It's getting hot in here

Despite of the earthquake and following tsunami in Japan, we are unaffected and still alive.

Bangkok

We left Goa friday the 4th of March and set off to Bangkok! It was a day of unfortunate events - Randi's luggage was soaked in antibac on arrival and (as mentioned earlier) the birds of Mumbai really has something against her. We had a transfer flight to Mumbai and when the birds didn't get a chance to poo on Randi there, the luggage arrived in Bangkok with poo on it..

Astrid's cellphone is still in Goa - somewhere. Probably on a beach. If anybody should find it - let me know! In the meantime, you can reach me by letters.

In Bangkok we stayed in a hostel with a lot of danish people. We had our first real night in dormitory with 10 people. We came across an interesting french guy who put up his stinky socks and underwear every night. So, we gladly paid more for a different room with air -con.

Bangkok was a very hot place and it was such a relief to visit shopping malls with air con. We also went to a freezing cinema and we all had to stand up for the national anthem while they showed pictures of the king. Thai people loves their king.

In India people tried to get our money by directe measures - simply begging for it. While in Thailand people will also scam you and get your money - yet, in a discrete manner. We were ripped of by both tuktuk and taxi drivers. We learned from our mistakes and took the skytrain instead.

After 3 weeks in India with no supermarkets, we ended up spending a lot of time at shopping centers. We both tried out thai food and traditional, western junkfood. Randi even found nowegian crisp bread!

As far as touristic events we visited a few temples, a closed museum, Jim Thompson's House as well as the famous backpacker place - Khao San Road. Since we both had caugt a really bad cold in India, it was delightful to sit in the Lumphini Park and simply read a book.

In India people were curious, more intense and constantly staring us. It was a shock coming to Bangkok - suddenly no one stared! We did find thai people very helpful and polite. Some would just start a conversation with us or automatically help us find the way. All in all, we felt more like tourists than backpackers when visiting all the tourist attractions. But our dirty feet, clothes and mosquito bites probably gave us away. Besides, sleeping in a dorm is real backpackerstyle right? It is also much more social like that, than having a double room for ourselves.

We also spent 1 day in a kindergarten in the middle of the slum. The slum was surprisingly close to the city centre, but probably not very known among tourists. It was very giving to experience another, hidden part of Bangkok and learning about conditions in this part of the city. We think the people we visited are doing a very important job! We were also allowed to be with the children and playing with them despite of language barriers. The children were so open and easy to play with.

Koh Tao

Wedensday night we left the big city and set off to a remote island, Koh Tao. It was about 5 hours in a bus followed by a boatride in a catamaran. Did we mention there was a storm? At first when we hit the big waves everybody was laughing cheerfully of excitement, but when the crew came around with puking-bags and tissues, we knew what was to come. We can only say -we've never been this seasick before.

The first day we were both catching up on lost sleep, and since Randi's cough was only worse with additional fever and chest-pains, she decided to get to know a real thai hospital. After a nice conversation with a very polite doctor, and a following x-ray it was confirmed that Randi suffers from bronchitis. She recieved four bags of various pills, an envelope with the x-ray and ordered not to swim for the next four days.

We hope to go snorkeling tomorrow as it probably will be our last day at the island.