10th November 2009 - 13th November 2009:

We arrived in Bangkok at 6am and were absolutely knackered having not slept a wink during the bus journey - as such Liza was especially grateful that Sean had downloaded some movies to his i-Pod so ended up watching 'He's Just Not That Into You' and 'Marley & Me' to pass the time.

When we arrived, we walked along Kao Shan Road to get to our hotel and on our way we just happened to notice a 24hr MacDonald's so thought it rude not to pop in and say hello. The full menu was at our disposable and none of it was pre-prepared so our order was cooked fresh as we waited. During this time Liza had to run upstairs to Mulligan's Irish Bar to use the "facilities" after the 12 hours on the bus and the sights that she saw are exactly how we will remember Bangkok - at 6am there is a couple tucking into the biggest beef burger ever seen, a rowdy game of Pool on the go and two Thai guys literally asleep across the bar - funniest thing ever!!

We got to the hotel and were grateful that we were able to check-in immediately and caught up on some much needed sleep. Once we woke up we headed to MBK which is a gigantic shopping mall packed full of clothes stalls, souvenir shops, homeware and absolutely everything else you could think of. We checked out hairdressers (as Liza's hair was, shock horror….. starting to go back to her natural colour!!) and picked up a few bits and pieces. We then went to the cinema to see Michael Jackson's movie - 'This Is It' which was excellent and welcome relief from temples & sightseeing.

The following day, we did some shopping on Kao Shan Rd and grabbed some street food for our lunch and then had a choice between MBK & sightseeing - we went to MBK!!! Liza went to get her hair done, which was an adventure in itself, each seat had a computer with free internet so she just sat there getting her highlights done & facebooking…. love it!

Rather than sit around watching Liza have her haircut (exciting as it was) Sean decided to go and see Surrogates at the cinema before we both met up to have some dinner and go bowling - Thai style!!! The place had mental pop music blaring out of the speakers all night and at one stage we were bopping away to Barbie Girl - disco lights and all!!!

The following day we slept until about 3pm so couldn't make it to the Grand Palace so instead went for a late breakfast in Mulligan's which consisted of a burger & spicy chicken wings. Sean got his hair cut (no computers this time, boo hoo!!) and then we went to get a massage from these lady's who had set up on the side of the street. It cost us less then £4 each for an hour and was by far one of the best massages we have ever had.

We then headed down Kao San Road for some drinks hoping to bump into Siobhan, Linda & Nina from Sweden or both. After wandering up and down the street for a while we decided to change tactics and based ourselves in one of the bars in the middle of the street with a jug of beer and waited to see if we could spot them going past. About an hour into our stakeout Sean knew that Liza was starting to get merry when she started buying stuff from the street sellers, which included a bracelet that looked like it has been made from corn and a little wooden frog. We were just about to call it a night when out of the crowd Linda & Nina came running towards us so we ordered some more drinks and caught up with them. Nina being the adventurous food eater bought some sort of bugs & scorpion's and made us (made us I tell you) eat them - see the pictures and the rather scared faces we had!!

We knew it was time to leave when the staff starting sweeping around our feet, however surprisingly for only 2am there were not that many places (apart from ping pong shows) still open. We walked along the street and ended up in Mulligan's - second time that day - and were able to get the last part of happy hour which was ending at 3am. Liza insisted on taking over the jukebox and played some traditional Irish music and even did a little gig for the owner.

By about 4am though we were completely pooped and headed back to the hotel after saying goodbye to the girls who as usual decided to carry on partying - where they get the energy from we really don't know especially as this was the first night they had been out in almost a week due to a fever they had caught. We woke the next morning to go and meet the girls for some breakfast and whilst our hangover was well and truly setting in, the poor lassies were still drunk having only finished up a couple of hours before.

We were really too ill to do anything and therefore - for the third day running - missed out on the grand palace again. We did however manage to make it over to the post office to send some of our clothes & souvenirs home… one less worry. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing pool, having lunch and then got onto our bus to for Koh Tao that was scheduled to take a total of 16 hours (with a hangover) which we were so not looking forward too!