It’s also completely
normal to walk past
vendors wheeling carts
full of dried cockroaches,
scorpions and various
other creepy crawlies
that make for an
interesting snack. I tried
a very crispy scorpion
60
Bangkok
That evening we met our tour guide,
whose real name was Kasidit but he
quickly became known to us as ’S”.
S is honestly the nicest person I have
ever met. He made us feel welcome
and safe straight away. On our first
night we sampled a variety of local
food, massaman curry quickly became
my favourite dish. We then headed to
the infamous Khao San Road which I
can only describe as an assault on the
senses. There is loud music playing from
every street bar, smells from the amazing
street food and the humidity is stifling.
It’s also completely normal to walk past
vendors wheeling carts full of dried
cockroaches, scorpions and various
other creepy crawlies that make for an
interesting snack. I tried a very crispy
scorpion.
The next day we took a tuk tuk ride to the
temples. We seemed to have the craziest
tuk tuk drivers in Bangkok who raced
each other through the traffic and didn’t
seem to think that driving head on into
oncoming traffic was a problem! Health
and safety doesn’t exist in Thailand! The
temples (or wáts) are incredibly colourful.
My favourite temple was Wat Pho which
sits right next to t he Grand Palace in
central Bangkok. It is one of the oldest
temples in the city and is best known for
its 160ft reclining Buddha.
Waterfalls
From Bangkok we travelled to Erawan
National Park. We spent one night
camping before exploring the famous
Erawan waterfalls the following day. The
Erawan waterfall gets its name as the
top level is said to resemble Erawan,
the three-headed elephant of Hindu
mythology. The waterfalls have seven
different levels, the first three are easy
but after that it is a steep hike to the top.
All of the waterfalls have little fish that like
nothing more than to chomp on humans
and they’re easy to spot because the
water is so clear. You have to constantly
thrash about in the water otherwise a
group of them will surround you and
start to nibble. Jumping in and out of the
waterfalls was so refreshing after the hike
to get there.