After a pleasant train journey we arrived in Bangkok at 6am, as expected there where hundreds of taxi and tuk tuk drivers, so we asked the tourist information people how much it should roughly cost to get to our hotel before we got a driver.
We decided to go with a tuk tuk rather than a car, cos it's more fun and cheaper! But this dude was really crazy, we where overtaking rush hour cars at like 80 miles an hour and it took like 10 minutes to get there. We had to hold on for dear life as the 3 wheel buggy was going around corners on 2 wheels!!
Bangkok is pretty expensive place to stay so we went to the proper poor area in a hostel full of proper hippies. The room was ok apart from the hole in bathroom ceiling! We where far from the city but it's pretty cheap to get around. The view was nice to as we were right on the river Chao Phraya and next to the Rama VIII bridge.
After a shower and a change of clothes we went to get some breakfast but instead we had coffee and cake at a cute “teddy bears cafe”!(The place is full of teddy bears) We walked from there to the proper backpackers district of Khao San road, thousands of them (backpackers) cheap bars, cheap restaurants, cheap clothes and even cheaper women (well we think they where women!) He he he!! We had an awesome Indian and a few beers and watched a group of under 10 year olds doing some old skool break dancing! We walked through the streets and had a few drinks, watched people get tattoos (debated getting one but then decided I'd wait for Miami and get Ami or Yoji to do it!)
We visited the Grand Palace which was amazing and also the official residence of the Kings of Thailand, it's very old (1782) and pretty much everything is made of gold! They take it very seriously you have to be dressed “appropriately” just like visiting the temples so no bare feet, bare shoulders and no shorts, so obviously all we are carrying now is shorts, t shirts and jeans for cold nights, so we picked the hottest day to go out in jeans and t-shirts, it was unbelievably hot and sweaty. The palace is very big and grand with loads of temples. The Temple of the Emerald Budha is also in the palace and its considered the most sacred Buddhist temple in Thailand. After our visit we got a taxi straight back to get changed!
One night we also went to The Ratchadamnoen Stadium to watch some Thai boxing, there where loads of people there but only half a dozen or so was women (all European). It does not look like they are hurting each other or kicking very hard but when you actually go and stand next to the ring you will be surprised. Before we went into the stadium we had some street vendor food outside and a couple of thai beers. It was very busy but the food was great. We did play it save and only ate stuff that resembled nice food and that we thought might taste nice. The one thing I liked was the pancake with condensed milk. Awesome. We also decided to go visit China town one night but to our disappointment it was not really as Chinese as you would have thought but still nice enough to have some dinner. The do have a lot of roadside vendors on the pavements that do make some really nice food.
While walking around Bangkok we came to a very nice park and I think this was on a weekend but there were loads of people at least 100 doing fitness exercise in a square with the instructor and all free so we sat there for a while checking out the people. If you take a taxi/Tuk-Tuk in Bangkok they will always say that they will have to include 1 to 4 stops for the fare. They normally take you to shops whether its jewellery shops, clothes shops to the Bangkok Tourist info office. The normally will say to you to stay in there for at least 10 to 20 minutes and to buy something if you like. The drivers get free fuel from the shops. So sometimes if you do not agree to go to these stops they will not help you.

We also did a one day tour of the floating villages (Damnoen Saduak) and the Bridge over the river Kwai. It was really great. The floating village is amazing. You get to go in a boat down small canals and get to see how the people sell there goods on the river in little boats and also the traditional river houses. The place is very hectic and you have to watch out for your hands because the boats bump against each other and scrape past one another. The boats also have huge engines like in the James Bond movie The man with the Golden Gun. The floating village also looks the same as in the movie.
The bridge over the river Kwai is a very sad story about a Prisoner of war camp. The Japanese had occupied Thailand was making the prisoners build a railway bridge over the river (Burma-Siam Railway) to get better access to Burma. During the construction of the bridges over 130000 prisoners died. The one story that was told is when the Americans wanted to bomb the bridge the Japanese made all the prisoners stand on the railway bridge and wave there hands in the air. The Americans still bombed the bridge and most of the people were killed. They say there were so many people that died during that bombing that the river turned red from the blood for days, and its a very wide river. A very sad history, like most of the world we have seen so far.

We were also lucky enough to be there on the Queens birthday. They had a huge march through the roads that ended at the Royal Park next to the Grand Palace. We got to see the King and Queen making a speech with the solders and guards on parade. Have a look at the photo's.

There are loads of things to see in Bangkok and a must to visit. I would think 3 to 5 days is more then enough to see the place.

Next is Phuket via Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for some sun, sea and Scuba diving.