Arriving in Bangkok airport in the early evening we strolled straight down to the train station and caught a train into bangkok centre. Leaving the train station we got chatting to a Thai guy. He told us he used to live in Ireland and asked where we were heading off too. Telling him next shop was Chiang Mai and that we would get either a bus or the train. He goes f@@k that man, you dont want no bus, you want sleeper car on the train. OK cool good advice. He then drew on our map some "useful" places and somewhere we could go buy train tickets, because of the national elections "everyone would be on holiday and we wouldn't be able to get tickets." He got a tuk-tuk and said we would only have to pay 20 baht to go to this ticket place... Laurence decided this was a scam, so we ignored the tuk-tuk driver and went wandering off down the road. Realising we didn't have a clue where we were, decided best option was to actually ask someone where to go. A train station worker sufficed and told we were miles away. So popped out into the street and got a tuk-tuk. The guy was Micheal Schumacker, and he tore us through Bangkok in a definate record time. Laurence's knowledge of where our hostel was, was that it was just off a street called Khao San (which we have spent our entire time on). But after looking around and asking policemen etc, we had no idea where it was. Eventually popping into a internet cafe to look on google maps and find the email they sent for directions. Rocking up to our new home for a couple of days, we dumped our bags and headed back out into town. Grabbing a cheeky beer for the road in one of numerous 7/11 stores. Getting pretty hungry so we sauntered down a side street and saw a load of locals in a restuarant (if its good enough for them its good enough for us). Couple more beers and some damn decent duck dishes, we were more than satisfied. On the way out the chef was cooking away at the entrance, so we got a few photos with him. He taught us hello/goodbye - something like sieam klaap, with a karrati style hand gesture and bow. Now for our first proper night out... Sat down in a bar showing the French Open final and got some beers. Larry went off to the toilet so I chirped up to a guy sitting neatby on his tod. He was French, but had lived in South Africa and was half English. So had quite a peculiar French-cum-SouthAfrican accent. He was a top bloke and after persauding him to come out with us, he took us to a nearby club - called The Club... inventive. Now first mistake. Vodka Red Bull Buckets.... Second mistake. Lots of them... Night becomes somewhat hazy, needless to say errm we seperated and Larry stumbled in around 7ish and I closely followed in second place at about 8ish. After about a 1 hour sleep we headed back out, and tried the proven method of hair of the dog. To be honest not sure if it was the best idea, as we continued to be drunk for a hefty time afterwards. Having a 2 hour kip we woke around 10pm and still not feeling particuarly great we headed back out. Sat in a bar showing some football and had some beers. Then the heavens opened... The first time we had been awake when it has rained, got away with it a lot so far, considering its the rainy season out here. So it rained hard and all the stall peoples rushed to cover their belongings and the people sitting drinking in the street had to rush inside the bar. The atmosphere became better and we perked up a bit. And before we knew it, it was about 4 am and we'd drunk a fair amount of beer.

Today still in Bangkok, and felt incredibly rough. At one point Larrys stomach took a turn for the worst, this maybe either booze related (very likely) or the malaria tablet as we had just taken our first ones. We got the receptionist to get us train tickets to Chiang Mai, where we will be heading in about 2 hours or so. Its gunna be a long ride though, around 13 hours on the train... hmmm not really looking forward to it , not gunna lie!

Edit: We met another Thai guy, who was trying to get us to go to a ping pong show. He asked my name and told me his was David. I said no it aint. He then goes yes, David TukTuk haha 'course it is! Needless to say we have bumped into him about a thousand times... and we're getting a bit tiresome of touts now...