Bangkok

I arrived in Bangkok on Tuesday and stayed till Friday. Bangkok is an experience. I really only started to get a handle on it, and my bearings, after two days. The highlight for was the abundant, cheap and very tasty food. My afternoon at the "Grand Palace" was great-

I had two Thai massages (the legitimate kind) while I was in Bangkok. A very painful but hopefully beneficial experience. I stayed in a very nice hostel just off Sukhumvit Road, one of the main tourist hubs in Bangkok. I had my own room, so did not rough it. I certainly did not feel out of place as an unaccompanied older male. One example of the male sex tourist was the Australian and his Thai girl sitting next to me at a restaurant charging about 50 Baht (about £1.00, $2.30) for a main course. He would have been about my age. He was talking to her about himself in some sort of Thai accent, presumably so that she would understand him better. There are lots of things that I could say about what is wrong with sex tourism. But what really struck me was just what a f**king cheapskate he was! He could at least have taken the poor girl out somewhere a bit nicer.

My bargaining skills have started to improve although I suspect that I am still pretty easy prey. There are plenty of transport options in Bangkok. I have used just about every type of transport in Bangkok, including the metro, skytrain, tuk-tuk, taxi and one terrifying ride on the back of a motor scooter (I do not why that seemed liked a good idea).