Woke up at around 10am freezing my t*** off with a/c. So I opened up my balcony door and it felt like walking into an oven, baking. I went down to catch some breakfast, which I just made it in time, and there was just fruit and weird bread but it was edible. I also noticed with the tea and coffee over here that when you put the milk in it goes a clearish white, only to be told off Clare & Dave that they use condensed milk, Mmmmmmm!

I left the hotel around 11am and started walking, don't really know where but after 10 minutes I got approached by a tuk tuk man for a change. His mate then came over with ok English asking where I was going, I told him the Grand Palace and was told "not dressed like that!" Dressed in shorts and t-shirt, especially not on a Sunday. So I asked about going to the river for a boat, he told me, "my friend take for 10 baht."

All the questions then started coming then, "How long you in Bangkok, where you go after etc? He told me he knew a guy a who did a river tour. I studidly mentioned Chaing Mai to him and he said "On the way we stop at TAT, they give you cheap!" I thought here we go, one of these infamous sacams. I agreed but when the tuk tuk driver stopped at the TAT office I went in and just bagged him off and just got back on the Tuk Tuk. These TAT offices are like tourist of Thailand office where you can book excursions but the majority of the time they are dodgy or don't really exist!

Anyway I got back on the Tuk Tuk and we headed off again and headed off what felt about 3 miles weaving in and out of all these little back streets for about 15p. We eventually got to the river and he showed me to the boatman for a tour. He told me it would be 1600Baht, yeah ok then. I said im just going for a wander pal, I went round the corner and just walked off.

A bit further up the river was another boat with 3 American guys waiting for a similar trip but at 400B. So I joined these guys who were from New Orleans who stayed at home during that mad hurricane, crazy fool and Louisiana who were in their 40's-50's on a business trip but they were ok guys.

We then went up the main river on the boat from Wat Muang Kae past all the wats onto a little river with the floating villages and shops. After about an hour we stopped of at Wat Arun. A big 90m temple, it's huge. We only stopped there for 20 minutes as the driver wouldn't wait any longer. We then headed back to the start point after a couple of hours, said bye to the Yanks and headed off for a bite to eat.

In the late afternoon I went and met up with Clare & Dave again as they were heading off to Koa Tao at 8pm. Had a bite to eat then said our goodbyes. After waiting with them for an hour at the so-called hotel pick up at the so-called time of 8pm the coach arrived to pick them up at 9pm about half a mile from their guest house.

I am now on my own in Thailand for the first proper time. s***! I headed off down to Kaoh San to watch the Liverpool v Everton game. I ventured into an Irish bar, probably called Murphy's bar, got a beer and sat down and got chatting to two chaps, one from Peterborough and the other from Colchester who'd been travelling for 2 years.

Oh how I wish I went home after that, we ended up leaving the bar at about midnight and went to a club in Bangkok and got on these Thai whisky buckets. Random as f***!