Ive finally left Vietnam! After two months! And its a bit of an out of body experience, especially to be back in Bangkok when Ive been here about 5 times already. The characters in the alaphabet are back to being asian not roman like in vietnam so now I definately cant read any local signs. And the language spoken sounds so different too, kinda soothing, not machine gun fire of the Vietnamese. I was ready to leave there, I really was, I had that kinda 'if I cant leave tomorrow as planned ill go mental' loopiness and did a fair bit of huffing and puffing in the airport. This was the 1st time in 15 flights that Ive been made to take some of the weight out of my bag and I was very grumpy about doing it. When I left the UK my bag was 13 kilos but I was a packing nazi back then and only had basically hiking gear. Now its 17 which isnt too bad but if im gonna keep taking budget airlines Ill have to lose 5 kilos (you said it) and the only thing I can part with is the hiking gear. Exercise is for sissies anyway :P
The Khosan Road in Bangkok really is its own world isnt it. Lots of people getting their hair tangled into wacky afros or braided 3 times its usual length, dozens of tatoo parlours (dont worry Mum Im not even remotely tempted), Im glad to see some of my old familiars are still there too, the massage place I went to and the Silk Bar. I ordered my first thai green curry here and the guy said meaningfully 'you want it spicy' and I said 'yes please, spicy' and he looked kinda doubtful, equally doubtful when I said I wanted chopsticks to eat it with. Anyway it was fairly kick your head off ish and I loved it. Especially with an accompanying Singha beer. I made the HUGE mistake of going into the boots thats opened since I was last here and ended up buying a load of UK priced toiletries which is mad but dammit every cream in asia is designed to make you whiter and its exhausting trying to decipher the labels, I was happy to see UK brands again for the first time in ages plus an american guy of about 80 was making a spectacle by talking really nastily to his Thai bride so I had to eavesdrop on that... GOOD TIMES!! xx