The return to Bangkok and a couple of nights of absynth

Well I've spent the last week or so back in Bangkok. The day after I got back I went to meet Kat in town before she went down south. I got a lift with Kriang and Will into town and they dropped me off at Chatuchak Park about an hour before I was due to meet Kat. Feeling a little lethargic I decided to chill out in the shade of a tree and ended up falling asleep for an hour. Which resulted in me being slightly late meeting Kat, somewhat dazed to start with when I did and getting a reddened face, the beginnings of sunburn because the shadow had of course moved during the hour. Still, went to Chatuchak weekend market which is absolutely massive. Despite still feeling knackered after the lack of sleep from travelling the night before I decided to try and speak to any Thai people in (Broken) Thai for the whole day which I just about managed. I had to resort to English a couple of times, once for example when I forgot the word for twenty and had to say it in English, but otherwise I managed it OK. Had an iced coffee at the market and walked around. Then we headed to the train station which was near where Kat was picking up her suit and where I was going to head back to Kriang's from. Got back to Kriang's and just chilled out.

Spent the last week or so split between Kriang's house, near his work and in town. Got my new sunglasses, very pleased. Spent quite a few hours just chilling in the sun on Kriang's balcony reading. Went to KU Fair with Kriang, Pook and O who works in the cubical next to Kriang at Fabrinet. It's an annual fair at a university between the centre of town and Fabrinet. Lots of market stalls selling everything from TV remotes to animals (this is where I saw the albino hedgehogs for sale.) Live music, outdoor eateries etc etc. I also tried Bamboo Worms for the first time. They're fried and have a variety of different flavourings added. For comparison the texture was a little like a Wotsit I thought. I wasn't very keen to be honest but they were a lot tastier than they look. Here's a picture.


We also cracked open Kriang's absynth recently and have had a couple of nights of Chiang beer and absynth. Excellent fun at the time but the hangover afterwards is atrocious. Being prepared for it the second time I drank what I thought would be plenty of water (about 2l) over the course of the evening before I went to bed and though the night and still felt slightly rough this morning. Here's a short slide show of the debauchery, including a couple from a weekend excursion last Sunday.

In case you're wondering Will and I are doing FPS_Doug impressions and the blurry ones are taken through glasses of absynth. Drunken art at its, er, drunkenest.

I was planning on heading down to Koh Phangan for the full moon party but although the flight was cheap enough I couldn't find anywhere to stay that would let you book less than five nights at about 1500 baht per night. That works out at roughly 100 quid. Not expensive by UK standards but still beyond my pocket. But Kriang has a few days off at the beginning of March (it's a Buddhist holiday so nearly everyone does) so I'm going to check out the possibility of heading down for the next one.

Righto, I'm sure I'm forgetting something but I can't think of it so I'm off.
Ciao for now.