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So I make it back to Thailand. And except for the long wait on the Thai side of the border, a fairly smooth trip. What I really notice coming into Bangkok, it that it could be any western city in the world. From the freeway, you can’t tell it’s Thailand, and it being night you just see the lit up stuff. Well, I think this was the biggest culture shock I had ever received. I think it was just because I wasn’t expecting to see such a modern city, even though I had been here before, it was kind of a shock, I wasn’t expecting to have that. Well, anyway, after a long day of traveling, it’s a early quite night. The next day I do the one tourist thing I want to do in Bangkok, I go see the royal palace, and emerald Buda. It’s quite a spectacular place, especially the weapons room, with hundreds of years of weapons. Too bad you can’t see very much of the palace, at it is still a palace. Then just some wondering, where I get myself quite lost, wow I didn’t think I could get that lost in an area I was slightly familiar with. That night me and a South African friend head to the night market. One of my favorite crazy places in Bangkok. Mostly just the same things you find everywhere in the city, but with a better selection, though not the best place to bargain, at least on some things. But the best part is the food court. I mile of food on one side, and a mile of beer on the other, with a stage at one end with free entertainment, and both times I had been there, there was a Thai cover band, doing top 40 with amateur choreographed dancers, absolutely hilarious. I do like Bangkok. But next on the list was Kanchanaburi, a town on the western part of Thailand, close the Burma. I really didn’t know what to expect here, but what I found was a lovely town, one of my favorite in Thailand. I had a good group of people here, and there were some cool things to do as well. The first thing I did was go to the Tiger Monastery. A place where the monks take in injured and misplaced tigers. It was really neat as we could actually go sit by the tigers, and touch them. That was cool. So then I signed up for a day tour the next day, to see a 7 tiered waterfall, and death railway museum, and ride the train. The waterfall was amazing, and we only made it to the fifth tier, as we ran out of time, and the path got a kinda bad. Next was the museum at hells pass. Now for anybody who doesn’t know what the death railway was it was a project by the Japanese during WWII, to create a link between Burma and Bangkok. And it was made with indigenous slave labor and WWII POW’s. And Hells Pass was the hardest part, where the most people died. And this new museum was very nice. Then we went a little further on, and rode part of the railway that was still in use, there was a nice part at the beginning that was along a cliff, but most of the ride was boring, and kids used the railway to go to school, so It was filled with then coming home. Then at the very end, we stopped at the bridge; the most famous landmark of Kanchanaburi, the Bridge over the River Kwai. For such a famous bridge it was kinda boring. I had a couple nice nights in the town, one night we got invited to go to a birthday party on a barge, with dance music, and BYOB. Also spent a night on the town, the little of it there was, and had a blast. That was the last night in K’buri, and the start of long stretch of my not sleeping. As that was Friday night, most of us were meeting back up in Bangkok on Saturday night, and though a lot of us where going to have quite one, we ended up being out until 4am, and I had stuff to do the next day. Then it was Sunday, I left Tues. morn (or mon. night depending on how you looked at it.) So Sunday was shopping day. And I went to the Weekend market. WOW. This is the largest open-air market in the World, and it’s a little boggling at the size of it. So I found most of what I wanted, except for some shirts, which I found early in the day, but when I tried to find them again, no idea where it was, very frustrating. So I left the shirts till the next day, as I could get them close to where I was staying, and called it a day. Didn’t see my friends that evening, and was going to call it a early night, till I stopped by for a beer on the way home, and then ended up talking to some random guy for hours, and had to move to the illegal bars in the streets. Well shit, I wanted to get some sleep, and I just wasn’t happening, and this was my last night in Bangkok with a room, as I was just going to go to the airport at midnight, since I had to check in at 2am anyway. My last day I didn’t do too much, just bought the last of my shirts, sent some stuff home, and got ready to leave Asia. Crazy, I couldn’t believe that all that time had passed, and I was going to be leaving the continent. It seemed like I had been there forever, but also that I had got there yesterday. Well I guess that’s the sign of a good place. I said goodbye to my friends, as we were all leaving about the same time, within a day of each other, and then I left Asia. Till next time, I’ll miss you.

So very quickly. I got my bus to bangkok, and they put me on the wrong bus. I got to the part where everybody was going onto ferries, and I was like, “Bangkok by bus”, and they were freeking out. well, then rushed me to another bus company, and I got on that bus so it all turned out fine, but it was a nice intrducktion for this leg of travel. I got in at 5:30 in the morning, and couldn’t be bothered to figure out where I was or where to go, so I went to a guest house that had a van there, and a cheap room. whell this guest house was not the best, but t served me for the time, and I started on my chores. I had a few things to do in bangkok, and very shrtly I really didn’t want to be there. I found a respectable travel agent to do my visas, and becase it was going to ake a week for them all, had them courriered to Chaing mai, so I didn’t have to stay in Bangkok that long. then I just wondered for a while, and walked ALOT. So the next day a switched over to a new accomadation, called Shanti Lodge, because how could I now stay there. this was much nicer, and to start enjoying myself more, as well as doing the rest of my errands, such at getting a jab, and booking a flight to Europe. SO then at the end of my three days I didn’t hate Bangkok anymore, and I’m sure that when I go back, and I do the tourist things, I’ll fave a good time, and now I know my way around the city. If only it didn’t have so much smog!! SO atthe end of that time, I cought a overnight train up to chaing mai, with a sleeper, the only way to travel.

Well, because internet was so expencive, and I’m way too lazy, I haven’t written about thailand yet. so here goes the first part.

Leaving langkawi, malaysia. we got to the ferry terminal about nine o’clock, the ferry was leaving about 9:30, and there was a huge line. we just all hoped that they wern’t going to leve on time. they didn’t and it was an OK trip. then we landed in thailand. now with every new country in asia, it seemed more and more like asia, and this was true here. the wait to go through customs was way too long, but we made it through. then we had to find a way to get up to krabi. so we got a bus from one of the touts at the terminal, who put us in the back of a truck, and too some bus on some road that we boarded. we wern’t sure when it was going to take off, and so didn’t get any food. it took off eventually, nad the drive but on a disk of kareoke thai pop songs. so bad, too loud. and then halfway there we stop. we ask how long, and they say five minutes, so not really enough time to get something to eat. 15-20 min later we leave, and this time and even worse, even louder music video is put on, truely terible. go we finally get to krabi, and now we have to get to the beach. it’s about six o’clock, and they keep saying the beach we want to go to (rialey) is all full, and so we eventually settle to go to ao nang, were we can get to rialey easily. the place we get to is OK, nothing special, but at least were here, and we can go eat. we are all a little (at least I am) iritable for not eating all day, and with the bad bus trip, but after eating, and getting our accomadation, everything seems better. We don’t do much here, just wonder a bit, and get used to being in thailand. It’s nice. The next day we head off for Rialey, and relaxation. so we hope on a longtail boat for our journey over.

Now abouta longtail boat: These are one of the greatest things I have ever seen. PIcture a long wooden fishing type boat, with a large moter on a long pole driving a propeller. I don’t know how they came up with it, but I think it’s amazing, only a little load.

SO then we make it over to Railey. again we leave two of us with the bags, and Vicky and myself head out to find us a place to stay. We look at almost every place, and the one at the very end, with the LONG stairs, is amazing. (this is a trend) SO we head back, it’s been about an hour, and gather the troups, and to our new abode. now we don’t really do much while here, we explore the area, but it’s not that big. sit on the beach a little, but the nice one is overcrowded with day trippers, and we have a reall nice pool at our resort. but for our first and last nights, I can describe them in one word, Bucket! and if you don’t know what that is, ask someone whose been two thailand. I really like Rialey, and was kind of sad to leave, but it was time to move on, and Jim had to make his way back to Singapore, so we left him, and I took off with the girls, our little party was dwindeling. It as a chore to make the 9:30 ferry to Phi Phi, because of the word I had said before, and Claire olmost didn’t make it, and she had our tickets. but eventually we made it on the boat, to the island, and found ourselve a not very nice place for our first night. The girls spent that first day alomost entirely in the room sleeping, and I made my was around the part of the island alittle. that evening, not wanting to do much, I just went to a bar and watched the beach, which was filled on Koh Phi Phi Ley. I had never seen it, and It was cool to see it where it was filmed. next we decided to move over to a much quiter beach called long beach, and again, we found a great place at the very end up a LONG stair. Over the next few days, we went on a boat trip around to the beaches and islands, a little lackluster, but did do a little snorkling, and saw a snake the freaked the shit out of me. and then I went diving. I did my first wreck dive, and I can see how you could spend alot of time doing these. we didn’t do alot at night, but it was very relaxing, and a nice place to be. But then it was time to go. The girls were headed to Samui, and me to Bangkok, the next great adventure.