Onwards and onwards

Firstly I apologise for the dangerously long sentences used in many instances in the previous blog, which could cause harm to irregular readers.

I bid farewell to my new best friend this morning, a girl named Amber, who was also annoyed by the 18 year old British kids on the bus. It's funny how self-centred humans can be. Two of these kids managed to lose their tickets for the bus (possibly while vomiting off the side of the boat) and when the bus people wanted their tickets they didn't have them.

The bus people were worried because if they didn't have their tickets, it meant they couldn't show the tickets to their bosses and that meant they would have to pay for them, but the British kids got really upset about it, because it meant that they would have to buy new tickets (and c'mon, it takes a special kind of stupid to lose a ticket given to you as you get on the boat and lost before you get off the boat) and so they had a screaming match with the gentle Thai folk, who became very embarrassed but firm and kept on saying: "Pease, do noh shou' a'me." Amber and I shook our heads sadly. The first bus ferried us to the stop where we would wait for our second and longer bus to Bangkok, which is where our overnight 'luxury' bus would deliver us to Bangkok from and is where I blogged last night.

Rather then sitting in the little tourist trap they drop you at to wait at, the two of us buggered off and found the night market, which was a really real one, and actually sold ingredients more then anything else, such as live creatures, frogs with their legs tied together and eels in buckets, or hunks of meat or freshly caught prawns amidst and array of bizarre fruits and vegetables and other strange smelling things.

Eventually we found a place on the side of the street which sold extremely delicious food for less then 30 Baht in total, and was one of the tastiest meals of my trip as well as one of the cheapest.

Amber nearly missed the bus because she was interneting and so I ended up sitting on my own behind one of the British kids, who instantly dropped his reclining seat back all the way so it bashed me in the knees. Now I know there's some conjecture over the issue of reclining seats, and how moral it is to use them to their full extent. I find that generally short people, or selfish people, have absolutely no problem using them, because people having no choice but to view the world with them as it's centre, because all is perceptive; short people don't neccessarily realise that if you're over a certain height and that seat is dropped back it will make your entire journey miserable, and selfish people think that their own personal comfort is more important than anyone else's personal comfort. Perhaps an argument could be made that the person who is dropping his seat back paid for that seat and so is entitled to it's full comfort, but the counter-argument would be that the person who is having their knees crushed paid for their seat too, and is on the rand and not the pound, so they actually paid more from a certain perspective, and are therefore entitled to their full comfort, which includes not having one's knees crushed.

I couldn't even stick my legs off to the side, because some entripsing soul had decided to sleep in the aisle, which meant I had to kick him in the face if I wanted to stick my legs out, but at about 3 in the morning I gave up on caring and kicked him in the face a few times, possibly a few more times then absolutely neccessary.

The bus arrived in Bangkok at 5 am and Amber and I decided to share a tuk-tuk to the train station, because I wanted to catch a train to Kanchanaburi to do some cultural sight-seeing, and she wanted to catch a train to Chang Mai. An American wanted to join us, but became very wary when he realised we were going to catch a tuk-tuk and tried to convince us to share a taxi. After bartering with the tuk-tuk guy the price came to 60 Baht for all three of us, as opposed to 200 Baht for 3 of us, and we told the American to either get in or get out and so he got in. On the way I found out he had never been in a tuk-tuk before, never used the trains before, and had only been in buses commandeered by tour companies to move Farangs around. He was scared when we arrived at the train station, which is silly, because it's a totally acceptable train station and even has a Dunking Donuts, which he was well pleased with.

I unfortunately was not well pleased, because I had not looked hard enough in my guide book, and had gone to the wrong train station and so left Amber sitting on the floor, bidding her farewell and good luck with her upcoming marriage as I ambled outside and bartered another tuk-tuk driver down from 200 Baht to 50 to get me to the bus station instead of the other train station, because my guide said this was better, and I hadn't listened to it earlier, so I thought I'd listen to it now, clever book that it is.

I like how you become best friends with people in an hour and then never see them again for the rest of your life. I have about a million of those friends now.

I arrived at the bus station in the dark, and communicated with several Thais (badly) to figure out which one was mine. Got on the local bus, which is always nice, because it was just me and a bunch of Thai people and set off to Kanchanaburi, which is where I am now. It's cheap here, and the people are friendly and there's a lot to see and do. I'm trying to work out whether it's worth spending two days here, and then only one in Bangkok, or two in Bangkok.

I don't like Bangkok so much. It smells funny, but I suppose I should see all the things you must see, since if you must see a must see then you musn't not see it; otherwise people might say: "Did you see that must see?" and i must then state, "No i missed that must see" and surprised they might say, "so you saw all the seas but you missed the must sees," and sadly i'd say, "Yes." And I'd certainly prefer to say: "I saw some must sees, but saw the seas too, and if I were you, I'd balance the two, between what I see and what I saw in order to see the must sees and to saw the must saws."

I don't know what that last paragraph was about. Bit Dr Seuessy.