Thailand

I have been quiet for the past 2 months due to my extended holidays to Thailand, Poland and then Hong Kong.  Ross and I flew to Bangkok at the beginning of July, where we met my sister Beata.  It was great but Bangkok is not an easy city to navigate around, most people don't speak any English and due to Thai language having a different alphabet, they can't read maps in English so one day we had a hard time getting back to the hotel as no taxi wanted to take us as they could not understand us.

In Bangkok we visited the Grand Palace which indeed was grand - what a fantastic experience.  As we were not allowed to walk-in in shorts, we had to hire sarongs and Ross had some colourful pants lol!

The day was very hot but we managed to walk around the gardens, go into a Temple and see an amazing Textile exhibition comprising of silk garments especially designed and produced for the Queen Sirikits.  Sadly, we couldn't take any photos inside but the experience was great.

On the way from the Palace and in search of a coffee shop, we can across the local fresh produce wholesale markets which was a great experience.

We didn't ride in the local Tuk Tuk but it looked cool:

We spent half a day at the local market which must be the biggest market in the world, I don't think we managed to visit 1/10th of the stands:

One night Ross took us to the local seafood market which was enormous, their motto was "if it swims, we have it".  You first bought your seafood and took it to the table where you told the waiters how you wanted it to be cooked.  It was deliciously fresh and hot as we requested lots of chilli!

After two days in Bangkok, we flew to a small nearby island Koh Samui, where we stayed at a Samui Resotel.

We spent a lot of time on the beach, taking trips around the island and enjoying the beautiful Thai food with lots and lots of chilli. 

We saw a demonstration how monkeys collect coconuts which grow in abundance on the island:

My sister received a blessing for a Buddhist Monk:

My sister trying a fresh coconut juice, it wasn't very tasty I must say:

We tasted some food at the street market, it was very fresh, delicious and dead cheap!

The last night on the island we spent at a lovely local restaurant celebrating my birthday, it was great:

Every day we had at least one coffee at the local cafe ran by gorgeous Tanya.  She also served great cakes and coconut ice-cream, all locally made:

Another tasty and beautifully presented dinner:

eaten in this picturesque scenery:

Sadly, it all came to the end and we had to leave.  This is inside of the airport (yes, this is the airport, both domestic and international):

A giant fish tank in the toilet:

Bye bye Thailand, we had a ball and I would visit you again any time.