January 19th... Arrival in Bangkok

The flight went very smoothly, not that I could see much as I was on the aisle seat and it was pitch black outside. It went so smooth that we landed half an hour early and got a guided tour of the city by satellite to kill time! I thought I would be able to make a swift exit from the airport and start exploring but the reality was Thailand has very strict immigration laws and they had to check everything. It didn't help either by having more people handing the Thai entries than the Foreign entries. By about 9am I had finally made it out of security and had collected my baggage and was ready to go!

I had a dilemma after getting off the plain of whether to take a taxi or a train into Bangkok. I decided to go for the train in the end, and was surprised to see a very similar train to ones of the UK pull into the station. As the easiest stop for me was Hua Lamphong I had to change at Makkason to pick up the Bangkok Metro System. I won't post all the pictures I took of Bangkok on the way! For all you train enthusiasts out there, they gave you plastic tokens instead of train tickets. No word of lie, I was the only non Thai person on the train when it pulled up. It was actually very similar to the London Underground, just plusher.

It was then all down to me as I got off the train and exited to some boiling hot street. There were roads all over the place and people on tuk tuks, scooters and taxis giving lifts. I decided to be bold and just try and walk couple of miles to my hotel area. The reality was I got lost, and went down some real non tourist streets. It wasn't all bad though as I soon found the river, and then more and more tourists appeared as I came to a never ending market, primarily made up of people with blankets. I then thought I would be brave and cross the river by ferry which I was following to get to my hotel at Kao San Road.

It was by this time I was realising that Thailand was dirt cheap. 10 Baht for the ferry is 20p in UK money! By about 1.30pm I had located my hotel in Khao San Road. and began chilling (I haven't slept since I left). This is most certainly ruled by the backpackers as there is barely a Thai person in sight bar the annoying people who are trying to sell stuff like suits! The other thing that they keep doing is trying to make you go everywhere by tuk tuk or taxi, and they never take no for an answer. They seem to recognise me as the guy who laughs and walks off now. All in all the Thai people are actually really friendly and I have had some good conversations with some of them as they can speak good English!
I then went out to do a bit of geocaching and found it surprisingly difficult to find any caches, coming back with only two! This did enable to have a good look round the main city area. Below is an image of Khao San Road. I also got myself my first Thai street meal which a chicken and egg noodle thing!

I guess what I need to do now is relax and Skype my Mum and get some sleep for the first time since I left. Thanks for reading.