BANGKOK, THAILAND. 5 nights only 9-14th January 2018

Having decided to forgo the first seven weeks of what was to be our second world cruise in a year due to visa issues we made plans to fill in that time fairly easily. An extended time in the U.K allowed us our three nights in Brighton and wanting to catch up with family and friends in NZ we booked a five night stop over in Bangkok before flying onto Auckland New Zealand.

To be honest I’m not a huge fan of plane travel (unless it’s premium economy or business class) it’s hours at the airport beforehand even if you’ve already checked in online just to get through all the airport hoops these days.

Then crushed in like sardines with little in the way of customer service and for most of us travelling either from or to home in Australia or New Zealand its a bloody long slog.

Just to get to Bangkok we had to change planes in Dubai and we were exhausted by the time we arrived at our hotel in Bangkok.

Even with a supposedly upgrade to a mini suite it’s pretty much in need of a refurbishment and their breakfast buffet leaves one wondering how they could possibly do worse. The area around is much like Kuta in Bali without the beach and the prices are much more than you would pay in Bali.

Ok sounds like we’re suffering from firstworlditus. We’re actually not that hard to please but we found our first real stay in Bangkok looking less than what we were hoping for.

Except it got better! The three day rule kicked in and apart from the noise from the nightclub across the road not stopping till 4 am in the morning ( this has seriously impacted on us not being able to recalibrate our time changes) we started to relax and enjoy our time here.

The first evening we were starving as we hadn’t eaten on either of the two flights we had and decided to keep our appetite for some yummy Thai food when we arrived.

After satisfying our tummies we had a walk around the local area before calling for time out.

We spent the next day leisurely waking up, grabbing some breakfast from downstairs and strolled around stopping to wander through a shopping centre and really didn’t do a lot. Really feeling the jet lag and still recovering from the cold I caught on the last day of our Christmas Cosmos tour.

We had dinner at Chilli culture a restaurant recommended by our friend Eric and tried for another early night.

Thursday the 11 th we decided the weather had perked up enough to spend the day poolside which is exactly what we did. I think this was the turning point as we really started to catch up on that exhaustion and after a real Thai massage that evening which began to soothe out some tight muscles we were ready for dinner and bed.

We booked a private tour for the Friday and our lovely guide Sundra? Picked us up from our hotel and off we went ….

two skytrains, two boat rides, a tuk tuk, shuttle and walking we got a good idea of how to use the public transport which is what we were hoping for, for return visits and we got to see The Grand Palace,

Jim Thompson’s house some local artisans plying their trade and a fair amount of of the diversity of Bangkok.

After arriving back on the skytrain near our hotel we left our guide and headed out for late lunch, this turned into a lovely afternoon tea at The Landmark hotel instead. Home to the hotel and a few hours poolside before we headed out in the evening for dinner and to finish the day James had a massage and I had a facial.

Starting to get the holiday vibe on by now and so on our final full day the Saturday we had a very late start, missed the hotel breakfast so went out for that then took the sky train to Mo Chit to the weekend markets which are HUGE! We spent three hours wandering around being surprised by some of the great quality we saw as well as the usual market tat.

Wandered around on the other side of the Main Street near our hotel and had an early dinner over there as prices were better and actually was the best meal we’ve had here. A last visit to our Praw spa girls for a final massage to loosen those kinks some more and it was time to tick off another day.

next day we simply relaxed by the pool before it was time to head to the airport for our next stop Auckland with a quick two hour stopover in Sydney.