HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Yesterday was such a bad day! We woke up at 7am in our Delhi Hotel room, were packed and downstairs at 8, waiting for our taxi to take us to IGI Airport. Our flight was due to leave at 11:55am but due to heavy fog it had been delayed. Basically, we arrived at the airport at 9am and didn't board our flight until 5:30pm. NNNGGGGR!

Also, having just extended our stay in Delhi til the 30th, we were planning on finding accomodation when we arrived in Bangkok, which was meant to be about 3:30pm, but ended up being more like 11:30pm local time.

It's weird stumbling into a new country, realizing it's midnight, you've spent the last 3 days vomiting in an Indian hotel room, the last 20 days with no regular electricity or water, you've just lost 2hrs due to timezones, and you have nowhere to go.

But after some of the stuff we had been through over the last month I actually felt pretty chilled out! After all, if you're not running through a National Park to avoid being gored by a rhino, then you can't really complain

Anyway, we jumped into a hot-pink taxi with disco balls in the back and asked to go to Th Khao San because we had heard it was a backpackers area. We tried haggling with the taxi driver, but soon realised a) We had no idea what the reasonable fare was and b) He didn't speak English. In India, 90% of the people you meet have a passable grasp of the English language, which was mind-boggling and made us so lazy.

We found a room not 10minutes after getting out of the cab, and LO AND BEHOLD, it had running hot/cold water, private bathroom, double bed, TV, security safe, AIR CONDITIONER... I was nearly crying! It is only 450B a night which is about $16AUD, and that's for both of us. Also, there are food carts lining the streets outside, selling hot, fresh pad thai made to order for 20B a plate, and it is so good! And vendors with ice carts are on every street corner selling fresh pineapple, mango, watermelon etc. for 10B a plate.

We had a decade-old Lonely Planet Guide to Bangkok to get us around today, and we managed to visit 2 Wats and an incredible market (which is best on Wednesdays, like today, so we were told) that stretched on for block after city block under colorful umbrellas, selling everything you could possibly fathom, and SO cheap.

We had a great time, walking around in the tropical heat. There was a cool breeze, blue skies... I have to say, Thailand pretty much feels like heaven!

So here's my final word: Hope that everyone is having a great time, I miss you all and am eating your share of tropical fruit (don't worry), and I hope everyone has a safe, happy new year!

Lots of love,

Siobhan