Bangkok part 1

We left Kho Pha Ngan and boarded an over night train bound for Bangkok, as over night trains go this one was pretty good. Our seats turned into a bed and there was a pull down top bunk, so we did sleep, which was good as the following day was hectic. We arrived in Bangkok early morning and went for breakfast. Then we were taken to a floating market, the only one left in Thailand apparantly. That was fun, there was bit of a boat ride to get there and local people were selling their wares from long boats....mainly farm produce. There was also a market on the land next to the canal so we had a good look round there. Kit told us that all the prices were more inflated here and you have to haggle (you have to do that everywhere but here you have to do it more), we tried our best, but I reckon we still got ripped off. It feels wrong to be arguing with poor people over 20p though! Rich bought the nastiest bit of tat we've seen since the Steve Irwin and family plate, a wavy cat. We've seen them everywhere, gawdy gold plastic cats with a wavy arm :-/ ....he loves it. After the floating market we drove over to the bridge over the river kwai, had a walk on the bridge and a look round the museums, then visited a cemetary where hundreds of japanese POW who died during the building of the Burma railway are buried. Rich's grandad was a POW and worked on the Burma Railway, it was really sad to see the cemetary and all the names of the people who died, nearly all of them under 25.

This was the last day of our tour although it does include a night at a hotel in Bangkok....the girls however had to fly home that night. They were desperate to shop on Khosan Road (famous for shopping in Bangkok and VVVVV cheap) before they went. W arrived back in Bangkok around 7pm, by the time they'd showered and got themselves ready for leaving it was about 7.30....then they went on a shopping frenzy! We all chilled out and had dinner, they met us an hour or so later loaded with bags and wolfed down some food, then Bronagh went for round 2.....she didn't come back till almost 11, poor Kate was getting stressed as their flight was just after midnight...it was funny...We bade them farewell and then about half an hour later Kit got a phonecall from a tearful Kate saying she'd left her painting behind!!! Oh how we laughed....sorry Kate, but we did. She'd been carrying this enormous rolled up canvas with her since Bali (before she joined this tour) and it was slowly getting battered...and then she goes and leaves it behind...tee heee ;-) We'll send it home to you Kate....promise!

So, girls gone :-( tour over :-( we're on our own....