I arrived in Thailand on Thursday afternoon. I dumped my bags at the hotel and went out and grabbed myself some food. I had been craving some Asian food for a long time and Thai food was just what I had in mind. After a long walk, I happened across a small street full of hawkers. I sat down and quickly ordered myself a Tom Yum Gong and a Pad Thai, it was delicious. After that I wondered down to the Patpong night market (in Bangkok's notorious red light district), the market was great, cheap prices with a bit of bargaining. I decided my visit to Thailand would not be complete without baring witness to the infamous ping pong show, and it didn't take long for me to find one. I won't go into details but it was funny/nasty. No photos, sorry. The next day I headed out to see the temples and Buddhas of Thailand. At the temple of the golden Buddha they had a row of Buddhist fortune telling slot machines, sort of like a pokie but instead of getting a chance to win more money back you get a fortune, bizzaro. Walking around the temples and checking out the various Buddhas was good, but very hot.
After that I went to Lumpini stadium and got a ringside ticket to watch a Muay Thai kick boxing event. I paid 1700 baht for my ticket (around $65 AUD) and got a seat right up the front. The early fights lacked the speed and power that Muay Thai is famous for, however the main event and the preceding match definitely made up for that. In the match preceding the main event one of the fighters was knocked out and taken away on a stretcher. The main event was an even match up that saw Autthachai from Fairtex camp win on points. Autthachai (red corner) unleashed a couple of nasty left elbows on Petchmankong's right temple (at around the 50 second mark in the video I uploaded) creating a bloody target for Auttachai's later strikes. I went back to the warm up area and pushed my way through the crowds to get a photo with him after the victory.
The next day I headed to Bangkok's Chatuchak weekend market. It was kinda like the Victoria market but about 10 times bigger. I bought some clothes there and ate some great curries. That afternoon I caught a plane back to Melbourne.
I got back into Melbourne this morning and I couldn't help but smile every time I heard an Aussie accent from the workers at the airport. Dad and May Ann met me at the airport and took me back to my sisters place where I saw my mum, brother-in-law and niece (Beatrice) who has grown up a lot since I last saw her (she is around 8 months old now), she is already developing a great personality and is a lot of fun to play with.
I have to say my bed is very, very, very comfortable. Home is good. I am going back to work tomorrow. The end for now.
Im slowly and not surely recovering from a massive 4 nights in Barcelona. Got into Barcelona on Wednesday and checked in into the best hostel I have stayed at so far. Its a small hostel (Albareda Youth Hostel) but has a great common room and a cosy feel. After a quick siesta, I met a bunch of great people staying at the hostel and we quickly got involved in a drinking game (Texas holdém) after that we went out and to a bar then a night club called Fellini´s on Las Ramblas(it was crap, bad music, expensive drinks and shitty atmosphere). The next day I headed out to La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi´s best known work in progress. It is truly amazing, the nativity facade was my favourite, you could sit there for hours, and I did, admiring the detail and the originality of the work.
The passion facade is on the other side and it is extremely different, I liked it, but I thought it clashed a bit with the rest of the church (it was designed by a different artist).
After queuing for about three quarters of an hour I got inside and took an audio tour. The audio tour was intersting but I would recommend you spend your 3.5 Euros on a well earned kebab after.
Once inside I was greeted by another queue to get into the escalator and ascend on of the spires. This queue was 90 minutes long, luckily I had some reading material. The wait was definately worth it, there were great views and an amazing spiral staircase.
After that, I headed to Casa Batllo, another of Gaudi´s buildings. Not as impressive for me, but still very original. Unfortunately the 16 Euro entry fee was abit too steep for me, so I just viewed it from the outside.
That night we headed out for dinner to the Travellers bar which promised a 1 Euro meal of chile con carne at 8pm. Unfortunately it failed to deliver on both counts, first of all their ass clown of a cook hadnt even started cooking the rice when we arrived so we had to wait 1.5 hours before the meal was ready, secondly the wasnt any meat in it! It was just mushy rice with a few sultanas and abit of soyasauce in it. We were not happy, even if it was next to free.
A couple of girls from the hostel went around passing out flyers for a local ¨beach party¨. We all thought it was a good idea and headed out in shorts and thongs. After a 30 minute walk, we were knocked back by the Baja Beachclub, because we looked too ¨beachy¨. So we walked next door to a club called Catwalk, it was 18 Euros entry but we managed to find a promoter and get in for free. The drinks were expensive, 7 Euros for a beer, but curiously shots of tequila were only 3 Euros. Making shots of tequila more than half the price of beer is dangerous when you have cheapskate lightweights like me around. Anyway, I opted for the cheap tequila shots, and got pretty mashed. Heres me, throwing Zoolander style devil horns, with Heather and Jackie from NYC.
One of the funny things that came out of that night were the photos. Pierre, a French canadian, snuck into the background of Yuen and Mikes photo and gave a bonehead style peace sign. Just in case your wondering what a bonehead is, check out this video, then look at the picture.
And here´s another bonehead...
The next day I hung out with Pierre and went looking around Las Rumblas for a place to develope my disposible camera. After visiting a couple of shops and being told it would take a few days I gave up. I then headed out to the beach with a couple of Dutch girls who were studying medicine and had come down for a study break.
That night I headed out with Pierre, Michelle and Karl to Las Rumblas for an Absinthe and a few beers. Heres me boneheading behind Michelle and Karl (Thanks for the inspiration Pierre, you have taken boneheading to a whole new level!)
We found a really drunk guy on Las Rumblas who had collapsed in the street, stuck his hand down his pants and pissed himself (so naturally, I posed semi-bonehead style with him)
After that we headed off to a club called Jamboree, which was less than average, then went home.
The next day I headed to Park Guell. This park has some great views of Barcelona from the top, but is more famous for the pieces by Gaudi it contains.
My favourite part of the park was the columns which provided a great place to hide from the sun, chill out, read and listen to the busker who was playing great classical guitar tunes.
After the park, I gathered the troops at the hostel and we headed out to Bar Marcella (a 200 year old Absinthe bar, where Hemmingway used to drink). Unfortunately or fortunately, I left my camera at the hostel so I dont have any photos, but it was great. I´ll try and track down Cyrille or Sammy on facebook for the photos because they had some great ones. The Absinthe is served in a wineglass (2 shots of 70% alcohol) you then take a sugar cube, balance it on a fork and strain water through it until it turns cloudy (don´t set it alight, we did this but were told it is not the way to do it). After 3 drinks (6 shots) we started to get a little rowdy and we were asked (actually more like told) to leave by the bouncer (who we had just witnessed bash another person on the street). We ended up at some nightclub and tried to dance again (this was my fourth night at a a night club in a row and I was getting pretty tired of them).
The day, I got up hungover but determined to see some Picasso as entry is free on Sundays. Unfortunately, every man and their dog had the same idea, and the queue was gigantic.
After about an hour queuing, we saw the exhibition. Sammy, Louise and I were a little disturbed by one of Picassos pieces which depicted a man squatting with his pants around his knees, holding a plate of chicken in one hand, masturbating with the other, all whilst defacating. To be honest, the exhibition was a let down for me. None of his major works were there, however the photographic exhibition by Lee Miller about Picasso was vaguely interesting.
After the exhibition I headed back to the Hostel for a nap. When I got up, I met some of the new comers to the hostel, Melissa from Canada and Tal a guy from Dubai. We all got together and went for a walk to Plaza Espana for the fountain and lights show. This is possibly the best free show in Barcelona, check out the video below. Actually sorry the Thailand government has blocked youtube.com so I cant upload the video, so pictures will have to do for now.
I got up early on Monday morning and joined forces with Michelle to get a scooter and head up to Montserrat. The ride took about an hour and was extremely dodgy due to the fact that our scooters only went up to 80 kms an hour and the freeway speed limit was 120 kms. We wanted motorcycles but they were very expensive, 300 Euros for 3 days minimum. Montserrat is a great place to go for a walk and see some awesome views, unfortunately the weather was a little cloudy and we couldnt see the Pyranees or Mallorca.
That night I went out on a wild goose chase through town with 18 people from the hostel and ended up at my favourite hole in the wall pub where we had a few beers and a good chat.
The next morning i had to catch a plane to Madrid, but first I headed out to explore the fruit and veggie market in Barcelona with Melissa, who was also heading to Madrid that day. The fruit and veggie market was great, but the pasta they sold was the best, 3 Euros for a big serve of Carbonara.
The next day, I met up with Melissa again for some churros and chocolate and went for a brief walk around Madrid before I had to jump on another plane for Thailand.
