Sawardi-kah homies

We left Christchurch, New Zealand and embarked on a marathon journey to Bangkok via a 2 hour stop off in Sydney. The last time I was in Sydney everything went wrong, so my plan was to sit in one place for all the 2 hours so not to tempt fate. When boarding my connecting flight I walked past the place where I lost my passport the last time round, a shiver went down my spine.

We eventually landed in Bangkok at midnight last Friday and took a taxi to our scheduled guesthouse. Rik should have already landed from his flight from UK and sorted all the accommodation details out, which was a relief. We met him in the room where we already had booze waiting for us and he was keen to explore the Koh San Road (the main party street) and to have a few catch up drinks. So much for my planned 12 hour sleep!

The next few days revolved around chilling out and catching up with Rik. We didn't do any of the tourist things because we knew we would return with the rest of the gang in December so we would all do it together then.

I found Bangkok to be even more of a cultural shock then Beijing, it seemed so much less developed but with its own identity, something I found Beijing and Sydney to be missing. The weather was really humid and stuffy and the streets were a nightmare to cross, regularly seeing two adults and three children all on one moped with the weekly shopping trying to mow you down is not unfamiliar. However after a few days i felt like i was a local, crossing the streets withoug looking, wearing insect repellant like deodrant, eating the local food every day and having at least one i nearly died story every day.

I had really made an effort to learn a bit of Thai when in Bangkok but despite all my efforts my brain seems to default to Spanish, so the phrases Hola, por favour, gracias and Adios have been used far to often to the bemused Thai people.

We have recently been living on junk food so it was great to be in Thailand because the food is sooo amazing here and as close as I would ever get to a nice curry. After a few days of exploring the City and buying plenty of t-shirts for 1.50 sterling we heading off to Chaing Mai, north of Thailand on a 12 hour uncomfortable bus journey. We were assured that the bus had plenty of room for people to sleep, but the two pikey Swedish girls in front of my put there chairs all the way back whilst the two Israeli boys behind me had long legs meaning I couldn't push my chair back I was trapped in a space of about 3 feet for 12 hours, what a nightmare, once again all I was dreaming about was sleeping in a bed for 12 hours!

Best Experience - Shopping in the massive street market

Worst Experience - Seeing Jermain Defoe miss a last minute penalty against West Ham!

IPOD song most played - Champaigne Supernova - Oasis