Bangkok

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Our final few days in Hong Kong saw us gambling again. This time in Macau, Asia's Vegas. First impressions weren't great. We got off the ferry to be greeted by huge concrete roadways with 10 foot wire fencing. Once past those it was street after street of tacky jewellery shops. My advice to anyone visiting Macau for the day - hop straight into a taxi and head for the old town. It took us 2 hours to find it (we did have a rubbish map!)! Well worth it though, with it's windy little streets, old European architecture and the ruins of St Paul's cathedral at the top of the hill. It used to be a Portugese colony up until 1999, so it's a bizarre mix of old Europe and Asia. Then night fell and all the casinos lit up. Amazing! We doubled our money on the slotties, only $HK20, but I was chuffed!

We landed in Bangkok a couple of weeks ago now. I am very excited to be here, I've wanted to visit Thailand for soooo long and finally I've made it. We had a very full day of sightseeing on our first weekend - the Grand Palace, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha and the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. I have never seen anything so ornate as the Grand Palace in all my life. The Emerald Buddha is beautiful and looked very dashing in his rainy season outfit (he has a change of outfit for the cool season and the hot season too). The reclining Buddha is massive at 46m long and 15m high. All VERY impressive.

Our first few days here were relatively peaceful. We got about by river boat, we were near chilled out cafes and bars and we stayed at the most gorgeous guest house called Phranakorn-Nornlen. Then we had to move close to Siam Square for my course. I thought Shanghai was the busiest, noisiest, most polluted place on earth... until now!

I'm halfway through my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course now. Well, they did warn me that it's a very intensive course and they weren't kidding. I'm usually up til midnight or later doing lesson plans or assignments. We get huge information downloads in the mornings and then teach and/or observe in the afternoons. I'm keeping my stamina up with lovely Thai food! Roll on 7 December when I'll hopefully pass the course!

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