Random shots

A couple of things from Thailand:

A French imitation that went wrong


I really don't feel like going there


yes, Thailand has amazing beaches and sunsets


Bangkok by night and after a couple of drinks


C est pas de la pluie de PD a Bangkok ( I confirm this city is really interesting and dodgy)


A fish massage

Off to Japan

A quick update to post pictures of Thailand, its magnificent beaches and all (check links on the right hand side of the blog)

Tomorrow I fly to Japan and I will spend the coming 3.5 weeks there.

Needless to say that I am really excited about it and I really want to maximise my time there without just ticking things done.
I intend to visit Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Okayama, Kurashiki, Himeji, Hiroshima, Miyajima, Nagasaki, Kanazawa, the Kiso valley, Obuse and the Nozawa onsen. These names do not ring a bell to you, no worries most of them did not to me until I bought my guide book, a 1,000 pages thick book that has eaten most of my reading time lately. Also on my list are the Japanese pop culture, gardens, shrines, tea ceremony, shushis, maid cafes, games culture, arts, onsen (Japanese hot springs) and many more; so much that I wish I would not need to sleep.

I'll probably be silent on the blog but once I hit Australia (where I really want to work especially since I realised I got robbed in Thailand by some very gifted thieves) I will make a thorough update about the "cherry on the cake" of my round the world trip.

I survived the corals, a rat bite and ... a sneaky chili!!!

In a bit more than 3 months I barely had something going wrong: one or two difficult digestions, fell once with a bike and a 5 hours queue at the Thai embassy. I have been pretty lucky so far especially when I hear stories for food from Laos or when I see so many people with burns on their calf from the exhaust pipe of the motorbikes.

I also said I wanted to see more locals in Thailand and the way I did so was to go to hospital. Well, you need an excuse to go there so I did a two steps technique which was first to walk on corals (making many annoying wounds on my feet) and then keep wearing my sandals so that my wounds attracted a rat that bit me when I came back to Bangkok. (Ok, to be honest I behaved stupidly twice in two days first thinking walking on corals was fine and then not wearing shoes and keeping my sandals despite the wounds).

Since i had my rabbies shot in Holland I had 2 weeks to get my first post-exposure shot but I did not wait that long and went straight away to an hospital in Bangkok where the service was really good (nurses always showed me the way when I had to go to a new room) and quick (I suspect they made me skip the queue). This is more or less the opposite I had in Krabi Town last Saturday when I went to do my second shot; Old hospital, long queue and even the doctor did not speak decent English. Anyway I knew what I needed and when I went to pick up my medicine (to be later on injected) I had to explain again to the pharmacists what I had (for the 4th time) and then she found out that I did not need an extra shot; good news as I was starting to wonder if the needles would be really clean but even better she refunded me of both the medicine and the doctor consultation (that proved useless indeed).

I swear it looks good compared to reality

To celebrate the my certain survival to the rat bite I went to get shaved and having a blade on the neck is not the nicest feeling I've ever had (but I have never been so well shaved).

Finally the same evening Florent and I went to the local night market where some young local casseroles performed on a stage and the food was really .... local, ie spicy; Florent tried to commit suicide eating what was labeled a "no spicy chicken salad" which was a very spicy squid salad (squid and chicken must be closed words in Thai). I myself got tricked by a red chili in my dessert that looked like a green bean (I really wondered why they had put green beans in a dessert) that put my tongue on fire just with half a bite.

Bangkok, city of temptations and dodgyness

Bangkok is BIG and the transition with Laos is not easy.

It is the city of temptations for a couple of things: food, shopping and obviously the lady boys.

First the food. I have not spoken about it but I intend to eat local food only and therefore Asian food until I come to Australia. It is a bit stupid I admit but this is one of the small games I decided to play on the road. On the first morning walking in Bangkok I felt Bangkok was teasing me: Mc Donalds opened 24/24 (the first ones I have seen since I left Amsterdam), pizzas en veux-tu en voila and menus full of Westener food. That was really hard to resist ( I was pretty hungry that morning and I did not feel like having a fried rice (again!!). Finally I went for some fruits and later on I spoiled myself with some French fries (from Mc Donald, my favourite with the ones of my mamie), the only Westerner food I had since I left (5 times max over 3 months, that is not too bad).
The second act took place in Koh Tao. Those who know me for years remember how I used to have Nutella almost as my main ingredient. Just thinking at these baguettes cut in twos full of Nutella makes me feel pretty hungry. Well, I decided that I will not eat Nutella until I come back to Europe. That is really challenging and so far I have coped with it. But last week some people probably aware of the challenge played a very sneaky trick to me. I ordered a chocolate pancake and the pancake came not with chocolate but with Nutella. Well, believe me or not but I refused it and asked for some sugar instead (Erika my diving buddy can confirm).
The last act took place two days ago, at 5 am after being dropped in Bangkok by the bus back from Koh Tao. I was waiting for 7 am, did not have diner and there it was, opened among the closed places, the Burger King and yes I went there, had some chicken stuff with french fries. Well, with Flo and Greg arriving I knew it would be difficult to resist but that is still a minor breach of the rule.

The second temptation in Bangkok is shopping. Shopping addicts, never end a trip in Bangkok just before coming back to Europe, this will certainly create a hole in your wallet. Bangkok is just many shopping malls next to markets. I went to the famous week end market (Chatuchak est son petit nom) and with itsover 10,000 stands I stayed more than 5 hours there (my record ever) and bought, well, quite some clothes but I have an excuse because the ones I had are quite tired after almost 3 months of South-East Asia

The last temptation, well, that's the kind you find in the red light district. You see many old guys with younger Thai girls but I have to admit the number of girls behaving as ladies (or the contrary I have no idea in real) is quite scary and you really to have an adventurer to go for a local. When I got dropped in the backpackers street at 3.30 am I could see that yeah, Bangkok is really dodgy. Drunk tourists, holding (or being held) by Thais with other locals (taxis, etc...) ready to "take advantage" of the situation.

Overall I do not like Thailand and I would leave to Japan if my friends would not come to visit me. The country has many plagues of the mass tourism: it is rather expensive compared to its neighbours, the people are not friendly (they have seen too many tourists before, they do not smile anymore), you hardly can bargain (because of the holiday goers thinking this is so cheap compared to Europe/USA), everything is made to make you pay (bus dropping you at 3.30 am in Bangkok so that you have to take a room for the few remaining hours of the night ) and you have more white people on Koh Tao than locals. After Laos this is a real shock and a disappointment when you imagine that could happen there as well (let's protect Laos).

Anyway, I already start working on my trip to Japan (3 weeks and I am there) and I found out that you have to prepare things in advance there, you cannot really turn up on the day and hope to find something affordable. But at the time this looks so amazing that I cannot wait to be there.