On my wayyyheyy to Sydneeyy

After what seems ages, I'm back on the blog. Not for long though, sorry ...

Ko PP was nice, no doubt, but I reckon it is nicer when you're 22, haven't burnt yourself, can party all night, every night, sleep for 3 hrs, lie in the sun and then go on partying at the beach. But hey, then you can just as well fly to Mallorca. At least I got a decent tan which will hopefully last a little :o).

What followed the island chill was a trip from hell: 25 hours (!) to Singapore... First I took the ferry from KPP to the mainland (highlight: chatting to a guy from Belfast who was on the way to Brisbane to find a job), then I was hushed into a minivan, driven by "Kamikaze Guy". In Hat Yai (this is so the wrong spelling but who cares, no one wants to go there anyway) everybody had to leave the bus, and in the end it was only me and one guy who were travelling on to SIN. It turned out that he was German too, that we were the only foreigners in this f***ing freezing, air conditioned prison cell, and that the driver thoroughly disliked us from the start. To keep a long story short: after 4 border stops (out of Thailand, into Malaysia, out of Malaysia, into Singapore), us getting constantly lost after the border control, and 3 hours of sleep, I finally arrived in Singapore. And I loved it!! In only 9 hrs (including 4.5 hrs of sunlight), Singapore got to me, and I would have loved to have more time there.

But my flight to SYD was booked, and apart from the bloody annoying Indian guy beside who made funny, nasal sniffing noises for 7.5 hrs (true!), it was a pleasurable experience as I had a little film marathon: I finished (yeah!) "The Social Network", and watched "Tamara Drewe", "127 hours" and "No country for old men" - wowee!!

10 things

10 things I like about Bangkok:
1. food from the stalls in the road
2. busses
3. Wat Pho (temple of the reclining Buddha)
4. the sun
5. ladyboys
6. the river
7. sleeper trains
8. the friendly people
9. Chinatown
10. markets

10 things I don't like about Bangkok:
1. overpriced non-fresh food especially for tourists
2. Tuk Tuks (sorry!)
3. tourists who don't respect rules/rituals in and around the temples
4. the scorching heat and stink everywhere
5. being stood up by bus drivers, telling me they don't go my way (a lie!)
6. the poverty you can see from the river
7. snoring people on sleeper trains
8. harassing taxi drivers
9. getting lost in Chinatown
10. not having bought cool stuff in Bangkok and now having to pay twice as much in Ko Phi Phi


I look like a crab! I burnt myself so badly on the ferry from Krabi to Ko P.P., it's embarrassing. And all this after 12 hrs in a night bus with the mindless chatter of two German guys behind me who talked about one of them finding "ne Perle" (a Thai woman) and 2 hrs in a make shift hut at a stinking bay, waiting to be picked up for the ferry... I hope tomorrow awaits me with beautiful film-like bays with white sand, palm trees and hunky men handing me cocktails all day. Strawberry Margheritas, please, to match my skin colour.

Why does time fly like that? After having arrived only a week ago, I made it to the North and back, saw Bangkok twice, used a sleeper train twice, keep meeting lovely French people ('allo 'allo to Maryline, Sandrine, Yannis and Jean-Louis!) but have to realise nevertheless that I will have to skip Malaysia. Ouch! This of course implies coming back to London eventually, working my arse of to earn as much money as possible in the shortest span of time (anyone need a personal PA?), and then sod of again to see all the things I haven't seen. If it works out I will have one day in Klumpur (here a warm HELLO goes to Dave!), and then take the night bus/train to Singapore to fly out Sat morning. Yes, life is hard when you travel the world.
No, honestly, I have to take a step back and think. At the moment I feel like I am in a 100-m-run through Southeast Asia, and I don't want this to go on in Australia. I don't plan anything (!), I don't book my rooms anywhere and apart from this being cool it also means to pay more (120 BAHT for internet in Ko P.P. instead of 40 BAHT in Bangkok) and run around all the time. Phew.



Thanks already for all the lovely posts, if I actually figure out how to reply to them, I shall do so. But before I have to book a room in Sydney, my ferry-bus-combination from here to KL on Thursday and a night bus from there to Singapore. I embrace you all and shall revert in due time from OZ (here, a warm hello goes to Jason (who surely doesn't read this blog, so if you could pass this on to him, Florian, that would be nice :o)).

xxx

I've got no time .. to post, argh!

Arrived in Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand) this morning, after 15 hrs on the sleeper train from Bangkok which was far more fun than it sounds! Especially my trip with an Australian lady to the "restaurant". We expected to find annoyed staff and overpriced coffee at 22:30 at night. We found rather bad but loudly played nineties techno, dancing and drinking passengers, drinking staff, overpriced, huge beers (630ml) and a staff leader who ended the party when the weed came out at midnight! Loved it.

Visited various Wats today, they are stunning! I even got lost on the way to one. WAT did I do? Dunno, I think I was distracted by the 50p Banana smoothie :o). Now, I am figuring out my way to Krabi which will take about a day spent in trains and planes. But I guess it's worth it, can't wait to see the beaches ...

Sorry, I have to leave, although I'd like to tell you more ... about the 3 different groups of university students at Chiang Mai who questioned me (the foreign English (!) woman) about different topics and thought that I was so cool; the singing monks in Bangkok who made me shiver; the reclining Buddha in Bangkok at Wat Pho which made me cry; the pigeon that shat on me in Chinatown on New Year which means a "shitload" of luck apparently. Lots of love, I'll be back soon. x