Clare writes: Sawadee! So here we are in Bangkok!

The new airport has the second-busiest terminal in the world but it didn't feel frantic. We followed the flow of people, barely expecting our backpacks to have had the nous to make it from Manchester, via the black hole of Heathrow and arrive at the same time as us... but there they were, bless them, and there we were, haggling down our first taxi man, and arriving seamlessly in the Navalai River Resort boutique hotel on the banks of the river within walking distance of Khao San Road There had been a lot of discussion about where we booked for the first few days of our big trip. You can get much cheaper places to stay in Bangkok and I'd done a lot of research, but i'd been taken by the Navalai - their website oozed with alluring pictures of gorgeous rooms, roof-top pool and riverside bar and restaurant. But it was pricey at £24 a night for a twin... hang on... £12 each for swish room with wi-fi, cable tv, mini-bar, buffet brekky right in the centre of where you want to be? It wasn't going to break the bank, and yes, we could have got somewhere for a fiver, but these are the first days of our big trip and we knew we'd need a bit of pampering when we started out... and hell, we're flashpackers aren't we - have to keep up the image!

We found a very popular street eatery with tasty looking fayre and pointed at random offerings: fried fish in a coating, green beans, Singapore noodles, rice and were directed to plastic stools practically in the road. I'd warned Sheila that Thai food is the hottest I'd ever had, and this was soon proved true - tasty but hot, hot, hot! We bought fresh squeezed juice from a neighbouring stall which had crushed ice we knew we shouldn't risk but did. The whole lot, plus a bag of fresh pineapple each to take the heat away cost us less than £1 each. This is the life!

Later, Sheila says to me: "Is this one of those cities that never sleeps?" I said I wasn't sure - that might just be us. 1Am would have been 7pm at home... we both woke up and read for a bit. There may be parts of us still on UK time, back in the old world, so we snacked too, on left-over comestibles foisted on us by Qantas, still helping us on our journey.