Thailand- Bangkok

So yesterday we decided to venture out in the morning for a wonder, this wasn't a good idea when we soon realised everywhere was shut because it was a Sunday! So after a short, smelly walk around the block we spent the majority of the day by the pool!

At 6pm we then met up with our next group, there is a range with ages, but everyone seems lovely so far! We all went for dinner and then headed onto koh San road, by bus (that's an experience). The road is know for travellers. It was packed with bars and shops, with lots of people selling fried spiders, scorpions and cockroaches! You also see a few ladyboys and get offered 'ping pong' shows, they are not ping pong! I will let you look them up yourselves! We did a bit of shopping in this busy street and then stopped for a cocktail and to use the wifi (you have to pay for it in the hotel!) before getting a tuk tuk back to the hotel, it has to be done in Bangkok! 

Thailand- When in Bangkok

13/06/15

After spending out last day in Bali at Potato Head beach club again, relaxing all day and then watching the sunset, we said goodbye to Lara and then got an early night for our flight in the morning. 

It had been so good having a week in sense hotel, actually being able to unpack our rucksacks, but this was now over to head to Thailand. For a change our flight was pretty smooth and roughly on time arriving in Bangkok at 11.30am. This however was about to change upon arrival! We thought our safest bet would be to book a taxi through the airport, we after an hours driving and lots of traffic we appeared at a hotel, we both had a bad feeling about it and checked with the driver, who was sure we were at the right place. 

Turns out yet again, we had been dropped in completely the wrong place! We then had to get another taxi, luckily he spoke better English so there was no confusion as to where we were going. 

We are staying at the Royal Princess Larn luang, it is actually a very nice hotel which we were glad about as from what we hVe seen on Bangkok from driving through, it is not the nicest place! I wouldn't come for a holiday. It is crazy how different parts of the world can be from home. 

After getting some lunch we decided to book a ladyboy show, it's got to be done when you are in the capital for ladyboys! As we had some time to kill the hotel driver took us to Gems Gallery, the worlds largest jewellery store, we got to see how they make all the jewellery and see the Gems, Ruby's, Silver and Gold. 

Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos but in production they hD a few rows of people carefully shaping, cutting and adding the stones onto the jewellery, it must be difficult due to the size of the pieces themselves. They then had the showrooms full of all the jewellery you could imagine which you could then purchase, I don't think they quite understood when I said I couldn't afford a £4000 ring as she just said, it's okay you can pay on card! 

It then got to the time of day we were most excited about, the ladyboy show. We got dropped to the area by the riverside which was a lot nicer than what we had seen of Bangkok so far, it was full of restaurants and markets, along with its own 'Bangkok eye'. 

The show went was held in an amazing theatre with 5 seats to a table. It was amazing how much they actually looked like regular females. Of course it was very glitz and glam and they played songs from a raver of cultures. My favourite part had to be the Beyoncé set, one of the Ladyboys had dressed to look like Beyoncé, and he/she really pulled it off! 

I would say it is definitely something you have to do in Bangkok, even though  parts were quite cringy! 

Bali- 'Transport ladyboy?'

For our second last day in Bali we decided to go and get ourselves a nice cheap massage in the morning. This was all going well until the women who started to massage me swoped with the man, next thing I knew he was straddling me! That was a bit of a shock to the system, a little Indonesian man sat on my bum! After I came to terms with it, it was actually a good massage and I only paid £2 for half an hour!

We then spent the rest of the day by the hotel pool, and wondered round the shops. The shopping here is really good, but not as cheap as you would hope for! When your on a budget window shopping was the better option. 

As we were wondering more to the edge of the town you stumbled across a little market, where you can bargain to get everything so cheap, it had some really cool stuff. However you did realise you were coming into the market zone when a taxi driver shouted at us 'you want transport ladyboys!' I thought I just heard him wrong, apparently not, not only do we stand out to the Indonesian people they also thought we were ladyboys! 

Bali- Beaches and Celebrations

So we arranged earlier in the week to have a driver pick us up at 9 in the morning in order to spend half a day going to different beaches, and to fit in some water sports, a temple and lunch. 

Out first stop was the water sports beach... 

Expectations: arrive at a beautiful long sandy beach have a wonder along, paddle in the sea and have a look at the options for water sports, it would all depend on the price. 

Reality: greeted at the car door and taken to a resturant type place, sat and shown all the options for water sports and prices, basically pressured into picking something straight away! Luckily we could barter the price down for the 3 of us to do the doughnuts! Next thing we knew we were sat on a doughnut in the sea looking back at this smaller, kind of dirty beach (There is a lot of rubbish in Bali). 

I am however very glad that we needed up ok these doughnuts just to witness Lara's reaction the whole time, ive never seen her so scared! 

We then went to a few more beaches which did meet our expectations, beautiful sandy beaches and lovely views.

We then were taken to a temple in Uluwatu where we had to wear these purple sarongs to enter and were told to watch our personal items because of cheeky monkeys! Here we got to see an amazing view of the coast as well as the temple. We then headed on to Padang Padang for lunch on the beach.

We spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool and I recieved all my university grades, finding out that I will graduate with a 2:1! This obviously called for celebration with a few bottles of wine and a meal at Motel Mexicola. Which is a really cool, obviously Mexican, restaurant which was decorated with lots of colours, had a DJ, and was very busy, it is definitely worth going to if you find yourself in Seminyak in Bali. 

This was one of those rare days for me when something funny doesn't happen, oh wait no, I had 2 Bambooda insects getting a bit fruity on my top! 

Bali- 'Freckly Monster'

Your probably wondering why this post is called 'Freckly Monster' well I shall get onto that in a minute...

Today we decided to take a chill day and head down to the Potato Head Beach Club in Seminyak, know in Bali as a good place to visit. (Tip: if you want a sun bed get there early), we found this out before hand which was a good job as when we arrived half an hour early there was already a queue! 

We spent the day relaxing, going in the pool and sitting at the bar which was in the pool with cocktails, it was pretty cool! Anyway the reason for this name of this post is because one very drunk Australain man said to me 'Oh your a freckly monster aren't you, you best get yourself in the shade, your going to burn.' Now this may not seem funny to you but at the time it was, especially even people I don't know seem to be in on the 'pale amy' joke! 

I then ended this day to the good news of getting a 2:1 in my dissertation! So it was even more of a reason for the 'cheeky' bottle of champers, a lovely way to spend the day! 

Bali- Elephants and Coffee Poo

We arranged to have a driver take us to Bali zoo and to bring us back as it was an hour and a bit journey which worked out cheaper with a driver.

we arrived at the zoo and booked tickets which included a 15 minute elephant ride, you don't need any longer than that (they are so slow). This cost us all 877,000IDR about £42 each, which is not too bad! Obviously we headed straight to the elephants! They were so amazing and tame, we had 2 between us on the ride and then got to go and feed them after, they really love food! 

After this we looked round the zoo and were really shocked to see how small the cages were for most the animals, it was quite sad! We quickly moved on to the restaurant for lunch and to get the chance to hold a baby crocodile and monkey. The monkey was the cutest fluffier thing I've ever seen! I really want one! 

On the way back our driver then took us to a coffee plantation to see how they make their coffee and to see animal which makes the Luwak coffe by eating the coffee plant and pooing out the beans! Apparently the most expensive coffee in the world and the best.