We arrived in Thailand on the 9th March. It is very hot, a big shock after Nepal. The tourism authority provide free bikes to cycle around the sites, therefore this had to be taken advantage of by ourselves. The palaces and temples here have serious 'bling' factor, we have never seen so much gold plate. If you were a gangster rapper looking for inspiration for your next bathroom, this is the place to come!

On our way back from our cycling tour Eric spotted a red T shirt with a happy smiling man cycling on it and some Thai writing. On enquiring it was only 100 Thia Baht (about 2 pounds), so he decided to buy it for work. He asked the lady on the stall if she could explain who it was and what the writing said. He thought that she had said that it was their newly elected Prime Minister and that the writing said 'welcome back''. So we retired to the bar after our day of cycling and sightseeing contented with our lot. Abby decided to read one of the local English language newspapers. From that she deduced that the T shirt that Eric had just purchased had in fact a picture of the disgraced PM Thaksin Shiawatra, who was forced out of government in 2006 due to some 'dodgy deals', and is still in exile. The Thai words said 'please come back'', by his supporters who were throwing eggs at the current PM at the weekend. Abby has advised Eric that it would not be wise to wear his new acquisition until we leave Asia for fear of causing offence/starting a riot or initiating an international incident.

There are plenty of places to spend our money here. We debated whether to have some clothes made to measure, but decided it would be too much trouble to carry them. We looked at tattoos, Eric was quoted £240 for the design he chose (a tribal looking mermaid), Abby was quoted £20 for the butterfly that she wanted. In the end we decided on a Thai massage which cost us £4 each including the tip!