Dear everyone,

I am having a great time at the moment. We have been in Bangkok for 5 days and on the 8th Nov we caught an overnight train to Chiang Mai (a 12 hour trip) in the North of Thailand. On the train a man came around and turned the seats into bunk beds. I got the top bunk and it was really fun! The journey cost 600 baht (about 10 pounds).

Thailand is completely different to what I expected. It's very busy and there are lots of sky scrapers in Bangkok and there's a type of vehicle which looks like half motorbike (at the front) and half car (at the back) but without any windows or doors - it's called a tuk-tuk and they are a cheap way to travel around. The language is very strange and it's difficult to ask for what you want, sometimes we have to use body language.

It's very hot (25'C) which I did expect. We went on a walk around Bangkok and some of the things on sale look like junk! Lots of silver and gold jewellery and tapes and CD's. There are lots of food stalls selling all kinds of foods, some I recognise, other I don't. we bought some banana pancakes from a street stall - they are 10 baht (65 baht=1pound) which is about 15p!

Anyway, I hope all is well, I am writing this email as part of my homework!

Best wishes

Leala Tyler