Well here we go again, We have spent the last week in Bangkok, We arrived Tuesday not knowing what to expect as so many people absolutely hated it but we had an open mind seeing as we loved Singapore. When we got off the plane we were pleasantly surprised it was massive and really nice, we knew we had to bargain so went to the taxi rank and got our taxi for 500Baht we got him down from 600 which i thought was impressive, We arrived at the Hostel after being in the taxi and getting a feel for the place, we were staying in New Siam Hostel, 3.50E a night, not bad eh. But the room was roasting, we had a fan but we could barely breathe we were soooo hot. We went for a walk around and walked up a street that we thought was Kho San Road, we were a bit surprised, alot of people hated KhoSan because of the crowds we didnt find them bad at all. We were just impressed with the Tuk Tuks and the Pink Taxis . People haggled with us but we were well used to it from Bali and at least here they dont grab you which i hated, We went back to Hostel and got ready to go for a few drinks, it was torture getting ready in the heat but we soldiered through. I had rang home and Victor had told us to look for Gullivers so at least we had a place to look for. We were walking around and came to end of street so we went down an alleyway and then we arrived at Kho San road, we had to laugh but it was sooo cool, so many food stalls and clothes jewellery makeup, everything u need they had, there were bars and street music and things like that, it was really cool so we walked around and got a feel for the place. The Tuk Tuk drivers kept trying to annoy us but we just ignored them. Went to Gullivers and had a few drinks the place had alot of locals but we liked the feel of it but didnt stay long. there were a few backpackers but we found the crowd to be sleazy older men. We went home and had the worst nights sleepe ever in teh deadly heat!!
Next day we decided to have a day at the pool because we were wrecked. Before than we said we either had to change rooms or move hostels. I went to look at the room next to us and could see their fan was loving alot faster than our one so i went to investigate, turned out we had our fan on teh lowest setting instead of teh highest haha two big eejits roasting and all the time we had no air con on. anyway the pool was down the road in the next hostel but we got our tickets and headed down, We sat out for 2 hrs desperate for a bit of a tan but then we got bored so we said we wud go shopping, We headed off for Siam Square but the city is massive and we cant walk around it so we waited for the bus and we waited and waited and waited eventually we had to get a Tuk Tuk we bargained with him and got a good price, We had to say "no stop" all the time coz they bring ya to their gangster friends and try and rip people off. Everyone is a con artist here. Anyway we arrived at Siam Square it was massive, We found Boots and then we found the biggest shopping centre ever!! It was massive, had a floor for everything, furniture, cameras, phones, everything! so we walked and looked around for a few hours. it was well air cond so we were happy:) We had a bit of lunch and were going home when we saw a boxing ring and a sign saying Thai Boxing starting at 6pm. We were delighted coz that was one of the things we had wanted to see so we were delighted and sat down and waited for the hour, the boxing was cool. they were going hellforleather but didnt seem to get hurt at all, then women started they were good too but danced around more than they actually boxed. After an hr we went to get taxi home. We got ready and went for something to eat across the road it looked so busy and nice but the food was pretty minging. Hannah had finished hers before mine came out which is a regular occurance what ever i do order than seems to take for ever but it was so horrible. BY now we were well prepared for our first night out. We started in Gullivers again and its strange how many old white men were scoring thai girls, well when i say scoring im sure i mean paying for them but we were more surprised at the amount of normal white men our age that all had thai women hanging off them it was so strange! We were intrigued by one man that was so old he had a string for his glasses he was being persued by two locals but we left before we got the final outcome, no doubt he didnt go home alone though. We walked down Kho SanRoad, we were being hassled by the tuk tuk drivers to go to a Ping Pong show and they made a horrible noise with their mouths it was pretty disturbng but we ended up sitting out on the street at a make shift bar, we had noticed a few backpackers so we were happy out, we were approached by these Americans who loved the sound of their own voices but they were having the craic so we joined in. They also had a large supply of roses with them that we ended up with at the end of the night. We were then joined by a lovely English couple who were on their way home so the Americans left and we ended up having drinks with the English couple until the guy who had a few too many went and tried to sell the roses. At 3 am i went to the toilet and when i came back the place was locking up so we decided to come home even though no sign of the Eng guy so we walked and tried to find him, eventually we did and he hadnt manage to sell any of the roses,

Woke up the next morning and decided to go to the Grand palace and Wat Pho, we got a tuk tuk there as we were pros at haggling at this stage but when we got there we were told that it was a special day of prayer and place didnt open til 3 o clock. We wernt entirely sure whether they were lying or not but we decided to go for a walk around. We met a guy at the back of the palace and he was telling us to go to all random places, We knew he was trying to scam us but we thought how bad can it be? He said he could get us a tuk tuk for 40Baht for 2 hrs. We were a bit apprehensive but then again we wanted to see these gansters so we hopped in and started off on our journey. First off we went to a place called Wat Sunthon. It was a temple. we met a Buddist there and he was surprised to see us there coz supposedly it wasnt a tourist attraction haha oops. He told us about the statues and they have different poses for the days of the wk which was cool. He was a bit shocked when we told him how much the tuk tuk was id say he was looking at us as if we were mad. Next off we went to a place called the Factory, why we went there i have no idea it was tailored suits ah hello why were we there? and the tuk tuk driver seemed a bit surprised when we were out 2 seconds later. We went from there to Wat Intrawihan, famous for the standing Budda which we saw and was cool. After every trip we were convinced that he wud take us off the beaten track but he didnt seem to. He brought us to the TAT which is the tourist office and really we had no reason to go in there but we did manage to meet a right b**** in there mainly coz we wernt buying anything. From there our tuk tuk driver said that he would get free petrol if he bought us to this place, we were waiting for this to happen and we said we would wait 10 mins and leave. To be honest i was expecting it to be down some back alley way with noone around only a man with lots of bling and a cigar and his heavies on the door. Ya it was a big factory outlet that had loads of tourists it was called Gem factory, like a massive retail store with loads of jewellery, We got a free drink outta it so we were happy, Have to say i was a bit disappointed that we didnt see some hard core heavies but still at least we were safe ha. From there we went to another Temple. we were kinda bored so came back after 5 mins, Our tuk tuk driver was nowhere to be seen. we waited about 20 mins and he was gone, we were so confused because this was 3 hours later and we hadnt even paid him, we were thinking he was the worst scammer ever coz he had lost out. This young taxi driver was annoying us but he did make sense, the tuk tuk drivers work til 4 nd this was half 4 so he was finished and we were just after filling his tank so eventhough we didnt want to go because we thought he would come after us we knew we were stranded. so we hopped in another tuk tuk and headed back to the hostel. I was so afraid that we would see him but we didnt thank god, haha impressive free day for us. All great except for the fumes in the tuk tuk they were soo sickly really horrible we just wanted to get back and away from the dirt and weird smells. From there we went to China Town, we got a tuk tuk there and to be honest we didnt really believe he was genuine he was great craic but he kept trying to bring us to other places and kept saying China town closed, we were firm though and got our way. We probably should have listened to him coz china town was boring, dirty and no markets there or anything so we looked for some place to eat and couldnt find anything half decent so we found the most run down KFC i have ever seen it was pretty manky..

We were up really early the next day 6.30 early! as we had to get reeady to go to the floating markets in Damnoen Saduak. They were about 2 hours away by bus and finished at 11 so we were in a hurry to get there. We hopped into a taxi and he soon stopped up in the middle of the road and decided to tell us he had ran out of petrol so put us into the taxi behind us we literally spent 10 mins explaining to the taxi driver where we wanted to go and we even showed him on the map stupid eejit didnt have a clue what we were talking about. We had to get out and get another taxi. After all that the bus was late but we still managed to get there on time. We hopped into a boat and were brought around all these shops down a canal, it was so cool, it was very busy though so we kept crashing into other but it was still fun, The guy bringing us around was a little cheeky chappy and he had all the women, young and old talking to him, and giving him free food. Haha is it weird that im attracted to the thal men? they are such little chancers i love it. After a 15-20 min trek in the blaring heat in the middle of nowhere we eventually got the bus back. That night we decided to go out, after another disaster of a meal we went to Kho San road and to a bar there, think it was an Irish bar, we had a Vodka Bucket there which are so cheap but we only had one between us, after that we went for a walk and hear good mucis coming from upstairs in a bar so off we went. there was a live band in there playing really catchy songs so it was pretty cool, after a few buckets we decided to head back to our road, We were sitting down having a drink when this Canadian woman started chatiing to us she was after beaking up with her boyfriend and was in need of some company, we chatted with her for hours and she had so many interesting stories, She travelled the world on a boat for like 2 years with her ex boyfriends and saved a friend of Richard Branson non the less, supposedly it was a famous story but i hadnt heard of it before. She was in Thailand on business as she owned a few stores in Niagra Falls, i was thinking she could hire me if i eventually headed to Canada but we got her number anyway so il keep it safe til i need it ha.

Next day we were trying to organise how to get the train, we booked the train from a lovely guy the day before but to our torture he said it was booked up. We didnt see how he was trying to scam us but we didnt trust him just because you cant trust anyone and we looked around eventually we had to go to the train station where we were told that no sleepers were available and we would have to have seats, We looked into 3rd class but judging from the laugh he had when we said it we said it would be better to go second class, a 12 hrs journey in a seat... we were not looking forward to that. From there I went back to the Mbk shopping centre and Hannah headed home, I was in look of a new camera because much to my annoyance my old one hadnt turned up yet. anyway i got a really cool camera like 10 times better than the one i had for about 80E so suppose it could have been worse. That night, seeing as it was our last night we were determined to eat something nice seeing as we hadnt been too lucky with food, we ended up eating at this place off Kho San Road and it was yummy. We walked around trying to figure out what to do for the night and after alot of thought we said feck it and decided to go to a Ping Pong show. We had been hassled so much by people trying to bring us and that horrible sound they used to make that we said we may aswel try, only thing was.... we didnt have a clue where it was or more importantly how to get back. After trying to pluck up the courage for ages to actually ask a tuk tuk driver to bring us there without sounding seedy we finally did and in the midst of bargaining without people knowing what we were doing this nice friendly little american guy came over, he was like "what ye guys doing" he was by himself and wanted to know if we wanted to go for a drink, we must have looked like the biggest b****es ever but we basically ran away haha not wanting him to know our dirty little secret. Anyway we bargained and got it for 400E baht including a free drink. We hopped in the tuk tuk and we were travelling for ages!! I tried to make note of every place we were but its hard when you dont have a clue of the city!! Im not going to lie.. i did say a prayer that we wouldnt be attacked, I could see the headlines now.."two fecking eejits go to strange ping pong show and dont return!!" So we arrived and it was an empty car park, pretty scary. we were escorted inside and tried to get more money from us but we said no way. We made our way inside and got a drink the show was in full swing at this stage, Its pretty much everything you read with a man thrown in there at one stage, There were no surprises. Although we did have to use the Toilet and it was in their changing room or something so we saw a nice little lady washing dishes and she shocked us a few mins later when she came on stage haha. But in fairness it was an experience and def something to tick off the list. We arrived out after the show and were really scared we knew we were going to be ripped off. They were all shouting prices at us knowing we were stranded if we didnt, We ended up meeting an aussie guy in the same boat as us but we met one driver and after finally haggling with him for ages he hadto grab me into the taxi coz i wasnt mving from 100. We got home for that which was good seeing as others were saying 600baht, another impressive bargain for us and people were paying 100Baht to get into the show. We could teach people a thing or two haha. We were both wrecked so headed off back to the hostel.

Today is our last day and we finally decided to go back to the Grand Palace, we knew there were restrictions there so we threw on loads of clothes i was wearing a maxi dress AND a cardigan, of course we got there at midday sun, we went inside and walked around i was sooo hot though that we were both about to collapse with the heat, It was pretty cool but i really really wanted to see WAT PHO but people were saying it was closed, it was expensive to get there and i was so hot that i didnt want to take the risk so even though i was gutted we got a taxi back to the hostel and went to the pool again, Am now ready to hit off on our 12 hr train journey followed by a bus journey and a ferry, cant say im looking forward to it but at least the islands will be amazing,

So finally il leave ye with my tan update for month one : I thought i got a slight colour on my left thigh......... but it was a false alarm!!!!!!!!!

talk soon xxxx