So it's been back to some good old tourism here in Bangkok. I have enjoyed the last couple of embassy-free days, doing lots of walking (mostly because I get lost too easily) and seeing the sights!

I got lost in a huge Chinatown market the other day... But in my defense, I think it is designed that way so you have no choice in the end but to pay someone to tell you how to get out. I've been to my fair share of markets on this trip, I prefer them to plodding around in museums... and this one was by far the strangest. If anyone is in the market for anything from origami shoes to sea cucumber please let me know because they are readily available.

There was a shop selling CDs and mushrooms, neatly displayed side by side, as if this was normal.

The lanes between the stalls were narrow enough, but every so often there would be some idiot on a motorbike ploughing through the thick crowds which would stop traffic (perhaps done on purpose so we buy more?). There were a million different kinds of foods and snacks and drinks too, joy.

Some weird stuff they were selling: giant calculators, dried shrimps, pre-carved mushrooms, baby pyjamas, sea cucumber and boiled pig's stomach.. This is just a taster.

This morning I went to the Grand Palace and a huuuge temple called Wat Phra Kaew, the biggest in Thailand. Really beautiful, but they made me wear a sarong that was really heavy and down to my feet so I had to shuffle across the grounds, inconvenient for visiting the biggest temple and climbing the stairs. The picture above is the Grand Palace, where the King used to live. They treat the king like a god here, it is illegal to step on coins and bank notes because his face is on them!

At night, Khao San road near where I am staying comes alive, it's like Mallorca, bars and stalls and people and beer and food... Complete with crowds of foreigners and locals trying to squeeze every penny out of them. It's fun to people-watch though, and of course do some shopping :)