End of the road for Vietnam happened on schedule on 23rd and Debs and I have found ourselves in backpacker's paradise in the Gulf of Thailand. The rough has come with the smooth but it's been emotional. Long time since last we spoke so much to catch up on. I've posted some photos to assist: Ph'otos
I'm starting to lose track of everything that's happened. Here's a list of some of it:
Stayed in Hoi'An for 4 nights. Met loads of nice people. Much drinking. Much suffering. More drinking. Tailor made clothes (lot's of, very cheap!) Ho Chi Minh. Crap hotel, good food (couldn't eat the cow's penis and scrotum). Massage from a blind man. Hmmm. War remnants museum - best left out of the blog lest I offend the American audience (some very bad behavior). Palace or two, a number of temples/ pagodas. Cu Chi tunnels. My god they lived in those on and off for a couple of years! Couldn't shoot the AK47 after my conscience gave me a good bollocking but it was strapped to the sandbags anyway and cost more than they advertised.
Ok then plane to Bangkok which smells and is full of tourists and con artists. Debs and I made a simple request to go to a strip club and watch women perform unspeakable acts with various (inanimate!) objects (it's a tourist thing) and those immoral tuk tuk drivers took us first to the middle of nowhere to report to a bouncer we couldn't fit past to get through the door, and then to a street full of gay bars where our the driver explained that everything was closed due to a Buddhist festival and that if I hung around here for too long I would feel the wrong end of a ladyboy! Needless to say we told him to shove his crap advice along with his tuk tuk where the sun don't shine and hot tailed it to an Irish bar where we were given proper directions to the best venue on foot.
That won't be happening again. The show was only mildly controversial although the performing lady did manage to shoot a banana right across the room, skimming it across two tables to land in Debbie's lap which I was extremely impressed by. A triumph for womankind, surely if they can do they they must deserve equal pay! We've had good food and massages galor since that eventful night but nothing that would sound impressive when retold so I'll leave it at that. Actually, come to think of it, I did palate a number of fried cockroaches, crickets and larvae much to the admiration of several onlooking tourists none of whome would take the plunge when offered.
20 hours ago or so we were on a train from Bangkok which turned into a coach at 3am and then a boat finally delivering us to the shores of Ko-Tao this morning. Booked into a PADI course beginning tomorrow with an instructor called Fri (pronounced Free) who left Torquay 12 years ago and never went back. I'm starting to feel that way. Should be great. I'm off to bed.
Oh, I got selected for the first round for a scholarship at UCL (Whoopah!) for which I have to write a personal statement by next Monday stating my likely future innovations and contributions to the field of Architecture. What holiday fun! But it's worth an awful lot of money so wish me luck! Bye now
And here are Debbie's photos: Debbie
Good news everyone! I found a way to allow people to post comments without being a member. Even people I've never spoken to before! Of course this means I'll get a fair bit of heckling from stangers but that's to be expected. My thanks in advance to those people.
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1 comment:
Dear Jonny and Debbie, long time no see.. Drew and I got back from our Asian experience last week, had a fantastic time. Sounds like we were a bit luckier at dodging the bad weather then you have been at times tho! I have to say i had thought you had more taste then to go to one of those ping pong shows! We went to the fake goods market in the Patpong area of Bangkok and were amused to be hounded by ping pong show touts, showing us little diagrams of what the show entailed to try and entice us in. They didn't manage to get us to go, but glad to hear you had fun! Have a great time in Ko Tao (aren't the sleeper trains in Thailand so cool!). We didn't make it to Ko Tao, but went to the neighbouring islands Ko Samui and Ko Phagnan and the sea around there was the most gourgeous shade of turquoise and the sand as fine as caster sugar. Jealous that your out there at the moment, while i'm back in the cold UK. I could have done with a few more days on the beach, as i didn't even manage to bring back a hint of a tan to prove i'd even been away! I hope the weather stays good for your diving. Look forward to sharing travel stories with you on your return.
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