Our epic South East Asia adventure came to an end with 2 nights in Bangkok before flying home to New Zealand. Bangkok is a great place to end a holiday as you can load up to the gills with shopping before hopping on a plane. We did the typical tourist sights in Bangkok on a previous stopover so we didn’t want to do any more. I estimate we gained 20kg in shopping in 2 days. Last time we were in Bangkok, our 2 day stopover resulted in 13kg of shopping. If you measure by weight, we are definitely getting better at shopping. Our 2 days of epic shopping in Bangkok put us up to 39.9kg. We were allowed up to 40kg in checked luggage so pretty close!

Eating fish

This steamed fish dish was barely cooked and would have tasted amazing if only it didn’t have about 10 times more chili than I could handle. I scraped off all the chili, ate it with all of the teddy bear shaped rice and still needed lots of cocktails to help with the heat. I guess that’s one way to serve a lot of drinks.

Eaten by fish

Almost missed out on this experience completely but we had a little time on our hands and this was the last chance we would get. Fish spas are found all over Asia and the concept is that little fish eat your dead skin and the result is supposed to be soft, supple skin and increased circulation. When we put our feet in the water, we couldn’t stop laughing. It is the most tickly thing EVER. But if you try hard not to focus every little nibble, the intense feeling calms down and you can pass it off as pins and needles. With all the fish we had eaten on our holiday, it was fair to be eaten by a whole lot of fish.

Khao San Road

We stayed on Khao San Road at Khao San Palace Hotel. We had gotten more fussy in our travels and our 2 requirements was a swimming pool and a handy location for shopping. The TV/DVD player was a bonus and it was handy buyings movies in the markets downstairs. It’s a delight when a room is nicer than expected

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Khao San Road is closed to vehicles in the evenings and becomes a pedestrian-only market. We did plenty of shopping here and also at MBK Centre. We had been to MBK Centre the last time we were in Bangkok and MBK Centre is the only place to shop. We tried a few other places but didn’t get that same balance of good shopping and good prices. MBK is a tuk tuk ride away from Khao San Road.

Agoda.com

I would highly recommend booking hotel rooms through Agoda. We booked a few hotels this way and got a refund when we had to change our dates. Changing our dates was just a matter of changing it on your online booking. It was quick and painless and I loved that we didn’t have to phone anyone to organise it. The amount was credited straight back onto my credit card. We booked a room through another website (hotel’s own) and when we had to pull out from that place, even with 2 weeks notice, we lost our 50% deposit. Bummer. You can write a review for any hotel on Agoda if you have paid in full and stayed. Fake reviews are a growing reality on the internet and there’s little that can be done to stop fake reviews on free membership sites. Customer only reviews are a great way to sort this problem out.

Bangkok tips:

1. Insist on metered taxi rides. A non-metered taxi ride cost us 600 baht one way and the metred taxi to get back it cost 150 baht.

Bangkok highlights:

1. Shopping at MBK Centre.