Hello everybody! Welcome to Thailand! You know it's only been a few days and already New Zealand seems a distant memory. In these few days we've experienced our first Thai scam, had the Bangkok trots, had a couple of terrifying taxi journeys, seen the wealthy side of Bangkok, seen the slums of Bangkok, done a little shopping and got a night bus to Chiang Mai experiencing some pretty rough toilets en route!

Now, this is our first trip to SE Asia and probably the best piece of advice I'd read beforehand was to book your first few nights accommodation, plus a transfer from the airport, so that you are not overwhelmed and trying to find a bed after a long journey. We walked past the touts, got into an air-conditioned vehicle and were whisked straight to our hotel, the Ramada D'Ma. And no, I didn't come to Asia to do this kind of travelling, I don't like being so far removed from the everyday lives of the people whose country I'm visiting (though I appreciate that we still are), I don't like being thought of as the ultra-rich and after 3 nights I was desperate to get out there into the 'real' world but I think it was a good thing to do as it gave us time to adjust to being here, the different culture, the heat, and we eased into our travels, gently. And the hotel was lovely with a stunning view of Bangkok from our 16th floor window and some wonderful staff.

And what about Bangkok? It's so different in so many ways from everything that we're used to that it's difficult to put into words. It is a bustling Asian metropolis, full of traffic with 6-lane roads that you have to cross by hunting down a footbridge. And there is a huge divide between rich and poor with massive glitzy shopping centres only a few blocks from slums radiating a sickening smell of hot sewage. It takes some getting used to. The streets are lined with food stalls, some wafting the most amazing smells (and others you walk straight past!) and everywhere you look there are lavish offerings to the Gods, replenished daily. It was also notable how few tourists we saw - perhaps as we didn't go to the main tourist spots, or maybe a sign of recent troubles - our flight here was only half full.

On our first day we walked into a typical tourist scam, one I'd read about both online and in guidebooks, and we still fell for it! We wanted to go by bus to Chiang Mai and had read about the government VIP buses, so went out to book one. As the bus station was far away we decided to try and find the official government tourist office, but found instead a travel agency with a similar name designed to confuse us foolish types - of course they insisted that they were part of the same agency and we bought a ticket from them. I was wary all the way through, even vocalised my fears to Su and he agreed with me, telling me to watch for scams, smiling all the time, and because we were hot, tired, didn't know where else to go, were not near a web cafe, we gave in. Plus he gave us some free iced water when he sensed we needed it. The silly thing was that I knew and after we'd paid I went straight to find a web cafe to check. It wasn't that we bought a fake ticket, just that companies such as these like to fool unsuspecting tourists into believing their coaches are the same as the government VIP ones. Only people get there and find the bus is crowded, seats don't fully recline, your belongings are often looked through en route, you are forced to make long stops where they want you to buy food, you are taken to certain guesthouses and if you don't want to stay with them often left a way out of town. I was so angry with myself, but as Su wisely pointed out we were tired, probably shouldn't have tried to organise anything on our first day and although it was a lot of Baht, it only worked out to just over 20 GBP - yes that will go a long way here, but it isn't a lot of money. So the next day we went to the bus station and bought a ticket for the government VIP bus - cheaper and safer! Lesson learnt!

Our other task in Bangkok was to find a new camera for Su's birthday and we headed to a couple of shopping malls, the MBK Centre and Pantip Plaza, where we mixed with saffron-robed monks buying computer accessories, and she eventually found her new toy. Even this was quite a trial as the Thais are a lot more laid back than sales assistants we find back home and we even wondered if they wanted us to buy anything at first. But the guy we bought from was superb - he anticipated every question and seemed instinctively to know what Su wanted without her really explaining. However, it was on one of these journeys that we ate something that didn't agree with us! We'd been eating from food stalls, picking carefully from the clean ones where the food is freshly cooked in front of you (though the first one we ate at had a rat the size of my old Homer running around our feet!) but in the MBK centre we went to a food hall and ate some crispy pork that had been sitting there. Whether it was that or the cucumber that may not have been washed in bottled water I've no idea, but we spent that evening taking in turns to run to the loo!

And then it was time to head out into the great unknown. We jumped into a taxi and had a terrifying journey to the bus station - our driver was clearly lost, we hit traffic and almost didn't make it, plus he dropped us off outside so we had to run with our bags to the bus. I think he must have felt bad as he followed us, at a distance, then appeared out of nowhere as we stood there panting and tried to help us with a ticket. Anyway, we did make it, the only tourists on the official VIP bus, with 24 seats over 2 floors, seats that almost fully reclined, blankets, pillows, food, drink with a hostess service, and a stinking toilet (can't have it all!) It was a 10-hour journey to Chiang Mai and once we'd stopped for a food break (where the nasty toilets were) and Thai TV was switched off, we slept quite well and arrived in Chiang Mai at 7am. Here we jumped into a sawngthaew and headed to Nice Apartment, which we'd booked before leaving Bangkok, found a lovely room with a/c and our own bathroom for not very much and went straight for a little morning nap!

Anyway, more on Chiang Mai next time - we're off to find some food.

With love, Jo & Su, xxx