Today I left Bangkok, so time for some notes.

The first hotel I stayed in was in Chinatown where the shops overflow onto the streets. In the west, the shop sits besides the road with a frontage displaying their wares to the passing pedestrians. In Bangkok Chinatown, the building structure is used mostly for storage, and the "shop floor" is the pavement outside. This is just as true for cafés where the cooking and eating both take place on the pavement. Pedestrians either shuffle slowly through one store to the next, or play with the traffic on the roads. Nobody seems to go anywhere very quickly, but in this heat, may be that is inevitable anyway.

As well as the endemic McDonald's, KFC, Burger King and Starbucks, another shop that I see in Bangkok (and just about everywhere I've visited) is 7-Eleven. I'm not complaining - they provide local stock for local consumers, so tend to be a lot cheaper than many places. I've used them many times for bottles of water or (following Emily's excellent advice) some kind of granola bars which are handy if your moving about or just want to slum in your room without raiding the mini-bar. Initially, I couldn't find granola bars in Bangkok, so substituted a packed of peanuts and dried anchovies - different and actually quite nice. On the other hand, a surprise presence in Bangkok is Boots the Chemist, which is all over the place. One last odd thing in Bangkok is the number of folk who want to sell me a suit - perhaps I'm beginning to look a bit shabby after 4 months on the road.

On Sunday I went to Chatuchak Weekend Market (shuffle, shuffle, shuffle). It is massive with over 8,000 stalls selling just about anything you could ever want. Among the more unusual stalls I saw was one selling pistols and telescopic sights. There were also a lot of pet stalls, many selling the cutest puppies and kittens, also fish and birds. There was also a c*** fight going on, though not really my thing.

I also visited the Terminal 21 Shopping Mall. (Yes, I guess I am spending a lot of time in shopping malls, but the are air-conditioned, so nice and cool, and are very handy for food.) Terminal 21 has a different city theme for each floor, such as Paris, Istanbul, San Francisco - and London! The place was littered this sign-post for things like "Old Kent Road" and "Elephant and Castle", and had full size models of the London Red Bus, a Red Telephone Box, and a Red Post Box. As I was looking at them, I realised that our 'icons' (if you will allow me to call them that), are often being phased out now or are going obsolete all on their own.

One very pleasant aspect of my time around Bangkok is the respite from Christmas. Thailand is a mainly Buddhist country and doesn't celebrate Christmas. There are few decorations and very little Christmas Carol Muzak to have to endure. Even though Bangkok is (another) heck-tick capital city, it just feels much calmer without the insatiable demand for your last pound/dollar. This may be partly because I've had little chance to escape it in the last several months. Whatever, I'm very happy to have at least a few days of rest from it.

On Tuesday I visited the majestic Grand Palace. I took loads of pictures but perhaps you have to be there to really appreciate it. There are the beautiful buildings with their strange roof lines, giant statues, and more gold leaf than I've ever seen before. But you also have to look at the fine detail as well to see the intricacy of the small statues and shrines and the stunning wall paintings stretching for may be 600 yards on the containing walls. Another nice aspect was that the display of weapons, unlike such displays in England, were not accompanied by loads of stuffed animals - the Buddhist thing again I think.

Today I caught the train down to Surat Thani (9hrs!), and tomorrow I catch a ferry for Ko Samui where I will spend Christmas and New Year. At least that's the current plan. But now I'm shattered and so its time for bed.