Dear All

Sunday evening

We are in Bangkock safely and have had an amazing day but I am very tired and we still have a meal and entertainment to go yet today. We had a tour of the city by minibus, on foot and then lots of boats - water taxis and longtailed boats around the canals, and lastly the skytrain. We went to an orchid farm which was very unusual - not big time commercial. We saw a monitor lizard in the canal and lots of Buddhist temples. We saw the 5 ton solid gold buddah, the 46 m reclinng Buddah and the Marble temple with stone from Italy. That aside, the flight was uneventful. The trip only has 4 of us on it - Lisa and Philip from Sheffield, so we are lucky that it is running at all. I had thought the minimum was 8! Anyway they are in their thirties and on a long travelling session since February. The hotel is amazingly plush. We are in a delux suite on the 28th floor. You can see it all from up here. We ate in the restaurant on the 32nd floor last night. The duck with ginger syrupped fruit/pickle was a utter delight. Our room is double aspect so we had all the curtains open and were awake to watch the sun rise at 5am. Breakfast was early and good - I watched him cook my omlete, and then we walked around the area and saw the other side of the coin which was fascinating. the market stalls had been in full swing since before dawn. The red and green lycheey thinbgs are lovely. Better stop now . I keep having to put money in the hole but at least its quite fast and the keyboard is the one I know. They drive on the left out here by the way. We fly to Laos tomorrow and lose Simon our guide so I hope we find another one.

Love to you all

Ruth and Peter