Sawa Dee

Or however it’s spelt… It means ‘welcome’ or ‘hello’ here in Thailand and you here it all the time along with the strangers wai greeting – hands clasped together as if in prayer below your chin and a slight bow.

So yep – in Bangkok now, just round the corner from the infamous Khao San road (which is now less infamous in behaviour due to a major drug crackdown a few years back and everything closing at 1am rather than 4 or later). It’s warm and sticky here and there’s a slight sulfurous smell which is reminiscent of being in New Zealand! Met up with Vera and Dom after an exhilarating (ie, almost sh*t myself at times) taxi ride from the airport, then out for a few roadside Mai Tais costing all of about 90p. Didn’t quite get up the nerve to have my first roast grasshopper but did have a lush pat thai for B15 (30p).

Favourite things so far (aside from how cheap everything is for staying, eating and drinking): the traffic – the tuk tuks (little three wheeled bike cabs) zipping in and out everywhere and the buses that look like de-comissioned tanks, how smiley everyone is even though they’re dealing every day with a continuing stream of (generally drunken) tourists, the food stalls and seeing Vera and Dom again.