Quite a bit has happened since my last blog. Just a quick note before i get to the real writing- there may be a large amount of typing errors in this entry. The hungarian keyboards have letters in different spots, so some of my y's may come out as z's etc etc.

So I will start at the beginning...remember the bed bugs? Turns out they weren't actually bed bugs. I figured this out when after 4 days i looked like i had the plague and would go through boughts of wanting to scratch my skin off. It was not pleasant. I also reeked of tiger balm because i was rubbing the stuff all over me (it is considered a remedy for everything in Asia). So I had to travel on an overnight train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok looking like a mutant and smelling like a jar of vapor rub. Lovely. Good thing the overnight train was wonderful...if you got the bottom bunk...which i didn't. I spent the night in a very narrow top bunk with a highly volted light shining for the whole night a foot from my face. When we arrived in Bangkok, I had to go to a hotel that Intrepid uses to pick up some packages i had sent there (thanks mom and dad!!). When i got there, they only had one package for me (my mom's lifesaving underwear package!) and i was told that the other one had needed to be signed for so it was back at Fed Ex. Fed Ex had left a number for me to call and i was connected to a very soft spoken thai woman who spoke about 3 times below human hearing levels. She also had horrible english pronounciation and was so overly polite while i was getting more and more frustrated and the hotel staff were being useless. Eventually, the guy who was working at the travel desk helped me out and told me I would have to take an hour taxi to get my package. Luckily the bus station i needed to go to to get down to Koh Chang was in the same direction. So, I had very little time to get mz package, get to the bus station, buy a ticket and take the 5 hour bus ride to Trat so i get on the ferry before 6. Needless to say it was a bit of a challenge...BUT i made it to Fed Ex..I got my package of european lonely planets...and i made it to the eastern bus station 2 MINUTES before a bus for Trat was leaving. I guess I had the appearance of someone going to Koh Chang because as soon as i stepped into the station a woman at one of the ticket counters was beckoning me over and selling me a return ticket to Trat! Now, I had a slight issue...I had eaten or gone to the bathroom yet that morning, and I needed to do both desperately, but I really only had time to buy some biscuits and rush to my seat. But don't worry, there was a toilet stop an hour into the trip, so I was only in total agony for a short bit. Getting to Koh Chang was a bit of a mission. After the 5 hours on the bus, I and some other westerners were dropped off in Trat, a town near the ferries. We then had to take a 20 min tuk-tuk ride to the ferries, then a 20 min ferry to Koh Chang, and then another 20 min tuk-tuk to wherever you were staying. I started talking to an australian guy who had been on the same bus as me and was travelling to koh chang with his Thai girlfriend, Sangduan (no idea how to spell it). They ended up coming to stay at the same place as me and we hung out a bunch over the next couple of days. I wont go into too much detail about the island, I don't want to cause too much jealousy, mostly I will just let the photos speak for themselves. I stayed in a very basic bungalow on the beach for 9 USD a night. It was called Tiger Hut and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a cheap holiday full of relaxation time.

I didn't get to enjoy it right away though. My "bites" had gotten worse so after my first night I went to the local clinic to figure out what was going on. It was a clinic run by Thai women and as one of them practically undressed me in the front of the clinic and rubbed cream on ALL my bites, she kept saying "there are so many!!" and chuckling to herself. The doctor told me it was an allergic reaction to something in Chiang Mai and gave me some meds to take for swelling and itching, the cream, and some vit C tablets. I went back to the beach, spent the day reading in the sun, and the next morning the bites had already started to go down! Thai Miracle!!

Anyway after three days of pure relaxation, I had to do the whole journey in reverse to get back to Bangkok to get my flight to Budapest in the wee hours of the morning. Bangkok airport was okay...they had a massive duty free section but absolutely NOTHING once you went through security so I was a bit bored for a while. I was also exhausted from a full day of travelling so i just passed out for the entire plane ride. The flight was pretty empty so I had two seats to myself so I got to semi stretch out, which was reallíy nice. Oddly enough, Egyptair still served dinner even though it was 2 am...I ate some bites and then passed out with my meal still in front of me. I drifted in and out of conciousness until we landed in Cairo where I had 7 hours to kill. I had to go through some pretty disorganized egyptian passport controls to get to the TINY international terminal. Then their ATM wasnt working and I had to get permission to get escorted 15 ft to another ATM. But, I did get to eat a salad at starbucks...I havent had a real salad (not that it was that good) for...maybe 2 months?? Its been a while. The time passed pretty uneventfully, only one Egpytian older, chubby man gave me his card so we could email each other, and then i boarded my plane to Budapest, which ended up getting in an hour early.

I had to navigate three different sets of Hungarian public transport to get to my hostel, and before getting on each one I had to ask atleast two locals where I was going. I arrived at my hostel desperately in need of a shower at around 5 pm. By the way, my hostel is awesome. Its in a really ols building (over 100 years) but everything else about it is brand new. There is a free breakfast and free internet, and the owners are a really nice and helpful young hungarian couple. I wandered around the town for a bit, got some dinner and then collapsed into bed. This morning I got up, had a lovely breakfast, and then headed out on a route suggested by Gabe, one of the owners.

I started at the Synagogue, which I never actually got into because they wouldnt let me bring my lunch in since its Pesach, and they didnt have anywhere I could put it (supposedly). Instead I moved on to the Cathedral! I paid 400 Forint (about 2 USD) to go up to the top of the Basilica and see all of Budapest. It was a great way to start the day. Budapest is gorgeous! (see the photos!) I then headed to the Opera House (where I lost out on getting a cheap ticket to see an opera tomorrow night because i took too long thinking) and then went to the Terror House. The Terror House is a building that the Communists and then the Nazis used for torturing prisoners in Budapest. The exhibit was done wonderfully (except the communist part was mostly in hungary so i couldnt understand much). The Nazi part had english subtitles on the videos, and I spent almost 2 hours on that part. They had such interesting footage with stories of peoples time during internment and what the cells were like, it was amazing. From there I headed to the city park which, I was told, was supposed to be like Central Park...it doesnt even compare. But it was still nice, if a little seedy. I finally limped back to the hostel after 7 hours of sight seeing and started writing this much over due blog. Now I can have a cup of tea and, possibly, a shower :)