Well far too much has happened since the last post, but the long and short of it is I am here and having a crazy time. This time last week I was getting my jabs and all that stuff from the Doctor to protect me from all the nastys, he also gave me a huge bag of condoms dont know what he was implying there!
You know me I like to do things last minute so on Tuesday I went to the Thai embassy to get my visa anticapting no problems, how wrong I was. I was getting a little nervous when the bloke in front of me was getting very irate cause he couldnt get a Visa on the day, it was going to take 3 working days. I tried to ignore this I thought that cant be right I've checked it on the net, but I was soon told there was no chance I was getting a visa on that day certainly not before I left in 36 hours. What I had done was looked at the Thai Consulate website not the embassy site, you see it is possible to get a visa from the Consualte on the same day except it was in...Hull! Despite my best attempts to come up with an alternative I found myself on the train from London to Hull at 6 on Wednesday morning (a little worse for wear few too many beers the night before) banking on National Rail to not delay me and me end up missing my flight. They did me proud (mind you at 70quid they bloody well should) and come 2 I was back in London for an emotional send off from Claire- you nearly set me off! We got to the airport no problem and we were soon on the connecting flight to Frankfurt, and by half 10 that night we were ready for take off to Bangkok. Bizarely there was less leg room on the flight to Bangkok than Frankfurt, there were no teles in the back of the seats (we had them when we went to New York!)even if one of the movies was friggin Harry Potter and there were 2 pissed Scandanavians already causing the air stweards hassle, it didnt appear that it was going to be the best 10 hours of my life. Luckily the early start in the morning and a couple of strong G and T meant that it wasnt as bad as it turned out and when we werent asleep we were laughing at the appalling antics of the drunks in front!
We arrived in Bangkok at midday and was greeted by searing and I mean searing heat and this was in the shade while we waited for a taxi! On the drive into the city my first impressions of Bangkok did I say it was hot, were how big it was and how many skyscrapers/tall buildings there were, of course surrounded by massive Western advertising. We knew it was Thai New Year before we came but nothing prepared us for the sight that greeted us as we turned into the street where our hotel was. The Thais see the New Year as an excuse to go crazy and basically stand in the street and chuck water and flour at everyone, cars and bikes included. Youve never seen so many super soakers in all your life and completely drenched people, such a distracting site that we missed the fact that all the 'go-go' bars were on our street thats another 'interesting' view. Pauls been here before and he had stayed at the hotel we checked into which was ace, not your typical backpacker pub but we felt we needed to have a good place to 'acclimitise', such as getting the sun in on their amazing roof top pool which we did straight away! We toured the various bars in the area in the evening either talking to Thai blokes about football (try explaning what league Yeovil are in to a bloke who can hardly speak English, not easy - League 1 gets somewhat lost in translation) and turning down request for ping pong balls being fired out of ...well you know! Just for Kirsty, we met some Tranmere fans, I was trying to explain where you lived and all that but the beers somewhat clouded my judgement!
The first of no doubt many hangovers greeted us on Thursday, and to clear the head we went shopping to the massive shopping centre called MBK. The Arndale it is not, it has 7 floors, huge gleaming escaltors, massive videoscreens everywhere and just about anything you could possibly want including some great fake football shirts, me and Geordie are going back before the World Cup starts to get the Argentina shirts (Let us know if you want one Iain!!!). I got my phone unlocked and a Thai sim card heres the nmber in case anyone wants to let me know what the Yeovil score is +6646416158 - although if we lose again like we did to Scunny perhaps its best not to let me know - sort it out Thommo. Also found this amazing trainer shop, a proper little independant really cool place with plenty of decent and rare Adidas gear, but I was sensible for once and didnt purchase any of the delights (Im sure I could hear my Mums voice 'You cant afford it' in my head- these Changovers are lethal). We banked on having a bit of a quite one that night, guess what we didnt, on the spur of the moment we decided to head to Kohsan road - the Backpacker strip. As it was New Year most of the roads were closed or just covered with people, so after a quick Taxi ride we had to walk. On the way down people we just walking towards us absoulutely soaked and I mean everyone and I mean soaked. There was me and Paul all dressed up like we were going to the Northern Quarter, into the inevitbality that we were going to very soon end up like all those heading the other way. We turned into Kohsan road and it was just awash with people, noise, water just a mass of celebration. We decided to hit head on and within seconds we were drenched, with that out of the way we just concerned ourselves with having a great time and really soaking in what was a surreal but amazing atmosphere. For whatever reason we stopped at a shop and decided to get a small bottle of whisky, Ive forgotten what it was called or may I am choosing not to remember cause it really was lethal (the hangover the next day was so bizarre it was like Id been on drugs)l. So much so, all the young Thais were looking at us in awe as the crazy Brits drank the crazy spirit, they all turned it down when we offered them some so it must have been bad. The evening continued into an absolutley crazy and hugely entertaining night getting more soaked, soaking others, Paul getting gropped by lots of lads who shall we say took a fancy to him, a stand off with the Thai police outside a bar (sounds worse than it was, basically there were going round getting people to drink in the bars and not outside yet me and Paul were a little worse for wear and wasnt sure what was going on and had to be shephered in by some nervous Thais!), even arm wrestling and 2 lovely ladies. Me and Paul agreed the next day when we could actually speak through our hangovers that it was one of the best nights out in our lives - even if our best jeans and shirts are still ruined damp and covered in crap.
As I said the hangovers were monstorous and the next day was pretty much spent in the room watching films and loads of English football on the tele and getting room service. We did manage to make it out eventually in the evening, and whilst we valiantly dstuck to the soft drinks at first, a couple of Heniknens were sunk - just to take the edge off you know!
Yesterday we headed to Khosan Road which was alot quieter and dryer than our previous vist. On the way we went to the Grand Palace which is a huge complex just full of buildings,temples, statues most of which are gold and pretty spectacular viewing. Cause of the religious significance of the place our shorts werent allowed so we were given some very attractive(!) pyjama style pants - unfortunaetly we had to pay a desposit otherwise I may have kept them. The Emerald Buddha is the star of the show sat atop a huge mound of gold statues/figurines just an awesome and reflective sight. Its hard to put into words how impressive visually the place was, the numerous photos will show how great it was. Claire/Alex - I was still tempted though to do a Dom Joly and say 'That is a Shit' but restrained myself. Once back on Khosan road we found a cheaper hotel (which we have moved into today)and sorted out our train ticket to Phuket for next Thursday. After watchin more football, we headed out to met Nang - Paul met here last time he was here and she owns a bar just round the corner from Kohsan Road. A few changs (really great beer) and a couple of games of pool down, the place shut around 12 but Nang invited us to join her mates for a drinks at one of what its probably best described as a street kiosk which sells alcohol with tables round it. Unfortuantely they didnt sell beer just cocktails , which you could get in buckets and it was real shame cause they had Long Island Ice Teas! After a couple of buckets (by this stage we were certainly leathered) we went back to Nangs car which is like a hearse but shes done a bit of a cheapish pimp my ride to it and it had speakers and big seats in the back and we ended up drinkin yet more. At one point I looked up to the sky not only was it spinning but getting very light - turns out it was near 5 oclock. Realising we had to check out at 12 the next day and possibly cause Paul had got into shall we say a disagreement with one of Nangs friend (she was a complete idiot to be fair though) we headed off in a Tuk-Tuk (little Bike Taxis) back to the Hotel.
I was sure I had set my alarm but it was left to Paul to ring us at 1145 to wake us up, I was defo still drunk but somehow managed to round up all my stuff and check out and before I knew it were back on Khosan Road checking into our new hotel which if the last one was Yeovil this is say more Weymouth - but needs must. And here I am , I started this an hour ago and its actually been very theraputic for my hangover. Imagine its a quite one tonight, plan is to go to Cinema however as has been proved the last few days it might not turn out that way! Not that hopeful the Glovers will get something at Forest tonight but you never know.
So as you can probably tell Im having fun the only bad thing is that my Ipod has decided to break on me , need to get that fixed soon I need my music!
Note the fetching pants.
My gold than a scally's ear!
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