CIVILISATION!!

Yay for airconditioning and 711’s and chain food stores and cinemas and hard rock ribs!
Bangkok is just as smelly as I remember and just as noisy but its damn good to be here.

Since our last update we did the crossing borders thing again from Laos to Thailand. That was a long day.. involving a tuk tuk, an hour wait in the back of a songlaw, an hour long drive to the border, a long and hot walk down a dusty road lined with the Laos version of duty free shopping, a departure stamp, an arrival stamp, another tuk tuk, two more hour long songlaw trips and then a taxi ride from the train station at Ubon Ratchathani to our hotel.

Ubon was nice but not really what we were expecting. Its quite a large town so we were expecting city like stuff and instead found a big small town. We spent most of our time walking around in the hot sun trying to find somewhere to eat or drink. The challenge was finding somewhere that had an english speaking person or an english version of the menu.. One night we thought we’d hit the jackpot when we came across a sign that said “AGAIN BAR AND RESTAURANT” but when we went inside there was no menu. The owner motioned for us to sit down and had to call his friend who spoke english asking them to come in. The friend was a lovely girl with broken english. We managed to order cokes and ‘something nice’ from the restaurant. It wasnt very nice but we felt so bad for making her come to the restaurant that we showered her (and the food) with praise.

Last night we caught the train from Ubon to Bangkok. 12 hours. We paid extra for the 2nd class ticket which means you get a sleeper but more importantly means you are guaranteed a seat. It was a long night and we arrived in bangkok at stupid oclock this morning (5am). We got some coffee and some bagels and waited around the station for a while watching tuk tuk drivers compete for our attention then at 6:30 – we waited for the sun to rise – we called to make a reservation at our hotel, jumped in a cab and fell into bed at the Pranee Building, right in the middle of Bangkok.

Not sure what our plan is for the next few days. Probably just enjoying the citiness of the city. We will give Gap a call tomorrow and hopefully catch up with him on Friday night. But right now we are heading to the Hard Rock Cafe for some well deserved Hard Rock Ribs!!!