Some pictures from Bangkok

Lost in Bangkok

Bangkok Part 3

On our second day staying at Khao San we walked along (in scorching heat) to the Grand Palace temple. Upon arrival we were approached by a very lovely man who explained to us that unfortunately the Grand Palace was closed for the next 2 hours until 1:30pm. He suggested that we could go and look at the other temples in the area and began to circle on our map the different places that we could visit (how friendly we thought). He then said that we could do all of this for 40 Baht in a tuk-tuk (hmmm) and on our trip around the temples we could go and look at the Thai factory for cheap clothes. At this point we also began to notice the amount of people leaving and entering the Grand Palace (which was strange for somewhere that was closed) and decided that we would take our chances at the front door. The Grand Palace was extremely busy and in order to enter you had to have most of your body covered, which meant that Jane had to wear a lovely light pink shirt which she affectionately now refers to as the “lesbian shirt”.

After leaving the Grand Palace we wandered around a local market and sampled some beautiful street food, in the form of Pad Thai. We then decided to try out the local riverboat service and were ushered onto a boat which we were told would take us where we wanted to go (Which we asked several times). It didn’t and in fact it was headed for the complete opposite direction, which we soon realised after a few stops along the way. Thankfully, we were able to get off the boat at the next stop and eventually found our way back – via a second boat and a very helpful tuk-tuk driver.

Later that evening we met up with a friend of Jane’s – Jimmy and his family – who were on holiday in Thailand. We had a lovely evening drinking and hearing all about their experiences in Cambodia, which we still have to experience, and even got to watch in amusement as Jimmy’s dad ate a scorpion despite my advice telling him not to. I have to say that despite the fact that they are mackems, they are extremely lovely people and I hope to see them all again soon.

The following day Jane and I were due to leave Bangkok later in the evening via the night train and so, feeling a little tired from the night before (more screaming from the child), we checked out of the hostel and made our way to the MBK shopping centre and decided to go and watch Interstellar at the cinema. Now, this led to one of the strangest experiences of my life and is definitely something that will live for me for the rest of it. Just after the trailers, right before the beginning of the movie, a message came on the screen telling everyone to stand and be respectful for the royal anthem whilst showing images of the King. Beautiful propaganda. Being respectful, we did and whilst I appreciate the sentiment it was certainly a completely new experience for us.

In looking back at Bangkok it was definitely an experience; from the craziness of the roads, to the persistence of the touts and tuk-tuk drivers on Khao San Road and everywhere else for that matter and of course the experience of the cinema, it will be a place that I will certainly remember for the rest of my life.  

Ping Pong, Scorpions and frogs

Bangkok Part 2

As we left the Siam Paragon Mall we got into a taxi from the nearby taxi-rank (which strangely included a man with a megaphone ushering people into taxis) and asked if he could take us to Hotel Muse then onto Khao San Baan Thai hostel. As we set off he hadn’t automatically put his meter on so we asked him several times to turn on the meter, which he protested against as it was “too far” for the meter. Unable to get out of the taxi as it was moving, he said he would take us to both places for 300 Baht which seemed extortionate but to which we eventually relented, more due to the fact that we were still feeling jetlagged and just wanted to get there. For whatever reason the traffic on the journey from the mall to Hotel Muse then onto the hostel was unbelievably slow and it took at least an hour and a half which, on the meter, would have cost us probably close to 400-450 Baht. This gave me a little bit of joy and it was obvious that the taxi driver was growing increasingly frustrated by the traffic as we slowly approached our destination. Upon arrival I handed over the 300 Baht which we had agreed at which point the taxi driver seemed almost offended that I would only give him that much for how long we had to wait in the traffic. After telling him that was what we had agreed he stormed off into his taxi seething at his own misfortune.

Khao San Baan Thai Hostel

On arrival the staff were very friendly and we could see that they offered support in travelling to Chiang Mai, which was to be our next destination after Bangkok. Khao San Baan Thai Hostel is a very inexpensive, backpacker hostel to stay, essentially if you just want somewhere to lay your head and don’t plan on spending a prolonged period of time there. Our room was very basic (see pictures) consisting of 2 mattresses on the floor, 2 big fans and a small table and our shared bathroom was only 2 doors away so didn’t cause too much trouble. After a few hours of recuperating we set out for my first experience of Khao San Road. The first thing I should say about Bangkok at night is that it is extremely hot. It is easily in the mid-20s and at times can be an uncomfortable heat for someone so used to 5° evenings in Newcastle upon Tyne. When we arrived the street was already filled top to bottom with the attractions that make Khao San Road; Street food vendors, market stalls and shops, tuk-tuk drivers, random men trying to sell you suits, random women trying to get you to buy random things that no living person would ever need, very strange men calling “puh puh” and “Ping Pong” and of course the street vendors selling deep fried insects. As we were walking down the street Jane led me over to one of these stalls and, ever being the person to try new kinds of food, I chose one scorpion and one frog as my early evening snack. After the purchase we walked away from the stall and were immediately being watched by a handful of people as they asked if I was really going to eat the scorpion, to which I replied yes and asked if they would like to share some with me? They declined my polite offer and watched as I indulged in this new delicacy, for the first and final time. Yes, unfortunately Scorpion despite initially tasting quite pleasant with a sweet flavour of crab, then became extremely disgusting and bitter. After a few bites I was unable to eat any more and I would not recommend it to any of you that may be interested in trying it. Now, Frog on the other hand is delightful and is something I would definitely recommend – the nearest comparison that I can make is to crispy chicken skin, of which I am a big fan anyway.

One thing I have to mention about the Khao San Baan Thai; I expected that we would possibly be kept awake by drunk people returning in the early hours to the hostel, but I did not expect that we would be kept awake by the sound of a screaming child in the room next door to us…  

Planes, Trains and all sorts of Automobiles

Bangkok Part 1

After our 11.5 hour flight from Heathrow we arrived in Bangkok somewhat tired and immediately felt the change in temperature as it was +30° as we stepped off of the plane. Surprisingly we did not spend too long waiting around in Bangkok airport, we received our Visas and picked up our bags with relative ease and efficiency and set off to find a taxi to our first stop. When we arrived at the taxi queue we were given a ticket and told to wait a few meters from where we stood, whereby we were immediately approached and given a taxi. When we got into the taxi and told the driver that we wanted to go to the ‘Hotel Muse’, we were met with a blank stare and the driver constantly repeating the word “Mew?” “Mew?” “Mew?” (A great start!) Thankfully, he was extremely helpful and called the hotel for us to get directions with the journey itself taking roughly 45 minutes and, after we tipped the driver, costing us 300 Baht (About £6).

Hotel Muse

The taxi driver seemed very impressed with the hotel when we arrived and I can understand why, it was fantastic, exactly what we needed after such a long flight. Once we were checked in we took the lift up to the 20^th floor to our room, with the poor bellboy carrying up our backpacks for us and we tried to adjust quickly to the time difference, which now put us 7 hours ahead of GMT. The room itself was fantastic, a huge bed with towels left for us in the shape of swans and rose petals scattered in the shape of a heart around them. Since we only had the one night in the hotel we had decided that we should stay in and embrace the five star existence before getting to grips with the true backpacker lifestyle. We started by going for cocktails on the rooftop bar which gave a phenomenal view of the centre of Bangkok, (as you can see from the photos). We were also treated to a lightning show on the horizon as we drank possibly the strongest cocktails ever known to man, which left us both rather drunk after 2 drinks. After that we had a lovely meal on the lower floor, with Jane enjoying shrimp the size of a baby’s arm and of course further cocktails. J

The next morning we clearly were struggling to adjust with jetlag and despite the best intentions didn’t wake until late, almost missing breakfast but thankfully we got there and proceeded to the rooftop swimming pool to laze around before checking out. Again, the view from the pool was incredible, so relaxing and the weather was a nice cool 31° and I’m certain that a lot of you, as you read this, are either hating me through jealousy, or have stopped reading so that you can tell someone else how annoying I am…I understand. We checked out at 12pm and let our backpacks at the hotel so that we could go for a wander around the centre of the city.

If you have never been to Bangkok it is very hard to describe how busy it actually is; cars, vans, bicycles, motorbikes, taxi’s, buses and tuk-tuks. There doesn’t appear to be any rules on the roads there and they all seem to follow Jane’s attitude when she is driving and approaching a roundabout - she puts her foot down and hopes for the best. In a way, I have a lot of respect for the driving ability of these guys to go around and drive the way that they do, with no lane discipline or consideration for other drivers, without actually crashing is to be applauded. Having said that I also that that they are all mental, pure and simple. We had decided to go to one of the city’s well known malls (Siam Paragon) to maybe do some shopping and go to the aquarium that they have there. Initially we were going to walk but after 5 minutes of melting I begged Jane to let us get a taxi or tuk-tuk. We flagged down a tuk-tuk who said he could take us there no problem, and after agreeing a cheap price we jumped in and set off – this was until all of a sudden he started talking about how his sponsor owns a factory where he would have to take us first and give us a voucher to spend there (Alarm Bells!!). Needless to say we got him to pull over immediately and decided to flag down a taxi instead. The Siam Paragon Mall is essentially the Metro Centre on steroids. It has 5 or 6 floors of all brand stores (including H&M and several Boots) and the prices are pretty much identical to the UK, however it does have a food court downstairs which sells all sorts of cuisines from Asia which were very reasonably priced. After eating we left to return to Hotel Muse to pick up our backpacks and head onto our first hostel, near the famous Khao San road. 

London – Bangkok

London – Bangkok

London

I debated for some time on where to begin this post but eventually decided that, despite the short period of time we’d spent here, the most fitting place would be our first stop – London. A moment of truth here; for a long time I was not a fan of London. I’d spent short periods of time there where I’d quickly grown to dislike the general attitude and behaviours of both its citizens and the city itself. That all changed a few years ago when I’d spend a lovely few days getting to know the city a little better with Robbie Hurst (namecheck), as we explored the more positive aspects of our nation’s capital. This perspective continued again earlier this year as Jane and I had a fantastic weekend staying with the generous and genuinely lovely people that are Bronnie and Will Cloke. With Jane a former native of ‘Laaandaan’ she performed the role of exclusive tour guide, showing me the true face of the city that I’d never really appreciated before and I realised that upon leaving at the end of the weekend, I truly wasn’t ready to go.

Unfortunately on this occasion we were unable to spend a prolonged period of time exploring the city, mainly due to the weight of the backpacks we are currently hauling around and my desire to arrive at Heathrow promptly.  We did find that getting from Kings Cross to Heathrow can be an adventure in itself as we spent what seemed like an eternity in Paddington station, searching for any direct route to terminal 2 at Heathrow. As we were getting nowhere, I decided to approach a member of the public who was standing alone (bear in mind that they had with their back turned to us) with a friendly “Excuse me mate, could you tell me which platform I need for Heathrow?” As they turned around I instantly recognised him as former Arsenal footballer Martin Keown (namecheck #2). This was one of those moments where I realised that Jane would have absolutely no idea who this was and I would have to refrain from telling him that Gary Neville is a better pundit than him. Anyway after some awkward discussion about which platform we required we set off and on Martin’s (we’re now on first name terms) suggestion we arrived at platform number 6, which doesn’t go to Heathrow. Martin seems like a lovely chap but based on his sense of direction I can’t believe that he won 43 England caps (Thank you Wikipedia).  

Did you know that Heathrow has 5 terminals?! And you need different train stops to get to different ones. Incredible!

We eventually arrived at Heathrow with several hours to spare; several in this case meaning 4 hours to spare, therefore we decided to get checked in straight away and then spend the rest of the time going around the terminal, checking out what I expected would be a huge duty free section. If I’m honest I was hopeful that there would be a cinema so that we could go watch Interstellar before we took off - No chance! Terminal 2 has probably less shops than Newcastle Airport from what I can tell (and 2 of the shops are ‘Boots’). This led to a very long wait which I shall skip over briefly with one sentence; we read Thailand’s ‘Lonely Planet’ and ate chocolate whilst an Irish family argued about being late for their flight.  That. Was. It.

Jane is not a fan of flying while on the contrary I absolutely love it. Having said that 11.5 hours on an aeroplane is a long time for anyone. Our flight was with the little known Taiwan airline ‘Eva Airways’. Their main selling point is that they offer the only ‘Hello Kitty’ range of aeroplanes in the industry, which was of course the reason why we booked with them. There were several reasons why I was looking forward to this flight, mainly due to the fact that it was a long haul and we would get food and films, 2 of my favourite things in the entire world. I know a lot of people don’t like airline food but you people are nuts. We had an evening meal of beef stir fry with noodles, some mixed vegetables, a classic bread bun with butter and a selection of fruit (including Kiwi fruit). I enjoyed this whilst watching Guardians of the Galaxy for the third time and probably dancing a little too much to the soundtrack in my seat. We both managed to sleep for several hours after this and awoke just in time for us to be given our breakfast which was a delicious egg and sausage number, with a croissant. This is better than any breakfast I’ve made myself in the last year alone.

Several hours of listening to music and Jane watching the film Lucy (her in-depth summary: “It was good, a bit silly”), we landed in Bangkok with no problems and ready to start our trip. 

Newcastle to Kings Cross

On the train to Kings Cross

A Prologue

A prologue

I would firstly like to say thank you for reading and I hope that you find this to be at the very least an interesting read and that you enjoy hearing about our exploits over the next few months. I would love to hear from any of you regarding it. Unless you’re going to be cruel, in which case you are dead to me anyway. ;-)

I guess that the only place to begin is at the beginning;

In October 2013, Jane and I returned from a brilliant holiday in Crete which had fully refreshed and rejuvenated us from the daily grind of our office-based lives. It was upon our return that we decided on our next holiday for 2014, we would go both further afield and for longer than the wonderful week that we’d spent in Greece and quickly, Southeast Asia became the place that we wanted to go and began to make plans for. However, despite only starting a new job in March 2014, I had grown extremely restless, unfulfilled and tired of the monotonous and repetitive office life that seemed to encapsulate my existence. I, like a lot of people, wanted something more.

Thinking of our planned trip for Asia, an idea had taken hold of me and for weeks after I had pestered Jane with one sentence; “Let’s move out there”. I had no idea how we would do it or how we would even begin to think about planning it, all I knew was that I wanted it. Jane admits that for these first few weeks she was certain that I had been joking, unable to take me seriously whenever I attempted to raise the subject.

One day she decided to believe me and was instantly on-board (I am grateful to whatever triggered it). All of a sudden it was happening, there was a driving force behind the dream and it was Jane who had taken over the wheel. It became clear that we would have to give up everything that we had, our home, our car and our social lives yet these things seemed so trivial alongside the thought of the adventure and the lives that we could make for ourselves. We soon realised that we could do it by teaching English as a second language (something that we’d both considered several years before) through the organisation TEFL. Within a matter of weeks we had given up our home, sold most of our possessions and moved in with family so that we could save money and embark upon this adventure of a lifetime. Thank you so much to both Jane’s brother Brian and also to my parents for giving us a home whilst we prepared for our adventure. At times it did become extremely stressful due to many factors, but I guess none so much as the fact that within 10 months we had moved home 3 times. Jane deserves immeasurable credit for tolerating me through all of this – I was a bloody nightmare at times and I’m thankful that as I type this, she sits alongside me on the train to Kings Cross.

I have decided to write this blog as a way in which to try and process the things that we will do over the next few months/years but also as a thank you to Jane, for both believing me and believing in me.

I hope that you enjoy it.