So, after another couple of manic weekends in Bournemouth – most memorable for (asides from the partying) running around in the mud, the extensive use of “my contraption” and an awesome breakfast – I arrived back at the caravans, had a meal with my extended family to celebrate my grandmother’s birthday and crashed out on my parents’ sofa.  

Early the next morning my father took me and my 60L backpack on his motorbike to Heathrow airport.  For those of you that haven’t tried riding pillion with suck a sizeable bag on your back alongside the amount of pannier space my dad’s 1150 tourer has, let me inform you that it’s not an entirely comfortable experience.  In any case, 12 hours, 2 flights and 3 curries later, I arrived in Bangkok.  It was not an altogether bad journey, however my flight from London to Mumbai saw me answering questions on every possible matter directed from 2 asian-american six year olds.  Somehow, my two swiss army knives were allowed onto that flight, but at my connection in Mumbai, seven attendants wasted over an hour trying to sort out what to do with them.  I didn’t have the heart, after all that, to let them know they’d only cost me a few pounds from Lidl.

Somehow, despite that delay, my bag with the knives still got misplaced and so, at 7am after a sleepless night/day, freshly on Thai grounds, I found myself wandering to Lost Baggage where I met Chris, a ship driver who had some time off to travel.  We ended up sharing a taxi to Khaosan Rd in the centre of Bangkok where he was meeting his friends, and I was meeting Roy, a Dutch guy who I had met in Indonesia a couple years previously.  Our taxi driver’s vehicle was the equivelent of that mad house I visited in Colorado – filled with absolute shit.  A nodding sailer.  A dog holding a ‘Welcome’ sign in its teeth.  A photo of no one in particular (how can I say that?!).  Fluffy yellow andpink cushions littered the back seat.  It was an experience.  She made sure she drove us the longest way round with the most traffic, but she did stop to buy us fried bananas on route, which, despite our dubiety, were very tasty.

So, in the centre of Bangkok, Roy took me to the guest house he was staying at, I showered, took a room and met a Mongolian guy called Billy who was sharing Roy’s bed (i’ll keep that vague..!) and off we went for some breakfast.  Since I hadn’t slept in a bed or for more than a few hours at a time since….maybe Monday?….. I decided I’d take full advantage of my double bed and AC’d room with TV and private shower (390B!!) and slept for the rest of the day.  By 8pm I was raring to go.  Billy, Roy and a guy from Peterborough called Dale headed to a Korean restaurant and ate small fried fish amongst other stuff.

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