Knock-off T-shirts and tailored suits
In the final stretch now, just over 3 months to go. And I've had my 1st stint of travel fatigue, which I suspect is a less-wussy name for home-sickness. But hell, I'm a world traveller and can get away with the non-wussy name for it now.
Bangkok
Hot, humid, with a language that seems designed to make Westerners sound stupid. Thai is a tonal-language. This means that all the emotive inflection I give words is wrong, wrong, wrong. This leads to a level of isolation from the locals that we've not had anywhere else, being exclusively in Spanish or English speaking countries the rest of the way round.
Bangkok is OK for a visit, great for a quick shopping spree, but you do not want to be stuck here for a week whilst various embassies issue visas. Unfortunately visa-issuing involves loss of passport, which prohibits travelling anywhere. The food does make up for it though. As does our nice, aircon room for under $10 US. However, the first night, in a cheaper room with just a fan, I may have thrown symbolic toys out of hypothetical prams for a while. Not exactly your most hardened international backpacker, me.
We've seen reclining buddhas, emerald buddhas, dancing buddhas, buddha subduing Mara, buddha preventing traffic accidents, you name it, we've seen buddhas doing it. No, just don't go there - just leave it at big buddha content all round.
We've seen Ronald MacDonald in the Wai pose (palms together, head down in respect/thanks/greeting). I suppose I should just be glad he wasn't fatter, with a lump on his head and subduing Mara, really. It was all I could do not to shout "Holy Cow!" in the middle of the street.
We've seen palaces, temples, museums, Muay Thai and Contemporary dance theatre. I've hit my head on just about all of these buildings.
I was surprised to find few mosquitoes here. I expected to be eaten alive as soon as I got off the plane, like I have been everywhere above 15 Celsius, but it just hasn't happened. Frances hasn't been bitten at all yet, but then as she has no blood to speak of, this is quite normal. This bodes well for our as-yet-uninoculated state. Injection #2 today. Woo.
I was also surprised to find that travelling by air-conditioned metered taxicab is about the cheapest way to get around here. The Tuk-Tuks all massively overcharge us farang, the train is expensive when you travel as a pair, and the bus system requires intricate planning and access to complex route maps. Unfortunately last night we discovered that the fare goes up massively whenever it rains, and the metered cabs refuse to use the meter when they think you're desparate, so that bus route map is on the shopping list today.
And now, we're both pretty desparate to get out of here. My suit fitting is tomorrow at noon, and my tailor is buying us lunch (I consider this a sign of how badly I bargain). Our Laos visa is sorted by 6pm tomorrow, and I hope to be on the night train by 8pm to a nice island with breezes, sand and surf.
Bangkok
Hot, humid, with a language that seems designed to make Westerners sound stupid. Thai is a tonal-language. This means that all the emotive inflection I give words is wrong, wrong, wrong. This leads to a level of isolation from the locals that we've not had anywhere else, being exclusively in Spanish or English speaking countries the rest of the way round.
Bangkok is OK for a visit, great for a quick shopping spree, but you do not want to be stuck here for a week whilst various embassies issue visas. Unfortunately visa-issuing involves loss of passport, which prohibits travelling anywhere. The food does make up for it though. As does our nice, aircon room for under $10 US. However, the first night, in a cheaper room with just a fan, I may have thrown symbolic toys out of hypothetical prams for a while. Not exactly your most hardened international backpacker, me.
We've seen reclining buddhas, emerald buddhas, dancing buddhas, buddha subduing Mara, buddha preventing traffic accidents, you name it, we've seen buddhas doing it. No, just don't go there - just leave it at big buddha content all round.
We've seen Ronald MacDonald in the Wai pose (palms together, head down in respect/thanks/greeting). I suppose I should just be glad he wasn't fatter, with a lump on his head and subduing Mara, really. It was all I could do not to shout "Holy Cow!" in the middle of the street.
We've seen palaces, temples, museums, Muay Thai and Contemporary dance theatre. I've hit my head on just about all of these buildings.
I was surprised to find few mosquitoes here. I expected to be eaten alive as soon as I got off the plane, like I have been everywhere above 15 Celsius, but it just hasn't happened. Frances hasn't been bitten at all yet, but then as she has no blood to speak of, this is quite normal. This bodes well for our as-yet-uninoculated state. Injection #2 today. Woo.
I was also surprised to find that travelling by air-conditioned metered taxicab is about the cheapest way to get around here. The Tuk-Tuks all massively overcharge us farang, the train is expensive when you travel as a pair, and the bus system requires intricate planning and access to complex route maps. Unfortunately last night we discovered that the fare goes up massively whenever it rains, and the metered cabs refuse to use the meter when they think you're desparate, so that bus route map is on the shopping list today.
And now, we're both pretty desparate to get out of here. My suit fitting is tomorrow at noon, and my tailor is buying us lunch (I consider this a sign of how badly I bargain). Our Laos visa is sorted by 6pm tomorrow, and I hope to be on the night train by 8pm to a nice island with breezes, sand and surf.