We were rudely awaken this morning by a Thai lady asking if we wanted another night or would be checking out...we should have been up already and realised that as we were indeed checking out, we only had 40 mins in which to do so. Needless to say 12 o'clock came and went and the phone in our room continued to ring...it was the eager receptionist trying to hurry us along...after answering the 1st one we just let it ring! Who would have thought it could take so long just to "re-pack"!!

After eventually checking out, we left our bags in storage and began a day of sight seeing. We decided to walk to the Grand Palace as it did not look too far on the map, however, due to dodgy road signs and dodgier Tuk Tuk drivers, it took a little longer than anticipated!

Every Tuk Tuk man we passed helpfully explained that we were going the wrong way (without even asking where it was we were actually going!) and that the Grand Palace was closed for a "special occasion"...but luckily THEY could take us to some other temples to pass the time until it re-opened later...and they would only add a few extra stops at dodgy gem shops along the way too!! Luckily we were aware of this cheeky lil scam, so continued on our merry way through the smoggy, clammy streets.

The walk was definately worth it as the Grand Palace was indeed grand, if not a lil ott! I liked it because it was really shiney!! (tom ) Many a photo later we moved on to see the biggest reclining Budda in thw whole damn universe (probably), which was just a lil further down the same road. Little disapointed that it was laid down rather than chilling in an arm chair but still tres impressive, you'll see from the pics just how massive it is! Tom's going to hell (or where ever an angry Budda sends you) as he pretended to tweak its nipple! Boys!! (In my defence..if you give a statue nipples, you're inviting tweakage!! )

After this we got a taxi to MBK shopping centre, in search of a cheap PSP, however we left empty handed despite our honourable attempts at bartering. Our first meal of the day (forgot the rest being touristy) came in the form of yummy Dim Sum, it fully made up for missing brekkie and lunch, it was gooooood!

We attemped to get to the main train station from MBK to buy night tickets to Phuket, but non of the METERED taxi's would take us "on the METER" and we refused to pay the set prices they were offering as it makes it cost so much more! In the end we got a taxi (on the meter) back to Koh San Road and checked back into the same hotel as the one we tried to move too was full! We downgraded our room from aircon to a fan room with no hot water but when we turned the fan off it nearly fell off the ceiling so I (tom) went and got a different room...the fan was luverly...but the bathroon light didnt work, cold showers in the dark are not recommended...but to be honest its probs safer that we couldnt see much in the bathroom as it wasnt pretty to say the least!

We ventured out for a well deserved drink, did a little planning for the next steps then went to bed...long day!

xx