17th January

We flew Bangkok Airways on a twin propeller plane-a little scary and not as resistant to turbulence as larger planes. I took advantage of the fact they offer red wine with the meal and then come round and ask if you would like a top up!! You don't get that very often nowadays on a short haul flight. The food was rather nice too, although I'm having trouble looking at any of it fondly now as as soon as we started heading out for dinner when in Bangkok, I started feeling a bit unwell.

Within an hour I really wasn't well and spent the evening in the bathroom. I'm not sure if it's a bug or food poisoning but I'm writing this at breakfast and whilst Tony takes full advantage of the coffee machine, drinking his third latte, I can only look on in envy knowing that if I indulge, I'll start being sick again.

The breakfast buffet here is amazing. A huge selection of Asian and western foods and thankfully they also had juices, fruit and plain yoghurt which is what I found myself craving at 4am this morning after another trip to the bathroom.

We've not really been able to make the most of our first day in Bangkok as I'm just too exhausted/still not feeling well enough. Instead I ventured to breakfast and have spent the rest of the day snoozing. Tony has at least made it to the Myanmar embassy to confirm opening times and headed out for a late lunch.

Food in BKK is cheaper than down in Phuket. Pad Thai and chicken with chilli and basil cost £1 each last night for decent portions. We can't complain at that! Just a shame I couldn't eat mine.

19th January

Finally feeling better. Woke up and I could move around without my stomach feeling like it was on fire and I'd been punched repeatedly. I even managed a coffee at breakfast! Unfortunately Tony doesn't feel quite so well. He got ill the day after me although thankfully he's not been sick.

Yesterday though we ventured to the embassy and arranged our visa which was rather straight forward. We could even pick it up the same day for an extra £3 but we opted to collect it today for £27 each. We dropped laundry off, I had two hours by the pool & Tony managed thirty minutes. Last night we even caught the sky train to MBK to the food hall for dinner. Considering neither of us felt great, we didn't do too bad.

Other than a five minute trip on a train and a venture around the corner, we've not exactly explored Bangkok!

22nd January

Whoo hoo, we're finally leaving Bangkok two days later than planned. Tony has been too unwell to travel but the antibiotics he started on yesterday seem to be doing the trick and he's stopped walking like John Wayne! His knees, hips, arms, jaw and stomach hurt so walking was a bit of a challenge.

We managed a trip on the water bus to the Grand Palace on the 20th and spent an hour there when really we could have spent far longer. Other than that we have either been watching TV in the room, ( Tony has developed a liking for Fatal Vows, a crap US programme about murder) sunbathing by the pool (me) and in an evening finding somewhere to eat. You would expect when in Thailand we would eat Thai as we generally love it. We've actually eaten Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Tony had McDonald's and we've had some mediocre Thai food.

Last night we also went to the cinema to watch the new Star Wars- our best evening in the city!

The area where we stayed, Silom, whilst extremely convenient for the embassy and getting from the airport, is near Patpong which is known for sleaze. Walking through the market you see several stalls selling dildo's and sex outfits in amongst the general tourist tat and are offered sex shows and ping pong shows. Not really what we came to Bangkok for! The number of fat older men too with Thai women was incredible. We also saw a number of older western men with youngish Thai boys!

Thankfully though we're leaving all that behind and are on the bus to Kanchanaburi for the night so that we can cross over the border into Myanmar tomorrow.