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Sawasdee!
Greeting from Thailand!
Well i've been here a few weeks now so i thought i'd give you a whistle stop tour of what i've been up to:
The flight was tearful and i was really upset to leave my family but got to watch loads of films none of them good (dream girls and the history boys) and was poked by an old lady with a hairy mole quite agressivley as she explained to the air stewards that it was ok to sit next to me but not men (we were on an arabic airline) and poked me to prove i was ok! Anyway i arrived safely and all cried out.
Bangkok - smelly, busy and a bit unfreindly and as well as that the sex trade is very in your face its quite hard not to get angry and upset everywhere you go...but thats not just bangkok its everywhere unfortunately. Went to see the Grand Palace which is erm very grand and got ripped off by the tour guide...welcome to Thailand! Had a great day getting lost on a river boat and ended up on the outskirts of Bangkok where there were loads of yougn people i think we must have been near a college? it was good fun though and the local bus trip home was cheap, clean and on time (still a bus geek!).
After Bangkok went to Kanchanaburi and visited the POW graveyard where a lot of the English, Australian and Danish soldiers who were captured by the Japanese army in World War 2 were buried. the thai prisoners apparently don't have graves as they were taken into the woods, shot and buried it was really sad and very moving. the soldiers were forced to build the Bridge over the River Kwai and what is now known as the Death railway. it was a touristy trip to the bridge and the museum but very interesting and moving especially as so many years later we haven't learnt from the wars of our past and these things are still happening today.
We stayed on a floating hotel on the River Kwai and i woke up to the most beautiful and peaceful sunrise imaginable. that day i climbed a seven tier waterfall called Arwin Falls. the first five levels were pretty easy but after that it was a bit of a scramble. it was set in a nature park and realy beatiful but got eaten alive by the beasties and nearly got attacked by a group of monkeys on the way back down becasue some stupid italian tourists were screaming and freaking them out so when i went to pass the old one surrounded me and started swiping for my legs i was s***ting myself! Anyway managed to escape unscathed and rabbie free!
The next day we travelled up to Chiang Mai in the North of Thailand via a night bus so when we got there we were tired and smelly and our knees ached from being cramped in the same position for over 12 hours. The highlights were taking a cookery class on an organic farm. the teacher took us in the garden and showed us all of the vegetables and herbs that we picked to make our food and the kitchen was based under a canopy outside it was so perfect. i have now mastered a thai red curry, pad thai, sticky rice and mango, papaya salad and chicken and cashew nut i was so impressed with myself but really dissapointed that i couldn't eat everything i made.
I also went on a trip up to the Golden Triangle while in Chiang Mai this is where Thailand meets the boarders of Laos and Burma but to be honest this was really touristy and a horrible trip. the thais are really horrible about the Burmese and we saw a lot of beggers at the boarder that we were encouraged to take photos of it was really bad.
After Chiang Mai we tok another night bus down to Arunthya (these are all spelt wrong by the way!) this is the old capital of thailand and the old city was abandoned after the Burmese conqured Thailand a long time ago and the old city went to ruin and was over run by the jungle...apparently. the old building were very beutiful and we spend a hot and sticky afternoon taking alook at the museum and the ruins and the lying Budda.
The next day we continued to bagkok when we caught a connection to Koh Phangan. An island in the south of Thailand. I burnt myself on the first day although i thoguht i was being really caferful and wearing a really high factor cream but read the side effects of my malaria tablets and they said it can cause sensitivity to the sun so i'm blaming them!
Yesterday we hired mopeds and explored the Island. it was the first time on a moped so i was a little bit worried but i loved it in the end. there are loads of hills here and i got stuck on this massive hill behind a truck seeping water going a bout 5 miles and hour i was reving the arse off the bike thinking i was ggin to roll back down the hill but i found the bite and i held on for dear life! Anyway we found a great little bay at the top of the island and went for a swim and had lsome food and then came home to get ready for the half moon party that was on that evening. I didn't know what to expect but it was in the hills loads of glow in the dark things in the trees and people getting glow in the dark tatoos and trance music, loads of people on drugs...apparently they have about 4 farang (thai's name for western tourists) a month submitted to their psychiatric unit from drug induced madness and thers a drung unit set up here to get rid of drugs but unfortunatly thats what the island is famous for it parties and its drugs. Anyway the party was fine not my scence but a good experience and I met some really nice people.
Cambodia next and hopefully some pictures if i can find a computer with a fast enough connection! Bye for now.
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