Hello!

Well i have landed safely in Bangkok, Thailand. It's very humid and warm. Too warm really with all the walking about you have to do but at least there are air conditioned taxis :) and tuk tuks are air conditioned by just having the sides of the taxis open so the fresh air cools you down...a little bit!

So day one (evening) in Bangkok was fine, a few tears were had when i got here as the realisation of what i am doing really sunk in but luckily Marie was here to give me an understanding hug and make me feel better so now i feel a little bit calmer. And of course it's much nicer to have a friend with you to make things better :)

The first night we just chilled, caught up on the gossip, had a drink and then headed out for something to eat. We went on a recommendation from the hotel we are staying in, the Manohra Hotel in Silom. That was a bad decision...the restaurant wasn't really that nice and the food was edible but not worth the price we paid! Hint number one - never take ideas from the hotels. They obviously have an affiliation with the restaurant as 2 of the members of staff told us to go to this restaurant...should have realised that was a bit suss haha! Oh well never mind...nothing ventured nothing gained right?! It wasn't that bad really.

The hotel however is nice. Owned by an Indian guy and full of Indians too haha. Am i really in Thailand?! Yes of course i am :)

Day two - i had a nice little lie in which was very much needed. We then went for a wonder and headed to Chinatown in a tuk tuk. They drive like dodgems over here. But i'm used to this from India as they drive like nutters there too! So this was quite tame really. Chinatown was interesting. hussle and bussle describes it quite well. every inch you turn its full of peopls, stalls, motorbikes trying to get around you. People walk along the road as it's easier but then you risk getting run over by the hundreds of cars or the old rattley busses. You literally have to leg it across the road to get across - no such things as pedestrian crossings - even though they have them!!

After walking around chinatown and experiencing the smells and sights of it we headeded to the Golden Buddha - apparently the biggest Buddha around and worth over 45 million pound! Yes, that is one expensive Buddha. Costs us 40baht to go see it but Marie had shorts on so was told off that she couldn't go in!! Yeh, brilliant after we have paid to in. The guy at the ticket counter didn't say anything about appropriate dress. So i went in anyway, took some piccies and that was it. In 5 mins i was done. We tried to see if Marie could sneak in but she couldn't be bothered with after that so i took a photo of her in the doorway with the buddha in the background. Job done :) After this we headed back to our hotel and we deciding what to do for the next few days so hopefully on Saturday we should be heading up to Chaing Mai.

In the evening we went a bit posh and went to the Mandarin Oriental hotel for dinner and a show. The hotel is gorgeous!!! Obviously those with money stay here and I can certainnly see why. It beautiful. So we had a cocktail - 300 baht each plus tax and service charge! Oh yes this is something else that happens, you get charged 10% service and 7% tax so anything you buy we have to add 17% to the bill. Anyway, we got on the little boat to take us across the river to the restaurant. The food was lovely and the show, Thai dancing was good too. All in all a very nice night. Not backpacker style at all haha.

Final day in Bangkok is today so we are heading out to the Golden Palace, Sleeping Buddha and MBK which is the shopping centre.

Oh and the amount of thai girls on the arms of "tourists" is huge! in fact it's quite hilarious. and we've had fun trying to figure out who the lady boys are too. Such a funy game hahaha.

Anyway enough for now, time to head out and see the sights. I hope that's ok for an update so far :)

byeee

xx