Days 114 & 115, Rest Days in Bangkok. By Chris

My first impression of Bangkok as we rode in is that it smelt of sewage, but on a plus point, pleasantly there were no blaring horns, despite a maelstrom of bolshy vehicles. The drivers here drive with their eyes, unlike Chinese drivers who only use their ears. Our first day was spent doing chores. Top of the list was laundering almost everything we have and if the laundrette had demanded double what they initially quoted before seeing / smelling our things I would have gladly paid them. We also bought train tickets back to Bangkok for after New Years and various replacement bicycle parts.

The Sprite bottle proves a useful size comparison for this Bangkok sewer monster

The following day was more relaxing, we walked through a city park where gigantic 2m long lizards lived in the ditches eating discarded bones the size of melons and took a boat up the river to the grand palace. Amy loved this place because it was sparkly and shiny with lots of gold paint and bits of coloured glass adorning all the buildings, while I appreciated the funny looking bushes.

Amy then took me on a nice walking tour of the lesser sights of the city ending at an expensive cocktail bar overlooking the sunset. We did not see much evidence of the recent political unrest other than a bit of razor wire so I was disappointed not to have witnessed at least a little bit of anarchy.