Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok the city where anything and everything goes...a bit like Brighton I'd say......but anyway it's a really beautiful and modern city with many Buddhist temples and enormous statues of Buddha towering the city. I also managed to find a couple of Hindu temples, one a south Indian and one a north indian temple, and also a very beautiful Sikh temple. So many Indians here and the nicest Indian restaurants, makes a change after that Thai food where I really couldn't find anything that I liked.

Khaosan Road, the centre of the universe, a hippy haven for travelers, was like a mini town of its own, many didn't like it here, but I stayed over a week and became a shopoholic, really, I was going crazy with all the Thai silk handbags you could buy, bought 4 and I never even use the things!! It really is a nice place when you start making friends there with all the Nepalese tailors and the honey man.....and the CD shop owners...bought more CDs here than I have at home.....less than a pound each!! So had to get a portable CD player too and speakers and a new camera etc etc it just becomes addictive...was rather dangerous for me to stay there too long...I was beginning to get the shakes everytime i saw any more handbags and knew that i shouldn't buy them. And clothes clothes clothes.....bought loads and had a tailored orange Thai silk suit made too....got a good discount as I was Indian!! And then there was Boots...in Bangkok.....stocked up on everything! It was a good job I had virtually emptied my rucksack out in Cambodia when I had been ill......it was overflowing again now.

Apart from the shopping the thing that made Bangkok was Patpong....you cannot go to Bangkok and not go there....this was the best entertainment i had had for a long time. Women doing the most amazing tricks with their nether regions.....I was totally impressed.

I made friends with the most lovely rabbit, think it must be missing me now. And the zoo in Bangkok was quite impressive...better than a lot of Asian zoos, a huge collection of really beautiful snakes and the monkeys, really lovely.....it makes me feel sad though that they are not free in a jungle somewhere, well will soon be in Borneo to see the urang-utans in their natural habitat.

It was certainly hard to drag me away from Bangkok but when I got to the island of Koh PhaNgan I didn't even look back.