Hello!

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A up!

Hope this works ok and this will only be available to a select few people but who knows! So i'm in Bangkok, having spent a week or so down on the islands of ko tao and ko phangan. We arrived at about 7am yesterday morning after a 15 hour bus and ferry journey. Bev insists that we paid for a VIP bus or something but that's not what we got - she wasn't happy and it was ok but was very cramped and some fat woman decided to put her seat right down in front of me so i had no room at all! Anyway we arrived and had some breakfast and chilled out, waiting for hotel checkout at about midday so we could get a room. We've got a really nice room in a hostel with aircon n internet n hot water for cheap by english standards. So yesterday we caught up on some sleep and then got a boat down the river to the other end of Bangkok just to see what it was like. We then got a tuk-tuk to a bar that overlooked the city, which had been recommended to Bev. The journey was cool and the tuk-tuk drivers are mental and weave in and out of very small spaces in traffic! We arrived at the Banyan Tree Hotel and made our way up to the bar on the 59th floor! It was a very posh hotel and we were greeted with a slightly disapproving "what can we do for you?!"! I responded that we just wanted a drink but was informed that my attire of sleeveless t-shirt shorts and flip-flops just wouldn't cut it! I thought we were being kicked out but no - she produced a suit jacket and shoes and the biggest pair of trousers i've ever seen! Bev was already in stitches at this point and i hadn't even tried it all on! Putting on the trousers in the toilets of this really posh hotel was about the funniest thing ever as they must have been a 50 inch waist or something and i had to permanently hold them up, whilst walking into the bar! I did then try and tie them up with bev's hair bobble! We took some photos of that and of the amazing view and bev did eventually manage to pull herself together and stop laughing at me! We had some pretty cool but expensive cocktails and watched the sun set over Bangkok. Really good but we were a bit out of place - i was definitely the only guy to arrive in a tuk-tuk and go all the way up to the 59th floor to have a drink wearing lost property clothes or whatever they were!
Today we've been on a day long tour that bev had her heart set on. It was to an area called Kanchanaburi and we left at 7am! We went to the bridge over the river kwai, which i really enjoyed and saw the war memorials and graves. That wasn't the bit that Bev was excited about though! We then went on a raft and to a waterfall and had a ride on an elephant! That was cool and i sat on it's neck in place of our guide as well as in the normal seat. Afterwards was the main event - a visit to tiger temple! Didn't see much of a temple but there were loads of tame tigers which we had our photos taken with (in a very orderly fashion)! It was good but I couldn't help feeling sad that they were tame and not pissing about in the wild or something! Bev said they were ok though so i'll trust her on this one! Hopefully i'll be able to put photos on here or somewhere anyway and that's better than me banging on but yeah that's been the last couple of days! Hope this has worked and maybe i will try and do a blog every once in a while after all, even though i wasn't intending to! Hope all's well. Tim

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