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Finally in Thailand, we landed on Bangkok international around 12.00 in the night. I was looking forward to seeing a new big famous town in the east, an I was also looking forward to enjoy a bit warmer climate. Different from our arrival in Hong Kong wee hadn’t booked a hotel in front, so we trusted the taxi driver to find a good one. After about one hour in the car we reached the city center. The hotel looked alright at first eyesight and not to expensive either. First they demanded 2000Bath, but wee bargained it down to 800. I went up to look at the room first, but since it was in the middle of the night I just wanted to get to bed. When we got a closer look at the room AFTER we had paid, we had some regrets. It was smelly, the bed sheets was stained and Oda found loads of hair on the madras. We managed trough the night. I kept my clothes on and a close eye on the luggage.

The next morning we checked out on our way out the door and went for an internet café to find another hotel. We found a nice hotel a bit outside the town with cheap rooms and a rooftop swimming pool. After a two hour trip with an autoricshaw and a driver who didn’t exactly know the way we found the hotel, Bansabai International Youth Hostel. Well, this is not what I relate to as a youth hostel, more like a luxury hotel. We booked a room for four nights for only 3000 Bath. It was already afternoon so we just went for dinner and afterwards we relaxed poolside until the sun went down.

The next morning we went into town to see the Grand Palace. Wee took a taxi from a mal nearby. Before e entered the palace grounds I had to cover up my legs, so I had to borrow some pants. After I had pulled on my very fashionable blue pants we went into the palace. It was filled with golden sculptures and stupas. It reminded me of the Forbidden City in Beijing somewhat, although smaller and with more gold.

We also went into the temple in the palace center to see the Jade Buddha. Before we went down to the river to take a boat we had lunch at one of the many snack bars around the palace.

The longboat trip from one of the docks was a bit to pricy for us, 800 Bath, so we just took the regular river ferry. We hitched a ride up river and jumped of close to a big park where we relaxed and had something to drink. On our way back to the hotel we also tried out one of the smaller boat taxi, it was kind of confusing since we didn’t know where our drop of was, but we got some help and after a while we found the Sky-Train and went back to the hotel after a long day.

We didn’t really do very much the rest of the days in Bangkok. We just relaxed by the pool, ate good dinners and did some reading. A friend from our study time in India also dropped by on her way to Vietnam, so we went out for some drinks. I found out that it was practical impossible to empty a pint of beer. As soon as I was about to take the last sip someone came and filled it up, which of course resulted in an empty wallet and a full belly. I also tried out some of the local beer snack, maggots. Soya fried maggots that is. It didn’t taste much, it was kind of a nutty and soya flavored. Although it wasn’t all bad I think I will prefer peanuts and pretzels in the future.

The next day played out just like I was afraid of, dry throat and headache. I took a quick swim in the pool before flattening out on the bed. The next day it was of to the Socialistic Republic of Vietnam for studying.