Which way is home?

Il nostro soggiorno qui in Tailandia e' quasi finito e stiamo passando gli ultimi giorni visitando Bangkok. La citta' e' immensa e noi abbiamo visto pochissimo, a parte i principali siti turistici. Abbiamo passato abbastanza tempo nel nostro quartiere-ghetto turistico, dove ci sono piu' turisti che tailandesi, e ne abbiamo approfittato per fare un po' di shopping a buon mercato.
A dire il vero siamo giunti a un livello di saturazione con la Tailandia, a volte e' proprio stressante passare le giornate a dover sempre dire di no ai milioni di persone che ti si affiancano per cercare di venderti qualcosa! Quasi quasi, ci vuole un'altra vacanza....! Credo che sia arrivato il momento di cambiare aria, di spostarci e questa volta verso un paese sviluppato, l'Australia!
Domani abbiamo il volo per Sydney! Che bello! Sembra che la carne di canguro sia buona e a buon mercato.... finite le noodles asiatiche!

I think most of our family & friends will love this entry. Monica and I have signed up for Thai cooking and massage courses respectively. Personally I'm not a big fan of massage, receiving or giving; at least I didn't used to be. But I know Monica is very fond of it, so I signed up for a foot massage course in the hope of learning a little about it and raising my interest on the subject and making Monica a little happier. Monica in turn decided she wasn't going to sit around doing nothing for the day and signed up for a Thai cooking course.
What does this mean for our family, friends and readers... well hopefully delicious Thai food and relaxing foot massages for free upon our return...Sounds good? Well, I can't wait to taste some of that Thom Yam, Green Curry Chicken, or Banana in Coconut milk....Mmmmmmh yummy!

Sukhotai

So our rainy days in Thailand are over. We've decided to leave to explore the North. All in all it's been veeeery relaxing here on the islands. Monica got to stay at the beautiful beach she had been dreaming about, I got to snorkel around a bit, we both got to read and relax loads and we can now confirm that Thai food is as good as they say... Although the whole tourist experience is a bit to pre-packaged for my personal liking. Everything is tourist-friendly and ready-made. You just need to pick it up and try to avoid getting a little ripped off in the process. A very recomendable place to visit when you're in need for relaxation and pampering. You'll get spoilt to bits here, but we're craving for a little more adventure and discovery so off we are heading North!
After all this easy tourism I was complaining to Monica how I didn't like having things the easy touristy way...not enough of the explorer spirit...it's like sterilised tourism... Little did I know how drastiocally things were going to change!!!
After our nighttrain to Bangkok we heard in the news that the North was very flooded and battered by recent rains. We decided to change our plans and visit Cambodia, or Angkor to be more precise. We also promised ourselves to travel with the locals and choose the cheapest travel-options available to us (something we have been doing already, but there is little you can do differently on the islands in Thailand). So we bought 3rd class tickets to the Thai-Cambodian border. The train was packed, with people, animals, plants, you name it... We had to stand for long parts of the 5 hour journey and after initial mischievieous looks from the locals we got drawn into conversations and discussion where we'll never find out what they were about...
At the border town (it looked and felt like you'd imagine and Asian 'El Paso' in the days of cowboys and bandits) we spent a night in a little hotel (Saloon :-) ) for less than 4E and a had our cheapest full meal, yet, for less than 2E.
The next day we crossed the border on foot. Also a strange experience...there's a duty-free zone with casinos and such, and then you're deep rural Cambodia. To get to Siem Reap, the city near Angkor, the cheapest 'organised' transport is a bus that takes you on a hell-trip lasting 6 hours (150 km; you do the math!) dodging potholes on the worst dirtroad we've seen here yet. Apart from the beautiful landscape, the smiles of people waving from their vehicles (scooters, overloaded pick-ups, tractors, bikes, four-legged animals of many a kind, etc.) and the thrill during the first half-hour or so the trip was utter pain in the bones! Oh, how I wished we would be back on a comfortable ferry full of foreigners hopping from an island to another....!

A quick entry to say hello and confirm to everyone that Thailand really is just about the sea, the beaches and, well, the sun? It has been quite rainy for the past few days. We've had to limit our activities to sleeping, reading and eating as the picture illustrates.

We're still on Ko Phangan and although it is a little more touristy than Ko Tao we will stay here for the rest of the week. Today we moved hotels to a nicer beach (Monica won't settle for anything but the best). Hopefully the weather will improve and we'll get a chance to get a closer look at what's under water around here, which is what I'm really keen on.

Ieri abbiamo affittato uno scooter per cercare una spiaggia migliore (non che la nostra fosse brutta pero' perche' accontentarsi quando possiamo avere la spiaggi piu' bella dell'isola...??) e ne abbiamo approfittato per vedere l'isola, compresa la famosa spiaggia del full moon party. Verso sera ci siamo avventurati al mercato per cercare qualche cosa da mangiare. Non e' stato amore a prima vista, ma probabilmente perche' non ci siamo adattati ancora del tutto a questo paese e poi perche' non mi sembrava molto reale (c'erano tantissimi occidentali che mangiavano). Vedremo nei prossimi...