Blogs from Bangkok, Central Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 714

This Sunday morning we spent time walking through Hyde Park in Sydney and exercising at the hotel facilities. After packing and checking out of the hotel, we walked to the harbour for lunch and then left for the airport. Currently we are on the long flight from Sydney to Bangkok, Thailand. Lou is being pampered in business class as I am “roughing” it in economy class. As we are traveling in a large Boeing 747, Lou is experiencing being seated on the upper deck of the aircraft. As we are in the last hour of this flight, I am looking out the window on Phnom Penh, Cambodia lit up at night. This flight has taken us over a major section of Australia (about 6 hours of the flight) over, Brunei, Indonesia, Vietnam (saw Ho Chi Minh ... read more

First things first, flying for 16 hours is a total nightmare. Not quite as entertaining as the Welsh 'Jimmy Saville' who we experienced in the departure lounge, while waiting to be called. I pity the person he was talking to, they probably managed an occasional 'yes' or a possible 'I know' while he drew breath for another 120 second sentence. By the time we were called I knew where he was staying, how long for, who with and his entire travel itnery for the next two weeks, I'm still working on the Welsh bit! Dubai airport however is rather spectacular. Freezing air conditioning and Costa Coffee assistants who wish to fleece you of all your dirhams regardless of whether you're leaving or staying! It's just as expensive for a cappucino there as it is at home. ... read more

We arrived quite late in BKK so we just, first at all, wanted to find the hotel. After a 5 minutes of dealing we finally got a cheap taxi . It was a very chattering taxi ride the driver couldn't stop talkin!.... but after a 30 minutes long chat we finally reached the hotel..... We had a good night sleep and a nice breakfast before we went out hunting for the vietnamiese and the cambodian embassies to arrange the visas....It was a very hot day, but after 2 hours of looking and walking we finally managed to find them but belive it or not we didn't arranged any visa. In between log walking and searching we bumbed in to some helpoful people that told us we could get the cambodian visa at the border and the ... read more

Duff-duff, thud-thud, duff-duff, thud-thud, d-duff-d-thud, d-duff-d-thud! Indefinable music comes from both sides of the street clashing terribly as if the DJ has just suffered a major stroke and lay sprawled across the turntables. Just when one tune becomes distinctly recognisable a couple metres further down the road the bpms become once more erratic and disturbing until another tune briefly grasps your attention. It’s about 10pm, yet the street is thronged with tourists, rogue drunks or groups searching for the next bar, couples shopping for souvenirs, individuals wearing backpacks, people selling balloons and others selling themselves. Many are simply aimlessly experiencing the spectacle of a walk down the three hundred-odd metre backpacker-ghetto that is the Khao San rd. The atmosphere is vibrant and even mildly chaotic on first impression. In amongst the tide of farangs (foreigners... read more

Hi all: Max had a wonderful birthday party today. His actual birthday was September 21st (a Wednesday) and for his school class we made cupcakes and brought stickers. His school friends made him a nice birthday book of drawings and they had a crown and balloons, so that was a lot of fun for him. Then, today we had the big birthday party in our building. Most of the guests were kids who live in the building and Max had a great time. His friend Ava came over before the party to bring him his present and the two of them played together until the party started. The day before we had made chocolate chip cookies for the party and this morning I made peanut butter sandwiches in different shapes (with cookie cutters) and our housekeeper, ... read more