Well, the flight was great….what we remembered of it. We both went to sleep after dinner and woke up for breakfast. Must have slept for 6-7 hours….bliss.

Bangkok is almost same same after 6 years with just a few exceptions. True, the traffic is still bad, in fact, it’s a whole lot worse. However, the air is cleaner!!!! All the cabs and tuk tuks are now on LPG so the air is so much better.

When we thought about this over breakfast we couldn’t remember all that we had done over the last few days. The trip is already a blur. Of course, there are a few highlights:

1. A long walk around China Town was fascinating. Whatever tat you want you can get it. Lots of Hello Kitty, pink everything, gold, gold and more gold.

2. Streets devoted to one thing. Car Part Street, Gold Street, Buddha Image Street (see photo) and Amulet Street just to name a few.

3. Walking along the side of a canal we seemed to enter somebody’s house (slum really but don’t want to be cruel here) and we were stopped to ask “how you say this”, ‘that’s body lotion”, motioning how you might rub it on. “Sawadee krup” he said and so we walked on leaving a beaming man sitting in his living room.

4. “How you spell hot dog” said the lady from the little restaurant. So we wrote it out for her and “sawadee kah” came the response from the smiling lady as she ran back inside her little business.

5. Tesco getting it’s hooks into religion in Bangkok.

6. Fast food for Thai drunks

Went to Wat Pho yesterday to see our old friend the reclining Buddha (see photo above). Really relaxing place with lots to see with amazing colours and architecture.

This week is Loy Krathong, a festival to celebrate the river, amongst other things. Lots of Thai food to sample and a Somerset type carnival but this time on the river. More to come later on this as the highlight is tomorrow.

Lowlight? Yup, Khosan Road. Horrid backpacker hell or maybe it’s because we’re too old and don’t want to see things involving ping pong balls and drink buckets of cocktails. We much prefer our own private show and a nice G & T on the balcony!!!! See, we do know how to have fun.

Off to the food fest now….yum!