The bus from Mae Hong Son to Bangkok was full when we tried to book so we had to take a minibus to Chiang Mai, stop for McDonalds and then get a big bus to Bangkok. We arrived in Bangkok at 7 in the morning and got a taxi to the Kao San Road area and found a hotel with air con on a quieter side street. It's the hottest time of year in Thailand, Bangkok is pushing 40 degrees C in the middle of the day so air con was a must.

We caught up on some sleep and headed out to the Chatuchak Market. This was like no Market we had ever been to, they sold everything from clothes to chickens, pineapples to puppies. There were over 10,000 stalls over 30 acres, we managed a small section and headed to a bar for a cold beer to cool down and dry off from sweating so much. That evening we had a cheap dinner of Pad Thai and a few drinks on the Kao San Road before heading to the camper van pop up bar for some more drinks. They have adapted an old VW bay window camper so the roof opens up and a bar folds out from the side, it's also the cheapest place to drink.

The following morning we cured our heads with Burger King's "enormous omelette sandwich," we had to share it because it was so big. We then jumped on the river boat to connect with the sky train and headed to Jim Thompson's house.

Jim Thompson was an American soldier, he was sent to Thailand at the end of the war and loved it so much he decided to set up home here. He built his own traditional Thai house which was made up of smaller buildings he bought, dismantled, moved to Bangkok and reassembled. He had a love for the Thai arts and antiques. He reclaimed building materials from old palaces and collected sculptures, paintings and Budha relics from Ayutthaya. The house was beautiful and had a very eclectic feel with all the antique furniture under the wooden frame, he built smaller wooden buildings outside to house more of his art collection which were linked to the main house by small paths through a jungle like garden. It was very interesting place.

Unfortunately, when Jim Thompson went to the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia in 1967 he never returned and his body has never been found.

That afternoon we did a bit of shopping in the craziest shopping centre we've ever been to. We then went to a much more upmarket one where we couldn't afford anything, but we did find out where the 4D cinema was for the next day.

We had booked on to a night bus from Bangkok to Phuket as Pete's parents were coming over to meet us. We had to check out of our hotel and had an afternoon to kill. We headed to the cinema and bought two tickets for GI Joe at the 4D cinema. We got in twenty minutes early, luckily we had a torch as it was pitch black, we found our seats and sat back. We put on our 3D glasses for some of the adverts before the film and then it started. It was amazing, wind started blowing across the cinema, smoke rising from below the screen. As the camera fell left on the screen the seats tipped left, as people fell down stairs you felt the knocks against your back, when they fell in water a spray splashed your face. When bullets shots past you felt the air wiz past your ear and smells of perfume and fire rose out of the seats to mimic what was happening in the film. It was the best cinema experience ever, a bit like being in a simulator, as you can imagine, the popcorn went everywhere!

Once the film had finished we headed back to collect our bags, got a taxi to the bus station and prepared with a foot long from subway and boarded our 12 hour bus to Phuket.