Friday 27th February

Arrived at Bangkok bus station about five thirty in the morning, the bus station was quite a way out of the city centre and we quite quickly realised that getting in to the centre was not going to be that easy as the majority of Thai people do not speak English. After about an hour and a half we finally found the bus that would take us to the area we needed to be in. The journey took us about an hour through the traffic, yet another busy city. We got off the bus not quite sure which way to get to the hotel the address, 5 Soi Ramkhamhaeng 23 Ramkhamhaeng Road, was confusing, so we found a coffee shop to try and sort out which way to go. We asked the man in the coffee shop for help, he looked at the address and then studied the map we had bought, then looked at the address again. He sort of explained in his poor English that Ramkanhaeng was the name of the road, one of the numbers was the number of junctions off that road and the other number was the number of the building. We set off confident we were heading the right way, we got to road junction 5 and walked down the street but there was no hotel, in fact it was more residential. We realised our mistake, the junction number was 23 and the building number was 5, we had gone the wrong way. Admitting defeat we gave up and got a taxi to take us down the road.

We decided we had had enough excitement for one day and spent the rest of the day at the shopping mall up the road. They had a man on the door of the mall who saluted us every time we went through, so we did this a couple of times for fun.
The hotel was quite a way out of the city centre and there was not much of an option to get in to the centre, we could either take a taxi or the other option was a water taxi which ran on the canal out the back of the hotel. When the receptionist at the hotel told us about the water taxis she said she wouldn't use them because they were for poor people (suits us then!).

Saturday 28th February

*BEWARE THAI MEN SPEAKING VERY GOOD ENGLISH!!!*
We decided to visit the Grand palace and Wat pho, the temple next to the palace. We ventured down to the water taxi and watched the first one to see what happened. The canal water was very dirty and smelly which is probably why the receptionist didn't use the taxis. The taxi arrived and we boarded, to get on they pulled the boat up to the landing and you jumped on to the ledge on the outside, then holding a rope you climbed into the boat, not good when wearing a skirt or flip flops the boat pulls away before you finish this manoeuvre. The boats travelled very fast and when they passed each other it was very choppy, there was a plastic sheet to pull up around the boat to stop you getting wet. Getting off was equally as fun, we didn't fancy ending up in the water.

We got off the boat and started to make our way to the Grand palace. We were approached by a Thai man who actually spoke very good English, he told us it was a good day for visiting the sights and he could get us a tuk tuk for forty baht, just under ￡1. So we hopped in the tuk tuk that just happened to pass by!! We ended up being not only taken to temples but also shops selling jewellery, suits and travel agents. We finally realised we had been set up and refused to be taken to any more outlets , we insisted the tuk tuk driver dropped us off. We were annoyed by what had happened but we had seen a lot of the sights and for less than a ￡1. When we finally got to the Grand Palace it was shut for the day. We did get in to Wat pho to see the giant reclining Buddha which was amazing.
Sunday 1st March

We decided to try and get to the Grand Palace again and were determined not to talk to any one on the way. We caught the water taxi which this morning was very busy, making it difficult to get in the boat. The temples in the palace were very beautiful in design, there were lots of wall paintings and friezes made from mother of pearl depicting the past. We went into one temple to see the jade Buddha, which once had been covered in plaster.

After the palace we took a river taxi down to China town to have a look round. We used the sky train and the under ground but none of the forms of transport link up with one another which seems a bit odd. The canal taxis don't quite get to the river and there is only one underground line which doesn't go where the attractions are neither does the sky train making it difficult to get around.

At Siam square there was a festival of some sort going on with lots of food stalls so we stopped to sample some of it. Getting back on the train we got to our stop and called a taxi, we had read on the internet that it was a good idea to take a card with the hotel name and address so you could ensure getting back. Flashing the card and the map of where we wanted to go to the taxi driver we set off. Fifteen minutes later we realised we were going the wrong way we stopped the taxi and showed him the map again and the card, this was when he decided he couldn't understand English and obviously could not read maps. We were almost back to where we had got on the train in the first place. We refused to pay the driver, as he hadn't taken us where we wanted to go, in fact we had to pay to go back on the train again to get near the hotel.

We decided to walk back to the hotel, along the highway we encountered an elephant it was going dark and we thought we were seeing things, but no he was walking along with a light on his tail so the cars could see him. Almost there we hopped on a local bus we were extremely tired and sweaty as it was so humid and must have looked a right state, the locals on the bus were laughing at us (I don't think they walk anywhere due to the heat).

Monday 2nd March

Robin was ill so we stayed around the hotel reading and planning our onward journey. We were about to book our flight to Ho Chi Min when we discovered our first set back of our trip, We messed up the dates on our Vietnam visas and didn't have enough time, with the price of the flights and the time it would have taken to re-new our visa's we realised we would have to forego the trip (this time!). Spent the rest of the day mulling over what to do next.

Tuesday 3rd March

Got a water taxi to Jim Thompsons house. He was an American who moved to Thailand after the war and revived the skills of hand woven silk. His house was very interesting to look around it was an oasis in the middle of the busy city and well worth visiting.
We went back to Siam square and looked around the shopping mall, which was like the one in Kuala Lumpur but there were not as many people shopping there. Then we had our final water taxi ride back to the hotel.