Bangkok

Originally a stop in Thailand on the way out of Australia seemed like a good idea. Then on the news we could see the floods getting worse and worse and we tried to cancel the few days we'd booked in Bangkok to no avail. We'd be allowed to re-schedule for a later date but couldn't cancel. So with the prospect of just losing money we decided to go ahead anyway, especially after having read various accounts on the web that the newspapers, as typically happens, were exaggerating the extent of how bad things were in the city. Then a week before going Thai airways changed the time of day of the flight, meaning we'd have to go the next day and lost out on a day anyway. Maybe I'd just forgot in the time since I'd last visited, but the heat, noise and garbage came as a bit of shock. Mothers and babies begging next to skytrain escalators across the road from 5-star hotels. It was no hotter than in Cairns but with the humidity and concrete it just felt hotter. And though there was no flooding in the city we could see, there were sandbags everywhere just waiting for the water to come, and we saw plenty of flooded areas as we landed. With our three days there we couldn't take a day trip to Autthaya because the trains weren't running. And we couldn't take a ferry on the river because they weren't running either. On the upside, maybe due to all the cancellations, the hotel gave us a free upgrade to a big room, and they had a rooftop swimming pool with a great view of the city. This was K's first chance to see South East Asia (and who knows if I'll ever get a chance to come back here) so we did manage to squeeze in a few of the tourist spots - from the Reclining Buddha, Jim Thompson's house and we walked around the Palace in the afternoon heat like complete amateurs before collapsing at some crappy cafe on the Khao San Road with heat stroke. We had arrived into Bankgok in time for the Loi Krathong festival, which normally would have been a really cool site, seeing thousands of candles and lanterns floating on the rivers and lakes everywhere. But I think the locals were rightly pissed off with any spirits responsible for the waters and the night was pretty quiet. We went to one large city park with a lake and, judging from all the tat sellers on the ground at the entrance, thought it would be crowded and there would be floating lanterns everywhere. But there were hardly any, and their flames went out faster than any new ones were lit. We got a chance to sample the delights of meals and beer for $2 on Sukhumvit Soi 38, the guidemap's recommended spot for street food. And it was exactly as advertised - cheap beer, fried rice, noodles and general surrounds that would make restaurant health inspectors speechless. It was only after walking around that I realised it was the same street that I'd stayed in a hostel that last time I was here.