Southeast Asia Post Script

So, two wonderful weeks in Chiang Mai, Thailand have passed altogether too quickly. I managed to find a few beautiful big temples just out of town, drank Slurpees every day and ate pad thai all the time. We talked about coming back next year, or considering the cost of this year, maybe two years on. We spent two more days in Bangkok, and are learning to love that big, mad city too. We talked about where we went wrong, where we went right, maybe some new places to see and new mistakes to make. We got to absolutely love Thailand. We could take or leave Malaysia, although I thought it is a remarkable example of tolerance that the rest of the world could learn from. We have had time to look back on Nepal and see it in a new light. I think it was because Nepal so was so not where we thought we were going and we did it right at the beginning of the trip, so we were shellshocked immediately. In retrospect, we saw some pretty amazing things. Kathmandu is a pit. That much has not changed. But the surrounding areas and even some places inside Kathmandu are truly remarkable. Cambodia, we liked for the most part. Someplaces I could take or leave, but as far as I am concerned, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap are amazing places, just littered with things to do and see and most of it is quite educational too. Burma. BurmaBurmaBurma. Again retrospect seems to put on a rosy hue to the place, but I haven't forgotten the rotten bits. Overall though, it's very cool, and if you see it beore it gets overrun with tourists, you'll get a real sense of the place. I actually found many things to like about Mandalay, the place said I would hat. I loved Bagan so very much, and Yangon (or Rangoon) is full of wonderful places and things to see. Ten years time, and it will be all set up for western tourists, and won't be a shade of itself anymore. I so wish we had seen more of Laos, it was really unfair to the country and to ourselves to have not spent more time there. I really liked Luang Prabang, and I am genuinely looking forward to our return so we can investigate this country further. I just can't say enough about Thailand. Sure it has it's flaws, like the police will spend all their time investigating tourists and expats when a tourist is murdered, and will only invest locals when there is simply no one else to blame. The traffic is crazy and they have insects on a stick and call it food. I also learned that there is no end to the amazing places and things to see, the arts and culture, the temples and wats and chudis are the most beautiful, ornate places I have seen in a long time. I love Thai food, I so love Thai food, and there's this soft drink called Schweppes Manau that is like fizzy sweet lime juice, and I am deeply saddened that I won't taste that again for quite a while. Thailand also has more 7-11s than anywhere else in the world, sometimes so many per street that you end up looking at one while standing in another. There are no such thing as 7-11s in England, so goodbye slurpees. Goodbye to cheap food and hotel rooms and transport. There are several types of taxi in Chiang Mai, but the best is the red truck. They are everywhere and so very cheap. Flag one down and you can get anywhere in the city for 20-40 baht, the equivalent of 40-80 p. The beaches are lovely with gorgeous white sand and superclear water, it's hot, but you get used to it. It's a clean country full of national pride, and rightly so. Most importantly, I learned that the great mystical mystery that is India is in fact complete shite.I learned to despise India. Which brings us to right this minute. We are in Delhi, after having said goodbye to Bangkok bright and early this morning. I can't tell you how heartbroken we are to left Thailand and doubly for having to return here. Our flight back to Manchester via Doha, Qatar leaves from here very late at night or I should say very early in the morning on the 28th of September. So what to do here until we leave.... we are suspicious of the food, the water, the air, the people. Do we just stay in the hotel room for two days until it's time to go. A very real possibility. Maybe we should brave the streets one more time, just to say we haven't been completely beaten. Or maybe I don't have anything to prove,and I'll just go for lunch. Haven't decided yet. Soon, it's back England, and back to real life. The first year of my degree in mechanical engineering has already started and I'm late. I don't know what the house looks like. I'm sure it's fine, it's been looked after. There's making my own bed and cleaning my own clothes and making food and doing the shopping and the washing up and and and. Sigh. Had a pretty good run there, and maybe in a year or so, we can have another. Maybe. I had no idea I would enjoy southeast Asia, I had really never thought about coming here. Now all I think of is coming back, and I'm so glad I came. There aren't many places that I have been to that I would come back to. So wish me luck, reality awaits, but I'm not holding my breath for it. Sigh.