29 January 2017 – And we’re off!!

The day we wondered if it would ever get here has arrived. We departed Auckland at 1am – next stop Singapore for a quick transit and onto Bangkok. Our new discoveries at Changi Airport were the rooftop cactus garden and the magical flower garden complete with artificial wildlife sounds.

We had a very short flight from Singapore, where the hostesses practically threw the meals at the passengers to make sure everyone was fed in time, and we arrived to Bangkok.  We felt very smug as we avoided the taxis and caught the train into town before changing onto the Skytrain to get to where we wanted to head – although Mark did point out the instructions were all in English so we couldn’t really go wrong. 

For the first time ever in Thailand we heard the words – no we don’t have any rooms tonight. Due to a combination of heat and fatigue we took the next option we found. It won’t win any architecture awards but it has everything we need. 

We headed off to explore. We rediscovered the canals of the Chao Phraya River. I spent most of the time deciding whether to be more scared of snakes or rats – we didn’t see any but they can’t have been far away based on previous experience. We then found a ginormous mall - although neither of us particularly enjoy shopping we were on the lookout for a few things including sunglasses for Mark which seem to be the first item we purchase on most trips. [ had them packed, took them out to use them, then it was night time when we left Auckland… -Mark] By then our energy levels were wavering and it was time to head back to the hotel to plan our next steps.