days 1-2-3

What a place this is. taxi is the cheapest way to get around, markets go all night, ronald McDonald has his hands together as if he is praying as a sign of respect and my hair colour causes many reaction from laugher to screaming or stopping a performance to comment. Vegitarian is a suggestion much like traffic lights and lanes of traffic. Gold is in plenty but not as much as they would like since the Burmese stole most of it during a battle the Thai's lost. There was this one Buddah that was covered in cement for hundreds of years, some what recently it got cracked and they realised it was solid gold! All prices are negotionable and in most places you can eat, drink, sleep, clothes your self for a full day for one hour of pay back home. Fruit juices, smoothes and shakes are flowing for near nothing creating a constant suger high before you get near the bear. Everyone is trying to rip you off all the time. Wether its trying to convice you that the temple you can see the entrace to is closed and you should come with them or not turning on the taxi metre and charging you ten times what it could possibly be. Inequalities are ramped. In many tourist locations no thias allowd while in many other national museums, parks, temples have half price or even free if you are thai. Daily to weekly massages are a luxery that any western tourist can afford. The stereotypes run wild from sex tourists, lady boyes to break year students to hippies that got lost here and never turned back. A few days in Bangkok is enough to be thankful for the chance to head off to the country side for a few days, as you can rarely hear yourself think due to traffic. Today is the first day I attempted any thai: its was only to say; where's the toilet, thank-you, bottle of water please. Its hard to tell if the subsiquent smiles have to due with them being happy that you are trying or that you messed up big time.

Well this is the first of many instalements. Sure to report soon.