One night in Bangkok

Morning All

We had a cracking time yesterday. We spent the morning at the floating market about 2hours from Bangkok. It's like the poor mans version of Venice and seems to have as many locals as tourists. The phrase "organised chaos" may well have been invented here. The place is crowded but there's no stress as everybody seems to accept the crowds. You just climb aboard a paddle boat and your "driver" just floats you up to a stall and you buy your food, clothes, souvenirs or tat before paddling on to the next one. After a couple of minutes a few details became clear, a)which stallholders were related to our driver b)if you point at ANYTHING it means you're interested in buying, even if you were pointing out something hideous and c)if you think you can outsmart them by pointing once you've floated past you are mistaken, it seems paddle boats can also do hand break turns!

In the afternoon we went to the bridge on the river kwai. If you don't know what I'm talking about then rent the film! The original bridge is no longer standing but it was still worth the visit to the museum and the commonwealth war memorial as well as the replacement bridge.

We had an amazing setting for our evening meal; the open air Vertigo restaurant on the 61st floor of the Banyan Tree hotel. Alfresco rooftop dining at it's best. The panoramic view of Bangkok was just stunning, and at that height it sounded such a peaceful city compared to it's normal crazed traffic self.

We will try to upload some photos for you when we can which should make for a more enjoyable read, and save us writing so much as we all know a picture says a thousand words.