So I'm back where it all began... well not exactly (I'm not in St.Petersburg... or back in the womb) but I'm back to where the South East Asian phase of this odyssey began, on the mean (not really mean) streets of Bangkok... it's nice to be back even though I was a little tired of this place when I last left... it almost feels like I'm returning home... I've already seen the lady who sells cheap football shirts and enquired about a Barca home shirt in small with Messi on the back... I've already seen the little gay fella who came on to me (of course he recognises me!)... it's like I've never been away... the theme tune of Cheers flows through my mind... Where everybody knows your naaaaame dum dum dum, and they're always glad you caaaaame dum dum dum... Coming back brings back all those feelings of excitement when I came here last time... all the potential and possibilities which came with South East Asia and then more well trodden back packer route... it has had it's negatives this region but I've really enjoyed myself so far... as I arrived here I thought to myself, 'I really don't want to leave South East Asia'... it's such a cool and interesting place... ... ... so good news, I don't leave 'till 28th Jan:)) ... almost a whole month more here... tomorrow I meet Pin and Chloe (they were doing PhDs in the same lab as me at Bristol) and will spend some time with them which is well exciting... seeing old faces... good times (please remind me to punish myself for ever repeating a catch phrase of Justin Lee Collins... I'm ashamed of myself)... then I'll get a splash of Cambodia before I'm off to OZ... I'm really buzzing at the prospect of what is coming up... ... it was the correct time to leave Vietnam, defo... It's a difficult but cool country, but as I often said, there is something about the place which I can't figure out... for some reason I can't make my mind up about the place... it has many of the same pitfalls as Thailand and Laos (people trying to sell you stuff all the time etc) but there is something different that I can't put my finger on... I guess you could say, same same but different (Christ, I'm Mr.Catchphrase today)...
... Saigon was an interesting place but it lacked some kind of charm that other similar cities have (maybe that's the thing that Vietnam is missing... a little charm...) ... the women who ran the guesthouse I stayed at (Nga Hoang) had a kind of Basil Faulty way about her... eccentric, nothings ever her fault, she's like a time bomb ready to go off at any guest who has an issue (however polite they are about it)... also she had this tendency of slipping into German ('Whatever you do, don't mention the war!';) ... she knew German better then English, so if you're white, she'll talk to you in German... or a hybrid of the two... she came into our room because there was a mix up in the number of people staying in there (strangely enough it was her fault as she put someones passport in the wrong folder) and she burst into the room repeating 'ess ist nicht fair, ess ist nict fair'... stupid tart, it's your fault... she got stressy with one guy because she had put his passport in the wrong folder... he was the one who should be allowed to be stressy as she had misplaced his documents... ... Lucky I never had a major issue with Fraulein Basil Vietnam... ... lucky me:)
... don't worry guys, I'm not gonna put up any more photos of my leg... it's starting too heal and so isn't really of interest anymore...
... OK, I've burnt myself clean down the wick... I'm done and ready to hibernate after an autumn supper of beer only to awake when nature decides to call me from my bed... this'll be the first day since about Saturday where I haven't had to get up at 7am... I'm going to enjoy it:))
Oh yeah, a little mention for Bristol City's great 4 points against Cardiff and QPR... come on you reds:))
Now it's time to go... keep well people:)
... that's all folks (last catchphrase of the day;)
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