Yay, here we are. Arrived safely on Monday, inevitably got ripped off by taxi on the way from the airport and I managed to tip the hotel porter about 10 quid, apparently. Bri reckons he's still celebrating.

Staying at a great hotel - the Davis, with a rooftop pool, just a 10 minute walk to the BTS skytrain.

Got the first day's obligatory sightseeing done - went to Jim Thompson's house, booked our train tickets for Hua Hin on Thursday and an overnight train to Vientiane for the 19th October. To my dismay the 1st class aircon sleeper was fully booked so we are now travelling second class, fan cooled. grrrr. Bri is under the impression we will be like Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe in Some Like it Hot, boy is he in for a shock. I'll pack the trombone though, just in case. We're also at opposite ends of the carriage, I just know I'm going to be sleeping above some fat old snorer. Talking of packing we have brought way too much stuff. Surprise, surprise. Bri has discovered that the 'bargain' bag he bought after much, much deliberation in TK Maxx isn't up to the job. So his solution? Buy another cheap and crappy old bag. So another 5 hours trailing around examining zips, comparing storage capacities and reading Which reports on wheel rollability later, when even the stoutest hearted Bangkok trader is ducking round the back of his stall at our approach we now have two sub-standard bags. Bri's cunning plan is that we fill one with all the stuff we don't need in Laos and Vietnam and leave it behind during our side trips. So now, instead of less stuff, we have more stuff. Oh because of course I couldn't resist a few bargains of my own, Thailand is just too irresistible for fake stuff - so we went to the Patpong Night Market, resisted all temptation to view shows involving ping pongs and I've bought a Mulberry bag and a designer watch already, Bri was content with a pair of croc-a-likes for 3 quid (he is now a croc convert, beware!). Finished off the evening with a thai foot massage, way too rough for me, my bruises now have bruises, but Bri loves it.

We were going to go to the museum yesterday but it's monsoon season and it poured and poured, so we ended up at the huge shopping mall that is MBK again, changed more money and promptly spent it on new glasses, photos to follow. That's this week's budget gone already, I'll be on bread and jam by Friday. Time to leave for the seaside.......