I'M IN AUSTRALIA! My feet are cold. There are double decker trains. Coke cans are slightly bigger. So much culture shock! ...Not so much, Sydney feels so much like home that it's putting me off a bit: it seems too much like real life. I'm worried I might have to stop looking like a tramp here!

So my last few days in Asia weren't too exciting. I checked into a hostel next to Bangkok airport one night cos I was getting in at 2am and didn't want to take the hour long cab in... except I forgot to tell them I was getting in at that time and ended up having to wait outside for an hour until I managed to wake someone. Then I checked into a place called WE which was quite cool and sociable except I wasn't feeling cool and sociable so I didn't join in the fun... I'm all socialised out. Did get talked at for 20 minutes straight by a Korean girl who wouldn't let me get a word in edgeways about the pains of working in India though, she was a bit crazy.

Then I went back to Nappark on Khao San where I went out with a guy called John and a bunch of icelandic guys, until John went home cos he was too drunk (what happens when you spend a month in Nepal with no alcohol and then have two buckets) so ended up being a pretty confusing night out where I didn't understand what anyone said. Then we danced in the street and on the back of a rubbish truck for a bit, bit random. I'd stupidly booked on to a tour the next day which started at 7am (can't get enough of tours, me!) and I only remembered this at 5:30am so had to get on the bus with zero sleep and barely able to string a sentence together, which is a struggle at the best of times really! For some reason the whole group was asian, dunno how that happened!

The tour was of the floating markets and the bridge over the river Kwai. The markets are pretty much entirely geared towards tourists now so you just paddle along while everyone shouts at you. It does make for some nice arty photos though, which I'll probably lose! As soon as we got on a boat I saw Di from the intrepid tour passing on another boat! She'd just sent me an email saying she was in Chiang Mai so that was strange... didn't get a chance to chat though, would have been cool to hear how their Halong bay cruise compared... probably a bit less naked.

The bridge over the river Kwai is basically a big bridge over a river. The Japanese forced the British to build it while they were held captive in a prison in North Thailand, in order to have a railway system to Burma. This was all told to me by a random busker who was singing Bad Romance on the bridge so my info's a bit sketchy. There's a multicoloured tourist train that goes over the bridge every couple of minutes so you have to move out of the way or get run over, but apart from that it's not too exciting.

So seeing as I'd stayed up for this daytrip I decided to try and get more of my money's worth by going along to the tiger temple. I didn't want to go to this before cos I'd heard they really don't have a clue how to look after tigers and drug them and allsorts, and that the one in Chiang Mai was better. I'd had a pretty good tiger experience working in the zoo in South Africa so I wasn't that bothered about seeing them here but I decided to get off my high horse and go see what it was like for myself. And yeah, if you're actually quite fond of animals this may not be the best place to come. I dunno if they were drugged but they were all on tiny little chains all day except when they were allowed to run around and pretend to eat the tourists. It's one big conveyor belt where they grab your arm, make you sit with each tiger long enough to get a picture then drag you on to the next one. Then you form a big chain and all pretend to 'walk' the tiger for a second while lots of rich arab men shove you aside so they can go first. The tigers don't get to attack you or anything, no fun! We got talking to a random American monk (it is a temple after all even if I did see one monk poking a tiger in the nose with a stick...) who taught us about magic tattoos, he was an interesting one.

The rest of the time in Bangkok was spent shopping. All three days. I went to a mall called Terminal 21 which is themed like an airport with pilots and everything... I love themed places, I could happily live here. Each floor's a different country so I spent a good amount of time on the British floor getting excited about post boxes and listening to British radio, didn't help me feel less homesick really! It's a really cool mall though, with an entire floor dedicated to tiny little boutique clothes shops in little alleyways, all really cheap. I'd just had a backpack clearout but I bought enough here to replace everything I'd thrown away and then some, oops. I'd only come to get some jeans.

So that was Asia. I really wasn't ready to leave it... I could happily have spent another two months there! There was so much more I wanted to see, like Koh Phi Phi, the jungles, the monkey temple... I didn't even see the Grand Palace! (tried to go there on the last day but got lost for 3 hours instead, an appropriate end really!) I've loved the last 2 months though. I think Thailand's been my favourite country out of Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos just cos it's so friendly, with Vietnam a close second (not for the friendliness thing though!). I've met some awesome people in all those places but I'm looking forward to the Oz experience where hopefully people will stick around for a bit longer than a couple of days... getting really tired of the whole "Oh Hai you're cool let's be friends oh you're leaving already bye then" schtick. That said I haven't had the best luck with tours so far but at least this one's hop on hop off!

I'm sat in a McDonalds at the mo cos my hostel doesn't have free wifi (apparently not standard in Oz) and I can't get into my room until 1pm. I had an awesome flight where I had all three seats to myself but I still only got about an hour's sleep (too many good films) so I am preettty shattered. Got a week in Sydney so I can catch up with Spry and Jenny (yaaaayy friiiieeeends!) so I need some plans ideally. First one should probably be to buy some shoes, definitely not missing the 37 degree heat though! Bring on the goon!

G'DAY MATE!!