Wow a month flies when you're having so much fun! Where do I begin, well at the beginning would be good!The flight over was an experience! We flew with Golf air; it was a long haul version of Ryan air. Therefore we got what we paid for, gladly though we arrived in one piece.When we arrived at Bangkok's Khao San area (traveler's haven) we were overwhelmed with tiredness, heat, smells & worry of where to stay. Which maybe why we ended up in a tuk tuk, (which is a motorbike with 2 seats in!) we had loads of luggage (more than I would recommend) and this made way to a very hairy passenger experience and one I'm not sure I would like to make again!The first night was a real culture shock! The smells from the street food stalls was overwhelming as was the amount of dogs on the streets. Also I saw 2 rats on the street, which freaked me out. The actual Khao San road is tiny! It's a stretch of road with shops, bars and market stalls, where you can buy anything and everything. The food has been ok just been sticking to plain chicken and rice, and am loving the mixed fruit platters!Whilst in Bangkok, we visited the most amazing shopping area, Siam Square. The area contained4 big shopping centre's mainly with the big brand names and untolls of jewelry, (I would have been in heaven if I was a lottery winner) and stacks of smaller shops for the smaller budgets! We used the Thai public buses to the shopping centres, the aircon buses were ok but the fanned buses were nasty! The windows were wide open and all the city dirt would go into your face as it did with Gemma who fell asleep!! We also used the metro to get to the immaculately clean hospital. Why are our hospitals not as clean & efficient!!!

Didn't do much else in Bangkok as we couldn't be bothered, we only visited one temple, but I will go back to Bangkok in January (I think!) to do the cultural tourist thing! The one thing we weren't brave enough for was the PING PONG SHOWS! At night all the taxi & tuk tuk drivers would come up to us and say their famous nightly phrase of "Ping Pong, you want to go Ping Pong" No thanks!! Though many people have said that it's more fun than explicit, so who knows might just have to go and watch it for a laugh….

Brought a few bits from the stalls, but didn't think it was real cheap!!! So i'm either not bartering properly or prices have gone up! The stall holders used to crack me up with their little phrases, a typical one is "Same same but different" or "where you from miss? England? Lovely jubbly"!

Also thought it was just old men going for the Thai girls/prostitutes/lady boys, but those young ones are at it too..What losers!!

Most people stay on the khao San for a few days because there are only so many shops you can look at and places to eat or drink, but we stayed too long (not necessarily because we liked it, but more because we couldn't decide what our next port of call would be). Originally we had chosen to go to Koh Phangan for the parties, but the islands off southern Thailand were having monsoons, eventually though we decide to go east to Koh Chang.

Koh chang took forever to get to, but it was a cheap one at 450 baht return! We traveled on a coach for about 7 hours and a ferry for 1 ½ hours with lots of waiting about in-between. On the journey we meet two nice Scottish girls Leeanne & Katie, (if you're reading this Hi) and we all booked the same accommodation. It was a steal at 200baht. Although when we arrived it was night time and the resort looked scary! However after some food and a "good" night's sleep on a mattress on the floor in a wooden hut, we awoke to a beautiful scene of sand, sea & sun!!