We had an early start on our way to Bangkok - had to leave Hanoi at 5:30 so it was another start before 5am - stinking!!Our morning was made slightly better though as Jack, even though he had already left with the tour group, had arranged for a takeaway breakfast for the 3 of us (Me and the 2 Laura's) - what a legend!

No problems at the airport and we arrived in Bangkok at around 10am on 22 October.We jumped on the shuttle bus from the airport which dropped right outside our hostel - the first one since we arrived in Asia!Our first impressions of the hostel could not have been better.It was spotless, modern and we were given a free upgrade to a private room instead of the dorm room we had paid for - well impressed with this place!We checked in and went for a short exploration walk to discover there wasn't much of interest within walking distance of our hostel apart from Boot's which kept the 2 Laura's happy!!

We decided to do some further exploration the following day although stupidly didn't get up early enough meaning we were walking around Bangkok (officially the hottest city in the world!!!) during the hottest part of the day!We planned our route to get the Skytrain and the ferry to the area round the grand palace but noticed the city seemed a lot quieter than the day before.A local guy stopped us explaining it was a public holiday and the ferry wasn't running but told us were we could get a boat and transport to it for 20 baht (around 50p).Turns out this is a well known scam and the guy actually sent us to a private boat hire marina were we could indeed go where we wanted………for £80!!We declined and left and had to walk back to the public ferry terminal and get the ferry as planned - it was running all along!

Made our way to the Wat Pho and the grand palace area which was amazing to see.The Pagoda's and temples are so grand here, decorated with everything from coloured tiles to gold leaf.Inside Wat Pho we saw the reclining Buddha, a massive Buddha statue lying on its side and covered in gold leaf.It was huge - 15m high and 45m long, impressive!Went to the grand palace after this where the guard told us it was only open to Thai's and monks.He kindly showed us some temples that were open and flagge a Tuk Tuk for us to get us there for 50 Baht (£1).We saw the oldest temple in Bangkok but were then taken to the Thai Export - basically a big jewellerey store selling sapphires!This had the feeling of another set up so we left quickly and got back in the Tuk Tuk however when he realized we didn't want to buy anything he all of a sudden stopped speaking English and dropped us a bit away from where we wanted to be!!By this point we were both seriously hot and pissed off from people trying to rip us off so we went back to the hostel. We decided we wanted out of Bangkok for a day so booked a trip for the following day - elephant trekking, the bridge over the River Kwai and the death railway!We had to say goodbye to Laura that night also - she's off to Perth, good luck in Australia, will miss u!

Went for dinner that night to an Italians, which was lovely, but after we stuffed our faces we realized we'd only 800 baht on us, and we weren't sure how much it was! After panicking for ages, we decided to order the bill, and luckily enough it came to 793 baht! Soo close!

Next morning we were up at 6am to go on our tour.Our first stop was the war cemetery and bridge over the river Kwai.The cemetery was sad - 6000 bodies from various countries, the POWs used to build the bridge.It was a peaceful area, very well kept which was nice to see.Our next stop was the bridge itself and the death museum.It was really interesting, but frightening to learn of the conditions under which it was built.After this we headed 40mins down the road to see the death railway.By this point we were well aware that our driver was a complete nut-job, and even though we were well used to Asian driving, this was scary - he was an angry driver, overtaking everything, didn't matter if it was round blind bends or not.Back to the Death railway - this section of the railway cost 100,000 lives to build - they say it was equivalent to how many sleepers used.Was pretty scary walking across the bridge - it wasn't that safe, the planks were lifting up in places, and it was so hot with no shade. God love the POWs that built this, just a quick stroll across it and we were really struggling.Beside the railway, there was a cave in the mountain, which had a Buddha statue and worshipping area which was pretty cool.We got back on the damn bus with the crazy driver to go bamboo rafting for half an hour and then get lunch.We were towed up the river and then left to drift back down, it was really peaceful, but we missed out on seats in the shade so had to do some sun dodging!The lunch beside the river was great - ice cold cans of sprite, and sweet and sour chicken.

After lunch we were taken to a waterfall to cool off for half an hour before the elephant trekking.The place was packed, not like we expected, but it was cool.Tons of local families were there and everyone was just running in and out of the water and climbing up the waterfall, wish we had of got longer there, but we had elephants to play with!We got to the 'elephants in love' camp about 3pm, and headed straight for an elephant trek.We jumped on one, which felt weird, only to be told we had to get off so they could get the bigger elephant - it wasnt safe for us on the wee one! We were then put on the biggest one there - sign of too many curries I think!Our Elephant - 'Moo' weight 4 tonnes, and was 30 years old! He was so lovely! Our local guide was lovely too.After the trek we got to feed the elephants bananas which was really cool, and watch some of them getting washed.We were so sad to leave but it was a great experience.

We then had a very long 4 hour bus journey back to Bangkok; traffic was mad coming back into Bangkok!We were both wrecked by the time we got back to the hostel, we had dinner, shower, and then headed to bed!

We had a very uneventful final day. We spent most of it chilling out around the hostel before our overnight bus to Chiang Mai.We arrived at the Bus station early so took a dander to the Baiyoke Sky Hotel - tallest building in Thailand, and went up to the viewing platform - level 76 out of 84 floors! Pretty class view to be had!Our bus was comfier than we expected, blankets, reclining seats.Glad to be leaving Bangkok, so so busy, looking forward to chilling out in Chiang Mai for a week!

Craig and Laura :)