Homeward Bound ... Trip Of A Lifetime ...

Day 151 ... Our flight to Bangkok was at 12pm today so we booked a taxi from the hotel at 9am. It’s only less than 2 hours to Bangkok so we were checked in at our new hotel by 3.30pm which was good. Apart from the fact we hadn’t really had any lunch so as soon as we dumped our bags in the room at the hotel and went for a walk to find some food and a Starbucks, obviously! It’s becoming a bit of a bad habit we’ll have to kick by the time we get home!

Day 152 ... After a decent breakfast (thankfully) we went to top up our tans round the rooftop pool for a few hours. The heat is a lot different than Vietnam. A lot hotter and a lot more humid too. It’s a nice feeling though, warms through to your bones when you walk outside from the comfort of the air conditioned buildings! But we only managed 2 hours in the sun, as it’s just so hot...34 degrees compared to a chilly -1 at home but it has been down to -5 due to the ‘Beast from the East’ storm covering the UK and a lot of Europe in snow and causing absolute havoc by the looks of it! It

should be the start of spring now but it’s snowing. It looks like it will still be a chilly low of zero degrees when we get home too but I honestly don’t mind (at the moment anyway! I won’t be saying that after a week of zero degree weather I’m sure). But we’re both just looking forward to being at home now. Adam got some good news last night too on email from his recruiter, Shop Direct want him back for another 3 months, possibly 6 months which is perfect. He’s really happy it was that easy to get a new contract before he’s even home. Doesn’t even have to interview for it as it’s back with the same team. We went to a little Thai restaurant on the corner near our hotel for lunch that I spotted on the way back last night. Turns out it was a good spot and although a shared starter, main each and two diet cokes cost £25 it was nice. Just a bit more pricey here than other Thai areas we’ve been to. After another Starbucks (Opps!) its time for a mini gym session and then we need to look for a hotel for our last 2 nights in Bangkok. We went to Cabbages and Condoms for tea tonight, a recommendation from Helen, but unfortunately we must have picked the wrong meals as the food was pretty awful, so oily and greasy!

Day 153 ... Today we decided to go on an hours tuktuk tour around the city. So after an hour round the pool (it was just way too hot to lie there, 34 degrees today!) we went for our daily cool down beverage in Starbucks and then found a guy to take us on a tour. He didn’t speak the best English but he was saying about 3/4 stops and showed us a picture of all the attractions we could visit. So we agreed on 100 baht (£2.30). Unfortunately, there were some communication problems (although I think he may just have been being vague and not explaining it all to us). The fort stop we pulled up outside a building with a few other tuktuks and I knew straight away he was taking us to a big tailors where other drivers were taking probably the same unsuspecting tourists like us. He wanted us to go in and look around. Although I knew what was going on we went in, walked around for 90 seconds and left. We told him we don’t need any suits and don’t want to visit anymore shops. The next stop we found out when we got there, was the canal and a place that offered boats tours. What we hadn’t noticed when he showed us the picture of all the attractions was that it said boat tour. Although that’s not how we wanted to see everything, we asked the woman how much for an hour boat tour and she said 2000 baht (£42!) so we said no way and walked off. We told ‘Lucky’ (apparently that’s his name) we just want to see some sights and take some photos. So he took us to the monument and the Golden Buddha nearby. He said the Grand Palace was too far, but when we looked on Google maps, it was only a 5 minute drive so I wasn’t impressed he was telling us porkies! Anyway after there we just went back to where he picked us up from. After him being super friendly and chatty, he had a face like thunder on the way back and didn’t say a word as he probably wasn’t getting the commission he thought he would get from the tailors or boat trip. Ah well, you win some you loose some! Time for lunch and the gym.

Day 154 ... Prime Hotel Central Station ... We moved to a new hotel today in Chinatown. The hotel we were in we only booked for 3 nights incase it was in a rubbish spot. Fortunately, it wasn't too bad but unfortunately, the cost of the room doubled after we made our booking so we couldn't extend our stay. This hotel isn't as good as the last but it's nice enough. After we checked in we went for a walk to find somewhere for lunch. As my mum told us yesterday, (she knows more about the places we are visiting than we do with all her research!) Monday is cleaning day in Chinatown and everywhere is closed. But we managed to find a cool little cafe only a

couple of minutes walk from our hotel which had a really good menu so I finally for my smashed avocado on toast! We went back for tea too as they said they stopped serving food at 7pm but when we got there at 6.30pm they said the kitchen was closed. So we went for a walk around the block but they didn't find anywhere so we headed back to the hotel restaurant which was nice enough and 20% off for people staying there, winner!

Day 155 ... OUR LAST FULL DAY!! ... After a nice breakfast buffet we were planning on having lunch at the hotel seeing as it's included in the price and then getting a Grab taxi over to CentralWorld Bangkok, which is the biggest mall in Bangkok, not to shop though, they have a cinema and food court, so we were going to watch a movie and then go for tea at the mall. But Adam isn't feeling too great, he hasn't been for the last day or two. So we'll just stay local today and have a relaxing day before we pack up ready for home!

Day 156 ... ... TODAY IS THE DAY ... Homeward bound and we won’t lie, we’re sooo excited! We can’t wait to get home! Only a 6 hour and 25 minute flight from Bangkok to Abu Dhabi and then a 7 hour 45 minute flight from Abu Dhabi to Manchester. We got a taxi to the airport at 2pm (7am UK time) today (Wednesday 7th) and we should have landed in the UK at 7am UK time on Thursday 9th which is 2pm Thai time but our flight to Manchester was delayed for an hour. Which means we’ll have been travelling for 26 hours plus by the time we get home!