Hey Guys

Well we arrived in thailand as you probably already know - and oh my god - culture shock! we arrived at the airport and it was so warm i could probably have passed out!! anyway we jumped into a nice air conditioned taxi and headed out toward the hostel.

Let me tell you that the first place we stayed with turned out to be gorgeous! really nice rooms, swimming pool on the roof, garden and everything! the only problem was that this particularly beautiful place truend out to be a very long drive drive away from the cenre of bangkok - in fact it was in an outer province called Lat Prao! Well after three days of this we moved to a hostel closer to the centre of town. LEts just say it was not quite as nice as the first - thoughnot the end of the world if you are only sleeping there! unlucky again! as Paul had to go home for 5 days to do his last medical for the fire service i was stuck on my own all week! I did consider going outside but after a couple of things i'll talk about next though better of it!

First if you've heard about any of the riots or protests recently? then you know that there have been a few problems in BAngkok? Turns out the place that we were staying in is in Thewet! (pronounced TayWed) is the place where all these protesters are camped out! so not the best location. Secondly I did actually go out for a short trip to the seven eleven which is on the same road as the hostel - but after several scary men tried to talk to me from dark nd dingy garages and doorways i decided it was probably best to stay in doors!

Sadly staying insdie meant that i had four thai channels to watch on TV - all showing lots of adverts, soap operas and horrors in thai! AHHHHH! and then the walls i got to look at all day were a fab shade of grey! and i had breakfast because it was provded and rationed crisps at 3pm in the afternoon! i was gutted! but as i didn't want to go back outside i had very little to eat! on the upside i lost a couple of pounds! and now i have put them back on - b*****!

Right so skipping over those boring days - paul got back (he passed his medical by the way! yay!!!) and we headed straight out into Bangkok city to see some temples and a giant gold Budha and a black Budha temple and the marble palace. Honestly up to this point I had not been overly impressed but after this i changed my mind. The city is full of hidden wonders. And it turned out that the day we were site seeiing was a government sponsored tourist day which meant we got driven around by a tuk tuk driver all day for only 40baht! it was ace!!

Anyway next day we took an AMAZING tour! we went to the floating market - the stalls just float around in boats and Mum you would have loved it! anyway next we went to walk on the Bridge over the River Kwai! I was so excited. We also fed an elephant while we were there. Finally we wnet to the tiger temple and stroked some really big cats! We even got the stroke the tiger cubs. The cubs were ok vut the big cats were very scary - and when one kicked me and another one growled and stood up as i sat with it (the keepers were running in asap at the point) i was pretty frightened. You'll see the pics my face is hilarious. Also bear with the photos becuase the camera is on its last legs now and we can no longer see the screen so its a matter of guess and shoot!

Right so after this we began our journey south! Firslty i should mention that we booked the trip from Bangkok the day the Tuk tuk driver took us around the city. We booked a sleeper coach to Surat thani and then a samller coach to Phuket!

Needless to say we were really tired once we arrived a Phuket - we stayed in a place in PAtong BEach which was also booked by the agency. All of our accomodation and transport around the south has pretty much been booked by the travel company - budget fan only rooms but still ok.

SO Patong is really fun - its a smaller city and easier to get around, we ate ina coupe of nice places. Well saying that one day we were in a bar/eatery and the attached bar next door had these two old guys. SOrry to use the word old but one of them was like 70-80 and the other a bit younger but not by much. Anyway they weren't together or anything! but the first one yanked down the top of the waitresses top and was groping her boobs! and the other was being straddled by a young thai girl who was vitually eating his face! totally gross!!

Anyway other tan that we were near the beach and also we went on wo day trips from here! First we went on a trip whcih took us rafting - sso much fun but oh my god! no safety - thankgod there wasnt much danger, althoug i have a class rope burn on my arms and some pretty bruises dotted around. Next we went elephant trekking - our elephant was amazing and we got to feed her afterwards. PAul even rode on her back withuot a chair.

So after that we had a lovely tradtional thai lunch and went to play in a waterfall! so pretty cool for day one

The second trip was to James Bond Island - the place where the filed man with a golden gun! Totally loved it we went to a monkey cave to feed monkeys and see a giant reclining budha! Then we got a long tail boat and jetted of to the island! it was amazing - very beautiful. After this we went to a tradtional fishing village and had lunch then after various factory shops we headed home. Anyway thats it for Patong - stay tuned for Koh Phi Phi!!! x