As I am writing this it is currently day 4 of our trip but I haven't worked out how to update my blog until now! I was having a few problems with the site but hopefully it will all go smoothly form now on.

To start at the beginning the flight was very long and boring, a lasted almost 12 hours. The TV system in the back of the chairs broke so we couldn't even watch films to break up the time. I managed to sleep ok but Justin wasnt that lucky! We arrived at Bangkok airport about 4 pm their time and we noticed the heat straight away. It wasn't really that sunny but was very humid and sticky, especially compared to the air-conditioning on the plane. We took a taxi back to the hotel which took about 20 mins, and was good as we got a good first look at the city. It is just as crazy as everyone says it is! I was convinced that we had already been ripped off with the price, but we just wanted to get to the room.

The New World Lodge Hotel is quite nice considering, and I'm sure we will stay ina lot worse along the way! It looks completely dodgy as you drive up, until you look at the map and see it is actually pretty central and in a good location. It seems like you are in the middle of god-knows-where from the outside. The road looks like a back alley, and when driving up in the taxi I thought he had taken us somewhere else to try and make us buy something off him. You do hear stories of stuff like that happening, whether they are true or not. We have our own room with air-condiditoning which is a life-saver in this heat, and the rooms are simple but clean. Overall, it was better than I expected. We didn't arrive til late in the afternoon. We just had dinner at the hotel the first night and slept a lot to try and catch up on the sleep we missed during the flight.

On day 2, our first full day here, we went to explore the Kao San Road and all the market stalls and start our shopping! In case you haven't heard of it, Khao San is the main backerpacking area in Bangkok with markets down each side, loads of bars and restaurants and places just to stop and watch everyone walk by. We just tried to get our bearings really and have a walk around to explore. There are so many people everywhere and so much traffic that if you want to cross the road you just have to run for it! The markets stalls sell everything but mainly clothes and food, some of which doesn't smell very nice at times. Walking down the main road from the hotel, the food stalls were evrywhere and I have to admit none of it looks very appertising to me at the moment. I can't even tell what half the stuff is. We came back that night to go round the bars and tried some Chang beer, one of the many they drink in Thailand. I had my first taster of proper Thai food too, which was just some rice with loads of random stuff thrown in. It tasted nice enough, but Justin wasn't feeling 100 per cent so just stuck to chips.

On day 3 we thought we would try to go and see the Grand Palace, and thought it would be nice to walk there depsit all the tuk-tuks and taxis shouting at us everywhere. They all offer bargain trips to see all the sites, but I know these can be dodgy, and they can end up taking you somewhere that doesn't even exist. However, we ended up getting very lost and walked miles in the heat which wasn't very enjoyable at times. Once we had bought a new map and eventually found it it was closed when we arrived! This only turned out to be another scam but the man wouldn't let us past so we just gave up. We really need to get used to spotting all of these! We did take our first tu-tuk ride though which was fun, and gave us a good breeze in the heat.

That night we met our group leader from Intrepid and talked about the trek. However it turns out there will only be one other person in the group with us until we get back to Bangkok which we weren't very happy about as we were looking forward to being part of a big group. At first when we saw the notice board in recpetion it only had our two names on it so we thought it was just going to be us. At least one person is slightly better than that!

Today (day 4) we eventually made it to the Grand Palace, or Wat Phra Kaeo, after a hot walk down there. Ared with our map we didn;t get lost, and I think it was nice as you get to see alot when you walk around. Today has definetly been the hottest day by far! The Palace was good and there was gold everywhere. It was really amazing and beautiful, but completely packed everywhere with people. Everthing was done in loads of detail and you had to look up close to appreciate it fully, but it was too hot to walk about for long. We ended up sitting and watching from underneath the terrace in the shade, and fanning ourselves with our guide books, then going for a much needed ice cream.

After that we went to Wat Pho, which is one of the more famous Buddhist temples, and has the biggest Buddha you would ever see in your life! It was as big as a house and covered completely in gold. My feet got dirty though as you had to take you shoes off to walk around. We got some really good photos though, and it even impressed Justin, who normally hates that type of thing. We have jst come back to Khao San Road to get some food and drinks and find an internet cafe. Later today we are taking the sleeper train to Chaing Mai, and then off to the the trek in the hills. We will meet up with the other member of the group, which will hopefully go well. I must admit I do feel abit sorry for her as she obviously booked to be in a big group too, and is just stuck with us two!