BANGKOK 9TH - 11TH OCTOBER 2006

Ouch! did our arses ache after that plane flight! After a stop over in Doho, we arrived 14hours after leaving heathrow into Bangkok airport. About noon, local time. We caught a bus from the airport to Khoa San Road after refusing to get in a douzen taxis as taxis are about 10 times the cost. We found a place to stay, Donna's Guest House, 5 mins walk from the bus stop. Thank god, cos we were shattered and the hummidity felt like being squashed up inside a washer dryer! Lewis insisted we had a room with air-con as we wern't use to the hummidity, which was good as we both slept soundly our first night. (even if i was a little chilly with it on full!)

Khoa San Road was ever the same, busserling with people 24/7. The consent smell of noodles and rice being cooked upon the street stalls, lots of cheap clothes, hippy bling, internet cafes, tailors (look at my nice shop sir!), hostels, bars, lady boys, pervey old white men and their very young Thai w****s, oh and not to forget hundreds of taxi and tuk tuk drivers (u want ping pong show?).

On our second day we thought we would check out a bit of history and culture. We got up early and took a tuk tuk, ending up getting ripped off as we payed 100B to get around a corner! Its only one pound fifty but Lewis is still raged as he hates being ripped off in any circumstance. Well we started the day at Ko Ratanakosin, which is an ancient royal district housing Bangkoks most famous attractions including, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew) and the grand palace. You pay a few quid to get in the area and you can walk round and inside many temples. Thy're all amazing to see as they are huge and so pretty, covered in jewells, gold or ceramics. It did pour down though, when we were in the middle of walking around, and i mean the heavens opened, we, and the many other tourists there were stuck under cover watching the area get flooded with water. When the rains stoped we finished up and caught a ferry over the river to Wat Arun to have a look around. Lewis, by this point had really had enough of me reading him out loud the history of each temple and had switched his ears off completely. I think he finds the temples rather boring, and a red ant bit me on the bum, so we thought we'd change the scene a bit for the late afternoon and evening.

We waited about half an hour for a local bus to go to Mahboonkrong (MBK) which is an enormas shopping mall, capturing the spirit of Thailand outdoor markets into comfy air-con. Its eight story's high with floors containing everything you could possibly want. We chose to have dinner here as they have a huge food centre on one of the floors which is again, smog and hummidity free versions of the outdoor markets. You have to buy coupons from the ticket desk and then cash in whatever you dont spend. We both love all the Thai food, its so nice and quick. A lot of it is too spicey for me as i am a bit of a spice whimp so Lewis finishes off a lot of my stuff when my lips start stinging, but i'm getting better at ordering food that i can handle. Lewis loves it all though and spoons extra chillis on everything. It must of been raining the whole time we were in the MBK as by the time we went outside all the roads were flooded, and i mean really flooded, the water was almost to the top of the car tires. We have come just as they are getting out of the rainy season in Thailand so we expected a bit of rain but not to this extent.

When we got back to Khoa San Road we walk down the strip and booked a bus and boat ticket for Ko Samet for the following morning, it was about 3 ponds 20 each. Ko Samet is one of the closest islands to Bangkok so had to be our next stop. We felt we needed to start our travels with some beach life.