And so another leg of my trip has begun, accross the border i flew to the tune of Quatar airlines, all the way to Doha and then onto Bangkok!

The flight itself was nice enough, with the exception of course of the meal, and the turbulance, and the 3 different security checks (one of which i failed spectaculaly because a certain mother rang me and caused my bag to vibrate suddenly whilst in the machine!), oh and the fact that i got bitten about 25 times by some unknown assailant during the flight! Still, the second flight, on from Doha (somewhere i still dont know where is?!) was much more acceptable. This time for my movie entertainment pleasure, instead of a combination of 'just married' and 'law abiding citizen', i chose, yep only me would ever choose to watch this particular film on a plane in public at my age - The Little Mermaid! Now i might add there was logic to this madness - I had had a continuing 'discussion' with various people in Africa regarding the species of Sebastian. In my opinion he was a lobster, in everyone else's he was a crab. Turns out he was a crab - a very lobsterish crab, but a crab all the same. Screw you all, he will always be a lobster to me.

Monday was basically spent allowing my body clock to readjust and me to get my bearings in this new wonderous city centre - something that actually prooved to be pretty damn easy considering i suck at directions?! I found internet in the hotel, and then internet at a different place for about 1/millionth of the cost (hence why this place is my new best friend), i walked up and down the markets buying clothes so cheap its unreal, and of course I ordered room service and completly chilled out - in my defence jet lag + georgous hotel always = room service and an early night!

So, boring as it may seem to you dear reader, that was Monday. Tuesday however was much for interesting. I went for a proper old walk around, and basically got lost for about 3 hours in a sea of markets and small back streets - and it was brilliant! Somehow it just seemed to surreal to be walking down these strange and wonderful little streets trying food of stalls by the road (most of which i have no idea what was) and then, when you least expect it, you will turn a corner and hear the beetles 'let it be' playing out of some small shop of mysteries! I have to admit, I love place already!

That night I ventured out for dinner, and found this charming little place called Vila Che Che. Now at first sight it looks like a hotel because there is a swimming pool just as you walk in, however, on further inspection it is actually a restauarant! one that allows you to go for a swim whilst you wait for your food! Brilliant idea in my opinion, and really georgous inside as well. The food was great, i had a Pat Thai Kai (probably mispelled) dish with chicken and absolutly loved it! not too spicy for me which is always a good sign and plus you get it served with four dishes of sauce - one to make it hot, one for spicy, one for salty and one to make it sweet. Obviously i went for the sweet and low and behold, it was just a bowl of sugar that you were expected to pour over your food....well when in Rome!

Food aside, I really started to get a grip on this place today - its just so busy and in a lot of ways reminds me of London in thats its like a world of it's own, completly disconnected to anywhere else however close, but at the same time I love how i can just get completly lost here, and no one would ever notice I was ever here because there is so much going on - live music, bars and restaurants spilling out onto the streets with little plastic chairs and tables, market stalls selling copies of everything and anything, tailors and tattoo artists offering joint deals on their products, i mean there really is no way to describe this place, really, its just surreal.

Needless to say Tuesday night was a good one. Only thing about being on your own in a place like this is that you cant help but think about things, and that leads to missing people...and then you drink more to make it go away....no really, i can see why some people find it hard to travel alone, eating, drinking, just walking around alone is quite daunting at first, but i dont know it seems to be quite natural to be in some ways, i just get lost in my own little world and somehow 4 hours later find myself back at the hotel with a full stomach and a memory card full of pictures!

So that leads me to today. It currently 20 past 10 in the evening here and i am intent on finishing uploading pics and stuff before i go to bed! I went onto Kaosan Road today - the official backpacker's district of Bangkok, and boy they wernt kidding! Its just imence. there is no other way of putting it! So many market stalls and food stalls and bars and restaurants and people trying to sell stuff - its just crazy!! However, somewhere in the madness i managed to find a few nessesities - a post office for instance to send all my souveneir s*** home :P oh and of course i found the mcdonalds! Only i might add to settle a bet with Kav that i would send him a picture of me eating mcdonalds chicken nuggets (something he had been craving throughout the entire east coast of africa!) - this may sound like a simple task, but you have no idea of the embarrassment i had to go through asking a random thai man to take a picture of me with those damn nuggets! he thought i wanted pictures of the mcdonalds archetecture (by which i mean the statue of ronald mcdonald praying!) but no, i had to ask him to zoom in on said nuggets and see his face drop as he realised what i was actually after! Not impressed lol!

After a full day of market browsing I decided that i would eat/drink at a different place for each course of my meal (well there are a lot of places to fit in!) so, i started with a pre-drink at a nice irish bar called Mulligans that Lonely planet recommended, then i moved onto dinner at Silk Bar (this funny peanut dish - very nice though) then pudding at some bar that i cant pronounce the name of but it was opposite my hotel :P Then of course i heard the live music playing at each place so i HAD to have a cocktail at Bar Lamphu and another one at Center Bar! The music though was just perfect, they were playing songs like 'save tonight' and kings of leon but with little thai accents lol! each bar or cafe had its own singer so they all kind of moulded into one as you walked along the street but the atmosphere was incredible - everyone was just having such a good time and again, in their own little worlds! Definitly loving this place...and definitly think the cocktails may have something to do with that :P and possibly my bad spelling lol!

So thats my first couple of days here, tomorrow im planning some more shananigans on khaosan road so will fill you in then

xxx