Bangkok, Thailand

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I've visited Bangkok a few times now, it's a happening city. Ko san road is the common place for tourists to eat, sleep and party. We stayed at a couple of places on the road that were well priced and had good facilities. Although it's the likely hot spot, there were many apparent negatives to staying on Ko san road. These were mainly local businesses exploiting tourists, from suit sellers to ping pong show sales. Awareness also needs to be followed when trusting tuk tuk drivers. Some drivers will attempt to take you on day 'tours' for a cheap price. They essentially entail you being taken around a couple of low key temples and then dragged around partner suit shops and gift shops for them to make business. We actually took one of these tours and when deciding we'd had enough, our tuk tuk driver refused to take us home until we'd been to every shop. Took the best part of an hour to walk home, bit of exercise for the

Negatives aside, there were some awesome places in Bangkok. The grand palace is a must, costs around £7 for the day and once you've seen it, you won't need to see any others in Thailand. Ping pong show is actually quite entertaining and was a crazy experience, not for the faint hearted though. Roof top bar is highly recommended by the lonely planet and I can see why, definatly the coolest place sit down with a pint. They play acoustic versions of classic rock music and you also meet alot of other travellers in there.
In Bangkok, they have outdoor gyms called fitness parks. They have a stage for dance workouts, gym equipment and a running track lapping the park.
Our main means of transport around the city were tuk tuks. Small motored, 3 wheeled vehicles that cost about 30p for a single journey, not bad!
Food stalls are everywhere, they sell pad thai noodle dishes for about 70pence and spring rolls for 30. Have to be careful with alcohol, even the beer is a higher percentage than England. The main drinks sold are either whiskey or vodka buckets (£4 a pop) or lethal cocktails (£2). Either way, it's difficult maintaining a sobre state on a night out, learning from experience and all.

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