Day 29 of The Big Adventure, according to Sarah. 
  
We had put an alarm on for 7am and sure enough at 7am it jolted us to consciousness. We were both seriously sleepy but we had planned to do the walking tour (a 3.5 hour trek around bangkok’s highlights) and we wanted to start early before it got too hot. 

I went to check my phone to be greeted with a screen that I later found out meant that my phone had gone into ‘Recovery Mode’. As I’m sure you can tell from the name, this is not a good thing; it’s essentially the recovery position for phones (without the bent limbs). 

Panic ensued. I googled what I had to do on Laurens phone and the only way to get my phone out of Recovery Mode was to plug it into a computer with iTunes. And then there was a 50:50 chance it would wipe everything on my phone and restore it to factory settings. Cue heart palpitations. 

I went downstairs and downloaded iTunes onto the computer that was for guests use. After downloading it, it became clear that it was all in Thai. Shit. 

I tried to plug my phone in to see if it would magically detect my language and change itself. No such luck. Then a pop up box appeared with two options: wipe the phone or don’t wipe the phone  (in Thai of course). Not knowing which was which I realised I was going to have to change the language before continuing. This was just too risky.

I began googling how to change the iTunes language and somehow managed to find the right menu. I found what looked like the most probable drop down menu to find that all the languages were also in thai. 

I had to google translate ‘English’ in Thai and try to compare the squiggles for something that looked vaguely similar. Miraculously i managed to select the right one and everything changed to English. Thank god. 

So I plugged my phone back in and chose not to wipe my phone when the pop up appeared. It began trying to download a software update the phone needed but it kept failing because the Internet kept cutting out. On the brink of tears, I googled other options. 

There was no Apple Store in Bangkok but there was and iStudio (a premium reseller of apple products) that might be able to help me. Located in the Siam Centre (our fav shopping centre).

Realising that I wasn’t going to be able to fix this, I resigned myself and headed back upstairs so that we could head out on our walking tour. 

I found Lauren had fallen back to sleep and when she woke up decided it was probably too late for the walking tour as we didn’t want to be walking in the midday heat. 

Another fail at the walking tour. 

We were both pretty hungry by this point so we decided to go out and get some breakfast on the way to the Siam centre so we could fix my phone. 

We went to the Siam centre to find the only place that offer vague breakfast options was Starbucks. So we sat and had a croissant and a Croque Monsieur and a nice big tea for Lauren. On our way to the iStudio we popped into forever21 because we saw some enjoyable shoes in the window. We both found some we absolutely loved but decided we’d shop around a bit more before we bought them. 

We headed over to the iStudio where, when I showed one of the store employees my phone displaying the Recovery Mode screen, and said ‘everything is gone’. More heart palpitations. 

But I wasn’t ready to give up that easily so I asked another employee if we could just plug it into one of their computers and try to update the software without wiping it. 

After possibly the most nerve-racking 10 minutes of my life, my phone updated, restarted itself and still had everything on it. What a relief. I felt like kissing the guy (obviously I didn’t) but I said a huge ‘thank you much’ and walked out with a huge smile on my face. 

Since we were here, we had a look in H&M for some shoes and I bought a couple of new dresses. Lauren found some she absolutely loved, that were in the sale ie perfect but they didn’t have her size. We’d seen some pretty big H&Ms in some other shopping malls and decided to go and see if they had her size. What ensued was a lot of too-ing and fro-ing and essentially a tour of all the H&Ms in Bangkok. End result: we bought the initial pair of chunky heeled boots. And I bought the ones I’d fallen in love with in Forever21. After having finally found some shoes that were suitable for Skybar we headed home. 

We both showered and put make up on for the first time on our trip. We’d both forgotten how to do it and it took us twice as long as normal to apply. Once we were heeled up and looking glam we headed out (after the obligatory awkward conversation with the German Duo). 

We’d decided to go for dinner at a restaurant called The Deck, which is situated across the river from a temple called Wat Arun. We had originally aimed to get there in time for sunset but due to some unfortunate transport issues (a taxi driver that didn’t speak a word of English) it was already dark by the time we got there.

The temple was lit up (and rather to our disappointment covered in scaffolding); it was a pretty stunning setting.  

  

We enjoyed a spot of people watching as we watched the other diners at the restaurant and took in our setting. 

  

  
  
After a lovely dinner of chicken fried rice and a cocktail we decided it was time to head onto Skybar. 

We hopped in an uber (no English skills necessary) and headed to Skybar. We pulled up and soon realised it was located on the roof of a very fancy hotel and we were suddenly very glad to be looking so glam. 

We went up to the 63rd floor in the lift and were ushering out onto a balcony area with a bar. There were at least 10 different staff directing us in the space of 10metres so you hardly had a choice of where to go. 

Anyway we headed out onto the terrace and a waitress cleared a spot for us right by the edge on a long sofa. VIP seats. Definitely worth dressing up. 

  

We ordered 2 cocktails; Lauren went for an ‘after eight’ which consisted of chocolate liqueur and creme de menthe and came in a metal stein and I went for an d favourite; a passion fruit martini.

We sat and sipped and took in the view over the city. 

  
Lauren overheard a group next to us talking about another area so we got up and went to explore. 

  

There was indeed another larger terrace which was far more impressive than the first one. 

  
We wandered around, took some photos and of course did plenty of people watching. 

  
When every last drop of our cocktails were finished we decided it was probably time to head home. 

   
 Tomorrow was our last day in Bangkok and we didn’t want to waste it in bed.