Yesterday was exhausting. We started out going to Fortune Mall to try and get our camera fixed and after the usual pointless haggling with a taxi driver (“200 baht”, “No just use the meter”, “100 baht”, “No just use the meter”, “Fortune Mall, 81 baht”, “There you go”) we found all the shops were shut because everyone’s on holiday until 4th Jan 2054. I think they must use a different calendar to us.

This was or third attempt to save the camera and by now we were well past traipsing around electrical markets and malls so let our inhibitions go, marched into Tesco (Tesco Lotus no less, fancy that!) and bought a new camera for £65.

We clicked that camera to within an inch of its life as we toured the Grand Palace and Wat Pho, where we saw the Buddha in his Emerald and Reclining states then went home for the day’s main event – The Nighttime Bike Tour.

Both Polly and I were a bit suspicious about this. We’d been in Bangkok for three days and all we’d seen on the roads was an endless battle between the three rival taxi firms; Pink, Green/Yellow and Red. I’m currently supporting Pink, they’ve got a jauntiness about them that the serious Red lacks, while Green/Yellow are the tired, bitter stragglers and the most likely to try and rip you off.

No matter, we thought of an evening the traffic will quiet down and we’ll take some sneaky back roads to visit Bangkok’s hotspots by night. No, no, no, no , no. We were straight out onto the dual carriageway, then after we’d got through that it was time for pedestrian dodgems as ten of us tried to weave out way along the pavement and through market stalls.

Then tragedy struck. We’d been bumping up and down the pavements, dodging people and weaving through potholes and trees when Polly took a ramp/dodge combination at the wrong angle and went flying. Luckily the injuries were minor but we called it a day and went to get a conciliatory crepe, which I think cheered Poly up no end. The pictures tell the story.