Those coming to thailand will be shocked about the amount of porn here. We have come across "porn restaurants", "porn bars", "porn hair salon", "porn tailors" and the list goes on. I even saw porn snooker.
Gotta love the misunderstandings in other languages. "porn" in Thai means "blessed",,,a whooooolllee different packet of chips than what you might expect. "Moo" is pork,"guy" is chicken,,"shit" is a good friend.
So some people go to the porn restaurant with their shit for some moo curry and a guy soup. Love it.
Sonntag, 7. Dezember 2008
Chiangmai, Gibbons, Massages and Food
Chiang mai is fantastic. We had had a lot of reports that it's a nice place but I was honestly not expecting much. Very wrong.
Well, our first accommodation was a bit strange. With 5 rooms in a bed and breakfast including shared bathrooms, our older English male neighbours with their young thai girlfriends seemed to be more interested in the bed than the breakfast part. Uncomfortable. So we found a new place with a pool, spectacular rooms and service for 550 baht,,,a very good deal.
So what has been so great you ask. For all of you who have been to Bangkok and were impressed by what they had to offer, but were distracted by the size, the smell and the stress of it, you would love it here. The days have flown by in whirls of food, thai massages, pool, markets (night bazaar is big but over priced and full of a lot of rubbish but there are others), beer, walking and tourist activities.
Our first thing was the "flight of the gibbons". For the uninitiated the flight of the gibbons is a series of cables high in trees through the rain forest along which you fly from tree to tree. The 6:30 start was not to our liking but definitely worth it. Between the 7 people in our group I'm quite sure we took enough photos to fill the internet so I'm sure Anne will have some up soon. Unfortunately, my camera decided to have a rest day leaving me with zippo.
The kings birthday came and went. Another night full of fireworks and lanterns shooting off into the nights sky. The royal family is revered here like nothing i've ever seen. I've been told that you can land in jail by uttering any slur on the royals so none of that for me. Yay, I said and celebrated with my little thai friends.
Further reason to celebrate has been the exit of the prime minister and his party after the stand off that lead to the occupation of Bangkok's airports. Qantas starting flying from there again yesterday so we think it should be fine. Most Thais we met seemed not to be too fazed by the situation. Apparently every prime minister in the last 40 years has been ousted before the end of his term so not a big surprise. I just hope that things get back in order. This place really relies on its tourism industry.
Today we did cooking course. To any fan of Thai food (ie Mitch) this is an absolute must. I was surprised at how quick and simple the actual cooking is. The only difficult part is getting together the 20349503 rare thai ingredients that you need, in the right proportions, cut the right way and hey presto. Even bottomless pete couldn't finish all the food we came up with. Sooooooo good.
So tomorrow we leave for Bangkok on an overnight sleeper train to check into our 5 star hotel there. Last minute shopping Tuesday then Wednesday night is time to fly. The time has absolutely flown by and I'm very jealous of all the people we are meeting whose trips don't finish until next year.
Mango shakes, pancakes, panang curries, phad thai, thai massage, energy drinks, fruit in general. It is all soooo good.
Well, our first accommodation was a bit strange. With 5 rooms in a bed and breakfast including shared bathrooms, our older English male neighbours with their young thai girlfriends seemed to be more interested in the bed than the breakfast part. Uncomfortable. So we found a new place with a pool, spectacular rooms and service for 550 baht,,,a very good deal.
So what has been so great you ask. For all of you who have been to Bangkok and were impressed by what they had to offer, but were distracted by the size, the smell and the stress of it, you would love it here. The days have flown by in whirls of food, thai massages, pool, markets (night bazaar is big but over priced and full of a lot of rubbish but there are others), beer, walking and tourist activities.
Our first thing was the "flight of the gibbons". For the uninitiated the flight of the gibbons is a series of cables high in trees through the rain forest along which you fly from tree to tree. The 6:30 start was not to our liking but definitely worth it. Between the 7 people in our group I'm quite sure we took enough photos to fill the internet so I'm sure Anne will have some up soon. Unfortunately, my camera decided to have a rest day leaving me with zippo.
The kings birthday came and went. Another night full of fireworks and lanterns shooting off into the nights sky. The royal family is revered here like nothing i've ever seen. I've been told that you can land in jail by uttering any slur on the royals so none of that for me. Yay, I said and celebrated with my little thai friends.
Further reason to celebrate has been the exit of the prime minister and his party after the stand off that lead to the occupation of Bangkok's airports. Qantas starting flying from there again yesterday so we think it should be fine. Most Thais we met seemed not to be too fazed by the situation. Apparently every prime minister in the last 40 years has been ousted before the end of his term so not a big surprise. I just hope that things get back in order. This place really relies on its tourism industry.
Today we did cooking course. To any fan of Thai food (ie Mitch) this is an absolute must. I was surprised at how quick and simple the actual cooking is. The only difficult part is getting together the 20349503 rare thai ingredients that you need, in the right proportions, cut the right way and hey presto. Even bottomless pete couldn't finish all the food we came up with. Sooooooo good.
So tomorrow we leave for Bangkok on an overnight sleeper train to check into our 5 star hotel there. Last minute shopping Tuesday then Wednesday night is time to fly. The time has absolutely flown by and I'm very jealous of all the people we are meeting whose trips don't finish until next year.
Mango shakes, pancakes, panang curries, phad thai, thai massage, energy drinks, fruit in general. It is all soooo good.
Dienstag, 2. Dezember 2008
Into the north, demos and thai winter
So finally get time to write something on here.
Well since my 15 hour bus trip from the south sitting on a wet seat that reminded me of old running socks we made it up to Ayuthaya for the start of the cultural element.
Cultural you say. One day of ruined temples there was enough so we hurried along to the next bunch of ruins: Lopburi. Anyone going there should know: there is only one bar (a nice one next to the only good guest house), the womens shopping is unbelievable as I was to find out the the hard way following Anne around, and the Monkeys are very very cheeky. I was standing near a group of them holding a closed bottle of chocolate milk. The one monkey decided that by the look of my stomach I didn't need any more calories and jumped on me, ripped it out of my hands, skipped away, opened the bottle and drank the whole thing in front of my eyes. Hilarious.
Anyways,next we took the train/tuk tuk/bus combo to Sukhotai national park for some more Wat (Temple) ruins. The place is great and blah blah but the thing that really hit me was the fact that there were no tourists. The thai people told us that this time of the year is normally time for them to stand at the guest houses beating away the prospective guests. We were courted from the bus stop by several proprietors who are all definitely feeling the pinch from the stupidity that is taking place at the Bangkok airports at the moment. We only saw about 30 tourists in the Sukhotai World Heritage sight that is normally guest to hundreds.
Yesterday we made it up to Lampang in the north and spent the evening walking awound aimlessly hoping to find something of interest that didn't involve street food or a medical practice. I swear that town had a good 40 practices in one street, a giant hospital if nothing else. Needless to say I was very careful with my food there and happy to leave this morning.
We took the local bus to an Elephant centre on the way to Chiang Mai. Mannnnn I so want an Elephant for christmas. Those things are so great. We watched a show, then went for a 1 hour jungle tour whereby the elephant showed us he can climb things I wouldnt even attempt (and would be a mean customer at a buffet). As we left and waited for a bus on the highway 2 friendly old thai ladies stopped and gave us a ride all the way to Chiang Mai,,,just great.
Anyway. As more of the political crisis comes to hand Ill let you know if im gonna be able to get out of here. Sabai Sabai
Well since my 15 hour bus trip from the south sitting on a wet seat that reminded me of old running socks we made it up to Ayuthaya for the start of the cultural element.
Cultural you say. One day of ruined temples there was enough so we hurried along to the next bunch of ruins: Lopburi. Anyone going there should know: there is only one bar (a nice one next to the only good guest house), the womens shopping is unbelievable as I was to find out the the hard way following Anne around, and the Monkeys are very very cheeky. I was standing near a group of them holding a closed bottle of chocolate milk. The one monkey decided that by the look of my stomach I didn't need any more calories and jumped on me, ripped it out of my hands, skipped away, opened the bottle and drank the whole thing in front of my eyes. Hilarious.
Anyways,next we took the train/tuk tuk/bus combo to Sukhotai national park for some more Wat (Temple) ruins. The place is great and blah blah but the thing that really hit me was the fact that there were no tourists. The thai people told us that this time of the year is normally time for them to stand at the guest houses beating away the prospective guests. We were courted from the bus stop by several proprietors who are all definitely feeling the pinch from the stupidity that is taking place at the Bangkok airports at the moment. We only saw about 30 tourists in the Sukhotai World Heritage sight that is normally guest to hundreds.
Yesterday we made it up to Lampang in the north and spent the evening walking awound aimlessly hoping to find something of interest that didn't involve street food or a medical practice. I swear that town had a good 40 practices in one street, a giant hospital if nothing else. Needless to say I was very careful with my food there and happy to leave this morning.
We took the local bus to an Elephant centre on the way to Chiang Mai. Mannnnn I so want an Elephant for christmas. Those things are so great. We watched a show, then went for a 1 hour jungle tour whereby the elephant showed us he can climb things I wouldnt even attempt (and would be a mean customer at a buffet). As we left and waited for a bus on the highway 2 friendly old thai ladies stopped and gave us a ride all the way to Chiang Mai,,,just great.
Anyway. As more of the political crisis comes to hand Ill let you know if im gonna be able to get out of here. Sabai Sabai
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