Wednesday day 1

Let the holiday begin. Every thing went very smoothly without delay but a bit tired when we arrived at the hotel as we'd been travelling for 23 hours. Managed a nap on the plane though. Hotel is very nice + room overlooks the pool (which h is quite chilly). Our arrival wasn't without a kerfuffle (as Mike &Gill would call it). Long wait getting through imigration and I took my glasses off for the photo. Thank goodness I took a photo of the huge taxi line. That's when I realised I didn't have my glasses! Have you ever tried to go back through security. After much asking for assistance at various places, we saw the airport police department. A translator helped us speak to the policeman and he took Sam back and luckily we got them back. We were extremely grateful for their assistance and the policeman asked us to hold on to sign the book. We thought it was a lost property book but, no, it was a comments book with lots of thank you's. He even took our photo so we took his too. I was very, very pleased,

It was a little strange going out to eat. Lots of stalls along the road cooking vaguly recognisable things so eventually we stopped and had chicken and sticky rice. A man who was eating there came over and brought us some pork and beef (I think) and recommended an alternative hotel to us too. Very friendly chap. 2 pints of beer, coke and the food £4.60 with the tip!! And we bought a lovely little fresh flower arrangement for a shrine 0.50 pence. Walked back to the hotel and sat out by the pool which looked lovely all lit up. 9.30pm local time so we're off to bed

Friday 9th Jan

It's a hot one today. After breakfast we got the boat to the Grand Palace. Wow! Those temples are so beautiful - described as 'a dazzling spectacular' and it doesn't disappoint.

On our way back to the boat we noticed some people looking over the bridge. When I looked I thought it was a small crocodile but I think it was a big lizard then it slipped into the water. We were really tired after walking round the palace so headed back for a nap so we could stay awake this evening. It worked well.

Headed out at 7 is to a vegetarian restaurant we read about on TripAdvisor. We thought it was only a short walk so off we went. It's moved! Eventually we found it after a young lady in a shop looked it up on the, the Internet, phoned them for directions and told us the way. Amazing! Can you imagine at home? No, never heard of it! And that would be that. It was well worth the walk. The food was delicious! I've never been to a vegetarian restaurant before but after seeing the chickens feet and beak in the windows of a restaurant near our hotel, I thought it sounded a good idea. Then we headed off to the busy area of koh San road. Lots of music and bars, market stalls and massage. We had a Thai foot massage which was very nice if not a little painful! Stalls selling scorpion, cockroach, worms and huge spiders TO EAT!!! A young French girl bought some with a sprinkling of pepper! Thought the chicken feet were bad enough until now! Thought of you Mike when we saw the scorpions!

After a few beers and a cocktail, we headed back to the hotel 12.30. Managed to get a taxi and found it very funny that it cost only £1.50!! Don't think we'll bother walking it again!

Off to bed now.

Wat Phone temple and the reclining Buddha tomorrow

Saturday 10th Jan

Can't believe it. Looked at the clock this morning. 11 am!!! Missed breakfast and was trying today's upload the blog with photos. Got locked out on Facebook and can't get into drop box. Even after hrs trying to sort it we had to give up and decided to do a walking tour round China town. It started raining! Thankfully not for long though.

Interesting walk and the map said turn by the building with the solid gold 10 ft high, 5.5 ton Buddha. I said to sam, cant see there being a 10ft gold buddha here can you. When i turned my head, there was a huge temple amid all these stalls and tiny shops - complete with the solid gold Buddha!! Amazing

Taxi to koh San Rd where we had a meal and a drink. Left my camera in a travel shop but thankfully got it back. Not a very eventful day really so taxi back to hotel and maps and books out to plan tomorrow and still trying to geg on facebook. A bit better tomorrowq we hope. Sorry no photos yet. Hope to get that glitch sorted as soon as