Thailand || New Years Eve in Bangkok

 

 

New Years Eve in Bangkok – what an experience! When we originally decided we would be spending it here. I was a little apprehensive but due to arriving in Thailand on the 30^th, it seemed the easiest option. I kept having flashes of ‘The Hangover 2’ movie pop up in my head, so I’m pleased to say no one’s face (or anywhere else) got tattooed and I think it was one of the best New Years Eves I’ve ever had! It was just SO much fun!

We began our evening by going for dinner at a lovely outdoor restaurant round the corner from our hotel. I had a Pad Thai and it was mouth wateringly good! We followed this with a few cocktails at a street bar.

We then headed back to our hotel, The Dang Dern hotel, as it had a rooftop pool and bar and we were told at midnight The Grand Palace were having a fire work display and thought this would be a great spot for a fantastic view. We weren’t wrong! The fireworks were incredible and they were followed by hundreds of lanterns being let up into the air, it was such a beautiful sight and a magical way to welcome in 2014.

The party didn’t stop there! We befriended some crazy Canadians and as I said in my last post Koh San Road was party central and that night it hosted a giant street party, so guess where we headed?! There were hundreds of people there and the atmosphere was just electric! The rest of the night involved joining in with a break dancing display, trying scorpions (very crunchy and not that nice!) and tons of dancing and mojitos!

This was definitely one New Years I won’t forget!

p.s Apologies for the dodgy pics, turns out me plus alcohol plus a camera equals not great results!

 

Thailand || Bangkok

If you are a regular visitor to ‘Lipsticks and Lashes’ or follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you may have seen that I have just returned from three incredible weeks in Thailand with my friend Kate! I feel very blessed that over the years I have done quite a lot of travelling. I really do believe that getting out there and seeing what the world has to offer is truly one of the best things you can do!

 

I was originally going to do one big post, however on started to put said post together it would have been HUGE! So I’ve decided to break it down into places we visited, and do a few posts over the next couple of weeks. I hope you enjoy them!

 

 

 

So first up is Bangkok! After an 8 hour flight to India, an 8 hour stop in the airport (which isn’t the pleasantest place in the world) followed by a short 4 hour flight, we finally arrived in Thailand! After a bit of deliberation we decided to pre-book our accommodation in Bangkok and stay for 3 nights. I am so glad we did after that long journey, as I’m not sure I would have had the brain power to sort that out on landing! It also meant we would be spending NYE in Bangkok – I will be doing a whole separate post on this experience alone so won’t say much about that now!

We stayed on Koh San Road in the Dang Dern Hotel. This road is party central, mainly filled with travellers but there are quite a few locals too. Therefore if your want sleep or are travelling with a young family, I wouldn’t recommend staying here unless you have an amazing pair of ear plugs. For our needs though it worked well, as it was where we wanted to be for New Years Eve and central to all the places we wanted to visit and explore.

 

We arrived late on the 30^th December so didn’t do much that evening. The next day we got up early and headed via Tuk Tuk – SO much Fun! – to the ‘Travel Authority of Thailand’ who were ridiculously helpful and sorted out our accommodation, domestic flights and transfers for the next three weeks. I can’t fault this service, our advisor really got it right for us, especially as we wanted to see as much as we could in a short space of time. It definitely took the pressure off us and gave us more time to enjoy the experience. We paid just over £400 for it all and I think this was pretty reasonable when you look at everything we got for it. However, if you are going to Thailand for a longer period of time I would recommend doing it yourself as you go along as everything is so inexpensive you could definitely do it for a lot cheaper than we did!

After getting organised, we then wandered back towards Koh San Road hitting the Temple of the Tall Buddha on our way. This is where we saw a cat in a dress, I repeat A CAT IN A ADRESS!! Still speechless in regards to this! Whilst in Bangkok we also visited the Grand Palace which was just so beautiful, the detail of these temples is just so incredible.

We then followed this with a visit to the Horizontal Buddha, this was the only temple we had to pay to visit (all the others were just accepting donations). This one was pretty much what it said on the tin, a huge laying down Buddha, also known to us as the lazy one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shopping in Bangkok was pretty interesting. Koh San Road is filled with market stalls and everything is crazy cheap. We found that clothes, gifts etc were cheaper here than anywhere else we visited which is worth keeping in mind if you’re planning a trip! Mixed in between the clothes stands were tons of street food vendors. The food here was just incredible, so yummy and fresh!!

 

 

Bangkok really exceeded my expectations! Before arriving I thought it would be my least favourite place, as I’m not a huge city fan, however it was just awesome! Busy not unmanageable, fun and vibrant. I felt so safe here too, not like other big cities I’ve previously visited. I really hope I can visit there again soon!

Keep your eye out for more Thailand posts coming up soon!