Amongst other more seedy things Bangkok is known as the city where it is impossible to get bored as there is so much to do and see - so we thought it would be a great place to see in the new year having became a bit 'templed-out' from our previous week of exploring ancient decaying cities.

Unfortunately sods law raised its head as we unknowingly coincided our visit with a three day public holiday - meaning pretty much all of the sights we planned to visit were closed for the holidays, including the city art gallery, a meditation centre and a really gruesome sounding forensic museum where you can see a mummified corpse of a serial killer...

It turned out the only things that were open were temples, lots of them - a quick look in the travel book also refers to Bangkok as the city of temples.

Despite this, we still managed to keep busy by visiting one of Bangkok's famous sky bars on the 60th floor of the 5 star Banyan Tree Hotel to watch the sunset whilst sipping on a cocktail - a nice taste of the highlife amongst the smartly dressed Chinese businessmen and Russian tycoons, although I felt a bit out of place in my hiking trousers and Tshirt. Gwenno on the other hand looked stunning and I thought I might have to fight the millionaires off!

Despite our reservations we decided to visit the big temple in the city on the daytime of nye - as did allllllll of Bangkok. We didn't even make it into the grounds as we weren't dressed appropriately - after this we walked through both china town and India town (closed) which was still good as we generally wandering around the streets fitting in the odd coffee and cake to keep us going from the shops which were open.

In the afternoon we made it to an open museum (hurray) the home of a American architect who made it big selling Thai silk after ww2 before mysteriously disappearing in a malaysian jungle. This was lovely as the house was set within lush grounds and it was a nice break from the heat and traffic of the city - he also had good taste in furniture and art, as well as a massive pond of koi carp so we were happy.

After a quick shower back at the sweat box room it was time so sample Bangkok's famous nightlife - something it is also famous for. This involves drinking your drinks out of buckets with a straw and eating random street food along the main strip whilst guessing the ladyboys and watching the fireworks - the night wasn't as crazy as we imagined but still good fun - we even got to celebrate midnight 3 times as the singer/compare kept getting it wrong.

The two following days have been a little less active, with our itinerary mainly including sitting. We would definitely re visit Bangkok in the future (even just for the mummified serial killer) but it is hard to judge the place properly given that so many places were closed...