Bangers!!!!!!

Hello to all, hope you are all well, people aren't sweating too much in the abnormal weather back in the UK! For sure Jimbo is Indian looking by now, after already being here in Thailand. But that’s another story.
Welcome to a blow by blow account of nearly all we got up to whilst travelling to Laos for our first visa run. We begin in Koh Tao, morning boat to Chumporn with a plan to catch a bus from there to Bangkok. Not really looking forward to Bangkok, as it was dirty and horrible last time, we boarded a mega fast boat to the mainland, I got soaked by the spray, but being a dive instructor took it like one!!
Coming in to Chumporn was bizarre, we entered a kind of estuary, where at least 500 fishing boats, each with around 30 guys on each, preparing for the long night ahead. I have never seen the "over fishing" quite like here in Thailand, and the boats carry on through the night, using massive light bulbs to bring in the fish and Squid. Must be a horrible job too. We were only in Chumporn to catch the bus, which we did successfully.

Arrived in Bangkok, and the heat was not as bad as that in April. So we found a room, and went out to have a drink. Knowing what Bangkok is like, either you drink on the Kao Sarn Road, or you go get your kicks in Patpong, for Pingpong. So we went to both, saw a live sex show, which was not to our taste, although the lady wrote “Welcome To Bangkok Kieran” with her privates and a felt tip. The experience wasn't a complete waste of time, but if you seen one sex show you’ve seen them all.
The next day had to check out of our room fairly early, both a bit hung over, so we thought we would get a little Bangkok culture, while waiting for our bus to Chiang Mai.
Fortunately the King had made it so the Yellow Tuk tuk would take you all around the best sites in the city, for 10 baht each. That is like 15p. The rip part is you are obliged to be taken to first a suit shop, where we happily declined the making of our own Silk suits, then to a Gem shop, where we found some real nice bits cheap, but didn't buy anything. The driver gets free petrol coupans if he takes you to these places, the kind people we are fell for it.
We managed to Kill a few hours looking at temples and Buddha statues, although we didn’t see them all we had a real good idea now of how big the whole Buddhist thing is here. Every corner holds a temple or Statue. You can see the monks walking around early in the morning collecting their food from peaople offering in the streets. This normally occurs everywhere there is a temple with working monks. They go out at first light. Even here on Koh Tao you see it, but small scale.
Anyway we spent the rest of the day taking photo’s until dinner time, where we jumped on a 10 hour coach journey.
The Photos are from Bangkok only, on this page.
The Temples are amazing, intricate and very well kept. It is a shame they haven't considered the up-keep of the rest of the city. We saw the lucky Buddha Temple last as to help us on our travels. Also some photos I just took from the Tuk Tuk, as a point of confusion, and to try to show the madness of Bangkok, although alot of the time I was too late getting the camera out. Hope you enjoy the photos, and read on for next leg of jouney.