Arrived in Bangkok a couple of days ago and have seen heaps. Day one we wandered to the Grand Palace and met a guide - 'KJ' - the most honest person you could ever meet. Within an hour, she informed Stu and I that we were 'simple' in appearance and that Stu wasn't a patch on Michael J Fox. I was also apparently bound to be good in the kitchen as my looks clearly weren't going to get me terribly far... Anyway, from there she did tell us a huge amount about the palace (she spoke at a rate of about 100 thai-glish words a minute) and we kept her on for the rest of the day. She took us to the floating markets and then to a very traditional Thai massage place. Stu was convinced we were going to contract SARs from the very communal mattress arrangements. The woman next to him almost coughed up a lung at one point and spat it into her hankie.

Next day we headed up to Ayutthaya, where this photo was taken (by Stu - quite the photographer at the moment!). Hired bikes for the day and braved Thai traffic. After a day in the sun we headed back to Bangkok (we had hired a driver for the day - haven't really got the hang of this slumming it thing yet) and got dropped off at the Thai Boxing stadium. A lady there convinced us that front row seats were really the only way to go, so we sat right next to the boxers and their baying corners. After that we headed to Pat Pong but were too knackered to take advantage of the sights on offer there, so went back to our hotel for another big night's sleep.

Today we lazed around in a park, popped in on Jim Thompson's house, and are now preparing to head off to Chiang Mai on a second class sleeper train.

Thanks for all your messages!