It is amazing how fate works...

Having changed our plans and came back to Bangkok early it turned out that we were here at the same time as Nicole and Andre! After a few e-mails it was agreed that we would celebrate new years eve together - well it's much better to enjoy the festivities with familiar faces!

Then yesterday, as we were walking down the street trying to sort out how we were going to get to Laos, we heard someone shouting hello to us - it turned out to be Yasmine and Ben a couple that we bumped into on Maya Beach in Phi Phi Lay. We ended up spending the rest of the day with them heading over to the Siam Shopping Centre on the bus boat and skytrain and agreed to meet up with them later that evening.

The trip to Siam Shopping Centre was primarily for me to replace my undies and it turned out to be the most demoralising experience ever - in Thailand I am an XL. We had to resort to visiting a department store as all the cheaper shops only sold teeny tiny pants. Every step you take a sales girl pounces on you asking you your size - when you say do they come in XL they politely say "No" whilst their eyes say you huge 'phalang' (their term for foreigner). I managed to buy 4, let's say very practical pants, all in black - anything lighter simply wouldn't withstand the launderette. The good news is that David also bought a pair of pants and he too had to buy XL - for some reason he seemed quite pleased about it though?

We all met up at 9pm to start the celebrations for the new year. The atmosphere was brilliant - we stayed in the restaurant to see in the new year and then moved on to Khaoasan Road to join the partying - the photos tell it all. It was a brilliant night and D and I didn't role in until 5.30am - we felt so rock 'n' roll!

It was a bit of a suprise to hear this morning that a nightclub had burnt down just 15 minutes away - such a tragedy to start a new year!

We head back up to northern thailand tomorrow once again taking the overnight bus to Chiang Mai. We will then review the options for getting to Laos from there. We'll keep you posted!