffing as both of us had caught a cold. We soldiered on though and both bought some new clothes. I have never appreciated having new things this much, just knowing that I was no longer going to look like a tramp was great. It felt like we walked for miles and miles round these malls which can become quite disorientating.

Lots of the are connected by walkways which are high above street level, this really helps with getting around because the pavements are quite congested with street sellers.

On our third full day our colds had really taken hold. My eyes began to stream as soon as we stepped outside so we decided to take it easy for the day and stayed close to the hotel. We used the time to do a bit more research into renting a campervan in Western Australia. It is going to stretch our budget a bit but we really think it will be worth it and we're looking forward to having the same freedom we experienced on the motorbikes.

Our final day in Bangkok was spent tying up the loose ends. We had all of our purchases from Vietnam to send home, so we lugged them to the post office. It ended up being a bit of an expensive business but when we considered how much we'd bought and what we'd paid for it, we knew we could sleep easy. After that I headed back and began the slow and painful process of putting the latest blog entries on the net.

I really do enjoy writing this, and I am pleased to hear that people at home also seem to enjoy it but I have to say that getting it online is the bane of my life at the moment! A combination of the website, the connection speeds and my procrastination means that it can take me up to three hours to get 6 or 7 entries uploaded. Still it is always a satisfying feeling when it is done and I know I will look back and be really pleased that I persevered.

By the time that task was completed I was ready for bed. We had planned to visit a night market but we were both exhausted and had to be up nice and early to catch our flight to Yangon, the capital of Burma/Myanmar. I was excited and somewhat apprehensive about the next part of the journey. I knew Adam was looking forward to returning to the country he had most enjoyed on his last trip and I just hoped I was going to love the place as much as him.

More Soon,

Laura & Adam