Bangkok - After getting up at the horrible hour of 3am (that was painful!) we got a taxi to Phuket Airport and flew out to Bangkok. This was the first time we had got on a plane in nearly two months, we'd been getting from A to B using minibuses and boats so it was strange getting on a plane again. After a short flight, we landed in Thailand's capital. We jumped into our pink taxi (very fitting!) and headed to our hostel. We had got the 4 bed dorm really cheap so we were a bit dubious about what state it would be in, but we were pleasantly suprised. It was really nice! And to top it off, as they had over booked they didn't actually have the room for us in the dorms, so we were upgraded to a private room at no extra cost - result! The hostel was really clean and had free internet, so we were happy. It was also a really good location so that was a bonus, as we planned to cram alot of culture and sightseeing in the next four days!Our first day we decided to go and visit the Jim Thompson House/Museum. We admit, neither of us had any idea who he was but it was literally right behind our hostel and was listed as a place of interest on our map we'd picked up. So we thought we'd give it a go. Jim Thompson was an American who moved to Thailand after World War 2 and took an interest in the Thai Silk industry, he ended up running a really successful business. His house (that is now a museum) was built in the late 50's and he lived there for eight years until he disappeared in 1967 (they still don't know what happened to him) It was a really interesting tour and the house itself has been really well looked after since. It's been built in typical Thai style and we learnt several interesting facts about Thai traditions. Did you know? They have high steps walking into rooms to protect from evil spirits, as Thai people believe evil spirits move along the floor and therefore these steps or 'guards' stop them from entering a room. They also (and Jim Thompson did aswell) believe heavily in Astrology, the year he was born was the year of the. It was predicted that he would die when he was 61. He went missing a few days after his 61st birthday, that was creepy! Another interesting fact here, until the early part of this century, Thailand was called Siam. This trip is teaching us alot! After visiting the house, we went to the Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre. It wasn't really aimed at Westerners as most of the exhibits were in Thai but we thought we'd give it a go anyway. The building is huge and there were 7 floors of exhibits of art and photography. We didn't really find much of it interesting (as we didn't understand most of it!) but we liked one photography exhibit, which was by Princess. The whole exhibit was in the dark with little lighting so going down the ramp into it was interesting! We went into a room that seemed to have no way out, we both thought about leaving and we just about to when the 'bookcase' in the room moved. To say we both jumped would be an understatement! The bookcase (which was actually a door) slid to one side to let some people leaving the exhibit out, and therefore allowed us into it. After that we were ok, although we had to watch out step as the lighting situation didn't get any better. The individual rooms within the exhibit were each decorated differently and were really interesting, the photos were mainly of women in their underwear but the message behind the exhibit (female strength) was a good one.When reading our maps and various other information leaflets, we came across the 'Forensic Museum'. It sounded really interesting (if not a bit gory) and we both decided we wanted to go - maybe we have seen too many crime shows? So after leaving the Cultural Centre, we headed towards that end of the street it was on. According to the map it was opposite a large shopping centre and part of a hospital so when we came across the only hospital that was signposted we thought we'd found it. We weren't 100% sure though so Emma asked a security guard by the shopping centre if that's where it was. He didn't have a clue what she was saying and a random passer by ended up looking for the map for us and telling us yes, that was the hospital. That was good to know, but not what we'd asked. We weren't going to go to the museum that day anyway as it was getting late, we just wanted to check where it was, so we thought the best bet was to just ask at the hostel. On the way back we decided to get the Sky Train (a train line that runs over the city) instead of walk - this wasn't laziness, we wanted to experience it (genuinely). We paid 15 baht (just over 30p) for the journey and to say Candy got incredibly excited would be an understatement! Emma had to remind her she was in public. We did use trains in China and Malaysia, but it seems the fact we haven't used public transport for a while (at least not trains) meant it was a treat for her. She got especially excited when she looked out over the city, it did look good as it was dark and everything was lit up, but as we were moving there wasn't a chance to take pictures. Candy thoroughly enjoyed herself though so that was the main thing. When we got back Emma looked the Forensic Museum up on the internet - it was nowhere near where we thought! We found out we'd need to get a taxi or a bus to the area as it was quite a way from us, but we said we'd still go as it sounded really interesting. It was shut the next day (Sunday) so we made plans to go the following day, along with many other places we wanted to see - we did say we had alot to cram in!

The following day we went to the Chatuchak Weekend Market. This meant using the Sky Train again - yes, Candy was just as excited the second time around! The market is only open at the weekends (the name sort of gives that away) and as it was a Sunday, we grabbed the chance to go as we wouldn't get another one. A few people had told us about the market and that it was definitely worth a visit, which it was! There are over 15,000 stalls there, it would take you over a week to cover it all. We had an afternoon. So we got to work on the bargain hunting! There was so much there, we must have missed so much but we made sure to cover as much ground as we could. They sold pretty much everything you could think of here and we noticed how much cheaper things were. Although Bangkok is the capital, the prices of items don't reflect this. Compared to the islands, Bangkok is cheap. They were selling clothes and shoes for less than half the price we'd seen them for in Phuket. So we were glad we'd held out until this market! We spent about 5 hours just wandering around (and obviously a bit of shopping too) but like we said, you could spend a whole week looking around. We got some impressive bargains and it had been good weather (finally!) so was a productive and enjoyable day.

The day before we left Bangkok we still had so much we wanted to see, so we headed out that morning for the Forensic Museum. We again took the Sky Train and then needed to get a ferry down the river to the area. We were full of hope of finding out things about how crimes are solved and maybe seeing some real life cases and how forensic's had helped. We were thinking along the lines of CSI. Well... let's just say - CSI it was not! The museum had originally been made up of six different departments but they had joined them together a few years ago. The first section we went into was about the female reproductive system and babies born with deformities. These babies were encased in some sort of liquid preserver and in glass cases on display around this 'exhibit'. These babies were real and we later learnt, this museum is used a lot by medical students as a form of research. It also showed the stages of a baby growing in the womb. It was not really that pleasant to be honest. The next section was about diseases and how they affect certain parts of the body (heart etc) and again, they had real examples on cases. We skipped that one pretty quick! We then went onto the more 'crime' part of the museum, but this amounted to being photographs of corpses and showing what their various wounds were. Most of the description of things was in Thai so hard for us to follow but we're not actually that sure we would have wanted to read everything. There was also a section about the Tsunami, there was a section showing body parts with wounds on them associated with the Tsunami, neither of us looked at that. We made a pretty swift exit out that section! We then came to a section where there were various skulls and bones in cases. There even snakes encased, but we don't really know why. Again, the explanations were mainly in Thai so difficult to understand. There was a section that was closed off but we've read that they kept the preserved body of a famous cannibal there so we think that might have been in there. Even if that had been open, it's safe to say we wouldn't have ventured in! We left after less than half an hour, both of us feeling dizzy and nauseous. Neither of us are squeamish but that was too much. It was nothing like we thought at all, we thought we'd be seeing mock crime labs and the science behind forensics, explaining how they match DNA for example. But this was not like that at all. It was pretty gruesome. But it was an experience and we can laugh about it now, just at the time we felt rather queasy!

After that experience, we headed to the Grand Palace. We jumped back on the ferry and got off a few stops down. It was here we were stopped by a man who worked for the Government on some sort of Tourist scheme that the Palace was closed until 2pm for the Monks to pray. We had got there just after 12pm. So we had two hours to kill. The man said we could get a tuk tuk and that it would take us to a temple and the 45 metre Buddha. The tuk tuk was Government owned so it wouldn't cost us much to be driven around, 50 baht (just over £1) He took us to the 45 metre Buddha and waited for us outside whilst we looked around. He then said as part of this tourist scheme he needed to take us to this shop so that he could get free gasoline. He showed us the card for Government incentive, basically if we visit these places then he is entitled to free gasoline for his tuk tuk. Or something like that. The first place was a jewellery store, we were closely followed the whole time and felt very uncomfortable. We were even told to 'just get out the credit card' - not in an aggressive way at all, the lady said it with the biggest smile on her face, it was just quite funny how they followed us so closely desperate for a sale. After ten minutes we went back outside and met with our driver who thanked us profusely. We then went onto a suit store, the man who served us knew we weren't there looking for a dress and was incredibly rude. We said we just wanted to browse but he was having none of it. We even went with 'Emma wants to look at suits for her boyfriend' but he said that 'that didn't make any sense' as if we were lying to him. Well, we were lying, but not to try and con him, we just needed to browse whilst out driver got his free gasoline! After 5 minutes we left. Again, we were thanked profusely by our driver and taken to 'one last place'. It was a gem factory/jewellery store, by this point we had had enough of pretending to browse so we hovered in the lobby for 5 minutes before heading back out. This time our driver just grunted at us and we started back towards the Grand Palace. We stopped at some traffic lights and he told us that because we were too quick at the last place he wouldn't get his free gasoline - we said we were sorry we didn't realise and he said not to worry, he smiled but it was clear that's why he had been humpy with us. And they say women are moody! He then took us to a temple (which was actually a collection of a few temples) and waited outside for us. After seeing this amazing temple we decided that we would give Grand Palace a miss as it was getting on and it cost 350 baht to get in, which was quite alot for our backpacker budget. Plus we had such good temples and the Buddha statue, we had got some really good photographs too. We asked for the driver to take us to Khao San Road just so we could check it out, we'd read about it when reading about Bangkok and as it was not that close to where we were staying, we thought we'd do it on the way back. He took us there with no other stops, he seemed to got over the gasoline incident. Khao San Road was ok, very much like Bhangla Road in Phuket. We went there during the day so maybe at night it is different but it was much of a muchness really, bars lining the street. Not that we have a problem with bars! It just wasn't anything special. We wanted to try and get to one of the Sky bars that are dotted around Bangkok but as it's our last night and we have to do washing and pack (oh the joys of travelling!) we haven't have time to fit in it. To have seen the city from that high at night would have been amazing, but we saw plenty of other impressive sights! We nearly didn't stay in Bangkok, we're both so glad we changed our minds.

We're off to Sydney tomorrow afternoon, can't believe Australia has come around already! We want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!