19/07/06-21/07/06
I am in love with rice paddies. i know its not real love but i cant help it! they are jsut so pretty!
we caught a train to ayuttaya(the old capitol), just north of Bangkok. abnd saw some ruins got chased by the tourist police for riding a bike to close to some ruins. it was only a pushy!!!
i practiced my thai with a child at one of the temples...and i can count...yay.
got sunburnt and then spent the afternoon sheltered from a monsoon in a crazy thai cafe with an eccentric owner.
we got a sleeper train to changmai and then spent the next 3 days treking through the jungle.
it wasnt really trekking but more walking in sweat. the air was clean the people were fun and the villages were really nice.
at one village we ended up playing nearly 2 hours of the thai foot volleyball game called takraw. i have seen it in a few movies and have always wanted to play it and it turns out that me and alex are naturals. josh on the otherhand has a little way to go. his eye hand combo .....well you know. we played like 6 games straight with the villagers and we even won a game!!!!!
see it at the link below - its so athletic. this one thai guy with a gammy leg could launch of his good leg, do a backwards somersault kick and hit the ball over the net and land on the same good leg. AMAZING
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takraw
Friday, August 04, 2006
And Then.......
18/07/06
www.burningman.com - a sweet website!!! told to me by a frieldly american - yes there are many of them in the world!
Wasted the morning in a huge mall, i have never seen so many mobile phones in one place. it was like the floor was giving birth to them!!
We went on a river cruise today on a long tail boat and fed some catfish. oooh how touristy. we saw a bunch of WAT's, they are all kinda similar.
We ended up in chinatown at night and stumbled across some chinese theatre. VERY COOL. and random.
www.burningman.com - a sweet website!!! told to me by a frieldly american - yes there are many of them in the world!
Wasted the morning in a huge mall, i have never seen so many mobile phones in one place. it was like the floor was giving birth to them!!
We went on a river cruise today on a long tail boat and fed some catfish. oooh how touristy. we saw a bunch of WAT's, they are all kinda similar.
We ended up in chinatown at night and stumbled across some chinese theatre. VERY COOL. and random.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
number 3
17/07/06
We woke up kinda late today showered and ate breakfast in the hostel. We met an American guy named Dan and got chatting. He had a Thai girlfriend and was here for about 4 weeks also. We ended up deciding that we would see Bangkok together. We got a taxi and went to a Big C shopping centre and then to Calsan road. Dunno how u spells it. It’s a Crazy Market Street where u can find all sorts of cheap shit. Got a map of Thailand for like 8AUD and then got some passport photos and international student cards made up. Hehehehehe. Went and got a feed and then we climbed into a government sponsored tuk-tuk and for 10THB each we got to see a bunch of WAT’s and a big golden Buddha and stuff around Bangkok. We also went to the Manhattan to look at suits but they were a bit annoying and pretty expensive as well. We also went to a TAT (Thai A? Tourist) centre to book a Chiang Mai tour but it was also too much.
We then went to a sky rail train station to get a train back to close to our apartment. For about 50THB we got a super fast smooth sky train back to our suburb. We then tried to find a bus but it was freakin hard so we ended up catching a taxi back. Again it took us like a hour to find the place again.
Later that night I went for a walk to try and find a SIM card to call home. I found a 711 and used my great Thai language skills mixed with a bit of broken English and some pointing to end up with a 12call sim card with 50THB of credit. They write your passport number down with the phone number which is all kinda Big Thai Brother watching you. I called Australia but my credit only lasted like 2 minutes. DAMN IT. Then I called the operator and it took another like 20 minutes to get them to tell me that u need to use the 008 or 009 prefix when calling overseas instead of the + and it charges you less. So I return to the 711 and buy a recharge card.
On the way walking home I walk past some Thai food stalls and some mechanics and then this dog went psycho and started barking at me. I had nothing to hit it with so I started walking away from it. It started to get really fired up so I turned around and stared at it. I thought it was going to attack me!!! I growled at it and backed of slowly and didn’t take my eyes of it! I definitely didn’t want to get bit by a street dog. It probably had RABIES or something worse.
The next time I call Australia I get like 10 times the value for money! AWESOME!
We woke up kinda late today showered and ate breakfast in the hostel. We met an American guy named Dan and got chatting. He had a Thai girlfriend and was here for about 4 weeks also. We ended up deciding that we would see Bangkok together. We got a taxi and went to a Big C shopping centre and then to Calsan road. Dunno how u spells it. It’s a Crazy Market Street where u can find all sorts of cheap shit. Got a map of Thailand for like 8AUD and then got some passport photos and international student cards made up. Hehehehehe. Went and got a feed and then we climbed into a government sponsored tuk-tuk and for 10THB each we got to see a bunch of WAT’s and a big golden Buddha and stuff around Bangkok. We also went to the Manhattan to look at suits but they were a bit annoying and pretty expensive as well. We also went to a TAT (Thai A? Tourist) centre to book a Chiang Mai tour but it was also too much.
We then went to a sky rail train station to get a train back to close to our apartment. For about 50THB we got a super fast smooth sky train back to our suburb. We then tried to find a bus but it was freakin hard so we ended up catching a taxi back. Again it took us like a hour to find the place again.
Later that night I went for a walk to try and find a SIM card to call home. I found a 711 and used my great Thai language skills mixed with a bit of broken English and some pointing to end up with a 12call sim card with 50THB of credit. They write your passport number down with the phone number which is all kinda Big Thai Brother watching you. I called Australia but my credit only lasted like 2 minutes. DAMN IT. Then I called the operator and it took another like 20 minutes to get them to tell me that u need to use the 008 or 009 prefix when calling overseas instead of the + and it charges you less. So I return to the 711 and buy a recharge card.
On the way walking home I walk past some Thai food stalls and some mechanics and then this dog went psycho and started barking at me. I had nothing to hit it with so I started walking away from it. It started to get really fired up so I turned around and stared at it. I thought it was going to attack me!!! I growled at it and backed of slowly and didn’t take my eyes of it! I definitely didn’t want to get bit by a street dog. It probably had RABIES or something worse.
The next time I call Australia I get like 10 times the value for money! AWESOME!
i know its late but you will just have to deal with it
16/07/06
Waiting, waiting in the airport…….its the hardest part, except for goodbyes. I bought a new little ipod nano (its so small and functional at the same time!!)
Got a sweet refund for my pre flight purchases! Nearly 200AUD from the TRS!!
Thai airways is awesome. We waited to the last minute to board cause I hate lining up. We got on the plane and there were a bunch of seats free. Mum had insisted that we “ask for a windows seat” and Dad said “bad luck” but we ended up with the 3 seats in a row next to the window! I saw that there were a couple of rows free and I asked if I could sit in another seat. The airway hostess man said it was okay so I spread all my stuff all over 4 seats and had it all to myself. AWESOME!
Watched a few movies and had a few drinks loaded some music onto my ipod and before we knew it we arrive in Bangkok. We got in pretty late, going on 11ish and I think the staff at the airport were not caring. We got our bags off the conveyor belt and went to declare some medicine but the guy at the customs desk didn’t want to know us. He just told us to go to the nothing to declare isle. We went through and expected to be stopped and asked to open our bags but it took us like 1 minute to walk onto the street!
Then the heat hit us. Got into a taxi and sung for the driver. I had the address and phone number of the hostel so after we got lost we called them for directions. We got a little closer and then asked some kids on the street for directions. After about 1.5 hours we finally got to the hostel. YAY!
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