Deb got about 7 hours sleep on the plane, (on an 11 hour flight! pretty good!)  I got about 2 good hours and 2 interrupted (thanks to a bumbling woman who kept getting up all night and stepping on me as she got out of and back into her seat!)

We arrived on time at about 3pm Bangkok time. Immigration was a bit of a pain, on the way through they had signs up for people who didn’t have a visa and needed one (after a while we found out this wasn’t us), and everyone had to fill in a health declaration to get through immigration, all due to swine flu apparently (the staff at the airport where nearly all wearing fask masks).   After immigration it was all very easy, we got our bags and found our transfer waiting for us. I guess it took about 40 mins to get to our Hotel, the Mandarin Oriental. At check-in we were surprised with an upgrade to an Executive Suite, (I am a very happy girl, wonderful hotel great room)  according to a letter that accompanied the wine fruit and flowers in our room, to help up enjoy our 50^th Wedding Anniversary!!   (We had told them we were celebrating our wedding anniversary on this trip, a bit of a stretch, but the truth! not sure where they got the 50 from!!). The room is very nice, very spacious and overlooking the river. On the table along with the other goodies we found a small cake under a glass dome, it was an iced fruit cake with “Happy wedding Anniversary” written on it, and with a sugar Elephant sitting on the plate next to it.

Before we went out , we” fessed” up to the duty manager about the mix-up on the anniversary, he apologised profusely. But we said we just didn’t want them thinking we were trying something on. They were embarrassed about it  (that would make us at least 70 or 110!!!   ).

After we walked around the Hotel a bit we eventually went out for tea. Our first attempt was a bit unsuccessful. I lost the card to the restaurant and the instructions were a little hard to understand. We went back to the Hotel, asked again and set out with better instruction and finally got to our destination, an eatery we were assured served authentic Thai food.  Well it could have been any up market type Thai place in Australia to look at, but the food was much better than at home. Deb though the Pud Thai was the best she had ever had.

After dinner we got a taxi to the Patpong Night Bizaar. We arrived there around 9pm. The stalls were filled with all the same sort of cheap junk and t-shirts you find all over asia, which was a bit disappointing. There were many food stalls as well, and they added a bit of variety and flavour to the markets. I was surprised to find that there were some(mmm, nearly lots I guess) “Girly” bars right next to the stalls. But I guess they will be set up in any area where tourists flock to at night. We got bored with it after a short while and got a taxi back to the hotel.

When we got into our room there was a Red Heart made of Carnations on our bed, again with more anniversary wishes, another plate of fruit and another letter from the Assistant Hotel Manager. Gee are we feeling spoilt!!!!!  Great job “Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Bangkok”, you get our vote!!! 

Deb is settling down into a nice deep bath full of bubbles as we wrap up our first day in Thailand.

Three sleeps (if you count an overnight plane flight as a sleep) and we will be home. Both of us are looking forward to it, once we started heading towards home, the end of our holiday seemed to gather pace. We have had such a great time and had so many unbelievable adventures, done and seen so many wondrous things, but its’ always very nice to come home to all our loved ones and our own bed.

Tomorrow we are doing an all day tour, dinner tomorrow night at the Thai restaurant in the Hotel and Deb may go for a massage on Friday morning. So there is still plenty of life left in this holiday yet!!!

Love to you all, us. xoxox

(it is nearly midnight here, not really tired it is 6pm in London, better go to bed though, we have set the alarm for 6am, we are being picked up for our tour at 8am, for another adventure  )