Bangkok, what can I say, it's a very intimidating city when you first arrive but once you get used to it it's a great place - I really love it now.

There's so much to see and do for the tourist, temples galore from the Grand Palace, to Wat Po with the huge gold reclining buddah, and then Wat Arun across the river coated in ceramics. The city is full of shrines and monuments all of religious significance and you'll see no shortage of monks walking around in their orange robes. Or maybe more unusually you might even see one on a motorbike or sat in an interenet cafe! One of the most bizarre things I found was how these places of worship have simply been built around, so once you walk outside the walls of the tranquil temple you are faced with about 6 lanes of cars and motorbikes all emitting more pollution than you ever want to think about breathing in - but I guess that's just Bangkok for you.

If you're feeling a bit 'templed out' then there's always a bargain to be found if you're game enough to brave some of the markets and barter hard. Chatachak is a huge weekend market, more of a local market than many of the others. But once you've spent a few hours there you'll have no idea how you got in and where that great bag was that you found five minutes after arriving, so you'll probably just give up and hail down the nearest taxi to take you back to the sanctuary of your hotel! I managed to buy some chopsticks - last of the big spenders, but to be fair after a while you do get a bit frustrated bartering for everything and you honestly just want someone to tell you how much they want you to pay for it!

Then there's the Banglamphu area, or what is more commonly known as the backpacker area, and home of the famous Khao San Road. It's a lively place full of cheap hotels, cheap bars and restaurants, cheap clothes, cheap massage, cheap souveniers etc etc - bascially it's cheap... So mostly that's where I was staying, but it's a great place to meet people. You can easily spend a few days just sitting having coffee or a beer watching the world go by, while you catch up on your emails or just read a few more pages of a good book. The food vendors also do some fantastic local food. For anyone who knows anything about thai food you can pick up a great pad thai for about 30p and the roti pancakes are just heaven, my particular favourite being banana and honey...And at night it really comes alive where you can party til the early hours.

But if this is all too much for you there's plenty of ways to escape the endless traffic and chaos. Jump on a longtail boat and explore the canals for a more peaceful and scenic view of the city. There are also some nice restaurants situated along here, where you can see the contrast of the wealth and poverty of this huge city living fairly harmoniously side-by-side. Or there's also Lumpini Park which is a good local hangout. It's nice to see some space green in such a developed hectic city. You will see a lot of Thai people here either jogging around the permeter track or performing Tai Chi or something similar. Couple that with the wildlife (monitor lizards and turtles for starters) and just find a seat, sit back and drink it all in.