Thaila-beck: If it's such a small world then why was the flight so long..?
Current mood: happy

Well... I'm in Thailand with Jack...

You had probably guessed that by now as the trip has been a long time in the planning but we have finally done it and made it real. Maybe the title was a bit misleading because the 2 flights were really not that bad and very uneventful. We left from Heathrow and flew out to the Bahrain then from there to Bangkok. We arrived in Bangkok at 7am local time which was midnight to us and as we had been awake since 5:45am we were understandably knackered. The strangest thing about our arrival in Bangkok was leaving the airport actually stepping outside. It was as if the humidity, heat and pollution were a liquid wave. And amazing and pretty unpleasant sensation. so we looked for a taxi to our carom and proceeded to be fleeced for a taxi fare 4 times its actual worth, ah well, we knew no better...

We got to our accommodation and found that it was in quite a backpacker district of Bangkok which was good because many of the people there Thaïs and firings (tourists) spoke half decent English. Then the jet lag set in. I fell asleep in the hostel room underneath the cooling wind of the air con. Jack who had slept most of the plane journey went to get a Thai massage (no, not with extras thanks) and then we went and had a wonder up and down the road we were staying on just having a look at the shops and got some stall noodles.

The next day we decided to have a look at booking trains out of Bangkok and found that prices were mega cheap which was nice. We also went to the UK embassy to get the address for the official tourist information place which we found but was really expensive so we gave it a miss. We used the sky bus that day which is like a suspended dry but super air conned which was nice.

That night we decided to go to kohl sang road which is like to tourist hub and things got a bit weird. The thing you guys at home need to understand about Bangkok is that it is hyper busy. Not like London at all or anywhere in Europe for that matter. 9 million people live there and many make a living from tourists so you are CONSTANTLY harassed by people trying to sell you something or in some cases nothing. this obviously gets annoying and after about the 20th time of being offered a tuk tuk (modified scooter with 2 seats in the back sort of thing like those bike ones you see or a horse and carriage but with a scooter instead of a horse) or Thai massage (painful but good afterwards) which both of us succumbed to that day, or tourist advice (false advice) the list goes on but the gist is that its a very overwhelming city and we were getting a bit blown away by it all.

The weirdness came that day after the Thai massages, around 4 local time. I was outside waiting for Jack to finish his herbal massage (where the girl beat him with a hot bag of herbs, apparently seriously hot herbs) wondering about rather aimlessly looking for some new flip flops (the ones I got from Portugal lasted less than 24 hours) when, from a bar, a girl starts shouting something incoherent. I turn around and see that to my utter amazement Steph and Lauren (Holly's mates) that I met in Portugal. That is some weird stuff, I mean come on what the hell are the odds on that..? So we went and had a couple of drinks with them and said we'd meet up later on the road somewhere that night.

When we went down the Koh Sang road to have a few drinks and find some other backpackers to get chatting with (and milk for tips) and meet up with the girls again. Jack was craving a Guinness and I a pool table so we hit an Irish bar on the corner. Very cool little upstairs joint with a restaurant below and a Thai cover band playing western hits. So we had some drinks I got my ass handed to me at pool (by jack of all people) and we decided to have a wonder and look for Steph, Lauren and Cass their other mate who I'd met before. I was waiting downstairs for Jack to go to the bog and felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and was staring into the face of Delwyn the Irish bloke who I'd shared a house with for 3 weeks in Portugal. That was just too weird. So we had some drinks with him too and said we'd meet at a full moon party in Koh Pang Yan so we need to arrange that...

Anyway I'm running out of credit and am really hungry now. We left Bangkok and are in a different town but I won't tell you where because it's a secret and we're like James Bond out here so you'll just have to check in on the bog another time.

Love to all, take it easy from both of us...

xxxxx