So we got our ferry and then coach to Surat thani train station where we had a bit of time to kill so sat at a street stall and devoured some rice (with my favourite soy sauce full of chilli's simple but makes boiled rice a million times nicer) we then waited at our platform and wondered why apart from a few tramps and monks we were the only ones there, we eventually asked and had to peg it down and across to the next platform where we just reached the train.
Didnt take us long to figure out we werent actually sat together :( and our top bunks werent even opposite so we just sat in somebodys seat hoping they wouldnt arrive untill we wanted to sleep....luckily they didnt.Then it was time to draw straws over the top bunks we had, either on top of some stinky boys and being surrounded by some stinky boys or a nice couple we'd made freinds with and a baby i took the couple and the baby bless andys socks!The baby was so cute too and he kept us occupied untill about one when we retired to our beds it was so cool i could see andy from down the aisle the beds were so comfy too! i kept trying to talk to andy but he went back to being about 5 pretending he was in a submarine haha i slept like a baby and in the morning andy said hed hardly slept at all...i think thats because of all the excitement :).
So we arrived in bangkok after 10 hours and as soon as we stepped off the platform the heat hit us and the smells oh my days but that seems to be the case everywhere we have been really so we got over it pretty quickly but it wasnt long before the usual guys were in our faces "taxi mam,tuktuk,you booked somewhere to stay"etc etc luckily our new freinds had been to bangkok a few times so they pointed us in the right direction and we continued with them on the mrt,skytrain and then walked about fifteen minutes or so until he pointed us to a street where he said our guesthouse would be,it was nice to be relaxed and have it so easy as Bangkok is meant to be so crazy....after about literally half an hour trying to cross the road (or like our motorway) we decided to walk abit more untill crossing over a bridge and ther was a 7eleven had a nice cool drink each and tried to get rid of our tag along stalker a very strange man kept declining everything he was offering us politley but he still carried on in the end we ignored him but he still just stood beside us smiling the longest and most awkward can of coke ever later we carried on walking and he continued to follow in the end i think he could see andy loosing his patience and he left thank god!The heat and people were really getting to us now but at least our place was just around the corner.....
Maybe not ,another hour or two walking through leafy streets,very dodgy alleys and a few underground dark bridges later andy pulled out the lonely planet guide(much to my annoyance as ive banned him from taking out as we look to touristy and scam worthy) and showed me how far we were out of the way from our guesthouse i just wanted to lay down on my backpack and sleep get away from this chaos! but no if we thought it couldnt get any worse someone was really going to prove us wrong it absolutley and i mean it as an understament when i say it PEED DOWN!
We eventually found our street and took the first place we saw a bit pricey but seems we were like two drowned rats we really didnt care had a shower and then thankfully it stoppped raining and we headed out for our first day in Bangkok. 1st stop the Grand Palace.

We arrived by tuk tuk at what we thaught Was The Grand Palace entrance and a man greeted us in saying that the Palace was closed until 4pm ( we got there at 1). In The meantime until opening time he was offering us boat trips along the river and canals and tuk tuk journeys around the city. But we remembered that lucys cousin aimee and her boyfriend Ash had got conned in the same way so we quickly told this man we werent interested and walked down the road where dun dun duuuunnn the Main (and actual) entrance was we went straight inside trying to avoid any more hassle. Once entering i got ordered into a changing room where i had to put on some outragous pair of baggy bottoms as my shorts wheir to short haha. I wasnt the only one wearing outrageous clothes so it wasnt that bad and dont no how lucy got away with a short dress!. When we entered the palace grounds we didnt realise how big they were, with different types of beautifull buildings and temples, it really was a nice place to see.We had a tour of the palace and the princess house which was very simular to Old english mansion (we were told they took on the europeon style arcutecture aswell as thai). We had a tour guide who was quite funny and kept it entertaining whilst explaining the history of it all. After having photos with the King's guard and visiting the weapons museum we left the Palace and decided to visit another close palace(we see so many we cant remember names the names now) which was equally as nice, with all the budda statue's and the ocasional Buddist monk walking by. The main reason we went there was inside the main temple it had the biggest golden budda statue in the world, laying down. even though we got to see it we couldnt take any photos as the battery ran out due to the fact we was trigger happy in the Grand Palace, ah well! Once we left there we was again pounced upon by men drawing all over our map(its ruined by mow cant see a thing!) offereing tours and trips etc but we just tell them to f off, in a polite way of course. We then got a tuk tuk home where we got caught in the famous bangkok traffic, we havent seen nothing like it, took us an hour for 3 miles, That was with the tuk tuk dodging out of traffic and putting his foot down, quite an experience ride in itself. In the evening after having a few drinks on our terrace and speaking to lucys mum then her feeling homesick, we decided just to go to the shop for a pot noodle for tea and an early night due to the early start we had.

On the 2nd day after a nice lay in we decided to visit the zoo. Yet another tuk tuk man offereing us to take us, and a taxi man trying to claim 400 baht (8quid) we flagged a taxi down which took us on the meter and when reaching the zoo it cost us 60 baht (1 pound 20), Bloody con artists. At the zoo we just done the usual thing of walking about but unlike paignton zoo, we fed the elephants which was pretty cool, yet abit scary of how powerfull and forcefull they are. saw some black bears which come up very close to you (barrier in the way), hippo's which andy caught opening its mouth next to lucys head and all the other animals, monkeys, big cats, reptiles, birds etc. We went on a 4D imax simulater which i thought was waste of money, lucy loved it but it only last 3 minutes thankfully and we saw an elephant combined kenyan tribal show. The kenyan boys where good doing alsorts of gymnastics and tricks and the elephant's also impressive but we thaught was quite crual. At the zoo we saw wild big water monotor lizards which made us jump once or twice slowly slithering along right in front of us. Just as we was about to leave it hammered down again so we quickly took shelter till it passed got chatting to a lovely philipino girl and her friends got some good advice on Bangkok.

After the zoo we visited the King staue and one of the kings palaces close by. It was then time to get prefferably a taxi back to the hotel but had to resort in another tuk tuk again. one tuk tuk we saw had about 8 school teenagers in the back, quite funny seeming they only got 2 seats in the back haha. In the evening we visited the Khaosan road which was quite a renowed part of bangkok for sleezyness and bars. After walking about we saw a stall which was selling cooked insects, i said before the trip i wanted to try different foods so decided to eat a cricket which tasted like roast chicken skin/pork scratchings . After a few drinks and buckets and a weird man sitting next to us drunk in his thaughts,wearing seethrough holey vest and tarten kilt trying to play the guitar which was funny, it was then time to head home for the night, not before a burgerking 1st haha. The cab home we had the funnyest cab driver ever, he was loud, crazy and a big english football fan, but his laugh was the best, we caught it on tape to have a laught at it later.

On our 3rd day we stayed in as i was feeling really ill, we have been having trouble with the malayria tablets (which when reading up, is really bad for your health, and on some instances have made people commit suicide) which i think was the problem but we will be going to a doctor in pattaya to talk about other opions. Lucy was feeling better in the night so we decided to go to the Sirocco sky bar (the one on Hangover 2) but was raining heavy again so in was another night in with a pot noodle.

On day four we walked to the Golden Mount. Once there we had to climb the 300 small steps upto the top, was a nice walk up though being distracted by all the lucky bells which line the steps all the way up you have to ring them and make a wish going up too..... with the veiw even more amazing everystep, but the heat was a pain. At the top we was releived of the breeze but lucy not so much of how high we were haha.It was truely beautiful looking around the golden mount with everyone praying,banging the big gongs and lucky bells it was quite emotional and we did feel a bit out place taking photos whilst everyone else was really into there prayers it was definatley the most religous place we have been and the golden mount itself the most beautiful wat we have seen definatley and experience we'd reccomend even just for the views. We then walked what felt like a million miles and were really burning at this point so we stopped for a drink in amongst all the street stalls selling voting tickets and i ordered some fried baby crab BIG MISTAKE it was a huge pile and trying to eat the crabs whilst the guy whod cooked them kept repeating good good cancer for your tummy meanwhile lucy had half a crab in her mouth looking like she was ready to be sick but he said to her nice yeh so she nodded and reluctantley shoved the other half in we felt sick to say the least glad to leave the plate covered in tissues so he couldnt see we'd left most of it haha,we continued walking but eventually had enough so jumped in a taxi to take us to the peir where we literally pulled up two minutes around the corner his meter didnt even change must have thought we were very lazy!

We then took a trip around the canals dubbed the venice of south east asia which was nice we had the whole longtail boat to ourselves the canals were cool everyone was waving at us and all the little kids would shout and wave,we saw some pretty spectacular temples,wooden stilt houses,guys fishing,old ladys working the mangroves and fed some pretty huge catfish along the way we also last but not least bought a refreshing chang from the "floating markets" which was three little ladys with there longboats full of junk.After an hour of some pretty amazing scenery we arrived at our final destination Wat Arun where as soon as we got off we had to pay 20baht peir fee or something or other everyone just wants our money it feels like and then entered the temple where we got stopped instantley and had to pay a further 120 baht for a shawl to cover up lucys shoulders! Wat Arun was very pretty and we had fun trying to climb the very very steep steps up to the top, it was funny watching the short legged thai girls crawling up though and i must admit it was pretty high up and very steep!We took the ferry back across and had a few drinks in a very dodgy wooden stilt cafe over the water! we then walked around the market fruit and veg i think it was where we finally brought some Durian.We werent brave enough to eat it just yet so carried onto the bootsale then headed back for home (via tuktuk ) once again! it is so hard to find a taxi to go by the meter here you say your location they laugh and just drive off with there doors open! In the evening we went to see muay thai fighting in the square inbetween all the shopping malls by our place there is always something here everynight and the atmosphere is cool.There was people everywhere and the fighting was cool, they really leave nothing out and get right in there! We stayed there for the rest of the evening running in and out of cover every now and again inbetween all the yelling and screaming from the spectators due to it peeing down with rain still it was all part of the fun and eveyone i would say had a great evening! When then retired with yet another creamy tom yam pot noodle with bread, followed by our durian for desert, which lucy says tastes like a creamy onion cross with the smellof b.o, i thaught it tasted very sweet but the tecsture like sick.

The next day we decided to visit China town. We did a walking tour from a book in the hostel which was cool but then the heavens opened up once more and off the beaten track we went to find cover. we saw and smelt some interesting things on the way, from fish being gutted and left there still alive, shark fins everywere, pluked ducks and chickens, fish left to dry out in the sun. We was walking around for about 6 hours and i getting restless as lucy was walking in and out of every soi (lane) full of beads and jewelry shops. We then walked onto Little India where we sharply left due to all the perverts having an eye for lucy. An hour later of trying to get a taxi we found a tuk tuk which finally took us home. In the night we couldnt do much as it was heavy raining, so we decided to go to the cinema in the M.B.K and watched transformers, after a lovely japanese curry, the best food i have had so far.

Over next fews day we didnt do much really apart from bumming about in and out of the sunshine on our terrace and strolling around the malls.i bought myself my first present TWO handbags yes not one but two this is why i do not shop, we'd be home by next week else lol we also had the best meal ever in the mbk i had greek a lamb gyros wrap and andy a mexican the meals where huge and quite pricey by thai standards but worth every penny! On our second to last night we visited the Sirocco bar it was amazing apart from the fact we could have no alcahol due to the election and had to pay about 8 pounds for a mango juice(Andy ordered a bloody mary i asked him if he knew what it was after the lady had gone he replied no ...i never told him and i think he tried his hardest not to spit it out after the first sip lol i think the huge clerey stick shouldv gave it away but anyways lets just say he left it haha) We got shown out onto the deck where a band was playing classical music on a higher platfrom and walked down to the roftop bar where we saw the sun set and then Bangkok light up for the night really was a lovely evening ,very romantic atmosphere everything going well untill i decided nope im not paying 8pounds a juice for us not to be aloud on the steps to have a photo (the steps off hangover 2) so armed andy with two cameras and tried to run up the steps in my very long dress were i got stopped i still tried to run up by then i could see andy going bright red and the lady putting her hand infront of the flash saying no photos on the steps and alot of people watching from the bar lol so after me making a show saying why not we promptly finished our drinks and left Sirrocco it is a must if ever in Bangkok it really is amazing(minus the fact your restricted to where you can take photos lol) We then got a taxi home changed and headed out to the infamous Patpong where we were greeted by aload of seedy guys/girls shouting for us to come into there pub or stripclubs, we tried bahtering for a t-shirt where we got told F-YOU , which has been happeing quite alot now lol i get really annoyed and andy just laughs one girl actually followed us around the shopping mall once telling every stall person about us and muttering rubbish i say rubbish as it was obviously in thai and i couldnt tell you what she was saying but she sounded evil and everyone was giving us evils..it was a bad experience lol really dont no how andy laughs it all off think i have temper problems!Anyways back to patpong we decided we really did want some alcahol so much to andys amusement we retired to a gogo bar where we could drink thankfully afte about 15 minuted muay thai boxing came on and the girls left , and i say to my amusement as andy informed me earlier that day and i qoute " im quite getting into asian girls now hmmm not really something you should say to your girlfriend i dont think lol) the muay thai fight was definatley the roughest we'd seen andy might aswell of had his head in the ring whilst myn was hid behind my gin haha.....we finished the night with andy buying two more t-shirts to add to his collection he really has a shopping problem now :) ) and headed off home to bed.

Our last evening was spent at Koh san road again on two little stools with our gins and beers watching a few(very good) bands play and reminising over our time in Bangkok,will be a sad but much needed good bye this place is very cool you could never be bored always something happening the the people are what make it there definatley the nicest weve experienced so far next stop Pattaya (yes another sleezy town haha).