Bye Bye Mundane Life!!: Bangkok Part 2

Our arrival back into Bangkok Int was timed perfectly with a heavy downpour to add extra hassle to our attempt at getting into the City on the cheap! We found out that contrary to belief there was a local bus into the centre which was easy enough to catch but it did take an hour and a half to eventually arrive, even then it wasn't were we wanted to be so another bus was tracked down and another half an hour later we had arrived at our destination.. Checked back into the same guesthouse we'd stayed at before and headed out to find some much needed food. (For all our flight had landed at 4pm we didn't get to the guesthouse till 7.50pm - amazing where the time goes)..After a good nights sleep we had to head across to the other side of town to revisit the Indian Embassy to collect our visa's, the trip across town was all very easy and it wasn't till we reached the Embassy the fun and games started.. For all we knew that they wouldn't process our applications till 12 noon we arrived a little early just on the off chance, other westerners had had the same idea..The fella on the desk who was doing nothing kept telling everyone to wait until 12 noon so we did and at 12 noon the lazy guy took his feet off the desk and preceeded to take everyones passport off them in return for a receipt which took all of 5mins!! Indian bureaucracy at its best!!
Had a couple of hours to kill before we could collect out passports so we utilised the time to try and find somebody in Bangkok who could change our Vietnemese currency, you'd imagine it couldn't be that hard but beleive us it is, nobody would touch it...Very strange as its in the same bloody continent..By this time our visa's were ready so at least some productivity had come from the day!!
The next two days in Bangkok were spent 'Shopping'...a habit we've become particularly good at recently! Our destination was an out of town locals market called 'Chatachuk' - all we knew about this place was that it was huge (at least a couple of football pitches worth of stalls), we had been expecting more of the same tourist crap they sell elsewhere in Bangkok mixed with local household goods, but were pleasantly surprised to find the stalls all quite unique and with mostly reasonable local orientated prices! Only problem with this place is you can't go comparing prices, etc if you like something you have to buy it there and then cos you had no chance of finding tht the same stall again! It was hard work and by 4pm the 2nd day we were shopped out and fearing the worst of exceeding the baggage limit on georgie's return flight! At least fitting everything in to one bag wasn't a problem having splashed out on posh wheel along suitcase during our shopping spree!
One final day to go before the impending departure of Georgie we decided to do a few touristy things, which included a trip aound some fancy Pagoda and the Kings Palace, as well as a tour of China Town...making sure we had covered the majority of Bangkok on foot! It was an enjoyable day tarred only by the fact that this was Georgie's last day. We celebrated the day with cold beers on the veranda of our guesthouse as we watched the sunset over the skyline of Bangkok...the end of an era!
Georgie's last day in SE Asia: potted about our local area, packed her bags and reminised about the last 11 months (oh how strange it will be to be separated after so long together 24/7). The day past quickly and after a few farewell beers (and ice-cream in bread - random Asian delicacy!) it was time to head off to the airport! Using the same route as we had arrived the journey went very smoothly as we 'local' bused it back to the airport. With Georgie all checked in (no problems with xs baggage - thanks to her carrying 10kg of carry-on bags!!) it was time for Chris to head back into the city...all alone! It was an emotional farewell....who knows what the next 6 days of life apart will hold?