We had the usual airport shenanigans in Kolkata airport. After finishing our coffees, we exchanged our remaining Indian rupees at a bad rate for Thai baht. When check in opened, we got our bags scanned. Jayna's bag was searched for her aluminium water bottle and a lighter, which was confiscated despite having made it through 18 other countries. Frustrated, we joined the queue to check in and the queue didn’t move. After half an hour of waiting, we joined a different queue, and did eventually reach the front. We progressed through immigration, where we were photographed, and security, where we were thoroughly searched. Ken had problems this time, and had to go through security twice because he had cables in his bag, apparently. In the departure lounge, we found some passable food to while away the time, were frustrated by rude people who do not know how to queue, and waited.

Our plane was due to depart at 12:05am . With a flight time of only two and a half hours, this wasn’t well timed for a good night’s sleep. After boarding, Ken got chatting to a lovely American chap called Justin, who was sat next to us. This was fine but it kept us all awake while they swapped travel stories. The length of the journey was the same as crossing India, west to east from Goa to Kolkata, but this time we passed over Bangladesh, Myanmar/Burma, and half of Thailand, which only reinforced just how sizeable India really is.

On landing in Bangkok, we changed time zone by an hour and a half, which made it 4am. We were tired of course, and got frustrated by the immigration faff. There was no information on where to go, so we followed the crowds to one of the immigration halls. Called 'visa on arrival’, it sounded like it was the hall we needed. After finding and filling out a form, a statement at the bottom said that we could only pay in Thai baht, and we didn’t have enough baht to cover the cost. We went in search of a cash point and failed to find one, instead finding an information point where the woman clarified that we didn’t need ‘visa on arrival’, we needed another immigration hall, and that our visa was free because we were British citizens. Doubtful that this was the case, we headed off to the immigration hall she had said about, and found a couple of security people who told us we wanted another immigration hall, past the ‘visa on arrival’ hall . We picked up Justin on the way and explained what we’d found out, found the correct immigration hall, queued up and were stamped through to Thailand. This involved being photographed but no payment was involved. Relieved, we picked up our baggage, said goodbye to Justin, and headed off to find a way into Bangkok city centre.

As it was 5am, the train service from the airport to the city was not running, leaving us with a choice of waiting, or getting a taxi. We took a metered taxi, which zipped along Bangkok’s streets and arrived at our destination in no time at all. We were staying near Kaoh San Road, an infamous party street in Bangkok. The taxi drove us carefully through Kaoh San Road as we looked for our hotel. Even though it was approaching 6am, the party was still in full swing, with loud music, people dancing, drinking and eating, stalls and shops open, and litter everywhere. We climbed out of the taxi at the end of Kaoh San Road, and located our hotel just around the corner. It was shut. We went back to Kaoh San Road and found a coffee establishment, complete with people still drinking from the previous night. It was all very strange for us tired people.

At 7am we went back to the hotel, and found it was open. We were able to check in straight away, which was lucky because we were dead tired. The hotel room was tiny. It was en suite, but strangely lacked a sink . It had air conditioning and was pretty clean, though unfortunately for us we were placed at the end of the hotel which backed onto the end of Kaoh San Road – which meant it was noisy. We pretty much went to sleep straight away, waking up very late, and putting our sleep pattern out of whack entirely. Later in the afternoon, we went for a wander to get bearings. We saw some temples, crossed a canal, walked along the length of Kaoh San Road and Rambuttri (another party road, adjacent to Kaoh San), and Jayna stroked both a kitten and a puppy. It was a good afternoon.

We found that there were two ideally placed vegetarian restaurants on our hotel’s road. We went to the first and had a lovely evening meal, and were warmly greeted by the staff.

We had warmed to Thailand and Bangkok instantly. After India, we were worried that maybe we’d become travel jaded – that we’d been travelling for too long to appreciate the sights. We realised that this wasn’t the case, that it really was just India that did us in . India was not our country, but Thailand was shaping up to be a great destination.

On Saturday 28th, we woke up later than planned as our sleep pattern was not as it should have been. We wanted to see some of the sights of Bangkok of course, so our first destination was Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace. In fact, our first sight when walking there from our hotel was of a sizeable lizard, catching and taking off with an unfortunate frog, next to the side of a busy road. The Wat Phra Kaew complex was huge and busy. We purchased our entrance tickets and followed the crowds inside, to be confronted with glorious temple after temple. It was so spectacular, close up and in your face that it was hard to take good pictures of. Of course we persevered. We took in the temples and the sights in a fairly logical order, starting with the emerald Buddha in the bòht, or ordination hall. There were no shoes or photos allowed. We took in the view of the Buddha, not actually made from emerald (the statue is made from nephrite, a type of jade) but very pretty all the same, and its ornamentation, and circled the building before getting our shoes . On the way around the building, we discovered the back door was open, and managed to get a couple of snaps of the back of the emerald Buddha before the door was shut again.

Next, we headed to the Upper Terrace to see the Hanuman (monkey deity) and Kinaree (mythological half-swan, half-human) statues, and admired the scale replica of Angkor Wat. We wandered around the outside of the complex to see the murals of Ramakian; paintings lining the walls telling a story of the Sita, the wife of King Rama, who was captured and subsequently rescued in an apparently lengthy and battle filled way. Outside of the walled Wat Phra Kaew complex were the buildings and temples of the Grand Palace, but these were shut to visitors when we were there. After taking these in, we headed out and down the road to our next stop, Wat Pho.

Wat Pho was an area of more grandeur, the main attraction of which was a huge Reclining Buddha (46m long and 15m high!), in gold leaf, in the nirvana position (ie. reclining in death). It was definitely massive and impossible to capture well on camera. Unfortunately for us, the Buddha’s feet were undergoing restoration, so we didn’t get to see the soles of his feet and their ornamentation. In the same complex were more temples and many stupas, together with the largest collection of images of Buddha in Thailand. It was a highly decorated area and well worth a visit .

We took a boat back to near where we were staying, which was a lovely experience. We cruised along and took in the sights of the city from the river, including sunset. After walking back, we had another great meal from the vegetarian restaurant. We decided to go for a drink on Rambuttri road, and picked a bar selling buckets, complete with a chap with a guitar. ‘Buckets’ are plastic buckets that you might use on a beach for building sandcastles, though in this case used for copious amounts of booze, with straws, to be enjoyed collectively. We enjoyed our bucket and the guitar playing, and went to enjoy an evening in the hotel. We’d say a quiet evening, but there was nothing quiet about the music coming from Kaoh San Road.

On Sunday 29th, we had a planning day. We woke up late, again, ate breakfast and made our way to the Mo Chit (Northern and North Eastern) bus station. This was to buy our bus tickets for onward travel. It meant taking a taxi to the bus station and back again, thankfully not too expensive for a 10 km journey . On the way out of the station, we remarked that no one had tried to tell us that the station was closed, mis-direct us, try to sell us a ticket on a fake or other bus, asked us where we were from or where we were going, or anything. It was such a relief!

Determined to do something fun with the day, we went to the park next to the bus station. This involved crossing some dodgy roads and intersections and walking to find the entrance. Here, a helpful security man pointed us to a map of the park, called Queen Sirikit Park. This was a well thought-out, beautiful park, full of different aspects. There were waterways, fountains, grassy areas, statues, a ‘happy place’ rest area, flowers, shrubs, bridges, palm trees, and wildlife. We saw several large lizards, birds and squirrels. We watched a large lizard swim through the canal towards us, until he realised we were there and climbed up the bank instead. The park was blissfully quiet, which was just what we wanted after the hustle and bustle of Kolkata and Bangkok. Before we left, we found a musical fountain – or at least a fountain which worked to background music. The fountain stopped at sunset, and a lizard swimming through the water seemed to know this, and picked his moment to swim up to it and climb on the end of one of the fountain spouts for a rest.

Another taxi ride later, we were back in Bangkok central . We saw that the streets were lit up, with trees decorated in lights lining the large streets. The taxi driver told us that this was because of the King’s birthday on 5 December. The lights were being lit as ‘practice’ to make sure that they worked. It was very pretty.

We had an evening meal from a different place on Rambuttri, which had a comprehensive vegetarian selection. Here, a friendly and tiny cat came and sat on us. He didn’t seem to want the leftover rice but was happy with our company for a while. We walked further down Rambuttri and found a bar which was showing the Formula 1 Abu Dhabi grand prix, the last race of the 2015 season. This we enjoyed, though there was no commentary as there was music playing – coincidentally, this happened to be the same guy we’d seen playing the previous evening. There was a live band playing next door, so when the Formula 1 finished, we went there to see what was on. We thoroughly enjoyed watching them play tunes ranging from Pantera to U2, and System of a Down to Papa Roach. The singer had an amazing imitation AC/DC voice! We got quite tipsy watching the band, and headed back to the hotel very late (for us). Unfortunately, Ken was not well when we got back. We went to sleep late.

On Monday 30th, due to oversleeping and hangovers, we missed our planned activity of the day – a day trip to Ayutthaya, ruins of the former capital of Thailand. Whoops. Instead, we didn’t do very much. A bit of planning, a bit of eating from the other vegetarian restaurant on our road, some reading, watching the Kaoh San Road activities from our window. Not a lot. It was nice to have a relaxed day. As usual, we got prepared for our next leg of the journey. We were moving on to Cambodia, but would return to Thailand for more fun times in the future. Next stop – Siem Reap, Cambodia!