We arrived in Bangkok in the early evening on Sunday 24 June. Our flight had been pretty uncomfortable - no personal TV's or meals or snacks or headphones or pillows/blankets or anything really. We were glad that it was over. Comming from a chilly Melbourne, stepping out of the plane into the thick, muggy Bangkok air was like walking into a warm curtain. We got our bags, drew some money and began looking for a way to get to our hostel. We soon found out that most of the busses have been discontinued, replaced by the new SkyTrain. Too bad it doesn't go all the way to where we need to be :-/ So we grabbed a taxi and then began to pray as our driver began weaving through traffic at 150 km/h at night! We arived safely however, and after a quick check-in, wandered around until we found somewhere to eat. We found this cool local restaurant down a little side street not too far from us - Kevin had chicken Pad Thai and a Chang large (the local beer) while Monique tucked into a yummy chicken & veg stir-fry with rice. It was now well late (after 3am Melbourne time) so we went straight back to our room and flopped into bed, so grateful for the air-con!

Monday we woke up a bit late but well rested. A couple that we had met in Fiji, Mark and Grace, had recommended we check out Rambuttri Road, so that is where we set off for. We didn't yet have a city map so were a bit disorientated, but we found it eventually. We walked to the end looking at all the stalls, and then sat somewhere for some lunch. Afterwards, we decided to check out Khaosan Road (the main tourist road in Bangkok) so we grabbed a bag of sliced fruit from a fruitseller and set off. Khaosan Road is actually shorter than we expected and crammed full of shops and stalls and tourists. We looked around for a bit, but it was soooo hot so we didn't stick around too long. Just as we got into our nice air-conditioned room the heavens opened up and it came bucketing down, so we took the time to chill out and have a nap. That evening, after it had stopped raining, we went exploring for a place to eat. There are so many cool little food stalls down just about every sidestreet you walk past, so its not hard to find a different, good place to eat each night. You get to see all sorts of wierd things being cooked, so you can't always be sure what you're gonna get - we tended to stick to places where they were cooking the food in front of you and that had a local:tourist ratio > 1 :-) We enjoyed our meals of Pad Thai and Green Curry, before meandering our way back to our room.

Tuesday Kevin woke up with a bit of a uneasy stomach - all the Pad Thai had finally caught up to him! So we just took it easy and rested in the room. Eventually Monique's hunger grew too great and we ventured forth, finding ourselves in this shady little alley right along the river. Monique devoured a chicken stir-fry and Kevin managed to hold down a pineapple fruit shake. We returned to our room to rest (Monique did some admin) and then, later that night, went in search of a certain night market. We found it to be a bit too spread out and so not much of a vibe (maybe we were at the wrong one - there are so many...) so we headed back. Kevin was still up for eating, so Monique grabbed some stir-fry to take away, which she recieved in a plastic packet with a spoon! It was still really tasty though, and after a quick meal in the room we went to bed.

By Wednesday Kevin was feeling marginally better, so we headed out to do some sight-seeing. We made sure were both appropriately dressed (shoulders, arms, legs down to your ankles covered) and then set out for the Royal Palace. On the way, we stopped at our usual spot for some yummy lemon & mint fruit-shakes - walking around in all this clothing makes you really hot! After about a 30 minute walk, we arrived at the palace. It really is a sight to behold - huge, intricately carved statues and buildings, imaculate gardens and gold everywhere. The scale and attention to detail is staggering - check out the photos, but its much grander than can be captured on camera. We spent a good few hours looking around before heading back. On the way back to our hostel we got some delicious, fresh pineapple pieces from a fruit seller and then also another lemon fruit-shake to share - it was so hot! Kevin was feeling the stomach pain again, so settled down for a nap while Monique read and played Facebook-Facebook :-) That evening we took a stroll down to Rambuttri Road again and had some spring rolls and stir-fry for dinner. Monique then decided it was high time to start on her dress search and, after a fair bit of walking and bartering, we found ourselves in Khaosan Road where she managed to pick up two pretty cool dresses for 350 baht (about 100 rand) Loving Bangkok! After a really lovely evening, we wandered back to our hostel.

Thursday we woke up a bit late and headed out to find something to eat. By now Kevin had adjusted to the Thai food/water/whatever so was back to normal and in search of some Pad Thai, while Monique was on the lookout for a Green Curry. We stopped at our usual fruit-shake place and decided to eat there - great decision as the food was amazing! We sat overlooking the river (not a great view as its quite polluted, but it was nice and quiet.) Afterwards we headed back to the room to do some admin... we were still struggling to button down an exact route through SE Asia - so many places to see and not enough time :-/ Later that evening we walked down to the pier and caught a local ferry down the river to the Central Pier. It was just getting dark, so we were able to see the city and the dinner-cruise boats all lit up. We browsed around a night market and then sat and chatted over a drink and some snacks. After a lovely, chilled evening we decided to head back. It was only when we got back to the pier did we realise that the boats don't run at night... so after a bit of asking around, we caught a local bus back to the Grand Palace and walked the rest. We got a bit side-tracked as we stumbled upon another night market, and spent about an hour looking around. It was still so hot, so we got an iced-coffee with condensed milk to cool us down - so good! By the time we got back to our room, Monique wasn't feeling great so went straight to bed, while Kevin uploaded a few photos and stuff.

Friday we were leaving Bangkok on the 19:30 train. We packed up our bags (which we could leave in the baggage storage), checked out of our room and went exploring. We walked up a road that we hadn't been up before and discovered this cool area filled with home & art deco shops and little coffee & cake shops - Monique was in her element! There was also the remains of an old fort, so a bit of history to keep Kevin interested ;-) We looked around for a while and then had lunch at this little roadside restaurant - there where a whole bunch of locals eating there so we knew it would be good. Later, we treated ourselves to some drinks and a slice of delicious cake at a tiny cake shop called The Gingerbread House. It only had 4 tables and the inside is a mixture of rustic eastern and retro western deco - very cool vibe :-) We chilled there for quite a while before heading back to the hostel. We did some last minute admin while we had internet and then walked to the main road to haggle for a taxi to the train station. Our taxi driver was a winner and even thought there was horrible traffic, we made it with plenty of time to spare. We had a quick bite to eat, grabbed a lemon fruit-shake and boarded the train. The cabins were way better than what we were expecting - 4 bunks to a cabin, clean sheets, pillows and blankets. We were quite comfortable as we rolled out the station, kinda looking forward to our 17 hour train journey up to Chiang Mai.