Hello everybody,We are now finally in Thailand. It was a good flight over and an interesting one. We sat next to a lady who was flying home to Bangkok. She saw our 'Thailand Lonely Planet' guide and offered her advice. It was just under a 3 hour flight and we spoke to her all the way. Her name was 'On-Swan'. Very unusual name to us but then she thought the name 'Gemma' was unusual as well. We had already booked accommodation just on the outskirts of Bangkok when we were in China. She said the area we chose wasn't that good or very safe (this was the 1st and only and last time we didn't go by what Lonely Planet said as we didn't have the Thailand book at the point of booking). She told us the best area to stay in as we were only going to be in Bangkok for three nights as we didn't want to be there for Christmas. She gave us lots of advice and ideas of what to do, not just in Bangkok. When we arrived at Bangkok Airport she gave us a lift in her company Limo to her house. We offered to give her some money but she said no it's fine as her company will pay for it. At that point Darren asked could we borrow her company credit card for the next five weeks in Thailand and charge everything to it. She said obviously said no but found it very funny. When we got to her house she phoned the Taxi Company (a good one) to pick us up and take us to the hotel. She had also booked us into a very nice hotel. We couldn't believe how nice she was. We also met her mum at her house. She was very welcoming. When the Taxi finally came, we said our goodbyes, got into the cab and we just couldn't believe how lucky we were to of met her and what a great start to our next country. We got to the hotel, plonked down our bags and felt very happy. We had a good nights sleep as you could imagine.Our hotel was only three streets away from the very famous 'Khao San Road'. Yes the one in The Beach' movie. It was just a field of white faces and felt rather sureal. It was busy with wonderful smells of food and incense (might of been something else)! There were smiles everywhere and we couldn't believe it when we saw a couple (Doug & Charl) that we met in Xi'an, China here. We had a good chat and they were as surprised as us to see each other. Darren and Doug both agreed that none of us would ever go back to China again. They hated it for all the same reasons as we did. Anyway, they had a flight to catch to head down towards Kao Tao Island in an hour. We agreed we would hopefully meet up again for the New Year or just after. We very much hope to see them again. We parted and headed further down Khao San Road. There was food being cooked everywhere on either side of the street in little stalls. Had some Spring Roll pancakes. Darren pilled on the chili sauce; Gemma of course had no sauce. We tried Chow Mein (I think that’s how you spell it) which was lovely. It all tasted so much better than when you eat 'Thai' food at home. Had some gorgeous banana pancakes that were cooked from scratch in front of us. Oh my god they were good! We were very full by now and Darren worked out that dinner had just cost us a mere 90pence for both of us. Very happy then. We felt so good knowing we could basically eat when and whatever we wanted as it costs so little.We went to 'The Golden Mount' and the 'The Grand Palace' in one day. People try to scam you by saying "where you going" and then saying "that’s closed today". So they can get commission by putting you onto a Tuk-Tuk and taking you elsewhere. Little do they know we've just done five weeks in China and are well aware of most of the scams over here? So nobody tricked us and that felt good that we're getting more and more street wise now. Anyway, we did try a Tuk-Tuk which cost us almost nothing just to experience it. It was a lot of fun. The Bangkok roads are so funny with traffic absolutely everywhere. It makes London seem like a pedestrian area! The Golden Mount was cool. Good views of Bangkok from up there and we took a lot of photos. Darren said this is what I wanted China to be like and we were both very happy that we're finally in a country we loved. The Grand Place was really amazing. Couldn't stop taking photos of everything as it’s all so beautiful. Oh and we saw this thing in the sky that we hadn't seen properly for nearly five weeks. We asked the locals what it was and it turned out to be the 'Sun'. It's something that’s very hot apparently, but there you go!We only spent two full days here. It’s a great place but really wanted to move on as we didn't want to spend Christmas here. We decided that most of the islands would be far too busy and expensive so we booked bus tickets (just over 2quid for 1st class air con for the both of us, how good is that) to Kanchanaburi which is a large Nature Park area just three hours west of Bangkok. So we'll speak to you all again then.

Lots of love, Darren and Gemma xxx xxx