Southeast Asia

Slept much better last night thanks to the 2 codral i popped before going to bed. Had a lovely breakfast at the guesthouse, the people here are wonderful. Checked out at “resepsion” at 10:00.

Caught a bus from the main station to Phitsanulok for 165B. Bus trip was quite good, i was not subjected to any Thai action movies or stand up comedy and i had 2 seats to myself. Unfortunately one of the children on the bus fournd it fascinating to play peek-a-boo with me. Was quite cute for the first minute and a half but by the 40 minute mark it was starting to wear thin and i could see it continuing for the entire 5 hour bus trip. i tried to communicate numerous times that the game was over, but he was having none of it and continued for the next 20 mintues depite getting no reaction from me. When he finally gave up he moved onto climbing under the seat infront and popping up at me all the while screeching with laughter.

Stopped for lunch at a bus pitt stop where i had a spicey green bean curry with an unidentified form of meat, fearing that it may have been domestic animal i ate only the beans and rice. The lady was very reluctant to serve it to me telling me numerous times that it was very spicey.

Arriving in Phitsanulok i got myself completely lost trying to get to the ‘within walking distace’ hotel. Lonely planet be damned, if they dont include a map im not going to try and walk anywhere. Having never been more than 30cm from a tuk tuk or taxi for the past week and a half it seemed impossible that i couldnt find one. A nice Thai man pulled over to offer me directions and he rang the place to find out where it was. He found it hilarious how far i was from my destination and ended up giving me a lift. i think his motives may have not been entirely honerable because he asked me to go out with him the next day. i thanked him, but told him i was leaving town.

i have decided that im not sticking to my bedget particularly well (if at all) so i began today. i set myself a limit of 900B ($30). Since i was trying to save money i checked into the london hotel, which, despite what the name implies, is not a hotel. instead it is a pile of crap with a few beds and shared bathrooms with squat toilets. Reminds me a lot of that apartment in the Blues Brothers, except his room was bigger. i guess i cant expect much for 100B a night ($3.30).

Met an Italian guy and a French guy also staying here and we went out for dinner. The restaurant did not have any english menus nor any english speaking staff so short of pointing to something on the menu and praying for something edible i managed to communicate through sign language that i wanted only rice and vegetables, no meat since that seemed like a safe option. Ended up with a plate of rice with a small pile of greens similar to bok choy but not as interesting and a shit load of garlic. Was about as exciting as cold porridge.

Walked across to the night bazaar. it was really gorgeous, the lights were beautiful and the stalls were selling much better things than i have found anywhere else. This is actually one of the most beautiful towns ive been to, its very relaxed and seems much cleaner than many of the others.

Came across a group of young guys breakdancing on the footpath who wanted to show off for me.

There are a lot of young people around here, it is a very big university town. There were also young guys playing soccer on the wide footpath and others skateboarding in the makeshift skate park with a jump and a rail set up.

Got back to the ‘hotel’ at 10:00 and discoved that the bed and pillow are both as hard as rocks. The good news is im under budget by 380B. Although i didnt spend much on transport today, no tuk tuks. Im going to spend more on accommodation tomorrow night.

Tags: Thailand

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 14th, 2005 at 11:25 pm and is filed under Thailand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.