Hi all,

Flight from london to dubai and then dubai to bangkok all went ok, flew with emirates and was hoping for big comfy seats but as they marched us 'economy' passengers through first class, i could see that indeed there was very little leg room for the economy people and i would not be getting much sleep! Dozed a bit but not much, cant beleive it but I didnt even fancy 1 glass of complimetary wine on the flight!! Not like me eh?!! Was a little sick on the 2nd flight, think the malaria tablets arent really agreeing with me so that wasnt great! they do feed you on the flights though so I had some bits to eat & plenty of water, so i managed ok!

Well i landed safely in bangkok tuesday evening 7pm (we are 6 hours ahead of home time). Queing up for immigration was a bit daunting as I was hoping all would go through okay etc, but all was fine. Bags were out quickly also. There are trains etc to bangkok centre however due to the flooding lots of their public transport systems are down so I got in a taxi - around 6 pounds for a 40 min ride, so not too bad. Was hoping to find someone to share a taxi with but everyone seemed to have plans, so jumped in one myself. Taxi driver had no idea where the hostel was haha, thankfully in my organisation I had printed out a thai 'message for the taxi driver' thing so smugly i whipped that out, only to find that he was THE MOST LONG SIGHTED taxi driver EVER!! He carries a little magnifying glass with him in the taxi and even with that he couldnt read the address of my hostel, so he ended up ringing them for directions haha!! He drove like a maniac and indicated right the ENTIRE journey, random!! Very different from 'dragon taxis' in cardiff thats for sure!

Driving through bangkok at night then in the taxi was an experinece, with all the crazy drivers, tuk tuks etc. Arrived at hostel feeling very overwhelmed really, but the 'nap park hostel' is lovely, one of the more expensive places to stay at around 7 pounds a night, but thought I would appreciate somewhere nice for my first 2 nights after the journey etc.

Chatted with a few people before I went to bed for an earlyish night. The hostel has loadsa brits so at least communicating isnt a problem. I was very surprised to find that most peope here are travelling alone, i wasnt expecting that but they are, so thats reassuring.

Had nice lie in this morn then,22 bed dorm is intersting (!) but was quite quiet. Its quite private as you have a wee screen around each bunk bed so isnt a big open dorm like I had been picturing. Theres free wifi in the hostel and you have your own wee light and plug point at your bed so thats good. This morn had some breakfast just by the hostel, cereal and banana and yoghurt in a half coconut shell fir a bowl, pretty cool.

Headed off then to see some bangkok sights with 2 others from the hostel that were doing the same, so saw lots of tuk tuks, even more scamming people (theres scams for everything everywhere!!), went to the grand palace but it was closed for lots of today for some ceremony thing so we went around some other palace temple places (at Wat Pho) which were beautiful. You have to cover up so i hired a long skirt thing to go in, haha, 40p or something, you cant point your feet at any buddah momuments. Saw the massive reclining buddah which was quite impressive and the buildings and art work and decorative work is very impressive.

Very warm, prob around 30 degrees C but humid heat, so thankfully in some ways as I wont burn as I normally would. Had my 'sun cream and mosquitto' session before heading off this morn though just incase!!

May head out this evening for some food with some others if people going out. I have absolutely no apetite at the mo though, think due to the heat, Im booked into this hostel again tonight but not for tomorrow so not sure if I will head on somewhere tomorrow or not, the flooding is making it a bit tricky to plan a route. Hoping to be able to head on with people rather than solo, so will have to network tonight haha!!

x