Well, our holiday is drawing to a close. This (unfortunately) means that it's time to move into the real world and start looking for jobs in England - at least we'll look good doing it in our new suits.

Yesterday we spent the morning at a water-skiing/wake-boarding lake at Bung Taco with Derek. This is a man-made lake with a cable-rope that runs in a rectangle, this is all good in theory til you fall off at the far-away corner, and have to swim and walk back, needless to say, Aaron managed to fall off at this corner everytime. In the afternoon, Alex took us to Fortune Town - a department store with only computers and electronics. Just as well Aaron isn't writing this bit cos you'd have a blow-by-blow account - 'like a kid in a candy store'.

Today things have been pretty cruisy in preparation for the Black Eyed Peas tonight. We met up with Derek and Alex and a few of their work buddies for a lunch of goose (I can still taste the garlic sauce) and now we are chilling at their place while they slave away at work.

Well, if you don't hear from us for a day or two, don't worry! The next post will be from England... which I imagine will be 'a little different from here'. All in all, Thailand has been awesome, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone thinking of coming.

Carmen and I have moved our flight to London, back a day to the 25th. This was in order to go see the Black Eyed Peas play in Bangkok on Monday (24th) night.

Since returning from Krabi, we have been staying with old school friends (Derek and Alex) of mine from Patana (BPS). Is real good to have people who speak fluent Thai, and have a maid to do our washing and cook us some meals :+) we call her 'mum'

We went and played soccer (football) today with Derek and Alex. Oh my god, it was so hot and I was so buggered. We only had 10 players, while the other team seemed to have half a dozen subs. Our team is in 9th place (of 12 teams) and we were playing the second placed team in the competition. The team was very happy with the 0-0 draw.

We headed off to Rajadamnoen stadium to watch some Muay Thai, kickboxing. The first thing we found is that a ticket costs twice as much for a foreigner (it is actually on the price list). There are two sections, 1/3 of the stadium is for the locals, and they are packed in like sardines, the other section is for foreigners and it is that sparse that there is about 5m between people. The locals are going nuts screaming at the fighters, screaming at the bookies.
They go for 5 rounds, each 3 minutes with a 2 minute break between rounds. There are no stops, one guy was got repeatedly elbowed in the head that he was bleeding everywhere. There are no stoppages for blood; I don't even think they would stop for broken limbs.

After enjoying watching various people getting the sh*t kicked out of them, we ventured towards Pat pong. This used to be the infamous red light district, but is now a haven for crooks and swindlers. The tourist trap is set, and the prices are way too high. But we got to see and feed and elephant down the road a bit. We feed it sugar cane.

We have also uploaded a couple of pictures of our finished suits. Let us know what you think.

As Carmen mentioned, once you jump in a tuktuk you are at their mercy. Instantly (as a torist) you are transported to shops where the driver gets gas you get your time wasted. This was no exception.

We started the morning by looking around the Grand Palace. It was very impressive (Photos), and hot. As we walking out the door, one of the gaurds indicated that our tickets allowed us into other sites. Into a tuktuk, he will take us their for 50baht ($2). First stop, a tailor. As we walk into the building, I sense some deja vu, its out first tailor mates we managed to insult somehow. Back into the tuktuk, it was hot, we are escorted to the Golden Mountain. A temple created on a man-made mountain, at the centre of which is a cemetry. It had very good views of the city. Carmen is going to blend some photos together to create a 360 degree photo. Did I mention it was hot? After decending the thousand odd steps (they were so close together you had to take 3 at a time). Jumped in the tuktuk again.

A few shops later, the driver took us to Pan-Siamese Gem Co. It was actually very interesting. They gave us a quick tour of the process of making rings and other jewelry. Thy even had some nice silver jewelry with presious stones set for Carmen to look through. She found a very nice Sapphire ring which cost 1100Baht (NZ$40).

Well so far I've been very very restrained, the theory is that we'll save actually buying clothes etc until the last few days we have in Bangkok. That way we won't run out of money before then. The purchases so far seem to be mainly for me (we'll resurrect that later as Aaron slowly runs out of clean clothes in his pack).

The perfect accessory for the geek in all of us was the first purchase. Salt and Pepper shakers - for those that are non-geek (or pretending to be), NaCl stands for Sodium Chloride (table salt) and if you can't figure out Pe(Pe)r, then you really need help.

Even though Aaron is faltering in the shopping stakes, he has spent the most money with 2 suits and a trench-coat - see the posting about the tailor for that one.

Then, there are my thai silk black trousers - that are great for temple hopping (where you have to wear pants and have your shoulders covered). They tie at the front and back and have no side-seams so you get a bit of air in, check them out in the Grand Palace photos, anyone that wants a make-shift pattern from them (cos they'd be soooo easy to make) - let me know.

A pair of "Diesel" shoes set me back about $8-10, really comfy and sure beat the $300 that Radford spent on his. They also come in a number of other labels, including addidas and some funny thai writing.

There are sure to be more purchases in the near future - watch out for the upcoming features; fake watches, fake t-shirts, fake wallets, and fake shoes...

One of the things I wanted to do while in Thailand is get a suit made for my upcoming engineering career. Two days ago, we decided to find a tailor and get the process started. The door man of the hotel (under commission no doubt) recommended one, and 5 mins later we were there. This is when the games began. My dad had gone some suits made while living here a couple of years ago for about NZ$300, and they were pretty hiddious. So I was expecting to spend approximately NZ$400 for a nice tailor made/fitted suit with two pairs of trousers.

At first the Indian tailor was saying about $600 for each suit, at this point Carmen stepped forward and started to almost abuse the poor fellow about his ethics, craftmanship and first born. She had negotiated us to about NZ$500 for two suits for me (Jacket + 2 trouses for each suit). I still hadn't said a word. Every time he turned away Carmen would flash me a smile, obviously enjoying the bartering. I am at this point thinking how often she is just manipulating me. By the end of the 'discussions', I was getting two suits, each with two pairs of trouses, a winter overcoat and Carmen was getting a suit (Jacket, skirt and trouses) for about NZ$950. We got measured up, paid (on afterthough, I was/am nervous that I had paid before recieving the goods...we will see how it all turns out..a hard lesson may have been learned, I can always burn down their establishment). It may not be a rock bottom price, but it is fantasic in comparison to prices in New Zealand.

Yesterday we went in for a fitting. It was all very cool and exciting. I am extremely happy with how the suits are starting to look as well as the overcoat.

For those that have never been to Thailand, here are a few of the things I've learnt about the way of life here... For those of you that have been here, here is a chance to reminisce and to add comments about the things I've missed...

-Things are cheap, even though the thought of hearing prices in 10's, 100's or 1000's sounds ridiculous compared to home - eating, travelling, sight-seeing etc are cheap. Basic rule of thumb is that if it sounds expensive - you're getting ripped off.

- Having someone with you that speaks just a little bit of Thai is FANTASTIC. Aaron's thai is pretty limited - he can count and give directions in a taxi, and it makes life a lot easier.

- When you jump in a car at home, the first thing you do is put your seatbelt on... Here, the cabs don't have seatbelts in the rear and tuk tuks don't have seatbelts at all - although we did find one with 'Jesus Christ' handles today.

- We have seen sooooooo many buddhas!!! Probably tens of thousands of them. "More buddha's than you can wave a blue-gum stick at" ah Warren?

- There is a tailor on every corner, and when you jump in a tuk tuk, they will find you at least one tailor, one jewellery maker (and a candlestick-maker, just kidding) but every time you go to one of the shops in a tuk tuk the driver earns about 15L of gas from the shop (so once you've gone to a couple, the tuk tuk driver gives you the trip for free.

- Another plentiful retailer is the world-famous 7-11. You find one every couple of blocks, and where there is one, there is usually two (one on each side of the road).

I'm sure many other thought will spring to mind later, but I thought I'd give you an insight, and welcome any comments or questions...

Day one started pretty early when we woke up at 5am - we had to wait until an hour to get up as the hotel restaurant didn't open until 6am. However, we woke up in a pretty flash hotel room, so it wasn't all bad. We're on the 18th floor, which means a fantastic view (especially at night) and have a king size bed (it's seriously huge!). The bathroom is all marbled tiled with a granite vanity, and the hot water pressure literally blows you away. Of course, the most important thing is the air-conditioning, which is a saviour after a long day walking the streets - which we were soon to discover.

After a leisurely breakfast, it was almost 7am and we (ok, I) were (was) ready to explore. Bangkok doesn't seem to get going until around 10am - the shops are all closed before then, and even though there are plenty of people walking the streets and traffic on the roads, it's not really clear where they are all off to. None the less, it was still interesting to soak up the sights, smells and heat. From our hotel, we headed towards the World Trade Centre (Mall), and were accosted into a tuk tuk to jump in a boat to go up the Klongs (River) system. Tuk tuks are a fantastic way to travel. They are very cheap, and offer more options to take in the sights and atmosphere than a taxi - they also seem to like going round the other traffic and travelling into on-coming traffic which is great for the adrenaline junky. By cheap I mean, less than $2 to travel all over the place (we spent 2 hours looking round for $1.50).

So, enough about the joys of tuk tuks... during our river 'cruise', the main features were the very extravagent temples and the very non-extravagent housing. The water is disgusting, but the locals still have no problems swimming, bathing, washing and cooking using it. The houses are up on stilts and one hates to think what happens when it floods. (They saw us coming a mile away, "stupid Farang (Foreigner)". In taking my dads, 'everything must trickle down theory', I/ we paid approx $40 for this river trip. Can we say 'taken' - Aaron)

Climbing off the boat near the Grand Palace (about 1 and a 1/2 hours later) we were accosted (yet again) into another tuk tuk to go see a giant buddha. Seems that it is New Years here (or something like that) so we got to see quite a few other people sized buddhas, where people go to say blessings. Poor buddha's obviously get thirsty and someone had gone around and left them all bottles of water - with a straw of course. The buddhas are covered in small squares of gold leaf, and are quite impressive. The 'ever-so-kind' tuk tuk driver then took us to a tailor, which we managed to offend and be kicked out of - no idea why, then onto a jewellery store. Here we said goodbye to our tuk tuk driver, paid him 40B ($1.50 NZ) and jumped in a taxi to go to the Siam Centre.

What a busy day, and it had only just ticked over lunchtime. From here, the decision was made to slow down and enjoy the scenery a bit more, so we had a leisurely afternoon perusing the shops, and I was generally trying hard not to buy anything as my pack is already far too full. I did, however make one purchase, which all you science/engineer geeks will appreciate... Headed back to the hotel, about 5pm just in time to miss a bit rain storm. Blobbed out in front of TV and the big bay window, and hit the sack pretty early.

So day one down, I don't know if I can handle this pace for the next two weeks - might be off to England for a holiday.

(We had learned our lesson in eating breakfast at the hotel, it is over priced. So we made a couple of trips to the 7-11 to get some snacks and breakfast. Tomorrow we will hit up a local Supermarket - Aaron)

As expected, some family came to the airport to see us off. My parents and a small army of Carmens family including parents, grandparents, siblings and aunties. It was an emotional time for some, with tears welling in the eyes. I personally think its was the thought of me actually leaving home for my parents.

The flight(s) went pretty well. We headed off from Christchurch airport at about 10:30am and were effectively in the air for 18 hours. The stops in Auckland and Sydney were brief, almost to the point where we were running between terminals to catch the connecting flight. The flight to Sydney was only half full, so we managed to spread out and take up as much room as we could. However the next leg of the journey was packed. I managed to find a fat old man to sit next to, although I wasn't sitting next to him as much as I was under him. Got to watch Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King again, as well as Along came Polly.

Neither of us managed to sleep much on the flights, so when we got to the hotel (Century Park Hotel) at 12pm (6am New Zealand time) we almost hit the bed already sleeping. Unfortunately, we awoke at about 5am fully awake, stupid body clock!