Landed in Bangkok after a very long winded flight of hours! Rachel was s***ting herself from her fear of flights all the way and as we came into land it was thick cloud. Alex had a dodgy stomach so let a little gas out as we came in to land, people around us noticed that she was scared so presumed it was her (ha ha ha!)

We got a bus from the Airport to Koh San Road where we were to stop the next 4 nights. Its total chaos on Koh San Road, in fact all of Bangkok. We went to the room, expecting an en suit, we got a room the size of a shoe box. Still, it was clean and everyone there was really friendly so it wasn't to bad. The Air con wouldn't turn off so it was like a bloody fridge for the rest of the night! Weather outside was cloudy, raining and thunder & lightning, but still boiling hot and humid.

When we unpacked we headed off out for some food at a fancy restaurant to treat ourselves. Food was amazing and really cheap as expected. Alex left a 5 baht tip (we are on a budget) which is about 10p and they were not happy so Rachel made us put another 20 down. We were shattered from 3 hours sleep in 32+ hrs so headed off to bed. Woke up around midnight but still tired, couldn't sleep as the aircon was on full blast so we were freezing. So we more or less led awake all night.

The following day we got up around 6am for some food and headed off down Koh San Road. Not many ppl up at that time apart from those still on it from the night before. We headed off to see a few temples and got in a Tuk Tuk recommended by 'a man who worked at the police station' - He didn't he just touted for the local TAT (Travel & Tourism) shop where they charge you over priced tickets everywhere. Anyway, the way the Tuk Tuk's work over there is you get a really cheap fare providing you visit a shop or two on the way that they take you too, and in return they get free fuel cards from the shop and that's how they make there money.

So....we got in one and he drove like a nutcase around to the temples then headed off to the TAT shop, we went in and didn't buy anything then went to the next temple. When we came back out he was gone! Another local said he has left us here because he has got his fuel card, we hadn't paid so to us t was a free ride around town...everyone's a winner! We were near Koh San road anyway so we went for a few beers before the weekend market in the afternoon.

Got another Tuk Tuk to the weekend market and had the fastest Tuk Tuk driver in Bangkok, he took over everything in site, was fantastic. Over 15,000 stalls at the market and thousands of people. It was good, Rachel enjoyed it more than I did, but we spent around 3 hours there so it wore thin for me.

We got some beer from the 7/11 and went back to the hostel. It was 33 Baht (60p ish) for a big bottle of 8.1% beer - tasted awful but the Chang beer at 6.4% was only 48 Baht so we had them instead. :-) We got wasted and then as usual Rachel fell asleep early. I went out for a Pahd Thai and put a tea spoon of chilli flakes on and that was seriously harsh.

The next day we got up around 3pm - Rachel had a massive 'changover' and had been bitten to shreads by the mozzies. We headed out to have a look around, Rachel spotted a top she wanted and negotiated a price of 150 baht but then we had some food next door before the purchace.....Rachel decided to go back and use her new 'bartering technique' to buy the T-Shirt - they started off at 250 baht again like before but because she wanted it so much she was quick to start bartering....."200 Baht" she said....forgeting they said 150 20 mins earlier!! She managed to get a whole 25p of her new top. Bravo!! I did the same for my new T-Shirt and managed to get one for 140 - thats how I roll.

We decided to get moving to Koh Chang to relax and bum around on the beach, we set off around 7am on the 13th on a bus (for only 280 Baht). It was around 6/7 hours...can't remember...but we had the whole back row to ourselvesso was plenty of room. We stopped off at a cafe half way for food and a fag break. They spoke little English so we pointed at something that looked like beef and asked for rice. When we tooked in we realised very quickly that it was far far from beef, more like dog. It was chewy and each piece had a different texture, some were like liver thers like fat, we just ate the rice.