Successful and easy flight from Kochi to Mumbai to Bangkok today (I also managed to find an excellent book in the airport, a concise history of the Arab world, on which to spend my remaining rupees); we arrived in a city that seemed far less intimidating than I remember it from my Thai holiday aged 9 or 10 - maybe I was a lot smaller then or, far more likely, had less experience of completely mental places. After Delhi and the rest of India, Bangkok is a walk in the park - okay, people try and sell you things, but they don't chase you down the street and round the corner to do so. You can just say no. Also, it is wonderful to face absolutely no hassle. That's the boys' lot here; prostitutes unsubtley stalk the streets for prey. We ate street food (fresh watermelon, noodle soup and chicken - my first meat in six weeks as I have been vegetarian since I left for my travels, and I have to say, I haven't missed meat at all but it really was excellent) and were sitting next to a Hugh Hefner-a-like who was eating in silence with a very young Thai girl. I'm sure she was with him purely for his witty conversational acumen.
Absurdly, we checked into a five star hotel. I'm honestly not sure what possessed us to do so. I really can't explain it. We gave the taxi driver the address for a hostel with a dorm, we got out, we tried to find the hostel, we couldn't find it, there was a five star hotel across the street, we both looked at each other in silent agreement and thanked our lucky stars we'd been to the ATM at the airport. So we are now happily ensconced in a lush 18th-floor "superior" room with a stunning cityscape view in a separate, more-five-star-than-normal-five-star (if you're going to do it, you may as well do it properly...) wing of a hotel with a free massive breakfast, pool, gym, "business centre", 24 hour concierge and room service, spa and massage parlor, tropical fish tanks, an in-hotel bakery, all sorts of other completely unnecessary things and, best of all, a bird sanctuary. In the hotel. Marvellous. We are obviously planning to rinse the facilities for all they're worth in the 12 hours or so we have left there and I imagine at least an hour of that will be spent in the bird sanctuary. At least. And all of this for about 30 pounds for the night - what a bargain. Although we were very pleased that our dinner only cost 1 pound each, it made us feel slightly less like terrible backpackers.
Tomorrow we fly to Cambodia, and go back to dorm accommodation, both of which fill Char and I with excitement. We are so looking forward to seeing lots of cultural things and getting back on the backpacker trail. 2 weeks in Cambodia doesn't seem enough but we are going to pack in as much as we can!
India, oddly, already seems like a distant memory. It's so funny how that can happen so quickly; your mind just takes over and moves onto the next place you're left wondering how six weeks went so incredibly fast. I feel desperately sad to not be there anymore, but also fabulously excited to be somewhere else. Swings and roundabouts. Bring on Cambodia.
Lots of love xxxxxxxxx <3
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