We arrived in a muggy Bangkok around 10am (this train was only running 3 hours late!). The journey from Chang Mai was great. The train was a little different to the overnight trains we’d experienced in Vietnam – this time we didn’t have individual cabins – the whole carriage was open and the seats at your station made up into bunk beds. The train crew come by throughout the evening to make up your beds for you. Despite not having our own, little cabin, we slept really well (we were a little worried when we spotted a little girl getting on the train with a massive Casio keyboard, but she saved her practising for breakfast time). The bunks were so comfortable and apart from the occasional chronic snorer, it was great (pretty much everyone went to bed around 10pm!)
The staff on the train were also noticeably happier and more friendly (they actually took drink orders from your seats, so you didn’t need to walk to the catering car, which was an absolute bonus). We ordered dinner on the train and got an absolute feast for the price of £4 - bargain!
After arriving back at the Bangkok Centre Hotel (where we started our trip), we chilled out for a bit before heading out for shoe shopping (Arran chose to sit this activity out). We had plans to go to the luxurious Sky Bar and catch a show later on, so we desperately needed to buy some "going out" shoes (we didn’t think our flip flops would get us past the front door of the Sky Bar!). Fon took us to the most amazing shopping mall. It’s the largest mall in Thailand and is also a wholesale mall, so the clothes and shoes are already pretty cheap, but if you by multiple items you can negotiate a further discount. Each floor was dedicated to a different item – bags, shoes, clothes etc, so we made our way up to the shoes. It took so long to look round all the shops (easily 2 hours), but in the end we got an absolute bargain - £6 a pair.
After an early dinner we headed out for the Lady Boy Cabaret show. It was great fun, although we were sitting quite close to the front so we did find some of the lady boys more convincing than others – the strong jaw and hands are a big giveaway.
We then headed over to the Sky Bar, the bar used in the Hangover Part 2 movie. It was so busy, obviously the movie has had a big impact on this place.
Amazing views from the top of the Sky Bar and a really funky jazz band, but at £10-20 for a drink we only stayed to soak up the views and atmosphere, so we headed over to another bar in town for some farewell drinks to Vicki and our tour leader Fon! (Thanks for everything guys, it’s been great).
We’ve now checked into our last hotel, the aptly named Hip Boutique Hotel in the centre of the CBD. We’ll be staying here for the next two nights and we’re planning on just chilling out at the pool and relaxing in the roof top bar, before we embark on our long haul flight home on Friday morning!
