We raced back to Bangkok after a busy day at the waterfalls, for what would be Pete and Dave's last night before heading home. The journey took a little longer than expected due to the flash floods (like I've never seen before), and it made Dave's journey far more enjoyable as he had a constant stream of water dripping down his back for 2 hours!

Once back in Bangkok we caught a taxi over to the Lumphini Stadium for some serious Thai Boxing action. This is one of 2 National stadiums in Bangkok and although it's fairly expensive, you get the real deal. We splashed out and took ringside seats which included waitress service and sat back to enjoy the fighting.

It's pretty violent but so entertaining and the crowd are mad. Where we were sat was pretty tame and full of Westerners, but where the locals were stood (pretty much in cages!) it sounded great! They shouted with every blow and arms are being waved all over the place trying to place bets - I was told that the capacity was somewhere around 10-15,000 and it was full so you can imagine how loud it was. Unfortunately there were no knockouts, but the fighting was impressive and as we were sat ringside, we could meet and have our photos with the fighters afterwards (see photos).

With the fighting over and a quick trip on the big wheel behind the stadium done (I'm sure it's the one that was in Birmingham a couple of years ago!), we went back over towards the hotel as Pete was still pretty ill and the rest of us grabbed a few more beers.

The next morning I was up early to send Pete and Dave off to the airport (I was gutted, you boys should've been here longer).

In true Dave and Stu style we couldn't decide when to move on from Bangkok despite both of us getting sick of it and spending too much money! We spent 2 more nights there to enable us to see the Grand Palace and have one more night out on the Khao San Road! En route to the Grand Palace, we met 2 brothers from New York who we spent the day with and arranged to meet that evening. The Grand Palace was amazing and we got to see the famous Emerald Buddha (disappointingly small!!) - no photos though, you're not allowed.

In the evening we met up with the Americans and 3 girls, Michelle, Gemma and Suzanne for another drink fuelled night. You probably think all I'm doing is drinking, but I'm absorbing some culture too....honest! Needless to say, it was a good night and signaled time for us to move back up to Kanchanaburi where we'd arranged to teach English for a few days. Farewell Bangkok......for now!