On the way to Australia, I stayed in Bangkok for a couple of days. It’s one of those things I try to do when I go back to Australia – it helps with the jetlag and it really does feel like a bit of a holiday instead of simply a frenzy of catching up with lots of friends and family. This time, I decided to go via Bangkok. I booked it a long time ago, and was a bit worried by both the ash and then the protests that you’re hearing all over the news. When I left London, I’d just read about the bombing that the red-shirt protesters had “apparently” did and was worried how it might impact my stay. Fortunately enough, news being news, it apparently ended up being a fairly small issue in the grander scheme of things.

Firstly, the government had already locked down the protesters to a single area – both the taxi driver from the airport simply warned me to stay away and the staff at the hotel I was staying at told me which areas to avoid. With the protests aimed at the government, it hit a few more of the commercial/government part of Bangkok but also meant a large part of the sight seeing places were free from any such thing. Bangkok is such a big city that with all the trouble centred on a single part of the city, it didn’t really affect much of my stay.

Speaking of which, I ended up staying at the Park Plaza Sukhumvit. It’s located right near the intersection between the Asoke BTS (their very modern sky-rail system and the older, but still just as great Sukhumvit Subway). The rooms were large, spacious and I can recommend staying here despite the fairly thin walls – I could hear the room next door when they turned their TV on. From this place, I could get around the city very well and get to almost all parts wherever there was public transport.

I was only there for a short amount of time and enjoyed many different things about the city, including the marvellous street food. Although there wasn’t as much street food around the area I was staying in as much as many other places, I certainly found myself stopping for a sidewalk meal with many other locals. The hygienic attitude of the Thais and the fast turn around of the food meant I felt really comfortable eating many of the dishes that would be prepared. I loved the fact that it was also really authentic and so cheap, with many meals easily coming around BHT50 (£1) if you didn’t have any drinks alongside it.

One of the things you also definitely have to try whenever you get the chance are the famous Thai Ice Teas or the Thai Ice Coffees. Both the tea and the coffee mixtures tend to be this thick, dark mixture that is then mixed with the very sweet condensed milk, slightly watered down by some more evaporated milk and then poured into a large cup filled with ice. The result is a wondrous drink costing about BHT30 (just over 50p) whose sugar and caffeine rush will keep you going in addition to its iciness keeping you cool against the continuous Thai heat. The other great street dish to try is the coconut ice cream – you’ll see vendors of these walking around, often serving them in half coconut shells, or some accompanying the ice cream with a glass of fresh coconut juice. It’s a delicious way to escape the heat for such a short time frame.

I remember it was such a shock coming off the plane from London into that wall of hot air that greets you at the airplane exit and then reminds you of its presence when you step outside the air conditioned airport doors. Not being prepared, I had to go and find some shorts for the journey as soon as I could, forgetting that in temperatures of 38-42 degrees during the day with lots of humidity is not easily receptive for tourists who want to walk around for the entire day in the sun.

One of the things you probably won’t escape if you make it to Bangkok are the markets, and these are a great place to pick up a bargain including lots of counterfeited (some of it reasonable looking – others shockingly obvious) items and clothes. There are lots to choose from, including the massive weekend Chatuchak markets that are really hard to complete it a single weekend. At these weekend markets, you’ll find yourself walking from section to section, although they all start to blur together bit after bit. In some areas, you’ll find it almost claustrophobically dense with both people and the stifling heat under some of the covered areas. You can only feel sorry for some of the animal sections (some are much better than others) with some, very big, fluffy animals in smallish cages. Some of the shops are better than others – providing air conditioned places although the locals really discourage taking so many photos of the animals, particularly some of the rarer ones. I’m guessing this is from some trouble they may have had in the past about proving where some of the animals come from. Still, it’s an interesting walk and you do have to wonder whether or not all these animals move so quickly considering all of them were all really young.