Sharon and Andy's World Tour 2006

* you'll have to Google it if you can't work it out.

17 February

Bangkok on my birthday! This was where our onward journey through Asia became slightly more tricky than the fairly easy introduction in Hong-Kong would have us believe.

Quickly overcoming a few irritations at the airport (mobile stopped working, no-one seemed willing to change travellers cheques), we hopped on an airport 'backpacker bus' heading to the infamous Khao San Road, near which our hostel was situated.

First to hit us was the heat; around 32'C at 6:30pm. It never really gets any cooler than this so aircon is a real boon. The next shock was the traffic; gangs of seemingly suicidal moped riders weave in and out of the traffic at high speed, squeezing through the narrowest gaps between buses and generally cutting up anything in their way.

On arrival we dumped our stuff at the hostel (the Thai Cozy House - very nice; we'd recommend it to anyone) and popped round the corner to the Khao San Road to find something to eat.

Wow - busy, busy, busy! Khao San is basically a huge mix of shops, restaurants, hostels, street vendors, taxis and loads and loads of backpackers. Being fairly tired after the somewhat delayed flight from Hong-Kong we perhaps didn't appreciate the full 'experience' offered by Khao San but quickly found a good restaurant to have a 'blow-out' birthday meal before heading in for the night.

Over the weekend we visited the Grand Palace; note - once again, the photos don't do it justice(!)

and also took in further exploration of our surroundings at Khao San. Something of note here is that the street vendors in Bangkok can sell you absolutely anything. Walking around, we spotted stalls selling false teeth, counterfeit driving licences, all manner of offensive weapons, clothing of every variety and just about anything else you care to name.

As our next stop was Kanchanaburi (on the River Kwai), we decided on Sunday to walk to the railway station as advanced ticket purchase had been advised. It looked fairly walkable on the map. The map lied.
A lengthy hour in the heat later we arrived at the station to be told that we needed to buy our tickets the next morning... D'OH!

We took a (thankfully cheap)taxi back.