the trouble. with words.

All it took was 2 Chang Beer in order for me to allow Jack to shave the sides of my head. They’re very uneven, but the boho look is very big among falang (Westerners) in South East Asia. Something to do with finding yourself / not having much money. I cut the top myself - no scissors necessary!

Homeless, Hungry and Hang Jeng.

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 13:27:00 -0400

On the morning of the 27th of August we left Bangkok and headed north towards Sukhothai, hoping for sunnier climes and less smelly streets. When we arrived in Sukhothai after our 6 hour bus journey it was already dark, so after a spot of faffing and thinking we could get to our guesthouse on foot (we really couldn’t), we could chartered a tuktuk and made our way there. 15 minutes later and we were at our guesthouse… and it had closed down. Permanently. We had paid online and as the back-street guesthouse was in complete darkness, both Jack and I had a lump form in our throat. For the first time on the trip, we had been bamboozled.

Luckily for us, our tuktuk driver as nice and offered to take us wherever we wanted to go without charging extra. I realised afterwards that he knew the guesthouse had closed down, as he and his colleague both asked us in surprised tone if we had a booking. As the closed down guesthouse had directions to a ‘sister guesthouse’ called Hang Jeng, about 15 minutes away, we could only ask him to take us there hoping our booking was moved - despite being advertised as the alternative accommodation, they had no record of our booking and we had to pay again. The place was a bit of a dive, and we were only one of 2 couples staying there, but the sheets were clean and it was much closer to civilisation than the previous guesthouse , so we went with it. Oh, and it was also super cheap - we ended up paying 8 pounds a night for the 2 of us. I’m sure we could have hunted around a bit and got something a bit nicer, but for our purposes, Hang Jeng was a bed, a roof, somewhere to put our bags and more importantly, still in operation.

View from the Banyan Tree Hotel’s 59th floor in Bangkok,...

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 13:12:00 -0400

View from the Banyan Tree Hotel’s 59th floor in Bangkok, Thailand. These cocktails were the most expensive items we purchased while in Bangkok - £9 each, if you’re curious.

Based on the strength of pretty much every website touting it as...

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 12:10:00 -0400

Based on the strength of pretty much every website touting it as the best fried chicken in Bangkok, Jack and I trekked to the city centre in order to have dinner at Soi Polo Fried Chicken. Our theory on the way there was that the restaurant was there first, and the street name was changed to Polo (‘pollo’ being Spanish for chicken… there’s a connection in there somewhere.

As it was in the newer, fancier, more high-risey part of Bangkok, we figured this would be a spotless chain-like environment. When we got to the small, swampy, alleyway street paved with food carts and cockroaches in equal number, we realized we were wrong, but persevered.

Once inside, we felt at ease and knew what we were after so ordered immediately. 2 (large) Singha. One whole fried chicken. To share of course. Tom sam salad on the side. Bit of fried rice for prosperity.

When the chicken arrived (from outside? A bit of a weird entrance and I can only assume it was cooked in a street-cart) it was hidden user a mountain of crispy fried garlic. And therein lay the secret. The chicken was good, although a but cold. But that crispy, golden, endless supply of garlic? Elevated it to new levels and made it amazing. It also gave us very very bad breath for the rest of the night. A success.

The tom sam was a different story and although we attempted it, it was all a bit much - who knew that the option of ‘sea salt crab’ would be served raw and quartered, and you’d have to suck it’s gooey insides out of its shell? (Thai’s obvs, but not us Falang)

We spent a good portion of Sunday at Chatuchak Markets in...

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 07:17:00 -0400

We spent a good portion of Sunday at Chatuchak Markets in Northern Bangkok, an incredible sprawling market that had everything you could ever want and more. We were quite taken by the pet section, particularly the PUPPIES! But then at about 3pm the heavens opened and we had to retreat to a restaurant we had spotted earlier and opted for some Pad Thai (best so far!) and a refreshing mango, coconut and lychee smoothie. And can I just say, that even though there was a torrential downpour going on outside (and technically inside as well, since the roof was made of plastic sheeting and it pretty much collapsed under the weight of the rain) and you would think it would cool the city down - NO. it was still a good 32 degrees and humid as hell.

I haven’t posted much on here in the last couple of weeks. I’ve...

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 06:25:47 -0400

I haven’t posted much on here in the last couple of weeks. I’ve been back in London for a month, having been in Continental Europe for the month before, and while alot has gone on, I haven’t been inspired to post much because London feels like home. As a quick recap, here’s whats gone on:

- I barely made it back into the UK from Germany due to not having a valid working holiday visa. After 2 hours of grilling, they let me in.
- Opening ceremony at Victoria Park. Actually amazing and made me so glad to be in London the duration of the event.
- Watched every event featuring a kiwi in the Games, cried when we won gold a few times.
- Surprise ticket to the athletics in the Olympic Stadium.
- Dinner after in the worlds biggest McDonalds. Couldn’t even get a seat, even though there are 1500 of them.
- Drinking. Lots and lots of drinking.
- Eating. Highlights included an impromptu brunch at my old stomping ground, Bistrotheque, a farewell dinner for Jack and I at Birthdays at Rita’s, a pop restaurant in Stoke Newington, and then an intimate dinner at Shrimpy’s at the Kings Cross Filling Station.
- Closing ceremony. Not as good as the opening, but - Spice Girls.
- realising how much I have actually loved living in London. I’m really going to miss it.

On my last morning, I went for a bike ride along Regents Canal and through Victoria Park, my favourite place to spend free time. Hard to believe 2 years have passed already. But I hope I will be back.

Jack and I are leaving for Heathrow in 15 minutes and our flight departs at 22.00pm. We spend the next 2 months in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. After that, we head to New Zealand to spend 2 weeks with my family, who Jack have never met, and then we settle to start all over again in Sydney.

London, it’s been amazing.

For dinner on our 2nd night in Bangkok ventured into the new...

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 05:26:00 -0400

For dinner on our 2nd night in Bangkok ventured into the new town around Silom Soi 2owen the gay district) and wandered into a local restaurant where we had an amazing massaman curry, Tom Sam salad (green papaya, dried shrimp, tomato, carrot and lots of sweet/salty sauce), prawn spring rolls and an entire sea bass in a chilli lime broth, cooked at the table over an open flame. I had to cover the eyes of the fish with tomatoes because they were like little cooked pearls staring right into my soul. Apart from the eyes it was all delicious and there was way too much food. I did get quite sick that night, but when the meal costs 500 baht - less than 10 pounds for all that *and* 4 beers, it’s the risk you take.

Our base / spiritual home for our first 3 nights in Bangkok was...

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 05:14:00 -0400

Our base / spiritual home for our first 3 nights in Bangkok was an amazing eco-friendly, family run guest house called Phrenakorn Nenlorn, a few minutes north of the soul-destroying tourist haven Khao San Road and equal distance to the Chao Praya River. It was recommended to us by friend, Neil, who lives in London but is originally from Bangkok and we could not be more grateful for the amazing recommendation. The staff were really friendly, the rooms made from recycled antique furniture and decorated in ways you wouldn’t expect from a guesthouse or a hotel which made it much more homely. It was also perfectly located near the river, which made accessing the Grand Palace super easy, and for every other journey we took a cab or a tuktuk - journeys which would cost surplus of 30 or 40 pounds in London never cost more than 3 or 4.

Parts of the Old Town of Bangkok are smelly, dirty and you’ll have a cockroach or a rat cross your path on more than one occasion; but it has some great restaurants, guesthouses and more charm than the new town and I would much rather stay there given the option. And we probably will on our return to Bangkok at the end of our journey, 2 months from now.

Day 1 in Thailand. Jack and I both wore jeans to the Grand...

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 07:14:49 -0400

Day 1 in Thailand. Jack and I both wore jeans to the Grand Palace and immediately regretted it in the 31 degree humid weather. Sweat-city. On our way out we stopped at a shop and looked at the weightless hippie pants which were selling for 150 baht. Jack thought this was a rip-off, so I patiently waited outside while he bartered with the woman and got them down to 120 baht. So they cost us £2.40 instead of an ‘expensive’ £3.00. They are mighty comfortable though.

2 hours spent in Muscat Airport, Oman, is 2 hours well spent.

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 00:01:28 -0400

2 hours spent in Muscat Airport, Oman, is 2 hours well spent.

Photo

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 08:30:09 -0400

Tower Bridge, by Police-Car-Moonlight. I wouldn’t usually find...

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 08:28:48 -0400

Tower Bridge, by Police-Car-Moonlight. I wouldn’t usually find myself walking north over Tower Bridge, but I was on Southbank illegally selling pies on this particular day. True story.