Having endured a hellish trip to Heathrow due to a person going under the train on the Piccadilly line, I arrived at Heathrow much later than planned. Check in was fine which was more than can be said for Heathrow's security which to be frank seemed in total chaos. I was running late anyway and I was picked out for a more detailed search of my hand luggage. That was fine, but the guy carrying out the search had no kind of sense of urgency and was just chatting to his colleagues, totally ignoring the queue of people (including me) who were waiting for their bags. He went on to search the first bag and then just walked off - he returned 15 mins later and then started to joke with his colleagues. I was waiting for 30 mins which meant that I had no time to buy any last minute items and had to run to get to my gate. I was the last person to board my flight.

On the flight, things were much better. Thai air were excellent and the staff could not do enough for you. It seemed that they were handing out food and drinks ever 15 mins or so. I took advantage of the free alcohol a bit and drank 2 G & Ts, 5 beers and about 4 glasses of wine. No wonder I had a hangover when I arrived at 6am! The flight was very smooth with no turbulence at all.

Arriving in Bangkok I was very tired as I just cannot sleep whilst in motion. The airport is fabulous and new (and massive) but very well signposted and easy to navigate. I was accosted by about 20 Thais in yellow t-shirts, all trying to sign me up for their limousine services. Harnaik had arrived in Bangkok 12 hours before me on an Emirates flights and had texted me to warn me to stay away from the people in the yellow t-shirts as he had been conned into taking a limousine service at 1000 bahts when the going rate for a regular taxi was 400. He also texted me to say that he had found a nice place to stay namely Shanti Lodge (www.shantilodge.com) in the old part of town. Having heeded Harnaiks warning, I managed to lose all the yellow t-shirts (after fighting them off) and found my way to the metered taxi rank.

My first impressions on leaving the airport were that Bangkok seemed very re-generated, new and gleaming. However, this impression only lasted about 20 mins until we had fully passed through the business district and moved into the older part of town. My first impressions were pretty much shattered as the city seemed grimy,polluted, dirty, disorganised and very run down, but I decided to reserve judgement until I had chance to explore.

On arrival at Shanti lodge, I went to the reception desk and asked for Harnaik. They showed me their book and their arrivals book and there was no Harnaik listed. I was a bit worried so texted him and he appeared about 5 mins later. It seems that Shanti lodge have a pretty relaxed system for checking in their guests and had not updated the book. Harnaik said that he was worried that I wouldn't like the place and the room. Sure it's basic, but our room was nicely decorated, very clean with it's own toilet and shower as well as air conditioning (a must as Bangkok is baking and very humid at the moment). The communal area is very nice with chinese lanterns and comfy chairs with tables to eat. There is new age music playing at all times as well as the smell of incense. It is really a throw back to the days of hippies but is very very nice (and only 8.90 GBP a night for the room). The food is also delicious and extremely cheap which reflects the food prices in Bangkok generally.

I decided not to go to bed as I find that's the easiest way to counter jet lag so Harnaik and I just went out to breakfast. We found this nice place just down from Shanti and ate scrambled eggs on toast with the most delicious orange juice. We then just took a walk around the area and check out some of the shops and markets. I was sweating like nothing else. I can stand the heat but the humidity took some getting used to.

After a couple of hours wondering around, we hired a Tuk Tuk which is basically a motocyle on 3 wheels with a steering wheel and seats at the back (and some mad Thai driver). We bartered and managed to get a city trip for 100 bahts. To make it worse, we also didn't know that the Tut Tut drivers are affiliated to various shops (typically tailors and travel agents), and make stop offs in between showing the sights. Basically, tourists are like lambs to the slaughter because once you get into the shops (which you feel you have to do) it's difficult to get out without having made loads of purchases. Harnaik and I were pretty proud that we managed to see all the sights we wanted to that afternoon without buying anything from these shops despite the hard sells.

We felt a bit sorry for the Tut Tut driver due to his zero commission from us so we gave him a 100 baht tip. We later discovered that the trip should have cost us no more than 40 baht so not only had he ripped us off by charging us 100 baht, we had also tipped another 100 baht for his trouble - no wonder he was very happy and then preceded to camp outside Shanti lodge, trying to get us to take more trips with him. Having said that it was great fun bombing round Bangkok in this way and we saw the lucky buddha (Thailand's oldest buddha), the standing buddha (Thailand's largest buddha) as well as an array of temples and other sights that I'll add later when I've looked them up in the book again. A lesson learned but nothing lost I think.

We spent the afternoon walking Khason Market and buying a few supplies, like shorts and t-shirts. Yes, Bangkok is polluted, largely grimy and chaotic but it has a vibrance that I just can't describe, not least because it is a melting pot of different cultures and religions living in harmony together. I know that I'll love Bangkok as there is so much to discover.

In the evening we went next door for a Thai massage. It hurt like hell having a large woman with no teeth pulling, yanking and sitting on me for an hour but I felt more relaxed afterwards. We then enjoyed the calming atmosphere of Shanti lodge and went through our guidebooks for ideas about how we would spend the rest of out time in Thailand. We went to bed at 8 as I had not slept for about 30 hours.