Hi Everyone

 This week is flying by so quickly i can't believe we're off home on Saturday!

We've had a good week so far, we went back to JJ market on Saturday- always a good day! Then we went to MBK which is one of the malls here- it has lots of jeans- diesal, levis, replay all really cheap ( fake) and a tailor attached to the shop so you can literally pick up any pair and get them to fit you exactly how you like- they lower the waist, move pockets and take them in and up- brilliant! So we kitted ourselves out with some jeans and then went on a bit of a shopping binge- but this time it was all for other people!!

We have also been to the various other malls, Siam Discovery and Paragon, Central World Plaza etc all very big and very modern, not really anything great there though! I am much more a market girl, and there are plenty of those here- day and night! So we have been to various ones ( in search of this amazing one we went to on our first afternoon- its vanished!!!) we also went to the famous Patpong night market- and saw various ladyboys and dodgey nightclubs called 'lipstick' and 'p**** #39; with questionable 'female' bikini clad girls and dodgey pimp type men asking us if we wanted to see a sex show and pingpong act- we gave it a miss!

Today we decided to try and tap into some of the more cultural sides of Bangkok rather than just the malls, so we headed to the Grand Palace and walked round the temples- very sparkly!! To be honest, i think we're a bit Watted out after Malaysia and the rest of Thailand and Cambodia- but it was still nice to see and do something other than the malls. Unfortunately there doesnt seem to be a lot else here other than malls and temples- although Claire and i never complain about having to shop! he he We had a very eventful trip on a tuk tuk from the palace as well today, we got a total mentalist of a driver who was a speed freak- wheels lifting up off the floor etc, we're pretty used to that now, but today this was all taking place in the most horrific rain storm i have ever seen- the loudest thunder and cracking lightening and the rain was belting down turning the roads into rivers- we got completely soaked- and our driver seemed to speed up despite not having windscreen wipers or any vision of the road at all!! We survived it though and spent the rest of today wandering round squelching- brilliant!

Siam square is a brilliant area for more one off boutiques and trendy up and coming designer clothes, it was really lively and full of young trendy people and gorgeous shoes and bags and funky bits and pieces- damage was done to our bank balance! We headed back to Khao San this evening which is where we're staying is always really lively and full of stalls and lots of people.

The plan for the next couple of days is to try and hunt down this market, get out of town to one of the floating markets and spend our last pennies of pretty things! I am really looking fwd to coming home now, the pollution here is soooo bad and the smell of curry and noodles at every hour of the day does get a bit sickening- but its broken us back in to city life after being such bums for so long!!

tasha

xx