I met the tour group last night who are really nice - all girls apart from one boy who's here with his girlfriend. Darren and his girlfriend Kelly are really nice and we've got on really well so far. Theyre the only other '2' on the tour, everyone else is on their own which is something I couldnt do - im not brave enough i dont think!! The girls on the trip are really nice - i think theres 7 of us who are english, one american and the rest are australian apart from one girl whos fro slovenia, so its a good mix. I am on a 22 day tour, as opposed to an 18 or 8 day tour, all of which go to different places around thailand. We are a group until day 8 (day 2 = 1sept) and then we all go our seperate ways as the tours deviate. Me, Jen, Kelly and Darren are the only ones on the 22 day tour so there will be 8 new people joining us after chaingmai and the hilltribe treck. We went to the Khao San road yesterday which was really cool, i bought 2 scarves and a white linen skirt, all for under a tenner. then after the group had met we all went out for a really nice meal just off Khao San rd, again dirt cheap - i had some curried rice stuff with pork and a beer for less than 2 pounds. Then we went onto the road for some drinks and had a banana pancake with chocolate sauce from a street vender on the way home. Today jen and I had a random but successful day! We went to Wat Po and as we were walking out a thai guy who said he was a temple boy or something said he would take us to the top buddha monk. We sort of followed trying to keep our distance just incase, but he showed us to this small room where this buddha monk dressed in the traditional orange gown think kind of blessed us and put a bracelet around our wrists for good luck so that was really fab. THen we came out of the grounds of Wat Po and were stood with a map looking very touristy and a guy asked us is we needed help. We just said that we wanted to go to the river for a boat taxi but ciouldnt work out where we were on the map as there were loads of entrances and exits. He was really helpful and when he found out we had just arrived in bangkok he started explaining that today was a special holiday for the Lucky Buddha or soemthing, hence why there were people everywhere. He said that today, being a holiday, means that lots of places are free that usually charge and circled 3 temples that we had to go to - he said we should get a tuk tuk who would take us on sort of a round tour and wait for us at each place, but pay no more than 20 baht which is about 7p or soemthing silly. All the places he circled were famous landmarks so we thought why not. So he hailed us a tuk tuk, explained to him in thai what we wanted to do, told him we would pay 20baht and off we went! And it was so amazing - we saw these huge buddha statues which even i recognised so they must be famous!! hehe. We went to the temple of the Lucky Buddha which is the famous on where hes sat down cross legged, the marble temple which was a huge temple and fountains and buildings all covered in gold and red and built of marble (surprise surprise), and finally we went to the thai clothes factory whcih is where they tailor make you clothes out of cashmere. We werent going to get anything, but then found out that is was about 30quid for a pair of made to measure cashmere trousers and so went for it! I chose a dark charcoal-y blue material with a light pink narrow pinstripe (hehe always getting the pink in there somewhere!!) through it so I reckon theyre going to be really nice. We got measured today and pick them up on thursday when we're back in bangkok so we shall see! The thais are really friendly - they have no hidden adjenda which is a really nice quality, and they are so happy to welcome you to thailand when you say you are on holiday here. They def do meet up to their stereotype. Tonight we were going to go to chaing mai on an overnight train, however there have been massive floods up there (its the rainy season) and last night there was a mudslide which made the bridge a train was on collapse and the driver drowned! so the trainline is shut and we are flying instead whcih is actually an imporvement in my eyes! its only an hour flight, so we will get a proper nights sleep in chaingmai tonight and the full day in chaingmai tomorrow which is better - we were due to arrive to chaingmai station at 6.30am tomorrow morning - ugh not fun!! SO we will have 2 nights in chaingmai and then are going trecking in the hills for 3 days and 2 nights - not looking forward to it AT ALL!! But hopefully it will be an experience - the group is really cool i have to say so their company will make the trip im sure. Will let you know if i survive roughing it asap! I am enjoying it, but its not really my sort of place. I dont know why, and i can totally see why people love it here, you just take it as it goes and bum around, jump in a tuk tuk to go somewhere adn then crash out in a hostel after getting tea from a street seller adn buying stuff from the markets on Khao san, but its just not me. Im not really looking forward to the whole thailand bit really, but hopefully chaingmai will start to change my mind - im hoping it will do, im really trying not to make a judgement on thailand based on bangkok. malaysia is also another place im not particully bothered about but you never know, but i am looking forward to singapore. Iv never really been able to get into non-western cultures - I appreciate them and see how they work and how other people can totally fall for them and want to stay immursed in them, but i just dont feel 100 percent realxed or comfortable or 'at one' in them. I dont know if thats something i should work on or just accept - we shall see.