Hurrah - I'm finally up to Thailand on my blog! Took me long enough eh? Bangkok actually feels like a million years ago but here goes...

Arrived in Bangkok really late with my friend Jo-el and we prepared ourselves for utter mayhem at the airport. We'd heard so much about Bangkok just being mental and smelly and scary etc, but it was surprisingly calm and apart from one small blip where the taxi driver tried to over charge me thinking me a stupid tourist, I made it to the hotel without drama. Met up with Kelly in a nice hotel we had booked on Koh San Road. Kelly had been in Bangkok for 2 days on her own and although she'd met people the night before, I think she wanted some company for the day time. So anyway - I was so excited to be there that we decided to go out at midnight! The club was full of old men dancing with young thai girls - nice! Actually it was pretty minging and we were both so tired so after a brief stint of dancing we hit the sack.

Koh San road is pretty crazy - it reminds me of Daytona Beach in Florida! Just bars lined up all down the street and so many westerners - i think it took me a while to actually identify any Thai people. Everyone is a backpacker here and they're just dropped off by the taxi load every few minutes - such a contrast to China where there are no westerners anywhere!

Day 1

Kelly had already been to The Grand Palace and I wasn't too worried about seeing it so we went and visited another temple called Wat Pho where they have a huge reclining Buddha. Was pretty cool. Bangkok is actually quite nice - I couldn't understand what all the fuss is about, not smelly at all, just a bit overcast but so is the whole of China in the cities.

I got a text from Louise (my sister) saying that there was an explosion in her hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia (where she was working for a few weeks) and that some pipes had burst and a couple of workers died. I was really worried but glad she was ok. Then she sent another saying that actually it was a suicide bomber in the hotel next to hers and loads more people had died and she had to stay in the hotel until further notice! Oh my god I was so worried I felt sick! I just wanted her out of Jakarta right away but she couldn't go anywhere. Not much I could do about it in Bangkok and she said she was ok.

That afternoon we wanted to see China town but became victim to our first con! Some guy told us there was nothing to see in China town till the evening when there would be fireworks and night markets etc. Then he tried to get us to take his mates tuk tuk but we refused. We went back to the hotel and then that evening walked a 2 hour round trip to Chinatown with our map in tow. But it was closed, nothing was open! We should have gone in the day - then we read that random strangers with briefcases are often just lying to tourists telling them places are shut and to go back later. Random!

We went out on Koh San that night but I went home early because I was worried about Loise and we stayed up all night on the phone trying to sort out getting her out of Jakarta and getting her to Thailand with me and Kelly! She booked an Air Asia flight out for 2 days time (should have been 1 day but in a panic booked wrong day!) and Lou was going to come out for 3 weeks. It was all very complicated because it meant we would have to go and see the beaches first instead of visiting the north so I tried to get Louise to stay out another week even though her flight to the UK was already booked. Very selfish of me I know. She couldn't do anything about it till she got to Bangkok airport anyway so we just waited it out.

Day 2

We went to the cinema to see Harry Potter for free! We kept asking where the ticket office was but all the staff just kept leading us into the theatre - eventually we were just ushered in but we sat there worried that we'd be arrestd and thrown in a Thai jail ha!

Then I bumped into a couple of people I toured China with and had a drink with them and spoke to lots of randoms all night including a film director from Australia! Haha me and Kelly kept joking that he could get us a job when we go out there - but to be honest I don't think he actually knew anything about the TV industry...

Day 3

Went to the Chatuchak weekend market which was absolutely massive! We walked round it for most of the day and they had loads of cute animals and dogs cooped up in tiny cahes trying to sell them off. So sad. But they also had alligators and loads of lizards and snakes and things which I thought was pretty cool. So weird that you can just rock up to a market and buy a parrot or chipmunk or dog if you wanted to...

That night Louise arrived! And thank god because Kelly had been in Bangkok a week before then which is long enough for anyone! We took her out on koh san road and I was so glad she was out of Jakarta I can't tell you. She had to stay in her hotel room for 2 days withouy leaving once! They just lived on room service!

Day 4

Had loads to sort out for Louise. She had to go back to the airport to put her suitcase in storage and we bought her a backpack for about 20 quid. Then me and Kelly went to buy us train tickets to go to Chiang Mai that night and then we took a wander round Chinatown (which was open hurray!). Then we had to get Louise malaria tablets (only 2 quid!) and travel insurance all before our train that night. She was sorted for travelling in one day - why did it take me one month when I was at home?!!

We took the overnight train to Chiang Mai, they are very different to the ones in China. The chairs fold up into beds and the bottom bed is a double! We met a couple of random German guys who were getting drunk and had a couple of beers with them and then went to bed so happy to be out of Bangkok and to start our trek in Chiang Mai.