3 weeks later... in Bangkok!

Hello all,

First of all, thank you so much to people I managed to meet up with in the UK. It was absolutely marvellous to see you (albeit very briefly!) My 4 or 5 days ended up being very cram packed with trying to see as many people as possible in between running errands. So apologies to everyone else who I didn't get to see! We'll be back for good at the end of September... not long now!

So spent a few weeks at home helping out. Not going to say too much about that here apart from it was absolutely incredible seeing Mum again. A pleasure spending time with her, listening to her and realising that she had come back to us. My Mum as I knew her had returned, plus she is very funny! She had us in stitches multiple times, and it was harder leaving this time round after spending such a magical time with her.

So... after continually bawling my eyes out in LHR (I blame the hormones, only took me about 4 hours to stop crying!!!) I flew to Bangkok on Thursday. After a little hitch up with the timetable (I misread my flight arrival time and so H and J were expecting me 12 hours before I actually arrived. Luckily I had managed to email them to let them know this so they picked it up in the morning after getting a little concerned that I might have got quarantined for swine flu!)

Bangkok is far cleaner and organised than I expected. The people are a mixture of very sweet and helpful people, to the most convincing con artists around! It's a daily battle not to get scammed too much, but I think we do alright. H and J have been great in sussing out the best places to go, where to buy things, what to do, and had accommodation ready for when I arrived, which was much appreciated.

We are staying in Khao San Road, which is basically designed for backpackers, with 24 hour bars (not tried those yet), stalls, food stalls on the street, little supermarkets, internet, travel agencies... basically everything you need. It's a little intense with all the bright lights and crowds of people, not to mention the music blaring out of stereo systems until 3am. (I know, I was awake then last night. Luckily I managed to 'borrow' a few face masks and ear plugs from the plane which have come in extremely useful since). A very cool place but very overwhelming, especially with the high population here of 'gringo' tourists (Western tourists). The Irish bars are always full!

Today we got up at 5.30am (yes I know, very painful), to taxi and bus our way 105km out of the city to go to the floating markets. It was such an experience - we paid for a little boat (similar to a gondala but with an outboard motor) to drive us around the canals, and to pull up at the stalls on stilts or stalls on boats. So weird! We were driving around, as were lots of other tourists (luckily we got their quite early when it was quite quiet), and pulled up and grabbed the stalls or other boats selling food or goodies. The water was looking quite murky, but it was such a great system of getting around, and they were very used to dealing with the boats, and their subsequent traffic jams. Very very different to shopping in the UK! We just let our driver take us to the next stall or boat to have a look at what they were selling. Luckily we were restrained and only bought breakfast (I ate 16 mini bananas) and a little elephant pouch. It's nicer than it sounds!

Yesterday H and J recommended I went to visit Wat Pho (think that's the right name) - basically a Buddhist palace with a 46m long, 15m high reclining Buddha in gold leaf. You know the type of typical Asian photos in travel programmes with pointy gold and red roofs? Well pretty much exactly like that! Huge palace (got lost in it) but finally managed to find Buddha. He was very impressive, but kinda claustrophobic in a building very small for him, and pillars obstructed a lot of the views of him. However photographs to follow! Really feel as though I've arrived in Asia now. And it's exhausting (jetlag), not as dirty as I was expecting, completely surreal and noisy and chaotic. But somehow very fun.

Absolutely lovely to see the girlies again. They were very kind and waited until I arrived to go and see the floating markets, which I really appreciated as it wouldn't have been half as fun by myself. And they have been very kind in waiting until I get my Vietnam visa in Bangkok before we move on, despite there not being that much to do on a limited budget, especially as the main thing to do in the evenings is to drink. So we're getting expert now at finding things to do to keep ourselves entertained.

Anyway, must dash, but love to all, from us all again!
Al xxxxxxxx