Blogs from Asia - page 15000

Ahhhh, back in the most beautiful place in the world! I was only gone for 4 days, but it took my breath away again. Anyway, Friday I went to Lumphini park in Bangkok early and watched all the early morning people. It is a very nice park, and they have a senior center there. They have a loop around the park which is 2.5km around, but it is quite far from my hotel, so I didn't run because it's too far from a shower - and believe me, you definitely need a shower and about 1L of water after a jog here because it is so hot and humid! After that I went to the bus terminal to figure out my ticket to Koh Chang and then on to MBK mall! I had to seriously restrain ... read more

Got up early to go back to Bangkok - Sam hung off the back of the taxi on the way to the ferry port (one bit of steel that hopefully connects land to boat!) - journey ok but a 2 hour wait at the other end for the Bangkok Bus so we kept busy and played four games of Shit (cards!!). All went fine til we got to Hulawangowotnot station in Bangkok and not one taxi driver would put their meter on for the journey we needed back to the hostel. Eventually we were approached by a driver that had quoted us like 10 times the normal rate (no kidding....) for a price over twice the original rate. It seemed our best option so in we got... then we realised he was taking the keys from ... read more

China Airways, echt een ervaring, pfoew! "Wie al nou flying ovel Ilan and al about toe ekspieriensj some minol tulbulens" Minol??? 3 Keer recht door onweer en bekant 2 uur turbulentie. Begin me af te vragen hoe het moet zijn als het majol was geweest... Gelukkig stond TopGear op het videoscherm aan, maakt dat crossen iets interessanter. Bangkok, tsja, wat moet ik er over tikken behalve dat ik vooral aanraad er zelf eens heen te gaan ;) Hotel was sjiek-de-friemel, eten goed binnen te houden, en ach die Thai lachen echt altijd ;)al heb ik er maar weinig van gezien. Vooral de airco was mijn beste vriendje, oh ja, en natuurlijk de meest geflipte Zwitser/Australier die een bepaald gedeelte van "nee" niet verstond als hij wéér bier wilde bestellen. Van alle zompige hitte wordt tikken niet ... read more

Somewhere I heard it described in this way: the desire to fall deeply in love with something is that the world becomes much more manageable. Passion for something, one individual focus for that passion, allows one to center their attention, to keep from spilling all over the place (I think it was the movie "Adaptation"- I'll have to search for the actual quote- certainly its eloquance will exceed my awkward paraphrase). Being a person of passion, this makes absolute sense. This may be the actual reason I have a love affair with being in love- the intensity is focused, cleaner, less erratic, contained. However, travel awakens passions the heart has forgotten or has not yet been introduced to. It splits us open and lets our obsessions come oozing out, chaotically bouncing off foreign terrain and dodging ... read more

A few days in Bangkok was like a dream after Delhi. Despite its traffic problems and pollution it was a far friendlier and relaxed city. I spent a few days unwinding and catching up with travel plans. I also caught a Bangkok music festival and had a fun evening listening to Franz Ferdinand and Oasis. But then to The Beach in the footsteps of Leonardo - well an overnight train from Bangkok to Suret Thani, bus to Krabi and boat to Koh Phi Phi Don. I found a hut at an out-of-the-way resort at Long Beach which overlooked the sea and well - just chilled out. Koh Phi Phi is just recovering after the ravages of the tsunami. For a year their tourist trade was down 90% but now looks set to return with a vengeance. ... read more