04.04.08 - Bangkok

The 24 hour city where you can get anything you want anytime of day.....

Its a crazy city that boasts a fab underground and skytrain, which are the quickest modes of transport as the traffic literally doesn't move in Bangkok. but we did most of our commuting in tuk tuks -coz you just cant beat a good old life threatening tuk tuk ride! The skyline is filled with impressive hotels, office blocks and other sky scrapers, there are futuristic shopping malls and some extremely posh and expensive places to go, yet in the same street a beggar with no legs will be dragging himself down the street and there will be makeshift shelters of bamboo poles and tarpoling housing an entire family. The extremes in Bangkok are huge...but it wouldn't be the same otherwise.

Still get hassled everywhere in Bangkok by people trying to sell you their products and services - we should really have bought the t-shirt we saw in Phuket which read; "No i don't want a F KING tuk tuk, suit or massage thank you very much!"

Loving the street food here - stir fried noodles, pancakes of any flavour, falafels, corn on the cob, various meat on sticks, all made fresh in front of you on the street! Not to mention the fresh fruits and juices you can buy...its not boding well on the 'losing weight before we get home' strategy!

I had more fun than Ed at the unbelievably massive and crazy weekend market where you can buy absolutely anything and at the night market situated in Bangkoks red light district and again more men trying to drag you into ping pong shows - NO THANK YOU!! Any designer handbags, watches, jewellery or copied DVD's can be bought at the markets! Its backpackers paradise!

We spent our first few days in various hotels on Koh San Road (backpacker heaven), before going to stay with Eds friend Ben and his girlfriend Katie in their WONDERFUL apartment with air con, massive pool, TV and internet - not to mention the maid that cooked all our food, washed and IRONED all our clothes and made our bed each day! We felt like royalty!

So there's Bangkok - or what we've seen of it so far which isn't much! We didn't do much sight seeing as we'll be coming back here twice more before home and next time my mum will be here so we'll have a busy week of doing all the 'touristy' things with her!!