Good mornings, sweaty afternoons, amazing nights!

The jet lag is finally starting to wear off, and we're both acclimatising a bit more to the feeling of being in a strange country and knowing we won't see another familiar face for six months, which made our first full day away seem a bit overwhelming.

We spent the hottest part of the day yesterday hanging around in a few of the open air cafes in the Khao San Road area. The best part of this area is the street we're now staying on, which runs roughly parallel to Khao San and is lined with leafy palm trees with dangling multi-coloured paper lanterns. I tried tom yum kung and Dave had red snapper from one of the open-air bbqs. I tried a lychee fruit shake as well which was sweet and cold. Fresh pineapple, mango and watermelon is sold on the street by vendors with little carts.

We also discovered a really nice park in the Banglampu area yesterday evening. We stayed there to watch the sunset and the drop-in aerobics classes which take place there every night. This was really incredible - the synchronised movements and the romantic atmosphere made it seem more like a show than a sports class.

Last night we found a little bar called Tuk Tuks by chance, while we were wandering around looking for food. There was live music being performed by the resident artists who were pretty crusty (but cool) looking backpackers and who obviously knew all the customers. The atmosphere was amazing, and by the end of the night everyone in the bar (about 25 people including us) was dancing to 'No Woman No Cry', sung as 'No Bangkok no cly...'

Today we bought a quick breakfast from the Seven Eleven round the corner (banana cake) and then headed out to do the tourist thing. We visited Wat Pho (the reclining Buddha), the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. I will run out of superlatives if I attempt to describe these places so suffice it to say that they were pretty impressive! Check out the pictures to get a better idea. In some of the temples (wats) photography was forbidden so there are no pictures of the Emerald Buddha.

Unfortunately we ended up wandering around the grounds of the Palace during the hottest part of the day and we were both wilting afterwards, so we headed back on the river boat to our guesthouse. Tonight we went for dinner at an open-air restuarant near by and I had fried chicken and basil with rice which is exactly as it sounds but really fresh and spicy!

P.S More photos on facebook! Dad  - you will need to add me and David as friends to see all of them.