1st night in Bangkok

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We arrived in Bangkok at 3pm local time after a pretty decent flight (apart from passing over Afganistan!). As we got out of the plane, I gratefully took in the 28'c temperature. Slightly different from the snow and ice in England! We passed through an uneventful visa check and baggage claim and then went to get a taxi with some bloke called Mr N. He seemed happy with us calling him that at least. We picked him from a crowd of easily well over 100 taxi drivers.

The traffic rules in Thailand are basically anything goes. The lights are pointless. We got to a tourist office and went to our first hotel in Chinatown....how we ended up there after a 11 hour flight to see Bangkok I don't know. At first we thought everyone was just being friendly, but how naive we were...

The first thing I did in the hotel was block the toilet. Not a great start. We headed out for a wander and to find some food. At first glance everything seemed to be very westernised. Everyone speaks English and the signs are in English too.

After a short wander, a tuk-tuk man appears and keeps trying to hassle us for a ride. We asked him to take us to the seafood market after some bartering for 30B (60p). My first tuk-tuk ride was fantastic and its definately the best way to get round the city, if not sometimes the cheapest.

We ended up in a restaurant having the traditional Tom Kam Yung soup which was lovely, until I ate the hottest chilli known to man and my head was about to explode. After a dousing with a few beers, we walked back to the hotel to get over our jet lag and find the cheap area of town in the morning. On the way back we saw an elephant being led into a chinese restaurant...as you do...

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