Back in Bangkok - ah the bright lights, the big city. The eternal infernal traffic jams. Time to get back to a bit of luxury, soft beds, plasma tv, rooftop swimming pool, eggs without that leathery edge to them. We check into the 'Dream' Hotel, home of the ageing rock stars. At breakfast the next day we are not disappointed when the vertically challenged owner of a top class highlighted mullet and some stack heeled pointy toed boots arrives at the next table, particularly as he's at least 60 (with maybe a spot of sugery he could pass for 58) wearing reflective shades and making no effort to conceal the fact that he's eyeing up the young asian girl at the next table. Sadly we have just finished our breakfast so don't get to hear any of his cheesy chat up lines. We do have to ask to move rooms though, having been placed right above the bar and being kept awake by dancey trancey music till 1 a.m. tsk. In retaliation for our complaints they move us to a smaller room next door to a deaf bloke who likes watching thai soap operas. Luckily he goes out at about 8 pm and when we get back to our room at midnight there's no noise from him. Unfortunately he returns at 1 am and catches up with the latest episode. Grrrr.

We have a busy weekend, hotel problems notwithstanding. We go to a ladyboy cabaret show at the Calypso with some of our fellow ex-travellers, it's great fun, very colourful and we get to pose for photos with the cast after the show. Afterwards Bri eats at a street barbecue, which is cooked at the table, just what you need when the temperature is still hitting 80 degrees at 11 pm. Luckily the beers cooled us all down. The next day we 'did' the National Museum, very nice and cultural but you'd think they could throw in a bit of airconditioning. We had to spend hours in there reading all about the past kings and general history in order for me to make a halfway decent attempt at the inevitable subsequent round of 20 questions Bri subjected me to. He seems to be labouring under the impression we are doing this trip as much for education as for entertainment. Ha.

We finally make contact with Dave, aka 'Folkestone Dave' or 'Sofa Dave' to some, two of his many aliases. Despite my detailed emails regarding our movements he manages to miss meeting up with us in Bangkok by a whole 8 hours because he's too busy lying in the sun on an island somewhere in the south of Thailand fretting about his upcoming nuptials on December 1st. To categorise him as a reluctant groom would be a severe understatement, in fact he's most likely to be accessorizing his morning suit with a pair of Nikes. Watch this space.

Later that day we went to Pantip Plaza, it's a giant electronic shopping mall, nothing but cameras, mp3 players, computers and anything else you can plug in. Unbelievably we bought a laptop. Yes, just like that. So now we can avoid the tedium and inconvenience of internet cafes - we can email, mostly, from the comfort of our hotel rooms, since most of them these days have either landline or wireless connection. Hurrah, at last we are true flashpackers. Expect great things.