One night in Bankok.

Well made the flight, and the cheeky one (I won't name you Dayna) who said, "don't be late" may have been quite the little psychic, but thank goodness for friends. Er, Um don't you think you'd better move? Isn't it time to go? Picky picky!!! But managed to make the flight in plenty of time.

So about the flight... We flew out (and will be flying back in) on Thai Air, who entertained us with On demand movies, tv, games and flight attendants woohoo!! Ok so there were three sitting in a space designed for 2 healthy sized humans but at least one of them was male with nice dreadlocks... And I bet Doodoo is regretting not sitting in the middle seat.. Talk about Chatty Kathy..

I have always maintained that I am technologically challenged. Point in case... less than 10mins into the flight, needed to get my in-flight entertainment re-booted. I also needed that to be done again, about the time we were flying over Darwin, so I maintain that it was the Australian influence and not the user... GO the ALL BLACKS! By this time I'm thinking the flight attendants were wishing it was legal to get me booted.... So note to everyone else, touch screen doesn't mean that exactly or perhaps it needs to be tempered with a touch of patience and for those in the know, I have very little of that at the best of times so I reiterate it wasn't my fault. It should be able to keep up with me not expect me to slow down.

One great thing though, is on the games there is a Berlitz Word game, which teaches you a number of different languages, so I was practising Thai from Singapore to Bangkok. Up till then it was "State of Play" - Russell Crowe, Terminator Salvation, and Push...

Landing in Bangkok it was a moderate temperature at 29 degrees with humidity sitting somewhere in the vacinity of 500%..

Customs was interesting... much communication via the eyebrow lift, the shoulder shrug and the nod, something that South Aucklanders would be very familiar with... No questions asked about what we were bringing in, how long we were staying or anything... (again I maintain, this is very intuitive of South Auckland communication)

Talk about surreal. Coming from the airport to our hotel we were travelling in an air-conditioned van with flat screen display. Was hard to reconcile the opulence of the "bright" lights of Bangkok to the obvious shanty towns that were burgeoning underneath and besides the motorways.

I saw women entering canals to bathe and if they are anything like the canals I saw this morning the water is stagnant and brown so I'm not sure how clean they would have become but it was clearly a part of the daily routine.

Taxis and Tuk tuks last night are brightly lit with the colours of their tail lights ranging from neon blue to barbie pink. All flashing all mobile disco lights.

Passing road works last night made me giggle a little. At home when the bitumen needs mending the old ones are broken / scraped away and new bitumen poured. What they were doing here was burning it off. So picture men with hard hats, circled around fire in the middle of the road with fire extinguishers at the ready.. Did I mention it was 29 degs and humidity in the 500%??
Was mesmerised by the sight of the fire, the lights the slums the smiling people.. Magic.

Got to the hotel and given we'd collectively been up for 36 hours was time to crash..

So today we got up late and it was a special day... Government day, when the government subsidises the tourists instead of the other way around. This means that taking a government Tuk tuk (Yellow plates people) today only we were driven around all day for 10Baht each.. and if we went to the government tailor and the government jeweller and stayed in the shop for 10mins (whether we bought anything or not) the driver was given coupons for gas... In addition all the temples were free entrance.. So we went to see the "big" buddah (45 meters high) - photo coming, "lucky" buddah (an english teacher was there when we arrived so he taught us how to pay homage to buddah and make our wish) which he assures us will come true, "sitting" buddah, the Marble temple (currently under repairs - ooh health and safety photo was taken hope to upload photos soon sorry!!) the top 10 factorys (government)... Speaking of which, our driver was imploring us to go and sit in different shops, all of which had very pushy salesmen..
I am happy to report that despite my initial misgivings about being able to say no thanks, I really don't think they know what hit them... Thank you Niki for the "Tutu says NO!!" and being able to do it with a smile.. you're inspirational babe!!

We did succumb to a wee bit of jewellery buying, one sapphire and one emerald ring for 9450 baht.... Don't want to look at the exchange rate on these though.

I was asked to look out for some shoes, having mentioned running into someone who managed to outfit themselves from head to toe in Gucci for $7 Us.. My son had said that being asian the double CC's were pronounced "K" and not the "Chi" but I'm afraid to ask for that in asia, not politically correct I'd suggest so it's Adidas or Michael Jordans for him.

Traffic - Bless.... I spotted 4 on a scooter one of which was wearing a helmet. I think that it's only compulsory for the drivers as the passengers if they wore one, treated it as a fashion statement. There were racing stripes, ones shaped like Darth Vader and they came in all colours. Pink is very popular here.
Lanes - Whilst clearly marked are only suggestions. Traffic flows, as and when they see fit. Remaining in one lane seems to be path of least desire and the more lane changes in as short a distance one can do seems to be a rite of passage. Our Tuk Tuk was changing lanes to overtake the cars that were parked in front of us at traffic lights and proceeded to cut them off as he turned corners. One car came particularly close to hitting us today and all I remember thinking was, "this will be interesting ooh and I'm not holding on" but somehow the mercedes didn't hit, the Tuk Tuk didn't waiver and I didn't take flight..
Pedestrians - Two steps forward, one step back... Literally looks like the old school video game of Frogger... Very entertaining to watch, must try it tomorrow..

Spent today and will spend most of tomorrow doing the Bangkok Touristy things, but really looking forward to hitting the road less travelled.

Heat - Loving it... It's like walking through a sauna, breathing is laboured and wet so when you come across parks where the trees are providing welcome respite or the fountains are on display you stop and literally thank whatever deity or belief system you may have for the respite.

Food - so much better than I could have hoped for. Such a foodie more than anything else. The sights, sounds, tastes, feel, smell of it all just excites and invigorates....

We have a long day tomorrow so signing off for now... Promise to upload as soon as I work things out... Grand Palace tomorrow and some temple on a hill meeting the intrepid tour tomorrow night. Have already met two of them we were on the same flight in..

And tonight I met two of the United Nations delegation from Kiribati at the local shop, so small world.. Thai people are absolutely lovely, kind, gentle, generous and friendly...

Till next time Tutu and Doodoo xoxox