We arrived in Bangkok for the second time at around 1.30pm after a very squashed ride! We went straight to the Khao San Rd to look for a hostel as we hadn't been there yet and both wanted to see what all the fuss was about. As we started looking we quickly realised that we were going to be quite pushed to get exactly what we were looking for - a comfortable bed for the night with WI-FI and air-con for around 500THB (about a tenner). As had become our custom, I sat with the bags while Ki went and looked around - he's much more fussy than I am when it comes to rooms so it's better that he looks at them! :) Anyway, I saw him go into one hotel but I didn't see him come out, I sat and waited for about half an hour and then I started to worry a little bit. I just figured that if he had gone to look at some more hostels then he would have told me or I would at least have seen him! I didn't have the time as my watch was broken so I took a picture with the camera and saw that the time was 2.10pm. I decided to ask the hotel if he was still in there, the waitress told me that he had gone on down the road which made me feel better, but it was still a little odd that he had been gone so long! I kept thinking that he might have been set up and arrested for something and thought that once I had been waiting 2hrs I would find the nearest police station. At about 3.30pm (meaning I had been waiting almost an hour and a half) I was relieved to see Ki in the distance, even though he looked pretty chilled out and as if he'd only been gone for about 10minutes! When he got to me I told him how worried id been and he laughed at me and then explained that he only intended to look at the nearest couple but then got carried away! Oh, and that he hadn't found anything suitable! So, we then decided to go back to one of the first places we'd seen - a guesthouse that was also an Indian restaurant and had WI-FI! However, it really wasn't very nice! It smelt a bit damp and had holes in the walls and worst of all the bed was the hardest bed I've ever felt! I would have put money on the fact that there was no mattress, but I checked and there was, it just must have been made of concrete.

Once we'd put our bags in we checked online to see what was on at the cinema and made plans to see 'Due date' that evening. The showing was at 7o'clock so we jumped on the public bus for a measly 7THB (14p) - as opposed to about 350THB in a tuk-tuk! - at around 6pm and saw the funniest film we'd seen in ages! - I Would highly recommend it! The busses are pretty cranky and old with wooden floors, doors in the middle as opposed to the front, a single seat isle on the right hand side and a double on the left. The conductor comes around with a little tin during the journey and gives you a ticket (sometimes you get a lazy one that just sits so you don't even have to pay 7THB!) In the cinema we saw that it was half price the following day - wounder! - We'd gone all the way there though so we still went to see the film (and stand for the national anthem, hehe)

The following day we went back to the Siam Paragon shopping centre (where the cinema is) to get Kieran a new shirt and to get out as much money as possible as the cash point there doesn't charge for withdrawals (there is normally a £5 charge). When we had finished shopping we ended up going to the cinema again... well it was half price!  We went to see 'Fair Game' which was pretty interesting but ended a bit abruptly, something that really annoys me!

Our plans for the next day were to leave Bangkok. So, in the morning, after checking out of the hard bedded hostel - yay! we shopped around a little for a bus to a place we thought sounded nice in the guide book - Khao Lak. We booked the coach for 6.30 that evening (we always prefer night travelling because although it's ridiculously uncomfortable it saves us 1 night accommodation) and then spent the rest of the day shopping on the Khao San Road, which is as cool as people say, although it is quite pretentious. When we packed up our bags to check out we made a mental note to move all of our valuables to our day packs for the journey so that we could have them all upstairs with us on the bus. We do usually do this anyway but we had read about how there are organised thieves that operate on the busses out of Bangkok (they rummage through your luggage underneath while you are sleeping and take everything from laptops to toiletries!) so we tried to be extra cautious. However, when we went back to get our bags and moved things around we completely forgot about the money wallet that had all of the extra money we had gotten out of the cash point the previous day!

Our journey was made up of two busses; one from Bangkok to Surat Thani and then one from Surat Thani to Khao Lak. The first leg was 12hrs of watching greys and sleeping. We landed in Surat Thani at around 6.30am where our bags were thrown off before the bus disappeared. After about 10minutes I went to check that both of our bags were in the pile, they were but I spotted that the two side clips of my bag had been fastened, something that I never did because it's not necessary. So, I took a closer look and saw that the lock on my bag had been all scratched, I tried to open it up and quickly realised that I couldn't do it. It was then that I remembered about the money, and I knew that it had been stolen. I called Kieran over to make sure I was using the right code, he said that I was and tried to open it himself for a minute or two before managing to do so (somehow one digit of the code had changed). When we opened my bag we saw that all of my clothes were very neatly folded - probably neater than when I put them in there. We quickly rummaged to the bottom of the bag and pulled out the empty but nicely rolled money bag. Gutted. £330 just gone. We quickly went and spoke to the man at the bus station and told him what had happened and asked what we should do. He was very unhelpful and basically just asked why it was in there and told us it was not his problem - Div! I felt a bit like other people should be told so I told a few girls next to us (who just happened to live on the road adjacent to Kieran's by the way!) but they didn't seem to bothered and just kind of looked at their bags briefly and said that theirs were locked so it would be Ok. I think it was far too early for people to care about being robbed, or they all just knew they had remembered to take everything valuable out!

At about 7am a tuk-tuk turned up to take us about 10mins away to the next bus, which turned out to be a public coach. During this journey we ummed and ahhed about whether to go to Khao Lak or straight to Phuket because we weren't sure whether the boys were going to want to go somewhere relatively quiet like Khao Lak. In the end though we settled on sticking to our original plan... something that turned out to be a great decision!