Only a few hours left in Bangkok and with Jonathan gone it's time to look back.

Just when I am leaving I found the perfect spot to chill out. The park is not like Hampstead Heath, Hyde Park or Central Park but a great little green spot in the midst of the noise of Bangkok.

The park has a little pond in the middle and lots of recreational outlets from Basketball and Tennis courts to a handful of outdoor gyms. I have heard they have them in Australia too so might start using them there. Much better than indoor gyms plus it is free.

Another nice aspect of the park is that it is mainly used by locals. After being mostly at places where tourists dominated the view it is nice to experience Bangkok the way the locals do.

My friend on all travels, LonelyPlanet, summarised Bangkok perfectly as follows:

"This high-energy city loved neon and noise, chaos and concrete, fashion and future. Although it is constantly on the move, everyone is stuck in a traffic jam somewhere, within a mountain range of skyscrapers and sooth-stained apartment towers.

And past the ringing mobile phones and blearing pop music is and old fashioned village napping in the shade of a narrow lane. It is an urban connoisseur's dream come true with the past, present and future jammed into a humid pressure cooker."

Bangkok shows even more the contrast between the old and modern, the poor and the rich.

With 9.6Mill people living here Bangkok is not only the country's capital but also its biggest city.

The city is divided into old and new from west to east.

In the west between the river and the Hua Lamphong train station is the old city, including Chinatown's bubbling streets lined with stalls along the pavement which makes it look more like a never ending shopping mall that requires a lot of patience to get through.

The other main attractions here are the countless numbers of temples, in Thai called Wat, one more beautiful than the other, as well as the Royal Grand Palace and parliament buildings.

East of the Railways station is Siam Square. It is the slick modern part of town. In all basic terms Siam stands for a long line of shopping centres surrounded by skyscrapers, busy highways and the highly modern and efficient SkyTrain. The SkyTrain is much better than the Tube, more spacious carriages, air-conditioned and comes often and on time.

To be very precise Siam consists of an impressive four malls starting with the MBK, a mall inside more like a market with stall selling everything and anything at a cheap price. For any bargain hunter this is paradise. For me it soon became too much and overcrowded. The lanes are very narrow and it is even harder to get past because of the sheer volume of people. It requires a certain amount of stamina, patience and excitement for bargain hunting, none of which I possess enough, to endure this. Unlike Jonathan who loved every second of it.

From MBK one moves on to The Discover, Siam Centre and Siam Pentagron. The last one being the most expensive one, with only Designer shops in it. Having said that none of the malls had many chain shops and nothing below the price range of Esprit, which is still very expensive even in Thailand.

My hope to find a bra to replace the one the laundry people took in Krabi was therefore very low. First problem was that hardly any shops sold bras, if so way overpriced (mind you I shop at Primark so anything above £5 is much). Secondly they did not have anything in my size.

It is hard enough in Europe where apparently only bigger girls have bigger boobs but in Thailand no one seems to go beyond B. Not surprised about that yet irritated because I only had one left and a week to go until I could try again in Sydney. Let's see what the Aussies have on offer.

The whole complex at Siam is massive and arranged so one does not even need to leave the building.

The malls also had food courts with tones of restaurants and cafes to suit every taste and cuisine possible. On the top floor you could go and see a movie, mostly also offered in English, or if you wanted to be more active work out at the gym.

Despite all being much bigger and busier in Europe you could have easily forget that you are in Thailand. The only difference shopping mall wise was that most shops here were small and unique boutiques that in Europe and USA you would associate with the high street.

Despite Bangkok being a very green city, at Siam the only colourful things were advertising posters or the colourful taxis and tuktuks.

The catch with many of the green patches in between the skyscrapers is that once you look a little closer you will find little cabins and basic houses in between the trees. It is a very bizarre view from modern skyscrapers and modern apartment towers you find the housing of the poor in the middle. Simple wooden houses with a rusty simple roof.

It seems to be similar to India in that perspective where some managed to flow with the boom and live a modern and comfortable life whereas others were left behind living in very basic conditions.

It makes it look silly when we in Europe complain about poverty when we do not really know what real poverty is like. Even the US has a better understanding of that unfortunately.

The average yearly income in Thailand is only about US$ 4,126. This puts many things into perspective. Prices that look very cheap suddenly don't anymore.

The woman who gave me a massage me said I was her first customer of the day and that was at 7pm. I only earned her 200THB (£4). Her small room at the same time costs her 2100THB (£45) per month. That sounds cheap at first but not when you see how little they earn.

In general it seems like Thais work awfully long hours. A tailor we walked to in AoNang said his shop was open every day from 10am to 10pm. When we asked how business was going he said very slow. At least Jonathan gave him some work because he needed a suit.

Most people with own businesses appeared to be always open and at work or waiting for a paying customer.

After having spent our first day in Bangkok to ensure Jonathan's shopping interest is served we joined a tour to the Tiger Temple I already mentioned the next day.

Our first stop was a coconut sugar making factory. It was quite interesting as for one I did not even know that you can make sugar from a coconut. It was much sweeter than the usual white sugar at home. It tasted and looked very much like fudge.

As with other tours in Thailand the tour guide was not very informative and hardly gave us information at all about any of the places we visited.

After the sugar factory we stopped at a wood carving factory. It was amazing what these people carved out of all the wood with a simple, small knife.

The sold the most amazing furniture and at first we thought it was unbelievably cheap, until we found out that the price tags were in US dollars and just as quickly the most amazing work desk was out of reach. Not that it would have fitted into my small room in London anyway.

From here we went to Kanchanaburi, north west of Bangkok. Here is the Bridge on the River Kwai. Most will, like me, recognise the name from the film and book about it.

The bridge on the River Kwai was destroyed by the Allies during WWII after it was built by the Japanese as part of a railway from Thailand to Burma to ensure future supply for the Japanese.
The railway is also called the Death Train because of the many lives lost building the railway in only 16 months. It was built by Allied war prisoners. Near the train station and bridge you will now find a cemetery similar to the one in the Normandy remembering the fallen soldiers.

The bridge as such is not spectacular because it has been rebuilt and the attached museum was not even worth the 40THB. I had hoped to learn more about the historical background but the museum had hardly any information.

The first really good thing about the tour was the visit to the floating market. The boat first took us along canals of a neighbour that lived alongside it. After that a smaller boat took us to the actual floating market. It was super busy with boats at times blocking each other on the narrow canals.

It was very touristy so the goods sold were aimed at that audience. Despite it not being the more authentic items like fruit and vegetable being sold, it still gave you a good impression of the market life.

Some stall owners had a long stick with a hock to catch your boat and pull it closer to their shop. Others simply shouted and showed you things when you passed by. Food and drink was sold from boat to boat.

It was definitely exciting and a must when in Thailand.

After the visit to the Tiger Temple we returned to the hotel quite late and decided to have dinner at the hotel's restaurant on the roof terrace. During dinner I had a look at my LonelyPlanet for bar ideas and we decided to check out the Moon Bar.

It was such a good find. The bar is in Shukumvit also and on top of a fancy hotel. The restaurant/bar stretches out across the whole roof and the views were stunning.

Nothing compared to the New York skyline - not that anything will ever top that in my opinion but close enough.

It is a great place for a drink and chill.

Another day we headed for the old city after sleeping in quite late. We took the metro to the Hua Lamphong train station. The metro is just as efficient as the SkyTrain. It seems to be a theme in Asia to give out token as tickets. It seems to be more environmentally friendly so I am all for it.

From the train station we had to walk as the old city has only buses as public transport and taking those looked to be crowded, hot and confusing. Confusing because even though I could read the numbers I could not understand the direction it was going towards. I only ever felt like that before in Israel, where other letters are used also.

On our stroll to the temples we found a post office in one of the side roads and for once we were the only tourists and all signs were only in Thai. I may not have been able to read or understand anything but finally I felt completely emerged in Thai life and culture.

Not far from Hua Lamphong station is the temple of the Golden Buddha, Wat Traimit.

The Golden Buddha is the largest gold statue in the world at 3 meters (9.8ft) and weights a mighty 5.5 tonnes. You do not ever want this thing fall over and on top of you.

Being first located at a Wat in Ayutthaya, the old capital, it is believed that the Golden Buddha was made in the 13th century.

The Golden Buddha is very impressive even in a city that is covered in temples and Buddha images and statues.

There are 32 rules for Buddha images with the Golden Buddha being in the traditional sitting position with his right hand touching the earth to witness Shakyamuni Buddha's enlighten at Bod Gaya. The buddha's flame crown symbolises spiritual energy.

From here we followed Th Charoeng Krung to the other temples. After about half a mile we past a small shopping centre selling all sorts of mobile phone accessories. This was Jonathan's paradise and so I left him there to explore the rest of Old Bangkok by myself.

Th Krung was an experience in itself. The small pavement was lined with small shops and street stalls that turned into street restaurants and bars at night.

It was pure chaos and smells of all sorts everywhere. Walking fast was impossible. If that was not enough one had to watch out for motorcycles coming from left, right, behind, front and even used the pavements. Clearly if there are road rules for motorcycles in Thailand they are as a whole successfully ignored. The motorcycles are by far the scariest thing in Thailand, Bangkok in particular.

Though traffic in general was adventurous. At first I simply followed the Thais crossing the road, later I became more confident/risky in the art of Thai road crossing that I even made a tourist scream. From my perspective the cars were not that close but she must have seen it differently.

Problem is simply if you do not go for it and hope for the best you will never cross a road in Thailand. The 3 lane highway crossing in Long Island was a good practice for something after all.

Once I made it to the river I reached the Grand Palace, What Pho and other government buildings.

I first wanted to go to Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace but unlike all other temples this one required complete cover up, from shoes to neck so I had to miss it. From what I could see none of the tourists there with me had enough clothes on to go inside. I was a bit surprised because usually it was ok to cover simply your shoulders, upper arms and up to the knees.

All I could see of the Grand Palace was the roof which looked very impressive and simply beautiful in all its different colours and mosaic-tyles.

After letting this one go with a sad eye I moved across the street to Wat Pho.

This temple is the oldest and largest in Bangkok and is stunning to look at even for none Buddhists.

The main attraction is the reclining Buddha who represents the final passing of the Buddha into Nirvana.

The reclining Buddha is one impressive sight with its length of 46meters (150ft) and height of 15meters (49ft). It is simply huge and so are the Buddha's feet. It will leave you with your mouth open.

Generally walking through the temple had something relaxing and calming. Wat Pho is also headquarters and national centre to preserve traditional Thai medicine and is the birthplace of Thai Massages also. The temple includes several massages schools.

It is really easy to loose track of time whilst in the temple. It was already mid afternoon by the time I got there I had to move on from this calm and beautiful oasis.

I walked north past the Grand Palace and Government buildings. All the important buildings in Thailand have a picture of the Royal family at the entrance. Being heard or seen disrespecting the king or queen you will most likely end up in prison. The Thais do not understand jokes when it comes to the head of state.

Imagine this for the UK, half of the country at least would have already been locked up.

Thailand is a constitutional monarchy similar to the one in the UK.

Most recently the constitution was changed again and in a referendum by the Thai people got accepted.

That was in 2007 and shortly after that, in 2008, there were strong protests in Bangkok against the government that more or less created a one party state. It became so bad that foreigners had to be airlifted out of the country before the airport shut down or they had to barricade themselves in embassy buildings. Similar to the situation a few years earlier in Beirut during the Lebanon/Israel war.

Generally the democracy in Thailand stands on rocky feet and is, like in most countries, hugely influenced by the rich.

Moreover there are dangerous areas for people to go to and marked as no go areas be foreign offices in northern and far southern Thailand.

In the south at the border with Malaysia the foreign office describes the situation as life threatening due to reoccurring terror attacks. As far as I understand it, it is some Muslim groups in the area causing the fighting and unrest.

At the northern border with Cambodia both countries fight over areas that have money making temples and the questions as to who they belong to.

Just recently the police found a lot of explosives at a home of a Muslim terrorist who was preparing an attack in Bangkok.

Because of this acute terror threat in Bangkok all stations and major shopping centers had metal detectors and bag checks. At least I assume it was temporary.

Either way it was less annoying than in Israel where they had the same thing, only with more unfriendly staff. It did not feel as invasive or threatening as in Israel.

Here in Bangkok they smiled at you and said thank you with a little bow afterwards.

If you wondered why people can visit the Royal Grand Palace than let me explain that this is only the old residence of the royal family. The new one is a bit further out in a northern suburb and is heavily guarded by police.

On my way back to the hotel to meet resting Jonathan I stopped at a few more temples including the Golden Mount. As you can guess from the name it is a temple on a hill. Climbing the stairs you will have a great view across Bangkok with the river and the temples on one side and the modern skyscrapers on the other.

On my way down and out of the temple I managed to nearly run into a funeral procession but luckily realised it just in time before being completely inappropriate.

Lesson learned Buddhists wear black to funerals also. It looked similar to how it is done in the West.

Not like the very classy and musical way it is done in New Orleans. Now that's a way to leave this place. I know it is a sad occasion but what better way to leave than in a horse carriage with a brass band playing you a song. At least you go in style.

By the time I got back I was knackered having walked 4 hours straight. But it was worth it knowing no matter what the next few days would bring I had seen the best bits of Bangkok.

On Saturday we visited the Chatuchuak Market in north Bangkok. We did what one should not do and that is not listen to a guide book advice, at least this time it had a point.

Go there early to avoid the heat and crowd. We arrived at lunchtime. Oh my God. It was hot, sticky, humid and completely overcrowded. The market is immense in size and can be divided into the local and touristy part. Luckily we ran into the local part by accident also. It was pretty disgusting but interesting too.

On the first stretch they sold fish in little plastic bags filled with water. Despite knowing that they are going to be eaten anyway it felt a little wrong.

Then we past stalls selling living insects and other creepy crawlies again for you to eat and enjoy.

No offence to the cultures eating that but I can't help but finding that gross. It was an experience but wouldn't try it for the life of me. Only a really good money offer would convince me.

In the evening we splashed out and went for a boat cruise that included dinner.

The food was not too convincing but the ambience and views were both worth the trip.

Like with most places viewing the city from the river gives you a very different perspective of a place.

Along the river on open spaces you could hear loud music and a large group of women would attend an aerobic lesson. I had already seen it at a local shopping mall on my first night in Bangkok. It was still freaking awesome.

On our last day I went back to the old city to see Wat Arun across the river from Wat Pho. Again I went alone as Jonathan wanted to sleep in.

Wat Arun is very pretty also and you can climb to the top from where you have a great view across the river and town. The stairs were really steep and even for my tiny feet the stairs were short. That says something if even my tiny size 4 feet don't feet on there.

The ferries here work differently too. They don't dock onto the port properly but simply push the boat close enough with the engine going. This way the stopping and letting people on and off was much quicker. Though also more dangerous.

The river crossing only cost 3THB that is something like £0.03 ($0.06). This is next to nothing and felt like I should pay more than that. At the same time many locals took the ferry too who probably don't think it is that cheap.

Our last night we used to get a massage. It was my first though Jonathan had already taken plentiful advantage of the Thai massage tradition.

Being in Thailand I went for a Thai massage. It was good for what it was but I was hoping to relax my muscles more after all that walking the last few days. A Thai massage is more about body contact and body weight being pressed against your arms, legs and back which did not loosen up my muscles much. I was more in need for squeezing and twisting or something along those lines.

Jonathan advised me to do a Swedish massage next time, apparently they are rougher.

For my last night I stayed at a youth hostel again which was not as nice as the nights at the hotel but agreed more with my budget.

Despite my blogs sometimes possibly sounding quite critical I had a great time in Thailand and would recommend a visit to everyone. It is a lively, interesting and beautiful country with lots to offer for all different interests.