Well it's day four and we've seen and done so much I don't know where to start. I must admit that when we first arrived in Bangkok we were a bit overawed and it took us a while to get our bearings. On our first night we stayed holed up in our hotel and ordered room service as we were too shellshocked to venture out into the bustling streets of Chinatown below (bit pathetic I know but we were jetlagged). The next day we left the sanctuary of the hotel and hopped onto a bus downtown to explore, we had a great time and loved Bangkok so much we've stayed longer than we planned.

We've found it a lot easier to navigate the city than we expected and so far the con artists have been easy to spot and avoid. We've had to rapidly improve our bartering skills, particularly at the night market near Lumpini park, where we took part in a marathon haggling session over a t-shirt.

Our highlights so far have to include river travel, so much more relaxing than road travel, and the trip we took around the canals was fantastic (even if we were forced to buy a rather expensive beer for the boat driver by the most persistent floating saleswoman ever). The canals really open the city up; the shoddy wooden houses crumbling into the river, crammed with clothes lines, pots and pans were fascinating. But equally absorbing was how the other half live in their grand teak mansions with private jetties onto the canal.

The big must-do here is the Grand Palace which is amazing with its beautiful glittering temples and halls, but the admission price is pretty steep. The National Museum is great value, a real eye-opener on Thailand's history and the endless battles with Burma over territory.

We've found the main traveller centre of Khao San road pretty good for bits and pieces, but very hectic and a bit like a cross between Glastonbury festival and Ibiza. We've stayed in Chinatown while we've been here which has been perfect, no hassles and tons of interesting street markets and alleyways (but not been brave enough to eat the unidentified objects frying away in huge pots yet).

We're finally leaving Bangkok tomorrow and heading up to Sukhothai or maybe to Kanchanaburi.

Vital statistics
* 9,000,000: Number of people living in Bangkok
* 10.7kg and 12.6kg: The weight of our rucksacks (mine is the heavy one!)
* GBP 1.90: The price of the t-shirt we haggled for at the night market