London

Well after such a hectic flight we finally arrived in London. We were met by a fabulous driver called Dave who gave us a tour and stacks of advice. On our way to the house we were able to see the West End, Harrods by night, the Palace which I must say was a little disappointing. It was much smaller than I thought. We also saw London Bridge and the London Eye which was exciting. By the time we got to the house it was about 9pm, and we were exhausted.

After a good nights sleep we were feeling much better and up for shopping. We're within walking distance of Tesco and an Aldi so decided to try Tesco and discovered its so much more (and better) than Australian supermarkets. There were clothes, electronics, books, homewares all under the same roof as groceries! Needless to say, shopping took quiet a while. We were delighted to discover that books are the same price as magazines, and were able to get a sim card to get at least one mobile working. 90 pounds later we'd bought enough food for a week and discovered Tesco is a lot further from the house when you've got bags of shopping and no car!

We spent the afternoon unpacking and went for a walk around our block. I'll post photo's of our room and inside the house later, but here's some from outside and of Mike's new school.

12 Hours of Chaos!

The Bangkok to London flight was definitely more painful than the Sydney to Bangkok leg. Although we arrived safely, we lucked out in terms of fellow passengers and got a flight with far too many young kids on it. If they weren't screaming or crying, they were running down the aisles and completely uncontrollable. There was also a group of 10 guys, who all looked like sterotypical terrorists, and to make matters worse they kept going to the toilets in groups. There were no individual screens for entertainment, the food was terrible, the staff seemed to be too busy to serve drinks etc and the screaming kids made sleep impossible. All in all, 12 hours is far too long to be on a plane!

Bankok - Anyone for Ping-Pong Show?

Need I say more? For a city that we spent less than 24 hours in, there's certainly a lot to say. We arrived in Bangkok around 4pm after a relatively hassle free flight, and made it through immigration and customs with no dramas. It took roughly an hour to get to the hotel and after checking in and phoning home we hit the streets.

There were a few markets setting up on the main road outside our hotel so we wandered down past them all, after being hassled to buy by most of the marketeers. We also encountered a driver who offered to drive us round for an hour to see the sights for roughly $4 Australian and decided it would be the easiest way to look around given that we only had one night. The bike thingy he drove us round in was fairly terrifying as we weaved past buses, trucks, cars and motorbikes. The roads have no sense of order, no lines are marked and although there are speed limit signs everyone seemed to ignore them. We saw a family of four on a motorbike, and a couple on a motorbike with their puppy which was quite cute.

Anyway after seeing a local temple, and a couple of large shopping districts our driver took us to a place for diner after we declined the opportunity to see a live show. We ended up at a genuine Thai restaurant and got some fantastic food before the rain. After dinner we had about an hour to kill before the night markets start so asked if the driver could take us somewhere where we could get a drink. We thought a bar or pub would be the most logical place, but he had other thoughts. He took us to a place that was advertised as a karaoke bar, but we didn't see any karaoke. Mike received several offers for a "special Thai massage" and we had one drink (because we didn't want to be rude) before leaving. From here we were able to walk to the night markets and discovered that offers of special Thai massages were plentiful.

By the time we got to the markets the rain was pouring down. It was actually quite pleasant because the weather is so humid. Most of the markets had similar goods like, pirated DVDs, t-shirts, jewellery, bags and shoes, and everyone bartered until a price was agreed on. We bought a few things, but couldn't go overboard because there wasn't much room left in our suitcases. On the sidewalks next to the markets there were strip clubs, most of which you couldn't avoid seeing in. We couldn't walk 2 metres without being asked to come see a ping-pong or banana show. After a couple of hours shopping we headed back to the hotel and went to bed after a quick drink in the hotel bar.

Despite the strip clubs, brothels, sex shows and general seediness of the place we would like to come back and spend a little more time in Bangkok. Although it was a smelly, hot Asian city, it was also a very colourful place. Anyway here's a couple of photo's.

The bike thingy we were driven around on:

On said bike:

Room at hotel:

Colourful taxis: