Has it really been a month..

Hi Everyone!

Well... officially I need to say Bonjour as I’m writing this update from Paris.. So.. Bonjour.. Hope you & family are well in your respective parts of the world...

After a couple of weeks of blog inactivity and a couple of emails kindly requesting some updates of where I am and what I’ve been doing.. I’ve woken up early in Paris to write an update..

Here goes..since my last update (firstly in short form for those who prefer an executive summary). I’ve left the orphanage in Thailand..explored Bangkok.. flown via a horror Swiss Air flight to Zurich (more later).. arrived in England via Birmingham International Airport (a bonus as there was no immigration queue.. and no customs). Dazed and culturally still in Thailand I arrived in Birmingham to be greeted by my good friends Steve & Emma.. I managed to score a room at their place in Stratford-upon-Avon. After a birthday, a couple of days of rest, bike rides, wild blackberry picking, all things Shakespeare and some stand-in-dad duties I left Stratford-upon-Avon for a weekend visit to Birmingham and then hit the big city, London for seven days before flying to Paris to launch my France-Italy leg of adventures..

So that’s the summary.. a lame attempt to summarise four weeks of adventures into one paragraph.. Now for the details.. for all you details people..

Leaving Thailand
Leaving the orphanage was hard. After spending two months there it was hard to say goodbye.. We’d had a lot of fun together and enjoyed some good laughs and adventures... On my last night we had a little party.. enjoying some beautiful fresh fish from the dam in a dish I like to call ‘Fish & Rice’. We ate together and then enjoyed a dodge copy of ‘Ice Age’ in Thai with some pop-corn and chocolate cake.. some western treats that I found on one of my market adventures. The kids and I had a great night and it was a nice way to say goodbye.

The next morning after 90 or so goodbye hugs, I begun my adventure down to Bangkok on yet another bus ride. This one wasn’t too bad about 7ish hours.. I arrived in Bangkok for an overnight stay with my flight leaving late the next night.. I managed to meet up with Helen the volunteer co-ordinator from House of Mercy and spent the night venturing around with her and a team of volutneers that had just arrived from Albury-Wodanga.

The next day I enjoyed some sightseeing around Bangkok. Completely against my personality I hadn’t really planned anything for my time in Bangkok. In terms of the real Thailand I felt that I had a pretty good immersion out in the village areas. After looking over the the tourist map and speaking with a travel agent that I was put in touch with I ended up venturing down to the river for a river cruise.  Was a great day and nice to go a little adventure.

Swiss Air Flight LX420

The trip from Bangkok to Birmingham (via Zurich) was eventful to say the least.. The flight was about 11 hours.. and I had the guy from that Coldral - cold & flu ad next to me.. You know the guy.. the ad is from a couple of years back.. the guy that just doesn’t shut up.. “Fine now, earlier.. blocked nose, sinus... yada yada yada!!” So to my excitement.. I had about 8 hours of mindless chatter from this guy.. The only way I got some space was to retreat to the back and talk to the flight attendants for two and a bit hours..

Dazed and sick of mindless chatter.. (the best has to be how young people seem to be eating more yoghurt now a days.. RANDOM.. I know.. but this guy could talk about anything!).. So dazed and very tired. I arrived in Birmingham and made my way down to Stratford-upon-Avon to spend some time with my good friends Steve & Emma.. I had a nice 10 days with Steve & Emma and it was good to be with friends on my birthday. We ventured out most days going for bike rides, morning runs, afternoon walks, wild berry picking and did all the touristy stuff. While in the midlands I was also able to visit some family friends Ron and Elsa up in Birmingham for a weekend.

After enjoying Stratford-upon-Avon I made my way down to London to spend a week with some more friends Nathan and Elisha. London was great! Something to do any time of the day. Had a great time exploring London doing all the tourist spots but also enjoyed some market shopping at the Borough markets and some Jazz at an out of town jazz club.. a little like the Brisbane Jazz club in Kangaroo Point.

After a week in London I jumped on a plane to Paris to visit another friend Anna. I arrived late on Thursday night and pretty much wandered through the Immigration/Customs checkpoint.. It was bizarre.. I’m pretty sure the guy didn’t even look at my passport just waved me through and again.. no customs checkpoint.. Anna worked on Friday so I took to the streets and metro and checked out Notre Dame and the Lourve. One the weekend we ventured out to Eiffel Tower, Arc of Triumph, Montmartre and stopped off at this little market area 'Montorgueil' for a coffee and some people watching. All in all had a great time venturing around Paris...

Today (well tonight) where I’m writing the end of the blog I’m in Rome.. but the update of Italy adventures will have to wait.. not another month.. I promise..

Ciao
Damo