Trek to Oz

After the India debacle, or the ‘incident’ as it will now be named, we ended up back in Bangkok and were very happy about it, very happy indeed. We arrived a little after my brother and father, as we had changed our flight, which Air Asia did for free, but had to fly at a later time. We arrived in Bangkok in the early hours of the morning and were whisked away to the apartment we had booked for a week of air-conditioned luxury. It was good to be back in SE Asia.

On the first day back the family went to see some of the sights we had already seen and I went to pick up the Land Rover from the storage place we had left it in. Once again she started first time, for some reason it is always a shock to me when the car does what it’s meant to. After fighting the Bangkok traffic back to our apartment I was back in bed catching up with my hour and a half jet lag.

It was good to spend some more time in the Thai capital, as we had not really seen the sights when we were first here, it being Christmas and all, so we hit the tourist trail hard and fast and took in more temples and Buddha’s than you can shake a stick at.

On the 4^th day we took a trip to Kanchanaburi, the sight of the Bridge over the River Kwai. It was a tight fit to get all four of us in the Land Rover and those in the back were not too happy with the total lack of leg room, so I had to drive with my knees resting on my chest. Megan commented that this may have actually improved my driving. She walked home.

Kanchanaburi itself has become something of a tourist hotspot and not the somber location I feel it should have been. Saying that though the war graves were immaculately kept and even with all the noise and hubbub surrounding the site it was a very peaceful place to be. It was quite humbling to see that the majority of the graves of the men (well, boys really) who died were only in their 20’s. There was also a very interesting and tasteful museum that charted the building of the ‘Death Railway’ as it has come to be known.

The day my brother and dad flew home I got up at 5am to drive them to the airport, something I had offered to do after one to many Singapore slings on a rooftop bar the night before (and by the way, did you even know they had a 5am??! It was still dark!). Lately Megan and myself find it an effort to get out of bed before 10am, god knows how we are going to cope with work once the money runs out and we have to go back to real life jobs!?! I’m still hoping that some big shot with a publishing house and a love of Land Rovers will see my blog and offer me a couple mill to turn it into a book and a BBC drama, hopefully starring that guy from Doctor Who, not the new one but the old one, you know, that guy…? No Megan, it’s not a long shot!!!

So I bid 70% of my family goodbye at the airport and the last few days since then have been spent driving north in Thailand, heading for the Laos border. We stopped on the way at a couple of small backwater towns, which always seem to have the most amazing food. This one place we went to was truly amazing: ‘all you can eat cook it yourself at your table’ for £2. We ate a lot, so much in fact that I have eaten nothing for the last three days, as I’m still trying to digest it all. (That’s such a lie). The food in Thailand is awesome and we haven’t stopped eating since crossing the border.

We also stopped at a little town called Kamphaeng Phet, which had an incredible number of temple ruins. I thought I had reached maximum temple exposure (or ‘wat’, which is thai for temple, get the title now?) but after seeing these crazy weather worn Buddhas it really got my temple juices flowing again. As Kamphaeng Phet was slightly off the main tourist trail there was also no one else around and we had the whole sight to ourselves in order to take inappropriate photos.

We are now currently staying in a small city called Chiang Mai, which is back packer central, far too many dreadlocks, baggy tie died trousers and use of the word ‘man’ in conversations for my liking. We should be in Loas in four or five days as long as we can find the boarder crossing- the guidebook and google only seem to talk about people crossing by boat and nothing is mentioned about a bridge or car crossing… Well, the main border is too far to drive now so we are going up to have a look anyway! Fingers crossed there is some sort of car ferry, if not then maybe I can start one…? Megan, Megan! I’ve just had the most amazing idea…..