New Years in Bangkok | Bangkok, Thailand

Kuala Lumpar - Bangkok

A short and cheap plane flight later (I still can't believe how cheap!) and we have arrived in Bangkok, Thailand. When we exited the airport it was my first experience of "wow, we're actually alone in this big city". We decided to just go with the first taxi we could find and cough up the charge. To our delight this was a lot less than we were expecting. We travelled straight to the hotel we were due to stay in for the evening to drop off our bags.

Feeling like a day of relaxation we decided to remain at the hotel for the afternoon until we met with our G Adventures tour group for dinner.

And so begins our 10 day tour "Cambodia on a Shoestring"....and one of the most chaotic nights of my life!

After getting to know the group we decided to spend the evening, New Years Eve, on Khao San Road which is the busiest street in Bangkok. There were literally thousands of people on the street and in the surrounding pubs which made me feel slightly claustrophobic. We found a busy, yet delicious restaurant to dine at and spent a few hours there getting to know one another. We then begun bar hopping. At about 10.30pm, when we were leaving one of the pubs, we heard a man screaming at us and we looked up to see him struggling to hold an unconscious girl. Ben, myself, and two other boys from our group ran over to help - we ended up having to carry her about 300m down the street and perform first aid on her. It was a very scary experience, we never found out what was wrong with her but believe she had been drugged. The man she was with was a mess and at one point I even got quite upset as the local people are very nosey in these situations. It got to the point where they were getting in her face to see if she was alive and getting in the way of the medics. The police were also trying to arrest her - it took a while but we finally communicated that this girl needed serious medical attention and she could die if left alone. She was eventually taken to hospital. This whole ordeal was a real eye opener as to the types of dangers that young people can face when travelling overseas - particularly in Asia.

Once we had collected out thoughts from that stressful experience we were able to find a spot in the middle of Khao San Road and countdown the New Year with everyone. A very overwhelming yet unforgettable experience. This was shortly followed by the first of many tuk tuk rides of our trips.