.....previously in Nepal....
It was wonderful to be back in Bangkok, and in a place that was clean, and where there weren't massive piles of rubbish everywhere we looked. (Being able to use a shared bathroom without the use of shower shoes was a bonus!). Lovely to know our way around the city, and have a brilliant public transport system at our fingertips, and be able to communicate a little bit with people in their own language. Great to never be a few steps away from an ubiquitous 7-11, where cold drinks, ice, coffee and snacks were readily available, and best of all was to be able to choose what to eat from an outstanding choice of delicious, fresh and economical food. As often in our travelling lives, we experienced another mini culture shock.
The down side was two fold. We had arrived in Thailand at the end of May, the height of the hot and especially humid season. The air was heavy and wet, making it difficult to breath. There couldn't be a bigger difference from the weather conditions we'd just left in Nepal. One website predicted the day to be 38 degrees, but feeling like 47 degrees!!! We stopped checking after that!
There wasn't much we could do about the weather- we had known it would be hideous, but had waited to see what our reactions would be upon arriving. We had many jobs to do in Bangkok, and ended up deciding to stick it out and stay the entire month in the capital.
We spent the first week in Bella Bella, our usual cheap and cheerful digs on Soi Rambuttri, and quickly re-entered the loud, colourful atmosphere of the area, although being the off season, there were fewer tourists around than usual, and the numerous disruptions (see below) saw many businesses closed. The scorching weather saw us rising early in order to do our jobs, and flaking under the fan during the day. In the evening, we loved the street bars that appeared nightly on Rambuttri, and sat with our 80 baht/AU$3.50 beer and gin (not together- that would be disgusting!), and watched the freak parade that is Bangkok by night.
In order to survive (maybe slightly over-dramatic!), we looked into alternative accommodation options. We discovered a very swish place in a completely different part of town, away from the tourists, but still close to public transport. It wasn't too pricey, but included a lovely spacious air-conditioned room with white sheets, a kettle, coffee, balcony, free toiletries, a rooftop pool and a gym for Rich to exercise to his heart's content! We felt very posh indeed staying here, and had to stop the maids from cleaning our room and changing the sheets and towels everyday! The sauna on the roof top was a bit of a laugh- Rich commented that we could hop inside to cool down!
The weather didn't induce us to walk anywhere, so luckily there were a myriad of cheap and efficient buses available to every part of Bangkok. The best were the AC trips. We loved sitting and looking out the window without the exertion and sweating of walking in the hot sun. Starting from 6 baht/AU$0.27 a trip, the buses were fantastic, and much better than the BTS or MRT train systems. We found the latter to be crowded and up to 10 times the price of the buses! As usual, we used the boats on the Chao Phraya River a lot whilst staying in Banglamphu. The breeze made them a cool way to travel to some parts of the city.
The second factor we hadn't counted on was the coronation of the "new" king of Thailand. Even though it has been two and a half years since the death of the previous beloved king, only now is his son being officially crowned as the new monarch. During our first week around Khao San Rd, every few days the entire area shut down, and police and army patrolled the streets for the rehearsals for the actual ceremony days. It was quite eerie to walk down the usually pumping tourist central road and see all the stalls and most of the shops and restaurants shut. Other days, only some businesses were shut, and then other days everything was open. It didn't seem to make sense to us, so we just woke up, and waited to see what was happening! An upside of the official holiday period of three days, was that much of the public transport was free, so we took trains to the end of lines to have a look (not that interesting, as the view from the train was very restricted).
Our hotel off the far end of Sukhumvit Rd was not too far away from the shopping area of wall to wall malls in central Bangkok. Some were crowded and a nightmare to visit, especially on the public holidays, but we did find the food courts inside a great source of delicious and cheap authentic Thai food. The supermarkets were also terrific for bread, cheese and salad to supplement our spicy food intake. And, of course, being Thailand, every soi (small lane) off the main road was filled with stalls selling a variety of foods, day and night. Items such as fruit were joyously inexpensive compared to rip off Khao San Rd/Rambuttri area.
Eventually our trips to the dentists, electronics and camera shops, banks, railways station, book shops, chemists, markets and embassys were all completed, and we left Bangkok for a long trip down to Malaysia.
One bus, three trains, one boat and 48 hours later, we arrived in Penang, and found a room at our usual digs. Unfortunately, there was a strange atmosphere afloat at the guesthouse. May is very low season in Georgetown due to weather, and the fact that most of the old fart Europeans who make up the majority of Penang's foreign residents have returned home. Many dodgy long term characters had replaced them, and their habit of sleeping all day and making noise all night didn't thrill us.
At least the weather was cooler than Bangkok. I never thought we would use the term "cooler" in relation to Penang, but it just goes to show, everything is relative!
Many miscellaneous jobs took up our days once again. The most important was scouring for a good price for a new camera lens for Rich, as our life on the road in many humid countries had caused fungus to grow on his old ones. We found a great deal and he was very happy with his new purchase. It's an purposeful and serious hobby- it brings him great pleasure and focus while we're travelling.
We do love the few small op shops in Penang (that's Australian for thrift or charity shops). It's one of the few places in Malaysia to snap up some bargain second hand clothes.
Penang's also our place to stock up on lovely Indian products from the many supermarkets around Little India. Particular favourites items include coconut oil, henna, turmeric and fragrant Mysore soap.
Ramadan was is full force- although in Penang it isn't very obvious due to the many different cultures and religions here. Mostly it meant extra food markets everywhere, that were extremely busy when Muslims broke their fasting for the day.
Rich was very happy to take up his monthly bargain gym membership again, and keep his body's trouble areas fit for more rigorous travel. The famous Antarabangsa Bar was once again a way to while away the evenings, surrounded by freaky and diverse folk from all over the world and a smashing atmosphere. It having the cheapest beer on the island was also an incentive.
As our trip back to Central Asia grew near, one of Sal's preoccupations was with her trusty Russian phrase book. She discovered YouTube is another very helpful additional means for learning a language- especially for pronunciation. We are determined to know more for our upcoming trip than we did last time.
Meanwhile, Sal gave in once more to the temptation of three weeks well paid work in Melbourne, in order to help fund the rest of our year's travels. So, we sadly said goodbye to each other, and made a plan to meet up in Bangkok soon.
*A random aside........we witnessed a interesting incident in McDonald's, when the leg of a high chair occupied by a little baby suddenly broke. The child went flying, and was only just saved from falling on the floor. We watched, waiting for a furious outburst from the mum, but to our surprise, she simply asked if there was another chair to replace the broken one, and that was that! Imagine that happening in Australia or the UK!! So Asian.....
.....onwards to our return to Central Asia......
It was wonderful to be back in Bangkok, and in a place that was clean, and where there weren't massive piles of rubbish everywhere we looked. (Being able to use a shared bathroom without the use of shower shoes was a bonus!). Lovely to know our way around the city, and have a brilliant public transport system at our fingertips, and be able to communicate a little bit with people in their own language. Great to never be a few steps away from an ubiquitous 7-11, where cold drinks, ice, coffee and snacks were readily available, and best of all was to be able to choose what to eat from an outstanding choice of delicious, fresh and economical food. As often in our travelling lives, we experienced another mini culture shock.
 |
| Market in Bangkok |
 |
| Wat Saket at Night |
 |
| Street posters, Bangkok |
The down side was two fold. We had arrived in Thailand at the end of May, the height of the hot and especially humid season. The air was heavy and wet, making it difficult to breath. There couldn't be a bigger difference from the weather conditions we'd just left in Nepal. One website predicted the day to be 38 degrees, but feeling like 47 degrees!!! We stopped checking after that!
There wasn't much we could do about the weather- we had known it would be hideous, but had waited to see what our reactions would be upon arriving. We had many jobs to do in Bangkok, and ended up deciding to stick it out and stay the entire month in the capital.
We spent the first week in Bella Bella, our usual cheap and cheerful digs on Soi Rambuttri, and quickly re-entered the loud, colourful atmosphere of the area, although being the off season, there were fewer tourists around than usual, and the numerous disruptions (see below) saw many businesses closed. The scorching weather saw us rising early in order to do our jobs, and flaking under the fan during the day. In the evening, we loved the street bars that appeared nightly on Rambuttri, and sat with our 80 baht/AU$3.50 beer and gin (not together- that would be disgusting!), and watched the freak parade that is Bangkok by night.
 |
| View from Bella Bella Guesthouse |
 |
| Rambuttri Street by night |
In order to survive (maybe slightly over-dramatic!), we looked into alternative accommodation options. We discovered a very swish place in a completely different part of town, away from the tourists, but still close to public transport. It wasn't too pricey, but included a lovely spacious air-conditioned room with white sheets, a kettle, coffee, balcony, free toiletries, a rooftop pool and a gym for Rich to exercise to his heart's content! We felt very posh indeed staying here, and had to stop the maids from cleaning our room and changing the sheets and towels everyday! The sauna on the roof top was a bit of a laugh- Rich commented that we could hop inside to cool down!
 |
| Our swanky room in Bangkok |
 |
| Rooftop swimming pool, Bangkok |
 |
| Hotel foyer, Bangkok |
The weather didn't induce us to walk anywhere, so luckily there were a myriad of cheap and efficient buses available to every part of Bangkok. The best were the AC trips. We loved sitting and looking out the window without the exertion and sweating of walking in the hot sun. Starting from 6 baht/AU$0.27 a trip, the buses were fantastic, and much better than the BTS or MRT train systems. We found the latter to be crowded and up to 10 times the price of the buses! As usual, we used the boats on the Chao Phraya River a lot whilst staying in Banglamphu. The breeze made them a cool way to travel to some parts of the city.
 |
| Ferry on Chao Praya River |
 |
| On the buses, Bangkok |
The second factor we hadn't counted on was the coronation of the "new" king of Thailand. Even though it has been two and a half years since the death of the previous beloved king, only now is his son being officially crowned as the new monarch. During our first week around Khao San Rd, every few days the entire area shut down, and police and army patrolled the streets for the rehearsals for the actual ceremony days. It was quite eerie to walk down the usually pumping tourist central road and see all the stalls and most of the shops and restaurants shut. Other days, only some businesses were shut, and then other days everything was open. It didn't seem to make sense to us, so we just woke up, and waited to see what was happening! An upside of the official holiday period of three days, was that much of the public transport was free, so we took trains to the end of lines to have a look (not that interesting, as the view from the train was very restricted).
 |
| Bangkok lit up for the King's coronation |
Our hotel off the far end of Sukhumvit Rd was not too far away from the shopping area of wall to wall malls in central Bangkok. Some were crowded and a nightmare to visit, especially on the public holidays, but we did find the food courts inside a great source of delicious and cheap authentic Thai food. The supermarkets were also terrific for bread, cheese and salad to supplement our spicy food intake. And, of course, being Thailand, every soi (small lane) off the main road was filled with stalls selling a variety of foods, day and night. Items such as fruit were joyously inexpensive compared to rip off Khao San Rd/Rambuttri area.
 |
| Yummo food court massaman curry |
Eventually our trips to the dentists, electronics and camera shops, banks, railways station, book shops, chemists, markets and embassys were all completed, and we left Bangkok for a long trip down to Malaysia.
 |
| On the train |
 |
| Disused railways cars |
One bus, three trains, one boat and 48 hours later, we arrived in Penang, and found a room at our usual digs. Unfortunately, there was a strange atmosphere afloat at the guesthouse. May is very low season in Georgetown due to weather, and the fact that most of the old fart Europeans who make up the majority of Penang's foreign residents have returned home. Many dodgy long term characters had replaced them, and their habit of sleeping all day and making noise all night didn't thrill us.
At least the weather was cooler than Bangkok. I never thought we would use the term "cooler" in relation to Penang, but it just goes to show, everything is relative!
 |
| Dawn, Georgetown |
 |
| Back street stray, Penang |
 |
| Old pier, Penang |
Many miscellaneous jobs took up our days once again. The most important was scouring for a good price for a new camera lens for Rich, as our life on the road in many humid countries had caused fungus to grow on his old ones. We found a great deal and he was very happy with his new purchase. It's an purposeful and serious hobby- it brings him great pleasure and focus while we're travelling.
We do love the few small op shops in Penang (that's Australian for thrift or charity shops). It's one of the few places in Malaysia to snap up some bargain second hand clothes.
Penang's also our place to stock up on lovely Indian products from the many supermarkets around Little India. Particular favourites items include coconut oil, henna, turmeric and fragrant Mysore soap.
Ramadan was is full force- although in Penang it isn't very obvious due to the many different cultures and religions here. Mostly it meant extra food markets everywhere, that were extremely busy when Muslims broke their fasting for the day.
Rich was very happy to take up his monthly bargain gym membership again, and keep his body's trouble areas fit for more rigorous travel. The famous Antarabangsa Bar was once again a way to while away the evenings, surrounded by freaky and diverse folk from all over the world and a smashing atmosphere. It having the cheapest beer on the island was also an incentive.
As our trip back to Central Asia grew near, one of Sal's preoccupations was with her trusty Russian phrase book. She discovered YouTube is another very helpful additional means for learning a language- especially for pronunciation. We are determined to know more for our upcoming trip than we did last time.
Meanwhile, Sal gave in once more to the temptation of three weeks well paid work in Melbourne, in order to help fund the rest of our year's travels. So, we sadly said goodbye to each other, and made a plan to meet up in Bangkok soon.
*A random aside........we witnessed a interesting incident in McDonald's, when the leg of a high chair occupied by a little baby suddenly broke. The child went flying, and was only just saved from falling on the floor. We watched, waiting for a furious outburst from the mum, but to our surprise, she simply asked if there was another chair to replace the broken one, and that was that! Imagine that happening in Australia or the UK!! So Asian.....
.....onwards to our return to Central Asia......
Penang appears a photographers' paradise with its nostalgic charm and suited for long exposures in those dimly lit streets. The u tube phenomenon of learning stuff can indeed be absorbing as I find out how many ways to pitch a tarp for stealth camping which I need to brush on, prior to heading off to Asia on my folding cycle/ethno photography sojourn.
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