Advertisement
Sa-wat-dii-kha everybody! well here we are in Thailand! we have been here for a week now and Thailand is so different to India. It is very weird trying to speak Thai now instead of all the indian languages! the intonation used in Thai is strange and it all sounds very high pitched! It is quite confusing too and today i said hello instead of thankyou! The syllable 'mai' can mean five different words depending on the intonation! Intonation is really important in thai but it seems so hard to end the way we speak with a high pitched voice! Anyway i will fill you in with all the Thailand stories but first i do believe we need to recap on the rest of our wonderful Indian travels!
So Alice left off with the delightful tales of Pondicherry. We then headed to Bangalore for our last week. It was nice to see all the interns again and we also met some new people. We basically spent the week shopping, at the children's home and of course going out and drinking. On the sunday we organised a surprise trip for Alice's birthday to an amusement park and a water park. It was a really good day. There was just four of us; Lisa, Alice, Tom and myself but we had really good fun. There were not any rollercoasters but there was lots of spinning rides and high ones. The water theme park was the best! It was so much fun and everybody wore their clothes! All the women were in their Indian clothes whilst the men wore underwear and vests! There were lots of water slides including a vertical one, and then swimming pools with waves and adventure areas. However, the best had to be the rain disco! It was in a big dark building and Indian music blasted out with flashing green lights! We all partied away whilst getting soaked by the rain! Alice and said it would be soo much fun if they had a nightclub like that in England. It was really funny to watch some people dance especially the Indian men who thought they were of a Bollywood film!
The Tuesday was Alice's birthday but unfortunately she was ill! I woke up in the morning quite excited for the first ay at the chilrens home and my first sight was of Alice rubbing her stomach! Don't know what was wrong with her but she ended up staying at home. We did have plans to go out but instead everybody stayed in and we brought her a very sickly and creamy tirimisu cake home! A group of us all ate it in a weird manner and instead of cutting it we all digged in with our knives and forks! It was a very fun way to eat a cake and one should try it! Apart from the Tuesday night we went out every night. We tried a few new places, a really heavy rock place called 'Styx' and it was good fun. It was amusing to see our friend Matt headbanging away! We also made a couple of trips to purple haze which if you recall is another rock place. We will both really miss it here. I loved to watch rockers let themselves loose and see there smiley faces. However, the best night would have to of been at a place called The Beach. This was quite far away but worth the trip. If you hadn't already guessed the setting was based on a beach and had sand on the floor. It was a ladies night so luckily we got all our drinks free. The music was really good and they played a good range such as The Beatles, Eminem, Chumbawumba and linkin Park! We danced away most of the night and hung out with some Indian men who were Goan fanatics. On the last night we had another leaving party. We spent the night on the terrace singing with Jagan and Mauve. We really were quite unsociable and hardly spoke to anyone we just sang! It made me realise how much i would miss the singing sessions and all the cheesy songs and bad singing! Jagan and Mauve are so cute and Jagan is so enthusiastic about his guitar! We really will miss them! It was a fun last night though but it was very sad to say goobye to everyone! The children's home was really good fun too. It had been two months since we had been and the children seemed much happier now that an intense programme had started and their english and knowledge had improved greatly. I will really miss the children's home too the children are so sweet there!
So we left Bangalore and India feeling quite sad and very tried from our busy week. However, we were quite excited about Thailand and quite intrigued as we didn't know much about it. On the taxi ride over to the airport Alice and i listened to "leaving on a jet plane" one of Jagan's songs and took in our last glimpses of crazy Bangalore.
Our flight over was about 5 hours long and we both fell straight to sleep! We were really tired! I noticed on the flight over how clean, organised, colourful and beautiful Thai air hostesses seemed and thought to myself this must be a prelude to Thai culture. Alice felt really ill on the plane. She had very bad stomach pains and wanted to get straight out of the airport to a bed. Little did we both know the events that lay ahead! This is quite a long story now but please bear with me! And please don't doubt our intelligence and common sense by this little tale!
So, once at the airport we changed our rupees into bahts. We didn't have much about 300 bahts (4 pounds) but we thought we'd be able to head straight to a Western Union. We saw the sign for the visa form but were confused when we read 1000 bahts visa fee. This confuddled us as we thought it was free and it worried us slightly as we had 300 bahts for both of us! We thought we would be able to go to a western union to get some money but it was outside the airport. We then rang Jim up (very sorry about this Jim for ringing at a silly time and making you worried!) and asked him to transfer some money through money gram (similar to a western union) so we could get the visa, however Jim couldnt do it until 9 hours later! So we decided to wait and asked around! I felt quite vulnderable though as we still didn't have our luggage! To cut a long story short we didn't need to pay for a visa just queue up at the passport check area and get it there! I wasn't thinking straight and was very tired and Alice was too ill to do anything! So we thought our problems were over and we happily got our luggage! We then tried to get the money from the western union until we found out that we could'nt receive it until Monday! which was two days away as it was a holiday! So we were stuck at the airport with very little money, no food no water and 25 kilometres away from Bangkok centre. We managed to get a bus to Khao san road. This is where most backpackers head to and is very touristy- it is where the novel and film 'The Beach' is set at the beginning.
We arrived at the hotel and basically spent the next two days stuck in the hotel room sleeping! Alice was extremely relieved to get there as she still felt really ill. On the sunday we used up the rest of our bahts and bought a loaf of bread and some crisps for our food and a big bottle of water! A very healthy diet indeed! We both felt pretty disgusting too as we hadn't brushed our teeth since the Friday morning as we didn't have any toothpaste! We finally got some money on the monday and headed straight to the shops for toothpaste and food! What a funny few days!
So we spent the next few days looking around Bangkok and Khao San road and a couple of temples and we then headed to a temple site and city called Ayuthaya about 100 km north of Bangkok. The first night we headed to a jazz bar. It was the first jazz bar alice and i had been to and hopefully not the last. We had such a jolly good time! There was a young jazz band on that played popular jazz music and they were really good and uplifting. That night we met a lot of people too. We met a canadian called Adam who we are travelling with now. He reminds me of Keanu Reeves in Bill and Ted. He is really cool. We love him because he is so happy about life and positive about himself! We also met this crazy, weird, arrogant, intellgient and hilarious spaniard called Neo. You do meet the weirdest people travelling. He came up to me and alice and instantly started talking about philosophy. He ranted on to us for a couple of hours and we gave mininal responses such as "mmm" or "yes". It was very hard to get a word in apart from the odd question. By the end of the night he had stolen the microphone of the jazz singer and was singing the songs and then he topped this by performing yoga on a table. What a strange fellow! We also spent a second night at the jazz bar. This time drinking alot more alcohol! We didnt want the night to end so headed to a nightclub out of town. Alice had a bit of an incident on the way there. We took a motocycle taxi and as she was coming off the bike she burnt her leg on the engine. She has a really big burn on the inside of her leg and it looks very painful! We have been to the hospital and it is a second degree burn but should heal within two weeks. Apparently it is quite common for people to burn themselves on engines. Hopefully it wont scar but she wouldn't mind if it did! It is a good story to tell and something to remember Thailand by! Anyway, the club was really good and jam packed. We were the only westerners there and the Thais seem like they love to party! They also seem to be into their music especially rock music. In the club they played hip hop most of the night but then towards the end changed to rock and the clubbers seemed content with both music genres!
We are now in a place called Sukothai in the north. We are travelling with the Canadian Adam. He is the same age as us and really good fun. Today we rented bicycles and cycled around the area soaking in the view and admiring the temples. Alice could't really cycle with her leg but she went on the back of my bike. It had a little seat area. it must of been a funny sight because she was fanning herself too and must of looked very lazy! So after this we head to chaing rai in the far north and then to a couple of other towns. Hopefully we will be able to do some long treks and if we can maybe a two or three day trek. There are alot of tribes in the north including the tribes which have the long-necked women in so it should be interesting. anyhoot going to a museum now but will keep you updated with the travels. so long and farewell!
lots of love tara and alice xxxxxxxxxxxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.091s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0373s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Jimbob
non-member comment
It's a lovely spring here in England.
Your last entry onto the blog Tara was truly magical. Jane and i are so proud of you both for doing what you've done. Everyone over here has been following the blog, and it's ace how you describe Alice's illness when you arrived in Thailand. Grandma Jean's still a bit pissed off with your grammar, but i told her to grow up. She's 74. It's a lovely spring over here. April was warm and beautiful; whilst May has been wet but warm; but, remember you two, you come from a very beautiful part of the planet: Pendle Hill, Hambledone Hill: bats, birds and bees;l Joseph and Louise and Thomas. We've all missed you like mad, and can't wait to see you. Jane, Jim, Joe, Lou and Tom and Tash.