OK Guys and Gals...just to quickly reiterate Cooper's words, Halong Bay was fantastic! Similar to the Taj Mahal for me, how it was just somewhere truly wonderful that I'll never forget.

Anywho...a short flight to Bangkok and we joined the hustle and bustle of what is clearly a major world city!! Yet a little bit more crazy than most others we've seen...

On leaving the airport we headed for the metered taxi stand where an over-enthusiastic driver bundled us into his 'pimped' pink taxi complete with oversize exhaust and rear spoiler. It turns out they're quite the normality here - as are suicidal drivers! On the journey to the 'backpacker' district he delighted in his ...ahem...vast knowledge of the English language. "Very Hot! Very Hot! He Ha He!! Very Hot" often completing his overdramatic sentence by wiping his brow!

We found a cheap guesthouse after struggling through the heat and very busy Khaosan Road - a hectic marketplace for travellers great and small.

Our first day in Bangkok, we made for the recommended weekend market offering a wide range of goods, from cheap clothes, to exotic plants, to cute (but horribly caged) pets, to various local cuisine. We got ourselves some bargainous t-shirts and headed for the more air-conditioning friendly Shopping Mall 'Pantip Plaza'. This particular centre specialises in the selling of anything you could possibly require in the realm of computing and electronics. Having seen many other travellers using netbooks it had fixed an idea in my head to purchase one, saving us the time and money spent in Internet cafes, plus offering us a convenient outlet to upload photos at our leisure. After some deliberation and a tasty Burger King lunch, I opted for a Lenovo S10, just a little 10", lightweight toy. It's great, we're both enjoying the computery goodness (as we speak in fact!)
We thought that having delighted in the modern virtues of this city, our next day should be spent yesterday attending more traditional tourist venues such as the Grand Palace. However, infuriatingly it was closed for prayers etc so instead...we went shopping again. This time looking at more general items, but once again splurging on technological delights. To be fair though, we got 33 games for the DS on one little cartridge for roughly 20 quid...we finished our day in the most delightful way however, courtesey of the good family Broomhead!

For my birthday Colette and co arranged that they would contribute towards the costs of an experience we may not otherwise indulge in. So, given their previous experience in Bangkok, we asked their opinions and so, at their expense visited the Shangri La Hotel for High Tea.

Words can't express how brilliant it was. Offered a list of 89 teas, we made our choices and were presented with the most beautiful assortment of culinary goodness...I can't write any more on this as it almost brings tears to think we'll probably never enjoy such awesome treats again!!

Input from Cooper - I like the cucumber sandwiches (smacks lips). That is all

Though that wasn't all, she enjoyed, as did I, the scones with cream and jam and just all of it - so good! I wish I had some right here right now, I'd eat it all SO much!...but ... err... um back to Bangkok...

Firstly, our experience of street food is excellent! We frequented an old little Thai man who has a stand at night offering 'Pad Thai' for 25 Baht (50p) and it is just so tasty. Noodles of goodness!!

Anywho, before my fingers fall off I'll leave you with one last experience (non-food related I promise!) We arranged a tuk tuk to the train station to book our onwards travel southwards yesterday and upon haggling were taken with some violent driving is the only way to describe it to the station - the tuk tuk lurched violently in and out of gear, accelerated extremely sharply came to a halt all too briskly, I honestly thought we were going to be thrown from it mid sudden-turn!! However, despite arranging heading onwards from the station after getting our ticket, when we came out to reluctantly get in to this death trap, the driver and his tuk tuk had disappeared! Somewhat relieved, and mightily confused as we had yet to pay the man, we clambered into another vehicle at a far reduced cost! Perfect!

Sorry to have bored you all this time, I promise Cooper'll write the next blog!

Our next stop is Koh Samui. Love to all

Nick and Katie
xxx