Bustling and Booty-Full Bangkok!

Ariving in the bustling city of Bangkok, we felt a real sense of having achieved something, like two characters reaching the last level of a computer game - energy depleted and yet exhilarated by the obstacles we had overcome and the incredible things we had seen. The serious tones of Vietnam and Cambodia with their heartbreaking histories had left us with many thoughts and feelings, and entering Bangkok reawakened feelings of pride, in ourselves and each other, and a sudden awareness of the immense journey we had travelled together.

Having already seen a vast amount of temples and sights throughout Asia, we were happy to take the pace down a notch while preparing for our impending trip home. This meant enjoying the wonders of Khao San Road entertainment and souvenir shopping, and binging on our final feast of spicy and satisfying Thai red and green curries. I have to admit that many months in Asia caused me to start craving three specific things - pizza, sandwiches and pasta. Don't get me wrong, I have eaten some of the best food in my entire life while travelling, and Vietnamese, Malaysian, Laos, Cambodian and Thai curries are absolutely amazing, all in their own special and delicious ways. The thing is, I'm an English girl through and through, and my body would periodically scream out for some bland ordinary down to earth nosh, so at various points I literally had to give myself a little rest and go Western.

Sup was horrified that one of these times was a couple of days before we were due to leave for home! In my defence I have not been trained in the same way he has and I marvelled at his relentless hunger for curry, twice a day every day without a second thought. Sup had a favourite food stall that he had first discovered during our stop over in Bangkok before Chiang Mai, and he returned many times for his 60p dish of red curry and rice!

We drank freshly squeezed orange juice from little bottles sold on the street, ate chunks of freshly cut pineapple and braved a few meat sticks, while veering well away from the locust and scorpion stand - we would both need a big pay packet to attempt a bushtucker trial thank you very much! Speaking of pests, we busted this little guy desecrating a street shrine munching away on whatever offerings had been left by Buddhist worshippers!

As well as scouring Khao San Road for souvenir treasures, which of course included the obligatory DVDs, CDs, jewellery and printed t-shirts, we travelled to one of the large local markets and spent the day perusing the stalls, although we were aware that a lot of the goods were actually more for people living in Bangkok, rather than tourists. We found incredible wooden carved furniture that we would have loved to take home, as well as beautiful paintings and some of the cutest puppies you could find, along with whole stalls dedicated to dressing your pup like a diva! We found a few things that took our fancy (none of the above!), and walked to see the local park before returning home after a tricky time bargaining with taxi drivers.

On one of the rainier days, we took off for a trip around the MBK Mall in Bangkok, a big indoor mall with prices that were maybe a little too Western for our budget. I bought some cute high heeled shoes for £4 though after we rifled through a shoe shop for hidden gems and we ended the trip with a cheeky McDonalds while we waited for a sudden burst of torrential rain to clear. After hailing a taxi after what seemed like a long time, we were then stuck in horrendous traffic, so much so that after 15 minutes complete stand still, we paid the driver, got out and went back to into the mall to sit out the jam! We then later hopped on a bus that we had to run up and then down the street for as we were on the wrong side of the road, no doubt a source of amusement for the locals!

Bangkok is a vibrant city and a fantastic place to have ended our incredible adventures. The spirit is palpable in the streets, and it is pure modern Thai culture at its finest, badgering tourists for food, souvenirs, Tuk Tuks, drinking, and the inevitable ping pong show, your attention taken by the various popping noises the guys made to spark your curiosity. We had reached the final destination of Sup and Nic's World Tour 2010 and we were finally ready to return, a stronger team than ever before, for the next adventures of our lives; to begin our chosen careers, to find a new home, to get married, and to take on all the new challenges that were waiting for us back home in beautiful England.

written by

SupandNic on October 31, 2010 from Bangkok, Thailand

from the travel blog: Sup and Nic's World Tour!

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