Arrivals and departures

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Hello from Bangkok!

We all arrived safe and sound, if a little bleary eyed, after our 22hr journey, stepping onto Thai soil for the first time at 7am Sat morning. It was already very hot and muggy but it was lovely to be able to smell that sweet, earthy smell of the tropics again; not so nice to be reaquainted with the smell smell of human effluent! Still, not nearly as bad as India. Infact after almost three days in Bangkok I have to admit to being impressed by the cleanliness and tidyness of the city. There is comparitively little litter and all the parks, monuments and especially the Temples and Palaces are kept in remarkably good order.

We are staying on the Koh Sahn road, a predominantly traveler orientated part of Bangkok. It has little in it that is traditionally Thai but in its favour are cheap guest houses and a proliferation of shops and stalls selling a plethora of usefull travelers accessories, handy for buying those items you forgot to bring or deliberately didn't as they are cheaper here. It is a great place to meet other travelers to swap stories and gain recommendations on places we may visit, it is also a great place in which to get drunk! Our guest hous has small rooms and due to the thin walls is bloody noisy at night, for the past two nights we have had the pleasure of listening to a Thai covers band playing awful versions of soft metal classics! Rubbish! Still, the room has its good points; it is cheap and clean.

Anny and I have spent our days as standard tourists, visiting as we have a few of Bangkoks famous sights including the garand Palace and Wat Pho (which had a lovely Bot), which housed an enormous golden, reclining Buddha. Even though he was prone he must have stood some 20 meters tall and been maybe 50 in length, very impressive, although as the building surrounding him was not much bigger than the Buddha himself it was hard to get a real sense of perspective. We have also done (not that this will surprise some of you) an awful lot of eating. We have dined predominantly at the mobile roadside food stalls and night markets where, for about 50 pence, you can indulge your tastebuds in a glorious selection of tastes, textures, aromas and styles, most of which are deliciously hot. Noodles and rice feature predominantly and form the base for many meals allowing several flavours to be added from the huge and varied selection. Our current obsession is Mango on sticky rice with Coconut syrup on top, we eat this as a dessert, a starter, a between meal snack; infact just about any time we pass the "Mango man". Freshly squeezed juices with crushed ice are another definite favourite.

We have checked out of our room today as at six this evening we board a coach to haul our sorry arses to Ko pha ngan, one of the tropical islands of the East coast, we arrive there at ten the next morning - should be fun! Did I mention it is hot?!

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Photos

Lotus
Lotus flower and Wat

Buddha
The reclining Buddha and his toes!

Anny
Anny on the Koh Sahn road