so its 3pm on monday. we've had a great first day..... mum woke me up at 6.30am (well not deliberately but she couldn't sleep and i woke up as she wandered around)so we went down to the hotel's fitness center and had an hour on the bikes/treadmills and a few weights. a nice way to start of the day, and get us both energised.

Thailand doesn't really "wake up" til 10am. Most shopping centers weren't open til then (but then they stay open til 10 or 11pm). So after we gymmed and showered, we went downstairs to have breakfast. we get complimentary breakfast at this place and i thouht it would be just western breakfast, but luckily we were wrong!!! there was all sorts of thai and japanese style foods. so we had stir fry veg, and steamed fish and rice and noodles for breakfast, as well as fruit and juice.

We then wandered to a few of the shopping centers and have been going shoe crazy!!! Like Abu Dhabi, Thailand has heaps of shoes for about $5-10!!! Mum has bought 3 pairs of shoes already, and I've got 2!!! Lucky I only brought 3 pairs of shoes with me!

We have since been back to the hotel to drop off some of our bags and then we went to the Big C shopping center right beside our hotel. We found a cheap shop taht sold really nice silver jewelery so mum bought up gifts for all her girls who work for her and I got a few extra things for gifts, plus jewelry for myself heheh. We then wandered into the supermarket and omg had such a blast!!! They have sooo much fruit here, and its all so cheap and tasty. They had a whole wall of the fresh fruit section devoted JUST to green asian veg. So many different varieties, not just good old bok choy and choy sum!Mum and I made total embarassments out of ourselves by taking photos of things. I got a photo of me under a sign that says TV Dinners but its all these pre-cut up and packed ingredients to make yummy thai stirfries and meals! So not our definition of a TV dinner.

We then stocked up on snacky food and fruit to take back to our hotel room. We wanted to get some bottles of beer and Spy (wine coolers) but it was 2:20pm and they can only sell alcohol in teh supermarket between 11-2pm and from 5-11pm!!! what the hell?!

By this stage we were starving so we ate at a restaurant in the shopping center and had a big plate of Som Tum (spicy papaya salad) and sticky rice and a Prawn & morning glory (green asian vegetable) stir fry dish. All for the equivalent of $4!!!!!

We're both now finally havnig a rest (I have shoppers legs already!!!!) and emailing everyone, and then we've booked in for an hour foot massage in our hotel at 6pm.

The flight was pretty good - with the memory of the flight to London still fresh in my memory anything less than a 10 hour flight is a breeze!!! We had paid for all the extras - food, video entertainment and the comfort pack - thank god! I really needed the blanket and socks and the neck pillow, sleeping mask and ear plugs really helped. I dozed for a few hours. The flight was quite empty so mum sat in seats behind me and we were both able to stretch out over double seats.The food was pretty average compared to the fantastic food provided by Emirates, but its better than nothing.

I had booked us a airport pick up service so as soon as we got through customs we found the hotel representative and we were straight in a car. So much easier than trying to haggle for a taxi. We were checked into our hotel by about 9pm thai time (midnght bris time) - we were greated with a welcome drink!!! hheheh the hotel is pretty ritzy - we've got bathrobes in our room and slippers and sweets on our pillows. We went down to the bar and had a drink to celebrate our arrival, before we finally decided to head to bed.
So that's it so far. More to come!!!!

Labels: Bangkok, holiday, shoes, shopping, thai, thailand, travel, trip, vacation