I cant even think of Bangkok without that Murray Head song coming to mind, but instead of one night I had three.

Met Andy and Michelle at arrivals and they got dropped off at the lovely 4* Holiday Inn right next to the massive Central Plaza shopping complex. I went to a dodgy district and the Plaza hotel which was OK but just had no water at all one morning, not good toiletwise...

I brought a replacement mobile on the first night, after getting a bit fustrated trying to find someone who understood what I wanted, a cheap and cheerful basic worldwide pay-as-you-go, luckily a punter in the shop was able to translate for me. From there we had a curry and in the morning I got an cab to the Holiday Inn (I needed to use there toilets for reasons mentioned above) to be greeted by Andy who had good news - West Ham had beaten Liverpool with a late penalty, but bad news - he had been up all night endlessly dashing to his toilet. Luckily his hotel water was working...!

I failed again to find somewhere to stay for the Napier Test Match in March as everywhere was selling out, then we booked a Bangkok city tour. The friendly Nancy took us round numerous attractive temples, then on a long boat trip along the river where we fed some massive fish with bread supplied by a local baker. In the evening we got the efficient MRT (Tube) to Patpong and had a look around the Night Bizaare market which sold masses of (probably fake) designer stuff but it was just so hectic, noisy and smelly that I couldnt be bothered to even think of buying anything even though my clothing options could now best be described as limited. So we gave up and drunk beer in a lively Irish Bar next to a mass of sleezy strip/sex clubs which obviously we never even considered going into.......honest.

Next day we went around the huge shopping malls, I got a book but couldnt find any great bargains for clothes and will probably wait and get something pukka in Australia. At 7.15 after a pizza Andy and Michelle got there bags and headed to Sydney and we said goodbye....back on my own again, made me feel sad for a while but I got on fine before seeing them and I'm sure I will for the rest of the trip.

Ideally I would have liked to have got to the Bridge over the river Kwai but we just didnt get time, missed out there but have had a great time in Thailand.