Photos

So this is it, there'll be no more posts since there'll be nothing to post about. From now on, adventures will consist of going out for a beer on Fridays after work.

But stay tuned if you would like to see photos from the trip. I took 2G worth so surely there'll be something worth seeing in there. I'll post the URL once i've uploaded - give me a week :)

Damn Customs

I am SO pissed off. So last night in Bangkok i bought my mum the best present ever, one of those electronic tennis-racket things for zapping mozzies. It was so awesome, nice dark blue colour, had a lightnight bolt in the middle and everything. And you could pull out the pins, stick it in a power socket and recharge! It even had a cool little light on it for in case you're in a dark room with no electricity i suppose. Anyway, I reckon that is my proudest purchase, got it down to 100 baht inclusive of a thai-aus plug converter. So what do you reckon happens to me at perth airport?? The damn customs people seize it!! Yes I have an official seizure notification. Most ridiculous thing I ever heard! How is one suppose to protect oneself from insects if the latest technology in mosquito elimination (given not very humane - though who can say getting zapped hurts more than getting squashed?) is unjustly denied us in this supposedly civilised country of ours? I am so angry. I bet some smug customs official is having fun swatting mozzies with MY ( i mean my mum's) mozzie swat. BAH!!

So anyway, as you can tell. I have returned. My trip is over. I am already bored, and it isn't even 3 days yet as originally predicted. I'm going to fall over whenever I go to a restaurant and look at the prices on the menu, or when i go shopping and see a price tag. I'm going to be haggling with the myer salespeople. Ack.

Third time in bangkok doesn't make it any nicer

I've decided the only thing nice in bangkok is the shopping. Would you believe we missed the bloody boat yesterday (travel agent's fault) and had to come back today (arrived 8pm, our plane leaves tomorrow morning), which means...WE DIDN'T GET OUR FULL DAY OF SHOPPING!!!! i was SOOOoo angry with the travel agent, the poor guy. I gave him so many evils as he was rebooking our ticket, and made him pay for another night's accommodation (with airconditioning of course). It didn't turn out too bad in the end, we went to Shark Bay which was on the south of the island hoping to do some snorkelling. it looked gorgeous from the outside, a little isolated bay with white sand, crystal blue water, palm trees, the entire postcard thing happening. Well really the whole island is one big postcard. After hiring all the gear, we started paddling along in the water... ok kinda murky, visibility maybe 1m. swim swim. ok saw one fish. swim swim. more sand, some rocks. one fish. swim swim. brown coral, brown fish. yuck. poor brown fish, i'm sure their personalities are just as wonderful as those of the bright yellow and blue striped fishies, but unfortunately there's just no demand for you except perhaps for dinner. So anyway the snorkelling was crap and i was getting pretty scared as we swam away from the shore and the visibility decreased, imagining a great white suddenly appearing from the murky depths. I don't think i'll ever get over the whole swimming in the ocean thing. I'm just not comfortable with it. Even standing on the edge of the boat all decked out in scuba gear and reading to jump in, i feel pretty apprehensive. But once I'm down there, and breathing, and the water is clear and theres so many wonderful things to see, then its all good. So, diving good, swimming bad.

We walked back to the main road in disappointment and were just about to get a taxi when we spotted a road going down to another beach (Freedom Beach). It was quite pretty and there was still some sun since it was on the west side of the island now. Sonya shade-baked (she doesn't like the sun), and I went out on a kayak around the bay and watched the sun set while floating on the sea. it was gorgeous, one of the best i've seen on this trip. The sea was like blue satin tinged with pink and orange. If i cupped my hands around my eyes and looked at the sun disappearing into the water, it was like i was completely alone in the middle of the ocean. Of course every now and then, i'd here a 'plop' in the water nearby and see the ripples from some kind of disturbance of the surface, and my mind would start running through images of a gigantic shark lurking beneath the surface and all of a sudden leaping out in front of my kayak and taking a large chunk of it out with its huge teeth. i calmed myself down enough to enjoy the sunset, but there was always that little bit of fear at the back of my mind. I think it will always be there. ESPECIALLY since we went to this 'beach party' later that night which ended up being a screening of Jaws, but with the music remixed by a DJ. At least we got a free cocktail.

So now we're in big old bangkok again, we arrived around 8pm, ran around for about an hour trying to find a hotel room, but to no avail. realising this was taking up precious shopping time we have decided to camp out at the airport. khao san rd is absolute mayhem, filled to the brink with tourists, thais, tourists with thais. Anyway we are still here, we're going to repack our bags soon and come up with some genius ways of creating space that doesn't exist to put our shopping. then i've got a 6 hour appointment with an airport bench. i guess we'll have to work out some kind of sentry duty system. goodbye thailand, thanks for all the cheap rubbish!

Me, Newly Accredited Open Water Diver

I am a scuba diver!!! i am officially allowed to hire equipment and go off on my own and throw myself into the ocean. Sonya came with us today for our last 2 dives, it was awesome, really really cool we went down to 16m, really good visibility, loads and loads of colourful fish and coral everywhere, so beautiful. I keep forgetting to put sunscreen on my legs, and am now sporting the worst tan line ever from the wet suit. I look like I'm wearing dark brown stockings!! ARGH!

So this is the final final episode. Tomorrow its back to Bangkok for some seriously last minute intensive shopping, then home again to my own bed, which i will appreciate for all of 3 days before I want to go somewhere else again.

See you soon!!

Breathing underwater

So, 5 pairs of shoes later we decided it was probably time to leave MBK and find our bus. But of course not before flirting with some guys at the money exchange place first. It just goes to show, the random places one can pick up when overseas. He said he was a pilot, and i almost swooned, just looked him and giggled continuously for about 30 seconds while he stared at me confused. Anyway, i didn't really pick him up, we had a bus to catch and all. Let me talk about the bus now. Sonya almost cried when we got on, it was so damn nice. Double decker, new and clean, big screen tv and a toilet onboard. They even gave out blankets!! First time I actually slept on an overnight bus. The 3 hour ferry ride was also sublimed, compared to the transport modes we were used to in india. And to top it off, we got a TV in our room. I don't think I can handle any more of this luxury.

I started the diving course yesterday and we did the confined dive today in the pool. Was awesome, can't wait to go into the sea tomorrow. Koh Tao is really quiet, at least more than i expected. I guess everyone is on Koh Phanagan or however you spell it for the full moon parties. Its quite a pretty island, i'm not sure how it compares to the others since i haven't been anywhere else but i'm satisfied.

Since no one comments my blog, I will assume it is not being read. That makes me feel sad and unloved. (ie please fix :)

Back to Bangkok

I have serious culture shock from the India - Thailand transition. I can't get used to seeing scantily clad thai girls clinging to old western men, EVERYWHERE. I think we accidentally wandered into the red light district last night. Or maybe it was just a normal thai street, who knows.

But at least I can eat the food without too much fear now. And we got a pretty good deal for the scuba diving course, poor guy... me and sonya are pretty lethal with our bargaining now. Every 300B we save means another pair of nice shoes from MBK.

One Final Post from India

I'm in Chennai airport, waiting to go through the last security check. Thought I'd log in for one last posting from amazing, insane India. Everything in the airport doubles in price. And everything in Chennai is already at least double the price of Alleppey. Our last meal there cost us 6 rupees each (that's less than 20c - ok so the place was dodgey as hell and the bean curry was served out of huge slopping buckets but hey). I'm quite sad actually, about leaving. It hasn't even sunk in yet, I feel like i'm just taking another trip to some other place in India. But this is it... it's the end... our 49th and final day here. Back to normality and a quiet grudging acceptance of an ordinary and predictable life. Nah it's not so bad, I reckon I'll be back soon. People say you either love India or hate it. I'm not sure it's as simple as that. I can't say I love it, that sounds like I would want to live here and i'm definitely not sure about that. All I know is, every day i've been here has seen so much variety and colour, all my senses are being constantly assaulted in both pleasant and disgusting ways, i am still constantly amazed by little things, there's been such emotional extremes, and i've learnt so incredibly much, beyond haggling. And I've done things I would never do back home - from taking crazy risks to losing my temper at strangers, or cutting in line and other rude but usually necessary things.

There is no way you can get bored in this place. What a constrast it is to Perth... beautiful, clean, quiet, peaceful Perth. Expensive, slow, inconvenient, isolated Perth. But it's home, and i'm very excited about seeing a clean shower and my own bed, soon.

We still have a week somewhere in south-east asia, we will have to decide tomorrow in bangkok where we'll spend it.

G'bye to India, I'll be back don't worry about that.

Too much food, not enough stomach space

We are in Chennai. It is our last day in India. We've been singing our India song to everyone we meet, well Sonya is a little shy so its mostly been me making an arse of myself. But they seem to enjoy it.

I think I've been a little over enthusiastic about the return to Indian food cos i'm having stomach issues again, but its okay cos i've got our favourite things to think about.