Hi All, the last two weeks have been ace with some real adventure! Started in Bangkok where everyone thought I was Nathan's Thai mistress - got asked 1/2 a day if I was Thai or not!! mmmm It seems to be the norm here for White westerners to have Thai lady "friends"....anyway...Bangkok was amazing. We both fell in love with the noise, pollution, people and hectic way of life...Took in heaps of visits to the numerous temples and buddhas in town....ate at some fab places and even endulged in a 3.5 hours spa session for less than 50 quid!! BARGAIN. One of the most beautiful things we saw was The Emerald Buddha located in the Wat (temple) at the Grand Palace (i keep calling it the Royal Palace for some unknown reason - hence the captions on the photos!)...absolutely stunning...it even has 3 different costumes for the different seasons here in Thailand: the King personally changes the Buddhas outfits. Talking of the King - EVERYONE - and that's not exaggeration loves the King. Everywhere you go and look there are huge posters/cut outs of the King adorned with flowers and sitting upon gold platforms....not a bad word against him (its an offence to talk ill of him....)Travelled on a tuk tuk through the streets of Bangkok which was an experience (probably never to be repeated) it was MADNESS i tell you - they should be illegal!!! ALso went on a river boat along the canal system that runs through Bangkok...fab and cheap way of getting around. Went to the infamous Patpong area...but wasn't as seedy as expected...think they've cleaned it up and your attention is taken up with the market that is rammed between the sidewalks that offer weird sex shows!!! (I bottled out of going....got really nervous!!)??ALso we nearly got swindled out of 000's pounds ...involved a script worthy of a film, 3 con men, one tuk tuk driver and a con artist!! Will tell all when we're back but lucky we were bright enough to realise what was happening. Talking of swindling cash some dasterdly b***** had accessed my card and made transactions over the net...the swine...subsequently we were momentarily stranded in Bangkok with NO CASH!!!! Nightmare. Best bt of Bangkok was the Lady Boy show we went to see at Mambo's...front row seats and full view of "show"....I was desperate for Nathan to get picked to get on stage but alas it wasn't to be. The men/women are beautiful, stunning - they all looked like models....worst bit was not bringing our camera for the first time on the entire trip and missing the opportunity to have our photo taken with them all in the foyer after the show ended - now that could have been a photo to remember! The did some fab numbers from Thai and English popstars...mimed the whole way but the Gwen Stefani number was ace!!

After Bangkok we went North East to Kanchanaburi (Home of river Kwai) where we stayed for a few days...our room was a bungalow on the river....fab except that whenever someone walked on the gangway the room swayed ...similar feeling to room spin which isn' a good sensation. Also some bozo has come up with the idea of chartering huge barges upon which madcap Chinese /THai people are able to sing very badly and VERY loudly to Karaoke...the barges would go past our room one after the pther every ten mins til 10pm!!!! Needless to say we hate Karaoke.!!Also Met a really nice couple from Manchester...had a few drinks with them and found out the reason why Nathan keeps getting battered so easily on Chang Beer - apparently the alcohol level varies according to the daily brewing decisions - so it can range from 6.8% up to 12%...hence a new phrase...Nate'sno longer "Stella'd" but "Chang'd"!!

Went on a fab day trek to River Kwai, did some elephant trekking and bamboo rafting and went to the beautiful Erawan waterfalls...

Moved on then to Ayutthaya which is about a 4 hour bus journey from Kanchanaburi. Had nightmare bus journey for about 12 hours...Nate has DVT and I still can't feel my arm!!They seem to band around the word VIP very loosely with rgards to their transport for travellers!!!

Now in Chiang Mai where we're trying to catch up on sleep....much cooler here as the weather elsewhere was silly hot...to the point that we momentarily thought of jacking it all in and coming home!! Off on a 2 day hillk tribe trek tomorrow where we stay with some very old but much revered hilltribes...can't wait.

Hope everyone is doing well and not getting too caught up with the mad xmas rush....

Love to all

Rubes and Nat

xxxxxxx