Bloody Good Times

I knew i'd be completely crap at keeping this up to date so think it's about time i wrote something. Been here a week now and the whole trip has just been unbeliaveablely good. The flight to Dubai was easily the best i've ever had (no motion sickness and no need for wrist bands....get me) and the stop over in Dubai wasn't as painful as i'd imagined either. I had nine hours to wait but quickly got chatting to a guy from Australia called Paul who seemed to have been everywhere....Africa, thailand, England, Dubai etc etc so was good to hear some places to check out where i'm going. Plus it was always nice to get cracking on with someone straight away rather then it becoming a "thing".
The flight onto bangkok was also spot on, was sat next to a lovely girl from Devon called Phillipa and she'd just spent four years in Paris teaching English but was visiting Thailand, Australia and New Zealand while she could. She also informed me you can only get a visa for visiting New Zealand up to 30 which was nice to know, i may be adding some flights i think. The fact that she had two more flights after me onto Sydney then finally Christchurch didn't make my own seem so terrible either and we had a nice chat on. Sitting next to someone who selects "Please Please Me" and "Harvest" for their listening is always a pleasure too. It was a bit mad saying goodbye in the airport though, many more of them to come i'd bet.
I managed to get onto my hotel ok http://www.princepalace.co.th/ but it had took 27 hours to get there with no sleep so just competely crashed out. The free upgrade was pretty good though and the 7ft by 7ft bed was just about the greatest thing i could possibly see at that point. I thought it would be a good idea to go for a walkabout the next day to scout the area out but quicky realised this was a mega fail. The hotel was surrounded by a complete dump and i didn't see one "western" face and couldn't help but think i had a "mug" sign on me head from the people approaching me, so clearly a taxi to Khoa San Road was easily the best option.
It took a few bars before i managed to get properly talking to some people and this included an akward moment in one bar where it was apparant bith of us wanted to speak but didn't know how to go about it. I soon found my self in a Thai acoustic roof bar where rousing english language songs were played  and met these two great girls from Holland, Esme and Katia;. www.katenes.waarbenjij.nu) We craicedon about "the frog sellers", how long i'd been away for and various other stuff before One drink quickly turned into many, many vodka shots, bottles of Tiger, Smoking Water Pipes and us completely owning the club (imaginitively titled "the club" so it was all good. Nice to see i brought a bit of home back with me though when i managed to upset a Thai guy greatly while literally just sitting with Katia. Thankfully the usual response did stay back in Newcastle. It was also funny to hear that everyone else had a "oh my god, what the fuck am i doing?" moment in the departure lounge and it wasn't just me that had a tiny freak out. Seems like everyone does from whom i've spoke to so far at least. Hopefully i can put some pics up from the night later, once they send them to me, but it was a great to have an awesome night straight away and meet some really cool people. Once it came to leave we all went to our seperate locations as i drunkingly stumbled onto a "Tuk Tuk". I could barely hold my body up so was literally hanging out the side but i made it back safely thankfully. However he dropped me off at a different entrance to the one i'd been using and i quickly got lost. After a few minutes of stumbling about a hotel worker found me and thankfully escorted me back to my room, i'm sure i was nothing but a joy to him haha....

I met with Holly (once again, i couldn't ask to meet anyone nicer) the next day and both of us were nursing mega hangovers, which is always nice when meeting someone for the first time. We walked about a bit while i carried my ridiculous oversized backpack, had a few drinks, while barely stopping talking enough to breath(Taxi silence has become a tradition mind) and it's been really good since.  Found a really nice cheap guesthouse called the Merry V in a good location and just hung out taking it easy for a few days making plans and slightly worrying about banks. It was less of a worry knowing that someone else couldn't withdraw cash but after a few e mails and calls we got it sorted. We've spent most of the time hanging round Khao San and both decided to brave out first street stall meal and this also doubled as my first tofu veggie meal. It turned out to be one of the "tastiest" meals i've ever had and at just 30 baht started the trend of us comparing every purchase to how many meals it wpuld get us. We made the trip to Patpong night market last night and that was an experience to say the least haha. I didn't know what to expect but it certainly didn't dissapoint. Only here you could have "ping pong shows"(it's ok for ladies too apparently haha), a street market, the redlight district, irish bars, KFC and dunkin donuts all in 2 minutes walking distance. The juxtaposition is mind blowing. It was a good night mind, even though Holly bloody beat me at pool which is always emasculating  haha and was definitely worth the visit. Jaws did drop mind even though i never got to see them "shoot banana".

We've just got back from the Grand Palace today and that was a whole different kind of experiance. I really don't think i could do it justice without photos so hopefully i can put some up when i steal Holly's, since my camera is broke.  There's So many different buildings of varying craft, size and shape all painstakingly constructed. ven one's that may be dismissed as "tacky" due to restoration are so intricately put together that you can't help but be impressed. The Emerald Buddha hall was a highlight and a pretty humbling in a room full of buddhists too. I'd never given it much thought to why Buddhist bow in the way they d but thankfully Holl informed me before i had the chance to offend. Thai's view the feet as the dirtiest part of the body and the head as the most sacred so kneel with their feet pointing away from the buddha and thir head towards it to show respect. Sitting otherwise can greatly offend and this is also why you see piles of shoes outside buildings as they view them to be dirty. We'd also heard stories of various scams but in real life we found them to be pretty feeble. It entailed a man informing us the palace was closed despite we were ten metres from it and in my eye line hundreds of people were streaming in. How stupid do people have to be to fall for this shit?  So yeah, nothing but good times so far (except the camera and the halifax) and i don't hink i could've met any nicer or coler people too. Think i'll be heading to Phuket tomorrow so will see what that brings. Amazing i bet.