Bangkok pt 2

Saturday was a chill day, we went for a little walk around the neighborhood and sat by the pool for a bit. Because we're out of the center, there's not as many signs in English so in the place we went for breakfast the waitress saw our struggle and possibly the haunted look in our eyes as we recalled our last traumatic meal and said the glorious magic words... "fried rice?". Sweet relief. Non spicy breakfast.

Yes, that IS a Union Jack cushion

The next day we had big plans, and almost as soon as we emerged from the underground station they immediately went to shit.
Our lilly white skin and permanent expressions of slightly hungover confusion are a prime target for scammers, and we had two well dressed men trying to get us (separately) to go to a particular dock for a boat trip ("its very good, my whole family did it for only 1800 baht, no point in going to chinatown, it's closed today, and the temple wont open again till two, the monks are having their lunch break.")
We tried to escape by getting a taxi but he was also part of it and took us to the dock, escorted us out, and as we were getting led down murder alley we saw a tall american lady who was also trying not to get scammed. After a brief argument (the price went from 1500 each down to 200 but only if we left the american behind (!)) and with some female solidarity we managed to escape.
We then walked 5 mins down the road and found the actual proper dock and got a hop on hop off ticket for 150 baht each.
Felt pretty stupid about letting it get that far when we were pretty sure it was bullshit, but too scared of getting murdered to tell them to actually fuck off. Its a stressful situation to be in, but we ended up fine so we'll chalk it up to a learning experience and never trust a man again.

We had a nice day after that, visited Wat Arun temple...

And then tried to get into the Grand Palace but got turned away for indecency and it was actually so busy that we went to a different temple instead (Wat Pho - temple of the reclining Buddah) which was also very interesting and shiny.

Then we proceeded immediately to Khao San Road, famous backpacker haven, to have a beer and celebrate a day of cultural enrichment. It was also time to finally relent and buy some dumb ass hippie trousers so I can cover up without sweating through the only jeans I own.

Cheesy chips!! Exactly why we came halfway across the world!

5.2% and 5%, in pint bottles, yay

By the end of the day we found ourselves in another night market, trying some more Thai beer.

While all this has been happening, it turns out Babs might be allergic to some bug bites? We're not sure yet, but her legs look like they've been fed on by vampire bats and its definitely not normal. I'm not having the same problem but we need to sort her out with some medication before people start assuming she has chicken pox. Another thing she has developed is 'Selective English Accent' where completely out of NOWHERE she drops into the weirdest Dutch/fake Chinese accent whenever she speaks to someone who doesn't understand or speak English very well. Its simultaneously the most hilarious and most annoying thing I've ever witnessed.