Hello there,

We had a smooth and well padded start of our trip at the Hilton Millenium in Bangkok where we spent 4 days in total luxury. It gave us a great starting point to explore the city's many temples (golden Buddha,gigantic reclining Buddha, lucky Buddha, Emerald Buddha,etc.), sparing the poor spelling of all these Thai names.
Let alone the Thai alphabet (beautifully crafted indeed!), the English version of it still requires some getting used to as well.
Bangkok is just like the song from Murray Head, lots of temples, gods and goddesses
evenly matched by food stalls and massage places (the real stuff, the one that hurts
and makes you discover muscles you had no idea was there). Full of colours, flavours and smells, Bangkok cannot leave you indifferent. Except perhaps the hundreds of touts and their thousands creative ways to 'trick' you into a tuk-tuk and make you visit half the tourist shops of the city in exchange of free petrol coupons. Mind you, we had a great time being dragged around a bit... That as well requires a bit of getting used to.
Beyond the cheer size of the place, we were amazed by the local crowds and its total indifference to te mass of tourists and yet helpful when you manage to ask the right person.
The noise everywhere is incredible (and we live in London!), whether it be from traffic or from touts on markets, strident whistles from the river boat's.
Still under a bit of a jetlag and the after Christmas wind down, we remained shy of food stalls in Chinatown - despite very appetizing smells and less appealing sights- and retreated to restaurants around the city.
Although not impressed (yet) by the food, the fruits are a delight to the eye and palate.
Off to the province of Kanchanaburi for a few days ...

PS: Updating the blog has not been trouble-free due to the ultra slow connection
in most internet cafes in this part of the world, so please bear with us.
We will upload some pics and add some text whenever we have the chance...
and the patience.
A plus!
Django & Sabintje