where it all begins

art on walls of reclining buddha 1
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its very hot!! it was 33 degrees when i arrived into the airport at 4pm. I got on my flight in london and there was a lassie in my seat and i told here that she was in my seat so after a bit of discussion i said i'd go to the other aisle seat and uprooted  some guy who didn't seem to mind. the flight was tough enough i didn't get to sleep on the plane so i was a bit of wreck when we landed. as we landed i started talking rubbish(nerves i guess)to the people in my row the lassie at the end was chatty but sure we were getting off and i thought she was with another guy in our row, so i seen here heading off and as i was getting off she swung round and said that she's wait for me as she was on her own and so was i and maybe we could at least go into the airport together and that she had a taxi booked and she'd see if he'd take us...happy days!! agreed 300 baht with the taxi man(bout 6 euro) and headed off..Catherine, she's from listowel doing 2 months asia and oz. swapped numbers and said we'd try meet up that evening and go to the grand palace the follwing morn...little did i know that my phone wasn't going to work! she texted me twice and i could reply or call. anyway she's only about 3 miles down the same road as me but had no maps or anything useful and was ready to collapse as i hadn't slept in about 27 hours, so headed to bed about 8.45pm

art on walls of reclining buddha 2
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next day i got up and tried to do abit of heading to somewhere but it was roasting and i hadn't slept properly and after buying an international card i couldn't get through to catherine. so said i'd go back for a nap and head out later in the evening when it was cooler, as i went back to the room there was a dutch girl (marsha)after arriving in, so got chatting to her (3 weeks trip round thailand)and we said we'd hit the night markets after having a nap and i said i'd try catherines hotel and see if she was there and not mad with me....she was there and totally releived that i wasn't dead on the side of the street and that i didn't think she was a weirdo and thats why i didn't call her. but i had warned her that  my phone wouldn't work. anywaay all best buds we headed off for food(o'brians-first and quite possibly my last taste of thai food since i got here, it was rotten) so then we headed to the pat pong night markets. loadsa stalls, then you get guys coming up going "ping pong show, free come see..." i'm not goin to explain what they're talking about, if you don't know you may google it! yes alot of being asked to see sex shows.  seemingly i'm pretty good at the old bargaining, they pretty much double or even triple the price so you have to come to something reasonable....ended up buying crap i don't need that i'll have to carry with me for a yr! catherine had met 2 lads earlier on in the day and had arranged to meet them in O'reillys irish pub which just happened to be beside the markets.  they were from mullingar, 1 of them used to work in virginia and had even played football for munterconnaught on and occasion! they're heading to phuket on the 1st feb for 2 weeks so i'll probably try meet them there, but they were v funny, they had gone for a soapy soapy(not going to explain that either, but its on the seedier side of bangkok and costs 2000 baht-bout 50 euro) anyway headed off back to hostel a little wiser

gate at the reclining buddha
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today (I, Me) slept in causing us all to set off late but we were heading to the TAT office(travel agents) to book our separate trips and to go see the grand palace. dragged along a canadian girl called TIna(travelling round asia for 3/4 weeks) catherine is heading north to chang mai tomorrow, marsha is heading to krabi tomorrow but the 3 of us are booked into a beach hut on ko phagnan for the Full Moon Party on Friday night. so we're all meeting up again for 3 nights on thurs. Catherine is heading back to bangkok to head to oz but it turns out that she'll be in cairns for paddys day and so will i!!small world lads i'll tell ya!

big johns rooms in bankok
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so we headed ot the Grand palace with only an hour and half to spare(got the boat up the river, stinks but very pretty) we were starving so couldn't really enjoy it...oh did i mention it was roasting...it must have been 35 degrees and we were sooooooo hungry so we headed off to ko sahn road for a burger king and some light retail therapy!! don't really like the ko sahn road, its very touristy and just didn't appeal to me.

booking my bus to ko samui for monday, its going to take about 18 hours to get there not my idea of fun but sure i'll let you know how that goes in the next chapter, well better go its 1am, i'm knackered and it must be 20 degrees and i spy a few mosquitos and i forgot to put the bug spray on

boat bangkok
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later dudes and dudettes