Tues 19/09/06
Arrived in Bangkok at 06.00 still asleep on the floor of the bus. Lucky for us we were again being dropped in the middle of nowhere maybe 2 miles or so from where we wanted to stay and to make it even better for us it was dark and raining Yipee!
We set off down Khao San Road, and still there was some of the nights last remaining dregs?hookers in the allies preying on innocent drunkards, drunkards wandering home with their catch of the night only to be utterly disappointed that it won?t seem all that good in the morning especially when it has cost much more than they initially thought?..poor b*****s but all good fun to see when your walking down this road sober!
After a 20min hike we finally arrived at our hotel in the Banglumphu area of Bangkok it was very nice and extremely clean so we checked in and crashed straight out until 10.00.
Breaky time awaits us so off we went to one of Adam?s recommended joints, it was good and not that I normally notice this kind of thing but full of hot girls?not sure if his reasons for recommendation were based on the food or the woman but a got good choice either way, well done Adam! Anyway enough about the women its making me hungry?oops I mean the food! Next stop was the suit makers to pick Adams suits up- they were very good and looked quite decent so I decided to have two made and another blazer all for the great price off 80 quid!
Not much to do here in Bangkok really especially in the Koh San area but shop and so shop we did! It was excellent there being two of us shopping as we could barter with more power! Many knock off t-shirts and shorts later we were hot sweaty and had enough so we had our lunch on the street (not literally-it was a little lady selling Pad Thai from her stall) and went back to our hotel to use the rooftop pool.
Up on the roof it was quite chilled and relaxed but far too quite so I brought the Ipod and speakers and had that on for all! Much better everyone developed a smile there was head movements toe twiddling and just a much better atmosphere developing?.amazing what a bit of music does! This music was like a magnet a couple of girls kept coming close but we were feeling ignorant so we didn?t give them any attention-sorry girls didn?t mean anything by it!
After a quick nap, tea and a second suit fitting we went out to bid farewell to each other and what better way than to get drunk! We went to a few of the bars and managed to get a few cocktails down our necks. In the backpacker hang-out ?Gulliver?s? things were just starting to take-off and the night was getting better when all of a sudden the lights came on and a voice shouted ?everybody out? the voice was quite stern so we obeyed. Outside there was the army with some massive guns and quite a load of tanks everywhere blocking Khao San Road off? Apparently there had been a military coup and Mr Thaksin had been booted out even though he was in New York at the time! Wondering through Khao San we bumped into the girls from the pool earlier, needless to say they?d had a few and so give us a bit of a telling off. This was the last thing I remember.

Wed 20/09/06
Woke up with the two girls from last night at the side of me, again I was fully dressed so I didn?t really have any doubts as to what happened but I was curious as to why we were together?? Anyhow I?d forget their names so we introduced ourselves and I went back to see if I?d missed Adam as his flight was at 11 something and it was now just after 10.00?.nope he was fast asleep. I gave him a nudge and reminded him of the time his response can?t be displayed for fear of offence being caused!
Said goodbye to Adam and went off for my third fitting at the suit place, afterwards I said goodbye to the girls I had met last night?yes I remember now Deborah and Helen.

After my third suit fitting I made my way across town to the Grande Ville Hotel to meet up with my tour group. Really pleased they were putting us in a hotel some fricking 5miles away from the action of Khao Sahn Road. However I rushed over there with the best hangover I’ve ever had I mean it was great the sweat was pouring out, my head was banging and I was so thirsty!! After leaving a perfectly good happening place I then found out that I wasn’t supposed to be meeting there until 18.00 which was well let’s just say not a very nice thing to be told when the anxiety is already eating you from inside!

I went up to my room to check it out, it was ok and had a bed what spoke to me; it was saying “get in, get in!!” Actually I’m not sure if it was the bed was talking or the alcohol either way I jumped in and fell straight to sleep!

I was awoken up by my room mate Steve at around 16.00 which by this time I was feeling much better. Instead of just hanging out in the room we headed out to the Khao Sahn Road area for some lunch. We went to the café in the middle of the street and I bet you cant guess what it was called…..ok ok I’ll tell you, your not going to believe this but yes that’s right it is called Center!! I ordered a chicken salad and it was horrible for a starter the chicken was anything but and the salad….well it was green, but then again sometimes so is mould?? So guys if you ever visit Bangkok DO NOT eat in the café called Center, after eating we had a little wonder around the area just so I could show Steve how much better this area was compared with the area around the hotel. When it got close to 17.00 we decided to head back to the vicinity of our hotel and have a wonder around there, basically just so I could satisfy myself that it was actually crap. It didn’t take much satisfying me, maybe about three minutes. The place was full of gun shops and electrical stores, I love electrical stores but these places just sold crap like and I mean Jack Wallace standard!

At 18.00 I met with the rest of the group which I was very apprehensive about as I’d already seen the list. You know when you just look at a list of names and you can envisage the type of people they are? No? Well I have that power, well I don’t actually but I could see from the list that they were all couples! Excellent all I need is a boat load of honeymooners being all lovey-dovey with each other. Met the group and it was a mixture of Aussies and English, myself, Steve, Rich, Graeme, Sal, Sarah and Meera Vs Chris, Peter, Rebecca, Rae and Diana along with the tour leader Cleversson whom is from Brazil.

We filled out all the necessary paperwork and then for my third time today headed off the Khao Sahn Road area for a meal. We had a great Thai meal then headed off to trawl round a few bars. This was a great chance to get to know each other, yeah right was it heck all the couples kept themselves to themselves apart from Rich and Sal who were probably the only couple who would converse with anyone other than each other. By 23.00 it was just me Steve and Meera who were still out so we carried on until around 01.00 then decided to call it a night as we were up in the morning for oh yes you better believe it a tour round some of Bangkok’s finest temples, don’t think I’ll be able to sleep….yeah right!

Thurs 21/09/2006

Actually got up this morning to watch the sunrise over the Bangkok city skyline but it was too misty so I went back to sleep until 08.00 when I got up and headed for breakfast with Steve. All there was greasy foods and some fresh fruit so I opted for the healthy option and took the fruit.

Met the rest of the group downstairs at 09.00 and had to walk about two fricking miles to catch a boat along the river to the Wot Pho temple. I have no problem with walking at all unless its walking through dense smog, gridlocked traffic, +30 degrees in temperature and near saturation point humidity!! We finally got to the boat, well a wooden effort that just about floated. On the way down the river we stopped to feed the catfish bread, I reckon by the time we had finished feeding these b*****s I had already experienced the climax of my day, I mean I have seen enough temples to last me not only one life time but maybe six or seven.

Finally we arrived at the temple where inside was a massive gold Buddha laid on his side, we wondered around the surrounding area for about two hours by which time I had run out of hair to pull out. At the exit gate we were asked “who wants to go see another fine temple?” I wasn’t so quick to raise my hand. I decided to return to our hotel to have some lunch and just chill out until 16.00.

The group met in the lobby and we headed to train station, on everyone’s arrival by taxi we noticed we were missing one important member of the team. Yes that’s right we had four taxis and one of them was supposed to wait for him but we didn’t know which so we all took off…..oops. He got there some twenty mins after not too happy but nevermind. We got the train at 17.30 to Chiang Mai and I was sat with Meera, Steve and Diana, this was the singles table! We played some card games but I soon got bored and decided to play on my psp instead which was much better.

The train was moving painfully slow, but we did discover that the sixth carriage was known as the party coach, it had a bar, music and flashing lights…cool!! A few of us went in there to have a few beers, which was good apart from the fact it closed at 22.00. At this time we went to bed, I chose to have the bottom bunk on the train as it was a double so off to sleep I went.

The train staff came round at one point waking us all up, wow we were there already, and it felt like I had only been asleep a few hours.

I had, the pile of rubbish had broken down; just to make it even better it was hammering it down with rain outside. We all got off and had to wait nearly thirty mins for a coach to come and get us.