Bangkok Boutique

... I went to the Ekamai (Bangkok's eastern bus terminal) to purchase a bus ticket to Trat for the next day. There was a traffic jam so I sat in the taxi in traffic for about 45 minutes before buying the ticket and sat in traffic in another taxi for about 45 minutes after buying the ticket.

I the day concluded with me grabbing a curry on the street and getting an early night before catching the bus that morning.

... the upcoming Loy Krathong Festival. The festival takes place on the full moon of the 12th lunar month, which happened to fall on November 2 this year. It is a celebration of the goddess of the waterways. People make or buy these "boats" made out of banana leaves, place offerings of beautiful flowers, a candle, incense, and a coin in them, and release them onto the water. Although there maybe some historical religious significance, it is now mainly meant to be ...

... scuttled by, the river traffic rumbled by, and my slight stomach ache allowed the lizards to move in on my strawberry oats boldly. The night was suggesting itself to us, the sky was taking on an orange mantle and Jon was getting hungry, a proud look on his face at his new Tat. We went to the same place, and another fried rice and a 7-11 later we were walking down the street with two beers in our hands and a bottle of Sang Som in my pocket. New shirt on, looking McFly, we somehow ...

... the national anthem every evening for a month and a half (starting on Sept 15). Turns out I was just experiencing a cultural/political event relevant to our times. Either way, it was a uniquely eerie and surprisingly enjoyable event.

To make up for the fact that this blog posting is very late I'm including some photos from Thailand!!

... walking towards the Palace we were approached by three separate tuk-tuk drivers telling us that the Palace was closed from “now” until 2 for a special Thai ceremony, but they would be happy to take us to see some other temples and a silk factory while we waited for the Palace to reopen. We were a bit skeptical so we kept walking toward the entrance gate. The third person to approach us was dressed very sharply and was ...

... by three sets of schoolkids with English projects asking us questions about our stay in Bangkok - they are so polite and obviosuly nervous that we couldnt say no. Smithy smacked his head on the only low door in the whole of Bangkok, and then back for a shower and departure onto the Chiang Mai sleeper train. Chiang Mai is Thailand's second city, based much further North. The train is anywhere between 12 and fourteen hours. We hit 15 hours. Actually ...

... Palace buildings. Within the palace complex are several impressive buildings including Wat Phra Kaew , which is the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. According to legend, the Emerald Buddha was created in India in 43BC by Nagasena in the city of Pataliputra (today Patna). Legends state that after remaining in Pataliputra for three hundred years, it was taken to Sri Lanka to save it from a civil war. In 457, King Anuruth of Burma sent a mission to Ceylon to ask for Buddhist scriptures and the ...

Hello again,

It's Wednesday the 21st July and we are just waiting to board our VIP bus for a 15 hour trek down to the island of Ko Tao, known for its popularity for diving. Since we last spoke to you, we checked out of our hotel on Khao San Road and wandered about, until Neil suggested we stayed in a bit more of a luxurious hotel. By that I thought he meant hot water, air con and no bugs, but Neil had something else in mind. We ended ...

... ve caught the little **** as he had most of his face covered. The CCTV monitors wouldn't have been much use either. The cop said that due to the the value of lead being re-priced, there's been a spate of thefts in the area. The point about the chaos effect I'm making is, I had to deal with the ensuing insurance hassle for the roof to be replaced, and put up with profuse leaking when it rained heavily last Sunday morning, all because of some material that ...