The internet is the most tedious thing out here - even more tedious than being a tourist. I have tried to upload photos but have not succeeded and have spent half our daily budget trying to do so!!

So the beauty of travelling!! There has been beautiful moments and some beautiful places and we have met a few beautiful people but its actually quite hard to find a place where local life is ticking along without the tourist trade. At the moment our street is populated by tattooed westerners or backbackers, us being the latter, and the other places we checked out were either redicously polluted by the incessant traffic or down a backstreet in the middle of nowhere. We are in Bangkok. We were previously on an island. Ten years ago it was pretty much unpopulated today all the beaches are full of little bungalows. Thankfully we are here out of season.

Sorry all - I know you will put this reasonably negative blog down to my reasonably negative outlook - hopefully the next blog will be more adventurous and will have some photos attached. All in all we are enjoying ourselves! xx

Upon Duncan's recommedation to stop being cynical and tell all about our good experiences I thought I might add the good things we have been doing:- Before we got to Bangkok we were snorkelling alot. It wasn't until we got to Koh Tao, a small isalnd famous for its diving, that we saw what are probably my favourite fish - the trigger fish - basically giant versions of a small tropical fish with 3 front teeth, the middle one being quite big. However, we thought them harmless and were following them around, along with the other 100 or so little fish, trying to get a photo of them. One of them swam straight towards me, after getting particuarly pissed off with me interrupting it's coral lunch. Later we found out they bite!! And duncan has just recieved a facebook message from a friend stating his leg was mutulated by one!!! Lucky escape. Next we saw a black tipped shark - when that started to swim towards us I swam away. Later we found out they don't bite - apparently!!

Other than snorkelling I can't say we did much else on the islands apart from eat, drink and swim. When we venutured to another part of Koh Pha Ngan we journeyed around on a bike into and around the main town. A really good contrast to the town and a night market with cheap food at last. After getting a massage nearby a temple we went to spend some time in the temple's steam rooms. Male and female cubicles which looked like toilets. An english girl entered the one I was in, we chatted for a while then exited to cool down - it was then that I came face to face with Jamie in his pink y fronts and had been chatting to Jenna his girlfriend who I didn't know!! A really random place to meet a friend!

Anyway, so back to Bangkok. The park is amazing, although surrounded by main round. 100s of people gather for the daily dance aerobics, men do weights in the outdoor gym, evryone stands still, event he swan gondalas on the lake, when the antional anthem is played (we had to be told to stand still!). The shopping centres are vast and overwhelming, but cool and have good food. The 'ping ppng' sex shows put on for the tourists are revolting and we are lucky to have got out of the bar before paying for every drink ordered and a 500 baht entry fee that nobody told us about. The largest reclining buddha in thailand is amazing and very peaceful. The massages are great but painful. The noise is quite intense.

We are off to Cambodia in a couple of days. Maybe this wont be updated for at least a couple of weeks but I think I have done pretty well.....