Getting a 'fish massage' and others pics from Bangkok

Yes, I am indeed getting my feet massaged by tiny little fish who nibble away at the dead skin....this was Larna's idea by the way, and she took a bit of coaxing to actually put her feet in the water - she got used to it though. I loved it, tiny little massages happening all at once.

Larna's breakfast of sticky rice and mangoes...

One of the long boats making their way down the canal - the roof moves up and down to go under the low bridges....the canopy raises up to keep the water from splashing you when you pass another boat

(below) standing in front of the "lucky buddha" - a guy standing outside who told us he was a teacher and has family in Australia (every person here seems to know someone from Oz) showed us how to pray and make a wish at the feet of the buddha!

Bangkok is "mind-blasting"

Greetings from a hot and steamy Bangkok. I am writing from an internet cafe just off the famous Khoa San Road (for those of you who saw "The beach"). Our first two days here have been a mad, crazy adventure in what has to be the most 'mind blasting' city I have been to. This place is craziness on steroids! We had barely put down our bags in our guest house, when we were suddenly on board a tuk-tuk and speeding down streets and side-streets to visit giant buddhas and lucky buddhas. Bangkok is packed to the rafter with people, cars, tuk-tuks, buses, dogs, cats, shops, shacks, houses etc. It feels like every corner is crammed with a house or shop, which itself is stuffed with clothes or hundreds of mini buddhas or row upon row of chopped up wood. Its astonishing. You cannot walk more than 50 yards before someone comes up to you offer help, assistance or suggestions. I keep on thinking these are scams of one sort or another, but nearly all have been local people just eager to be helpful. Larna thinks its because they are all buddhists so believe in Kharma. Either way its quite overwhelming, especially for someone who is content to meander and find his own way. There are so many experiences to write about in just two days, its hard to know where to start.

Yesterday, we took a long boat down the canals (the boat's roof lowers under the low bridges, which I found out when the roof hit my head!), to the shopping district. You whizz past houses of all shapes, sizes and stages of disrepair. Some are slanting so much, I wonder how they can stand up at all. And there are people in every nook and cranny, cooking, eating, sleeping, talking to each other. Nearly everyone waves at you! Very friendly people. We took another long boat today along the river and another section of canal - again houses of all kinds (some mansions too) and shacks. What I found amazing was how many of them had pot plants hanging, which seem to be made out of the bottom's of coconut shells. The water though is filfthy, rubbish everywhere and we saw at least two floating, swollen, what looked like dead dogs.

Today we also visited "Watpo" which houses the "resting buddha" - an enormous golden buddha resting on his side. I will try and upload some pics if i have enough time tonight, otherwise when next at the net cafe. The heat and humidity are overwhelming though, so we had to retreat for an afternoon nap. Yesterday we meant to have a short nap at 7pm, ended up sleeping right through the night. So far we have learnt a few words (which i keep getting wrong): "Sawaddee krap" (hello/goodbye) and "Kap kuhn krap" (thank you) - yesterday i told the cab driver "Swaddee" instead of "kap kuhn krup" which Larna thought was hilarious ("hello" instead of "thank you".

Greetings from a steamy Bangkok

Just a short note to let friends and family know we made it safely to Bangkok after a pleasant flight. Spent the night at the YHA airport hostel which is not surprisingly, near the airport. Our room was a little square box with concrete floor and cream walls, but it thankfully had aircon and a fan. Slept surprisingly well. This morning we had breakfast with the river and bicycle path just behind us - every few minutes a cyclist or moped would whizz past. A taxi is picking us up at 10am to take us to Bangkok proper (its now 9am). Very hot and muggy, but we are both excited about exploring the city and doing some day trips. Sawaaddee (Goodbye in Thai) till our next post.

About to depart...

Larna and I are sitting at a net kiosk at Melbourne airport waiting for our flight to Bangkok. Excited, nervous and a little sad from saying goodbyes to Liz and Frank and our baby Violet. When you next hear from us we'll be soaking in the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of Bangkok. Larna thinks updating the blog at the airport is rather pompous, but what the hell....

A day out in Woodend, Saturday in Sorrento

A quick post before heading off to bed. Its now 11.38pm and we still have to pack. Spent the day out at Woodend (about an hour out of Melbourne) having lunch with Larna's Uncle Bruce and his partner Ingrid. They live in this amazing mudbrick house in the woods. The house has glass bottles through some of the bricks and sculptures and artwork throughout the house and garden. We ate the delicious bull-boar sausages and then got into a hectic discussion about global warming, the state of the world and suicide rates in Australia. Won't go into the details but it was lively. Later we took a walk to feed Ingrid's two horses up the road. In the distance were Eastern Grey kangaroos grazing and looking at us. I sucked in the air and took in the very Australian view.

Yesterday (Saturday) we spent a fabulous day with Jacqui and Manisha, driving out to Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula and stopping at the Portsea Hotel for drinks and lunch/nibbles. The hotel is right on the ocean, and when we were there, two hens parties were in progress and a wedding in preparation. We chatted over a bottle of wine before heading back towards Melbourne when the first few raindrops fell. En route we stopped for dinner at the Abbotsford Nunnery which runs a vegeterian restaurant called "Lentil as anything" where you "Pay what you feel". Larna also managed to take some rather spooky photos of the nunnery....

Tomorrow we depart at 5pm!

Visiting Victoria's golden age

26 March - We took a drive to the country town of Castlemaine, about an hour and a half outside of Melbourne, and part of the "Golden triangle" - an area of Victoria that boomed during the Gold Rush of the 1850s and 1860s. Off the highway, the drive into Castlemaine took us past old farmhouses and a mixture of beautifully preserved houses of that period (wrought iron facades, old brick etc) and others in various stages of decline. We had a serene picnic lunch in the Castlemaine botanical gardens and after the feast took a leisurely stroll under the pine and oak trees (including many exotic species from Bhutan, Asia, Mexico etc) before heading into the town. A health store was selling "Dutch salty licorice" for $3 a bag. Out of curiosity I bought a bag and had one of the small black sweets. My stomach still doubles over at the thought - its not a taste I think I will ever acquire. It brought back memories of a coffee I had years ago where salt instead of sugar was added by mistake! I think these nasty little things should be used to teach children the dangers of taking sweets from strangers! Licorice revulsion aside, we finished off with a coffee at another town that time forgot "Maldon" and headed back home via the old highway and backroads. On the way, we bought "bull boar" sausages at the butcher in Newstead, a local delicacy made with a secret and heavily guarded recipe and to be BBQed and consumed on Sunday when we head out to visit Larna's uncle Bruce in his cottage in the woods, in Woodend. Our last weekend in Melbourne awaits!

Final jabs and jolly good curry

Wednesday, 24 March - Just a few days to go until we depart. Yesterday we paid a visit to the travel medical clinic on Little Bourke Street for our final vaccinations. We both had Yellow Fever and Polio vaccinations and I also had a tetanus shot. So that's six jabs for me and four for Larna! On the tram ride to Jacqui for dinner, I perused the little travel preparation handbook the clinic gave us - some scary things out there, but I am sure we can avoid rabid dogs, bilharzic water, scorpions etc.

Our local culinary eating adventure continued at Jacqui's place, where she cooked delicious lamb rogan josh with a very spicey bean dish on the side (f--cking hot is perhaps more accurate). No handstands in the shower this morning though! Jacqui had a copy of an old Lonely Planet Guide to India which i skimmed through - overwhelmed by the size and diversity on offer, can't wait to see the place for real.

Oh yes...in between our jabs and dinner, we had coffee at this cute little Euro-style cafe in one of the Victorian arcades in the city. Go down some of Melbourne's alleyways and 'little' streets and and you feel you have stepped into Paris/Milan/London.

The tastes of Nepal

Saturday, 20th March - Who says you have to jump on a plane to experience another culture? Still in Melbourne, we spent the day with Larna's fabulous Nepalese friend Manisha and her equally fabulous Indian friend Jacqui. Sitting in Manisha's flat, near Chapel Street in South Yarra, we munched on Nepalese dried goat meat in a salsa-like sauce called "Su-ki-ta". A lover of all meats dried, I could not get enough. After that Larna and I helped Manisha make "mo-mos" which are steamed dumplings with minced chicken inside. It took me a while to get the technique right, but I was soon making my own assortment of momos, which we then steamed over the stove and ate with a spicy green chilli and tomato sauce. Mmmm...we made our way back via tram and train with aching stomachs. I must have eaten at least 20 of them!

An itchy night in Wagga Wagga

Friday, 19th March - as this picture will testify, the tent worked and was fairly easy to set up too! Unfortunately for us, as we put it up about a million mosquitos decided to come out for an evening snack and Larna copped about 15 bites on each leg. Itchy bites aside, we got a fairly decent night's sleep (a 5 out of 10) in the tent amid the rumble and roar of the massive trucks passing on the highway next to our camp site and that feeling of vulnerability you have knowing that only a flimsy piece of fabric seperates you from any falling object. We left at about 8.30am, stopping for breakfast at a service station along the highway and a few hours later, at the little town of Wangaratta with its charming Victorian buildings.

We crossed over the state border into Victoria as we passed through the towns of Albury (NSW) and Wadonga (Victoria). The traffic picked up as we approached Melbourne airport (our drop off destination for the hire car), and it was bumper to bumper as the "Manhattan" skyline of the CBD came into view. Larna remarked that we looked like two homeless people as we unpacked all our belongings (backpacks, boxes and bits and pieces) onto two trolleys, and with Violet trotting alongside, wheeled them out to wait for Frank and Liz to pick us up! A lot of people gave Violet and us a quizzical look, wondering no doubt how we got her onto the plane!

Goodbye to farmlife

We finished packing on Thursday 18th March and left Sydney just after 2pm after a tearful farewell to our fox terrier Crunchie. The two backpacks in the car will be all we will carry for the next year once we depart Melbourne for Bangkok on 29 March. It was goodbye to the farm, our home for the last 8 months and to the horses, whose names I still cannot get right. "Goodbye horse, goodbye horse, goodbye horse..." was the best I could do (and wave) as we headed off down Smalls Road. A pit stop at the Galston pie shop for some lunch and we hit the road, heading towards the Hume Highway and South across New South Wales - our first stop the Forest Hill Campsite in Wagga Wagga about 500kms away, and a chance to try out our tent (a bit risky I know, especially if the the tent doesn't work!) Oh yes, and just passed Goulbourn we stopped at the "world famous" (in Australia) 'Big Merino', (top right) with its expression of aloof sleepiness.