What about...

Food
As I've mentioned a couple of times, we've loving the food. So many delicious, fresh, bloody hot curries and noodles and things we've had no idea what they are but have smiled along and put them in our mouths. We've found we've had better, and cheaper, food the further we've gone away from places that look set up for tourists - everywhere there are little make-shift resturants with a couple of fold-out tables and plastic outdoor furniture on the sides of the roads and with only the vaguest of guidebook thai and some hand gestures 9 times out 10 we've had amazing meals on our tables in minutes (even if its not quite what we thought we were ordering). My chilli tolerance has reached all new heights.

Transport
Man I seriously think we've caught just about every manner of transportation possible: bus, car, motorbike, pushbike, back-of-ute, back-of-truck, ferry, rubber dinghy, long boat, speed boat, dive boat and every other boat in between. Now that we've worked out how to use the local buses it's heaps cheaper and more fun than getting taxis everywhere.

Design
In my old job in Melbourne I had a little poster over my desk that said 'Design: it's not what you put in, its what you leave out'. Obviously the 'less is more' philosophy never reached thai designers - these guys sure go for gold! Their philosophy seems to be as many colours, as many fonts, as many clip-art pictures, as many layer effects and filters as you can possibly cram on to everything at all times. Then times that by 8. And that philosophy seems to be everywhere - a New Zealand long-haul bus, for example, gets painted a sensible and professional colour like forest green or navy blue with possibly a stripe down the side for a stylish flourish. To the thai the side of a bus is a perfect chance to paint a sick dayglo airbrush picture of an crying eagle with a hooded skull coming out of its back against a background of lurid pink and green Batman logos. No wonder they love 80s metal so much here. More is more baby! (Guitar solo)

Cold Showers
Yep, love those. Actually only once in the last three weeks have we had a warm one, but its so hot here you get used to it pretty quickly. Along with the strong coffee its a good wake-up every morning!

Well thats enough, I better go. We're in a place called Phitsanulok - we'll travel today to visit the ruins of Sukhothai and begin the north section of our trip. I think Sonya will want to write a post about our second Bangkok expedition (much more successful than the first - lots of market shopping).

I'm waking up every morning buzzing and feeling excited and healthy ready to explore - and every night we hit the bed utterly shattered. Let's go! (Guitar solo #2)