Bangkok is a city that's perhaps best digested in bite-sized chunks, which is what Chris and I are doing. We took the night train back from Chiang Mai to Bangkok on Friday night, spent Saturday in Bangkok and met Rachel, my girlfriend, at the airport on Sunday morning. After a few days spent in Kanchanaburi, west of Bangkok, we're back in the City of Angels.

We're staying at a guesthouse close to the banks of the River Chao Phraya, not far from the main backpacker ghetto of Khao San Road. If you know someone who's travelled in Thailand on a budget, the chances are they've spent some time along Khao San Road. I'm glad we didn't come here first - the level of hustle and hassle is, if anything, worse than in the similar areas of Chiang Mai. At one end of Khao San Road, outside the police station, is a fence covered with the names, pictures and descriptions of people who are still missing after the tsunami a month ago. On 22 January, when I arrived in Bangkok, there were still 4612 people missing in Thailand, both Thais and foreigners. The depth of people's generosity is such that there is also a large perspex box over half filled with banknotes.

On our Saturday night in Bangkok before Rachel's arrival Chris and I went to watch some Thai boxing at Lumphini stadium. I've never been a great fan of violence as entertainment, and this was no exception - I left after five fghts out of ten. At 800B, it was also expensive and, I suspect, the average Thai has been largely priced out of the market as the stadium was half empty. However, the best part of the spectacle for me was watching a hard core of Thai men on the terrace behind us betting frantically, shouting whenever a punch or a kick was landed and trying to communicate with each other with some kind of Thai tic-tac.

We'll be concluding our stay in Thailand with a trip to the beach, so we've booked ourselves an early morning flight to Ko Samui. From there, we'll take a ferry to Ko Pha Ngan, an island in the Gulf of Thailand, for a few days relaxing before we head back to Bangkok one last time.