25th October 2009 - 27th October 2009:

Bangkok is literally a stop gap for us whilst we work out a way into Laos as we intend to come back here before we explore the rest of Thailand. We met some guys on our bus journey from Cambodia - Harry from England who was on a year out and Chris who was from New York currently working in a school in Bangkok. Chris was very helpful and gave us some really good pointers on the city - the best being an Indian restaurant called Rainbow which we unsurprisingly when to on our first night. This was followed by drinks in a bar that was showing the football - god forbid we should miss a game!

Our hotel was amazing and even had a roof top pool - we were a million miles away from the box we stayed in in Hong Kong. The following day we made it our priority to find the best way into Laos via Chiang Mai and thankfully managed to book a tour to Chiang Mai for the following day that included a two day trek and then an onward journey into Laos.

After booking our travel we headed out to the main market as we were told it had lots of cheap clothes and souvenirs -please note all the souvenirs we bought for people were of high quality and very expensive!!

However when we got there we were greeted by the biggest and most unorganised market we have ever seen, there were literally hundreds of small alleys with shops either side that then led onto more alleys with even more shops. Sean did see a good shop at the outset but decided to "look around and then come back" - a big mistake - as we spent the best part of 30 minutes trying to back track and find the shop however, with no map and every alley looking just like the last one, we sadly gave up!!

Sean did manage to grab a t-shirt toward the end - more of a forced purchase just so that we didn't totally waste our time - and then just as we were about to leave the heavens opened up and meant we were basically held captive for what seemed like ages until there was a lull in the rain that enabled us to make a dash for a taxi.

The following day we checked out and headed to Kao Shan Road for a wander through the stalls. This street has absolutely everything you could need for a holiday in Thailand - from underwear and flip flops to shirts and hats - and all for next to nothing prices. When we left England everyone told us not to bother buying too much as you can get it all out here - however unsurprisingly we didn't listen and it now looks like we will be posting home a load of clothes that we no longer need. We also decided to get some movies (all the latest releases) loaded onto our laptop so that we were covered for any boring train/bus journeys and rainy days indoors.

We finished our shopping and then grabbed some food before boarding our sleeper bus for the 13 hour journey to Chang Mai.