Hello from Thailand!
Arrived in Bangkok at the Kaoh San road which we found overwhelmingly busy, touristy and noisy. This makes it sound like we didn't like it but it was actually very exciting and full of energy, not to mention having the most amazingly delicious and cheap street food, which evidently pleased the two of us immensely. We were supposed to stay at D and D inn which seemed very upmarket (well for thailand anyway) but on arrival they made up some story about how the room we had reserved was no longer available and tried to dupe us into spending an extra few hundred Baht (admittedly on reflection this is actually only about 3 or 4 pounds but at the time it seemed outrageous!) It was so easy to find accomodation on Kaoh San as the place is literally heaving with places to stay, eat, drink and shop. We have developed a bit of an obsession with the fresh juices, which are readily available for about 50p, although pippa is by far the worst offender- craving cold coffees and juices almost all the time. The preferred mode of transport is the Tuk-Tuk, which at first confused us greatly due to the wide fluctuation in prices, but as we got used to it we realised the tricks of the trade ie. that the tuk-tuk drivers are given coupons for bringing tourists to the shops, travel agents and tailors and so if you agree to visit shops along the way you can pretty much get a free ride- great at first although by the end of the week we had pretty much visited all the shops, embarrased ourselves in all the tailors and made up so many travel ideas in travel agents that we decided we would splash out and pay the aproximately 30p fare to avoid any stops along the way.
We went on a couple of day trips from bangkok, to get out of the city which begins to take its toll after a few days. The first was to the floating market, river Kwai and tiger temple. The floating market was very exciting, brightly coloured and quite iconic- the stuff that postcards are made of! although now over run by tourists and thus less original than expected. The tour of the market takes place on what is essentially a punting boat, which was fab except for the fact that our punter woman was less than adequate and kept taking us up and down the same 20m for an hour, making us turn around in precarious situations and making us squat in front of our seats. Next we went to river Kwai- we were expecting some big monument/ wild excitement... unfortunately it's just a replica of the original bridge- which was no different from any other bridge over a river. Tiger temple was so exciting, had such cute baby tigers and we were allowed to pat the older tigers who were trained by monks so that we could take pictures with them.
The other day trip we took was to Ayuthaya, which as the travel agent warned us was temples, temples, ruins and maybe more temples. Fascinating at first but began to get a little samey as the day went on, especially as it was so hot and muggy.
The shops ( more like street stalls) on Kaoh San were very appealing and katie pretty much had to drag benaisha kicking and screaming from the clothes, shoes, bags and jewelery, reminding her that we were returning and she had no space in her already over stuffed bag. She did however manage to get a sneaky pair of trousers and skirt in there past the beady eyes of Katie! Overall was a lot of fun although quite exhausting. Left Bangkok in pursuit of real Thailand- heading north to Chiang Mai.
for future ref / people visiting bangkok at some point, we stayed at a very reasonable place, just off the Kaoh San called Star dome inn. drain smells aside, considering we were paying the equivalent of 2pounds each- definately broachable.

P.S. we are heading back to Bangkok on our way home if anyone wants any fakes!!! (from Benaisha!)
P.P.S We don't have that much space!! (from Katie!)