Bangkok

Bangkok is absolutely full of temples ("Wats"). There are temples with 40 foot high swings, temples with 47m long reclining gold buddhas, temples with yaks, temples within temples within palaces. And then there's patpong road, which shall we just say is about as far away from the religious life as you can get.
Everyone stays in Khao San road, there must be over a hundred cheap hotels here. By the way, don't trust any spelling while in thailand, there's at least 47 different ways to translate thai script into english - thai is a tonal language, the same word spoken high pitched/ low pitched/ rising pitch/ falling pitch can mean different things.

Loy Kratong

I was quite impressed. Here's a local festival with huge oppurtunities to fleece tourists wanting to see something cultural, and no one would tell me a thing about it! They all light candles on decorative floats and set them going down the river. Something to do with appeasing river gods, dunno. Also lots of beauty competitions.

I'm now off to Chiang Mai, up in the north to do a bit of trekking. Even though the buses are cheaper and faster than the trains, with air conditioning as standard and free drinks (water/coke) being served regularly, I'm taking the train.