THURSDAY 29TH MARCH 2007

Have you missed us? We left HK yesterday morning, it was emotional! The flight over was brilliant, we reclined our seats and, with glass of wine in hand, settled back to watch our chosen movies (Dan - Rocky and Himmons - Dreamgirls). Like the professional travellers that we now are, when we got to Bangkok airport we found a local bus heading to the Khao San Road and hopped on (which, with novelty over-sized rucksacks, is a pretty big achievement!). We walked about 5 minutes down the Khao San, not looking out of place at all amongst all the tanned locals and other travelling folk. After listening to some previous advice "just make sure you don't look out of place, do your best to blend in and act like you know where you're going and what you're doing", we walked with purpose towards where we thought our hotel would be, not sure how convincing we were though! As we have been mistaken for Casper the friendly ghost (and his long friend) we spent the afternoon soaking up the rays by the rooftop pool where we got talking to our new friends - Carlos, Claudia, Guido, Manuel & Guiellemo who are from Peru, Venezuela, Argentina and Spain. After a few Heinekens (now affectionately referred to as Green Tea) they invited us to join them for dinner. It wasn't like the Sheraton in HK but in lots of ways it was better, although we did start suffering from flashbacks as we followed them down the second alleyway! We ate outside, sat on plastic chairs next to a huge tree wrapped in coloured scarves, with paper lanterns keeping the place lit, and latino music keeping the place lively. Food was incredible and everyone kept taking bits off each others plates, sharing drinks and talking noisily in Spanish and English (for Dan!), so much nicer and less formal than the way we do it at home. After paying about 6pounds for both of us, we headed off to Gazebo, which is a rooftop bar/club with live music, where everyone sits back drinking and smoking Shisha (fruit tobacco). After explaining in Spanish & English the differences between fingers & toes, and teaching them the routine to Heads, shoulders, Knees and Toes, along with drinking several mojito's, we returned to the hotel at about 3am, ready for an early start sunbathing in the morning. Although that's not why we're here (to sunbathe), there's no way we're going to the biggest party of our year looking pasty!