The majority of backpackers inevitably walk the streets of Bangkok and drink the buckets of the Khao San Road more than once during their travels. The city serves as a hub for international flights to other exotic destinations and a departure centre for overland journeys to Thailand's neighbours, so for many it is inevitable that they will cross the bustling, chaotic paths of Bangkok multiple times. I have one friend who graced the Khao San Road no less than eight times in six months of travelling South East Asia; collectively spending a month in the city, drinking Chang towers and Sangsom buckets. Something akin to an achievement.

Eventually, if not instantly, everyone fits into one of two camps - you either love or hate Bangkok. It is the marmite of cities. I really liked Bangkok the first time I went - the first stop on my trip. After traipsing around Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam for weeks on end, I was excited to get back to Bangkok for it's ease and familiarity; to have a few Changs, grab some pad thai on the Khao San and have access to 7/11 (simple things). And when we got back to the Thai capital I realised I firmly fitted into the former camp - I absolutely LOVE Bangkok. For backpackers all around South East Asia, it's like coming home. To arrive in a place where you already know your way around and how much you should be paying for things is actually really comforting. And Bangkok is just really FUN. You are gauranteed to meet other backpackers kicking off their travels, bidding a bittersweet farewell to their trip before they return home, or simply revelling in the joy of being back on the Khao San Road once again.

The thing about Bangkok is you need to have plans to move onwards. It is a hub, and therefore should be treated as one. If you don't have a solid plan, the options are so endless that you find yourself weighing up destinations for days, and Bangkok is too much fun to be all that bothered about urgently making a move. If you don't have a solid plan, you will get stuck there. Which is precisely what happened to us.

Our idea had been to spend a few nights in Bangkok, celebrate Lauren's birthday, sort our lives out a bit (Vietnam's internet hadn't been very trustworthy so we had a lot of flights to book, photos to upload, banking to do) and then move south to Koh Lanta, working our way up the islands of the Andaman coast before skipping over to the Gulf of Thailand to do Koh Pha Ngan for full moon and afterwards, Koh Tao. But the one thing nobody can control in life is the weather. And the south of Thailand was experiencing unprecedented storms on both coasts, cutting off transport southwards and leaving hopes of island hopping dashed. Whilst we speculated over the extent of the bad weather, fellow travellers arriving at our hostel looking exhausted and somewhat war-torn interrupted us and vehemently advised to not go south, that it was a nightmare, and would we like to see video footage of the floods? The result was too many Chang towers on the Khao San Road whilst we weighed up our options. The problem wherein lies that trying to make any sort of sound decision or be organised in any way whilst experiencing a Changover the next day is near on impossible.

Our first night in Bangkok had been spent being introduced to a new drinking game involving shots of beer with two friends we had met on the Halong Bay trip, Hayley and Katie, bidding them farewell as they moved onto Australia the next day. We bought sequinned oversized trucker hats and partook in a Khao San Road breakdancing circle, impressing no one with our wonky cartwheels and questionable rolly polly's. It ended up being one of the best nights of the trip so far (as you can tell from the previous sentence), and once again we were reminded how bittersweet travelling can be when you meet people you'd like to travel with for longer, but your paths are leading separate ways.

The first night was also the start of something very out of character for me. Lauren, Hayley and Katie had been salivating over the thought of a McDonalds in our hostel in Hanoi and couldn't wait to get back to Bangkok for a cheeseburger and fries of the McDonalds variety. I tend to hate McDonalds. It often makes me feel sick (breakfast not included, they are delicious but I never have the inclination to actually go and buy one unless on my way to/at the airport. McFlurry's are also immense). I probably have a McDonalds once every two years. I met my quota for six years in Bangkok. I guess travelling does change people.

The next day was Lauren's birthday, and she received a gift that just keeps on giving. Spicy Thaigers Jamie and Lily were stuck in stormy Koh Pha Ngan and Matt was stranded on flooded Koh Tao. We'd checked on them to make sure they were ok, and they were, phew. Then Lauren received an email from Matt saying that he had arrived in Bangkok that morning, having been shipped out of Koh Tao on an aircraft carrier, and would we be on the Khao San Road tonight? Standard. Having received Matt's email quite late, we set out to try and find his hotel, too excited to wait to see him, but sadly to no avail. On the quest, Lauren's phone beeped...Jamie and Lily were on the outskirts of Bangkok, having also been evacuated by the Thai Navy. A reunion with the majority of the Spicy Thaigers for your birthday? Definitely a decent present. When we finally met up with Jamie and Lily around 11.30pm, and then Matt at around 2.30am, the Khao San Road didn't know what was going on. Officially the happiest people in Bangkok.

It's pretty much needless to say at this point that Bangkok: Round Two, was not cultural in any way, unless Chang and Sangsom are deemed cultural. Which they probably are to a certain breed of backpacker. But we'd done the majority of the cultured side of Bangkok on our first visit and were having too much fun to notice or care.

I had too much fun one night. So much so that I lost my purse/it was stolen. I wish I could tell you which, but I prefer to go with the latter as it sounds better. And the idiot that I am, I had over £100 worth of recently withdrawn baht in said purse. When you read up on travelling, there are countless tips on what not to do. One of the pieces of advice is to never keep all your cards in one place, but spread them out so should something get stolen, you still have access to money. You can see where this is going. Despite mutterings of 'well OBVIOUSLY you wouldn't keep all your cards together, how stupid is that?', I did just that. I'd gotten so relaxed over the few months I'd been away, (thankfully) nothing bad happening, that it just didn't even occur to me. Luckily Lauren was still with me and I was able to transfer money over to her account to use until I recieved my replacement cards. Crisis sort of averted.

However, in my purse I had the receipt from the Indonesian embassy in Bangkok to pick up my passport with brand spanking new 60 day Indonesian visa. Rocked up to the embassy, confident they would issue me back my passport no problem, considering the fact that I look like me. They wouldn't. Had to trek it to a police station for a lost and stolen report against the clock before the embassy closed for the day (they really do work the most doss hours all around the world)...particularly urgent as I was due to leave Bangkok the next morning. I was so desperate to get back to the embassy on time that I actually got on the back of a motorbike. I had gotten through the whole of Vietnam without getting on a motorbike, which is a lot more difficult than it sounds. I'm frightened of them for various reasons and just point blanked refused...until it came to my visa. Indonesia really better be worth it.

Eventually we managed to find some Thai islands with some decent weather according to our endless Google searches, and Lauren and I made some moves to go to Koh Samet, about two hours away from Bangkok in the direction of Cambodia. We finally pulled ourselves away from the Khao San Road and surrounding area, feeling a bit battered from our nights out and excessive Chang consumption. And there aren't many cures more appropriate than a chilled out beach in the gulf of Thailand as far as I'm aware.