Sawasdee ka!

One week of time in Thailand over and we're now on Phuket, taking it (very) easy in the, er, rain. Can't complain though, its the first serious rain we've had since getting here. We arrived into Bangkok last Thursday and spent a few days wandering around, seeing some temples and consuming our own body weight in curry. I hadn't spent any time in Bangkok before and I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. For a big busy city people are really friendly and its a nice place to walk around (apart from the serious pollution which makes you feel like a 40 a day smoker). And of course on Khao San Road you can purchase more cheap plastic tat and fake goods than you could ever hope to cram into your rucksack (so you all know what you're getting for xmas).

Our first day in town we'd planned a strenuous schedule of light strolling, eating, napping, chang drinking, eating and so on wehn within the first hour a random Thai guy approached us and started enthusiastically telling us about the numerous temples we absolutely HAD to see and that today was 'tourist day' where the government pays tuk tuk drivers for their petrl so they'll take tourists anywhere all day for 30 Baht (about 45p/CND$1.10) and certain temples normally reserved for Thais only open their doors to visitors. Seemed far too good to be true but before we could make our excuses and leave, our map was covered with X's marking 'must see' temples and other points of interest, a tuk tuk was hailed and directed, and we were whizzing down Bangkok streets at a speed far faster than you'd think possible in those things. We were fully expecting to be taken to some travel agency/restaurant, given the hard sell and a large bill with no further mention of 'special tourist day' but our cynical thoughts proved wrong and weirdly it was all true (why it wasn't actually advertised I have no idea). Several temples and budhas later - sitting, standing, reclining, black etc - and we made our excuses and ended our grand tour (only so much enthusiasm can be raised in one day). The rest of the day ended up being not quite so successful. I'm not sure what it was, maybe we were buoyed by the trusty, generous nature of the people we'd met that mornig but we went to a Tourist Association office (supposedly the place to go if you don't want to get ripped off) to book train tickets and came our with everything we'd planned to do over the coming 5 days booked and payed for - and after working it out in the clear light of day it appeared we'd paid rather more than we should of. Bugger. We soothed ourselves with the thought that for a few days at least we'd be in relative luxury as we'd paid more. This unfortunately turned out to be wrong and instead of the beautiful air-con bungalow set in a flowering garden of loveliness we were actually in their 'sister' bungalow - the ant infested hovel down the street. And the train journey that we'd actually gone in to get tickets for? Cancelled. Flooding or something. Instead of 10 hours in (relative) comfort we had 18 hours of bus journey hell (they played Britney Spears and Anastasia at us (ahhhhhh!) followed by a dodgy Thai film about how a mans love for his elephant drove him to extreme acts of violence.) But hey, we had a good couple of days in Krabbi, beautiful beaches and although ant infested, the bungalow was at a very friendly place.

From Krabbi we had more bus action to Phuket. Now in backpacker circles, saying you're going to Phuket is like telling a bunch of veggies that veal is your favourite food - it ain't the done thing. Phuket represents everything backpackers avoid - its touristy, expensive and shiny - and its true, in parts it is like that, but as is often teh case, if you stay out of the one or two main beach towns, you miss it altogether. We're staying up in the north at Nai Yang, a huge amazing beach, miles long with a couple fo hotels and restaurants up at one end and then nothing, not even people (although that will all change soon I think), just blue sea and white sand to enjoy. Or at least we would if it would stop raining (sight). Nai Yang is pretty close to the gibbon project I worked on 5 years ago so we headed there today to visit the people (and the other furry apes!). Bloody great to be back - brought back so many memories and so nice to take Trev there (gibbon people, I'll have to write you a separate email telling you about it so as not to bore everyone!). Comment from Trev below and we'll write more soon!
For Bardsey people I can tell you this - hearing the gibbons is about as evocative and eerie as the first time you wake up on an inky black night accompanied by the cackle of Manx shearwaters - an experience worth having.