Wellll

We finally arrived here in Bangkok after train, then tube then a 10hour plus flight. I was hoiping to catch a few movies on the flight and started watching The lovely bones but found it a bit s*** as it didn't match the book, then i gave up and tried to sleep only waking for the food and drink instalements.

Sleeping was possible as the flight was quiet empty so we had spare seats around us for movement, lovely.

Off the plane we collected our bags easily, no through immigration and no visa checks, we were offered a stupidly over priced taxi, we manged to find the normal metered taxis and paid half the price they offered.

It was neraly 5pm Bangkok time when we arrived at the hostel Udee. we had left at 3pm the day before. The hostel was lovely and clean, but hving to lug our backpacks up 4 flights of stairs in the new heat was no pleasent.

There was noone else in our 6bed dorm which was nice. We showered and left to wander the area. There was no other westerners, just Thais, and ordering food from one food stall produced nothing due to the language barrier.

We learned how to cross the road, that is just full of cars coming from everywhere, you just walk out and hope they stop, scary at first. We ate in a little place, with steamed fish balls, and noodles, i think, i didnt really know what i had ordered. in total it came to just over 2quid for the 2 of us including drinks, bargain! Home to find someone else in the room, nie enough guy, then to sleep early, but i couldnt sleep at all, as the AC was so bloody freezing i ended up wearing socks and a jumper on top of my pjs, unreal.

Tuesday was a mega sightseeing day. A cobination of the Sky train, and boat along the river we started at the Grand temple, where i had to cover up, in the heat, and was given a long skirt that was so heavy and made the heat more unbareable! A few more sites, including Wat Pho, the standing buddha (theres loads of status of buddhas everywhere), and the golden moutain where we climbed over 450 steps, aprrantly, in the heat! We got a TukTuk to a few, and at 45p he had to take us to a shop to tempt us to buy, we did not. Koh San road was mega touristy, selling aload of crap stuff. then home, slept straight through as it had been a long day with very little sleep the night before.

Thursday we got the bus this time, much cheaper, but some have no AC and can get packed, which is not nice in the heat as you can imagine. We went to a few shopping malls, including the MBK centre (the biggest, i think), which i expected to have shops, but it had a mishmash of these mini shop/stall things, and one of the 5 floors seemed to be dedicated to phone stalls, like you see on the market, v wierd. saw lots of fake mac makeup, and lots of s*** clothes and shoes lol.

We visited China town, a main street then with lots of little side streets selling food clothes shoes, they managed to fit sooo much in there little stall/shop things! these streets can barely fit more than 2 people walking down them, then motorbikes and tuktuks are coming down it, not slowing down for people!

Tried sunbathing this morning at like 9, but the sun was far too hot to achieve any results so gave up pretty soon. Went to ko san road for a wax. i walked into the room with loads of open beds with people receive treatments and thought i would have to have it there in front of everyone, luckily she led me to a room upstairs, phewwww. Next followed a lovely humus and feta based meal,mmmm.

To get home we took the bus, we had to pay - its a bit hit and miss if there is an attendent on board, but at 16p 25p a journey i'm not complaining. However, the bus became more and more packed, th A/C wasnlt really working and it was HORRID after almost an hour n half we got off early and walked the rest, luckily we were nearer than we thought.

The temperatures have been upto 43oC, awful, even in the shade its hot. Clothes needing to be washed very quickly.

That is it from Bangkok this time round, we fly to hanoi at 645 am so need to leave at 4am, so it will be an earlish night.

Bye for now xxxx