Dec 2006

so we didnt end up going out for dinner on thursday night, just ate here instead. the food is soo good and soo cheap! i could just sit around and eat all day.

yesterday we got up and had nice cold showers. they are horrible at first, i just feel like screaming, but by the end they are quite nice, refreshing. then we read for a while and then walked down to khao san road. we.. i can't realy remember what we did there, probably just looked in shops and ate thai donuts oh and james bought a top i think or was that another day but i know that when we got back i had a nap. i'm just really relaxed ok?!

anyway, last night we ventured out to patpong night market, notorious home of the pingpong shows. we were offered lots of shows, with menus including p***y write letter, p***y cut banana and lots more. needless to say we kindly refused the invitations. the market itself wasn't that interesting, mostly fake designer stuff, james did buy some pirated dvds and I bought a nose stud, its green and pretty but it was cheap so i don't know how long it will last. i liked walking up and down the street with the "sexy girl bars" and peeking inside the open doors. mostly girls in bikinis gyrating, looking very bored, though i did spot a few ladyboys. we tried to find somewhere to eat but couldn't find somewhere we liked so decided to take a taxi back to khao san. this turned out to be harder than we thought. we stopped about 5 taxis, but maybe because it was patpong, or because we are such tourists, they wouldn't turn on their meters. instead they offered to take us for 200 or 250 baht. with a meter on it should be about 70 baht. so we argued with a couple and then bargained with a very nice tuk tuk driver who agreed to take us for 100. man those tuk tuks go fast! it was so much fun, but james did think we were going to die. so at the end of the trip he gave the driver an extra 40 baht in gratitude for us not dying.

we had a rather bland dinner on khao san (mental note not to go back to that resteraunt) and then i had some pineapple on a stick and james had banana pancake covered in condensed milk and chocolate. it was so good. and so gone in 20 seconds. I barganied for and a bought a green bracelet and a very pretty blue top. we spied the new indonesian lonely planet but wanted to make sure it was the one we needed. we walked to a tiny bar near our guesthouse and had a couple of beers while listening to a really good jazz cover band. i had to drag james away though because very unlike me, i was falling asleep.

this morning we slept in late and had a leisurely breakfast before walking to golden mountain. it is an artificial hill created by rama someone and finished by rama someone else (oh yeah i am so learning history here!) it has lots of steps up and up and on the way there are these big bells which everyone rings as they go past. they make such a clanging noise that the whole way up its clang clang clang. lots of fun to make big noises!
the view was pretty cool, you could see heaps of bangkok, but with the sun being the sun and therefore pretty hot, and the steps being lots we were so drenched with sweat when we got up the top.

after that, james successfully navigated (no there wasn't one point where we thought we were completely lost until we saw a street sign and realised we were exactly where we were meant to be) us to tha tien pier, where we caught the ferry and visited wat arun or the temple of dawn, which we coud visit the other day because of james' lack of pants. (he was wearing shorts). it was very cool, huge points made from mosaics made from broken china.

caught the ferry back and then a cab back here. had some lunch and now just sitting round. bangkok is amazing but sometimes i feel like i could just sit and eat and read all day. life's hard ain't it?

tomorrow we are planning on getting up early and going to the chatuchak weekend market. our guesthouse is having a party for new years so maybe we'll stay here for that or else go down to khao san.

lots of hugs and kisses.
i miss you all, almost as much as i miss vegemite.
xo
mad

hey everyone, thanks for the comments!

lets see.. where did i leave off? ok so we went to khao san road for dinner. it is so strange there. Busybusybusy but not with thai people with so many farangs (foreigners). you get asked a lot to eat somewhere, go somewhere, buy something. we walked up and down shaking our heads! there are lots of stalls with fake cds and t-shirts and jewellery, but as you walk down the road the same stalls seem to pop up again and again. james thinks that one person buys them all and just puts them 5 metres apart from each other, kind of like 7-11. which there are lots of here as well, it is even fun to look around 7-11 at all the strange asian things that are strange and asian.

anyway at khao san james bought a shirt and some cds, and i got a henna tattoo of a bird on my ankle. it was fun having it done by a really nice thai woman, she made me sit down and then pulled my leg onto her lap and worked away. then instructed me not to move for 30 minutes and to be very careful. james just wandered away for a while. we could've walked up and down all night, looking at the stalls, the backpackers who look like they've been here for years, the hippies, oh and the thai man dressed up as jack sparrow from pirates of the carribean. james liked him. but instead we sat down for dinner, quite nice and james loved the cheap beer. then we ambled home again.

this morning we didn't really have any plans, because even though the guidebook is full of things to do and see, we really want to relax a bit and not go to touristy things just because they are touristy things. so we had a leisurely breakfast and then james decided we should go on a train and boat. it just so happens that bangkok has both of these! how coincidental! we took a taxi to the skytrain terminal and then caught the very modern and clean skytrain to the boat terminal. the skytrain gave good views but it was only a short trip. we saw a park that we want to visit which as a ferris wheel in it. woo!

the boat terminal turned out to be a great idea because they have a ticket for 100 baht (about 3 bucks) which gives you unlimited stops up and down the river all day. yes! taking the boat was great, really fun and relaxing. we took the boat to chinatown and got caught up in a very cramped very busy market. everyone pushing through. bought some pink rope to tie to my bag to distinguish it from james'. then we went back to the boat and caught it to wat arun, but forgot that because it's a temple we need long pants so we will go there another day. took the boat back to khao san. we had some lunch and then decided to take a tuktuk home. we were wary of doing this at all the whole time we are here because there are so many stories about dodgy tuktuk drivers and there isn't a meter so.. but we decided we had to experience it once, and the drive from khao san is short. after arguing with one dodgy driver who wanted to take us to some tailors first (we dropped him), we found a nice guy to take us home. it was fun, i wish that the drivers werent dodgy and it was cheaper.

when we got back here we've just sat around playing jenga and cards and james went to get the bangkok post. played more cards and then here i am. james wants to go get dinner somewhere tonight and then tomorrow we might go to that park and then to a night market tomorrow night.

xo
mad

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!

we leave tomorrow!
tomorrow, christmas day, we will be boarding a flight at 5.30pm direct from melbourne to bangkok.

i'm almost finished packing and james.. well.. james has a backpack!

merry christmas

xox
mad

hey everyone welcome to our blog

hopefully we have enough time to update here and let you know how the travels are going.

we are in the process of finalising everything before we leave on monday!

xox
mad