Well, you will no doubt have all read by now about the credit card fraud we experienced.  I don't want to dwell on that cos I get shitty everytime I think about it. Instead I thought I would use this chance to recall some of the more pleasant times over the last few days in Thailand....

As you know we were in Phuket til Wednesday 12 April.  While in Phuket we saw the build up the locals have to their new year festival, sokrahn festival.  That festival is a water festival that the Thais have to celebrate the new year and it was to occur on thusday 13 April.  This year it was also to commence celebrations for the kings 60th year reigning.  We had been told about the sokrahn festival and that it involved a kind of boat parade on the rivers of thailand.  What we hadn't been told, but we certainly learned, is that it also involved almost everyone in Thailand (except the poor unsuspecting tourists) having a water pistol (or any other container that holds water) and for the two or three days leading up to the festival it is basically one big water fight.  Jules and i got drenched trying to walk down the main mall in phuket!!  What was particularly funny was as the tourists cottoned on to what was going on, many of them joined in.  Phuket looked like one big puddle of water by the end of it!

I was sad to leave phuket because I really rated it.  I had been told that Patong Beach (where we stayed) was a hole, that is was dirty and sleazy.  That was not my impression at all.  the place looked really clean.  it wasn't smelly and the sleaze was only obvious at night in the bars (and I found it more amusing than sleazy).  We also went to one of those sex shows - highly overrated I thought.  we didn't stay long.

jules and I decided to catch the overnight bus from Phuket to Bangkok (hey, we had travelled every other way since being here!).  That was quite an experience!  The bus itelf was very comfortable as the chairs were a reasonable size and we had an ok amount of leg room.  We had been told by the travel agent that the bus would stop for dinner as it left at 6:30pm so we didn' worry about dinner - bad move.  by the time it got to 10pm we had come to the conclusion that we weren't actually going to stop.  we had watched a movie (in Thai), had a piece of cake and a bottle of water provided on the bus and the lights were out.  most of the bus was asleep.  So jules and I rumaged through our bags and found what we could to eat.  Dinner consisted of pringles, chocolate and some dry muesli...mmmm....Having had that gourmet dinner, we both tried to sleep.  then at 12:30pm, the lights were turned on and some LOUD thai music was played over the spearker system.  Oh joy, we were stopping for dinner! - for 15 minutes!  it took us that long to go to the bathroom (there were queues) and then to find something that looked like we might want to eat it.  Once we found some food that looked ok (egg fried rice), our next challenge was finding someone who actually wanted to serve us.  The counter had a staff member available but her make-up was far more important than serving the waiting people.  Then it was back on the bus with the lights out so we could sleep.  We were due to arrive in bangkok at 8am so I thought we might get some decent sleep in that 7 hours.  but no!  The roads were rough, at times a bit hairy....and then at 6am the lights in the bus went back on as did the LOUD music.  We arrived at the depot about 7am, absolutely shattered.

tip:  if you are ever on a long bus journey where the bus keeps stopping for no apprent reason (for a few minutes at a time)...look out your window and you will probably see your bus driver (as we did) just outside the bus taking a slash.

One thing that was fascinating on that trip was that there was lightening (possibly thunder but we couldn't hear any over the noise of the bus) and it lit up the whole sky.  I have never seen anything like it!  Actaually we had a couple of tropical storms over here with the thunder, lightening and heavy rain.  it was quite spectacular!

Anyway, since being in bangkok, we have been tying to focus on job stuff and sorting out the credit card issue.  We both have meetings and telephone interviews set up for our first week in London so hopefully something will come from that.  our impression of bangkok this time around is that it is still smelly and dirty, but it is not so overwhelming.

All in all we have had a fantastic time in thailand!  I think we both achieved what we wanted to from this trip!  For me I wanted to experience a new culture, meet some new people and have a decent break from working.  I can tick each of those off!

For now, its off to London!  We fly out at 11:55pm (Thai time) today and arrive in London at 9am (London time) tomorrow morning (sunday).  the best part of that is that Jess and Dave are having their engagement party that day - woohoo!!  yay for Jess and Dave getting married!!!  So it sounds like I will be straight into it!!

Love to you all!

Will give an update from London once i ma on my feet!!  I will also update this site with some pictures!

A

xx