there's a tesco in bangkok

at the point where i was about to get dvt, i landed in singapore and then it was but a hop, skip and a jump north to bangkok. was v excited about being able to watch last year's 'royle family' special on the flight over. shed a tear when nana died. still can't quite believe it. but life has to go on, i suppose, and reality hit me whilst landing in bangkok and seeing the grey smog floating over the city, even in the dark. i was developing a cold from the many days of wet feet in sydney so that possibly caused the strange sensation of bleeding gums as the air pressure changed as we landed. not the best of starts.

but many mini victories! firstly, it was a relief not to get done for drugs. you hear stories of people getting stuff planted and i'd not got my bag cling-filmed as some people suggested in sydney. secondly, i sorted out getting a phone card and, after some confusion, managed to phone the 'guest house' where i wanted to stay. thirdly, i sorted out a taxi to get me to said guest house, even if i was probably fleeced and the taxi man didn't really know where he was going. fourthly, i secured myself a private room with double bed, air con and en suite bathroom with hot shower for under a tenner a night. hurrah! that was a particular source of joy, i can tell you. and then finally, after much messing about, i finally got a public phone to work to call home. so all missions accomplished. i was so wired by it all, though, that i couldn't sleep, even though my body clock was telling me it was almost morning.

woke after a few hours and went for a walk amongst the miriad of alleyways and streets and found somewhere to have breakfast. it's great thailand being so cheap, you feel like a king being able to eat out all the time. felt like a White Woman From The West as soon as i hit the streets, though. i might aswell have been wearing a safari suit and shouting 'what, what' at the top of my voice. and it seemed to be some strange 'yellow' day in thailand. almost everyone was wearing a yellow airtex top. i thought they were all stewards for some big event until i realised that nothing has that many stewards. later, i overheard a tour guide saying something about it being buddha day and that the buddha was born on a monday so everyone wears yellow on a monday. or something.

the streets in bangkok are mental. there's strong smells of food and drains everywhere. and it's nigh on impossible to cross the street. they have zebra crossing marks but nobody seems to take the slightest bit of notice of them so you just have to make a run for it and pray to buddha that you make it the other side okay. crazy.

i did the most obvious tourist stuff first - grand palace and that. it's nice being somewhere that actually has a different culture and some history. the temple of the emerald buddha was beautiful - all glimmering and shiny in the hot, hot sun. i mean, bangkok is seriously trickle-down-your-back hot. you finish the day covered in sweat and a thin layer of grime and muck aswell. the emerald buddha is the most sacred emblem in thailand and people come from all over to pray to him. it's a tiny statue (and actually made of jade) atop a huge golden pyramid with lots of other golden buddhas and shiny things. i only knew about this previously because we saw a fake one in las vegas, of all places. i also visited the city pillar, which people pray to aswell, and also wat pho which houses a giant reclining buddha. it's massive. 15 metres high, i think it said. i also crossed the river to see the wat arun, which is a huge tower (khmer-influenced, apparently) which has ridiculously steep steps up where you think you're going to die as you climb down. but it's covered in bits of broken chinese porcelain made into the shape of flowers. v pretty.

i then could put it off no longer and found somewhere to have lunch. it was a place on the river opposite the wat arun and it actually turned out to be okay. the menu was in english and the rice and vegetables i ordered actually didn't kill me. in fact, i'm getting into the whole thai food thing, which is good for a girl who was 20 before having her first ever curry... i've also mastered the thai way of eating. basically, they use a spoon for a fork and a fork for a knife. simple. in fact i finished the day feeling a little less like the White Western Woman. i even mastered the squat toilets aswell. check me out.

i headed out to the night market on khao san road in the evening. got my tea off a street vendor for 20 baht - which i think is about 30p - how cheap?! the street was properly buzzing - people everywhere, smells of lots of different foods, the sound of people shouting and, oddly, the kaiser chiefs playing from a swiftly set-up cd stall. made it feel like home.

slept much better the second night and have had a fab day today aswell. commissioned a longtail boat to take me round the canals of thonburi across the river. it made me laugh out loud, it was so much fun. there's a floating market, where people in kayak-type boats come up to your boat and show you their wares. i was incredibly rubbish at bartering but didn't really care. they also take you past fish farms where you can feed scary-looking oversized fish. and then there's the beautiful wooden teak huts along the canal. there was huge variety in standards of housing, a real mish-mash. but everyone along the canal waves at you and it's hilarious when you meet another boat along the way and you hit their waves and you think you're going to capsize, except not really. lots of fun.

i then got the sky train to jim thompson's house. there's so much traffic in bangkok that they're taking everything into the air in the 'new' part of town. there's 'skywalks' over the traffic to save you attempting to cross roads and the skytrain misses all the traffic aswell. found jim thompson's down a random alleyway and it's a beautiful dark wooden teak house on stilts. you can just imagine all the colonials wandering about in there. all elegant furniture and porcelain antiques and glassless windows. an interesting fact is that each door frame has a bottom part to it that you have to step over and this is because thais believe that nasty spirits travel along the floor but can't jump so, by doing this, you keep evil spirits out of the room. at least that's what the tour lady said.

i visited the erawan shrine, which is a statue of brahma that people pray to, and it's right on the corner of an incredibly busy street. there's an interesting contrast of people praying on the ground with the skywalk and skytrain and busy shopping malls all around them. there's also traditional singing and dances going on amidst the deafening sound of the traffic. i decided on a bit of air-conditioned luxury and hit the mbk shopping centre. i was tired and a bit overwhelmed by it until i had a restorative coffee and accidentally perfected the art of bartering. i was looking at a thai silk shawl and told the lady that maybe i'd come back later when the price was then instantly dropped. suddenly, this whole bartering thing seemed like loads of fun and i set off into the stalls in the shopping centre with renewed confidence. in fact, had to keep reminding myself that i've still got two weeks to cart everything around with me still so that stopped me from going too mental. but, yay, cheap clothes! and i can actually buy stuff! yay!

i've decided to be a proper backpacker and just turn up at the bus station tomorrow to get the government bus to kanchanaburi, where the bridge over the river kwai is. i'm also going to just turn up at a guest house aswell, rather than try and book something in advance. it's funny how this seemed so scary in australia and i was religious about booking stuff there. but here it just seems easier to show up at places. well, we'll see how that goes, anyway...

but am loving this. it feels like 'proper' travelling, especially compared to oz, where everything was handed on a plate to you. it's quite mentally tiring, dealing with the language and cultural differences. but that's the point, i suppose.