According to the in-flight magazine, Bangkok is also known as the City of Angels or as the Big Mango. A quick Wikipedia search confirms this amusing nickname.

To get to our apartment, we hopped on the very efficient and easy to use Sky Train. We are staying very near the Saphan Taksin station, in an Air BnB place owned by the lovely Mac and Noi (from USA and Thailand respectively). Despite the great reviews, we have had mixed success with Air BnB so far, but had high hopes for this one. It started out well as we waited for Mac to come and meet us at the pub he also owns, which serves a great range of beers from around the world and seems to have an extensive whisky collection too. As we waited for Mac, the heavens opened and the rain was bouncing off the ground. It is the rainy season here, but we had been incredibly lucky with the weather so far. We learnt pretty quickly though that when the wind starts to pick up, a torrential downpour will soon follow, and its best to run for cover. We figured we would be waiting for a while and a beer helped pass the time. When Mac arrived he was great! He gave us lots of useful tips and information, and even suggested a temple which offered ‘legitimate massages, not the dodgy sort’ for 200 baht for two hours. Yep that’s less than £4.

Of course the Air BnB curse sort of played out again, and the place we had booked was no longer available. However, they had another place which was closer to the Sky Train and the river so we agreed to stay there instead. When we arrived, the place was hotter than the sun and amazingly humid, but after a little encouragement from Graham, we were given the remote for the air conditioning and found ourselves in a very nice room, on a beautiful, tree lined lane. Its a little oasis in the middle of a bustling city.

We had saved a few essential jobs to do in Bangkok, as it seemed that it would be easier to purchase things here. Graham needed new contact lenses so Mac took him to his optician who happened to have the correct prescription in stock. Job number one was ticked off within 10 minutes. Everything else proved equally straightforward and by dinner time we were done and ready to enjoy a few days in the city. In this relaxed state of mind, we made our mistake….

We saw a lovely little restaurant just round the corner from our house, which even had English on the menu. They provided us with an album full of photographs of the meals – this was going to be excellent. I ordered a mango salad and Graham ordered a papaya salad. We asked for medium spice, and I’m sure you can imagine the rest. From now on, I think no spice is the only option. Oh. My. Goodness. It blew our heads off. Graham thought his had green beans in it, and was munching away for a couple of minutes looking quite perplexed, before realising that he had been chomping on huge bits of green chilli. Mine had the chillies chopped up so finely that there was no escaping the heat. We ate as much as we managed and headed straight over the road for a McFlurry. I still haven’t recovered.

The next morning I didn’t feel well at all, and spent most of it asleep. However, my usual attitude to illness is ‘mind over matter’ so after lunch we headed to Wat Pho. To get there we hopped on a river boat which costs 15 baht per journey. Wat Pho is the oldest and largest temple in Bangkok, and has the biggest collection of Buddah images in the country. The crowning glory is the reclining Buddha, which is 46 m long and 15 m high. It is modelled out of plaster around a brick core and is finished in gold leaf. It is very beautiful, although we found it a little tricky to get the breathtaking view it deserved due to the pillars and fencing surrounding the statue. There were also lots of carved stone animals everywhere. It turns out that these were actually used as ballast to weigh the ships down as they were heavy and cheap. When the captains got back to Thailand they didn’t know what to do with them, but eventually homes were found at various temples!

We also visited Wat Trainit, home to a 3m tall, 5.5 tonne solid gold Buddha. This made for an incredibly impressive site.

We also fitted a bit of market shopping in….

I have heard a lot of mixed reviews about Bangkok, but we really enjoyed our time there. This may be due to the fact that our travels in Africa have slightly desensitised us to chaos!

One of the highlights was a visit to an amazing little bar called Maggie Choos. After being thoroughly inspected by the bouncers to check that we were presentable enough (no mean feat when travelling with only 8 kilos of possessions) We made it with one minute of happy hour left, and ordered two lychee martinis. It was probably the best drink I have ever tasted. This, coupled with the cool house band made for a great night. It was slightly odd in one respect… before the band started, some music was played and three Thai girls sort of danced. I say sort of because they really just walked in a circle, twirling fans and a parasol about a metre in front of my chair. Then, when the band started, the girls climbed onto swings and just sat there for the rest of the evening.

Tomorrow morning, we are getting a very early train to the Cambodian border.