Bangkok

As we are studious and sensible with money we spent two hours traveling on public buses (after getting up at 9, flying, then landing in a foreign place - aren't we good!) to get to Koah San Rd - the backpacking Mecca of Bangkok!!!! It was lashing it down - we were walking with our backpacks in the midst of a tropical storm!!!! Loved it, see the pics of us drenched!

Debs - Chris fell asleep on the bus and I swear to god I had a horrible time looking out of the window from Bangkok airport through the suburbs! I felt like waking him up and asking if we could get a flight to Chang Mai (up north) and skip Bangkok. I remember Lucy Tagg telling me how bad it was compared to the rest of Thailand.Stray dogs, metal slats for housing, pickup trucks with kids in the back, women selling HAIR plaits in the middle of the 70mph road!Then once we got past that, the centre's good! Especially for all the backpackers!

We found a decent hostel for just over 6 quid for the pair of us - so we had a shower and got our stuff in gear then went down to the bar for some tea and drinks!! Had some tea AT LIKE 9 O' CLOCK - had only a burger all day. Then we planed to have a quiet drink and get an early night …..

…….HOWEVER - met a couple called Felix & Gemma from London when we were playing pool - they were the epitome of travelers - had been in Thailand for 5 weeks and had been here before a few times before. Got some great stories off them and some valuable info about the culture over here. Went out on the lash, played some foreign pool hustlers….. and lost!!!! Got to bed quite late and quite drunk.

Making plans today - gunna watch the footy again tonight COME ON ENGLAND and meet up with new pals for some more drunken festivities!! Hopefully will be visiting some temples ( including Tiger temple ) in next few days. Will report back soon

NOTES PAGE:

Mummsy Trix - beat u - postcards ready to be sent before u txted.

Andrea u have one too!

CRAIG, AMY, KIRBY, ALEX………where are you please thank you????!!!!!

Jane - my legs are lovely!I'm quite a Geisha Girl model out here! Ha!

Thanks to everyone keeping in touch - when we get time will email individually but all a bit hectic at the mo

KIERO - PROPER GLAD YOU GOT FLEECED ASWELL - SORRY MATE!!!

BYE XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

UPDATE!!! Sat, 17th Sept! (started blog at 5pm our time, now it's 9pm...ur costing us a fortune hahahahahah!)

Howdy people!

Right then…… we've actually done some travelly kind of stuff so got plenty to report!! Before I start though debs has wrote back to most people on our message board so check it out cos were talking to you!!!!

Since our last part of the blog we have basically gone out all night every night with our buddies Felix & Gemma. They have gone back home now, which was a bit of a gutter cos they were really sound. Now that the beer has happened in week 2 and we've got it out of our systems, were expecting cheaper and more travelly stuff next week when we go to Chiang Mai (up north!)

Visited Wat Pho temple the other day where there is the reclining Buddha - was 15mts tall and ridiculously long (Check out the pics). Didn't expect to be blown away by it but it was crazy when you were stood next to it!!! Tried to visit the emerald budda nearby but it was closed! Apparently it's kept in the palace and has strict visiting hours because of the Indianna Jones style history - people from Laos many moons ago pinched it and the thai's reclaimed it and now it's a national treasure (even though it's small) and guarded by gates and guards with guns!

Summary of the best day ever!!!!DEATH RAILWAY, WATERFALLS, AND U BETTER BELIEVE IT….TIGER TEMPLE!!!!! Completely forgot about these beauties, Lucy Tagg, Cat and Keiro told us but we forgot until Felix and Gemma reminded us! So glad we met them, wouldn't wanna miss it!

Booked the trip the day before with the tourist info in our hostel - roughly 23 quid each. Was an early start getting up at 6am to get a two hour bus journey out of Bangkok to Kanchanaburi to the first stop which was the War memorial cemetery which holds soldiers from WW2 - but especially the prisoners of war who build the infamous Death Railway. The story of this thing was incredible - cost hundreds of thousands of European, Australian and American lives as the Japanese needed a link between Burma & Thailand for supplies and such! The prisoners of war were used day and night to build the whole thing through manual labour and were dying of mistreatment malnutrition disease and stuff! Eventually the bridge was bombed by America and when the Japanese realized they were coming they marched hundreds of prisoners onto the bridge to deter them…. Didn't work though and was bombed with the guys on the bridge! The next day the prisoners were sent back to build it once again - check out the pics!

Can debs just say that how grown up are we - look….we're being all grown up and actually listening to guided tours….and taking on board the info!! Was a very sad start t the day and a bit weird as we wernt fully awake!!

The next stop was to the waterfalls and OH MY GOD they were awesome!!!! There were seven levels climbing up the mountain and each level was incredible with pools full of the bluest water we have ever seen!!!Debs now - it was so smart!! We had to trail through this mini jungle setup to get through. On the 2nd level we were already full of sweat and drooling at the sight of being able to take a swim!Was a very sunny hot day, our first full day out in this weather actually, also incredibly humid over ere, so we had our swimsuits on under our clothes, P20 sun filter (and Factor 50 on top of that for me - wasn't taking any chances)…..and 'attempted' to plunge into the water!!! However, there was LOADS of massive fish!!!!!!!!Couldn't climb in because the carps / sea monsters would flock to your feet! Finally found a spot, got knee deep, thought we'd tricked the fish…..and some baby ones sucked onto our ankles and EUGH!!!!!!!!! I screamed (a really girlie one might I add) and we ran out!! We checked out the other levels, and finally snook into a secluded pool where there wasn't many fish! It took us a while - the water wasn't that warm, but once we were in it was amazing!!!!! We will both NEVER EVER EVER EVER forget it!!!!Check out the vids as well as the pics and be prepared to be extremely jealous!!!!

Back to young Chris now, he's more informative than me and doesn't waffle as much. Bye bye

Hello….. right after we'd cooled off in the waterfalls we took a 45 min journey to Tiger Temple. This place was nothing like a zoo, more of a sanctuary for animals. The temple was originally a monastery full of monks doing their day to day stuff, and an injured wild boar turned up and the monks nursed it to health and then set it free…. The next day it turned up again with its family so the monks let it wander about, after that for many years, boars, cows, buffalos, peacocks, goats etc. took refuge there and lived there! The first tiger cub was taken there in 1999 by villagers on the Thai-Burma border where its mum had been killed by poachers and it was in a bad state - the monks looked after it and kept it wandering about. Since then it has kept re-occurring and now whenever tiger cubs are ill or hurt they are taken to the monks. The place is going to stop allowing tourists in in the next few years as it is going to turn into a rehabilitation center and the tigers are going to be re-released into the wild. HOW LUCKY WERE WE TO BE ABLE TO GET SO CLOSE AND ACTUALLY TOUCH TIGERS - ONCE IN A LIFETIME Enough history now….. check out the pics and stuff.

What a day …. Not staying in Bangkok long now, gunna get ourselves up to Chiang Mai tomorrow then after that hopefully get to some beaches and crystal clear seas!!!!

Miss you all… love Chris & Debs xxxxxxx

Note to anyone and everyone - check out Bashphelt's video for Thrusting Motion @ The Railway B'Wick (quality!!) at www.myspace.com/bashphelt