Greetings from Thailand. I'm writing from hectic Bangkok. We've have already experience battling with the dodgy taxi driver 'tuktuk' mafia, and some dirt cheap BASIC rooms (about 2 pound a night-not very pretty but have done the job.

Being as we had to wait a 4/5 days until Scott gets here er decided to make a trip to a nearby island, Ko Samet. Getting there involved taxi to the correct station, public bus, boat and a walk through the island to the accomodation (which was literally a shack with a flat bed and holey mosquito net BUT was about 50secs from a beautiful beach).

The sand was white, the heat hot and the butterflies HUGE. It was quite cloudy though (note to self sun rays still get through hot cloud as my back, with hand marks from half-heartedly doing suncream myself, testifies). We made friends with a couple of guys who live in England now but spent most of their lives in Thailand, going to international schools (both pretty rich we gathered), also an American guy who had moved to Camodia to work for a charity. They were good to know as they could speak fluent thai and gove lots of tips. We had some drinks on the beach front bars (lined with pretty lanterns and lights) and just couldn't resist going for a night time swim when it got to around 3am. Emily and I decided to go for a walk, parts of the island were wuite touristy and we stayed well away from the numerous stray dogs which lined the beaches and dirt tracks. We arrived at this HUGE buddha styatue and a solitary monk named Wan beckoned us in enthusiasticly wishing to take photos of of us with the budddha, kneeling, lighting insense sticks, offering flowers etc. Our attempts at poltiely oblingingly trying to be respectful made for some funny photos. Wan was really sweet thoguh, in very broken English he said we could stay at the temple when we come back (we hadn't said we were coming back). The temple was basically a ropey room with a shrine. he wanted a donation in return for giving us each a buddha coin, which we did. He then sent us off on our way with free water and lots of tropical fruit; 'rambutan' 'shompoo', pineapple and loads of lychee-like things- all pretty nice. It was a random experience but we liked Wan.

Back in Bangkok now, it's very hectic and i feel a bit on edge that people are always trying to scam you. 4 more days before we go to vietnam which gives enough time to sort the vietnam visas and saee a few sights in the city. Will update again soon.