Well here we are in Bangkok! We arrived around 1am local time on Tuesday,
after a 9 hour flight from Sydney on Emirates - which was fantastic!

We arranged a mini van to our pre-booked hotel - The Intra Regent. It took about half an hour to get into the city, and the driver took us on a strange tiki tour throughreally narrow back streets, past countless market stalls of food and
clothes, women making clothes inside little sheds, you would never of
thought it was 2am on a Tuesday morning!

The city is pretty hot, dirty, and overwhelming, which is what we had been
told, but its just so incredibly different to anything we've experienced
before! Its around 30-32 degrees here during the day, really humid but
not unbearably not cos its not very sunny - the smog and pollution keeps
it out!!

The next day we went walking around the city, its getting hounded by tuk
tuks every 5 minutes trying to take us somewhere, and nearly getting run
over by them in the process! I swear there are no road rules here,
everyone just goes for it whenever they can, as fast as they can! But
funnily enough there never seems to be any accidents?

We went to book our tickets on the train to travel down to Ko Samui the next day, but apparently due to fires in the north of Thailand, all the tourists are travelling to the south so the trains were full! We ended up having to book an overnight bus coach, which leaves at 7pm today and takes 10 hours to get to Surat Thani - the port where we catch a ferry to the island of Samui.

Yesterday went to MBK - a huge shopping centre with about 8 levels, there
are even markets in here, and it feels like you keep walking past the same
shops cause most of them are just bags & wallets, pirated dvds & software
(NZD$4 each!), polo shirts, tshirts, shoes & ridiculous amounts of
CLOTHES! All so ridiculously cheap I wish we'd left more room in our
suitcases!

Had lunch at McDonalds, which tastes exactly the same, but is cheaper
(Which was great for Dave) - went out for dinner at a little Thai
restaurant which cost us about NZD$8 for a meal and a drink, then on the
way back saw a baby elephant just walking along the road!! It's owner
wouldnt stop to let you touch it or take photos unless you gave him money to feed him.

Last night the others went to Phat Pong, the red light district of
Bangkok, I was far too tired but apparently they saw some interesting
displays..... This place is just so insane and chaotic, its a great
experience but I am glad we aren't spending our whole 10 days here!

More updates and hopefully photos soon.