Old friends

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It's been a real eye-opener these last few days, I can tell you. The others turned up on Sunday and we went out for a few(!) beers that night. Started off on Khao San road and ended up in a club in Chinatown till 6am. I didn't surface until after 1pm then next day so I think I ended up getting out of bed at pretty much the same time as most of you guys, reardless of the time difference!

After getting out of bed I did an afternoon of sightseeing around the local area. I think I must've wandered about 5 miles just walking aimlessly looking for things to see. Stumbled across a couple of temples though and something called the democracy monument. I'm not a massive fan of buildings, as a rule, but these temples are about as good as I've seen. Not that you see many far-east style temples in Europe of course, which is the breadth of my travel (barring USA) to date!

One thing that did amuse me whilst walking was when I stumbled on a whole street which just had shops selling buddha effigies, from tiny ones to 6-foot tall gold-painted monstrosities. As if that wasn't enough, a couple of minutes later I stumbled across another series of adjacent shops which only sold musical instruments!!! I wonder if there's a law here stating that you can only sell goods where there's the most competition???

Went back to Patpong Monday night as the others hadn't seen it, and it's a must whilst here. Yet again, ended up in a club until the early hours but I ducked out at 4 as had to get up and check out of room by 11. The club was quality though, one that the local people go to rather than something set up for the farangs (foreigners). Some very good music on and a really friendly place.

Easily the best bit of the night was when we got tuk-tuks to ferry us to the club. We were in 3 of them and they were all racing each other, bombing it around the local streets. We didn't have a clue where they were going but it was so funny hanging on for dear life racing in 3 death-traps!

Yesterday (Tuesday) we got a bus down to Pattaya which was grim. The bus journey is meant to be two hours but took 5, partly due to Bangkok traffic (which is unbelievable) but also due to the fact that they basically lied to us by saying it was 2 hours. Not possible with no traffic! The best bit though was after about 4 hours Tim was fiddling around with a light fitting in the minibus roof above his head and the whole light came out and wouldn't go back in. So he had to sit there for an hour whilst this light fitting swung like a pendulum in from of his face. He was not amused, unlike the rest of us.

Anyway we got here and then checked into what must be the best resort hotel in the town. It's got fantastic private gardens and a fab pool. In fact, just spent a couple of hours in the pool whilst it was raining and the sun was setting!!

We then went out in Pattaya last night, and all I can say is don't come here if you want a quiet life. It's basically (as referred to in the rough guide) the costa-del-sol in Thailand. Thank God we stayed somewhere nice! Everywhere you go you get harassed by hawkers trying flog every bit of mindless tat imaginable. There must be a massive factory somewhere churning out this stuff but I have no idea who's buying it.

Tomorrow we are heading to Koh Samet, an island nearby. It's meant to be really pretty, with lovely beaches and clear waters. Got nearly a week there and then I'm heading south whilst the others return to the UK late next week.

Finally for this entry I'd better apologise for the lack of photos. I'm going to wait until I get to Ko Samet as it's gonna be much more relaxed over there. So I'll put a few on when we get there.

One last thing, I believe that you can't access these entries from HBoS, so if you've got a home email address you want me to use, just email it to me.

Bye for now....

Si

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Comments

[Hayley]

Hello
Hi Si, Its been great reading your blogs. Sounds like you are having an amazing time you lucky bugger. The whole place sounds amazing and I can't wait to see some pictures. Hope your looking after yourself xx Keep Smiling :-)