UK its OK

Well comrades, after a successful tour of the UK its time for my assault on the Western Europe mainland. Time's flown by, as have the cities we visited, and Im feeling the effects of the whirlwind road trip that Daz and I just finished... or is that just my body trying to deal with one too man Scottish breakfast. With two weeks, a hire car, big plans (that seem to have excluded any interest in taking a moment to relax) and clean socks and jocks, (at least they were at the start of the trip!) excluding a train to Edinbugh we drove 2000 miles, 3200km through parts of Scotland, Wales and England… Or for those playing at home (yes you Dad) we've checked out or stayed in Dumfries, Stirling, Edinburgh, The Scottish Highlands (Fort William, Loch Ness, Loch Carron) the Isle of Sky, Oban, Glasgow, the Lakes District (stayed in Elterwater near Ambleside), Cardiff, Bath and Oxford… all in two weeks.

It was a pretty amazing little jaunt around the Kindgdom that bought us face to face with so many world famous landmarks, cities, stunning natural beauty, great people and all the warm beer you can drink... my heads still spinning!

Way too many highlights to mention all but... Edinburgh in full Fringe celebration was super cool. A picturesque city of fairytalesk beauty with Edinburgh Castle as a crown. Throw in several thousand culture hungry Fringe punters and you've got yourself quite the package. Bath was a cool little town with plenty of history and charm. The Roman baths were thought provoking, and Oxford provided the funniest real life cliché when we walked into a pub full of young blazer wearing chaps with suitably hilarious, pretentious English high society accents. That made for a much more amusing living the cliché moment than the rambling conversation I had with some alcoholic crazy guy at 9am one morning in Glasgow. The amazing beauty, vastness, castles, lochs, castles on lochs etc etc of the Scottish Highlands also definitely deserve glowing praise...but Im out of adjectives and only have a Chez Thesaurus.

Although their photos proceeded their introduction, a big Gday, in extra thick Aussie accent, to Edinburgh local Lisa for introducing Daz and I to terrible Scottish television, and much better nightlife... and an even bigger fair dinkum top work Shiela to Yvonne for lending a couple of smelly boys a place on her carpet in Glasgow for a couple of nights. And it goes without saying, big ups to the big fella Bevington!! Cheers for a super rad showround your home collective nations, look forward to having a warm Fosters with you back in more familiar surrounds.

In summary, great times, but could have done with a little less rain and a lot less fried food. But I guess thatd make the national Scottish uniform of wellington boots look even sillier then wouldnt it... Hello Prague, and hello sunshine ... pretty please.

Less than 4 weeks till Ames meets me in New York, Yay!! Hang in there chick!

UK pickies

Fit for a giant... the hostel life

Sleepy Lakes District town Elterwater

On the road... or rail

Our generous Glasgow host Yvonne

Edinburgh Crew including Lisa (in black scarf next to Daz)

Edinburgh Fringe Action

Drunken Lout

Edinburgh Castle

Haggis'n

Dumfries Party Crew represent!

Getting arty @ Tate

Llrrddfffrrkpllllrk

Here's a loch, there's a loch everywhere's a loch loch!



Having covered the Scottish highlands, English Lake District and a wee bit of Wales I'm able to report more castles, lochs, rain and rolling green mountains covered in sheep than a tourist can know what to do with... Weather's been hit and miss ruinning a day or two's plans but the beer, cider, fried breakfasts, fried lunchs and fried dinners continue to flow.



In Cardiff today working on my Welsh, the language without vowels. Closer to Oompa Loompa (how do you spell it??) than English. It's also the inspiration behind today's post title... which is probably some kinda Welsh swearing... or the local Rugby sides name.



Facilities to support photo uploading are hard to come by of late... stay tuned.. and yes it will include a ye olde style Haggis feast!



Cheers for the comments and emails

Tourin Britain

Who's been a busy boy then??

I arrived in London on 12 August, a day late after missing my flight from Bangkok due to a little am/pm mix up (airlines can be so pedantic about these things). After my 6am arrival I was a coffee and a shower away from two days of zombified stumbling around the sights and sounds of old London town. Of the many highlights (Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Changing of the Guards) it was the Tate Modern that I dug the most, and began my addiction to those interpretive headset thingos. I want to wear one everywhere I go!!!

40 hours after landing in Heathrow I was packed and off again, led by tour guide Bevington to the train station bound for Dumfries in Southern Scotland for a good ol' barn party!! Daz, his housemates Nick and Willow, friend Danni, a case of Carslberg and I wrongfully claimed some seats in the first class section as we headed North. After a couple of nights in Dumfries it onward and upward once again to Edinburgh. Three nights in Ed were a blast (and a blur). The Fringe was in full swing and thanks to Daz and Nick we had free tickets to 9 shows in three days... This left little time for much else other than drinking, checking out the amazing Edinburgh Castle and excessive amounts of mimicking the local accent.. only a wee bit!

For our own health (and in the interest of leaving some Fosters for other Fringe goers) we were away again. With our own set of wheels we set off for our tour to northwest Scotland and in recent days have covered Fort William, Loch Ness, Lochcarron, the Ise of Skye, Oban and everywhere in between). Glasgow yesterday, York Tomorrow... From there the plan is to meander our head back through Wales, Bath, Oxford then eventually to London before I fly out...

Moments in time

New Meat

Spicy seafood Salad with glass noodles - a fav

Fast Food

Kind vendors humouring the tourist

Ready to roll...

My impressions of Bangkok are constantly changing by the day and I think it might take some time apart before I really know how I feel … It’s not you it’s me! The extremely dirty polluted streets, air and waterways remain top of mind, but are less confronting as time goes by. As the headache and cough I earned after 20 minutes standing at a major BK intersection passed, so to does the clammy, gritty grime feeling of your skin after a day in the humid smog with a good douse of undrinkable water.

The second most striking thing about Bangkok, particularly the City centre and tourist hubs I’ve orbited, is the enormous number of people trying to make a living on every square inch of space available. Street stalls selling cheap imitation clothing, trinkets odds and ends, tuk tuk and taxi drivers stalking a fare, food stalls and carts offering fresh fruit, ecoli laden small goods, icecream sandwiches, roadside restaurants, beggars, hustlers and prostitutes… you can get anything for a price in Bangkok.

Such a big busy, dirty city, packed with locals chasing a cut of the tourist dollar is tiring. It’s taken some time to work it out. For example a tuk tuk driver earns about 200 Baht (around $8 AUD) commission for every jewellery store, tailor, boat ride, ping pong show,whatever he takes a tourist to, plus a percentage of any purchase you make. So if you’re offering 100 Baht for a cross town fare the maths is against you getting where you want without a stop or two.

All up I guess I found Bangkok to have some good, some bad. It certainly didn’t live up to my lofty expectations but was a great place to start the adventure and you couldn’t ask for a better exchange rate at which to learn some lessons. While I would love to have got ot of Bangkok to explore other parts of Thailand... there's always next time.

Hot!

Cheap imitation clothing - my bag’s 4kgs heavier than when I arrived!

Cheap Singha beer – a friend in need is a friend indeed

Cool crew on the road – Boonma the Thai teacher from the North of the country, and Pat from Brizvegas on a tour of self discovery

Delicious Thai cuisine on every street corner

The smiling local faces … that aren’t immediately followed by the lines, where you from? Where you going? Tuk tuk?

Chao Phraya River – respite from the concrete jungle

The King… apparently!?!?! The whole countries united in their love for him

The temples and Monks… bringing sexy back, orange robes are so this season

Tuk tuks

What?

• Pollution – grey streets, grey skies, in your lungs and in your eyes
• Amazing grand and lavish temples, monuments and landmarks one street, homelessness, poverty and collapsing shanties the next.
• ing pong shows – very pricy and not all that they’re cracked up to be
• So much traffic… going nowhere slowly

Look out London here I come!