Bangkok - final stop

"One Night in Bangkok and the World's Your Oyster..."

as the song says and we definitely feel as polished as pearls. Amazing what staying in a clean hotel with all sorts of amenties does.

To get here we had a choice - travel by taxi (expensive) or by minibus with other travellers (cramped and chaotic) or by local bus (cheap). We went for the local bus, which was on time (the train was another option, always cheap, but also always late). So instead of $60US (taxi) we paid $4, and got here in good time to see what all the fuss was about.

Yeah traffic is snarly, but not impossible (we still have muscle memory from living and driving in London, by which everything else is compared). Yeah, it's a big, noisy, smelly, dirty city, but it works (on its own terms) and we like it.

We went to Chatachak market - a wild array of stalls that goes on for several miles, where we got the last of our shopping done - and the best bit about everywhere in Thailand - there are massage stalls! We got our tired feet and shoulders worked on for 45 minutes for 200Baht (about $6US). Why doesn't Granville Island have something like that?

We saw the big malls, but weren't really in the mood, although we wereready for a bit of bling shopping! Chinese New Year meant madness but lots of fun too - as shoppers went crazy for the sales and special events and big lavish meals were on offere everywhere. Bangkok's Chinatown could be the world's biggest, and is certainly one of the most intriguing with smoky dark lanes leading to food stalls and shops filled with all sorts of brightly coloured, glittery drek, lanterns and banners and bits of spent fireworks everywhere. Down by the river, you could imagine a not too distant history of opium dens and gangs.

Wat Pho with its enormous reclining buddha and the Grand Palace with its Emerald buddha are suitably impressive, and just walking the streets by the amulet market, and notorious Khaosan road (whuich was really rather tame and fun - a representative of countless backpackers' haunts we have encountered to now). On the other side of the scale was Jim Thompson's House. Perhaps it was his training in architecture, but the guy sure had taste - it was a beautiful collection of several old Thai houses brought to this site by the khlong (canal) and tranformed into one sprawling house. He is most famous for reinvigorating the Thai silk industry pretty well singlehandedly, and for his mysterious disappearance in Malaysia in 1967.

But we will most fondly remember Bangkok for the time we had in the hotel, 5 nights being a huge length of time. We'd start the day with a swim in the gorgeous pool surrounded by flowers snd trees and birsong - 10 floors up - or a run around the local park in order to take full advantage of a marvelous breakfast buffet which became our one meal of the day. We'd be back from wherever at about 4 or 5 to take another dip in the pool, or visit the fitness room, and veg out in front of the news eating fruit and drinking from the hordes of bottled water that were replaced throughout the day. Complimentary cocktails began at 6, and we would choose not only the cocktail du jour but also the outfit we'd parade and the forum in which to imbibe, as there were four locations: the pool deck, the lobby bar, the library and the nightclub.

Martin at the library

Jenny in the nightclub

At 8 or so, we'd go into the business centre to check on email, update the blog, or check on how the world is doing without us (terribly it would appear - time for us to rejoin it I suppose!). Then reading or a movie before bed.

There is a certain rhythm in this sort of travel that is different than the rhythm of our other travel, and it's been a very pleasant and welcome change.

We learned there is a term for people like us - flashpackers. Flashpackers are those who backpack becuase they choose to, but who are able to move up at will or opportunity. We like to think we put the 'flash' in the word 'flashpacker', but suspect we are pretty much of a type and are ok with that.

Heading out to the airport soon, and our 18 hours of air travel to go. The blog is not finished - we'll contemplate the trip and add a codicil from home - that source of perspective on the outside world, just as travelling in the outside world provides perspective on home.

So, to end with another favourite song (of Jennifer's - Martin professes never to have heard of it because it's "before his time", but Jennifer suspects he just hasn't been listening): "The two of us wearing raincoats, standing so low, in the sun...on our way back home,

We're on our way home,

We're going home..."