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Hello, I have now been in Thailand for a wee while. I had planned on not doing much for the first week but while I was in Melbourne I got an e-mail from the people I am staying with asking if I wanted to do some work with their volunteer group. It sounded like fun so i said yes, as you do. This was the beginning of the busy.
The morning I was leaving Melbourne I got a text from Georgie, it was a rather polite text asking me if i had seen the news and if I thought I should still be going. Being a little blury eyed from the night before I had not seen the news so I turned the T.V on and the only thing on was Steve Irwin's funeral, on every channel. Eventually they took a brake from Russel Crowe talking to have a look at the rest of the world and in the 20 second clip I found out that there had been a coup in Thailand, then back to Russel. I decided that there wasn't that much I could do. When I got to the airport, the man at the desk knew less than me but he said that if it was unsafe then the plane would not go there. Where the plane would go instead I don't know but that made me feel a lot better. What didn't make me feel better was the arrival into Sydney. The Pilot told us that there would be a little turbulence, usiing the word little made him a lier. The worst part about it all was that they left the T.V's on but all they were showing was static, this mixed with the children behind me screaming and watching the people in the plane bumping around made me wonder when the oxygen mask were going to come down and the wing fall off. I was almost upset when they didn't.
So I was about to get on the plane to Thailand and we are told that you are now not allowed to take lighters on the plane if it's going to the UK or USA. This is literally as we are about to step on to the plane, you think they would give people a bit of warning. I was quite pleased though cos for the first time ever I haven's been singled out for extra security checks. This is quite a feat in Australia where there are about 10 checks every 100 meters, moral of the story is that I didn't have to give them my lighter, suckers.
The flight sucked, I forgot how crap planes are but I am glad I'm not tall or it would be even worse. Eventually it was over and it was time to begin the Thailand part of the journey. compared to Australia the customs were non-existant and I found myself wandering around trying to find the checks that weren't there.
Once outside the heat kicked in, I forgot how hot it is here and how it takes a while for you to be able to breathe properly. I got on the bus and was waiting for it to leave and the last person on was a French girl who sat on the seat opposite me and introduced herself. Her name was Helene and she was very worried cos she didn't know what she was doing or where to go so she came with me on the basis that I kind of knew where I was going. I had a room booked in our friends hostel just off Khao Sn Rd and thankfully my memory of where to go was good enough to get us here (Lamphu House on soi Rambutrii, a beautiful hostel that I would recommend to anyone staying in Bangkok, clean showers and very quiet). We dropped off our stuff and went for a drink. Bring on the Chang I say. We sat drinking till the early hours of the morning, it turns out that she spent a year in New Zealand before moving to Australia. Both of us were rather gutted not to be seeing lots of guns and tanks and army people around.
The next morning I was up early and was doing some internet stuff when Kwan (the son in the family we know here) showed up. We had a brief chat and then he was called back to the barracks (he is doing his military service at the moment) A short while later Tui (the mother) appeared and I sat down to have breakfast with her. Helene joined us and we started making plans, Helene was going to see her friend in Ko Pan ngang and Tui had sorted my whole trip out. It involved 6 provinces in the south of Thailand. After that Helene and I went for a walk around the area and as we sat dow to decide what to do next a Thai man approached us and started telling us all about how the King had decided that to promote tourism in Bangkok that several temples should be free for the day and Tuk Tuks should be discounted. So we found ourselves a tuk tuk and started a crazy journey round Bangkok visiting different places. Those people that have had the experience will know how the drivers get bonuses for taking you to certain places. This meant the we went to a whole lot of crazy places like a jewelry shop that was way out of the normal backpackers budget but it wasn't costing us any more so it was fine. I'm sure the guy will eat for about 3 weeks on all the tickets we got him. Once that was finished we went for another drink or 2 before going back to the hostel to get ready for our journeys.
While I was waiting Kwan came back so i sat and had dinner with him. He was telling me all about what it was like to be in the army and all about the coup. It was all rather crazy hearing about it all.
After waiting about 4 hours for a van stuck in traffic, we were on our way to Mahidol university to change vans. Those on the e-mail list last time will know the glory of changing cars. We had dinner and then started our 10 hour drive.
That's all for now but tune in soon for the next part, Chris goes South.
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