When it's hot in Bangkok it's hot - really hot. We set off for the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew this morning at around 8.30am. By the time we arrived 40 minutes later it was a scorcher...felt at least 40 degrees, but really sticky with it. The Grand Palace has been through a bit of a revamp since we last went - gone was most of the scaffolding and, to be honest, most of the tour groups - it was almost deathly quiet. We spent nearly 2 hours wandering round, showing Pat, and seeing again for ourselves, the Emerald (it's actually made from a lump of Jade...another Thai scam?) Buddha and others, before heading off to one of our favourite temples - Wat Pho. Wat Pho is home to one of the world's largest reclining Buddhas. Last time we can it too was under scaffold but this time it has been almost fully restored and we got to have a good look and take the obligatory photos. The feet are inlaid with mother of pearl and are about 5 metres high - very impressive as the rest of the Buddha (50 metres long??) is pure gold.

From here we went to Khao Sarn Rd to laugh at the hippies although there weren't many around...maybe SARS has got to them all? Who knows, maybe they've all decided to go home and get jobs...no I doubt it. Had some nice spring rolls and went for the holy trinity - Burger King. Yup that's McD's, KFC, and BK in consecutive days...YUM!

On the way back the taxi driver decided to take us via Aberdeen (seemingly, although didn't see any grey buildings or seagulls the size of dogs) and refused to turn down the road we're staying on saying it was 'one way'. When we stopped at the lights we jumped out and hired another cab without paying. He didn't kick up a fuss so for once we felt that was a submission that he knew he was in the wrong...

Muay Thai boxing tonight at Lumpini Stadium, followed by some more temples and the Royal Barge Museum tomorrow. We've booked and paid for our tickets out of here - we're off to Koh Tao on the overnight train on 8th so we should be diving on the 10th. Pat will hopefully start his course on the evening of the 9th. Not sure what we're doing after his course ends - I guess if he likes it he may do the advanced...

Pat keeps uploading pictures onto his site - here. He's got a much easier way of uploading them than we have and more space so hence why we're directing you here. We should have those vid files up in the next couple of days.