kiwifiddy: Bangkok and Koh Pha Ngan

After our busy detour to Singapore we headed back to Bangkok to continue holidaying. And we have figured out the mystery behind our silence and inability to communicate over the past months. After the shock of the real world in Singapore we retreated very far into the depths of Thailand and have been hiding out ever since!

We found that there are a huge amount of people in Bangkok doing just that, hiding from life. So we fitted right in, so much so that we stayed much longer than we planned doing much of nothing.
We spent some very interesting nights, in a dingy guest house in the back streets of Bangkok with some very interesting people.

There was one particular night we found ourselves at 4am sitting at our guest house with a couple of friends surrounded by, the schizophrenic American lady, the crying drunk Japanese lady involved in very heated domestics, the guest house manager almost passed out on a lounger trying to hold a conversation (in Thai) with the incoherent Japanese man (speaking in Japanese) and then of course the Downs Syndrome friend of the guest house who was busy doing guest house paper work which consisted of paper all over the floor and being hiding it in random jars and nooks and crannies. Makes you wonder what the heck all of these people are doing in Bangkok.

For a big city we found a lot of time to relax.

Here is how some of hour many hours were spent

More time spent relaxing and sampling the local food

A local mode of transport that we discovered to get around, through the cities canals. You have to be pretty quick jumping on and off though, they don't like to wait.

The huge shopping complex MBK, there are about 7 floors of everything. The escalators are so high they give you vertigo!

On our first flying visit through Bangkok we discovered the weekend market and just had to return the following week. It’s crazy, there are tens of thousands of stalls and even now after 3 visits we are still yet to say that we have done the Weekend markets. Pretty much, anything you want you can find at the Weekend market.

Brock shopping the markets, he was much better at it than me, I just didn't have the stamina!! Too much shopping.

However the markets are where I discovered my new favourite sweet treat. Healthiness wrapped up in sweetness, it tricks you into believing you are eating delicious ice cream whilst actually maintaining your slender form! Frozen banana on a stick, dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with almonds!

It wasn't all fun, games and shopping in Bangkok though. The local hospital in Nepal didn't quite work out for Brock and so we ended up at the very flash looking Bangkok Hospital. And so began the headache of dealing with insurance companies.

After a few trips back and forwards and many emails with the insurance we did eventually get it sorted with some more advanced (digital) x-rays done Brock was sent away with something a little bit more serious looking.

On the left, local hospital Nepal and on the right, private hospital Bangkok

We love the fact that not only is there Mirinda left out for the Gods, but that it is opened and straws are added for convenience.

Kao San Road. I don't even know what to say ... Here on Kao San Road you will find it all, the good, the bad and the terrible. It is a serious back packer ghetto. And this is where we were introduced to the tourists that make you embarrassed to be a tourist! The locals hate them, 'real' travelers hate them, I think even their friends don't like them! Kao San Road goes all day and all night and consists of Thailand tourists overindulging on very cheap alcohol and basically just being arrogant tourists.

Kao San Road is the drop off point for so many tourists before or after living it up in the South of Thailand where we discovered more of the same sort of tourist. They are very different to the travelers that we had met along the way. These kinds of tourists basically come for the cheap alcohol and beaches. They come for 1-2 weeks to get out as much as they can from Thailand.
Because of this the South of Thailand has become a very 'well oiled machine', where a huge amount of tourists are shipped in and out daily. To the locals tourists have just become a necessary evil unfortunately. We found it really sad and only found pockets of locals here and there that did not just make assumptions because we were white skinned 'tourists'.

So after finally extracting ourselves from Bangkok we decided to head South (with the masses) to the beaches! Now this is the beginning of 3-4 weeks of beaches, some of you may not want to scroll any further ...

We started off in a secluded resort on a private beach and enjoyed the quiet and luxury for awhile. We explored the island on scooters and bikes and found some good local food! But after a few days we felt too secluded, we weren't used to living it up on the beach in our resort so we packed or backs and found something a little more like us.