Arriving in Bangkok

Due to our short delay leaving Bejing we arrived in Bangkok even later than planned. But the public buses here are excellent, and it was no problem finding the bus to the backpacker enclave of Khao San Road (as usual the bus was actually waiting for us, and pulled off within a minute!).

On arrival at Khao San Road though I was hit by probably the strongest sense of culture shock of this entire trip so far, and the reason was simply the shear number of Western backpackers milling about. Even after all this time travelling I have never experienced such a concentration of identi-kit travellers in all my life - all of them seemingly dressed in the same T-shirts and shorts, with tans, tattoos and body piercings and all trying ever so hard to look cool and different!

Anyway, the crowds of backpackers immediately had me worried about getting a room, or least getting a reasonably priced one. I immediately headed away from Khao San itself to the adjoining streets I'd stayed in before, but every hostel we tried was either full or very expensive. But after continuing to stroll away from the main strip we eventually found a lovely place for a good price, Peachy Guesthouse for 400 baht a night.

We spent the next day just strolling about the local area, and discovering that the National Museum and the Gallery are both closed on Mondays and Tuedays (not being told by a tuk-tuk driver, actually reading the plaques outside!).

The following day we again just strolled about, paid for Indian visas to be processed while waiting for a night bus that evening to Krabi in the South. The plan was to try and meet up with Sean Mullins, who was making his way up though Malaysia, and to spend some time on the famous southern beaches of Thailand. So at 6pm our bus duly arrived and off we went.