Back in Bangkok

Just thought I'd give a quick update.

Riga was pretty, but again rainy and cold and infested with English stag parties. Patrick thought he'd never get to experience a real Riga stag party, but we were sitting eating our dinner in a bar near a private room one night when all the lads turned up for the party, so he invited himself in! We hung around until I found it all a bit offensive (which didn't take very long), and then we left. It was a relief for us to reach Riga after Russia, the people were friendly, spoke English and smiled. We can highly recommend the Old Town Hostel and Backpackers Inn and the Eat Riga Walking Tour, which takes you to the more interesting areas of the town.

From Riga to Germany, and then the train to Holland was all pretty seamless and Suze was there to meet us at the station. We spent the next nine days lounging around their house, watching TV on their new plasma, cooking and enjoying meals homecooked by them. Lovely. I did however discover that I am allergic to mussels, it was ironic that through all of S E Asia, Mongolia, Russia I didn't get sick once from the food, and I get to Holland, eat mussels, and proceed to vomit them all back up again. Oh well. No one else was sick, and I have been sick from eating mussels before, so I should have known. We did make it in to Amsterdam one day, so I can say I've been there, but after six months on the road, our hearts just weren't into the whole sight-seeing thing (other than the red-light district of course).

So now we are back in Bangkok, and it's amazing how easy it is visit a place you've been to before. The flight from Dusseldorf was packed and neither of us slept at all, so we were feeling wrecked when we arrived at the airport. We quickly negotiated a taxi, arrived at the same guesthouse we had stayed at before, got our favourite room but on the 2nd floor and not the 4th, ate some Pad Thai and Papaya salad and all was good with the world. The sights and smells are now so familiar now. The evening was spent trying to stay awake, enjoying beers and people watching at the Gekko Bar on Soi Rambuttri. Now we are ready for some shopping.

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