Sandwiched In A Really Teeny Weeny Tuk-Tuk

We have met up with Ian, chilled for a few days in Bangkok, eaten most of the ten huge Green & Blacks bars he brought out with him (our first proper choc since too long)*, been repeatedly massaged into glorious oblivion, and then moved on to Pattaya.

We stayed for 3-4 nights at the lovely Suk 11 in Bangkok, which had been recommended by the lovely Violet Dear whom we met in Indonesia. She was spot on. Suk 11 is a beautifully dark and cosy Arabian nights style hostel with pokey corners and delicious free breakfast. Plus there was a hospital right next door where I could get my stitches out, so the whole thing was completely painless (almost).

Stitches Out!!

Loved our cocktail night at The Banyan Tree’s stunningly beautiful rooftop bar Vertigo (check out the picture on the link – oooooh pwetty). We sort of surpassed our daily budget by cocktail round no.3 but, hey who’s counting?? Oh, Will actually. Doh.

Quick Catch Up – Final days in and musings on Vietnam -

1. We had an absolutely yummylicious meal at Quan An Ngon, which I highly recommend. Wonderful Vietnamese food in beautiful surroundings at easy prices.

2. One thing I noted whilst travelling around Vietnam was the use of glass panels in toilets to make every toilet cubicle effectively see-through! I have never seen this anywhere else, but here every other public toilet seemed to be a peep show.

3. The Vietnamese hotel hospitality was wonderful. Even the cheapest rooms always give you a fresh towel, new soap and a new toothbrush and toothpaste. We were so spoiled with our bathroom condiments.

4. Em, Clary – Thought of you when we saw “Very Good” Popcorn at a service station somewhere in the middle of nowhere very much. Velly velly good.

Tanktastic

5. The War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh was a very good exhibition showing the shocking human and political atrocities of the Vietnam War. Most interesting were photo accounts of the war, particularly those of English photo journalist Larry Burrows who revealed to the American public the true depictions of the war whilst it was happening.  Other displays included horrific images of the effects of Agent Orange and other chemicals on both people at the time and now, with the sadly continuing legacy of birth defects. Some of the images were exceptionally harrowing. We were very grateful to spend 10 minutes at the end looking around a final display of cartoons and drawings of peace which had been created by young Vietnamese school children.

Apparently when the Vietnamese went to set up the museum many countries donated many exhibits, propoganda posters, photos etc. and it was only the US who charged them monies!! The museum itself is currently under refurbishment so several display areas were not accessible. Hopefully they will also sort out the air con / fan issues in there as it was swelteringly hot when we were looking around. I was very grateful for my Burmese paper fan!!

6. I am now a complete Wire convert and addict. We were v lucky to pick up some bargain DVD collections in Ho Chi Minh, including the complete series of The Wire and the complete works of Woody Allen. I am sooooo happy and Will and I hardly speak anymore.

7. I was lucky to pick up a krama scarf in Ho Chi Minh, and I am trying to pull off European chic with my various neck ties.

8. Oh, we love you Air Asia, we really do. But why oh why did you have to be so silly about weighing everything at Ho Chi Minh?? Our bags weighed the same as they had on every other lovely Air Asia flight (plus maybe a wafer thin DVD or two, and a scarf here, a scarf there…) Let’s still be friends. And then we’ll also forgive you the terrifying flight into Bangkok…

9. We had a terrifying flight into Bangkok. All fine and dandy until we suddenly started losing altitude very quickly. And then all of a sudden out of the blue bit of turbulence / dodgy mid-air manoeuvre which jolted the whole plan sideways quite substantially, throwing a poor air hostess into an empty seat. It was actually quite scary. Happy to finally land. And then noted the 77-year old looking pilot. Even happier to have finally landed.

Back to Thailand -So now here we are again in Thailand. And as I was saying, we spent a few days in Bangkok then we headed on to Pattaya. There we spent 4 days or so dealing with the practical issues we needed to get through with Ian (who was, and is, amazing), and met a lot of Neil’s friends, both Western expats and Thais who were all so welcoming and lovely. Also tried to have some fun, mainly goggling intriguingly at the ubiquitous and blatant sex tourists, and drinking endless ma pao (coconuts). Highlight of Pattaya was definitely the amazing Tiffany’s ladyboy cabaret show which Ian was especially keen we took in (“you can see the emptiness, the sadness behind their eyes” – he really sold it). We all particularly loved ladyboy Tina Turner. Fascinating to watch. Very hard to tell what is what. Definitely subverts gender expectations and messes with your mind!!

Had dinner a couple of times at gorgeous Mantra. THE best pumpkin soup any of us had ever had. And then some. In fact, worth booking a flight out to Thailand just to go here and taste this. So many depths of flavour, so silky, so divinely mmmmm. Caused Will to ask at one point, “What came first, the pretension or the soup?” Plus, they had toothpicks with mint herbs stuck on the end. How genius is that??? Answer: very.

In Pattaya everything is a go go. They even have a JoJo bar a go go. And now we have a gone gone back to Bangkok. Here we are chilling for 5 days whilst Ian does his massage course at Wat Po, I do some writing and Will just generally arses about. Hee hee. Oh, and we need to wait for our Cambodia visas.

Staying at Shanti Lodge, 15 mins or so from the uber-hyped Khao San Road. Receives mixed reviews online but we like it. Ian loves the vegetarian restaurant, and we love the free wifi. Rooms are fairly small (especially as the three of us were in a tiny double room with extra bed pushed in last night. But we move today to larger room with balcony and big fish in a tank) and a tad overpriced, but the communal areas are lovely lovely chilled and happy. The passion punch smoothie is amazing. Oh, and Bangkok National Library is at the end of the road which is just the place I’m planning to be most of this week. SO fortuitous that it is literally 1 minute walk away. You couldn’t have planned that. The travelling fairy is shining down upon us. Now, I just need to find where she put the ma paos around here…?? xx

Will Feigns Disinterest As Ian Updates Jo On X-Factor 2009

* Many of you will also be pleased, and not surprised, to hear that Ian brought out a tupperware container of his delicious homemade houmous, as well as a salad his dad had made, and an English apple segmented perfectly within its foil casing, for us all to enjoy. Lovely. Ian is a big lovely pile of houmous.

Ladyboy Barbie Princess With Tears

Will reckons my sponsorship deal with Billabong may not transpire after all. He says it’s much more likely that I’ll get picked up by Bongabill, the stoner surf shop. Sadly I think he may be right. But I’m gonna keep trying and when we hit Gisborne Nick is gonna be very proud to be associated with the new surfer chick in town when all his pro surf mates wonder who this amazing new talent is who’s rocked up to the reef. Probably literally rocked up on the reef more like, but gotta keep the dream alive…

We are now in Bangkok after flying here on Air Asia (which, by the way, is surely the best budget airline in the world…?) Weather a bit ropey but having a wonderful time. Staying at the rather lovely Chatrium Suites where Will got a fantastic lastminute.com deal which has enabled us to carry on celebrating the bday (bdays last for a week). And because they stuffed up our booking and tried to fob us off with twin beds, they then upgraded us to a mahoosive two bedroom suite with a huge lounge and kitchen area and two large bathrooms, river views and stunning setting. So, if anyone fancies a quick flight over to Thailand then you are more than welcome to kip at ours!!

Our first night in Bangkok I dreamt that Will got involved in a large drug deal and wanted us to try some of the finest Thai hard drugs. He agreed to purchase a gram of smack and a gram of cocaine from some rather seedy Thai underworld characters. When I raised some doubts and questioned him about the idea, he told me to relax and chill out and not worry about maybe spending the rest of our days eating bugs in the Bangkok Hilton. Thankfully it was just a dream. Don’t worry mum, the drug deal didn’t come off and we are still safely installed in our lovely Chatrium Suite.

First night we hit Khao San Rd which was as mad as ever. Then Yesterday we took a boat and the v efficient Sky Train into the centre of town and did a bit of shopping around the malls at Siam Square and then hit the weekend market at Chatuchak, where I purchased three rather lovely small T-shirts for the bargain price of 150 Baht (about 3 squid). Unfortunately with no changing facility at the market it’s a bit pot luck as to what you come away with and I may have slightly overlooked the size of one of my new tees. With much pulling and tugging I did manage to get it on, but it wasn’t a good look. Later in the evening Will stretched the T-shirt for me by trying it on himself (photo to follow – quite disturbing in a sort of early Take That Could It Be Magic? kind of a way). Yesterday we also got wonderful and cheap (300 Baht for both of us)dim sum in Chinatown for lunch and then eased ourselves into the afternoon with a relaxing Thai massage.

Today we have so far just been to the Myanmar embassy to start sorting our Visas for travel there in the next couple of days. Really interesting process – dusty old counters that look like they haven’t seen a cloth since 1986 to scramble your applications together on, old school style glue complete with dipping straw to stick your passport photos onto forms, broken chairs haphazardly thrown about the room everywhere and inquisitive interrogations from the officials (why do you want to go to Myanmar? How long are you going for? Have you been before? What do you do? What is the name of your company?). All as I guess one should expect. Fascinated to see what Myanmar itself is like if this is the state of a government office!! We now have to wait two days for our applications to be processed. Just about to book another Air Asia flight to get us there as you can only get across the borders by flying right now. I heart Air Asia.

xx