After a short flight from Hanoi, I landed in Bangkok for the second time in my trip. I had the same buzz (well, almost) driving into the city centre that I had on my first day travelling but I noticed that this time, I had avoided being ripped off - Atleast I've learnt 1 thing in the last 4 months! After wishing for some more sun than north Vietnam, I was overwhelmed walking around the city the following morning in 30+ degrees but what can I say, I did wish for it! I was so happy to see 7/11 shops again (basically Spar shops) as outside the store fronts is the only place in Asia where you are guaranteed to find a bin (and a street dog...) and inside the store is the only place in Asia where you can stock up on Beng Beng bars, washing detergent and toasties all in the same place. I only spent 2 nights in Bangkok, finishing off what I failed to see the first time and stuffing my face with as many Pad Thai's as I could find before booking an 8 hour train journey to Surat Thani, where there is absolutely nothing to see of interest. I also managed to squeeze in a trip to the night market with a lady-boy, but that's a whole other story....I was horrified to find out, just a couple of hours before my train, that Bangkok has an Ikea. No, I am not ashamed to admit that I considered cancelling my train - I was just angry that it hadn't made made the cut into the lonely planet guide. During my train journey, I managed to find one of the first foods on my trip that I refused to eat (trust me, it doesn't happen very often...) and that was the train food. Oh my days I have never tasted anything quite like it; I want to say that it was fermented fish maybe, who knows...It made me feel a lot better to see that the thai lady sitting next to me was also not going to be going anywhere near it, producing her own mass picnic instead and having found that my skirt no longer gets close to buttoning up, a day without eating probably did me some good...! After 1 night in Surat Thani (more than enough), I was on the first ferry over to the island of Koh Samui, one of the only regrets of my trip...