Hello Everyone!!

We got the overnight sleeper triain from Chiang Mai to Bangkok...even though it was a sleeper train, we didn't have beds but all the other trains that ran during the day did have!! ...Anywho it was a comfortable journey but really cold from the air con. We arrived back in Bangkok early morning, weather was a real sweaty heat, grabbed a tuk tuk to Koh Sian Road and walked down to find some accomodation for the next three nights. We stayed at the Siam Oriental Inn, very basic, but it had two massive fans and we were more than happy with that.

Nikki and Cheryl were meant to join us for the last 3 nights in Bangkok, however throughout the duration in Giang Mai Nikki felt unwell, and the day before we left she visited the hospital with Cheryl. Turns out Nikki had Dengue fever and had to stay two nights in hospital. We were all so worried as for the past few days Nikki couldn't eat, had a constant headache, aching body and hot and cold flushes. To top it off Nikki completed the hilltribe trek we went on not knowing that she had the fever....so what a real trooper!! Cheryl was so good and stayed with Nikki the whole time. Nikki was taken good care of and the hospital was huge, with big rooms with an en suite and shower facilities. So unfortuantly the girls came two days later to Bangkok and as they were flying a day before us girls they had to head straight to the airport. Hayley left for home on the 24th Jan and Cheryl and Nikki flew to Oz on the 24th.

So for the last 3 days in Bangkok Jo, Beth and me visited the floating market.... a good experience, an early start (6.30am) and about an hours drive. You can purchase mainly Thai souveniers(cannot spell this word!!) and they are quite pushy for you to buy! We must have had the oldest most ancient women driver so it took us a little while to get round. After we had the chance to watch a cobra show then we headed back and we were home by early afternoon........

We all wanted to get some clothes and we must have walked up and down Koh Sian road about a millions times....it was good fun though, really busy and loads of pad thai stalls. You would never go hungry in Thailand. We also done a tuk tuk tour around Bagkok, sightseeing the local temples, but for every place we stopped off to see, we then had to go shopping in Jewellers or a clothes shop to have your own suit made so our driver could get gasoline tokens..............well the jewellery cost an arm and a leg and the suits were so outdated. The driver kept getting moody with us because we didn't buy anything, we could tell as we had to hold on for dear life weaving in and out of the traffic!!! It was interesting to ser the temples though, but after a while in the heat it is a bit much and a bit boring walking round and round.

On our last night we headed back to the first bar we started in a month ago....got the buckets in and continued late into the night partying. We saw a couple of guys we met in Phi Phi which was weird but so far on our travels we have been bumping into the same people we met all the time.

Things to remember about Babgkok second time round:

Try the pad Thai....it was the best food we had our whole time in Thailand...the freshest and the cheapest.

Barter the stalls down as they will start off at a crazy price and they will always go lower

Bangkok is a good all rounder for shopping....we all want to go back on our way home so we can kit our own places out

Fans are much better than air con

Next stop is Adelaide, Australia...we arrive 26th Jan early morning of Australia day!!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx