Hello all

The last 2 days have been really cool, we both really like Thailand, even the food is rather yummy :)

On Monday we headed to Khao San Road which is really popular for backpackers, it is a huuuge market with bars and food places, you can get anything and everything - including a UK drivers license - SJ was debating this ha ha, a degree, and even albums and movies onto your ipod for stupidly low prices!! we just strolled along it and bought a few things (knocking down the price obviously) We decided to have a drink in on of the bars - the atmosphere was cool, we really liked it :) a litre of beer worked out to be just over a quid (they don't have the pound sign on this gay keyboard!!!)

That evening we had arranged to go to a Thai boxing match at Rajadamnern Stadium - we were both really excited - it started at 6.30, we arrived just a little bit before and there was normal boxing warming the crowd up, through-out the evening the crowd got bigger and bigger - we were glad we got there when we did :) we had ringside seats which was cool - close to all the action - there sweat was falling all over us ha ha we even witnesed 2 knock-outs - one of which puked in the stretcher - yuk!!!!!!!!! all the way through there is cool music (like bells) being played and the boxers kind of hop to it ha ha. Before every match they do this ritual type thing where they dance to stretch and honour their trainers, it looks soooooo cool (SJ thought it was the best part ha ha) we have some videos so when we upload you all can take a peak :) At the end we were asked if we wanted to meet the new champion - we thought why not. We had difficulty getting back to our hotel as no taxis would turn their metres on as it was a short journey and wanted to charge us 4 times the original fare - so we just wondered around for the best price - ended up getting a tuk tuk back for a little more but it was the cheapest anyone was offering.

Yesterday we went to the floating market in Damnoensaduak, this was a crazy experience - you can tell what we mean by the photos - numerous times we felt the long tailed boat and little paddle boats were going to capsize!!! on the river it was sooo hectic, people make food from there boats, sell fruits, bits and bobs, soveniers, hats, fans etc... they all grab your bat and pull it towards them and try to sell you stuff - its crazy!!! Morgan bought a coconut which he has wanted the whole time we have been here - SJ tried it and rather liked it :)

After the floating market we headed to a Thai restaurant on the water which again was crazy - to have some lunch, we then headed to an elephant and crocodile show. The elephant show was really good - we couldn't decide if we thought it was cruel or not but the elephants seemed to be having fun and they all looked well - it was sooo funny, they played football (elephant world cup) Rooney missed!!!! They also told stories of how long elephants have been used to carry kings etc in Thailand, the elephants did headstands, handstands and even stood up on their back legs, tons of stuff - was really good. After this we mooched on over to the crocodile show - these guys were crazy!!! - heads, hands, arms actually inside the crocodiles mouth!!! a few times the croc snapped literally just as they moved there hands!!! one even kissed a big crocs nose!!

We then headed to a Thai Village Cultural Show in Rose Gardens, here we experienced traditional Thai village lifestyle, the through dance it shows how Thai men all enter monkhood for a short period of their lives to learn Dharma and to honour his parents, we then saw The Nagee Saran Dance which is like a rain dance (this symbolized the farmer being made able to plant his crops) We then saw the Harvest Dance - which is like a reward for the farmers, after a years hard work!

We then saw the young men practicing 'Glong Sabutchai' - victory drums. we then saw a bit of thai boxing which was staged - they played the music from the night before and this is where we learnt why they do the stretchy dance thing!!

They they did some sword fighting and pole Fighting, after this we saw a traditional Thai marriage ceremony. They then did a combination of dances from the four main regions of Thailand - The Southern; Bu-nga Dance, The Northern; The Fingernail Dance, The Central Region; Vichanee Dance (which is performed for royalty) The North Eastern; Bamboo Dance, these were all pretty cool, Bamboo Dance was our favorite. The finale was a Flag Dance - with flags from around the globe, Morgan spotted that they didn't have Republic of Ireland though - tut tut! ha ha!

Today we are just chilled out - which we were going to do by the pool but its a bit over cast today :( hopefully it will brighten up as we have been lucky on our sightseeing days!!

Off to Phuket tomorrow - woooo beach time ha ha We have our fingers crossed for sunshine!

Hope everyone is well

misses

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