From: Julian Edwards
Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2002
Subject: Captains's Log part 1
(apologies for bad formatting, you know what these internet cafes are like ...)
Hello all! Welcome to part one of the traveller's tales.
We're currently in Bangkok and loving it! The weather is very hot (about 33 degrees C) with no respite apart from the sudden tropical downpour yesterday that left us bearing our own weight in water after it had soaked into anything that was vaguely absorbent.
We've had two very good slices of fortune so far. Firstly, the plane didn't crash, and secondly the hotel we had booked for the first 2 nights (hey, we needed to get into this travelling thing gently!) upgraded us to a "luxury" room.... ooooOOOOooo! Not bad for 20 quid a night I reckon - something like we have here would cost 80 quid back home. Anyway, we are now staying in a guest house in Khao San Road which is the backpackers area and more in the middle of things. If any of you have seen "The Beach" it's pretty accuate - it's total bedlam here! My most used word is probably "no" to the Taxi and Tuk Tuk (small 3-wheeled vehicles) drivers who constantly pester you - "HEY 10 BAHT ANYWHERE YOU LIKE!" but fail to mention that they will probably just take you to a shop to get commission from the owner...
The people here are very nice, apart from those drivers and the tosser who was leading an elephant down the pavement on a busy street. It's quite a change in culture here and so far it's living up to my expectations of experiencing something like I've not experienced before.
The Thai food here is FANTASTIC. We've eaten at Thai restaurants pretty much all of the time. The one we went to the other night had a couple of dodgy things on the menu though - "Stir Fried Morning Glory" and "Assorted Vag." so we gave those a miss!
Yesterday we went to some of the old temples and Buddhist monuments and saw an enormous reclining golden Buddha that was 45 meters long! Absolutely fantastic architecture, I'll probably try and send some pictures from my digi-cam to you when I get the chance.
Also yesterday we decided to reward all our walking with a Thai massage (no extras!) and I came out aching more than I went in! It's supposed to get better but I can't see how! I'll stick to the conventional massage next time...
Tonight we are heading off to Koh Tao (an island off the east coast) to get some diving in. We got an overnight sleeper train, the ferry crossing, the Advanced Diver's course (with 6 dives) all for around 120 pounds each - bargain! When we've had enough of lazing around on the beaches there we're going to go and do a spot of island hopping and check out Koh Pha Ngan and Koh Samui all in the same vicinity. After that we'll be heading towards Koh Phi Phi over on the west near Phuket which is where "The Beach" was filmed.
Right that's all for now, as I'm probably making you all sick, especially you Royalblue people who I know all enjoy your jobs so much :-D
Bye for now,
Julian & Jenny.
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Julian Edwards
On tour, somewhere in the world
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