The pool at Julia and Udo's appartment

We woke early this morning after not the best night's sleep.  The mini bus picks us up, straight onto the ferry and then a little bit of chaos begins.  We get off the ferry and onto a shuttle bus, then wait a while, then into a taxi and everyone is dropped at a service station type place where the mini buses will pick us up for Bangkok.  Its slightly chaotic and it soon becomes apparent that there are too many people for buses.  We are all given different colour stickers, dependant on destination, and told to wait.  We grab some food and then people appear to be moving so we head to the front.  We manage to squeeze onto a mini bus for Bangkok, Andy squashed by the luggage and Freddie in the tiny middle seat up front, but apparently some people are being put on the public buses so we're lucky to get on.

After about four hours we arrive at our destination, tired and hot but we're here.  We jump on the sky train and are met at Thong Lo Station by Julia and Udo (Julia's partner) and we take a cab to their beautiful apartment.  Its peaceful and lovely and has a pool which Freddie is particularly pleased about.  

Farida and Julia went to school together and haven't seen each other for 16 years.  Julia's son, Lucas, was just one month old so has changed a little since the last time Fred saw him.  We spend the evening catching up, eating and drinking and then retire to a peaceful, comfortable bed.  So nice to be staying with friends :-).