Remember how hot it was in Dubai? I think it's worse here.

On Sunday and Monday I sort of just wandered around Chinatown and its various markets . I had to keep coming back to the hotel because it was just too damn hot. Then I’d get frozen in my room and have to wander out to the 7 Eleven or something to warm up again. The only thing that really interested me was a market built on bridge out of tarps, glue and hope. And inside, they sold cameras and laptops. Amazing.

I have to admit, I’m trying to type this on another train, but it’s a sleeper train to Chiang Mai, and my space bar is horrendously loud in the silence. Plus, the bed lady just threatened to see us at 5:30am, which means I ought to sleep...

On Monday evening I met my group for this tour. We’re all solo travellers, but there are just five of us, and yours truly is the only European. Our leader is Andy (or Andrea) from New Zealand, who informed us that she was our fourth choice leader, since all the rest had become sick – one with Dengue Fever. Oh happy day. Rhonda, Ben and Matt are all from Australia, and Jamie is from Colorado, so we all have something in common. Me.

Anyway.

We went out to Khao San Road that night to have a gawk. It was loud and gaudy and touristy. In a way, I think Kathmandu was better. And worse. But definitely more of either. Khao San is really quite short and wide, and nothing is terribly unexpected - except maybe the fish massage (where you put your feet in water and fish supposedly chew off the dead skin ...)

This morning we got a boat trip along the Khlongs, which are the canals that run through Bangkok, and I quite liked it. It was strange, because it reminded me of a Disneyland ride. All the houses were so perfectly run down, and yet so lovingly maintained, it didn’t look like they should be standing, but they were. We sat in a lock for a while with a few other boats, before speeding off through the electricity poles and spraying water everywhere.

After that, we visited Wat Pho (Or Wat Po, or Wat Phao, or Wat Paoh... anything along those lines), which houses the largest reclining Buddha in the world. I don’t blame him though, it’s too hot to be doing anything else, really. We walked his length, admired his mother of pearl feet and then decided what to do next. Rhonda, Ben and Jamie wanted to see the Grand Palace, and Matt wanted to get a Thai massage, since Wat Pho is the founding school of that type of massage. I decided that Grand Palaces and Grand Temples and Wats and Monasteries all sort of blend into one another after a while, but a massage is a massage, so that’s what I got . And it was worth it! This tiny lady poked me and pulled me and stretched me and cracked every bone in my body and it was magnificent. She even popped my ears, but I didn’t like that bit at all.

Feeling great, and able for anything, we wandered the Flower market and some more of the Chinatown markets for a while. Matt was looking for a pack of cards, and though you can get almost anything on the street in Bangkok (including any type of Yu-gi-oh/Pokemon cards OR sunglasses designed like a pack of playing cards), it’s very bloody hard to find normal playing cards. Or Thai flags, or postcards.

We had lunch at the hotel, then I wandered out again and managed to find a Flag Shop. Duh. Don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. Satisfied, I returned to find Jamie and her backpack spread out all over the floor and moaning in despair (Jamie, not the backpack). I cheered her up with the fact that my backpack – despite its recent Disneyland removal – was still heavier than hers, and we managed to get our respective loads packed and into the van that brought us to the station where we got on the train that is taking us to Chiang Mai at the court of King Caractacus .

Phew. There’s an attendant, who we’ll call Donny, that has taken a liking to Ben and Matt, since they drink a lot of beer. He doesn’t say much, but he laughs at us a lot, and since he has no teeth, we laugh back a lot. It’s very entertaining.

In our carriage we’re having a cockroach competition. They’re everywhere, and you have to smash them fast or they get away and into your food bag. Jamie is currently winning, and Rhonda isn’t far behind, but there are a few English girls a few beds down who are catching up quickly.

Gotta go, there’s one on my pillow!