Full Circle

I'm writing this post from Penang, where I was born 28 years ago (although I wish it was a few years less!). So far we have been here for about a day and we have had fried mee, char koay teow, indian thalis and more. I love this place! It's a total gastronomic paradise. And the highlight so far is the lack of tourists. I think the bulk of the young Bangkok tourists are put off from travelling here because it's a strict Muslim country, so you don't get the party animals, narco-tourists, sex tourists or up-and-coming barflies. Basically you cut out all the crap! I think it will be a bit easier to meet people here than on the tourist trail in Thailand. On Wednesday we're catching the ferry to Medan where I think there will be even less foreigners. Mind you, there will be less Indians and Chinese too, so finding something to snack on during the day at the moment might be a bit tricky! Hope everyone's well.

I Love Bangkok!

Yes, I'm still alive and in Bangkok. It's my first visit to the Thai capital and I love it so far! Thais are so neat and clean, and smiley as well. The only negative experience so far was our attempt to buy a couple of cool t-shirts on Khao San Rd last night. Khao San Rd is the main tourist strip in Bangkok, and for most of the time it's closed to traffic because there are so many tourists. There are some awesome t-shirt designs in amongst all the other mass-produced ones, but when we tried to buy three of them, the shark running the stall wouldn't give them to us for any less than 200 baht each. That's about A$8! A total rip-off when you can buy the same shirts at the weekend market for about $3. I think too many clueless people have passed through there and paid way too much, ruining the fun for everybody else. But enough complaining..... Bangkok is so cool!

Yesterday we spent the entire day wandering around Siam Square and the surrounding shopping district. We saw a movie as well, in the plushest cinema I've ever seen! And it only cost $5 - That's cheaper than when I was at uni! We bought a couple of things (Pete finally has his battery-powered hair shaver) and drooled over lightweight laptops. We had a fantastic lunch too, in a really swish food court. I think tomorrow we might go ten-pin bowling in the Siam Paragon centre. I love this city!