Boo-licious!: Man who walks through airport turnstile sideways...

...is going to Bangkok.

I've known that joke long before I could even find Bangkok on a map, but let us not dwell on this little fact.

After a two week fun-filled roadtrip through Oz land with Lin, I have returned to the cooler and drier climate of Adelaide. Before I get to the juicy details of that trip, I'll try to finish telling you about my time in SEA.

Soon after the sea kayaking expedition in Phuket, we spent three and a half days in Bangkok. On the night we flew in, we had dinner at Cabbages and Condoms, a restaurant whose food is "guaranteed not to cause pregnancy." Male diners even have the added bonus of receiving a free vasectomy at the clinic next door if they so desire. I, however, was happy just to get free internet while waiting for my entree.

Besides not getting pregnant in Bangkok, I also played pick-up with some locals. I didn't bother to bring my cleats for one day of Ultimate on a month long trip, but during that one hour of playing, I definitely wished that I had. The most exercise I got in Bangkok, however, was the leisurely stroll turned four hour trek from the city centre to the railway station with Henry, Caryn, and Indhu on the second day. The lesson learned from that activity? You can't assume that tourist maps are always drawn to size.

Indhu, Caryn, and Henry mapping the 'quickest' route to the train station. Little did we know then that that would be useless...

To enrich ourselves of Thai culture, we also visited the Grand Palace:

One photo amongst many taken of the Palace

and Wat Pho - the Reclining Buddha (see below):

And if you are too lazy or faced with time/budgetary constraints, you can visit Ancient City in Pattaya, about an hour outside of Bangkok, which is a huge park featuring miniature replicas of major landmarks and other buildings that exist or used to exist in Thailand.

My feelings of visiting Ancient City are mixed. I suppose if you actually knew what you were going to see, it could be an entirely positive experience, especially since it does provide a nice overview of what you could see throughout all of Thailand or what you could have seen if you had only shown up a couple of centuries sooner. However, we thought we were going on a tour of the ancient city of Ayutthaya (also known as Siam) -- a real city -- that was destroyed by the Burmese in the 1700s and later rebuilt near the old site. So keeping that in mind, when I got to "Ancient City" I felt a bit cheated. It's kind of like going to Hollywood expecting to meet cool celebrities only to discover that you've somehow ended up at Madame Tussaud's wax museum instead. I don't care how real Whoopi's dreads look in wax form, it won't float my boat unless it's the real thang, ya know?

Well, I'm not sure how all of this got lost in translation at the tour agency, but our utter confusion upon entering the park was entertaining enough to me that it made getting up at the crack of dawn and dragging my tired, whiny butt over there almost worthwhile.