Bangkok Bonkers. Tuesday 22nd November (Note to reader: I am writing this from a small internet café in Ayuthaya, the weather outside is a roasting 35 degrees, the hottest day so far, I am also nursing a hangover after watching the football last night) Been going for a week and a half now, still feels like a two week holiday though. Spend most of the day travelling, on our way to Bangkok (BK), weather is a pleasant 22 degrees in HK but we are anticipating something a little warmer in Bangkok. Flight is good again and on time. Amy sits next to a nice Pakistani man who tells her she looks about 22 years old (she is V pleased with this, am I not complementing her enough these days or what?) although she comes to the conclusion that this guy is a bit creepy as he keeps on touching her arm. Meal on the flight is Thai Green curry, very nice. Arrive in BK and the swift efficiency of HK airport is immediately blown away. It takes a good hour to get through immigration and I am starting to sweat already. The airport is full of chavs from the flights that have just landed from London. It strikes me that Thailand is now the new costa del sol with access and cost all too easy. Get on the bus to our hotel a bit too easily and arrive by early evening. We have afforded ourselves the last bit of luxury for a while, a nice 4 star hotel within the business district of Sukhumvit. The free drink in the hotel bar on arrival turns out to be a good laugh. Disappointingly small measures of fruity cocktail in a pretty massive bar, empty except for the two of us and the two singers on stage. I hesitate to call them musicians. It seems the pressure to perform in English was just too much for these two Thai singers, who were extremely bad. Every note was flat and some of the pronunciation was pretty dodgy. So I get up on stage and show them what's what. Not really but I couldn't have been any worse. Needless to say we leave after our free shot of cocktail. Go out for a curry round the corner. Quite simply the best curry ever. Distinct flavours not found in the UK (I don't even ask for the mint sauce) and the Chicken Korai is pretty spicy and the Onion Bhajis fantastic. Couple of large beers each and 10 quid later we were feeling pretty satisfied with ourselves. We were the only people in the restaurant. See a rat in the street. Wednesday 23rd November. Have a bit of a lie in and watch Erin Brockovitch in the room (not literally, on the TV stupid) Go out a do a little shopping/walkies. Weather is reasonably cool. Come across our first 'helpful' local, who recommends that we go visit the local T.A.T. Not sure what this stands for but it is probably something like Tourist Association of Thailand or The Assembly of Touts. We are nearly persuaded into parting with 1000 or our English pounds for a 3 week tour round the southern islands, flights etc etc. Decide against it as it is too expensive and we have a flight to Phnom Penh on Monday next week. Walk off and find some more street sellers. We buy some 'Birkenstocks' who the vendor assures us are top quality for a rip roaring 550 Bahts (bit ripped off there but nevermind) about 8 quid for 2 pairs. I buy a cheap T-shirt for 150 baht only to get back to our hotel and find that it is XXL. b******s. We have sold this T-shirt to a local parachute club to use for training. See a huge cockroach. So you are thinking, what about all those ladyboys and prostitutes. Well they are pretty much everywhere wherever there is a congregation of tourists. Typical sight is an overweight and old western guy about 6 foot tall (no not me) with a five foot tall thin as a rake prozzy. Conversation goes like 'I need to get some money before we go back to my hotel' or 'we will be meeting the guy from the embassy tomorrow' or 'me love you long time' (made that last one up). Yes it is pretty sick and pervy but the thai girls/boys/shims would not be doing it unless they were ripping the fat f******s off. Besides when you see some of the holes some of these people are living in then it's not too bad an option to lure some old geezer into giving you a green card to get into Europe and then hope he dies pretty soon. Harsh but true. Have a great Thai meal for a few hundred baht and decide to go sightseeing tomorrow. Thursday 24th November The traffic in this city is unbelievable. The pollution is even worse, basically you don't see the sun till about midday after the haze and the pollution has blown away. Pretty warm today, about 30 degrees. The idea today was to go sightseeing round some of the Wats and the Grand Palace. Day starts off well enough with a nice trip down the river and get some good photos. Starts to go a bit Pete Tong after that with another 'friendly' local advising that (insert place you are travelling too or standing right outside) is closed until X O'clock and he just happens to have a tuk tuk driver come right up to him as he is planning your new revised itinery for you. Thinking that this guy is extremely helpful you jump into his conveniently arranged transport and your day is changed from there, probably for the worse. After seeing a few interesting Wats (which aren't on the map so you don't know where you are) you happen to pop into numerous shops and are given the full work over of stuff that you don't really need. Nice suit sir? After spending about 1-2 hours out of our day we eventually wised up and ditched the tuk tuk driver. True we got a good deal money wise for the travel around the city (and a good lungful of exhaust emissions) but it was the frustration of it all and the fact that we weren't seeing what we wanted to see. And another thing, isn't is so convenient that the site you are going to has just opened today or is only open to tourists today? It has to be said that our trip in Bangkok was spoiled by the whole experience. By the way we shall be getting our suits from Vietnam. We eventually got round to seeing the Grand Palace which is pretty amazing. Kings etc sure know how to spoil themselves. Photos to come soon. Go to Khao San road to see what all the backpacker fuss is all about. Within a very busy street we see a couple sitting on their backpacks and playing Chess. Have very nice Pad Thai on this street from a little street vendor and watch the cricket in the pub. At the end of the day we decide that we have BCS (Big City Syndrome) and we need to get out in the sticks a bit more. So we are off to Ayuthaya on Saturday. Friday 25th November Basically spend the morning catching up with emails. Have some tasty pastries for lunch and go for a swim and a relax at the pool on the roof of the hotel (great views and a much appreciated breeze) in the afternoon. Our opinion of Bangkok is saved in the evening with a quite fantastic meal (I know fickle aren't we!) Old style Thai with waitresses dressed in traditional garb. I have the biggest prawns ever in a disturbingly hot sauce and Amy goes for the satay approach. Oh yeah and we also have a 35 pound bottle of wine (tough this backpacking lark). General opinion of BK was that they are way too many scammers looking to relieve you of your cash and it is too easy to get caught out. The Thai people are pretty resourceful and it just so happens that some of them have put that resource to ripping you off. The air is heavily polluted, it is dirty, smelly, hot and full of temptations of the ladyboy kind. However, if you know where to go and are wise to the scammers and the temptations, beneath the surface it is a vibrant city on the up. Would we come back? Probably but I would hate to be here when it was really hot! On second thoughts if that was the case then we could have spent more time in the bars cooling down. Keep you posted, keep the messages coming. Lots of love Stu & Amy.