So 2 weeks have gone in a flash, a week of Bangkok then a further week of slightly cooler Chiang Mai. Anything I say now is probably going to be through rose (or even alcohol) tinted spectacles: blagging my way into the business-class lounge with free wifi, peace and quiet, pizza, Oreos and gin and tonic that you can pour yourself. The plan is to make the most of this and then snooze the whole 13 hours on the way back :)
Thailand's been a mad mad place. The complete opposite to Singapore, where I went a few years ago: chaotic, dirty, polluted, but it's certainly got a charm to it that other countries don't. The people are probably the most friendly and hardworking that I've ever met, we've eaten in some amazing restaurants (a French restaurant that I went to yesterday was as good any I've had in England and easily a quarter of the price) and generally been made to feel completely welcome. It's also been humbling to stay in an enormous house, with enormous gardens, that in London only a multi, multi-millionaire could afford.
I was also really lucky to visit an elephant sanctuary a few days ago, feeding them bananas and sugarcane and getting close enough to them to be able to stroke them (their hair is as wiry as a wire brush)
I also managed to fit in a visit to a temple in the hills and to Carrefour (pick a fish swimming in a tank, they'll kill it, deep fry it and package it in about 10 minutes - quicker than queuing at the post office back home)
I'm always glad to be going home at the end of a holiday, that's why I live there, but Thailand's certainly a place I'd come back to, especially when the thought of landing at Heathrow in 14 hours, in the cold, on Halloween with little tw*ts throwing flour bombs/bricks/whatever they can get their hands on at the passing Piccadilly Line train come to mind.
Oh well, time for more pizza, gin and a sleep. Night all. Xx
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