Our first visit to the crazy capital of Thailand has been good, if not a little hot and sweaty!! It started with a taxi, boat, bus and sleeper train from Koh Pha-Ngan. We had to wait for over 3 hours for the Night Train which was running late, no surprises there! The train itself was strange, neither of us having been on a sleeper before, we had 2 top bunks in a fan-cooled carriage. When we boarded the train all the bunks were already made up so we had no choice but to try and get some sleep. The bunks were actually quite comfortable and I got more sleep than I had expected. We were woken about 7am and the bunks were put away into seats, very strange to watch done. We arrived in Bangkok about 10 am and got a cab across town to the famous Khao San Road and found a cheap hostel just off it that had been recommended.

The first day in Bangkok was spent unsuccessfully trying to get visas sorted - by the time we got to each of the embassies they were closed, although we did manage to change our flight dates, with no help from STA who were useless! In the evening we had a wander along the crazy Khao San - it is as mad as people make out - so much going on. We had a few beers then hit the sack ready for a busy day traipsing round embassies.

Surprisingly the Chinese visa we needed was issued to us on the same day, although we did have to pay extra for this privilege - but anything to get out of the city quickly we thought! We spent the time waiting for the visa by walking around Silom Road (a hectic smoggy main street) and Lumphini Park (a bit of green tranquility) where we were greeted by a huge monitor lizard when we sat down and the rest of the time hanging around in a foreign (air conditioned) Tesco's!!

That evening we went back to Silom to check out the night market which is full of all the designer gear you could ever imagine - we now both possess designer watches!! After this we decided to go and see what all the fuss is about with one of the infamous 'Ping Pong' Shows - it was crazy, I didn't realise that some of the things we saw were possible and in some cases actually wish I had never been enlightened!! Some of the "highlights" included - removal of a string of razor blades, firing out bananas and ping pong balls and darts in order to pop balloons pinned up at the end of the stage, writing 'Hello and Welcome to Super p**** on a pad of paper, blowing out candles and smoking cigarettes, all pretty unbelievable and definitely not going to be repeated!

After all that excitement we caught the bus home, not too late - had to get up early to get a Vietnam visa the next day!!The Vietnam visa would be ready the following day so that evening we went back to Khao San and did some shopping in the night market, we need to leave Bangkok soon because we are spending far too much money!

Friday morning we had booked a tour for the Damnoen Saduak Floating Markets. We woke up late and thought that we had missed the tour but thankfully they were running late too and we made it. The floating markets were about 2 hours from Bangkok. We were paddled along in a wooden canoe by two Thai Ladies through the market. It was pretty cool, incredibly touristy and at one point we were stuck in a full on traffic jam in one of the canals. But once it had all calmed down a bit it was great to see all the women with all the fruit and different foods on their floating market stalls, very different to anything we had ever seen before, well worth the trip.

This morning we went round the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew, which were very spectacular. Loads of gold, mirrors and crazy architecture. There is a Buddha made from jade, smaller than you imagine but pretty cool nonetheless. We couldn't go and see everything as the Kings sister (who died 2 months ago) is still lying in state. It was so hot we didn't mind too much.

This evening we head off on another sleeper train to Chiang Mai, in search of cooking schools, elephants and hill tribes!

Our main thought on Bangkok is that it is a hot, smelly, sweaty and dirty place. But this seems to add to the crazyness that always seems to be happening. In places it seems incredibly futuristic and rich but then you will turn a corner and be greeted with the past and the poor - we have enjoyed it a lot. However, it is costing us a fortune -we have both developed a shopping habit that we haven't had all year so leaving today is probably the best thing for us!!

Keep in touch and send us some messages we are getting lonely!!

Love to all A&S xxx