We've neglected the blog since south America as when we were in New Zealand we were in the Campervan so we didn't have much opportunity to use the internet. We're playing catch up now but I'm going to start with our 3 week holiday with Kellie and Barry.

The morning they arrived in Bangkok we were up and out at 7am to meet them at the airport. We'd been waiting at the gate for them for a while until we realised there were 3 different exits and we were at the wrong one! Luckily we didn't miss them!

After getting checked into the hotel we headed out to do a tour of the Klongs by longtail boat. We'd walked it the day before and it almost killed us in the heat so we decided to get a couple of tuk tuks there this time. Well that was the plan but for some reason (I can only assume it's because we're tight) we all ended up in the same one. There's just enough room for 3 people to sit down properly in a tuk tuk and the 4th person perches on a ledge at the side! The tuk tuk drivers are fearless/mental and whip about in and out of traffic like they have a death wish!

The boat trip took us through the Klongs (canals) of Bangkok were people live in stilted houses on the water. It was good to see how people live, washing and playing in the water etc until we saw what could only be described as a giant crocodile gliding past us (well maybe it was a monitor lizard haha). Note to us all, do not fall out of the boat!

After the boat trip Barry realised that even though he didn't want to wear a vest he was going to have to buy one as he was too hot in t shirts. After much encouragement from us that he didn't resemble Mr Muscle he purchased a Chang vest and lived in it for the next 3 weeks.

We'd thought that after such a long flight and the time difference they may have wanted a power nap but they insisted they were ok and Kellie decided that we should go for a beer were she proceeded to neck everyone of her drinks before any of us (this power drinking carried on for the entire 3 weeks)

That evening we decided to hit the Khoa San road for a few drinks and what followed can only be described as carnage! Casson was obsessed with getting a new selfie stick as he'd broke our other one so he called over every street seller to find the one he wanted but when he finally decided on one it didn't have the right bolt for the go pro so off he went in search of the bolt that he'd seen earlier in the day on a car boot sale type stall. He came back empty handed as he thought it was to expensive so we were now the proud owners of a useless selfie stick!

We convinced him to go back but this time we all went with him, I think this is when the carnage really began. We were sat in a street bar and decided to introduce Kellie and Barry to the dreaded sangsom bucket and then because we were so close to our hotel Barry decided to nip back and get some Jaeger (they'd brought a litre bottle with them) then Kellie and I nipped back for another round of Jaeger so we could re enact the Jaeger train from V ..... in the middle of the street! You might think at this point we'd have called it a night but no,we went back to the Khoa San road but by then it was so late that the police were about as bars were supposed to be closed so we ended up behind racks of clothes hiding and drinking beer! I think at some point Barry may have ended up falling into a shutter.

Oh and we still didn't have the bloody bolt that we needed as the stall was shut when we got there!

The next day we didn't have anything planned so we all went for something to eat and then Larry (Casson) hit a wall and that was the last we saw of him for the rest of the afternoon as he crashed and burned. The 3 of us sat in the sun for a bit then Larry 2 (Barry) crashed and burned so Kellie and I went our for a cocktail or 2 on our own

That evening we headed to Soi Cowboy which is one of 3 red light districts and it was definitely an eye opener. As official tour guide I'd done my research and had to explain about the bar fines (if you want to take a girl out of the bar) and the naughty corner (some bars have a place were men 'enjoy themselves' with a girl but its in public in a corner of the bar).

The drinks were so expensive here so Casson went on a scouting mission to find a cheap bar but was gone so long that we thought Bangkok had taken him (or he'd found his way into the naughty corner). We ended up outside the 7-11 with a bottle of sangsom rum, a couple of cokes and a cup of ice and had the equivalent of a bucket in a cup! 1 really lame ping pong show later (just a load of naked girls looking bored and hardly dancing) and we called it a night but not before an extremely large lady had been gyrating on a guy sat opposite us and had sat there with her t shirt round her neck with her massive udders hanging down!

We did all the touristy things like the temples, Chinatown etc then it was off to Kanchanaburi.

General points

1) we eventually got the bolt we needed for the selfie stick but only because we convinced Casson to pay what the guy wanted. He's taking bartering to a whole new level!

2) Kellie is a beer monster

3) Barry spends an enormous amount of time on the toilet

4) Not only has Casson lost his Pringle cap he's now broke his favourite Pringle sunglasses. You'd think the world had ended .... they were a freebie at Benicassim last year haha