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Nine years on and I'm back in Bangkok! This is where my love for travelling was born - the first stop on my 'rite of passage' and what a culture shock it was, a small town Dorset girl who had only ever seen parts of Europe suddenly let loose on the not so salubrious lights of big bad Bangkok! Ah well, it must have pulled on something because ever since then, this is what I live for - seeking out those new experiences and adventures of different countries and cultures.
And suddenly it hits me, the one thing Australia does not have and something I realise I miss is that cultural diversity. Yes it has the best beaches in the world, a perfect climate, the snowy mountains, Ayres rock, the great ocean road - god the list really is endless, however the one thing is, however far you travel around the expanse that is Australia, not really a lot changes. As I sit with my Singha beer enjoying that travelling alone feeling I think how lucky we Europeans are - less than 3 hours and we are in Eastern Europe, 4 or 5 hours and North Africa, 6 or 7 and mid Africa, 9 and we are even as far as India. Pretty much on the door step compared to the mission that anywhere is from Australia.
Well what a reality check to confirm that as much as some things change others just absolutely stay the same. Sitting here with IPhone, iPad and many more wrinkles I think how much technology has moved on - nine years ago it was a mission to find an Internet cafe with a computer and now you just wip out the iPad and connect to wireless, nine years ago I would have had to change to local time on my watch, now I have just added another city to world clock on the iPhone only to realise that the phone has changed to local time itself! What hasn't changed are obviously the rules and uniform for that 'rite of passage', the Thai trousers are still a must! Those leather wrist bands still on one or both travellers wrists and the Singha beer still goes down a treat and costs next to nothing! The groups of teenagers / early twenties make me smile, they bring back memories but surprisingly don't make me feel old - I thought they would?! Maybe it's because I'm still having that adventure of my own - and long may it continue.
The other thing that doesn't change is that obvious globalisation brought about by an iconic brand - this fascinates me. I remember being amazing by it on my first trip to Asia and still am, probably more now that i work in Sales & Marketing. In a fridge full of local beer, Heineken stands out, in a fridge full of local branded water, Evian does the same but when it comes to non alcoholic fizzy pop nothing local comes into the equation - coca cola, Pepsi, schweppes , redbull, Perrier.
And what about these people wondering round in masks - now they were doing this nine years ago and still are - what the hell is all that about or I am missing something?!
Time to board, another few wines and I think I'll be sleeping like a baby!
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