inconsistent news from southeast asia

Sept. 12th/13th?!?

Travel

I'm not sure what i can say about travelling here. Somewhere in there they stuck in an extra day or something... It seemed to go on forever until i was wishing for sweet death and then it continued on like that for another 12 hours or so. Catherine insisted she was fine the whole way, but she managed to get more than a couple hours sleep the night before our departure. I have no real complaints with Japan Air... even the eel they served was pretty tasty (and i'm no eel fan.)

Arriaval into the humidity of BKK was pretty smooth with the bags showing up quickly enough and finding our way to an a/c bus that dropped us off quite close to our hostel. Lots of friendly locals helped us to our eventual destination. It's very nice, too.. A/C and clean rooms and tasty breakfast all included.

Day 1 was (as might be expected) a bit uneventful due to the jet lag and the weather. It rained most of our first night, but that didn't stop it from raining the majority of the next day as well. There was a lot of lying around feeling jet-lagged and some full-fledged napping too. Nap #1 followed breakfast, but i did not partake - choosing to get some much needed lunch instead (where the time in between went i'm not so sure.. probably lying around being jet-lagged). I had a decent pad thai across the street - 90B with a coke... soo... some $2.75. I'll get used to the cheap, i will.

Dinner at "Cabbage and Condoms"... a moderately swanky outdoor thing with lots of sparkly lights in the trees - green curry, and very tasty... All the proceeds go to HIV prevention and you get a condom at the end instead of a mint. Whee. To bed @ 11:30 to face the jet-lag demons. On and off from three a.m. to our usual 6 o'clock wake up.

Day 2 must be today. September 15th. It was a big one and i'm exhausted and rambling on. Forgive me.

We hiked across most of Bangkok - partially wary of the notorious tuk-tuk drivers that honk and invite every time they see us and partially just as a chance to see the city.
Our destination was one of the bigger attractions here: th Wat (Temple) Phra Kaeo and the Grand Temple. It's hard to sum up something that spectacular in words or pictures, so i won't. There was a lot of impressive architecture, gold leaf, spires, mother of pearl and the emerald buddha that claims the place of honour there. It's worth the 250 baht next time you're in Bangkok...

Since it's stopped raining today (alright, it's nightime and it's started again, but nevermind) the weather has to decided to show it's true colours - lots of heat with yet more humidity. At least there wasn't much sun, but it's amazing what that humidity can do.

After the palace we headed to the nearby Khao San Rd. (backpacker ghetto extrodinaire). I suppose it's all it claims to be... there's a lot of chaotic shopping and a lot of cheap, seedy guesthouses (hostels). There's also a lot of suspiciously Queen Street tinged attitude - to be expected, i guess.

We looked at some hostels, we shopped, practicing our barganing (Catherine with considerable more success than me, i admit). Afterwards we walked half the distance back to the first skytrain stop and rested our weary dogs on the train. It's a nice system and ever-so-air-conditioned.

Now it's 9:00 and i'm here trying to get some of this out. I could probably go on forever, but i think i've gone on quite enough. Now to try to get some photos up here.

Sorry if some of the photos look pretty bad. i'm trying to reach some compromise that actually lets me upload them in a feasible amount of time here. I'm getting better already (see above)

I didn't take a single picture of Khao San, but we'll be living there tomorrow. Pray for us in findind a decent place out there...minimal bugs, maximal fans.