Pictures and Stories from our Time in Thailand

Hi Everyone, Its been a while but I have lots of excuses. I have been travelling so much and work is craziness. Mike and I have been like ships in the night. We are in Bangkok for a little while now, which is nice! I had a HUGE work trip to lots of different countries. I have been travelling like a mad woman. I was in Japan, US, Panama for a weekend off and then to Brazil for work. It was great. But such a long, long, long trip home to Bangkok. Unbelievable, like 28 hours flying time. HUGE. I was jetlagged to bugger but starting to feel ok now. I went to Panama to visit a mate Faz for a few days. Its just a few hours from Miami, so why not! IT was great to see him. He has been there almost two years (he grew up in Perth but went to Uni with us in Tassie and part of the Aqua crew!). He is working on a fish farm and living 'the dream'. But its not all beers on the Caribbean with old friends, bbq fish and Spanish accents. Well, its not all the time, but it certainly was on the weekend! Faz speaks fluent Spanish, he is a little reserved to admit it but he sounds good to me! The town he lives in is tiny, and I mean tiny! Its full of local Panamanians that don’t speak English. Yet, he walks down the street and they all know him and he chats. Some guy stole his shoes one time and he stopped and chat! There is a tiny bar in town and that’s kinda it, a shop too maybe. His house is right on the beach (the Caribbean!) and at night you sleep with the sounds of the Caribbean waves outside the window!! Some mad yacht living Aussie owns his house and lives in his boat just moored out from his house. The aussie is at war with a neighbour and the authorities came around one morning – a little bit of entertainment! We had a late breaky on an island just off his beach and it was just like the Caribbean/Jamacian feel you get from TV! It was joy, a swim while its being cooked by some Bob Marley looking dude! We had a night out in the city and Faz was poisoned by tequila. I didn’t touch it! We spent a few hours playing dominoes with a local guy and his son over a few beers. All in all, it was really relaxed weekend just catching up and chatting. Nothing too strenuous. Rather than try to fit in the lots of touristy stuff, we just did 'normal' things and with food and a few beers thrown in. We went to his work, picked up laundry, dropped off passports to lawyers. So all round a amazing weekend! Then it was off to Brazil for work! Took a whole day to get there. South America is a lot bigger than I realised! Brazil is a great country. Quite modern which I was surprised about. The country is totally self-sufficient with energy. All the countries run on ethanol. The country is covered in sugar cane and other crops. Its really green with red, red soil - just like Scottsdale. It was great to work our facility down there. Its huge and lots of nice people. Brazilians pretty much eat red meat, a little rice and beans. But its red meat mostly. On my final night in Brazil we had a local ‘Brazilian BBQ’ with the guys from the plant. It was great. So, so, so much red meat. Unbelievable amounts. It was great. They BBQ it and smear it in lots of salt. Its completely terrible for you but, so good! I got back from Brazil and had a few days rest before I was off to China again! Ill be back again in a few weeks! Mike had been around to. He did a bit of a mini-European tour while I was gone and then back to the normal Singapore, Malaysia trips. He is there now actually but is due back tonight. He also went to our friends Matty and Yi-Yi's wedding in Perth, lucky guy! We have a holiday planned for next month. A week off and we are heading to Japan for a music festival! A four day weekend coming up too, so the travels are not slowing down just yet! So things in Bangkok are good - we think! Hope everyone is good back home. We cant wait for Christmas and hoping we might be able to make a sneaky work trip before then, but no plans just yet! Ok, back to work!