Well well we are loving Bangkok. The traffic here is crazy! However the Thais are awesome drivers, i guess they have to be. Had a nightmarish experience on a tuk tuk (a motor scooter with a carriage on the back, i think its a prerequisite to also have a hole in the exhaust) with a driver who liked to call himself Michael Schumacher number 2...hehe...anyway he was very efficient.
We also cycled the first part of our journey yesterday, a mere 12 km's from our first hostel to where we are staying now on famous Khao San road (you know the first scene in the Beach where Leo Dicaprio drinks snakes blood - anyway its not as frightening or daunting as its made out to be, its pretty laid back and relaxed - cept its filled with a shit load of european tourists, so that much is true). Anyway the ride across central Bangkok was an experience in itself. Was a bit nervous about cycling along the side of the road next to 3 lanes of traffic, complete with trucks busting at the seams with produce not tied down properly; buses filled to maximum, and a shit load of motorbikes/scooters. But it was all good, you gotta be a little feisty when it comes to road rules here, and basically if you're in the way they're not going to run you over, also half the scooters are going about as fast as we were on bikes anyway so it was all good. got loads of stares from people as we cycled by, but alot of people waved and did the thumbs up :) when we talked to a few thais about how we were here with our bikes they thought we were crazy, and alot just assumed we were touring on motor bikes, sometimes its easier just to go with the flow.
Took a boat (which was powered by a converted truck engine) along the river the other day :) was pretty awesome as we went through some small canals and saw loads of little bungalows along the river where people live. some are pretty dirty and its amazing to see how people live, the funniest thing we saw was this little house boat filled with fruit and flowers and a 100 inch television screen filling the bow, very impressive. Our boat driver also took us to a snake farm, where some crazy thai men jumped around in a pit with cobras and other deadly snakes, it was almost too hard to watch.
Well Khao San road is pretty cool, we had strong as Mojitos last night (90 Baht each! $4.50), i took my first sip thinking it was going to be normal strength, but it blew my socks off, i think they put in about 5 more shots than was necessary. Well it was st. pats day yesterday the one irish bar was filled to the brim, so we didn't bother going in, but it was hilarious to see a bunch of thais dressed up in leprechaun hats trying to sell people guiness. there are loads of peddlers along here too, selling loads of useless items, the one thing at the moment they seem to be selling is little wooden frogs that make a noise when you run another piece of wood over them...they are starting to drive me crazy, and i can even here them now as i type this...grrrrrr.
Well loving the food, if you look in the right places can get a awesome meal and drink for $7 for the two of us :) going to go and buy some cheap as clothing today and try my hand at some bartering. Aux is getting pretty good at it already.
Weather is not too bad, its in the late 20s every day but humidity is the killer, starting to get used to it though. Not sure where our next stop will be but thinking of catching the train to the north east of thailand and cycling up there for a bit.
Lissa :)
