Day one started pretty early when we woke up at 5am - we had to wait until an hour to get up as the hotel restaurant didn't open until 6am. However, we woke up in a pretty flash hotel room, so it wasn't all bad. We're on the 18th floor, which means a fantastic view (especially at night) and have a king size bed (it's seriously huge!). The bathroom is all marbled tiled with a granite vanity, and the hot water pressure literally blows you away. Of course, the most important thing is the air-conditioning, which is a saviour after a long day walking the streets - which we were soon to discover.

After a leisurely breakfast, it was almost 7am and we (ok, I) were (was) ready to explore. Bangkok doesn't seem to get going until around 10am - the shops are all closed before then, and even though there are plenty of people walking the streets and traffic on the roads, it's not really clear where they are all off to. None the less, it was still interesting to soak up the sights, smells and heat. From our hotel, we headed towards the World Trade Centre (Mall), and were accosted into a tuk tuk to jump in a boat to go up the Klongs (River) system. Tuk tuks are a fantastic way to travel. They are very cheap, and offer more options to take in the sights and atmosphere than a taxi - they also seem to like going round the other traffic and travelling into on-coming traffic which is great for the adrenaline junky. By cheap I mean, less than $2 to travel all over the place (we spent 2 hours looking round for $1.50).

So, enough about the joys of tuk tuks... during our river 'cruise', the main features were the very extravagent temples and the very non-extravagent housing. The water is disgusting, but the locals still have no problems swimming, bathing, washing and cooking using it. The houses are up on stilts and one hates to think what happens when it floods. (They saw us coming a mile away, "stupid Farang (Foreigner)". In taking my dads, 'everything must trickle down theory', I/ we paid approx $40 for this river trip. Can we say 'taken' - Aaron)

Climbing off the boat near the Grand Palace (about 1 and a 1/2 hours later) we were accosted (yet again) into another tuk tuk to go see a giant buddha. Seems that it is New Years here (or something like that) so we got to see quite a few other people sized buddhas, where people go to say blessings. Poor buddha's obviously get thirsty and someone had gone around and left them all bottles of water - with a straw of course. The buddhas are covered in small squares of gold leaf, and are quite impressive. The 'ever-so-kind' tuk tuk driver then took us to a tailor, which we managed to offend and be kicked out of - no idea why, then onto a jewellery store. Here we said goodbye to our tuk tuk driver, paid him 40B ($1.50 NZ) and jumped in a taxi to go to the Siam Centre.

What a busy day, and it had only just ticked over lunchtime. From here, the decision was made to slow down and enjoy the scenery a bit more, so we had a leisurely afternoon perusing the shops, and I was generally trying hard not to buy anything as my pack is already far too full. I did, however make one purchase, which all you science/engineer geeks will appreciate... Headed back to the hotel, about 5pm just in time to miss a bit rain storm. Blobbed out in front of TV and the big bay window, and hit the sack pretty early.

So day one down, I don't know if I can handle this pace for the next two weeks - might be off to England for a holiday.

(We had learned our lesson in eating breakfast at the hotel, it is over priced. So we made a couple of trips to the 7-11 to get some snacks and breakfast. Tomorrow we will hit up a local Supermarket - Aaron)