Hello everybody. We arrived in Bangkok at our hotel precisely 24 hours after leaving Heckmondwike. We couldn't have made a worse start than getting on the wrong train at Dewsbury, (I am ashamed) but it wasn't our fault! The departure board on the platform was displaying our airport train, but a Liverpool train turned up instead. It was so full that we only just avoided getting our rucksacks inside the doors! It wasn't until Stalybridge that I realised our mistake. Never mind, a change at Picadilly got us to the airport after a short sprint with the rucksacks!

The flight to Dubai was very good and the most comfortable I have ever been on, bravo Emirates! We were an hour late out of Manchester so there was no time for shopping in Dubai Airport, just what seemed like a two mile walk to the departure gate for Bangkok! Another good flight deposited us at Thai immigration and our adventure was about to start in earnest.

After a bit of bartering we got a taxi and headed into the night, 30km to Bangkok. Our first hotel, the Bhiman Inn was quite good. The room was squeaky clean and fairly quiet. We got some chow and slept well.

Bangkok was a mixture of heavy traffic, fumes, dust, stray dogs, beggars, hawkers, neon, heat and noise. We were immediately 'Tuk-tuked', (a new verb meaning to be promised a tour of the temples but be given a tour of the suit makers and jewellery outlets!). The Tuk-tuks themselves are three wheeled buggies that expose you to the fumes and traffic of the city and put you in considerable danger as they fly through the jams with scant regard for any recognisable rules of the road at the speed of a silver bullet! We managed to see a few of the sights, but the Tuk-tuks quickly became more trouble than they were worth and we gave up on Bangkok. Some of the sights and smells, (Oh, the smells!), were horrendous. We did the usual backpacker haunts of Khao San Road and downed many a Chang beer to numb ourselves!

After three days it was time to move on. We have booked a trip westward to Kanchanaburi and the river Kwai region, lets see if we can improve on Bangkok?