Happy New Year!

Songkran 2008, originally uploaded by ibeepix.

I'm back in Bangkok, and what a change it is from Australia. It's very hot, about 40 degrees during the day, 30 at night. And after 2 months of being confronted with severe water shortages I seem to have arrived at the biggest water fight in the world. Yes, it's Songkran, Thai New Year, and people celebrate it by splashing water at each other.It's bigger and crazier than I could ever have imagined, especially in and around Kao San Road. Yesterday there were thousands of people there, all armed with giant water guns, drenched, covered completely with talcum powder and hardly able to move. In other parts of the city celebrations are a bit more gentile. Groups of children, teenagers and the odd granny are on the streets, dancing around on loud music or in trucks driving around and trying to get as many people wet as possible, shooting water at passers by, cars and into the open windows of buses. Even the bus drivers are joining in and are shooting into the buses of their fellow bus drivers.
So far I haven't been able to take any pictures, but today I'll try to make some...

Songkran 2008, originally uploaded by ibeepix.

Busy in Bangkok

Yesterday morning I arrived back in Bangkok. And for the first time ever I had a hard time finding a room. I usually stay in Rambuttri street, not far from Kao San Road. My train arrived around 6.30 AM, so I was quite early. But not a single guesthouse had a room available, not even the more expensive ones. I think I walked around for an hour with my heavy backpack and then decided to stay in one place and wait until somebody checked out. After about another hour without any progress I checked whether any of the nearby guesthouses had any rooms available yet, and luckily the place where I wanted to stay from the beginning had a single room for me, I just had to wait for it to be cleaned. By 10.30 AM I finally could go to my room...
When I went out for a little stroll, I bumped into Sarah, an Australian girl who'd been staying in Nongkhai for the last 2 weeks. She left Nongkhai a day before me and was doing her last minute shopping before flying home. I joined her for some more shopping and we had some great Indian food at 'Spicy Affair' (this place has possibly the best Indian food in the Kao San area, even though it never seems to be busy). After we said goodbye and she took a taxi to the airport, I got a very nice massage.
Then I decided to check out the dentist since I bit of a little bit of one of a tooth while sleeping a week ago. Somebody recommended 'Dental Time' on Chakrapong road to me. And it turned out to be a good dentist. Since it was only a tiny little bit that had broken of my tooth, they only had to polish it a little bit, but they did a good job and it cost me only 100 baht (2 euro).
This morning it was raining quite hard, so I took a taxi to the Panthip Plaza, the place to buy computers, camera's and game consoles. I bought myself a new external hard drive, because the one I had already is nearly full, and a cheap lightweight tripod for my camera.
Then I walked to Siam Square to enjoy the air-conditioning in the luxurious malls, had some great Japanese food and took the bus back to Kao San...
Tomorrow evening I have my flight to Melbourne, so from now on you can follow my adventures on my Australia blog...

Back in Thailand

Tuesday evening I left Belgium. My flight to London was quite frightening. At first it was delayed for 45 minutes because of too much wind in Heathrow, but then we did leave, and the landing was awfull. The airplane was shaking very badly, and I was really happy when were back on the ground safely. My flight to Bangkok was really nice. I flew with EVA Air, a Chinese airline that I had never heard of before booking my ticket. I was a bit scared it would be some dodgy airline, but it turned out to be really good., with a very friendly service on board and the food was good too.
I arrived in Bangkok around 3.30pm on wednesday. My friend, Jenny, from Switserland arrived about half an hour earlier on a plane from Frankfurt. And somehow we managed to get through immigration and bagage collection at exactly the same time. It was nice being back I Bangkok with her.

Dinsdagavond ben ik weer uit België vertrokken. Mijn vlucht naar Londen was nogal beangstigend. Ze was eerst al 45 minuten vertraagd omdat er teveel wind in Heathrow was om veilig te kunnen landen. Uiteindelijk zijn we toch vertrokken, maar de landing was verschrikkelijk. Het vliegtuig zwenkte uit in alle richtingen and ik was heel blij toen we weer veilig op de grond stonden. Mijn vlucht naar Bangkok was wel heel goed. Ik vloog met EVA Air, een Chinese maatschappij waar ik nog nooit van had gehoord voor ik mijn vlucht boekte. Ik had een beetje schrik dat het een slechte maatschappij zou zijn, ,maar het viel dus heel goed mee. De service aan boord was heel goed en 't eten was ook lekker.
Ik ben woensdag om 3.30u in de namiddag geland in Bangkok. Jenny, een meisje uit Zwitserland die ik uit Nongkhai ken, was een half uur voor mij geland met vliegtuig uit Frankfurt. En op de een of andere manier zijn we erin geslaagd om op exact dezelfde moment uit de luchthaven te komen. 't Was echt leuk om samen met haar terug in Bangkok te zijn.

Bangkok re-visited

It's almost 3 years ago that I arrived in bangkok for the first time. I remember feeling a bit overwelmed and scared at first being on my own in such a big and crazy city. But the more I traveled through Bangkok during those 5 months in thailand, going back and forth between the north and the south of Thailand, the more it felt like home.
So when I arrived in Bangkok yesterday morning it felt a bit like seeing that old friend you haven't seen in years, again. Bangkok has changed a bit, there are new hotels, reaurants and shops, but it is still the same in many ways. It's nice to be able to walk around not needing your guide book or map and knowing the scams they'll try to pull on you...
I'll be here until tuesday and then I'll be off to Nongkhai for some yoga...

Bijna 3 jaar geleden kwam ik voor 't eerst aan in bangkok. Ik herinner me nog heel goed hoe eng 't was om voor 't eerst in zo'n grote, gekke stad te zijn op mijn eentje. Maar hoe meer ik door Bangkok reisde, onderweg naar 't noorden of 't zuiden van Thailand, hoe meer 't als thuis ging voelen.
Dus toen ik gisterenochtend aankwam in Bangkok voelde 't een beetje alsof ik een oude vriend tegenkwam die ik al jaren niet meer gezien had. Bangkok is wel een beetje veranderd, er zijn nieuwe hotels, restaurants en winkels, maar is ook nog 't zelfde op veel vlakken. 't Is fijn om te kunnen rondwanden zonder een reisgids of kaart te moeten gebruiken en te weten op welke manier ze je zullen proberen af te zetten...
Ik ga hier tot dinsdag blijven en dan vertrek ik naar Nongkhai om wat yoga te doen...