Thailand – An Update Finally

Hello to anybody who is still reading.  As has been made clear I completely suck at writing a travel blog.  Anyway I thought I finally get round to righting an update on Thailand.

Having arrived in Bangok we stayed in an area called Banglampoo, and unfortunately Poo was the operative word.  The place smells really bad, and is incredibly dirty.  Having just come from Tokyo which is hyper clean, the shock really hit us.  The first Hotel we were staying in was billed as having a riverside restaurant, unfortunately the river looked like the one in Willy Wonka’s Factory, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t made of chocolate. The hotel was next to Khao San Road, which is the main backpackers area full of market stalls selling dodgy T Shirts, cheap beers and roadkill on sticks.  To be fair once we adjusted to the smell, like a farmer does to manure, we actually quite liked the place.

More to come…

Tokyo

So we’ve now left Tokyo and overall we had a great time. We saw loads of great things – some we’ve already mentioned. We visited Ueno zoo which was really nicely placed in the middle of a park. They allow you to get much closer to the animals than they do in the UK.

We also went to the Mori tower which was breathtaking. We went up to the 52nd floor and gazed at the night view of Tokyo. We took loads of pictures and videos but I can’t help but think it won’t do it justice.

Also whilst in the Mori tower we went to the Turner prize retrospective where we got to see the famous “mother and child divided” by Damien Hirst.

Today we’ve just arrived in Bangkok and we leave for a week tour upto the hilltribes so will update you all in a week.

Tokyo

So its our third day in Tokyo,which is pretty amazing.  We didn’t realise that Tokyo is actually loads of little cities all joined up together.  Its absolutely huge, and there are soooo many people and nobody can stay still.

We went up the Tokyo Tower yesterday, which is like the Japanese Eifel.  The views are amazing everything is so lit up, it must be the brightest city on the planet, I imagine it must glow from space.  Whilst we were up the tower a group of Japanese students ask me to take a picture, when i went to grab the camera they pointed at me and said no you.  So Lindsay took a photo of me with students.  I guess I must be the first half Algerian they’ve seen in a while, maybe they thought I was Zinedine Zidane.  We probably all look the same to them.

Things we’ve learned about Tokyo:
1) They’re not that short.
2) All the women are bow legged.
3) Darts is the latest craze.  Strangely a chain of Mexican Darts bars seems to be very popular.
4) Karoake is everywhere.

We’re off to the Modern Art Museum tomorrow, which has got a best of the Turner prize exhibtiom on, so we gonna get to see the Pickeled Cow in Japan.

Only Two Days to Go

With only two days to go we’ve decided to get really self indulgant and start our travel bog.

As you probably know if you are reading this Lindsay and I are doing a little bit of travelling.

The itinerary is as follows:

• Tokyo, Japan  16th -22nd June
• Northern Thailand Tour  22nd – 30th June
• Bangkok, Thailand  30th June – 4th July
• Krabi, Thailand  4th July – 6th July
• Phi Phi, Thailand  6th – 8th July
• Phucket, Thailand  8th – 18th July
• Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia  18th – 22nd July
• Penang, Malaysia  22nd – 31st July
• Singapore  31st July – 3rdAugust
• New Zealand  4th – 12th August
• Fiji  12th – 19th August
• Los Angeles  19th – 24th August
• Las Vegas  24th – 27th August

So hopefully this won’t be the last post, and we’ll keep you updated as we go.

Picasa Web Album

I’ve uploaded some photos to the Picasa Web Album.

You can check them out here http://picasaweb.google.com/jemel.belgacem