Advertisement
Published: July 12th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Jomtien Beach
Jomtien Beach - 2 hours out of Bangkok (on a good day), it looks very peaceful until you see the girlybars glittering away at night... Well hello everyone,
Seven weeks into the journey, and finally here it is: A sign of life from Thailand!! It's like we've always been here - I guess it was like that from day one, and we are enjoying some serious white sands, green palmtrees and clear blue waters - yes we're in Koh Samui, paradise island. Daniel is about 4 weeks into his Muay Thai boxing training, and most definitely is getting the hang of it. His original objective was to have a proper fight at the end of his 2 months training, however since that can't be organised he's cutting the course short, and is graduating tomorrow (on his 33rd birthday - couldn't think of a better way to spend it!!).
I've been getting into every single nook and cranny of this wonderful country together with my mum who came over for 3 weeks, and left earlier this week. We did 4,400 kilometres by bus, covering Thailand north-south-east-west with new surprises everyday - the most magnificent temples, buddhas, original markets, an elephant safari, lots of boat rides on rivers, lakes and seas and, as mentioned, lots of time on the bus to read lots of books and
Chao Praya River, Bangkok
The only place to get some fresh air in Bangkok: take a waterbus/taxi on the Chao Praya River. A great way to see the Bangkok beyond the tourism attractions catch up on a bit of kip time. The north is lush and green and full of lovely, interesting people wearing all sorts of funny (traditional) get ups smiling at you with lovely black teeth. The centre is highly historical and cultural, with lots of temples, tales of past kings and wars, and the south is just filled with white sand and blue seas. If my technical skills allow it, I will try and put some pix along with this message. You'll all want to come this way after having seen them, I promise (and are all very welcome to join us).
Before my adventurous trip, we had the most romantic wedding to attend. Two of our friends from Sydney got married on a pristine private beach here on Samui, underneath the palmtrees; proper rock star stuff, we felt so privileged to be part of it - and it wasn't even us who were getting married!! It was great to catch up with some of our friends from Sydney, and of course with Arron, Daniel's brother, whom I hadn't seen for 3 years. The most memorable moment of this week with the Sydney gang - other than the wedding
Temple
One of Bangkok's many temples... - was riding the resident mechanical bull at one of the bars around here. After 21 seconds (nowhere near any record, unfortunately) I had the choice of staying on and pissing my pants, or give up and salvage my pants as well as my dignity...
So far I've managed to stumble through the holidays with only a sprained ancle, taking my phone for a swim in the pool, and having my bag (my EVERYTHING, including Ipod, bankcard, phone, identity card etc etc) stolen. I guess it's nothing out of the ordinary, but I will have to step up the streetwise-factor a bit as I haven't got much cred left with Daniel (somehow these things always happen when he leaves me alone for 5 minutes). Considering I am supposed to cross Vietnam on a scooter next, there is plenty of opportunity to step up my game - watch out for Fearless Van der Spoel.
Things have moved rather quickly since late last night when Daniel had a brain wave and checked our passports for visa-time: only 10 days left in Thailand, which will hopefully allow us enough time to get onward visas to Vietnam and China. This means arses
in gear: we're leaving Samui the day after tomorrow, back to smelly old bangkok to get visa-ed up and then off to Cambodia, Vietnam, and eventually ni hao China. We're hoping the rains will take it easy on us over the next few weeks, so we can report back with some sunny stories... Very excited to go see Angkor (t)Wat in Cambodia, and see what Vietnam has to offer. So far so good - Thailand's been great and I can't wait to get back here one day with an empty suitcase and do what I've been itching to do for the past 7 weeks: SHOP my life away... Unfortunately at this point in time that would mean shop the trip away so none of that for this shopaholic: yes I'm on the wagon...
Everyone a big smacking electronic kiss from the both of us. Thanks for keeping us up to date with the local gossip - keep the juicy bits coming!!
Love you lots,
Daniel & Kris
Advertisement
Tot: 0.11s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 13; qc: 65; dbt: 0.0641s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Chilli & Willie
non-member comment
Serious length......
Jimmy Rockwhy is sporting some serious length there travellers! In fact I think we can drop the "Rockwhy" and replace it with "Jimmy Corcovdo". Great to hear about your adventures...it looks and sounds amazing. We tried to call a number of times for Corcovado's birthday but could not get through.........Happy Birthday Jimmy!!!! Keep in touch.......... When will you be in China? We will be in Shanghai/Hong Kong in about 8 weeks :)