English hotel - hot water, clean, comfy, enjoyable. Thai hotel - my god, we have it good in England! If I hadn't been told it was a guest house, I wouldn't have known! Down a narrow alley, protected by a pack of angry-looking, mangy, diseased dogs, on rotten wood stilts over the sea and smells of toilets! The bed was stained, the bin still full of the last inhabitants toilet tissue (no you can't flush it in T-land) and the staff were pissed off with us paying Thai price for the room when we were clearly farang (yes, dual price system here!) Maryam & I wanted to cry! For a brief (spoilt, unadventurous) moment we considered checking in to a 'proper' hotel as we thought there was no way we could survive 1 night here…but that would be rude to our Thai friends. (To add insult to injury there was a Hilton round the corner!) We decided to go for a walk to chill out…The sea was so polluted looking, there was no way I was getting in and plus there was a storm since the day before I & would be amazed if this little 'shack' will survive it (had visions of waking up in the middle of the night drifting out to sea on a plank of wood!). We turned a corner looking for somewhere to get a decent coffee and heard a strange cracking sound….followed by a bunch of Thai's at the end of the road screaming at us to (I guess) run! Yep, a tree had been blown by the storm & was falling in my direction….as if my nerves aren't shot as it is! Don't worry, I'm still alive & survived the night; felt confident my comfort threshold has been pushed to the max…. (though I couldn't resist sneaking in the Hilton the next day for a luxury poo before I left - bliss!)I can't believe I'm saying this but I can't wait to get back to Bangkok...the poverty, pollution & smell! I can't say I enjoyed my first week at the time but looking back its been a mad experience, pushed me well out of my comfort zone. We are so lucky in England, I will never complain again! What I wouldn't do for hot water & disinfectant! I've been shocked, horrified & repulsed & I'm yet to find out why people love Thailand. Off to Chiang Mai tomorrow on a night train, on my own from there….. which is where the real adventure begins....

"To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted." Bill Bryson