Sunday 23rd August

Flew into Bangkok this morning and got to my hostel and went in the hostel bar and immediately met 2 Aussie guys Tom and Ben, so we went out for dinner, then came back and Ben disappeared, so me and Tom got chatting to a bunch of German guys and 1 German girl, and we all decided to go to a ping pong show in Patpong which is the sex tourist area. When in Rome and all that!! We got 2 taxis, and we got split up from the German guys, so me, Tom, the German girl and guy went to a ping pong show, and it was hilarious. We couldn't stop laughing the entire way through. The women on stage inserted darts and aimed them to pop baloons, they blew whistles and horns from there, pulled out entire lengths of flowered ropes and needles, used a pipe to blow out candles on a cake, smoked a cigarette from there (I wander if that causes cancer of the cervix???), inserted bananas and popped them out. One of the bananas was aimed at me and it went over my head and hit my back. Gross. The 2 guys were hilarious, they were ducking and hiding whilst squealing like little girls incase it hit them, then came the ping pongs. Tom was handed a bat, and the woman popped them all out at the audience and Tom was batting them back. I was crying with laughter, it was such an eye opener. There were a few groups in of men and women watching, then a few lone men where the madame was trying to sell off the girls for an hour. Its so sleazy but entertaining, and I had to see a show at least once whilst in Bangkok. Afterwards we left and were hit on left right and centre to go into bars and clubs, but we refused and decided to head back, but first of all Tom inticed me to try some insects with him, so he ate a cricket/grasshopper thing, and I ate a fried silk worm. When I chewed it it tasted salty, a bit like a chip, then he bought some chicken feet and gave one to me, so I chewed on the foot which still had the nails attached. There was no meat on there, so it was a case of eating the deep fried skin, a bit like KFC without the actual meat. We got back to the hostel in the early hours of the morning and met the other German guys, so we sat up swapping stories of the shows that we saw. Welcome to Bangkok!!!!!!

Went with a small group to the Bridge over the River Kwai, and rode on the train over the bridge, including the Hellfire part which is where most of the POW's from England, America, Australia, Thailand and Holland died from constructing the bridge under the brutal Japanese. We saw the cemetry where over 6000 plots for the dead POW's are. They died from malaria, starvation and the Japs torture methods - they say every train track represents a dead POW.

Samo whom I met in Phnom Penh came to Bangkok and we met up. Went to the Grand Palace which I loved as it was all bright colourful and sparkly, then went to the backpackers shopping haven of Koa San Road, then the mayhem of Chinatown.

Went to the Tiger Temple sanctuary in Katchuburi, which is where monks opened the sanctuary to take in and rescue tigers. I got to spend 45 minutes in the cub pen with four 6 week old tiger cubs with 2 other people and the workers, and we got to cuddle, play with and bottle feed the 6 week old bundles of fur!! My god I fell head over heels in love, and they used my legs as climbing frames and one of them only playfully bit me, but it wasn't malicious at all, so I prized opened her jaws and removed my thumb which was completely unscathed. We then saw the 5 month old cubs and I bottle fed one of them, then we saw the big ones in the canyon. They were all sleepy in the sun, and we went around with a worker to each one to pose for photos. I had to sit behind them and rest my hands firmly on their rumps, and they didn't care less about any of us. Pretty amazing stuff. There are mixed reviews about this place, some people claim the tigers are sedated. Now being an ex-Vet nurse, I've seen plenty of sedated and drugged up kitties in my time, and I can not say either way if these tigers were or not. Most of them have been hand reared by the monks, so maybe their just sedated from the heat and the peaceful life they've led. I don't know - it is what it is, and their rescuing the tigers from poachers, and I had a great time - especially with the cubs!!!!