The past couple of weeks have been quite eventful. I never made it to Vang Vieng as, since I still wasn't feeling right, I thought it was probably a good idea to go and get myself checked out somewhere that had good medical facilities...the closest place to Luang Prabang being Bangkok! So I got on a last minute flight (which was spent with the provided sick bag poised in position...just in case) and checked myself into a nice little place near Siam Sq in Bangkok (the taxi driver said it would take hours to get to Kao San Road because of the protests that were going on at the time).

My parents decided that it was probably a good idea for one of them to come out and make sure I was properly back on my feet again before continuing onwards (and I didn't take THAT much convincing really, after being away from home for so many months and having spent the past week shut up in a room with no energy to do anything but puke and sleep and nobody for company, the thought of seeing somebody from home was quite comforting.) So my Dad arrived on the saturday and spent nearly a week in Bangkok helping me get thigs sorted (it was quite a drastic way to get my new bank card to me, but I'm glad!). Bangkok Hospital was very very nice. We joked that the music we could hear in the waiting room was probably being performed live round the corner, and the next day when we went back for the results we realised there actually was somebody sitting at a grand piano round the corner playing the songs. It was all very clean and high tech. There was even a museum all about the tsunami and a 7/11 shop, various fancy restuarants and the poshest looking starbucks ever all within the hospital. I was trying my best to get myself admitted as I'm sure it would have been the cleanest, most luxurious place I would have stayed so far on my journey but unfortunatly I don't think I was ill enough. They did, however, think I had some kind of liver infection (which the malaria tablets may have been agitating or causing) and gave me antibiotics to take for 5 days before doing another liver function test to make sure it was all back to normal (which it is now!). The only thing is they advised me to stop taking the malaria prevention tablets and suggested using bite prevention methods (including staying out of the 'forest', as the doctor called it, and other rural areas). So it might mean I can't go to some of the places I'd planned to, but after checking the malaria maps on http://www.fitfortravel.nhs.uk/home.aspx (mum, that is for your benefit, so you can check it to), it shouldn't affect my plans too much.

Ok, I think that's enough about the wonders of the hospital...

When my Dad was here I got to revisit some of the sights like Jim Thompsons House and Grand Palace, and we also went to Siam Ocean World (the biggest aquarium in Asia where they have lots of weird fish and other creatures) and to the IMAX Cinema to see Monsters Vs. Aliens in 3D. From the 12-15th it was Songkran, the new year festival where everybody throws water over eachother and smears wierd sloppy chalky clay stuff over eachothers faces. It was both a blessing and a curse - it meant that a lot of places were closed for 3 days and you couldn't go anywhere without the possibilty of getting soaked (not good for the new camera). But it was also so much fun walking round kao san road with a watergun (although ours were quite weedy compared to other peoples) and being part of the biggest waterfight you've ever seen. It was quite wierd that all this was going on at the same time as all the trouble was flairing up with the redshirt people and the prime minister. Most of the time you'd hardly know that a potential coup was brewing or that 'a state of emergency' had been declared in the city but there was one point where we got a tuk tuk ride from kao san road after seeing lots of vehicles of red shirted people followed by a load of massive riot police trucks. This was the start of all the trouble moving from Pattaya to Bangkok, with the redshirts and the army blocking off roads and it turned into quite a quest to get home. The tuk tuk driver resulted in driving along the pavement at quite some speed at one point and it seemed like every road we turned down was swarmed with hoardes of armed police and army men. Quite scary and very surreal riding through the streets of Bangkok whilst all this was going on, completly drenched and bedraggled with a water pistol in my hand.

We also went to see Muay Thai (Thai Boxing) one evening, which was quite an experience. There was a bit of blood (although no knock outs) and I'm sure the first fight was between two 10 year olds (Dad reckoned they were 'at least 14'). It was worth going to just to watch the crowd all betting amongst themselves and going mental in the last 3 rounds of each match.

Add into this lots of eating (particularly in air-conditioned places such as food courts and Swensen's ice cream parlours) and you've pretty much got the gist of how we spent last week.

I've booked a flight from Bangkok to Hanoi, so I can pick up from a point in my travel plan (although I'm a bit sad that I didn't get to see much more of Laos before I left, but the malaria situation and lack of medical facilities means its probably best to steer clear.) But I didn't fancy the prospect of spending another 5 nights in Bangkok after my Dad left so, after spending a day or two chilling out in Lumphini Park and doing some shopping, I jumped on a train to a town slightly north of Bangkok called Ayutthaya. It's known for all the ancient ruins that remain, especially one image of a Buddha head that has tree roots growing all around it (if you've seen a picture of it, you'll probably know what I'm talking about. If not, that probably doesn't make much sense!). I was the only farang on the train again (it cost 15b, about 30p, for an hour and a half ride... nearly the same time it takes to get to London from home and costs nearly 30 quid!) but it was quite nice in a way - after being in Bangkok for a week I'd nearly forgotten how friendly most Thai people are and I've had loads of people coming up to me since I've got here just wanting to speak to me and practise their english, including a girl working in the art gallery who was studying tourism and chatted away to me for about half an hour and a kid at the golden mountain monument who only knew how to say 'good afternoon' (in a perfect english accent) and when she couldn't find any other way of communicating with me decided to offer me the crisp she'd been sucking on. I'm glad I know how to say 'I'm full' in Thai. There was also some really cute kids at a massive reclining buddha statue that I went to on an evening tour, one of them was really desperate for me to take a picture of him doing a cartwheel and was very disppointed when I was too slow with the camera.

The night tour of the ruins I went on was really good, although a lot of the grounds close after 6pm so you can only view the ruins from the outside, but it was good seeing them all lit up. The picture with this blog (not one of mine, but I have been really trigger happy with the camera here and I'll put them up some point soon) is of Wat Chai Wattanaram and we got there just in time to explore this one properly, as the sun was going down and then walking throug the corner tunnels in the pitch black with bats flying over head. Creepy. It was also good doing a night tour because you could actually climb to the top of one of the monuments called 'golden mountain' without the need to drink litres and litres of water as the air was just starting to get cooler. Today I've been cycling round some of the ruins in 37 degrees of heat! I'm very much appreciating the air conditioning in this internet cafe!

The place I'm staying in here is really cool. It's a restored teak mansion that dates back to the 16th century and is full of antiques (I've got an antique dressing table in my room). Unfortunately, my room is also right next to quite a busy road (well busy for here anyway) which, coupled with glassless windows, doesn't make for the best nights sleep. Still, there is an amazing view of the river and temple oppostie, its pretty cheap and its only for one more night...

I'm going back to Bangkok tommorow to sort myself out before flying to Vietnam on wednesday. Another stamp for my passport, woohoo!