We've arrived in Thailand!! Although it took us 4 days to adjust to the heat (avergae 35 degrees!), we have developed intricate pathways through the air conditioned shops to reach any destination with a minimum of exposure to the heat! And of course, if the worst comes to the worst we can have a dip in the ocean, just 500m from where we're staying (the lovely Loma - thanks mum!).

Day 7

Wednesday Sept 13, 2006

Lachlan's birthday - happy birthday Lach!

We arrived in Pattaya by a combination of train, sky train and air conditioned bus on Friday morning, and were immediately overwhelmed by the sense of national pride - Thai flags everywhere! Hanging from the buses, the buildings, even the hand carved spirit houses that appear in the garden of each house here (much more beautifully decorated and outfitted than the main house, in miniture, to keep the spirits out of the main house!). We took to swimming, jet skiing, and exploring straight away!

The sex tourism culture here was a huge shock... We didn't think it would be so explicit - it's hard to get away from, especially when our hotel is full of 90 year old men with 18 year old thai girlfriends... but we manage to keep out of their way with all our adventurous exploring! Just yesterday we stumbled across the world's biggest jewellery store... and we now have a favourite pool hall, juicery and noodle bar!

The cuisine has been a mixture of chilli, seafood and colour - perhaps a little too hot given the weather, but some of the new fruits have been very tasty! (We are yet to determine the english names though!)...

Right now it's pouring with rain, our first rainy day since arriving... and it seems to have settled in... so I guess we have too! A nice refreshing change :-) Ganesh is getting excited about our planned motorbike adventure tomorrow - they are very cheap to hire here... so we plan to go up to the northern beaches (the last places left - as we've covered most of the south by foot!). Okay, well, that's all for now. We're going to eat birthday cake in Lachlan's honour :-)

Day 10

Sunday Sept 17, 2006

Ganesh's Birthday! We arrived back in Bangkok to celebrate in style... but not before a couple of very interesting adventures in Pattaya, including hiring a motor bike and with Ganesh's skillful driving stylings, making it all the way around Pattaya, Naklua, Jomtein and even out to the Siam elephant park, as well as through some very tropical villages. We conquered flood waters and even traffic police on the motorbike and are now confident we can take anyone anywhere in Pattaya! :-)

Back in Bangkok the weather is still hot! But we were so excited by the Chatuchak market (and prices!) that we forgot about the weather long enough to participate in open air aerobics in lumphini park, before searching through another market in silom rd. Ganesh is marketed out, but I think I can convince him to go to at least one more (I see another market right across the road from this internet cafe!). Of course it is his birthday, so he gets final choice :-)

Well, we're off for more bangkok adventures... the hospital for my leg (motorbike accident), hair cuts and styles for the birthday celebrations, and then the real night out begins!! :-)

Day 12

Tuesday Sept 19, 2006

Adventures in Bangkok are continuing... after our amazing night at the Shangri La complete with fireworks over the river, and triple layered chocolate birthday cake, we moved to the backpackers accomodation near Khao San Rd. The size of the room has encouraged us to go out a lot! So we went to the Grand Palace this morning... along the river on a ferry... to the 'lucky' Buddha (an enormous 20ft gold statue), courtesy of a very dodgy tuk tuk driver, who subsequently dropped us off at his 'sponsor's' jewellery and clothes shops... but he only charged 20 bhat so we didn't do too badly. In the afternoon we headed out to Siam square and Ocean World - ate lunch via an interesting card system, and are now back in Khao San rd using very very cheap internet :-) (10 bhat unlimited access!). Our plans for tomorrow are either the floating market (yes, somehow I convinced Ganesh to go to another market!) or the ancient village :-) I'm also keen to get a yellow or blue king or queen tshirt... apparently every single monday the whole population of bangkok wears a yellow tshirt in honour of the king (they really do!) and on friday it's blue in honour of the queen... it was pretty funny to see everyone in yellow yesterday - it's sort of like a national uniform! :-) Not too many other plans - Ganesh is very disappointed that we can't hire a motorbike in Bangkok, but secretly I'm kind of relieved... (I want to spend the traffic fine money on markets!) :-)