11th - 15th December 

Bangkok is basically a city, I personally dont see what the attraction is. Fine it has lots of sights, wats (temples with buddahs inside) and shopping, but you can go shopping anywhere in Thailand, go to a thousand wats and get around much easier and not get conned in any other city in thailand.

OK! I might be a bit harsh as this is exactly what happened to us!

We are used to touts and cons in India but didnt really expect it in a city like Bangkok. We were fully aware what this tuk tuk driver was up to when he offered us a 3 hour sight seeing trip around the city for 10baht each. hmmmm could there be shops involved? did these shops give him a commission? hmmm i think so.

We said this to him and he was all innocent. what? nooooo only shops if you want, no shopping if you dont want. - We assured him we did not want to shop and thought we could get a good deal out of him! We hopped in his tuk tuk and he seemed very happy and friendly and was laughing and joking with us. Around the corner he thought we might want to look in a tourist information place, (a travel agent giving themselves off as an official government run tourist info place). We went in so the driver could get his 'voucher' and this thai guy with an american accent greeted us and set this tour out for us, that he obviously does for most people and priced it to 250pounds each! EACH!!!! (note..we are now doing this tour for less than 100 altogether). We more or less laughed and said no, and this thai man had a little hissy fit and ranted on about well this time of year .... lots of tourists.......etc etc. We've managed fine so far with rooms and whatever! Richard took great pleasure in arguing with this guy and informing him that we could do it far cheaper ourselves!

After a couple of wats and a standing 40metre golden buddah the driver decided it was time for a tailor shop that we didnt want! "you go in, i get coupon" Ok then Mr Driver, went in told the guys we didnt even want a suit and we dont know why the driver brought us here we turned on our heels and walked out! Mr tuk tuk didnt really look impressed but put on a brave place and proceeded to marble palace. Afterwards he said, "i take you to souveneir shop, i get big coupon" we thought this might be a little shop with some wooded crafts and goods that might take our fancy! NO , this souvenier shop was just an expensive jewelery shop. Diamonds galore, we looked around with our eyes wide open, wondering if we looked like the kind of people who want 100's pounds worth of diamonds and sapphires. Unsuprisingly we came out 2 minutes later with nothing, but this shocked our driver, he looked very annoyed and rounded the corner before saying to us that he could take us no further as we did not buy anything from this shop! lol The guy was a joke, we explained to him we said no shops but we happily went in them all just to please him and said 10baht each, and he demanded 100baht or he wont take us back! - Fair enough we handed him the 20baht (or thrown it to him as i think Richard did) stepped out of the tuk tuk and climbed into a lovely comfortably aircon taxi!

Outside of Bangkok everyone has been so helpful and we did meet a couple of Thai's who were just lovely. Dont get me wrong I didnt NOT like Bangkok it just didn't live upto the hype of it. Kao san Road was just any road in any resort, you could be in benidorm. Selling hats, clothes, braiding hair, etc but it did have a good fun feel about the place. The buddahs and wats were beautiful. In wat pho there is a HUGE golden reclining buddah lying on his side. It is overwhelming how big it is!

One night we went to Patpong (the red light district) to have a look around. We just wanted to see some ladyboys really!! shhh hehe. We walked up and down streets and streets just to find endless rows of poledancing bars. we wanted a show or something similar. This lad (tout) took us to a bar that had 12 different shows on one after the other, and he assured us it was free admission charge 4 times, we just had to buy beer, and the pingpong show was about to start. We wondered what we were getting ourselves into but thought we would have a laugh.

We sat down right at the front ready to have a laugh or squirm, beer in tow, took one sip before this enormous lady, who could be mistaken for the michelin man, came over and ordered 300baht each from us! We looked very confused and told her as politely as we could that we were assured it was free and we bought beer so thats that. She wouldnt have it and i started saying no this isnt on and how ridiculous it was before she gave a big sharp shout and raised her hand!!!! I thought i was going to get a wallop and thrown out the window. So we picked our beers up and walked out.

We decided we had seen most there is to see in Bangkok and took the America Thai's advise without paying the money and followed the reccommended route to the north to the old capital Ayuthaya. But that tale's for another day...