same same but different

Afternoon everyonem still in Bangkok at the moment but due to ship out tomorrow evening by bus to Chang Mai for a bit of trecking and country life. We already miss the beaches of southern Thailand and I am sure we will even miss the hussel and bussel of Bangkok. We booked a three day 2 night trecking tour including the bus ride to Chang Mai the other day. It looks really exciting and Cath and I are both really looking forward to it. We paid a little more to go to a relatively more remote, exotic and less touristy part of the countryside (jungle) north West of Chang Mai. Its called the Pai area (not sure of spelling) and is up near the Myenmar border. We will be camping up with the hill tribes, hitching a ride on some elephants and also doing a bit of rafting. Will be the first time off the beaten track and should be a good warm up for Laos.

Australia about to score 4 - 0

Bangkok has been good, although we havnt got out and done as much as we probably should. Its been a good chance to enjoy the food, look around the stalls and even made some time for some lazing around the pool (yes we already had a bit of an accomadation splurg). Speaking of accomadation.....we started off at the 4 Sons Inn on Rambuttri Rd which started off ok, was airconditionedm allowed us to check in at about 6am when we arrived but very much overpriced. Our first night though ended up with us having to check out at 2am after waking up to an horrific stench coming out of what we think was the A/C. The small was a cross between sewage and rotten garbage, enough to make one nauseaous. The staff informed us that they now all of a sudded spoke much less english than when we arrived and there was nothing left to do but cop the expense and once again take to the streats with all our gear in the early hours of the morning. The up side was that we checked into the Rambuttri Village (with Pool) for only a little more and have resisted moving since.

cath and si with thai supporters

Yesturday arvo on a bit of a spur of the moment we decided to follow the yellow and green army and head out to the soccer stadium to watch Australia play thailand in the Asia cup. Was a great atmosphere with about 100000 people filling the stadium. Our seats however were in the middle of the thai fan base up in the nose bleeds on theopposite side from the Aussies. Everytime Thailand came close to scorring or did something worthy of a cheer, they would swivel in their seat and look to us for a reaction. They were really friendly and enjoyed the novelty of having us there. They did however leave early after australia scored their 4th goal to make it 4 zip. Getting home was a nightmare (about an hour by taxi....if you could get one). We resorted to just walking without knowing where we going tfor about an hour until we bumped into a couple of other aussies who had latched onto a young Thai guy who was dirrecting them onto the right train / bus combinations to get them home. We also decided to latch onto this font of valuable information who presented what would turn out to be the only chance we had of getting home that night. He accompanied us on the bus and the train which got us to a taxi ride from our accomadation. Thank ..... for that!

Cath outside stadium

May not get much of a chance over the coming week to get on the net, so bye for now.

Cath with new Thai supporter friends

view from the bleeds..