Day 4 of The Big Adventure – We both finally had a good nights sleep and woke up feeling fresh and keen to see the sights of Bangkok. We had a bit of life admin to do and then we booked an uber (yes, an uber – we were too scared to haggle with a real taxi) to The Grand Palace. He dropped us off on the wrong side (classic uber) so we had a nice little stroll around the walls. It was already 32degrees by this point and we were a little uncomfortable to say the least, but I figured a truly Grand Palace would at least have air conditioning right?!

Wrong. 

As soon as we reached the gates we got lost in a stream of Chinese tourists, each with an umbrella at perfect eye-poking height. 

We were directed towards The Dressing Room, where they made us wrap a large (really quite heavy) cloth around us as a skirt and put on a mans shirt to cover our shoulders.

 

Lauren accessoried this number with an adorable satchel bag and neon laces. I think this look could be huge next year. Watch this space. 

  

 While Sarah opted for some sasscat sunglasses and red nail  varnish. Bangkok Fashion Week eat your heart out.

We queued up for a while to buy our tickets and actually get to the entrance, but once we were inside we were both in awe. It wasn’t just one grand palace as such, more many little outhouses and statues (there went any hope of air conditioning).
  
The buildings were all covered with intricate detailing and lots of gold. I can’t really do this justice with words, so take a look for yourselves:

   
    
   

 

  

   

  
  
  We wandered around the grounds for as long as we could bear, but by lunch time it was just too hot with all those layers on and we were beginning to feel quite uncomfortable so we headed for the exit. It took us a good half an hour to find our way out – it’s like a maze in there! But we finally made our way out and headed back to The Dressing Room to return their clothes. We noticed an enjoyable little coffee shop selling ice creams on the way out and Lauren decided to go for the wackiest flavour on the menu: mulberry sherbet. It was surprisingly delicious and tasted just like school bars that we used to get in our packed lunches – such an unexpected blast from the past.

We decided it was probably time for lunch and had a wander around the streets to find the only shops were either selling guitars or military wear. We were so hot by this point we ordered another uber (with the promise of air conditioning) and headed back to the Siam centre which we knew had a vast food court. 

Whilst waiting for said Uber, a group of locals seemed to take interest in us and began taking very unsubtle photos of us. Thankfully the uber turned up soon after and we jumped in. The journey took at least half an hour and Lauren had a nice little snooze in the cool backseat. Lauren has many different kinds of snoozes, but when she’s really tired she has what I like to call a mouth-open snooze and this was the mouth-open snooze of all snoozes.

When we arrived we wandered around and settled on a nice looking Italian place (I was feeling adventurous enough to try some plain pasta). However, on ordering it became clear that trying to explain plain pasta was harder than expected. Lauren ordered the most beaut macaroni and cheese and when it arrived I pretty much turned green with envy. Mine arrived with aubergine, chillis and garlic in. So much for plain pasta. 

We ordered the most amazing cupcake for dessert

  

 

Whilst munching on the cupcake Lauren had a little look through her emails and found one from Bangkok Air reminding us about our flight to Koh samui tomorrow.

‘What does BKK stand for?’ Lauren pipes up. 

Oh shit. We’d booked a hostel near the other Bangkok airport (DMK) in an attempt to be organised but almost ended up going to the wrong airport. Thank god Lauren had spotted that! We quickly looked up a hostel near the correct airport and booked ourselves in.

We then ventured out for more sightseeing – onto the Erawan Shrine. It’s a shrine of good luck where people light inscence and candles and pray to the Buddha for good luck. We seriously needed our luck to change so we joined in the rituals. 

   

 

  

  

After praying extensively for good luck, we went for a wander around a night market nearby and tried a local delicassy – banana egg pancakes.

   

  

  

  
  

 

  

It was deeeelish 😋

We then headed back to matchbox to grab our stuff and head to a hostel near the airport because we had a very early flight out to Koh Samui the next day. We jumped in an uber with all our bags (so that’s a grand total of 1) and headed off. We had a female uber driver which was unusual in itself and turned out not to be a good thing. Two minutes into our journey we turned the wrong way up a very busy one way street and a lot of horn-honking and screaming followed. Thankful no one was hurt and after a bit of a stand off we turned around were on our way.   As we got closer and closer to our hostel we noticed more and more rabid dogs on the streets and less electricity – we were in a bad part of town. We made sure the uber driver took us right to the door, and we both simultaneously chorused ‘we’ll be fine’ which seemed to be the most common phrase of The Big Adventure . The receptionist from the hostel was already outside, ready to greet us and take our bag (‘only one bag?’ Teamed with a confused face is how we are most commonly greeted. Yes, only one bag – thank you for reminding me.) 
We checked in and the kind lady showed us to our room…

  
  Basic. 

Exposed concrete can sometimes give a room that trendy New York loft feel – in this case the exposed concrete door gave a more third world, we-cant-even-afford-tiles feel.

But we were only here until 4am when we would have to go for our flight – so it would have to do. 

We lay down on the stone hard beds and listened to the planes coming into land at nearby airport and drifted off to sleep.