Rachel: So why did you come to Thailand?

That’s an example of what not to ask anyone in Thailand. Any other question ie: do you carry a massive roll of toilet paper in your handbag or a small convenient packet of tissue or have you experienced food poisoning yet? would be totally a completely acceptable question of your fellow backpackers but please don’t ask someone why they came to Thailand. Once you arrive in Bangkok, a sudden openness of spirit seems to come upon people -- the feeling of ‘anything goes’. For example, I’ve already witnessed some bizarre outfits and tattoos that you know they wouldn’t wear that at home (and you know they won’t tell anyone back at home that they have eyes tattooed to their butt -- yes one on each cheek and no, I didn’t see it in person fortunately, only a photo which was bad enough).

Even young monks must go to school...

We spent one hour in Bangkok when we first arrived after our interesting taxi drive from Siem Reap (funnily enough one of the Australians in the car has dual citizenship with the US because his dad is from a little town next to Sacramento -- small world). Enough time to eat our first non-asian food (falafel!!! And tahini...and hummus!!! And at less than $2, it didn’t break the bank!). Also enough time to wonder the famous Khal San Road. In an hour, we kind of got the impression that this area of town, like Bangkok’s most famous export, has sold itself to the foreign back-packing community.

The gods must be thirsty...

But to Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai, I liked. Chiang Mai is like a mulit-cultural city in any part of the world, in fact, it reminded me a lot of Brisbane. It’s northern Thailand so the weather is dryer and technically we were there in the colder season (meaning, you wear a long sleeve shirt in the morning only) so by mid-day the weather was just beautiful. The only downside was we didn’t have enough time to spend in the glorious outside.

This photo says a lot about the culture -- blending the East with the West -- and the poodle is totally digging it!

$1 USD/AUD is about 33 Baht -- which I totally think is way to expensive but the lady selling them didn't agree with me. So she lost a customer.

We kept thinking that by the time we got to Thailand and stayed in one place for a few days, we’d have internet. The thing to know about Thailand though, is that wifi isn’t a standard commodity for back-packer guest houses or even the posh hotels. You have to pay extra -- some places quite a lot extra -- if they have the option at all. So that’s why we’ve been off the radar more than we thought we’d be. But! We’ve been eating pad thai, green curry, mango sticky rice, indian food, waffles, croissants, and the odd brownie here and there. Working on getting some of those kilos back for Jason (I’m just going out in sympathy with him). If you ask me why I came to Thailand, I will answer as I eat another of those little cakes that can only be described as eating a flower, that I totally came for the food. Anything else you were previously told, comes secondary.