Sensory overload.

Wow – so many things hitting you at the same time, from every direction. The smells from the spicy street food – wasn’t brave enough to try something that had been cooked in the gutter and left in the sun all day – the sweet flowers and the pong from the river at times. Vibrant buildings rising up from corrugated roof shacks, while tuk-tuks whizz by and boats light up the river at night. Greetings called out from every side, tannoys for rail and airport timings, motorbikes – everywhere!

Where to start.. obviously the Unicorn cafe! Well after Lunphimi Park to discover giant Komodo dragons wandering around with eye-catching birds and butterflies, beautifully peaceful from what was bustling all around it.

Then into Unicorn heaven – with 2 ecstatic girls, an outnumbered dad and a thousand calories! But great air conditioning. Molly and Sophie will be blogging about this soon.

We zipped around on the train – which was straightforward, clean and friendly, and being elevated gave us a fabulous view as we crossed the city. We cruised down the river on several of the boats that nip between the platforms and sides of the river, waiting just long enough for you to dive on or off – luckily we stayed dry! And finally by tuk-tuk to zoom in and out of traffic, hanging on to the girls as they sat laughing while trying to see what was whizzing by past us and where we could possibly be.

But our place of refuge was the amazing, and opulent Royal Orchid Sheraton hotel (a lot of luxury and expensive to start with and get over our first long-haul flight together). The pool was so good that the girls didn’t want to leave it…ever. Then there were the peacocks that came to visit you at poolside – I’ve trained my chickens at school, but these were a little bit bigger, and noisier! The porcelain elephants in reception delayed us every time coming in or leaving, the girls had to have time with them! And then you could have a full curry for breakfast, or the make your own pancake machine that Molly wanted to bring with her, or the personalised omelette making for Sarah, or just the shiny red apples for Sophie (we smuggled 2 out each day!). If was an extremely luxurious way to start our adventure.

Did we love Bangkok…not really. It was a fantastic experience but a bit too busy and noisy for us!