Day 4 - 'Decisions decisions'. Another lazy morning waking up to an overcast day in Bangkok, we took breakfast near to the hotel. Not quite sure what to do with the day as we were getting the overnight sleeper train to Ubon Ratchathani at 20:30 so we decided to head for a flower market up river near to the Memorial Bridge.

The plan didn't exactly work out as the boat we were on sailed on passed the bridge pier and onto Tha Tien. Not all was lost though as this is where Wat Pho is and this was an option for the day. We jumped off the boat onto the pier (basically a wooden structure that could fall apart at any stage) and this led us through a very narrow waterside market. Out onto the street beyond the market, Wat Pho was right in front of us. Pondering our next move as I hadn't got trousers on which you normally need to enter these sacred places, we chanced our luck. Straight through with no sarong requirement in sight! The first building we came to housed the Recling Budda which is a golden structure, 46 metres long and 15 metres high. We wandered around the rest of the grounds taking in some of the amazing structures which included filling in a questionnaire for the University of Bangkok on the standard of the main Bangkok airport. Question 2 was what age range are you and I was ashamed to be ticking box 4 out of 8!! 31-35, but to be honest I felt it after leaving Wat Pho and venturing across the river to Wat Arun.

Although not as large as Wat Pho, Wat Arun is basically one large structure with steps up the side of it up to about half way up. The steps are set out into 3 layers, each getting steeper and steeper and let's just say the first set were steep and leave it at that. Alice made it up two sets but being a man I had to take in all three and I'm not sure vertical does it justice! Up at the top there is a canvas for visitors to write messages on so I duly scribed our initials with the year and a heart. On descending these ice like vertical steps I thought I'd share my work of Shakespeare with Alice only to realise that I'd written AP instead of AB on the canvas, must have disowned her for 5 minutes for failing to scale the steps!!

We jumped on the boat to take us back across the river and decided to grab some lunch at a riverside 'shack'. A very good meal sat by the river whilst listening to a couple of American guys chatting away to the owner of the place. At least I think she was as I think they were trying to get a free meal. The best sight was her with his Beats by Dre headphones on pouring a glass of whiskey she had brought to the table!

We boarded the boat back to the Central Pier and then onto our hotel shuttle boat. We sat in the reception area pondering our next move because we had heard the night before about the super typhoon, Haiyan! This would be hitting the Phillipines this morning and then into Vietnam and Laos over the weekend. We had a big decision to make, do we continue with the itinerary or stay in Bangkok one extra night and then fly out or get the train straight to Cambodia. We decided we would continue with the itinerary and therefore grabbed a taxi from the hotel to the train station. The receptionist said allow 20 minutes but the roads were absolute bedlam and when sat in traffic without moving for 10 minutes just outside the hotel, I'm sure the taxi driver could sense our unease. Cue some driving on the wrong side of the road, cutting up and just general crazy driving getting us to the station well ahead of time.

We sat in the main concourse waiting for the train with enough time for a large Singha beer for 79THB. Once on the train, we found our seats / beds and waited for the train to leave. Hoping for the food service to arrive, the man that puts the beds down started to go through the carriage and people started going to bed. We were slightly concerned that there would be no dinner service but luckily the drinks man kept coming back to serve the Singha! This time 80THB but for a small can. I asked the guy if there was food and he (I think) said "soon". Eventually another guy came around and just said, "food, chicken??". "Er, yes we guess so, 2 please" hoping this was right.

Another Singha to have with the meal was just what was required. A good meal but quite spicy as there were whole chillies just masking themselves in with the vegetables. Having cleared the table away the 'bed man' came around again but we thought we'd like to sit up for a bit longer as it was only 21:30. Unfortunately the man didn't come back around for another hour or so, so Alice read her book and I cracked on writing this! He eventually came and put our beds down, Alice in the top bunk and me on the bottom. The bottom bunk is supposed to be slightly larger but unfortunately it is designed for a large Thai person which is about 5'6" by the looks of things! May have to unfold myself in the morning. Hoping Dion is ok as he's flying into Hanoi tomorrow evening which is where the typhoon is heading. Hope to get to the hotel tomorrow morning and log on to get an update on the tracker radar. All good fun!