Surprise

Well I got to Thailand and now I'm writing this from a random little net corner cafe thing just off the Khao Sarn Road in central Bangkok. My first impressions of Thailand in order from when I got off the plane at the airport.

1. Hot
2. Friendly
3. Vicy
4. If you have money, everyone is your friend

This place is in a whole new league compared to Japan. It's absolutely mental here, you need to stay alert all the time or you might get

1. Scammed
2. Ripped off
3. Run over

This society is really something else, To the unprepared solo traveler (me) this is a pretty interesting experience. The number one interesting thing about this place is that whatever your vice, you can find here. In my first day I saw weed and meth being sold on the street, pimping, prostitutes walking the streets, sex shows being "advertised"a great deal of "massage" parlors, all going on in the street around my guest house.

I did indulge in a Thai Massage, but it was just that a massage, nothing dodgy. A friend told me that a good way of telling the difference between a real massage parlor and a brothel is the size of the women on the front door... If she looks like a farmers girl with arms like tree trunks then she's probably a genuine masseuse , anything else is probably a brothel, and brothels outnumber genuine massage parlors by a pretty high margin. In any case the massage lasted two hours after starting with a foot massage (200 baht or about 3 pounds) after the first hour I decided that I'd go for the full body oil massage for another 300 baht (5 pounds) after being on the go for almost 24 hours it was really relaxing and totally helped clear my mind. At the end it was strongly hinted that if I wanted an "extension" that I could go upstairs for another 150 baht but politely declined this none the less intriguing offer.

Food is delicious and cheap but spicy as hell. Any price can be negotiated whatever you find yourself buying. After getting caught out a couple of times, I'm starting to improve my bartering skills. I managed to get a nice pair of shorts down from 900 baht to 700 baht (still way more than they were worth, but I really liked the shorts and I thought it would be worth it) The first price is always negotiable I've found... The trick seems to be to at first to ask for a price way below it's value, and then slowly work your way up if you have to. Another good trick is to by two and ask for a discount. I'm still learning the ways of this subtle art however.

The weather is in one word hot and humid, I wake up in the morning resigned to the fact that as soon as I step out of my room I will be exposed to the intense heat and spend the rest of the day dripping in sweat. But despite this it's not really bothering me that much, perhaps because I was mentally prepared for it from when I left Japan, it's quite similar to what the weather was like in Japan in September and October.

I have taken some photos but maybe will upload them in the next couple of days.

Sayonara

So this is it, the last step on the Japan journey... After a wonderful 12 days traveling with my family, I find myself back in Tokyo again, for the last time, and back at New Koyo with all of it's little eccentricities. There remains little to be accomplished in Japan for me now... I've said most of my goodbyes, mostly tearful ones. The 12 days traveling with my family was really interesting and it was fantastic to see them all again after so long. It was nice to see that they had changed, but in many ways stayed the same. They found all of Japan a bit bewildering, as any new arrival would. It was a real privilege to travel with them. Hearing some of their observations of Japan genuinely surprised me, as some of them I shared but some of them I'd never even considered.

I'm really unhappy about leaving, it's strange that I should feel this way now, as I found the place so intimidating at first, there were times when I wished I could get home as soon as possible. International departure is extremely difficult, leaving home is difficult but it can be tempered by the knowledge that one day you can return, and that there will always be family and people there for you. But leaving Japan, is horrible, because you don't know when you can come back (if you can come back) whether it will still be the same when you come back, you don't know what will happen to the people you left behind. Leaving any place means that you will slowly be forgotten, which again is difficult.

Things may change in the years to come but, I really hope that I can return to teach English in one of the major cities after graduating. So in a way, I'm leaving so that I can come back.

But in the short term, I've got a very exciting trip lined up , I'm sure everyone knows the details already so I won't go on about it. I've trimmed my backpack down to the bare minimums, it preparation for the intense heat of bangkok. It's pretty scary actually as I'm going in 3 days and I still don't have any accommodation sorted for Thailand. It seems best just to head for Khao San Road (allegedly backpacker central) after negotiating the infamous Thai taxis, and finding something there. I'm quite looking forward to going into the chaotic and disorderly metropolis that is Bangkok. One lingering worry is that Thai border control might give me a hard time because I don't have a return flight. This is usually a prerequisite for entering Thailand, but I'm leaving via the Laos border, which I've been told could be interesting...

I do apologise to any regular readers that I haven't managed to update this quite as much as I would have liked. I've intermittent Internet connections and being generally busy and distracted by real life. So I never got around to make that video or post most of those good pictures, But I promise when I get back to the UK in late May I will do a mega post, including stuff from Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, China... In the mean time I will try to continue to update small posts like this from time to time over the next month. But I really can't make any promises there as I don't really have a clue what's going on exactly, or where I'll be. Please mail me if you need to contact and I'll get back to you as soon as I possibly can.

Everyone take care, and thanks a lot mum and dad and Hannah for coming out here, It really made this part of the trip something special.

NOTE: I would like to inform the reader that the spell checker had to make over 75 corrections to this document, which just goes to show how much your spelling suffers when you don't get to see English all the time.