Thoughts on leaving The Land of Smiles

I was sad to be leaving, I had well and truely fallen in love with Thailand.  Cambodia too, had left it's mark, I only wish we could of spent more time there. Vietnam?  I wont be rushing back to Vietnam anytime soon.  Although I was sad to be leaving I was looking forward to getting home, seeing all my friends and family, my horses and my puppy dog, but most of all my boyfriend, I had missed him loads.

When I decided to come on this trip, I told people it was going to be a 'once in a life time experience'...I was wrong.  If you've ever been to Thailand, you'll under that it's not the sort of place you can ever visit just ONCE.  I will be back soon, as soon as possible.  I can't wait to get back to The Land of Smiles :)

Bangkok, Dubai, HOME!

We were up at 7, out of the hotel at 730 and on our way to the airport.  The taxi driver took us the wrong way and we ended up stuck in traffic.  We thought we might miss out flight so we got out of the cab and onto the Skytrain, we had to run to the gate and got there just in time.  The flight was ok, by now Id gotten over my fear of flying...6 flights in 3 weeks will do that for you.  We had a 90 min lay over in Dubai, just enough time for a chicken bigmac and a stop in duty free...sticking with the trend we almost missed our connecting flight, we had to run for it and got there just as the check in staff were about to walk away.  The Dubai- Manchester flight was just as good as all the others.  It took almost 2hrs to get our bags and clear imeragtion in Manchester.  Then, we were home.

Bangkok weekend market, cake and bed jumping!

We were up early ready to catch the bus to Bangkok, we found the bus station, got our tickets then went to a cafe over the road for breakfast.  The bus to Bangkok took two hours, the others slept, I, just for a change, did not.  When we arrived in Bangkok we jumped straight in to a cab and to the hotel (FX Hotel Makkasan) we had booked this before we left home, we had decided to book it so that we were close to the airport to catch our flight home the following morning.  It was by far the nicest place we'd stayed on the whole trip, it had a hair drier!!  We dumped our bags and set out to find the weekend market...we had some serious shopping to do!  We weren't sure where we were or where we were going so we hopped in a cab, the driver was lovely and told us all about the market.  We shopped until we almost dropped!  I bought 3 handbags, 3 purses and allot of other stuff I didnt need!  When we were all shopped out we sat in a coffee shop and had iced drinks and cake, this was my first cake in 3 weeks, it was good!
Back at the hotel we showered and packed, ready for home.  I had some trouble fitting everything into my 35 litre backpack, I had over done the shopping.  I decided that if I was going to get everything I had bought back home, I was going to have to wear all of my clothes on the plane.

When we were all packed, ready for home, we got into bed.  None of us could sleep, we were excited to be going home, we decided to get up and jump on our beds for a few minutes, this did the job and soon we were asleep.

Bangkok weekend market, cake and bed jumping!

We were up early ready to catch the bus to Bangkok, we found the bus station, got our tickets then went to a cafe over the road for breakfast.  The bus to Bangkok took two hours, the others slept, I, just for a change, did not.  When we arrived in Bangkok we jumped straight in to a cab and to the hotel (FX Hotel Makkasan) we had booked this before we left home, we had decided to book it so that we were close to the airport to catch our flight home the following morning.  It was by far the nicest place we'd stayed on the whole trip, it had a hair drier!!  We dumped our bags and set out to find the weekend market...we had some serious shopping to do!  We were sure where we were or where we were going so we hoped in a cab, the driver was lovely and told us all about the market.  We shopped unti lwe almost dropped!  I bought 3 handbags, 3 purses and allot of other stuff I didnt need!  When we were all shopped out we sat in a coffee shop and had iced drinks and cake, this was my first cake in 3 weeks, it was good!
Back at the hotel we showered and packed, ready for home.  I had some trouble fitting everythign into my 35 litre backpack, I had over done the shopping.  I decided that if I was going to take everythign I had bought home, I was going to have to wear all of my clothes on the plane.
When we were all packed, ready for home, we got into bed.  None of us could sleep, we were excited to be going home, we decided to get up and jump on our beds for a few minutes, this did the job and soon we were asleep.

Cannonball Practice!

Today I almost made the same mistake as yesterday, my watch was once again upside down, but this time I realised before I woke the others up!  When the others woke up we went down to the hotel pool..this was the first place we'd stayed that had a pool, it was quite a luxury.  We order breakfast and ate it by the pool, we sunbathed for a while then took a dip.   We stayed there until the afternoon, around 230 we were talking about home, we worked out the time difference and relised that the Chris Moyles Show would be about to begin on BBC Radio One...we fired up the speakers and tuned in the Ipod.  It was very sureal listening to the Friday Cheesey Song in a 40c, in March.  Back home I'd be listening to it in temps of around 5c, in the rain, whilst mucking out horses stables...this was much better!  I got out of the pool to take some pics, we set up the self timer on the cameras and tried to get some pics of all three of us in the pool.  I decided to liven things up a bit with a cannonball back into the pool, que 2 hours of us taking it in turns to get out and jump back in...it was funny at the time, althought I think it wore thin on the staff and other guests after a while!

Later we walked down the road to see the 'Tiffany show', a cabret show, Id never been to one before so dont have anything to compare it to, Sam said it wasnt very good, although I thought it was ok, it was something different.  After the show we walked into the centre of Pattaya, we shopped for a while, stoped for dinner..I had a curry and it was amazing!  Then we shopped some more, had a few beers on Walking Street and went for a massage.  Before we knew it, it was 2am...We decided to get a cab back to the hotel. 

Our first taste of Pattaya

I woke up at what I thought was 1.50pm, I shouted at the girls to wake up, ''we've missed half the day!"...turns out my watch was upside down and it was actually 8.20am, having not gone to bed until after 4, this did not go down to well with the girls!  I was told to shut up and go back to sleep! ...so I did!

We got up about 11 and decided to walk down the road to find some breakfast.  We ended up int he centre of Pattaya, we bought some things to take home, looked in some shops then got some lunch.  We walked down 'Walking street', bought some sun glasses and had a few beers.  Pattaya was a bit of a shock to me, I knew nothing about the place until I googled it just before we arrived.  Every single bar has dozons of girls stood outside toutting for business, most of them are drunk or high on drugs.  If the girls are not in one of the many bars, they are on the arm of a male tourist, on their way to...I guess 'work'.  It was an interesting and eye opening day, we had allot of fun, although I must admit it saddens me to think how these girls have to live.  That night we walked back to the hotel, it was quite a way but it was a nice walk.  The weather was good, much warmer than Vietnam, although not as hot as the Thai islands. 

Hanoi to Bangkok

So, I didnt sleep on the train, not one wink.  It was dirty and uncomfortable and I couldnt wait to get off.  Today was long, the train reached Hanoi at 3.30pm.  We found an 'internet cafe', when we got inside they just starred at us, there was no internet, and it seemed that there were no food either!  We tried to ask where we were, we held out a map but no one seemed to want to help, maybe it was the American thing again?!  We left and found another cafe just down the road.  We ordered pizza and drinks.  About 1 hour later our pizza arrived, on the back of a motorbike, they had sent out for it!  It was a nice little cafe, the restrooms were clean and we managed to wash a little and brush our teeth.  We got online and booked a hotel in Pattaya.

Later we got a taxi to the airport, the driver drove us round and round, we noticed we kept going past the same buildings, he was trying to rack up distance as we were on the meter.  When we got to the airport we said we weren't paying what he wanted us to pay, he was not happy, we argued for about 15 minutes, a local lady who spoke perfect English came over to help.  In the end we paid what we thought was right and walked away, he didnt come after us so that was that.  We got on the flight and headed back to Thailand..I was a happy lady!  When we landed in Bangkok the heat was amazingg!  We got a taxi to Pattaya and checked into the hotel we had booked online earlier.  The room was clean and had aircon, it was around 3am, we went to bed.