Bangkok has come and gone! wow how quick that went.

So after not the best of flights with a nice delay and a mad rush to get the transfering flights we arrived at bangkok airport and managed to grab a taxi without any issues. The taxi now that was an experience, no seat belt and a mad man of a driver resulted in a car sick Sophie....not good. That night we had a few Changs on Kho San Road which is like a Thai Blakpool, travellers everywhere! wew didnt stay up too late just long enough for Damo to have his first fried scorpion....yack!!

The Hostel is nice, clean and friendly and a good ten minuets from the main part of town. After an early night we started a fresh on our first day in Bangkok, culture shock is an understatement, we were wide eyed and silent whilst walking down the main road which was lined with people selling all sorts from scorpions to dresses to electricals, and it STINKS! if anything is going to put you off your dinner its walking past the stalls with that smell! its definatley a sensory overload and so much to take in.

So thinking we would walk to the Grand Palace we got half way there when a seemingly friendly local starts up a conversation, where are you from? where are you going? and then tells us the Palace is closed to tourists until 2:30 and told us about the government promotion on tuktuks 20B for a tour around all the sights....thinking he was just a helpful local we fell for it hook line and darn sinker. So our very smiley tuktuk man took us to the golden mount which is a temple at the top of hunderends of steps with amazing views over the whole of Bangkok, he then took us to a tourist information centre that he insisted we went into because of this government scheme where all the tuktuk drivers would get fuel stamps if they took tourists to these places...by now we had kinda twigged we were being schamed but went along with it, its all part of the Bangkok experience i guess! So after taking us to a number of temples and a giant 32mtr high golden buddah he must have got the idea we wern't going to be spending our money in the tailors and tourist shops he was stopping by on the way and when we got out of the temple with the giant buddah he had b*****ed off! he didnt even get any money from us! so we had a 2 hour tuktuk tour round bangkok for free!

Day two in Bankok and we went and braught our tickets outa here! wooo i think we are a little excited to be getting up north into a cooler, calmer environment. So we visitied the grand palace, after fighting our way through all sorts of men trying to tell you it was closed and you can have a special tour around in a tuk tuk until it opens...ha ha i dont think so!

The Palace is beautiful, it takes your breath away with how shiney and gold and glittery it is, and its so massive its hard to get your head around how much work has gone into it. After the Palace we walked to the giant lying down buddah...now thats a big budduah! 46 mtrs long and bright gold with a cheeky grin on his face. What's facinating about these temples is that they are in the middle of as Damo calls it 'a right s**t hole' which is so congested with people and cars and yet when you walk inside its like a whole new world and it all seems so peaceful and calm.

So day 3 and we are going north into Chang Mai tonight on a sleeper train, we figured it was one less night to pay in a hostel and people have said that they are quite fun, we leave at 18:10 and arrive in Chang Mai at 8:30am. We decided to book ahead for some accomodation for the first 2 nights, everyone keeps saying how its peak season so there will be a fight for the good hostels, and we aren't feeling quite brave enough to rock up somewhere yet. A couple we met were giving us tips for when you are choosing a room, like testing the lights and sniffing the cusions...haha i said i will do the sniffing if Damo does the bartering!

So on our last day we walked to the pier and grabbed one of the locals boats down the river, its like 15bht (about 30p). We stopped off at the flower market which was beautiful and a lot less smelly than the street food markets. The boat drivers are just as crazy as the taxi and tuk tuk drivers, thinking he is driving a speed boat not a long bout with at least 80 people all crammed in! it was nice to get out the city though.

Our overall view of Bangkok; hot, busy, smelly and definatly an experience! We didnt get to se the floating markets or a ping pong show but thats ok we will be back soon...and we were too chicken to have a full night out...way to crazy for us innocent kiddies :) maybe next time.

So thats Bangkok and we will be back updating again once we have got out of the craziness and into Chang Mai x x x

Ok so the internet crashed when i was trying to upload this yesterday so i thought i may as well give you a little update.

So we are in Chaing Mai now after a monster 18 hour train ride up, we were delayed 4 hours as the train broke down but lucky for us that was all happening when we were still asleep so didnt bother us too much as it meant we got to see some of the scenery on our way up in the morning. I say asleep very loosley, trying to sleep on a sleeper train is near on impossible but i think we both managed a couple of broken hours. And on the plus side Damo managed to crack the code on Alli and Eddie 's padlocks that are on the bags....yeh thats how bored he got!

So our first impressions of Chang Mai come with a sigh of relief to be out of the husstle and bussltle, although its still got lots going on from the looks of it. Our room is no way near as nice as the first but hey we need to get used to roughing it up and £6 a night for two and and en-suit isnt too bad hey!

Off to see all the sights of the old town tomorrow and hopefully find this market that Hannah has mentioned a few times, so we will update on the rest of our Chaing Mai adventures soon. xxxx