SIGH! GONE FROM VIETNAM

DAY 61: Saigon, Vietnam to Bangkok, Thailand

We said goodbye to Kelly again at breakfast and got in our taxi to our final destination, Thailand. Jen had attempted to get there twice before, but couldn't due to rioting the first time and the tsunami the second. So fingers crossed we'd be ok.

It was a short flight to Bangkok and when we arrived we jumped in a cab to meet a family friend of Jen's - Bangkok Billy. Billy runs an award winning English pub in Bangkok called The Bull's Head, so we started our authentic Thai experience off with pie and chips in an English pub, before getting on the skytrain to Starbucks that's in a shopping mall containing Topshop and M&S. Joking aside, the food at The Bull's Head was a welcome break, as much as I love Asian food, and it was delicious.

After meeting Billy we caught up with his sister, Lyndsay, and husband, Shaun, over a coffee and chatted away for a few hours before getting another cab.
What happened next was an experience I shall never forget. We got in a cab outside the mall that was unbelievable. It looked like some kind of home-made, do-it-yourself NASCAR. The doors were held together, inside and out, with sellotape. The rear screen was supported by multi-coloured polyboard so you couldn't see out, yet the driver had a rear view mirror that was about 2ft wide. When I got in, the gaffer tape that was holding the seats together stuck to my shorts. And as for the mechanics and engine, forget it. With a top speed of about 20mph this thing sounded like a stock car, but after a race. It was like something out of Mad Max.

And the driver was as weird as the car, making burp noises like he was going to be sick everywhere, flapping his arms around and trying to pull his fingers out of joint. When we pulled into a garage to get some petrol he got out and the car rolled forward. So I put the handbrake on. It was a funny, but also anxious drive, to the Khao San Road area where we were staying.

When we got to the hotel and checked in, the worst thing that can happen when you're travelling abroad happened. When we were asked for our passports at reception, we had no passports. The wave of panic, the frantic pulling everything out, the hope that they're just under that something in your bag all followed quickly. But to no avail. We phoned the cab company from the first taxi and Billy to see if we'd left them in the bar, but no such luck. Had I left them in the first cab? Had they been taken by the driver of the second cab when we stopped for petrol or stolen at some other time? Who knows, but they were gone and we now have a good few days in Bangkok ahead of us as the Embassy won't be open until Tuesday as it's a bank holiday weekend. We hadn't planned to stay in Bangkok this long, I just hope we can get down to Koh Tao or Koh Samui as we'd planned to.

In the early evening we went to the police station to get a lost/stolen report for the insurance and embassy. They were as much use as a chocolate teapot. But I wasn't surprised. They told us to go to the Tourist Police an hour away and gave us a number to call. When Jen called them outside the station, they said we HAVE to get a report from that police station. So we went back in and pretty much demanded a report, then they obliged. Workshy muppets.

After we got our report we browsed some stalls down the buzzing Khao San Road, had a beer then retired for the evening.