Bangkok

Bangkok

We finally arrived in Bangkok a lot later than expected and decided to walk until we found some where to sleep.  This also took alot longer than expected as Bangkok does not have much accommodation outside of the main tourist area, so after 1 1/2 walking with our heavy bags we made it to Khao San Road- the busy part- dropped our stuff in the first hotel we found and went out to explore.  Khao San Road is a crazy busy road full of street vendors, market stalls, bars with live music and tuk tuk drivers all trying to take you to the ping-pong show.  We only spent one night in this tiny hotel room with no windows then spent the next morning looking for a better value for money place. 

After moving to a cheap and cheerful guest house we spent the rest of the day on a tour of the city in a tuk tuk, visiting mostly temples until the driver insisted on taking us to the tourist information office (he was obviously getting commission) the package trip they offered us to Kanchanaburi was actually pretty good so we booked it, our first organised tour. Which will include all the things we wanted to do anyway plus a few more. 

The next day we walked through the park and found a free bike rental hut, we needed to get back to the train station to book our next tickets and thought this would be the best way to get there, we did make it there alive but only just! There are bike lanes but they are usually covered with street stalls oh and red lights don't always seem to mean stop.  We also got laughed at a fair bit by locals and can only imagine its because they wouldn't dare try to cycle around Bangkok city.

We spent the rest of our time in Bangkok eating, drinking, sleeping in and buying cheap clothes for the markets and after 2 more nights we were up super early to start our organised tour to Kanchanaburi.  We were on the bus by 6.45 am after getting totally soaked waiting to be picked up.  We have had mostly good weather but in has rained at least once every where we've been which apparently never happens in Thailand this time of year but it seems to be following us.

Hua Hin

Hua Hin

We left our accommodation in Koh Samui at 6:30am and boarded our ferry, 6 hours later we arrived in Chumphon where we boarded a coach which would take us to Hua Hin. We finally arrived in Hua Hin at about 6pm, now all we needed to do was to find somewhere to sleep? After walking for about 3km with our heavy bags we made it to the guest house part of town were we thought we'd have no trouble finding a suitable place to stay. However, everywhere seemed to be full!! Chinese New Year! Well after calling in to several places we eventually found The Kings Home. This was reasonably priced with a pool and it included breakfast. The only way to describe the place is to say it was like an old Victorian house with all sorts of crazy things decorating the walls, from dears heads to red Indian's. That said it was in a great location and had a very comfy bed.

After a good nights sleep and our breakfast we decided to go for a walk about to get our bearings. The city itself was really nice and seemed a lot quieter than other big cities. It used to be a fishing village many years ago and still had old teak buildings with piers along the beach. The remainder of the day we just chilled out and that evening went to the night market to try some more delicious Thai cuisine.

The next day we decided to rent a car so that we could go and visit a nearby national park which had a massive cave in it. The drive to the park took about 1hr and we stopped off a TESCOS to get some supplies for a picnic. We parked the car and opted to walk the whole way to the cave rather than getting a boat to the next cove and then walking. It was very hot and the 1hour walk was steep and exhausting, but when we made it to the cave it was definitely worth it. The cave (Tham Phraya Nakhon) was huge and in the middle of the main cave there was a meeting hall that had been built for the King Rama V. After a little rest we walked back to the car and had lunch. For the rest of the day we went on a longtail boat trip through the mangroves. We made it back to our guest house about 6pm and had some dinner and had an early night. On our last day in Hua Hin we chilled on the beach and Chris had a little go at fishing off the pier, but didn't catch anything.

Our next stop was Bangkok and we decided to try out the Thai trains. Our trip to Bangkok was approx. 300km which I thought should take about 3-4 hours, well Thai trains although are a lot cleaner than the Indian ones are still just as slow. After 6 1/2 hrs we finally made it to Bangkok.