Greetings from Thailand! After a relatively painless and easy entry into the country (we were expecting much worse!) we arrived at Bangkok airport and proceeded to our hostel. For our first night we had splashed out on our own room, but for the rest of our stay in Bangkok we are gonna be staying in an 8-bed dorm. After a good nights sleep we packed up and headed down the road to our new hostel for the rest of the week (which was really nice!), before going off into the city to explore! We soon discovered that getting around Bangkok is something of a struggle! Due to the constant traffic chaos we wanted to avoid using taxi's or buses, and stick to the skyrail and metro. However, as good and efficient as they were they only covered half the city and so we found we had to walk a lot! Having set out to find Chinatown, the skyrail only took us as far as the shopping centre in Siam. The shopping centre is one of the biggest in south-east Asia and is crazy! They had two 14-screen cinema's (one of them an imax), a bowling alley, a huge gym, car show rooms selling ferrari's and lambougini's, an aquarium through which you can travel on a glass-bottomed boat, and the biggest food hall we've ever seen that even had a canal running through it and a lagoon at the end!! Having spent an hour trying to find Chinatown we gave up and on our way home found Jim Thompson's house, which was really interesting. Jim Thompson was a famous american entrepenur who made his fortune selling thai silk before mysteriously disapearing in the Cameron highlands in Malaysia. We then went back to Siam shopping centre for food and cinema (national treasure 2!).

For our second day in Bangkok we decided to visit the old part of the city where all the famous royal landmarks and buildings are. Because of transport issues it took us nearly 2 hours to get there and involved the skyrail, metro, a 60 minute walk and a ferry ride up the river! Firstly we went to the Grand Palace but found that because the King's sister had died a couple of days previously the palace was closed as her body was being kept there. So instead we went to see the Emerald Budha which was incredible. All the Thai royal buildings are very eleborate and covered in gold! Next was a trip to the second largest reclining Budha in the world, before we headed back to the hostel via Chinatown for some shopping! For tea we decided to check out a recommendation from the lonely planet guide and eat at Larry's Bar and Grill, which was very expensive but really good (and showed football highlights!).

Upon our arrival in Bangkok we had decided to go on a 3-day 2-night organised tour to Kanchanaburi (organised through our hostel), and so on thursday we had to be up very early as were being picked up at 6.15am! After 2 hours of driving around the city picking up other people from their respective hotels we headed out of the city (in long traffic queues). Three hours later we arrived at Kanchanaburi where we first visited the Allied Soldiers Cemetery, where the bodies of thousands of British, Australian and Dutch POW's are buried. Then we went to see the REAL 'Bridge over the River Kwai' which we got to walk across. Then, after a quick trip to a museum, we boarded a jungle train for a stunning 45 minute ride through the jungle and along the banks of the river kwai. Upon arriving at our station we were transferred to another tour group (Kittiraft) for the rest of our tour. They took us by minibus to their restaurant; a floating restaurant on the river kwai. After lunch we all piled into the back of a beat-up truck and headed to a nearby monastery where they care for injured/rescued tigers. We were lucky enough to be able to touch and smooth the tigers (which varied from cubs to BIG fully grown adults) and even get our photo's taken with them. Then it was back to the restaurant for tea before being taken by boat (we got soaked!) up-river to a floating hotel which would be our accomodation for the next two nights.

The next day we spent the morning at Erawen National Park, where we walked (and climbed!) up the seven 'steps' (levels) of the waterfall. At the top we ran out of path and so i spent half an hour climbing up the side of the waterfall to get to the top, only to realise when i got up there that there was a path to it but we had just missed it! To cool off from our climb we went swimming in one of the big pools under the waterfall at the 6th step. The water was awesome but there were lots of fish that kept nibling on us! After lunch at the floating restaurant (again!) the afternoon was spent visiting, and walking along, Hellfire Pass which is part of the railway track that all the POW's died at whilst hollowing it out of the mountain during the second world war. Then it was back to the restaurant for tea before enjoying a cold beer in a hammock on the floating hotel before bed (very relaxing!).

For our last day of the tour we were offered the chance to either have a lie-in, or get up early and go elephant bathing (for a bit more money). In thailand people use elephants like we use horses and so they are everywhere! We regularly saw them walking along the side of the road on their own in the countryside and even saw them walking down the high street in Bangkok! We, along with 2 others from the group, decided to go elephant bathing and it turned out to be one of the most incredible experiences of our lives!! We each got to ride an elephant (fully grown adults) bareback into the river so they could bathe. The elephants love bathing and got very excited! For an hour we got to stay in the water with them, playing with them, cleaning them and trying to stay on them whilst they went under the water! I had possibly the most mischevous elephant there, who took great joy in constantly throwing me off his back into the river (although i think his trainer may have been just as mischevous!). At one point the elephant tried to help me up with his trunk but although i made it onto his head i promptly fell off the other side! Eventually though i managed to work out how to stay on! After drying off we boarded a bamboo raft for a ride down the river before visiting another elephant camp for a trek through the jungle on an elephants back. However, this was on seats and paled in comparison to the mornings experience! After returning to the restaurant for lunch we were taken back to bangkok and to our hostel, where we managed to get some laundry done before heading to bed.

The next day was our last day in Bangkok as we were catching a sleeper train to Koh Samui in the evening, and so we decided to try and go back to the Grand Palace again as it was now open to the public again. However, because the Princess's body was still there for Thai morners to visit we were only allowed into certain parts of the palace. However, just as we were leaving the Prince arrived and passed right by us! After a quick bite to eat (in Burger King!) we crossed the city to visit Chatcuka market, which is one of the biggest in the world with 15,000 stalls and 200,000 visitors a day. We've been to a lot of markets but this was absolutely mental and after 3 hours lost in the market (and much souvenier buying) we escaped and made our way to the train station where we boarded our sleeper train (12 hours) to Koh Samui!