We cant say we werent warned! Everything we read said....'DONT TAKE THE ROAD FROM SIEM REAP TO BANGKOK!!!!!' But the oh so tempting $12 price tag was too good to refuse :) Its a close run race...which was worse, the 18 hour overnight hard seat in China, or the 11 hour road to Hell in to Thailand. They must have 'thought' about making a road, the...

Greetings everyone, we made it to Thailand, and have found a gem of a guest house, the Shanti Lodge, it's amazing. aand cheap, and the food is super super good. mmmmmmmm curry. We took a bus from the airpot, to Khao San Rd, then took a crazy tuk tuk ride to the lodge, omg, and our room, is so beautiful, but i cant get over the whole no tp thing....

My first meal in Thailand was a total winner and for 25 baht (less than $1 aus) you can't go wrong! After that I jumped on a loooooong train ride to Bangkok and here I am now, having done the unthinkable... skipped the Thai islands of the south as I can't be bothered with the beach! On the train I was sitting near a lady and her 18yo niece who w...

My first day in Bangkok, someone stole my shoes. I had left them outside the Shanti Lodge, my guesthouse for the next couple days, because no shoes were permitted inside. And when I came back out to get them the next morning, ready to explore the city, they were gone. Every day for three days I looked for those shoes whenever I left or returned ...

Our final leg began in Bangkok. We were eager to hit the beaches but wanted to take in the sights and get our shopping done first. On Gavin & Lill's recommendation, we stayed at the Shanti Lodge, which was great - a little oasis in steamy Bangkok. (a great restaurant and not too mention a healthy distance away from the hustle and bustle of K...

Greetings from Thailand! Well second week since my departure and I have to say I'm reeeeeeeeally starting to enjoy myself now (thank god). Bangkok was gross, too much traffic, pollution, jaded thai people and mangy dogs to deal with. Finding a sanctuary called Shanti Lodge (thanks Lloyd for the tip) to reside in whilst I dealt with my new wobbly...

Hey Iedereen, Gewoon om efkes te laten weten dat we ondertussen veilig in Bangkok zijn aangekomen. Het is bijna van een leien dakje gegaan, bijna, ni helemaal. Meer info hierover en de eerste fotootjes een dezer dagen. Dikke kussen van Dirk en Marta en nog eens duizendmaal bedankt voor een super afscheidsfeesje!! We zitten dus nog altijd in Bang...

After packing up and checking out we had a cheap lift to the Chiang Mai airport in a sketchy 4x4 belonging to one of the guesthouse staff. We were delayed by 35 mins so sat in the various lounges entertaining ourselves and trying to keep warm in the freezing air con. The flight was another short one and we were able to see the plains of central ...

The hour-long journey from the airport to Shanti Lodge gave us the opportunity to reaquaint ourselves with Bangkok's rush hour traffic. By the time we got to our hotel, we were ready for food and ac. The lodge was beautifully decorated, with mosaics and pools of fish, and plants everywhere. After cooling off and having a wonderful dinner, we wan...

Today was an adventure! After a fitful nights sleep I let myself get out of bed at 5:30 am. A couple more days should shake off this annoying jet lag. I went to the hotel's coffee shop for a croissant and coffee before checking out around 8. Using the hotel's free ferry to Central Pier was great, as there was a breeze out on the river. From ther...

Today was a million times better than yesterday! I awoke early, showered, and sat down in my guesthouse's cafe thinking of trying some banana pancakes for breakfast. La-di-da...no one ever came to help me, so I left and started my hike to the pier. On the way I ran into (not literally) a street vendor making up and selling fresh pad thai. Oh yea...

Back in Bangkok, after returning from Cambodia, Jacquie and I spent a day picking up a few more trinkets and arranging to have our new suits shipped back to Canada. We also had to figure out where we were going to spend Christmas and New Years. We knew that we wanted to stay in Thailand for the holidays (We love the food and the people) but that...

After walking around yesterday in our odd trio (Kate, Jonty and myself) looking for somewhere else to move to (that didn't have a burned out fan motor) we decided this morning to just pack and leave in search of something more decent away from Thanon Koh San. The places we viewed last night were either full, too expensive or too much like a cros...

In less than an hour I am heading north having bought a VERY cheap overnight bus ticket to Chang Mai, for only 100B. The bus is apparently air-conditioned and of the VIP variety (with 30 fully reclining seats) but at that price I am a little dubious. The 11-hour journey might not be that comfortable if the bus is not the luxury one advertised, b...

...and the world's your oyster." Well that's how the 80's song from Chess goes anyway. I arrived in Bangkok this morning on the overnight bus from Krabi. And yes, I am only planning on staying one night. It was quite impossibe to get any sleep on the bus as I was sitting next to a chap who just couldn't sit still for more than fifteen minutes. T...

The title of this entry is the lyric from a song that Pierce swears is well-known. I've never heard of it, but since he's been singing it for the last week, it's in my head and now I'm finally HERE! I arrived in Bangkok at about noon today (Happy 4th of July, everyone!) and successfully negotiated a taxi to the guesthouse I'm staying at, the Sha...

Hello all! We are all alive and well. This morning, we got back into Bangkok and immediately took a tuk-tuk (small open air taxi-like thing) back to the Shanti Lodge, where we spent our first few nights in Bangkok weeks ago. It's like a home away from home. The Full Moon Party was pretty incredible. There were an estimated 8,000 people crowed on...

Okay yall here's a bit of a blurb about the first leg of our trip in Thailand - Banging in Bangkok... Twas definitely an assault on all the senses arriving in Bangkok... Arriving after midnight and having the humidity hit you so hard reminded me of our hot summers, but our hot summers in the middle of the day;-) I'm glad we've left the hustle an...

WOO HOO arrived in Thailand last night, the airports we've been to have been SO easy!! We took a long, trafficky bus ride into Bangkok (reminded me of home) to the main traveler's road, Th Khoa San. It is a road that is so dense with tourists, merchants, bar spill-over and tuk tuk drivers that it is closed to vehicles, and we got there and immed...

I am ridiculously excited as we come into land at Bangkok airport. It seems like I've been waiting for this moment a long time. I had hoped to make the most of my overnight stop in Singapore by having a Singapore Sling in Raffles - a kind of mini-celebration of getting this far - but sadly the reality of travelling for 48 hours straight knocked ...

I switch to my own room in Shanti Lodge, and feel instantly better. It's a luxury but the aircon is heaven. The food here also more than makes up for the nasty experience in the dorm, it's fantastic. I'm slowly finding my feet in Bangkok. Bangkok is notorious for traffic jams, so it's a matter of finding the quickest (and coolest) routes around ...

It began 3 days ago, on the 21st. We woke up in Venice around 9am. and quickly caught the shuttle into town. We spent most of the day wandering through the narrow ( and tourist FILLED) streets. Despite what many people say, (that Venice is dirty and smelly) I found the city to be quite charming. (minus all the tourists) There are NO cars whatsoe...

Day #2 in Bangkok ended in the most unexpected way. I just finished writing out a stack of postcards and headed up to the reception desk to try and find scissors. The manager, Yuan, started chatting with me and we talked for over 2 hours. I learned more about Thai culture in this short period of time, than from all the research I've done over th...

Still don't know about the storm hitting Ko Phangan, but on Ton Sai beach the weather was nothing short of perfect. I was thrilled to be back and see familiar faces; in just a matter of days, Ton Sai felt like home. As a result of the weather problems further north, the number of climbers on the island nearly doubled in the short twenty-four hou...

Dec. 11/2005 We have arrived in Bangkok and are ecstatic. We hitch a cab to Khao San road. The way people drive in Thailand is mental. The lines and rules are more suggestions than anything and cars and bikes and Tuk Tuks (see pic of a tuk tuk) jockey for position constantly. It wasn't strange to see vehicles 4 abreast on a 2 lane road. We arriv...

Dec. 12/2005 Today we got up and had to book a night bus to Chiang Mai as the internet booking for the night sleeper train we did online didn't work and it was full. Twelve hours on a bus ain't gonna be fun. We had some grub and headed to Khao San for some shopping as we needed a couple things for our trek. We hung around Khao San for a few hour...

And before I knew it, I was back at Shanti Lodge in Bangkok, right where I started in March. Nothing had changed. The good food and bad service was still the same. However the counter at the 7-11 over the road had moved to a different corner of the shop, so I guess some progress had been made. Bangkok. A concrete jungle really. More cars and few...

Nothing exciting. Slept in a Better place ("Shanti Lodge") which is a bit far from all the commotion (MEHUMA) of the Kaosan, a bit too far if one wants access to what it offers. The main thing that made this time better is that this time I was hanging out with Shawn and Jawad.