Bangkok Part 1...

Hey there, really lovely of you to decide to read this and share our travels with us! It's going to be a big trip but we're hoping we're up to the challenge. We've been in Bangkok a few days now, having spent the week before we left working, running around trying to squeeze in every last visit to friends and family we could, and of course packing our lives into the limited space within our rucksacks. This should be quite straightforward, and involve a whittling down process that in theory leaves you with a bag you can carry, but I (Kerry) have been struggling a bit with this concept, smuggling books into my bag when no-one is looking and leaving me in a daunting position when trying to haul the beast onto my back. I'll be leaving books behind as I travel, but the first few weeks will be a bit of a struggle while I stubbornly refuse to part with unread books! I'm one book down though, plus three unread magazines I had lined up to read before I left but never did finish...

 Honestly, it is quite surreal still to be away, and no matter how prepared you are, there isn't much worse than sobbing your heart out as you say goodbye to your parents for a good long time. But that moment passes, and you gain perspective again once you realise that you can still get in touch relatively easily (albeit with a time difference to consider). Skype is fantastic and very easy to use - we just need to make sure we don't become too reliant on it and all the social media we have, as they can be pretty distracting when you're trying to write a blog or get organised to go out!

So here we are in Bangkok - a hot, sticky, sweaty mess of people, mad traffic and aimless animals. We're vaccinated - as far as you can be - against rabies, but it would be pretty hard to avoid all the cats and dogs on the streets, scavenging for food, sleeping, trying to find some shade or (as Bradley pointed out to me earlier) dead. Generally though, they just focus on their own lives, and don't try to come near you at all, but we've been careful all the same. I suspect many of them are homeless or live some kind of rogue street life haranguing the local restauranteurs and stall owners for food, but I do wonder at how difficult life must be for them. (Pause for thought - I avoided the obvious pun!) I've just looked up online whether or not anything is being done for the cats and dogs of Bangkok. It turns out there are over 300,000 stray dogs on the streets of Bangkok, and even more stray cats... but there are charities working to help minimise stray numbers and to protect existing strays, such as the Soi Dog Foundation http://www.soidog.org/en/about-soi-dog/ They are working throughout Asia to improve the lives of stray cats and dogs, so they'll be a charity worth watching for all you animal lovers out there!

 Anyway... It has taken us a few days to adjust to the heat and the time difference - our days have largely started late and ended with us trying to drift to sleep at around 2am. I'm sure we'll get over this soon... and in this heat, making the most of the evening seems ideal! Plus, it is the rainy season here, so every now and then there is a torrential downpour heralded by a sudden blustery wind - you only have a minute or two to find shelter when that happens!

We've stayed at two different hostels near the infamous KhaoSan Rd - the first one had a band and terrible, karaoke singing going until the next morning just outside our window so we moved on after our first couple of nights to a much quieter place further down the road. Despite the fact that we were locked in overnight (the night door had a padlock on it with no available key, making our early start one day a bit hair-raising!) it was otherwise a much nicer place, with a massive room. A shame really about the inability to get in or out through the depths of the night/early morning - I was planning to write a great review for them on Hostelbookers! As we were rattling about and tramping the stairs looking for a non-existent fire escape, the owner must have heard us because she soon appeared with the key to release us - crisis averted I guess.

We've both been here before so we used our time here to relax, catch up on some sleep and visit some favourite sights. After a tour of the river by boat, we crossed the river by ferry to visit Wat Arun, or the Temple of the Dawn. It is a beautiful temple, with most of the decoration provided by broken pottery, tiles and crockery from ships (used as the ship's ballast in shipping between Bangkok and China). You can climb quite high up Wat Arun and get a brilliant view of the river and nearby Bangkok - plus get pretty dizzy if you're not careful, it is very high! It is also incredibly steep, making a trek to the highest point a climbing challenge. We estimated the steps were at a 75 degree angle (!) and each step itself was over a foot - scary stuff! (Apparently this is not DDA compliant - thanks Bradley!) If you come to Bangkok this is my personal highlight - there is always something new to see in this incredible temple.

We also went to the Chatuchak Weekend Market - an enormous market selling every conceivable thing, from cushions to clothes to chickens to cats (which were being sold from a market stall that looked like a clean UK pet shop, which was a pleasant surprise). The market was so hot and hectic that we didn't survive very long in there, but when we're furnishing our future home I'll definitely consider a visit there if I'm passing through Bangkok again, as there were some great soft furnishings! :)

The crowds outside Chatuchak market

Finally, after a few days of headaches, I realised I was probably suffering caffeine withdrawal - tea drinking is not a big thing here! Missing my regular tea fix (Ellie, it's the one downfall of being here!), we found somewhere that served a half decent cup of tea and I haven't had a headache since. Isn't biology a wonderful thing!