back to the islands (part III)

After a fairly relaxing couple of days in BKK, we're off to Koh Phi Phi tonight - we being myself, Ori, and my little sister, who is proving to be wild with her baht, which is rather amusing, to say the least. Bangkok has also been bringing out my inner consumer who had gone into hiding for a while. Ori and I headed to MBK the other day and I ended up coming home with 2 pairs of jeans, with a few additions here and there from Khao San Road. After 3months, everything in my backpack disgusts me, and I threw out a lot of my belongings this morning, which was very therapeutic. Of course, the free space has already been filled!

Bangkok also provided Ori and I with our first "Lost in Translation" moment. On Monday we had to go to the Israeli Embassy to pick up a new credit card for Ori, and then, since we were downtown, we decided to go to a movie. We went to the first mall which we came to, which was the World Trade Centre, and tried to find the movie theatre. All we knew was that it was on the 7th floor. The problem was that the signs for both escalators and elevators seemed to lead nowhere, and when we did find an escalator, it would go up one floor and then stop, so we would have to go a-hunting again for the next one. At one stage we actually had to go down an escalator to come up again to a different part of the same floor. A clever ploy to get us to spend more money. Along our journey to the 7th floor, we also came across the most high-tech library ever, with a host of western magazines. All in all, including distractions, the journey to the movies took about 3hrs. The movie was "The Island" and was pretty good. Not as exciting as trying to get there though.

Talking of getting there, the worst journey is S-E Asia has got to be the bus ride between Bangkok and Siem Reap, mainly because for 8hrs you are in a mini-bus with no suspension driving along an unpaved dirt track, praying that you don't break down, because if you do, it's every man for himself. We made it, but it was the definition of bone-shaking. That's the last of those until S America, thank goodness.