Hi all

You'll be pleased to know that we have finally got rid of the flea bites so Hong Kong is well and truly forgotton and I'm totally in love with Thailand.

On arrival Carrie and I were very adventurous and got 2 sky trains, a river boat and a tuk tuk to take us into town to find a new home, rather than rely on a taxi. Apart from a tiny little scam by the tuk tuk driver and a 30 minute walk in the sweltering heat with our backpacks on, we finally made it to Rambuttri road, sat down for beer and food as the heavens opened and the most spectacular storm followed. As everything was a bit wet, we settled for the guest house opposite - Star Dome Inn - and have been there ever since. The original plan was to get to Bangkok and head straight for Cambodia, but when we got the news that the one and only Steve Dabney was flying in in a few days, we decided to stay on to wait for him and have virtually stopped! Today (our last here) has been the only day we have actually seen any sights. We have literally walked up and down Khoa San and Rambuttri everyday and our feet just tend to not let us walk any further and make us eat, shop, watch football or get facials... Although we may not have achieved the touristy things, swapping those instead for eating banana pancakes, pad thai, pineapple in bags, banana shakes in bags, thai curries and randomly, tuna sandwiches, we have definitely made up for it in interesting events:

• Carrie has had her hair braided. It took a while to get used to but it actually looks quite cool. There are before and after pictures for you to decide too..
• We have both turned hippy - Carrie with her hair and 2 pairs of fishermnan pants and me with my variation of fisherman pants and tattoo (henna though mum, calm down!)
• We bumped into Kate and Jess from our China tour as they got set to meet their new group (they wont be as good as us though!)
• Becoming addcited to facials and massages. They are the equivelant to 3 quid at home so its rude not to. However I have fallen out slightly with Thai massages as I swear the woman was trying to kill me - she even laughed when she twisted my back it and it clicked in 20 places - she found it so funny in fact that she did it back the other way for good measure. Ow!
• Going clubbing at "the Club" and watching the sunrise at the roof pool in the hotel opposite, very nice
• Being introduced to Chang beer - who I notice sponsor Everton - it's a beer that we'd been warned about by Mark on our China tour. You never quite know the alcohol content of each bottle. I wondered why the room I was in was spinning, even though Carrie who was in the very same room insisited that it wasn't...
• Meeting my new best friend, Don or as he likes to call himself "Mr Thailand". Anyone who has been to Bangkok must recognise him, we have to google him as I think he even has websites dedicated to him. I met him last night when Carrie decided it was time for bed. My love of football has revisited since arriving here so I just had to watch the rest of the Arsenal game when the crazy guy who rides his bike up and down Khao San road beckoned me over. We started chatting about Arsenal (I think, to be fair I couldnt really understand a word he was saying) and ended up having a few games of pool (yes, I won). He made me promise that I would bring my friend with me tomorrow so he could show us around Bangkok. So after a bit of explaining when I got in Carrie agreed and today she met Don. He took us everywhere and we saw yet another Big Buddha - this time it was gold. The locals even gold leaf their Buddha's over here, but I dont know why. I ended up freeing some birds so I would have peace and happiness for ever. I'm not sure whether I did it for selfish reasons or to save the poor birds to be honest, but I did feel good afterwards. Don then took us on a local bus to a huge market. We got a tuk tuk home and he decided he wanted a MacDonalds so we stopped about 10 mins away from our hotel just in time for an extremely heavy downpour. We got absolutely drenched but it was really good fun. Lucky we met Don actually, otherwise we wouldnt have any photo's to show you that didn't include braided hair!

All in all a good day, made all the better by the arrival of Mr Dabney. He's looking pretty chilled, although he put that down to the large whiskey they gave him on the flight over. Personally I think it might be the fact that he has just achieved the trek to Everest base camp? We're off to Cambodia tomorrow which I've heard isn't the most amazing journey, but we'll be 'Angkor Wat' ing it in a couple of days with our newest member of the Shazza and Cazza tour, but unfortunalte his name doesn't fit in with the 'azza'. Any suggestions?? Lots of love, Sharon x