It's certainly steamy here in the city. That's a reference to the climatic conditions not the PatPong red light district. Although temperatures are similar to those we experienced in India the air is decidedly more humid. Despite using the air conditioning through the night and walking no further than we did there we are both waking up feeling tired and stiff. Fortunately once we get going we can usually shake it off- but we certainly don't feel as refreshed as we did in India. It's easy to see why massage is so popular here, and I'm sure it won't be long before we are heading off for a quick 200 baht rub down. We are staying in a great hostel close to the sky train, so it's pretty easy to get around the centre of Bangkok, returning at night to our little nest. As its close to a large Tesco Lotus mall we've been able to access the food court there for many of our dinners. We've now become expert in the system there - although when we got here it wasn't so straight forward. Many malls here have food courts - a selection of food outlets surrounding a large number of communal chairs and tables. When we've used these back home we've always had to pay separately at each outlet. Here we soon discovered that you don't pay the server with cash, and instead need a food court cash card. You top up the card, and the use it to pay for any dishes you purchase. Any unused credit can be reclaimed, and it saves the servers on the food stalls having to handle money. The food is pretty cheap, even in the food hall, with an average meal around a pound. The ingredients though are taking a bit of getting used to, with many I don't even recognise. Street stalls outside are even cheaper although I'm still figuring out what many of the things are. Surprisingly in Bangkok many people don't speak English, and Thai words sound nothing like you would expect. Station announcements on the trains are always a good way to check out how various letter combinations are pronounced, but even when I have the stations written down it's still difficult to match them to spoken ones. Another drawback is that many people wear masks over their mouths. Resembling sanitary napkins they are extremely effective at muffling any sounds being uttered, and disguising whether the seller is trying to say anything at all. Since we arrived here on January 2nd we have seen many aspects of Bangkok. There are so many Wats (temples ) here that we knew we needed to decide on a short list to avoid Wat Weariness. I'm sure there's probably enough for a different one each day of the year, if not more. Having visited a couple, Including the famous, and justifiably impressive Wat Pho, we were all templed out. Wat Pho is famous for a gigantic reclining gold Buddha. measuring an impressive 46 metres in length, and 15 metres high it's certainly big. His feet were undergoing renovation when we were there. Not quite sure how you get problems with your feet when you're lying down all day but apparently you do. Although I have to concede that if you have mother of pearl inlaid designs, depicting positive actions and symbols which helped lead Buddha to perfection, on the soles of your feet you can only expect trouble in later life. We have done most of our exploring on foot as usual, supplementing with using the BTS sky train to take us closer to our destination. The sky train is an impressive operation. Functioning like a monorail on an elevated track through the city trains are frequent on the two lines, and we never had to wait more than a few minutes. We also used the river boats to hop between destinations along the river, and enjoy some sea spray at the same time. Despite also having an underground metro as well the rush hour traffic is still heavy so frequently climbing long flights of stairs to use the bridges becomes something of a necessity. A real downside after a long days walking. On Tuesday we decided to take a break from the tourist trail, and malls. We had noticed a nice looking green area from the Skytrain and went to investigate. It turned out to be Lumpini park, an area which surpassed our expectations. Channels and inlets had been sculpted through the park, allowing water from the lake to flow through the various sections of the park, to create a tranquil and peaceful area. It wasn't long before we spotted our first monitor lizard (or one if it's close relatives), casually strolling up the bank from the water and heading off across the roadway. As we walked through the park we went onto see many more lizards, turtles and birds, people doing tai chi, older folk sitting in groups with flasks, cyclists and joggers, all in all a perfect place to while away an hour or so. An early evening trip to the outdoor complex at Aquatique led us to discover not only the elephant parade, but a large collection of rather nice market stalls/ shops, and eating places. The Elephant Parade- a collection of 88 large brightly painted model elephants has been touring the world, raising money for the Golden Triangle Asian elephant foundation. John was getting carried away trying to locate and photograph them all, so if you have an elephant you need to paint key us know - we have a whole catalogue of designs.. We were disappointed on our last night to find the Thai boxing which you can usually watch for free outside the MBK Mall on Wednesdays had been cancelled this week, so we missed out on a chance to see what all the fuss is about. Neither of us are huge fans of any boxing, but it seemed like the thing to do here in the land of Thai boxing. Well I seem to be rambling on there's such a log to tell you about Bangkok, but I'll save the rest for now. For those of you following the photos, don't panic when you see the next batch. I haven't been replaced by an almost-lookalike, I've just had a haircut. Off to Kanchanaburi next, home to the famous Bridge over the River Kwai....see you there :)