Bangkok

We were supposed to arrive in Bangkok a week earlier but due to the anti government protests causing disruption in the city we decided to wait until it had chilled out a bit. I booked tickets on the coach from Koh Chang and by the time Thursday came around we were well ready to leave after spending 3 weeks on the island.
On one of the nights out we had on Lonely Beach we had met Holly and Alan and drank with them most nights after that. They were travelling to Laos via Bangkok so we decided to travel together for the next leg of the trip. We booked a nice double bedroom suite in the Prince Palace hotel after deciding to live it up a little bit but we still got it for the price of a travel lodge back home. On arrival we were blown away by the place which boasted numerous top drawer restaurants, 3 rooftop pools and all the other trimmings of a high end hotel.

The first couple of days were spent shopping at MBK and Siam Square, T shirts in particular were super cheap as was most of the food vendors there. On the night time we went down the Khao San Road which was pretty manic but good fun, a lot of characters kicking about made for good people watching from the Khao San Pub.

On the third day we walked through the thick of the protests taking place around the democracy monument downtown. The demonstrations and protests are taking place against the current prime minister and government and have been going on for over a week. The red shirts are supporters of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted in a military coup that took place in 2006 while he was out of the country. They want the current parliament to be dissolved and new democratic elections to be held, a demand that has been dismissed by the PM. The atmosphere was buzzing and had an almost carnival feel to it and so far it has remained peaceful.

Later on that day we were duped into getting into a tuk tuk to go on a whistle stop tour of some of the sights for a cheap price with the catch being we had to visit a Tailors to be fitted for a suit. We visited the Tailors but none of us were in the market for a suit and got back in the tuk tuk, the drivers became arsey when we refused to visit another. Still, it turned out to be cheaper than taking multiple tuks or taxis.

On our last night we went to  Moon Bar which is at the top of a 63 floor 5 star hotel- the views were incredible. To top it off we went to Bed Supperclub (yes supperclub, as you can be served dinner in bed there) which has an all white interior and decent music- the first I'd heard in 5 weeks!
We had a brilliant 5 nights in the bustling capital but anymore would have been too much. Next stop is the second city, Chiang Mai in the North.