Cockroaches, fish, and Britishness

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I met some lovely people on the bus back to bangkok, 2 english girls and a canadian guy. We got a couple of rooms just off Th Koh San. There were a couple of big rainstorms over bangkok and we stayed in the hotel restaurant watching films as cockroaches and mice crawled into the shelter (and across our feet). We went to this huuuuge market and bought too many things.

So i flew out of bangkok, feeling that i was leaving a part of myself behind in thailand. I shall miss that wonderful country. The flight was wonderful. British airways. Everything was so PROPER and so BRITISH. Chicken and mashed potato and cheesecake and then a danish for breakfast :) They gave you a little packet of free socks, eyemask and toothbrush and toothpaste. And had a proper choice of movies and radio and cds. And the seats were so comfortable. Various things this last month being in another culture and around people from other cultures even if they too are western ones has made me realise quite how British and English i really am.

Hannah and Ellie, the darlings, met me at the airport and took me back to our lodgings. Quite a shock paying 15 quid a night for a youth hostel rather than 2 quid a night for a koah san guesthouse. Blissfully cockroach free though! If i run outta money anywhere it'll be here! I like sydney though, today we went to the aquarium which was wicked. Lotsa fish and sharks. We found nemo. And went underneath the seals and the huge rays and the sharks. I loved the sharks, i think i was a shark in a past life. And the duck billed platypuses. And the adorable little puffa fish with big eyes. After this we went on a teeny little train around 'Darling Harbour'. Tomorrow we're gonna do the botanical gardens. I think i'm probably going to go to the blue mountains in the car with hannah's parents and hannah and ellie for one night on friday, but we're planning on staying in sydney overall for about 1.5 weeks before heading north. I can't reeeally believe i'm in australia, it feels like birmingham or london or something. It's kinda nice to be out of the culture shock of thailand and into something more familiar and english speaking.

I'm like 10 hours ahead of you guys now. Haha. Eastern Australia is like the furthest i could possibly get from england. I'm looking forward to coming back, though not for a while.

Travelling in my experience so far is a constant balance of having too much fun to think about home, and missing home. Right now they're pretty much even scales as i sit here alone, everyone else is at the sydney opera place watching a ballet. But moments of stress cause home to seem a lot more appealing. I have noticed how much more independant i am though. A plane from bangkok - sydney now receives the same consideration as a train from bristol to brum once did. My only worry at the moment is what to do at the end of april when hannah and ellie go off on a tour. But i think, to continue as i've begun and cross that bridge when i come to it is the best option.