Thailand - Bangkok (8-10 March)

Hot, sweaty and smoggy. Stayed near backpacker central Kao San Road - a chaotic neon street selling fake CDs, clothes, watches. Hundreds of dodgy tourist disinformation centres & touts ('the temple is closed today' / 'there is no train there, why don't you take our tour instead') stalls selling stolen backpapckers stuff and er... loads of tailor's shops.

The river was great (esp. to escape the traffic & heat) went up & down it on little local boats to see the sights. Just remeber: the monks go at the back. Oh and you can't touch one if you are a girl.

Went to the big park in the middle of the city to chill out but our peace was disturbed by obscenely large lizards climbing trees nearby. Later on, one of them ate one of his freinds: we could see him chomping away trying to swallow his mate whole, with the tail waggling out of his mouth. He finished with an evil stare and a wicked lick of the lips which said 'watch it, punk, or you'll be next...'

There's some big protests going on trying to get rid of the prime minister. He promised to eradicate drugs in Thailand in 6 months, solve Bangkok's transport problems in 3 and promised 1million farmers a cow each. Oh and he sold shares in a company of his that benefitted from his own policies, tax free for a few billion quid. We left before the real big protests kicked in but would have been interesting to stick around and see him toppled.