Thursday 8 May

Today we jumped in a tuk tuk to take us to MBK shopping complex, I had read on trip advisor and told Mike about the scams with diesel vouchers. The tuk tuk man only wanted to take us to a tailors shop (he said it was to collect a fuel voucher), we told him no, and that we wanted to go straight to MBK, we can't have been insistent enough, he pulled up outside a tailors shop and begged us to go and have a look for 5 minutes so he could get a fuel voucher. After a bit of persuading we did just that and walked into a shop full of rolls of material, we took a seat and looked through a couple of shirt and suit brochures whilst a man tried to sell Mike a suit, we told him we didn't want one, our tuk tuk driver was waiting outside and then took us to MBK, It was a canny run and by the time we arrived I looked a bit worse for wear. After walking round 7 floors of shops and market stalls we then took another tuk tuk to China Town, another experience - narrow alley ways full of hustle and bustle, with the steaming heat and the smells of food. Not a breath of fresh air, the motor bikes, barrows and tuk tuk's coming through behind and in front of you and having to dodge/play chicken to get across the roads...... Our feet tired by this point so we took another tuk tuk back to a bar near out hotel and sat by the river having a beer. We then chilled a bit in our room waiting for surge of energy to come our way before we went to a night market. The market is called Asiatique the river front. The concierge advised to take the hotel boat as far as we could down the river and then hop on a boat called Asiatique which took us to the market place, it's only been open a couple of years. (We actually followed the crowds) there was big queues for the Asiatique boat and it was jam packed, once there It was a very trendy place, with lots of pubs, restaurants and market stalls, we wondered round for a while and we went to an Italians for dinner (yes)! I could no longer walk, my feet so swollen, so we hopped back on the boats to get back to the hotel. The hotel's last boat is 10pm and I think the Asiatique runs until 11.30 and it's free of charge.

Tomorrow we plan to have a chilled out day by the pool and maybe going back to the market as my feet gave in today. Before flying via Dubai at 2.40 on 10th May arriving in Newcastle at lunch time if all goes to plan.....

Photo is from another view from our hotel

I hope you have enjoyed our blog. See you soon xxx