Ahh... my Mildura friend again. Yes, I already feel that Bangkok will be fantastic. I have heard that you either love it or loathe it. Bangkok is just Bangkok - traffic jams, heat and chaos!!!! And if you go there, then you know thats what you will encounter. My only problem will be that I wont have enough time there. We only have 3 nts - staying at Novotel on Siam Square and yes (hit the lotto!) right near the Skytrain and very close to MBK Centre. We arrive on the Saturday, so will take most of that day to settle in and ground ourselves. The Sunday - we plan to spend most of the day (if not all morning) at Chatuchuk Mkts and then the Monday we will hit the dept stores, MBK being the first and major one. Then Tuesday we hope to fit in a tour to the Grand Palace and then ... sadly ... we fly home to Sydney on Tuesday night. But, Im sure Ill be back to Bangkok and then hopefully I can do all the other things you suggested, like Lumphini Park (Ive read about that) and Suan Lum mkts. For the time we have in Bangkok ... do you think there is anything that Ive listed that we should/should not do???

I just want to thank all of those who maybe read this and gave me advice on what form of money to take to Thailand - after much deliberation over the many possibilities - I have decided to take half cash AUD and half in travellers cheques.

So ... once again ... thankyou. I just think this forum is great for newbies like me who have never been to a country and have so many (what seem like trivial) questions to ask. LIKE WHERE IS THE IMHO DEPARTMENT STORE???!!! I learnt that lesson rather quickly ... didnt I Kimbo???