Good Thursday

Well Good Thursday has come and gone once again. I did get to see the dawn once again but not with the caravan or 1073 doing the 521. Twelve months on I find myself about six kilometres from where my blog started. Hardly very adventurous it may seem but I have flown to the other side of the globe, travelled through Eastern Europe, talked turkey with Latvian bus drivers, pondered the KGB torture chambers in Vilinus, had a green curry or two, survived Khoa Shan Road and falling coconuts not to mention the tiger pear at the wombat house yet again. It seems in my last post I was heading back from Haad Tein running from paradise to the western side of the island to Haad Chao Poa and now find myself at Barami Creek in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales Australia, with the sound of cattle breaking the silence (not wind) in an otherwise isolated location. You could say it is worlds apart and perhaps I should give some account of the interlude. I did get back to Chao Pao and sleep off my time in paradise. I spent two more weeks on the island but not before having one of those traveller moments when you hit the wall and consider just how easy it would be to jump on a plane and be home with a day or so. Jetstar had just began flights to Phuket and were offering those ridiculous grand opening discount flights and for around $100 Australian I could be home in no time. Luckily I resisted the temptation and decided to stay the extra two weeks I had until my scheduled flight back home from Bangkok. Brett was a willing companion and we headed back up to Bangkok on the night train from Sarit Thani. Although the flooding had subsided somewhat the banks of the Chao Phraya River where still breaching its banks and many of the riverside buildings where inundated with water. The river seemed more menacing than normal as trips on the river longtails required stepping across sandbags at flooded river terminals yet a block back from the river it was business as usual in typical Thai fashion. We arrived back in Bangkok with about four days to kill before I flew home to oz and Brett back to England and we both felt justified in indulging in a few western comforts such as air con and pizzas. I managed to side step the tuk tuk drivers offering rides and ‘good times’ and well the rest is just a blur. I do recall heading to the red light district with Brett who insisted that we needed to head down there for a better understanding of Bangkok but somehow sleaze has about as much variation as excrement and similarly if you have seen it once it doesn’t vary too much where you are or what culture it originates from. Exit Thailand November 17 2007.