Robby Keane Superstar

Since Bourkie AKA Richard is upstairs watching the Liverpool V Arsenal game, I thought it would be a good time to update you all on our travels.
First though, the background.
Why now? Well since we were both finished jobs(parts of a job) in our careers at around the same time, it seemed a good idea to go travelling plus the fact that we had saved up enough money.
Did we seriously think about it before doing it? Probably not but I knew if I thought about it too much,id probably freak myself out. But so far so good.......
Arrived in Bangkok (not Singapore- inside joke) yesterday evening around 4 and got a taxi to your B&B, unfortunately Bourkie left his jacket in the taxi with his ipod and phone. It wasn't until an hour later that we realised that we had a receipt with the taxi driver's name and mobile phone number on it, we must have been about 10 minutes too late but he gave the jacket to the next people in the taxi not realising it was ours. However Bourkie's email address is on the itinerary so we are still hanging onto a little bit of hope that the people will email us knowing how important the phone and malaria medication are. Fingers crossed everyone.
Anyway, we realise that its not the worst thing to happen and there is no point in dwelling on it and we are trying to make the most of our time here.
This morning,we were up at 9 to meet Kim(a Belgian friend of ilses) at her hotel though we were ripped off by the taxi driver and dropped in the wrong place. I knew he was charging too much but we were late and I just wanted to get there. However I got to check my emails and had lovely pancakes and realised how friendly the Thai people were. Two guys stopped us to give us directions and a guy stopped us later, telling us where to go and stopping a tuk tuk(3 wheeled motorbike with carriage at the back) arranging for us to go around the city for a very cheap price- less than 50 cent!.
Along with seeing a black Buddha and praying for the guy there to pass his final exam tomorrow(im not exactly sure what in). Again we were asked where we were from and always asked whether we were from the north or the south of ireland. I get the feeling they think its two different islands but am impressed that they know it.

We stopped off at the government tourist office where we sent away our passports for visas for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos as well as booking the rest of our trip up North, trekking and spending a night in a campsite of the tribes people without electricity(a little scary) and getting the slow boat through half of Laos. After that we want to fly to Vietnam, work our way down south to Cambodia and then back to Bangkok to get a train to the islands in South Thailand. We aim to spend around 3 weeks in the island, bringing us down to Singapore for the 28th December so we should be in Phuket for Christmas Day!

We have been lucky with our B&B(http://www.wendyguesthouse.com/), they have been really helpful and our room is clean but small but for 20 euro a night, really good with breakfast, hot showers, air-con,hairdryer , 2 free bottles of water a day,and internet facilities.

I just cant get over how friendly everyone is, on our way to Golden Mountain this evening(which we were too late for) this guy stopped us, asked us where we were from and when we said Ireland he got really excited and said 'like Robby Keane,' really good player, Bourkie reacted in less than an enthuastic manner and then he replied ' Robby Keane, superstar!'. Its amazing how into soccer they are with tuk tuks covered in soccer stickers and all the games live on the 'true sport' channel with Sky commentors and a movie channel with up-to-date movies in English.

Haven't had a proper Thai dinner yet but looking forward to it, the food stalls smell lovely though on occasion they are necessary to hide the other not so nice smells. The streets are really clean but the congestion from the traffic is quite bad and we have noticed some people wearing masks.

We are staying close to Siam Square, in the mid- to south part of the city and there is a huge shopping centre close by with Boots and all clothes labels, if my bag wasn't full enough , I would definitely go travelling.

The weather is humid but as we are entering or are already in the 'cool' season, it really is okay with the sun not shining too much and some breeze every now and then. Would hate to see what the 'hot' season is like!

I was thinking that I would add some tips at the end of each blog so that those who follow after us will have some guidelines.
Tip 1 - If you are getting a taxi, ask for the meter to be used, if they say its not working, go to the next one and dont agree a price before getting in. We got one expensive taxi and there will be no others!
Tip 2 - getting a taxi from the airport into the centre of Bangkok is not expensive, less than 10 euro which is worth it when you have bags.
Tip 3 - try and contain everything into as few bags as possible with nothing loose, we learned the hard way, they can get forgotten.
Tip 4 - only bring travel size shampoos and conditioners etc. as most shops sell the travel sizes of everything from baby lotion to eye cream.

Okay, since most of you have fallen asleep before the end of this entry , im going to end this very long entry but the first one was always going to be a long one.
Talk to you soon,
Clare and Richard