Got into thailand from Laos about a week ago. Spent another 5 days in bangkok but having been there twice before did very little except get drunk and go to the market with a stinking hangover,i'm never gonna have aother bucket of fun in my life, if you don't knw what it is then it's a half bottle of thai whisky (very potent), a can of coke and a bottle of redbull (it's like syrup, i think it's about 10-15 times stronger). The weekend market is massive, it sells everything (loads of puppys, which is always a treat), devlin bought us something for the flat, its a 3 foot square carving of buddah (like a picture, but split into 3 pieces), the woman said it weighed 3 kilo (as we were gonna post it back). went to the post place (not the post office but an export place) and asked to post our item, we had a shock because we had forgotten that you're not allowed to take images of the buddah outside of the country, we had to wait 2 extra days in Bangkok to get an answer, very tense time. Anyway we got an answer and it was yes, they weighed it and it was around 9 kilo (not the original 3, i'm thinking of writing to estha ranson to complain), so cost about 50 quid to send it home (it only cost 20 quid in the first place) so that was a shocker. Nice though (it's going over the dining table on the pistachio wall apparently). Also went to the pictures, if you go to thailand go to the cinema, it's great (i'll try and put a picture on at some point), you get a seat that reclines (the size of a bed), you get a duvet, a pillow, someone takes your shoes off for you, free drink whilst you wait (in a vip area), free biscuits, waither service (not like in the uk. an actual waiter). also i bought popcorn and a drink and it cost about 2 quid in total, normally you have to remortgage to get cinema food. The film was great (though we had to stand up for the national anthem before the film, they love the king over here, he looks a bit like my dad), wen't to see the poseidon adventure, go and see it, dead good. So now were in Ko tao. Left last night at 8pm and got here around 9am. The bus was great, there was about 20 people on it so loads of room, the boat was a little less great, same amount of people but the water was very choppy, as we'd just watched the poseidon adventure (remake, very good) we were cacking ourselves, the boat was jumping all over the place. Anyway we're here safe and sound, our room costs 200 baht (about 3 quid) and we've got a telly (and a promise of hot water and air con tomorrow...). We're here to do the diving, can't wait, it's a marine reserve so i've heard it's amazing (costs about 140 quid for open water padi). And that's it so far, will update when been diving. Adios matt (and nic from the sidelines).