It was an early start to get to Siem Reap, apparently earlier than my body could manage. My train to the border town Aranyaprathet would be leaving at 5:55 and I could only buy a ticket for it on the day of departure. I thought a safe bet would be getting to the train station at 5, which meant checking out and leaving my hostel at 4:30. My alarm woke me up at 3:30 like it was supposed to, but in a flashback to how things are at home, the snooze button was not my friend. The next time I opened my eyes it was 4:50. “Oh shit!” I quickly brushed, got changed, packed the last remaining few things and rushed out the door as quick as I could. I found a taxi fairly quickly. One thing I didn’t factor in though, was how favourable the Bangkok traffic would be at 5:15 in the morning. I ended up getting to the train station by 5:30. I got my ticket with barely a queue in sight and there was still plenty of space on the train. I would have been sitting there with my thumb up my arse for one and a half hours (the train left the station late) if I’d got there when I wanted to!

As I’d previously read, the scenery during the ride was fantastic. There was so much varied, rarely seen (by me) greenery. There were massive mountains in the background and huge, sprawling rice paddies everywhere. Every now and then we’d see people tending to the fields and before long we’d see their houses. Each house was really far from the next but because the water they were built on was so deep, each of the houses was on large wooden support struts, sort of like stilts for a house. They looked pretty cool. It was more or less the same type of stuff for 6 hours but I couldn’t stop looking at it. It barely changed the whole time but it was beautiful.

There were several stages to this journey. I’d thoroughly researched the entire thing but it didn’t stop me feeling bewildered and utterly lost at the next stage. As soon as I stepped off the train I was mobbed by people offering to take me to the Thai border or helping me to get a Cambodian visa (which I didn’t need) or do any number of things for me but they all saw me as a target and were only after my money. I knew all this was coming but it still caught me off guard. About a minute after I’d been in this, a young woman walked past, locked eyes with me and simply said “don’t talk to anyone”. She kept walking and gestured for me to follow. Soon after, a tuk-tuk driver offered to take us both to the border for 60 baht. I was expecting it to cost me 100 solo so 30 was a great deal. I introduced myself to her on the short ride over but the wind was loudly rushing by the speeding tuk-tuk and I didn’t hear what she said when told me her name. Augusta? Augustina? When we got to the Thai border it was not clear where to go but we managed to figure it out. That was just the start though. I got through with no problem but she’d stayed in Thailand one day longer than she had been given permission for. She needed to pay a 500 baht fine but didn’t have it; she was distraught and disappeared without saying anything. I didn’t even realise she’d gone. I looked for her and waited for her to come back so I could help her out but she never showed. I couldn’t wait forever, I didn’t even know her name. I moved on.

There were a couple of hiccups as I cleared “customs” (I could have gone through wherever the hell I wanted and nobody would have known about it) on the Cambodian side but I managed to get through ok.

What I saw when I got to Siem Reap was not expected. A few days earlier in Bangkok, I’d been hearing about severe floods in northern Thailand, of particular interest was the fact that the flood waters were feeding rivers that flow south to Bangkok. The Prime Minister was insistent that Bangkok would be safe but it was clear that nobody was convinced. There were sand bags everywhere and people were even building small brick walls in front of their shops and places of business. I still haven’t checked whether Bangkok was actually hit by the floods in the end. I’d thought that since Siem Reap is further south than Bangkok that it would be fine. It wasn’t. There was massive flooding, enough that in places you could water-ski down the road if you wanted to. People were fishing practically in the middle of the street. Apparently, 250 people have died here because of the floods since September. Even the hostel I was staying in was badly hit but they managed to sort everything out a few days before I got there. I was told by someone that the entire street my hostel is on was flooded, it seriously freaked me out but I later realised that that guy was only trying to get me to stay in some other hostel instead. Arse.

I had an early start the next day. The tuk-tuk driver I’d chosen a day earlier picked me up at 8 and we set off for the first stop, the ticket office for the Angkor temple region. The Siem Reap administration knows that their USP is the astounding beauty of their temples. It’s a really good card to be able to play because Siem Reap is not that big. There is quite a lot to do here, but all the people running these events and activities wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the temples. Since the local government knows how much people want to see these temples they charge a relatively high amount to see them. A one day pass to the region costs $20, this is almost definitely more than most people here earn in a day. And since dinner on any given evening won’t cost more than $3, 20 isn’t cheap. It is completely worth it though and anyone that sees these temples will have no regrets about spending the time or the money needed to do so.

Our first stop in the huge temple region was the most famous one, Angkor Wat. Even if people have never heard of this temple they’ll probably know what it looks like or have seen a picture of it at some point. This world heritage site is the crowning jewel of the many gifts that Cambodia has to offer. It’s stunning and the two and a half hours I spent walking around its grounds were an absolute pleasure. It’s quite big but there isn’t that much to it. The first two levels feature bas reliefs depicting various battles in Hindu and Buddhist mythology (the second also provides a better view of some of the towering gopuras) but the third level is where it’s at. It’s the inner chamber and being in there was very cool. Walking around, you get a really good look at the towers and through the viewing spots in the walls, because you’re so high up, you can see the entire Angkor Wat grounds, including the surrounding forests.

Next was Ta Prohm, 15km away (I mentioned that this area is big, right?) All of the temples I saw that day were amazing but this was definitely a highlight. The temple has huge trees that have grown either on or through the actual rock that the walls are made of. It looks like nothing else I’ve seen, like nature is trying to take it back. And when you actually get to the sheltered sections it’s like being in a maze, there are so many different routes to get to the same place. You can’t really get lost because this one is relatively small but it’s a lot of fun walking around.

We stopped for lunch after that. It was a really hot day and I was wearing jeans (I didn’t want a repeat of that episode in Bangkok) so I needed to recharge. Since the driver was doing such a good job so far I bought him his lunch too.

Onward to the largest complex of temples in the region, Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom is made up of a number of incredible temples but the one at the centre of it (if this was a music festival it would definitely be the headline act), is Bayon. Like Angkor Wat, it’s made up of three levels, the first 2 have bas reliefs (there’s 1km of reliefs at the temple) and the 3rd is the business end, it’s where all the best stuff is. It’s got these towers, each with four sides, all over the place. Every one of the towers has 4 large face carved into it, one for each side. It all looks very distinctive (and cool). Again, there’s sort of a maze-like feel to some areas of the temple but you can’t really lose your way. One thing I did almost lose though was my tuk-tuk driver. It started raining while I was in Bayon and since the rocks were pretty slippery with my flip-flops on I thought I’d better head to the next place. I walked towards where I thought he had gestured but he wasn’t there, then I walked to the next place I thought he might be but still nothing. In the end, I did 2 complete laps around the Bayon grounds, spending 30 minutes doing it but there was no sign of him. Since it was raining this whole time, the muddy roads were not doing me any favours. I had brown splashes and strange stains all over my jeans and t-shirt, I’d hoped (and kept telling myself) that they were just mud but really I knew there was other stuff in there too. The few times I had to walk through questionable looking water and mud (at times with my feet completely submerged in it) were not fun. I looked and smelled fantastic, I’m sure. It was not an easy day, with all the walking and climbing I did I must have gotten a pretty good workout. Also, it was tough helping the driver pull the tuk-tuk out when it got stuck in some really deep mud (the flooding must have caused large sections of the ground to reach their water saturation point). So anyway, since I couldn’t find my driver I just carried on to the next place hoping that since I told him where I was going I’d run into him at some point.

Baphuon was a temple that I had not planned on going to today. Since it was on my way to the next place though and also the fact that I didn’t realise what it was until I got inside, I thought I might as well give it a go. If I had known Baphuon, one of the major temples in Angkor Thom, was so close I would have headed there immediately. It definitely did not disappoint. There was a very long causeway raised high above the surrounding area, leading to the temple. It reminded me a lot of the Lord of the Rings films, especially the Helms Deep and Gondor stuff. Actually now that I think about it, a lot of the main temples in Siem Reap looked like something out of Gondor. I guess I know where those Kiwi filmmakers got their inspiration from. Anyway, this causeway was very impressive. When I actually got inside the temple it seemed ok, as nice as most of the others, but then I climbed a level and it really started to shine. I was beginning to see the point of this place. I climbed higher still, to the top level and the view was incredible. The surrounding forests looked great but the view of the causeway leading first into the main entrance and then into the temple itself was something else. The photos sort of give you an idea of what it was like but it’s difficult to convey the sheer sense of scale, this place was massive. Strangely (probably since we were so high up), there were dozens, maybe hundreds, of large dragonflies flying around above the temple. I’d hardly seen them anywhere else so I’m not sure what they were doing. I didn’t want to leave but it was 4pm and I really wanted to see sunset from the top of another temple. There was still other stuff to do as well so I got going.

Nearby, The Elephant Terrace, was an enjoyable climb and walk decorated with, you guessed it, elephants. It was cool, as was The Terrace of the Leper King. Just as I was making my speedy exit (there aren’t many people trying to sell you things in Angkor Thom but a bunch of them had set up here so I was trying to avoid them), I was looking for another tuk-tuk driver to take me to Phnom Bakheng, my last stop, when I ran into my actual driver. It turned out that he was waiting there for me the whole time because he knew where I’d end up. It’s a shame he didn’t tell me that before. When we got to that last temple at maybe 4:40 it wasn’t a particularly clear sky. I wasn’t hopeful of my chances to actually see sunset but I thought I’d give it a shot. As well as knowing that I wanted to see sunset from this temple, I knew that it was possible to ride an elephant to the top. I enjoyed it too much last time to say no to this. When I got to the top of the small mountain that the temple sits on though, I wished I had sad no. The elephants last time, the ones in Phuket, looked so happy and they were clearly very well treated. These ones didn’t look too lively but I’d just assumed it was because they were tired (I even saw one of them yawning, it was cute). When I was riding on the elephant though, I noticed that the handler had a short, pointy metal pole in his hand and was constantly using it prod the elephant on the top of his head. I wasn’t happy at all when I saw this, I was upset for the whole 20 minute ride up and got off as soon as I could.

The rest of my experience at the temple was much more pleasant. Just like the few other main temples I’ve mentioned, it looked amazing but since this was the highest one in the region, I knew I still had to climb higher to get the full effect. There were a few sections of stone steps, the first one wasn’t much steeper than the steps on the other temples, maybe it was at an angle of 65-70 degrees but the next set of steps was almost vertical. You couldn’t climb these steps without using your hands, it really was something seeing all those people clambering up those steps using both hands and feet to do so. It wasn’t as tough for me getting up as was for some of the others but it was still a bit of a challenge. The view from the top was totally worth it though. I could see for miles upon miles in every direction, the sky looked a lot brighter than it did at the bottom too. There were quite a few people up there that had the same idea as me for seeing sunset from the temple but that day it just wasn’t meant to be. The sky, despite looking brighter than it did at the bottom, was still not clearing quick enough. We got a bit of a peak at sunset but that’s all we got. It was enough for me, the view was amazing even without the sunset.

I headed back down to find my driver (much easier since he told me exactly where he’d be this time!) and we started on the way back to the hostel. It had been a long, tiring day and I was definitely ready to relax a bit. I’d planned on coming back to the temples the next day but since I’d already seen everything I wanted to there wasn’t any point. I’d find something else to do instead…

Getting to the Phuket hostel by taxi was easy enough. As was finding our way around, the hostel is in a fantastic location right in the heart of the most touristy area, Patong. I would normally have thought of that as a bad thing but it was just so easy finding excellent bars, restaurants and clubs that none of us cared. Another bonus was that we were less than a 10 minute walk from the beach. After getting our bearings on the first day and negotiating a great deal for our tours (one of them was for a day of whitewater rafting then elephant trekking in the jungle and the other was for a day of island hopping), we headed to a pub for a drink. After unwinding a little we walked to the beach for sunset. We had a good view but missed the actual sunset, it was still very nice though.

The next day for the first tour, almost everyone else in our group did not speak English. It was ok though because we still had a great time. The weather was fantastic (one of the only days during our stay that it wasn’t rained out), and we were off to a good start with the monkey cave, well more of a monkey playground really, the cave looked too shit to warrant paying the entry fee. The monkeys were entertaining though.

Next up was a half an hour drive to the river for whitewater rafting. The guys were really excited when we got there and started gearing up but I was a bit sceptical about how good it would be because of the handful of photos I’d seen. I was right to be sceptical. It was a fun experience because I was with the guys and everything and they absolutely loved it but it was nothing compared to last year when Jill and I whitewater rafted in Zambia on one of the best rafting rivers in the world. This river was almost still in comparison, it was much slower, narrower, shorter and less exciting. The rapids were weak sauce.

There were some close calls where we almost fell out of the raft but the foot straps in there near enough guaranteed that we wouldn’t (the raft in Zambia didn’t have them). If we had fallen in it would not have been fun though. Since the river was significantly narrower than the Zambezi in Zambia (I’d estimate it was less than 20% of the width), if one of us did actually fall out, it was much more likely that we’d go head first into one of the many rocks there. On the plus side, at least there were no crocodiles in the river like there were in Zambia!

The group split into two for the next part. The first group stayed for lunch and the second (of which we were a part) left to do the elephant trekking. It was a very strange feeling setting foot on an elephant. At first the ride was very sedate and relaxing (possibly even a little boring) but it quickly picked up when we started going up some of the steeper gradients in the jungle. We (Sundip and I on one, Rocky and Raj were on another one), were sitting in a seat for two but after short while, the elephant handler hopped off to take pictures of us and offered one of us a chance to “drive”. Sundip didn’t seem keen so I said yes almost straight away. It was so strange sitting on that elephant’s neck as it was walking. With every step it took I could feel its huge shoulder blades moving underneath me and as I had my hands on its head to steady myself, I could feel how rough its hair was, it was like moving your hands over the bristles of a tough, outdoor broom. I’m very glad I made every effort to steady myself up there, I was a long way from the ground and it felt like I was going to fall off with almost every step. It was especially nerve racking on the steep climbs and descents. There was a point during the trek where the elephant (with both me and Sundip still on his back) went into the river for a brief walk, it didn’t seem like it at the time but he was supposed to go that way. I was also reminded of a story my friend Avtar once told me. He was on elephant back in India when the elephant decided to go cool off in some water. Shortly after entering the water, the elephant took a huge gulp of water and sprayed it backwards (directly at Avtar) with its trunk. It sent Avtar flying and left him with a massive bruise all the way across his chest. Nothing like that happened to me but the thought was not a pleasant one! I knew elephants are huge having seen them up close but each footprint this elephant was leaving in the jungle mud was just massive, there was so much water in the elephant prints that had been left there previously, it was ridiculous.

After the trek, we had the chance to feed the elephants bananas. Rocky decided to do it and the elephants ate those bananas like there was no tomorrow! I could tell that the elephants were being well treated, otherwise I might have thought they were underfed. They must just really love bananas. Who knew?

It wasn’t just the elephant lunch that was (apparently) tasty, the one they provided for us was too.

After that we were nicely energised for our on-foot jungle trek. In the end, it wasn’t really much of a trek, in this case it was all about the destination, not the journey. At the end of the trail we reached an amazing waterfall. The waterfall itself was very nice but it was the pool of water it fed that was really interesting. The pool was quite deep near the waterfall itself but got shallow very quickly as you moved away from it. There were some rocks and trees to the right that could be climbed relatively easily and since the pool was so deep, the only logical (and clearly sane) thing to do was to climb said rocks, the high point of which was maybe 4 metres, and then jump into the pool. We climbed and we jumped. It was brilliant, I went back for another go.

The 2 hour journey back to the hostel went quickly and so did the time we spent at the hostel before heading out. It was going to be another big night but one of us wouldn’t be coming. Sundip wasn’t feeling well so told us fairly early on in the night that he couldn’t make it out. We made sure he was ok then set off.

There are SO MANY bars and clubs on the main road in Patong, with everywhere I’ve been I haven’t seen a higher concentration of them on a single street anywhere. The road isn’t very long, it takes maybe 5 minutes to walk down it but it must have had at least 200 different places to drink on it, and loads of clubs, restaurants, dodgy massage parlours and tourist booths as well. Our first stop for the night was one of the many bars with Thai women dancing on the bar itself. After a couple of drinks, some of the women that are up there dancing step down to play games like Yahtzee and Connect4 with the people drinking there. It was a little weird, we didn’t stay long. The next bar was a little more interesting. There was torrential rain outside by this point of the night; everyone had taken cover inside the bars and clubs. Our bar was cool though because it was on the second story but it was still open so we could see outside without getting wet. There were a bunch of (obviously drunk) people outside dancing in the rain. After we got bored we went to what would be our final stop for the night. It was only maybe 1 or 2 so we were thinking we’d move on after a little while but it was just so much fun that we stayed the whole night.

The whole next day was more or less wasted and pretty much the only thing we did before dinner was go to Sweet Lemongrass Massage. It came highly recommended on Trip Advisor so we knew there wouldn’t be any funny business going on. Trip Advisor was right, the massage was excellent and it was Rocky’s favourite of all of Thailand, though his experience was probably a little soured because of the fact that he lost his phone on the way back to the hostel. I really liked my massage too but I still rate the two hour one I had in Bangkok as possibly the best one I’ve ever had. Raj enjoyed his too but he wasn’t particularly vocal about it. Sundip didn’t come and it was during dinner that he told us he didn’t want to go on the island hopping tour we’d booked for the next day either, this was despite the fact that he’d already paid his share.

I’ve written too much already so I have to wrap this up but Sundip can probably be glad he didn’t come, he definitely would have thrown up on that boat or worse (use your imagination) but I will say despite the seriously heavy rain we had that day, the beaches were incredible, probably the nicest I’ve seen. The towering rock structures in the water were close enough to make the view amazing but not so close that they made swimming in the sea unsafe. They were covered with lush, green vegetation and surrounded by some of the bluest water I’d ever seen. On the beach itself, the sand underfoot was the softest I’d ever felt, it almost didn’t feel like sand, it was more like I was walking on mashed potatoes or something. (I realise that doesn’t sound particularly pleasant but it felt great). Snorkeling was very cool too, much better than Langkawi because the water was so much deeper. I think that experience has convinced me to do some scuba dives here too. I might write a separate post if I end up doing that.

Phuket had a few more big nights and a lot more wasted time, what can I say, 26 year olds don’t recover as quickly as university students, but what it really gave me was a lesson about myself. I was sad to see my best friends go but not as sad as I should have been. I couldn’t have changed so much on this trip that I’m not even upset to say goodbye to the only piece of home I’ve had in a month, right? I must have. It seems that even at 26, nothing is set and a catalyst for personality change can be something as small as a few weeks away from home.

Top: Waterfall Jump!; Above: Bangla Road, main street in Patong

I haven’t actually been travelling for very long so far. 5 weeks is not a huge length of time (and one of those weeks doesn’t even count because I was just with Jill in Detroit, not exactly the most difficult or exotic of circumstances to find myself in). Nevertheless, because of the type of travelling I’ve been doing, moving from place to place, living out of my backpack, eating, drinking and travelling with people that I knew I’d only be with for a few days at a time, it feels like it’s been a lot longer than 5 weeks. Home is becoming a more and more distant memory with every passing week.

I knew that this would be set right in a big way on this leg of my trip; I knew that my 3 best friends would be joining me for Bangkok and Phuket and that we’d have as legendary a time as we do on all of our other trips, but it taught me something I wasn’t expecting about myself too.

From Bangkok airport I took a taxi to the hotel the guys had booked (and generously paid my share for as well). I called on the way there to let them know I was almost there (and to ask where the hotel was because the non-English speaking taxi driver had no bloody idea). Eventually, with the help of the Google Translate iPhone app (big thanks to Steve Jobs and Google!), I managed to get relatively close to the hotel but still had to walk for about 20 minutes in the Bangkok heat, with my two backpacks on before I got there. It was a massive relief when I finally did though, even more than it normally is when I get to my accommodation. After I got up to the room I was stunned by how nice it was. The hostels I’d been staying in so far were good but this was on another level, it’s possibly the nicest hotel room I’ve ever stayed in and it was only £40 per night. Everything was immaculate and ultra-modern. It had every convenience you could possibly want and the rooftop pool and view of Bangkok were amazing. We had some really cool Hangover 2 style moments up there :) It was great seeing the guys again when they got back to the hotel, we all gave each other big hugs and I had a great time filling them in on the trip so far (I guess my best friends are too busy to read this website!) They looked pretty fresh (it was maybe 4:30 in the afternoon at this point) but it turned out that they’d only woken up a couple of hours earlier. I probably could have guessed it would happen but this fact set the tone for large sections of the rest of the trip, their previous night, their first in Bangkok, had been a big one, it sounded pretty cool. Though it wasn’t as cool as my first night in Bangkok ended up being!

Once I’d finished admiring the room and had left my stuff in the room safe (it was funny seeing Rocky’s face when he first got in and saw me standing in the room with the safe door open – his choice of lock combinations is far too predictable), we headed out and the guys introduced me to the surrounding area. We’d all comment on it at various points of our 2 night stay in Bangkok but the streets bloody stink. Now I’m not an ignorant xenophobe, I know that different countries have different cultures and cuisines but this smell wasn’t just the food, it was everything. We quickly learned not to breathe in when we were near a manhole and everywhere else, the aromas of the exotic cooking ingredients were combining to leave an unpleasant feel to the air every which way we went. That first day, we all wanted a massage so we found a nice looking place and each went for the two hour Thai oil option. I felt fantastic afterwards, my massage was outstanding. (I wouldn’t feel so hot later that night, the fact that we all got smashed negated any positive effects the massages might have had. Oh well, live and learn!) Anyway we felt great after our massages and headed out in search of a bar, the first decent one we found was, surprise surprise, an Irish one. We ordered a few pints and before we knew it this American guy came up to us and asked if we’d like to take part in the pub quiz. This really was turning into a little piece of home! There were a lot of cool people in the pub that night but some creepy ones too, like the old English guy that kept telling me about his 30 year old Thai wife and the fact that he had skin cancer. He told me some pretty messed up stuff, luckily the pub quiz was at hand to help me forget about it. Our team picked English Language and recent technology news for our double points round, most of the questions fell to me since the guys weren’t up to the challenge but unfortunately, my lack of recent Internet access meant that I wasn’t either. We got 24 points for that first round, which for a short while put us on top. Our egos were inflated but that didn’t last long either, at the end of the game we were dead last. We headed back to the hotel after that for pre-game round 2. As they always do, the guys had bought two bottles of vodka and two of Captain Morgan for the trip. We poured a few drinks and kept the night going. Rocky was (also as usual) more drunk than the rest of us and so was causing some trouble but it was all good fun. We headed up to the roof pool next. The view was amazing up there, it was a 360 degree panorama of the Bangkok skyline, the pool lighting was really cool (I almost got a much closer look than I would have liked when Raj and Rocky almost threw me in), and the company was fantastic. It was perfect up there.

The next stop was the backpacker nirvana, Khao San road. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a street filled with bars, clubs, shit restaurants, hostels and street hawkers selling cockroaches, assorted bags full of nasty deep fried bugs and various other disgusting foods that you’d only ever eat if you were really drunk. It’s wild, it’s hedonistic, it’s way, way over the top, or in other words, it’s exactly the thing you’d want in a city as seedy and disgusting as Bangkok. We met a couple of Australians soon after our taxi dropped us off. Eli was cool but Rory was already a mess. They were obviously drunk and since we were too, we (I) kindly obliged when they dared us to eat a horrible looking and smelling dried squid. It tasted horrible and I gagged constantly as I chewed and tried swallowing it but I got it down eventually and the dudes were suitably impressed. As we were walking down this street packed with young tourists looking for a big night and locals with rolling metal carts filled with assorted nasties, we were running into all sorts of interesting sights and sounds, everyone there was on it and there were all sorts of random shit like break dancing going down. As we passed the various bug carts, Eli and Rory were daring us to eat more and more stuff. One of the next ones was a cockroach, I put it in my mouth and started chewing while trying to think about anything else, but it was just too disgusting and I had to spit it out. Rocky later succeeded in eating one but he didn’t look happy about it. We all hand handfuls of the lucky dip mixed bug bags though, I think they had things like grasshoppers and maggots in them, we also ate these deep fried frogs but they were horrible too. It was a relief to finally sit down at a bar and carry on drinking when the guys were done with that stuff. The famous Thai buckets we ordered each had six shots of vodka and Red Bull in them; they did not go down well. I have no idea what the place we ended up in was called but there were a lot of cool people inside. I lost track of the guys pretty quick after getting in but I had a great time in there. The only problem was that the clubs close so early. Everything was done by 2am but what we didn’t know is that the party continues on the street itself afterwards. Everyone came out and the break dancers and food and stuff were still there but now there was much louder music playing in the street. It was like a massive rave and people were going crazy.

We all slept well that night.

The following day was a late start at maybe 12pm but we decided to do something productive. After “breakfast” (Sundip and Raj didn’t get out of bed until 2:30 so we had to wait for them), we headed towards the temples of Bangkok, unfortunately when we left we didn’t know that we were inappropriately dressed and would not be granted entry to any of them. Even worse, by the time we got there the temples were all closing so we couldn’t even change clothes and come back. Instead of going to the temples, we settled on a boat tour on the main river. There wasn’t really much to see but the flimsy, make-shift houses by the sides of the river were kind of cool. The ride was definitely more interesting because of all the rain and the choppy waves too. After wandering around for a few hours and re-charging at the hotel for a bit we found our next activity for the day, an evening of Muay Thai fighting.

It was a pain finding the stadium but was well worth it when we did. Well, for a while at least. The fights were really cool and everything, they did the ceremonial dancing at the start of each one and there were some brutal knock-outs where dudes had to be stretchered away (one of them wasn’t even moving at the end of the fight) but the whole thing was 4 and a half hours long and towards the end it was definitely starting to drag. We had great seats because we paid for ring-side (there was rampant betting going on in the cheaper seating areas) but even with the great view some of the fights were a bit boring.

It wasn’t a particularly late night for us but Phuket was calling.

Top: Good times now!; Above: Bad times coming!