Lost in Bangkok

28th July Wake up was at a reasonable time of 7am as we needed to finish packing have breakfast and be ready to be picked up from the River Raft Guesthouse at 9 am. The buses were on time ready to take us on our 2 hour journey back to Bangkok. Following the uneventful journey, there was much confusion when we arrived, as we were meant to be staying in the Merry V Guesthouse however there were two Merry V Guesthouses the old one and the new one. So after spending ½ an hour in one, we soon realised we had booked into the other. (Ed. these things are sent to try us :-)) We had a group meeting and decided that as it was almost lunch time people could go off and get lunch and have free time for the rest of the afternoon and we would then re group at 5 for another meeting. Everyone went their separate ways for lunch some finding street food, others really widening their tastes with MacDonalds (Ed. Arh good old traditional World Challenge food). We all then spent the rest of the afternoon shopping on the Kohsan Road, many items of clothing were purchased to replace old smelly ones. It would be thought that 5 hours of shopping is too much and we would all get bored but no, time flew by as there was such a lot to look at and soon enough it was time to meet again back at the hostel for our meeting. All 14 girls were ready and waiting in the lobby but no Cliff or teachers, 5:15 came and went ... so did 5:30. (After previously being asked to be on time to meetings we knew they weren’t doing it on purpose.) We left notes under their door saying when we were meeting for dinner and all went to shower. Eventually they arrived back, with 14 curious faces all wanting a decent excuse or explanation, which fortunately they did have! The staff had been on a boat trip after a visit to the grand palace, and had gone to get on the boat at 4, after asking 3 people and everyone confirming it was the boat to the pier opposite the hostel they got on. However as the boat left the dock it went further away from where they wanted to go so got off at the next stop possible and got a taxi back. (Ed. it was an epic journey folks lol) We all met again at 7 for dinner and walked around to find a restaurant which ended up being the same place as last time we were in Bangkok. Many people had western food for dinner as they knew this wasn’t going to be possible while on trek. Following our final meeting of the day we all went to our rooms to pack our bags...we are slowly becoming experts at this skill :-). We are all looking forward to the next phase of our trip and continue with our ‘Adventure of a lifetime’. Jaime Urquhart