Feb 15-17: two nights in Bangkok

We spent two days in Bangkok, mostly they involved trying to get to a water park on the edge of town which we didn't get to (I have come to doubt Paddy's dedication to this park) and trying to get Visas for Vietnam: which was awkward because of Tet (new year). We got a taxi back to our hotel on the 15th, it was about twenty minutes on foot, but we were in a hurry as we wanted to get our passports and go to the Vietnamese embassy before it closed. It was Thursday and we needed to get our applications in that evening in order to leave at the weekend. We ended up stuck in the cab for almost two hours as the taxi driver took us somewhere completely different: he didn't speak English, we didn't speak Thai and we were completely lost: but using a tourist map we have acquired we eventually navigated our way back to the hotel! I thought he was a con artist and I was raging, but later that day he turned out to be a good Samaritan who gave us an everlasting belief in the goodness of Thai people. Paddy left his wallet in the taxi, with money in it. We gave up on it straight away and put it down to the stress of traveling. Later that day he got the wallet back. It turned out that the taxi driver came back to the hotel and waited for two hours to give the wallet back, money intact.
The next day we took a boat trip, we got to feed catfish in the river and see giant Buddha statues and buy beers from passing sellers. This was the best part of our time in Bangkok, especially feeding the fish.
The next day, the 17th of February, we headed to the island of Ko Chang in South eastern Thailand: it was humid and busy in Bangkok, we needed beaches and boats and longed for the sea.