Pepys Show

Peterpan Internet, Bangkok

The day after I last wrote was Tweedie's 25th birthday, which we spent doing not a lot in Phnom Penh, culminating in dinner by the river which was frankly not as pretty as it sounded. Decent curry though. At the time Tweedie seemed pleased with her Cambodian Rolex, although it has since brought her out in hives. Another dollar wasted.

The next day we caught an early-morning bus to Siem Reap, where we spent three days on rented bicycles meandering round the ancient city of Angkor and its myriad historic temples. The temples are remarkable, but there's a limit to the amount of that sort of stuff I can personally look at in a certain amount of time without eventually seeing just a pile of rocks. The cycling, however, and the early-morning excitement it conferred, made Siem Reap a highlight, particularly as our hotel had a pool in which to soothe previously neglected muscles. I also woke up at 1.30am two days in a row (and stayed up thereafter - we left for the temples at 4.30am to catch the sunrise) to watch English teams get knocked out of the Champions League, a disappointment made bearable by seeing Ferguson's hilariously and presumably deliberately hypocritical reaction.

Our week in Cambodia had come to an end (their KFC is better than India's) and yesterday we boarded a "7-8 hour" bus to Bangkok. We were advised of a change of bus at the border; we were not advised of the taxi-coach-walk-border-walk-minibus-coach-walk itinerary which in reality lay ahead of us.

A short twelve hours after departure we arrived in the relative metropolis of Bangkok, and having missed out when we were last here ( 3 weeks ago) I visited the Grand Palace alone this morning, Tweedie having been on one of her thirteen previous visits to Thailand. I was a bit amazed at the glitzy splendour of the place, half-fairytale half-Legoland, but it was definitely spectacular and memorable.

A quick logistical update: our plan had been to go directly from Cambodia into Laos, then across into northern Thailand from there. However, after an inspection of transport options we opted to head back into Thailand and go north from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, making use of the superior Thai infrastructure, and still leaving us the option of getting to Laos from the west. I realise this paragraph reads a little bit like the opening conversational gambit of a middle-aged man at a dinner party, but I thought it might seem peculiar to those familiar with the area that we were back in Thailand.

Thailand's new year celebrations begin today amidst scenes of continuing protest by the so-called 'Redshirts' railing against the new government, offering a positively Pepysian opening for the opportunistic diarist/blogger. Sadly for posterity, this one is mainly swilling lukewarm Singhas on the Khuo San Road and wondering which Mr Men t-shirt (I'm between Mr. Lazy and Mr. Grumpy) to buy from the stall across the street. In my defence, Pepys didn't have to contend with such distractions.

Over.