Bangkok

I've touched down in Bangkok about 20 hours later from when I left to get my flight from Heathrow. Fortunately I got there in good time as getting hold of the Thai Baht I had ordered from Travelex was a bit of a fiasco as they didn't seem to have my money at the counter.

I can report back that Finnair was actually quite good as I was unsure what to expect but I had plenty of leg room which is always good. There is absolutely nothing at Helsinki airport apart from plain walls so I ended up spending my 5 hours waiting getting stuck into my Thailand book which I had not yet opened so I guess it wasn't all that bad.

I did have a bit of a panic at Helsinki though as the BA woman at Heathrow said my luggage was only tagged until Helsinki, so I went to collect it and check it back in but as you can probably guess it never turned up and I ended up waiting in a queue at customer services for ages to for them to tell me it had been transferred onto the Bangkok flight - Phew!

Anyway I managed to get a little sleep on the plane but they had PSP's to play on so that passed some of the time as the films were a bit rubbish! After I landed it seemed to take an absolute age to get through passport control and I kept finding myself in the in the position where I was debating changing queues as the other ones looked to be going down faster than mine, but then I would have been annoyed if the one I changed to took longer so I didn't bother.

It was about an hour after I landed until I got through to baggage and managed to reclaim my backpack which I had been praying would have made it to Bangkok!

I had booked a shuttle bus from the airport so I knew there would be someone waiting for me outside arrivals and by this time I was about the last person off the flight so i'm sure they were wondering where I had got too. I pushed by luggage
trolley out of the airport and spotted a short thai lady holding up a board with my name on, so I quickly gave her a wave so she knew who I was.

The transfer to my hotel 'The New World Lodge' took about 50mins and in that time I witnessed some crazy scooter/motorcyclists squeezing through the smallest gaps between cars and not much attention payed to road markings by other vehicles it was hilarious.

I finally got to the Hotel and checked in, by this time I was completely shattered and jet lagged so I decided to have a 3 hour kip before I had a shower to wake myself up again and go out this evening. My room is ok - I couldn't squeeze too much in on the photo but ive got a safety deposit box, wardbrobe, T.V, fridge, bathroom, aircon, balcony so it's not bad.

This evening I went for a wander down the the Kao San Road, which is where all the action is. It was only a 5 minute walk from the Hotel and is full of street traders selling food, drinks, massages, clothing, dvds, cds (all fake of course) and other trinkets and souvenirs.

I spent a bit of time wandering around and having a look without trying to be accusted by tailors trying to sell me a suit or stopped by beggers pleading on their hands and knees for money. After passing a few food street vendors I decided to take a plunge and go for some egg fried noodles with salad things and a spring roll, which was awesome!