Tuesday 8th April 2008

We set our alarm nice and early this morning, because we were checking out of the Rambuttri Village. As Mark and Lisa have come all the way from home to see us, we thought we'd make an effort and check into the same hotel as them. Hey, three days in a 5-star hotel couldn't be a bad thing after some of the beds we've slept in this year. It was about 9am when we set off to meet them and nobody wanted to take us - I don't know whether it was the distance, the time of day or the fact that it was a pretty posh place, but everyone was quoting stupid prices. In the end, we did manage to get someone and we were on our way... well, sort of. He was driving us for ages - and was pretty stressed out in the traffic, saying we were paying too little, but soon pulled over for us to get out. The thing was, it was the wrong hotel. We were staying at the Amari Atrium and he'd brought us to the Amari Watergate. If we thought he was unhappy before, we hadn't seen anything yet. Suddenly he was driving like a lunatic - whizzing off and then braking suddenly and shaking his head the whole time. It was a relief to finally make it without him throwing us or himself out of the moving tuk-tuk. We did feel sorry for him and gave him some extra Baht, which he snatched as he screeched away!

The Amari Atrium is LUSH! We walked up to big doors that lead into the lobby and weren't sure if they were going to turn a couple of backpackers away. Thankfully, they didn't and we were soon checking in. We knew we didn't have breakfast included in our rate, but asked anyway and then found that we didn't have either a pool view or a room on the same floor as Mark and Lisa - even though they had our request. This was something we thought we'd remember for later... ha ha ha [evil villain laugh].

We met up with Mark and Lisa in their room (the poor loves were knackered and were snoozing when we got there... well, that was their excuse for being half dressed). It was great fun catching up after so long away and we spent ages just chatting. After a while we all decided to go out and catch the free shuttle over to one of the big shopping centres in Siam Square. We were all starving and had a McDonalds for our lunch, but we couldn't really be bothered to look around the shops, plus Mark and Lisa were pretty tired because they'd been up for nearly 24 hours - so we made our way back to the hotel and all crashed out by the pool.

After a pretty relaxing afternoon, we thought we'd show Mark and Lisa what Bangkok and more importantly the Khao San road had to offer... plus I had my final suit fitting over there (ha ha). We had been having trouble with taxis and tuk-tuks all day and even now people were pulling up and then not wanting to take us anywhere - so the woman on the door of the hotel suggested we catch one of the water taxis that run up and down the canals of the city. For one - we didn't know there were such things and two, canals? But we were willing to give it a try. They were possibly the craziest way we have travelled... on this WHOLE trip. We were expecting a little boat to slowly pull up, but instead got some huge barge thing - that was absolutely motoring along. It slammed itself into the walls of the pier to slow down and then there was a rush of people jumping on. We all got dragged along and the driver was already pulling away before I was onboard. The trip along the canal was mental. The only thing that was stopping us from getting soaked was a small sheet of plastic - it didn't work, me and Mark got covered in smelly canal water... lovely. We got to the other end and then walked the short distance to the Khao San road. It's been pretty quiet for the last couple of days - but it was back to it's old self tonight and was absolutely buzzing! We headed over to my tailor and left Mark and Lisa in a bar while I tried on the suit for one last time. It was finally finished and looks really cool! We all met up and then went for some food on the streets. Afterwards, we went back to the Khao San road and hit some bars.

The first one we went in was selling large bottles of beer for 59 Baht and within no time at all we'd drunk 6 of them. We got our things together and went off in search of some music. As we were staggering down the street, we came across one of the street sellers, selling food... barbecued insects. Feeling rather peckish, I order a cooked grasshopper, and gobbled it up in one. It wasn't actually that bad - and I wasn't ill, but I did pass on more for dessert. We came across another bar which, although more expensive (but still cheap), had a live Asian rock band... come on! We spent a couple of hours in here and it was AMAZING! The band were really good, the staff were great and we were having a great time. After a couple more rounds of beer, Mark and Lisa started buying us Vodka & Redbull. We rocked away until about 2am and then went to find somewhere that was showing the Arsenal vs Liverpool match. Being a Liverpool fan, Mark was desperate but, no sooner had we found somewhere, the beer started flowing again and it was just on in the background.

At half time we caught a tuk-tuk back to our hotel and asked him to rush because we wanted to watch the second half... ooopps. Four of us in the back was bad enough, but throwing in the fact that our driver was a nutter really made it a fun ride. Pulling away from the lights a couple of times, he even managed to pull the front-wheel off the floor. We made it safely back and all piled into Mark and Lisa's room (it was cheaper for us to raid their mini-bar). We all lay on the giant bed and in no time at all the girls were starting to crash out. Mark wasn't far behind although, with the excitement of the footie, he did a strip for us first, bounced around on the bed for five minutes and then fell off... night Mark!

Carlsberg don't do nights out - but if they did, they'd probably be like tonight with Mark & Lisa!