The first week away was spent catching up with friends in Bangkok, the first chance I've had to see people since leaving last year. Thankfully most people I met were still here, and it appears I've caught most of them just before moving on, which is great.
Claire & I spent the weekdays in Bangkok. Early in the week we went to my favorite massage shop and for $8 each the flight was massaged out of us (Jetstar were fine, by the way - just like a regular economy flight without the poor food). Needing visas for Lao we trekked out to North-East Bangkok and after three forms of transport and some local assistance we managed to find it. It's possible to have visa granted in an hour for an additional 200Baht, the conversation went as follows -
Assistant: "would you like expr..."
James & Claire: "Yes"
I've also enjoyed getting back to speaking Thai and have found it coming back as I've been getting around.
On Wednesday we rode the public ferry of Chao Praya River (the main river in Bangkok) and took a ride in the Khlongs (canals). It was interesting to see the variety of life on the Khlongs, from falling over shakes, to mansions. The majority of boats on the Khlongs were tourist chartered small, noisy boats which I felt bad about as many people's living rooms and bedrooms are on the water.
Over the weekend my friends and I went to Pranburi beach, about 3 hours South-West of Bangkok. The beach was nice, the water blue and weather hot. We had a guesthouse right on the beach with a particularly Mediterranean feel. The only problem were the numerous jelly fish that made swimming impossible, damn.
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