Bangkok, Thailand - Arriving in Bangkok

Arriving in Bangkok to meet Jodi, who's flight was due to arrive 15 minutes before mine, felt quite surreal. I was a little worried about trying to find her in the airport amoungst it all...as it turns out there wasnt really anywhere for her to hide anyway.
Easy peasy, and customs...not sure they know what it is in Bangkok.
Jode and I jumped in the que for the taxi, standing like giggling little school girls in the beautiful warmth that was Thailand. How exciting.
The hotel seemed to cater for most at breakfast time...an interesting assortment of fruit, potatoes, eggs (somewhat vanilla in flavour), bacon/ham stuff (well it tasted similair), pad thai, stir fried rice, stir fried veg, cocktail/breakfast sausages...they were Kinda scary looking, I gave them a wide berth. What a great feast though...if you're into that sort of stuff for breakkie.
We wandered the streets, ran into a man who 'has a friend in New Zealand', he was very nice and helpful...directed us to all the shops we should go to...even found us a tuktuk driver who'd take us right there, conveniently enough. It was extrememly humid, especially for us little whities. We must've looked like we were 'fresh off the boat', our skin slippery and slimey, drenched in our own sweat. MMmmmm.
So we were taken to a fabric shop where the tried to sell us clothing, make suits to fit us, skirts, shirts, you name it they'd make it for us. Tick number one off on the list of scams to experience. It was all a great time.
Our hotel had a pool we could lounge beside, close you're eyes and you're on a beautiful beach...open them and you're looking into the back of a block of cruddy apartments. Unfortuantely seeing how the Thai make a living on next to nothing, you can understand why they live as they do.
So what else is there to do other than to have a cold drink or two. Jode and I met some of the locals at a friendly bar down the road. The bar full of women making conversation, and hanging with us. Was nice talking to them about their work, when buying them a drink it costs twice as much as ours....got the picture now? But they were a great bunch of girls. Some a little young, so that was a little sad to see. Jode met a friend who had some birds trapped in a cage, and she got to make a wish and free them...dont remember how much it cost her. Tick number two.
Mark flew in from NZ, and quite rightly joined us at the bar. The women were even MORE friendly now.
The markets in Bangkok were unbelieveable...way too much to be able to see absolutely everything. There were pets galore there too, although somewhat upsetting to Jode to realise the squirells were actually tied to the cage. Crazy place to go, especially if you're clostrophobic...but the smells, the people, the food...an experience to embrace!
But leaving that all behind for greener pastures....we board the sleeper train to Chang Mai.