From eggs to elephants to lizards to snakes to Bonkers!

The night market in Hua Hin (Fiz says this in a Bruce Lee type voice) has everything you'd expect to find in a street market, plus other wacky surprises - among which we had seen weird coloured eggs (mainly pink) at a couple of stalls in the day market but didn't know what they were - perhaps painted foetus eggs a la China?! No, we actually discovered that foetus eggs in Thailand are regular egg colour on the outside but have lollipop sticks stuck in a small hole in the shell (we still haven't eaten any) and that the coloured eggs are actually small thick rubber balloons filled with ice cream! Very nice!

After Rita (Fiz's mum) had bought some MC Hammer-like Thai trousers, and we'd tried to haggle hard for some rip-off merchandise, we headed back towards the hotel, via a bar stall. After a few too many cheap 90Baht cocktails, we got our heads down for the night.

For breakfast on Saturday we frequented (by which I mean it was our second breakfast there) the very fine 'All In Hua Hin Info-Bistro and Deli' (a German influenced cafe, with ironically no Wifi or info leaflets!) just up the road from the hotel.

Our first sight of the day was Plearn-Wan, a mini retro town which was teeming with Chinese tourists. There were a few food stalls, some cool clothes shops and a mock street (which weirdly had a VW camper and a cut out of the Beetles on it) but it wasn't knock-your-socks-off tourism! It must have topped 35 degrees here during the day - with no wind and a baking sun, these are conditions I still cannot get used to, but Fiz is taking in her stride! Visiting a local Elephant sanctuary afterwards was much more rewarding, as we got a hug and a kiss from a 4 year old elephant who then brought over a basket for us to leave a donation.

We also visited Chat Chai Market - primarily a food market selling everything from pig's trotters to dried squid, to frogs and fish guts. Fiz couldn't get out quick enough! After some much needed relax time by the hotel pool, we headed for dinner and more cocktails at a bar called 'Retro Philia'.

As we edged closer to Bangkok, on Sunday we took a mini-bus to Phetchaburi- famous for its desserts apparently. After taking the cable car to 'Palace Hill', another monkey-ridden palace used many years ago by the monarchy, we headed in to town to take in our first Wat, in which there was a beautiful old temple, a Bhudda statue with 6 toes, a large pond/pool with a library that looked like it was about to keel over, and some monks - who were disappointingly sporting chavvy tattoos, smoking and using mobile phones!

We had an early dinner at a Lonely Planet and Rough Guide recommended restaurant called 'Rabieng Rimnum' amongst other things our choices included spicy banana salad, palm sugar shrimp curry and fresh mussel red curry from the extensive menu. We stopped short of having anything more adventurous as i'm sure it would probably have included remnants of the 4ft long Monitor lizards that were being hunted on the river next to the restaurant. The desserts that Phetchaburi is famous for materialised in the shape of more strange jelly looking substances and spicy bread biscuits.

Yesterday (Monday) we finally got on the bus to Bonkers - we've been in Thailand now for 3 weeks and only now do we get to sample the delights of one of the hottest capitals in the world, only being 14 degrees shy of the equator.

On the Express boat up the Chao Phraya river - which is operated using a clever but simple system, where the conductor at the back whistles commands to the driver at the front - we had to be quick to get on and off, as it only stops for a matter of 30 seconds or less. We probably shouldn't be surprised though - with a population of 11 million, it's a city that must have to get used to moving people around quickly.

The famous Khao San road, which was very much open despite what a local 'businessman' told us, is full of backpackers, clothes stalls, bars and backpackers. There we wandered around looking for a specific travel agent recommended by friends looking to get our visas for Cambodia. We then had a fine dinner at 'Tongue Thai' restaurant in the evening, were turned away from the Sirocco Sky Bar for not having suitable footwear and then went for more cocktails at Mango Tree restaurant.

And today we visited Jim Thompson's house (American soldier who moved to Thailand and protected the Silk industry) and then went to see some of the world's deadliest snakes at the second snake farm in the world!

First impressions of Bangkok aren't necessarily what we expected - it is huge and there's loads of traffic, but it's more relaxed, quite flat/few skyscrapers, there's a good atmosphere in the places we've been so far and we've not been hassled too much to buy suits and 'souvenirs'!

Tonight (Tuesday) we say goodbye to our temporary travel companions Terry and Rita. We're going to spend the next couple of days exploring Bonkers and then will see where our travels take us next.