We need to get out of Bangkok before we blow our entire savings, seriously! It’s not an expensive place by any means, but after Egypt, India and Nepal it seems damn pricey.

In the next day or so we are heading down to the island of Ko Chang for a few days to detox and catch up on some R&R before we enter Cambodia.  We then plan on touring Vietnam and Laos before we come back into the north of Thailand travelling right down through the south into Malaysia. 

I’ve had a reoccurring abscess in my wisdom tooth and that will need taking care of before we go anywhere.  I’ve already been to the dentist in Egypt and Nepal, and several courses of Amoxicillin which hasn’t worked, it looks like it will have to be extracted, nice!

Update: just back from the the big D! and had the bastard removed and also a filling.  Just waiting for the aesthetic to wear off so we can hit the streets for a few buckets of cocktails – all’s good and back in action.

The photographs of Thailand’s floating markets – wooden canoes laden with multicoloured fruits and vegetables, paddled by women wearing wide brimmed straw hats – has become an iconic and alluring image for tourists (Lonely Planet).

I have to say, and although we got some beautiful pictures, it was a bit of a let down.  We went to one of the more famous markets – Damnoen Saduak – it seemed to us that it was a draw for tourists only and not an everyday local market.

A good experience nonetheless and we did enjoy paddling around for a few hours.

We’ve been in Bangkok for a few days now and have been enjoying the social scene too much to sit down and write some posts.

It wasn’t on our itinerary originally, but not being able to go to Tibet or China meant we had to fly here to make our way to Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.  It’s a great city – appealing to all walks of life. It seems to be the hub for all backpackers, travellers and holiday makers alike.  Sam’s dad wondered why most of his friends are so attracted to Bangkok – well now we know, shall we say, it has everything a man needs .

We’ve had very late nights, late mornings have blown our budget completely out of the water, but hey, we won’t come across the sort of mayhem often so it’s best to make the most of it.  Sorry for the lack of decent photos, that’s what happens when you drink cocktails by the bucket .

We are aware of the demonstrations and violence at present, in fact, it’s a two minute walk from our hotel, but the Thai police have kept it firmly away from the tourist areas.  We were walking back from the city the other day and had to walk through the demonstration – it was very scary seeing men with sticks and golf clubs in hand.  Their gripe is not with the tourists, it’s with the present government, so when I gave them a thumbs up, they replied with a firm applause – very amusing.

This city rocks!