Trat is boring

Hi eveyone, i'm in Trat now, waiting for a boat that doesn't come until tomorrow, so I thought I'd update this a little bit.

The last few days at the orphanage were cool. They finally got some more windows for the education centre. I don't know if I wrote a while ago that we got a load of glass panes to put in frames, and loads of them were too small. Anyway, that was just being finished as I left.

On the Wednesday of my flight I got matatus to Nairobi with Doug, Simon (English), Kelly (Australian), Meital (Israel), and the Swiss girls, Laura and Cecilia. Then got the bus to the airport. I could have asked for my lift back, but I didn't want to risk Geoffrey taking me and not Zack, it would have made for an uncomfortable journey, even though I left on good terms.

I don't really remember my flight to Doha, it can't have been too interesting. When I was going through the security check at doha airport there was a man going through at the same time as me who had a massive blade hidden in his belt buckle. When questioned he said "What? Is it not allowed?". He must have been pretty stupid. I saw him walking around in the airport later, so I don't think they arrested him or anything, I don't think they gave him his belt back though.

The 12 hour change over time passed quite quickly, I got my free meal, slept for a while on the chairs. I looked a bit of a tramp because I was wearing my grey "Go local sports team and/or college" jumper, which had been washed in a bucket, by me, at the orphanage, so it smelled ok, it just looked dirty. Add to that the fact that i'm sleeping on what are basically benches, and I don't have anything with me (all checked in) apart from a bottle of water. Then add to that the fact that my last shower was a few days ago, also involving a bucket, and you've got a tramp.

The flight from Doha to Bangkok had those things where you can choose what to watch, and it was a really quiet flight so I had 2 seats to myself, it was nice.

I got a taxi to my hostel and then went to the bar, I started talking to a guy from Hungary. I didn't get his name, because if you get someones name you end up facebook friends, and then he'd be able to see this blog. He was really weird, he kept going on about how he was looking for an attractive prostitute. Then we both started talking to some guys from Denmark, and he kept telling these guys of his search. I made sure they knew I had only just met him.

The next day I relaxed a little, did some washing, not much else, in the evening I managed to get some free games of pool with the bar maid in the hostel, she beat me most of the time.

On saturday I looked at a map of Bangkok and decided that I could walk to the chinese embassy. It was a lot further away than I thought, but I managed it even though it took hours. The guy at the embassy said they closed on weekends (yes I should have thought it through) so I took the sky train back to my hostel area again. That night there were two groups of 3 british guys and another lone british guy, I don't remember names or places they were from, one group was ok, the other wasn't really my type of people. We all went out again on the sunday night and were out untill 6:00 in the morning, the group split up and I stayed with the more ok group. We got a Tuk Tuk back to the hostel and the guy was driving like a mad man, he even managed to make it do a wheely after stopping at a traffic light, we gave him a tip.

Sunday day time I met an Israely guy named Dror. "Like a drawer" is what he said. He was 36 hours away from his 9 month travelling trip coming to an end. He said he was looking forward to getting home. We went to the weekend market and he bought some stuff. I didn't, but I did find a Kenya Lonely planet guide from 1997, and it had Ali Hippy in it. Don't know if I explained Ali Hippy last time, he's a man that looks like a Walrus, living in Lamu, and he invites people to his house for dinner.

Monday, back at the chinese visa office, got a form, didn't have a photo, had to wait until the day after to use the photo booth at the visa place. Changed hostel just because I could. Feeling the night before I had a quiet night.

Tuesday, went to the indian visa office. Far better than the Chinese one, the people were way more helpful. So my passport is now at the indian embassy. Met a guy from Finland called Matti and an Italian who's name I can't remeber. I impressed the Finn by saying "Mita Vitua" at relevant moments, the one bit of Finnish that I learnt in Bratislava. The itallian showed us a website on his phone called Badoo, which is like facebook but for people who want to have sex with locals when they travel to other citys. He was weird.

Wednesday. Bored of Bangkok, I decided I wanted to go to Koh Mak, one of the smaller and less touristy islands. I tried to get a bus, but they had finished for the day, so I booked on one at 8am today.

Thursday, today. Got the bus, but it didn't get to Trat in time for the boat to Koh Mak, so I'm now here for a night with nothing to do. I've been to KFC and I saw a cat eating a lizard, and I'm pretty sure that's all Trat has going for it.

David