Flew into Bangkok and aside from the slightly dodgy taxi driver trying el scammo we got to our hostel safe and sound with wallet intact.

Wandered around the next day trying to get our bearings and went up the tallest hotel in Thailand and looked down from the 87th floor on the hectic city with a beer - always a cool way to start and then went for a bit of walk that knackered us completely with 32'C and pollution (and more beer).

Next day we went to the biggest market - 9000 stalls and a quarter of a million people. Bought a couple of bits and bobs but mainly we sampled the lunatic pace of life which was a bit of a shock after a fairly lazy 3 weeks in Malaysia.

Getting around Bangkok is very easy with their Skytrain and teamed up with a water ferry we visited the Royal Palace. It was good but absolutely heaving with people. Despite putting on long trousers Kym was still forced to wear a loaned skirt and nigh on bolied to death. Went to see the massive 44 metre long reclining Buddha at another temple and was relieved that there was a lot less crowds and less severe dress code. Afterwards we walked about a million miles to find The Giant Swing - a kind of ancient bungy jump thing. Desparately needed a beer after and headed to the slightly seedy infamous backpacker area of Kho San Road. Worringly we fitted in perfectly and bumped into some fellow travellers we last saw in New Zealand and proceeded to get trashed. Missed the last ferry home, so wizzed through the traffic in madarse Tuk-Tuk - great fun!

Next day was Christmas Day so we were quite chilledapart from trying to get lots of US dollars out of Thai banks for the next part of our trip. Friends we met last night had been searching everywhere for an inexpensive "proper" Xmas meal and we invited then over to Brit run hostel and proceeded to eat so much food it hurt. Didn't get much sleep as we had to get up at 3am the next day (Boxing Day) for the bus journey to Cambodia.