Bangkok

On arriving in Bangkok,we proceeded to do the exact opposite of what we had read and planned to do- we took a room right on the Khao San Road. We were swayed by the extra cheap room we found and the huge backpacks we were carrying and forgot the fact that the party on the road continues all night.. and very loudly! After an afternoon and evening wandering round the area, people watching and marvelling at the range of insects we could eat if we wished, we called it a night and returned to our room. At around 1am, the music level actually went UP to the point where the room was actually vibrating! We realised we should probably have just stayed out instead... Still, we found we were able to sleep better than we would have guessed . Correction -I was able to sleep, not so sure that Kev was! The chilled out Bob Marley in the morning as we got ready for a day of sightseeing was a good way to start the day though.
The next day was temple day, and we set out with good intentions of making our way on foot to see the main attractions. After about 100m,we were waylaid by a man who took over our Lonely Planet and circled all the places he thought we should see, wrote them all down and told us to get a tuk-tuk to take us round them - for the cost of no more than 40 Baht (less than a pound). This seemed to be too good to be true,but we went along with it and found a tuk-tuk. Sure enough,40 Baht. We visited a standing Buddha, a lucky Buddha (where the caretaker couldn't contain his excitement at seeing us, we seemed to be his very first genuine tourists) , a black Buddha, Asia's biggest reclining Buddha (and he really is big!) and the Golden Mount. Sadly we were unable to visit the Grand Palace this time as it was a special annievrsary day and it was closed. We also visited a jewellery emporium and 3 tailors... Yes, the cheap journey really is too good to be true as the drivers make all their money through commission from these places who pay them in petrol vouchers!. At least our driver was honest about it and told us the deal straight up - and we didn't grudge spending 10 minutes feigning interest in a tailor made suit to save some money. When we arrived at our final temple,Wat Pho, our driver left us speechless by saying goodbye and driving off without even wanting the 40 Baht he's asked for intially. We'd clearly done a good job earning him petrol coupons!!
The following day we decided to see a different side of Bangkok and took canal taxi to Jim Thompson's house (we admired the outside but didn't go in), then walking to Siam Square, before jumping on the sky train and ending up in a couple of random destinations, where we did some good wandering and probably lost a stone each in sweat...
And now we are in Ayutthaya, North-East of Bangkok,where we plan to hire bikes tomorrow (I'll be ready for the Tour de France by the time we finish this trip!) to see the temples before getting a night train to Chiang Mai. We have also decided today that we will take a detour after Chiang Mai to spend a week in Burma before we go to Laos - nothing like planning as you go!

Just remembered the friendly guy we met on our way to Bangkok who asked where we were from - when I said England he replied - 'is that near London?'. Kev and I both had to bite our lips not to laugh...