EmmaLH

Woke up just before 7 and went across the road to pick up the laundry. I was stood there for ages shouting hello before someone popped their head around the door, said hello back and disappeared again. Eventually I found somebody and explained I was here to pick up the laundry. I identified my pile of clothes and what I hoped were sams, but then I noticed my pair of trousers on a different pile- seems it was a bit mixed up. Anyway, she apologized for it not being dry- (there can't have been enough sun yesterday) I paid and walked back over to the hotel. Some of Sams' clothes were missing, and although it smelled a damned sight better than before, a lot of stuff still had loads of mud on it, and to ... read more

We'd set the alarm for 9am, but pressed snooze, and then totally reset it until 11am- we were still quite tired! I'm glad we didn't end up going to the reggae bar, as fun as it sounded, as they didn't get in until 4am. I do wish we had of got out of bed and had a massage or done something more productive, but when you gotta sleep you gotta sleep. We met the others at 12pm and got on the bus to the Tiger Park. Now I wasn't too sure if I liked the idea of this, as I'd heard that sometimes the tigers are drugged to make them dozy. boom assured us that it was one of the better parks, the other being Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi, which apparently wasn't as nice as ... read more

Somehow we'd lost the key card for the hotel last night, and had to pay 500baht for another one. we'd also lost all sense of time, and this morning had missed our day trip to see the reclining Buddha. Oh well, we'd hopefully make up for this when we get back to Bangkok later in the trip. We extended our check out time so we didn't have to rush to get ready, and had a nice bowl of soup from the hotel restaurant to ease the hangover. We sat on some sofas in the hotel lobby waiting to meet the rest of the group at around 4pm ready to head to the train station. We walked the short distance across the road to the station and even then was sweating at having to carry my ... read more

We set the alarm for 9 with the intention of getting up to go to tiger temple. We pressed snooze, and next thing we knew it was almost 1 pm- hmmm- maybe we were jet lagged after all. We had a shower and decided to get a cab to Khao San road where apparently most of the action happens, and all the backpacks hang out. We got totally ripped off by a cab; 300baht, which I kind of knew was too much to pay, but felt a bit stuck and not too confident to protest as it was all still quite new to me. Turns out it should only be about 70 baht, and we should have asked him to put the meter on... Anyway, we got dropped off, and this was what I was expecting ... read more

I am so lucky to have been able to see such a wonderful place, and lucky to have been able to stay with such great people. Ok, so things I have learned from this trip: - Australia is a massive place - not all aborigines live in the bush- and don't run one over - Darwin is bloody warm- with lots of crocs - how to find the southern cross - don't hire a car in the outback - it might look like beef and mustard- but it's not - how to play the digeridoo - I eat and sleep- a lot - I am skint and need to start saving again One thing I will take away from my oz trip, is that, no matter where they may be in the world, the road ... read more