Bling bling in Bangkok

We arrived in Bangkok tired and stinky after our overnight flight from Sri Lanka, and with no bed for the night. Lonely Planet's guidebook gave fantastic instructions on how to get away from Bangkok's Don Muang airport but unfortunately we landed in Suvarnabhumi airport, which opened only last month. Luckily there was an airport bus outside so we hopped on and I promptly fell asleep. After about 30 minutes I woke up, just as we got into Bangkok itself. Despite the air conditioning on the bus, sitting in traffic in the sun was making me feel like I was being baked alive.

We had a plan for getting a room - a hotel on Soi Rambuttri, a few minutes away from Khao San Road. I had high expectations from the write-up in our trusty guidebook and was so pleased when the girl on the reception desk said that they did have a room available, gave us a key and invited us to take a look.

Lonely Planet describes the Rambuttri Village Inn as the Holiday Inn of guesthouses - well it looked more like the Ritz to us when we walked in. Air-conditioned, with our own bathroom with hot water, a TV, bedcovers we could actually sleep under and best of all, a rooftop pool, all for a tenner a night. We checked in for three days.

That night we headed over to Khao San Road which is basically traveller heaven. The road is lit up by neon signs and more shops, stalls and street food sellers than you can count. Narrow alleyways with even more shops and places to eat branch off the main road. We wandered about and got ourselves some food - which included the nicest spring rolls I've ever tasted and it cost us 55 baht - less than a pound.

Khao San Road seemed to have a magnetic pull as no matter where we started, we ended up back there every night of our stay in Bangkok, trying more of the street food. Banana and chocolate rotis one night for 20 baht each - 14p - and they were divine!

Next day, we started with a lunch that had so many chillies in it I thought I was going to collapse and die face down in my dinner. After I had recovered from that, but still with a nasty ache in my stomach, we set off for a spot of sightseeing. Bangkok has more than 500 temples and although we had no plans to see them all we thought we should make an effort to see at least one. Resisting the urge to get a tuk-tuk, we walked over to Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) and Grand Palace (Phra Borom Maharatchawong), a former royal residence. The place is true bling. I had seen pictures but seeing is believing. It was like walking around a fairy story.

Bright gold buildings with coloured glass and ornate decoration - and you can see temples like this everywhere in Bangkok. Rising up out a boring grey cityscape will be a gleaming golden chedi, or tower.

That evening we decided to find Chinatown - best seen at night apparently. In an attempt to burn off some of the extra calories we're taking in with all this delicious food, to save a bit of dosh and seeing as we had plenty of time, we decided to walk there. It was a long walk and we got lost a few times along the way. It didn't seem to matter how much further we went, there wasn't any sign of the hustle and bustle we were expecting. Then we noticed that there were lots of Chinese signs above the doors and shops, but they were all shut.

Have you ever come home after a terrible at work, exhausted and fed up and with no food in the fridge? You know exactly what you want, a Chinese takeaway - duck pancakes with hoi sin sauce and then crispy fried beef and rice. So you get in the car, drive down to the takeaway and your heart sinks when you realise it's Monday night and they're shut.

Yep, it was Monday and it seems the 'No opening on Mondays' rule applies in Bangkok's Chinatown too. I was very grumpy and then ... it started to rain. We ditched our no tuk-tuk policy, grabbed the next one and made our way back to Khao San Road as the heavens opened and the rain came down.

Tuesday was public transport day. Most people who know me will be aware of (and those unfortunate few that have been abroad with me will have experience of) my great love for testing out public transport in foreign countries. Bangkok has a wide choice of public transport, although it's not very joined up. We hadn't really got over our experiences on the buses in Sri Lanka (I still have a big black bruise on my calf from where I fell backwards and whacked the seat on one trip) and we weren't keen to sit in traffic anyway so we decided to go for the river taxi instead.

The Mae Nam Chao Phraya river separates the city east and west and various canals (khlongs) come off it. We got on the Chao Phraya River Express and travelled about 30 minutes down the river. I can't say I would like to have a swim in the Mae Nam Chao Phraya but it was a pleasant enough journey and a different way to see the city.

After getting off we found the main post office to send a few things home and lighten our rucksacks a bit. (When we checked in for our flight to Bangkok my bag only weighed 11.5 kilos and I'm determined to make it lighter ever time we fly.) Next stop was the Skytrain - a 'overground' line with airconditioned carriages and fantastic views over Bangkok. There are only two lines and the entire route is printed on the back of your ticket so its really easy to use. We got off at the end of the line, Mo Chit, for Chatuchak market. It's supposed to be the mother of all markets, with zillions of stalls selling all sorts of things, from handmade Thai silks to live snakes. I had a feeling we wouldn't be able to stomach it for long. We needn't have worried - when we arrived we realised it was a weekend market - and it was Tuesday. Great. Yet again I was grumpy but this time we were too far from home to get a tuk-tuk back. In fact we were miles away, off the Central Bangkok map we'd been using.

Rather than get back on the Skytrain we decided we'd use the afternoon to have a look around some of the malls near Siam Square and make our way back to Chinatown to make up for the night before. I wish I had come to Bangkok on a two week holiday with a credit card to max and not on a 6 month trip where every penny counts. There are so many fabulous shops here.

We spent most of the afternoon looking for a hat for Gareth. This has been an ongoing saga since we left the UK. Despite all our planning, the one thing we didn't get sorted was a hat for Gareth. In our excitement at Heathrow, we rushed through to Departures before checking out the shops for a hat and we forgot that all the shops after that are Chanel, Harrods etc. I think Gareth tried on 90% of the hats in Sri Lanka - they all have pea heads and every baseball cap made him look like Elmer Fudd. It was the same in Bangkok. I have offered him a loan of my bandana but he's not going for it..........

What seemed like a hundred miles of walking later, we found our way to Chinatown, all lit up and very busy. We wandered around for a bit and then decided it was tuk-tuk time again and got dropped off again in Khao San Road. At last we found Gareth a hat! After all that walking we stopped for a Thai foot massage on our way back to the hotel. It's the first one I've had in a disused Shell petrol station that doubles as a makeshift cocktail bar but it was wonderful.

Today we're having an easy day, Gareth is lounging by the pool as we speak, before we get the overnight train to Chiang Mai. We'll let you know how that goes soon!