Bangkok has, thus far, been a positively bargainous treat. We arrived yesterday morning, after the world's longest day; we left Sydney on Monday night at 10pm on Monday night and arrived in Kuala Lumpur at 3am local time, because of the - rather confusing - time difference. We then flew out to Bangkok at 8am Malaysian time and landed at 9am Thai time, which meant that we also gained an hour there - we had about an extra 4 hours yesterday, which was most disconcerting as we'd mot had any sleep on the plane (I foolishly went a bit mad with the films and watched Harry Potter 7 when I should have been snoozing).

When we got to Bangkok, we got on the Airport Express Bus to take us into the centre, which was again a little bit foolish. It may be an 'express' bus, but with the Bangkok traffic to overcome, there's nothing express about it. We got to our hostel eventually, but having had no breakfast and hardly any sleep, a 2 hour bus journey through the Bangkok congestion wasn't really welcome, and it was two very tired people who arrived in Bangkok at lunchtime, went to the first resturant we came to, ordered a massive lunch and then made our weary way to Sunflower Place, our lovely little hostel in Silom.

We're a stone's throw from Patpong, the ubiquitous red light district and just two sky train stops from Siam, so we're in a primed position for a brief spell in Bangkok. We had a nap when we got here (3 hours, which was unintentional but we were so exhausted) and then got the skytrain to MBK. MBK is possibly the biggest and best shopping centre in the world - we spent all afternoon there and left whole floors unexplored, it's so enormous. We bought some fantastic souveniers (mostly t-shirts) and had a buffet dinner in the centre (it wasn't great, to be honest,it was far too spicy for my liking). We then got the skytrain back to Patpong.

The Patpong Night Market is, to be honest, a little disappointing. There are lots of stalls, but they're selling all the cheap tat we saw in MBK, it's just a lot more difficult to buy anything because of the hassle one gets from all of the stallholders. It's also difficult to wade through the reams of 'bar reps' offering all sorts of sexual services ('free look!') to unsuspecting westerners.

Across the road form the night market (crossing the road being a challenge in itself, as the traffic is horrendous) there were lots of food stalls, and we found a very crowded one selling amazing pancakes. Naturally we had to indulge.

I went to bed after this - all the shopping and bored-looking, bikini-clad go-go ladyboys (seriously) in Patpong had obviously tired me out, but Howie fancied a foot massage, so went in search of one. His search was rather unsuccessful, so that's still on the list of things to do, but we have another day in Bangkok before getting the overnight train the Chiang Mai tonight so might be able to squeeze it in. Other than that, we have a jam-packed day planned, with some sight-seeing, bicycle hiring and more shopping. We woke up this morning and looked at Howie's clock and thought we had slept in until half 11, so we rushed and rushed to pack and get out of the hostel... Only to realise when we got downstairs that Howie had forgotten to change his clock and it was actually only 8 o'clock. So we're up early and ready to explore... Next stop: Chiang Mai.