bangkok!

hey everyone

well we're here!
i'll start in melbourne. after eating far too much xmas pudding, we went out to the airport. got a little bit teary saying goodbye to the folks and then walked through those doors of no return. the flight was looong. i watched 2 movies and jay watched 3. i tried to sleep some but jay couldn't sleep at all really. i learnt that jay gets a bit freaked out during take off and landing and he confessed that when we landed he was pushing his feet hard against the floor so as to help the plane slow down! we landed in bangkok after 9 hours, and made our way out of the huge new airport.

we got in line for a taxi and after the driver called someone for directions, he drove us on this huge freeway into bangkok. the traffic here is insane. some of you may know that i am not really fond of traffic and crossing roads but i am doing surprisingly well considering how crazy it is here. to get across the road you just have to walk in front of cars, as jay says you have to 'suck it up and go'! oh and the traffic lights have counters which count down to the light changing - they are so cool! we arrived at our guesthouse - the shanti - lodge and we were shown to our room. it is small but very clean and nice. the walls are so thin you can here everything. but the lodge is about a 15 minute walk from the main backpacker "ghetto" - khao san road - so it isn't really loud here at night.

yesterday our body clocks were still on australian time, so we got up early and went for a walk. bangkok is busy and full of people. how observant am i? the smells are so different here and there are so many of them. lots of people approach you to buy things and be taken places, you learn very quickly to shake your head no. on the way i bought a much needed watch, it is so cool - its pink with the king and queen on it. it is strange being in a place with a monarchy. we walked to khao san road, and even though it was 10am bangkok time, james said it was still 2pm australian time according to his body and so he had a beer. we sat near these irish backpackers who were very obviously still drunk from the night before. we are planning on going to khao san for dinner tonight whch should be interesting.

after the walk yesterday we took a quick trip back to shanti and then caught a taxi to MBK which is a huge shopping centre. so many shops. we were there to get a simcard for my phone, and we were successful, so if anyone wants to call, let me know and i'll give you the number. we had lunch at MBK and then the tiredness from the flight was catching up with us. at 2pm we felt like the day should be over. so we decided to go to gold class cinemas, because here they cost about 10 bucks. we saw eragon, which was light and fluffy and i only fell asleep right at the end!

last night we had dinner here at shanti which has a really good resteraunt. we went to bed early.

this morning we got up early and had very "refreshing" cold showers before setting out for the temples. we walked about half an hour to see the grand palace and the temple of the emerald buddha. beautiful buildings everywhere you look. then we walked to wat pho which is where you can see the sitting, standing and reclining buddha. we had a tour guide named weko, who told us really interesting stuff about the history and the religion. the reclining buddha is huge! 46 metres long and 15 metres high and the whole thing is covered in gold leaf. apparently this is the last pose of the buddha before he reached nirvana.

now we are back at the guesthouse and i am stuffed. we have lots planned for the rest of the week. floating markets, cabaret, night markets, boat trips.

i miss everyone lots. we feel very safe and we're excited about going to sri lanka and seeing aaron next week. james says hi.
xoxo
mad

ps. leave lots of comments!