After a harrowing 18hr night bus we pull into Bangkok at 5am, only to be greeted by the "piranhas" as they are now known. We knew we were near Ko San Road but weren't sure which way. A tuk-tuk driver demands 500 baht to take us there, to which we politely tell him to f*** off! He then immediately reduces his asking price 10 times. That's S.E.Asia for you!

It's fair to say Ko San is the street that never sleeps with neon lights everywhere, bars open 24/7, great street food, cheap T-shirts (eg. Mona Lisa holding a machine gun), hookers, ladyboys, backpackers coming and going, and a great atmosphere. We wandered this place buying countless spring rolls and meat skewers for 20p, and talking to like minded travellers. Robbo was also worn down by one of the many street sellers hawking absolute s*** (after a few beers its easy to see the comedy value in a wooden frog that croaks when you rub its back). The seller even haggled with herself settling for a reasonable sum of a pound.

The Kings palace is one of the main attractions of Bangkok and for good reason. The Royal family are revered as Gods here so you can imagine how plush this place is. More Buddhist images/stories, gold statues and rules than you could shake an incense stick at. We also paid a visit to the reclining Buddha - think hot woman on a calender pose, but in Buddha form and enormous! It was also the Queens birthday so numerous speeches were going on, complete with amazing fireworks and a supposed ban on alcohol - which of course wasn't enforced on Ko San. Also with Abi and Koen we frequented yet another amazing Asian shopping complex, this time purely dedicated to gourmet food. As you will know we were both in our element here! From fresh sushi (very tasty), to free samples galore, to caviar in a squeezy tube to 10 kinds of spam, and finally a whole section set aside for banana chips. It puts anything at home to shame.

On our last night, after declining the offer of a tailor made suit for the 10th time by the same guy, we hit Vertigo bar - an al fresco affair on the 59th floor of the extravagent Banyan Tree Hotel. It was so classy Rob was given a pair trousers to wear over his shorts in order to fit in. However, they resembled clown pants and he had to walk around holding them up. Of course JF being the jammy one legged swine that he is was allowed in with shorts. It was turning out to be an expensive night and after one of John F's growing list of low points (!!) we decided to hit a ping pong show. Well, when in Rome! All we'll say is seeing is believing but to give you an idea they involve said balls, coke bottles and metres of rope. What would Borat say! Incredibly these joints are open 24/7. At 3am we've never seen so many gobsmacked boyfriends and bored girlfriends in our lives!

We didn't have time to reflect on this as there was a bus to catch to the Cambodian border in 3hrs time.