I'm here...

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I made it! Not that it was ever in doubt, in my mind anyway...although I have been known to get lost travelling three roads from my own house in the past. I blame it on sat nav making us all lazy and not having to think about where we're going and how we're going to get there. Still, getting lost in a distance no greater than 500 yards is still an achievement...

Anyway, you don't want to hear about that. I made it to Heathrow, and walked straight into a security alert involving armed police storming through the terminal, hot-footing it through the entrance gates screaming at whoever they were after to stop, before leaping into the police vans, lit up like Christmas trees, and zooming off. Good start, I thought - if there were terrorists in the building, they're not there now...

Checked in, I took myself off for a sneaky Merlot at the bar. Something very awkward about being by yourself at a bar that busy - you remain expressionless, read 'miserable cow, no wonder she's drinking by herself'; you smile to yourself, people think 'lunatic'. You're on to a loser from the start. And for goodness sake don't down the wine quicker than you would a glass of water - for that just translates into 'old lush'...

I made my way to the plane, tried the sneaky 'suppose you're going to upgrade me now' line at the gate (fail), and had a chat with a lovely couple who were on their way to the RWC in New Zealand. My row was last to be called to the plane - translating as 'we've given you the window seat in the row directly behind the spacious, cava-supping premium economy rows - so close but no cigar'. However all was not lost - turns out the row behind the upgraders had extra leg room. I'm sure there were far more worthy recipients of the leg room than me at 5ft 3 (in my shoes), however what it meant was the ability to lie flat as a pancake, feet up, for the entire journey. Suffice to say on an overnight flight, I was not much company for the two fellow singletons next to me, as I crashed out in my new flat 'bed' for 9 of the 11 hours.

More's the pity really, given that the guy in the aisle seat was beautiful and an Irish Olympic sailor off to training camp in Melbourne (that's all I caught before I went unconscious - always a good way to show interest I think). The girl in the next seat, Emma, was also travelling around Thailand for a month or so before heading to New Zealand, and we struck up conversation in the limited time I managed to stay awake, to the point where we agreed to make our way after the flight together through Bangkok. Fabulous news I thought - I'm sure her navigation skills will whoop mine.

We also managed to catch sight as we came into land of the devastation of the Thai floods currently ravaging the country - through the windows it looked like over 80% of the land was under water - you could have been looking at the sea, if it weren't for the odd tree, or roof of a house, peeping out from beneath the water. The weather forecast for here isn't great for the next few days - torrential rain off the back of a tropical storm - so it's dreadful for the country residents who will have lost everything - personal possessions and farm crops. 300 have lost their lives so far, and having seen how widespread the floods are, it's a wonder it has not been more.

On a cheerier note, having made our way off the plane, we bumped into another girl, Hannah, a journalist who had packed in her job to travel for 12 months. In the short time with her, I learned a huge amount - get on a plane, cry that you're scared, find yourself upgraded to first class on the spot and be pampered throughout the flight....genius!!

And so into Bangkok - successfully navigated to the sky train to spend the equivalent of £1.80 to transfer by train into the centre of town. Bargain. However rush hour with a case the size of Everest is not necessarily advisable. Undeterred, we managed to buy two train tickets, change trains twice, and reach the station nearest to my hotel in record time. The humidity on the platform was intense - still wearing my woolly jumper from leaving London at 10pm in October was beginning to aid weight-loss significantly. Air con on the immaculately-clean, LED lit trains was a huge blessing, although we were packed in like sardines.

We landed in the business district, and having wandered through the closing market stalls, decided on taking our first tuk-tuk to get to the hotel. I love arriving in style - the hotel I booked is a 5 star, luxury little place, where the majority of cars pulling up are Mercedes. Emma and I turn up, bags tightly packed in, on a tuk-tuk. Brilliant!

My room is a grand, circular bedded affair, with views over the business district and of Padpong. For those of you unaware of Padpong, this is the notorious Bangkok redlight district, quiet by day and colourful by night. We investigated the night markets - definitely one to buy hooky handbags and Rolex-ish watches - and must've been asked 50 times if we fancied a ping-pong show. You all know what I'm getting at. The bouncers give you 'menus' for you to pick what you want - from balloons to razor blades, you name it, you can have it. The doors are open to most places so we had a gander into a couple - shudder...

Quick dinner out of stir fried vegetables and a few Singha beers and the rain set in, so I retired to bed. Off to the Khao San Road today, hopefully by tuk-tuk again, to find somewhere to stay in the backpackers' area (can't afford 5 star luxury longer than 2 nights!), so time to go. I'll upload some photos later to show where I am, and also how, after less than 24 hours here, my hair is already starting to resemble a gap year student. Amazing - if I can manage to get my face too to roll back 15 years, I'll be doing well....

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