Katie: Arrived in Bangkok and took the airport shuttle bus to Banglamphu where we went to our hotel- it was a lovely hotel with a lovely hotel with a swimming pool (perfect for the really hot days) and in a central location just behind Koh San Road. We went for an early morning swim in the swimming pool before heading to the market along Koh San Road & braving the scorching heat. The market area was really cool with lots of nice clothes and jewellery stalls although bargaining was not as much fun as it was in China and after a while it becomes frustrating not being able to walk down the street without someone trying to sell you something.

We visited the Grand Palace which was absolutely amazing - one of the most beautiful places I have seen on our trip to date. The decoration was gorgeous, with ornate designs and coloured encrusted decoration. We sat in front of the Emerald Buddah one of the most spiritual symbols in Thailand. From here we went to the City Pillar Shrine.

Getting a taxi proved very difficult in Thailand, the drivers either refused to use meters or point blankly refused to take us to our destination because of the traffic. We finally managed to bargain with the driver to take us to the otherside of Bangkok where we went to go and see some Thai Boxing at the Lumpinee Stadium. Luckily the driver was really nice and thankfully took us straight to where we needed to go. We arrived at the stadium and to be honest the boxing was a lot more fun than I had imagined especially since me & Arber made a bet on the winner of the main winner of the fight & I won...The stadium itself was not quite as I expected, it was made of wood and had a tin roof but the atmosphere itself was cool. After we took a stroll around the night bizzare and did yet more shopping...

Arber:

Bangkok what a city littered with backpackers and hippies this place got under my skin ko san was nice but the sellers were complacent with us, they knew there would be a hundred more like us a soon as we left so they werent too nice but there was one or two things that redemed this city one being the grand palace it was amazing awe inspiring and took my breath away - the second was a croaking wooden frog this small trinket lifted my spirts to no end!! the taxis - being powerful subaru's with a dodgy drivers- were intresting in there violent pink colours they took somw getting used to but once we found our driver and kept him it all went smoothly from there and soon we would be on a beach couldnt wait to get out of the fire !!