The rain had stopped by the time our alarms went off at 6:30am.
We had settled our bill the night before, so all we had to do was get breakfast and hop in our nice air-conditioned minibus to the airport.
The airport in Siemreap is surprisingly nice, despite being on the small side. I took a photo of their goldfish pond because it looked like something out of a tropical interior design manual. All very peaceful.
We were at the airport well before our flight so we spent a bit of time perusing books in the bookshop. They had some really lovely coffee table books full of gorgeous photographs of the 'real' Cambodia. It's always a petty to find such books when you are backpacking because you know you won't buy them - they add too much weight and are too likely to get damaged in transit. There are a couple I will have to look up on Amazon when I get home.
Sadly our otherwise relaxed morning was somewhat tainted by both of us having rather upset stomachs. It was bound to happen eventually, but clearly it's less than ideal for it to happen when you are about to get on a plane and have limited toilet access for a while!
The flight to Bangkok was a little bumpy, thanks to a much smaller plane, but otherwise not too bad. We did bounce on landing, which was quite exhilarating (or terrifying in Amber's case). The flight was nice and quick, a mere 45 minutes.
Getting out of the airport was straightforward and (after yet another bathoom visit - just to be on the safe side!) we were soon hurtling towards the centre of the city at 140km/hr in our hotel's enormous airport pickup SUV. The driver was playing hip-hop on his stereo with some rather colourful lyrics. Not your typical tinny taxi radio.
As expected, everyone in Bangkok drives like a nutter: Very aggressively and as fast as possible. Reminded me of the M6 toll road!
We arrived at the Bangkok Loft Inn to a remarkably lackluster welcome at reception. Our choice of this hotel had largely been based on rave reviews on Tripadvisor largely focused on the friendliness of the staff, so we were quite surprised. The lady at reception recommended we devote the afternoon to visiting some shopping malls, which sounded like a good plan. We ditched our bags in our room (which turned out to be very nice) and headed out to catch the BTS Skytrain from nearby Wongwian Yai station to Siam Central.
We spent a while enjoying the culture shock of coming from the relative poverty of Siamreap to hang out in the Siam Paragon mall, with its masses of fashion outlets, technology stores and, strangely, several sports car showrooms on one of the upper floors.
Everyone in Bangkok appears to have an iPhone, even the monks, who get to travel everywhere for free, so all forms of public transport have 'monk seats' in the same way we have disability seats in the UK. It's not unusual to see a monk walking down the street in bright orange robes listening to his iPod...an iMonk?
We ate a tasty lunch in the enormous food court. I finally got myself some chicken rice. Man, that's a flavour I've missed for a long time! Takes me right back to spending the summer holidays in Asia as a kid. Proper nostalgia food.
We managed to top our Swensons icecream experience in Cambodia by getting a ridiculous mixed icecream sundae in a waffle bowl for pudding. Luckily we probably managed to walk it off afterwards.
We had decided to walk to China Town from Siam, to see a bit more of Bangkok. This was a fine idea in itself, but sadly we hadn't factored in that Amber's stomach wasn't quite settled yet. This made our walk somewhat more exciting, as every few blocks we had to stop and decide how urgently we needed to find the next toilet! Not fun for Amber, but in hindsight pretty funny, especially when she had to choose between using the hideous toilets at Hualamphong train station or hedging her bets and holding out a bit longer (she held out).
To make matters worse, we had managed to get lost a few streets away from Yaraowat, the main drag of China Town, when the next wave of urgency came along. Thankfully it passed without mishap and for the next hour we were able to explore the bedlam of Bangkok's China Town.
They have some crazy stuff for sale in the market, but my favourite find was a plastic packet with an entire crocodile hand in it. Mmm...tasty AND nutritious!
After exploring the sights and smells of China Town we got a bright pink cab back to the hotel to get ready for dinner with Andrew, a contact who had helpfully given us a lot of advice before we came out to Thailand.
We met by Thong Lo BTS station on Soi 38, for some excellent street food - you can just order what you want from the various stalls and then bring it ll back to the same table. We had a great selection: pad thai, spicy papaya salad, egg noodles soup, satay, pork stew, mango sticky rice and a selection of jellies and fruits in sweet coconut milk. Yum.
Afterwards we walked to a pub called the Witch's Tavern to have a drink and watch an army of rats running around the alley behind the pub. They were joined by an equally impressive army of cockroaches. We didn't order any food!
Andrea had to work the next day so we parted company around 11:30pm and made our way back.
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