31.08 - 03.09: Nearly the end of the beginning

For Jono and Maja the epic journey to south east asia began in Mozambique. Half past four in the morning to be precise. Wayne Woodley was banging on the door, and we realized that Jonos awesome Sony Ericson had failed to wake us up. Again. The reason behind this early start was to go on a seach and retrieve mission for Waynes abandoned ’ship’. The previous afternoon he had managed to sink his fishing ski about two kilometers from the shore, and had to swin back with a small piece of rope from which he tied his knife, in case of a shark attack of course (jokes aside, he nearly died).
Anyway, he predicted that the wind would blow the ski to Ponta Mamoli, and we should have a look there before returning to South Africa so the backpackers could catch their flight to Bangkok later on that evening. As predicted the ski had washed ashore, still holding both fishing rods and a kuta of impressing size. With the help of a tractor and some locals the ski was loaded on to the car, and we were on our way back to S.A. After rushing to Hilton (where Tyron met up with us), checking in online and packing three and half months supplies in under 30 minutes, we rushed back to Durban, stopped by Tyrons house, and were at the airport an hour before our flight.

Sitting on the plane, Jono got a sudden urge for the Johannesburg airports falafels, and this quite predictable urge almost lead to the colapse of the entire trip. We got off the plane, missioned down to ’Anat’ where we got quite comfortable. A little too comfortable. Not until Jono was completely satisfied, Tyron had phoned quite an impressive amount of people, and Maja had put on her ’pretty face’ we casually strolled towards the check in. 45 minutes before our flight was about to take off, which is exactly 15 minutes after the check in closes. Still unaware of this, Jono suggested a quick mug and bean coffee and Tyron concluded that it would probably be better if we dropped off our bags first. At the check in however we were rudely informed that the flight was already boarding, and that we would have to book new tickets for the following day. Maja started hyperventilating (knowing that we can’t afford new tickets), Jono (still in falafel-land) couldn’t really see the seriousness of the situating while Tyron started shouting at the rude lady walking away. ”Excuse me! We have already checked in online!” After some sweet talking she switched on the system, informed us that our bags would arrive a day later and that we should ”RUN!”. And so we did. In the wrong direction. The gate had been changed and after a quick sprint we found ourselves at gate A18 – when we were supposed to be at A4. Sprinting towards the gate Tyron pointed at a moving qatar plane and shouted ”look its leaving!” which seemed to snap Jono out of falafel-land because he took of like a mad man through the duty free. Maja however was gasping for air and was about to give up on the entire episode when one of the big fat securityguards (sitting quite comfortbly on a bench) shouted ”Eish! Rrrun sister, rrrun!” Giggeling through gasps she eventually reached the gate after the two others.

Qatar airways impressed us with awesome service, comfortable seats and not too bad food. We changed flights in Doha without any problems (yes, we do learn from our mistakes). In Bangkok we were all excited to see that our three bags plus Jonos surfboard had travelled with us the whole time, and we were quickly on our way in a taxi to Bangkoks backpacker street Khao San Road. We checked in to a cheap guest house, put down our bags had a shower and went out for a little walk in our new neighboorhood. We drank amazing fruit shakes, concidered eating crickets (we didn't, but the guys are still looking for disent quality) and spotted Captain Jack Sparrow who seemed to be a bit lost from the Carribean. Rum maybe?

The next day we decided to go sightseeing with one of the Tuk-tuks. One of the drivers offered us a really good price on one condition. He had to take us to one tailor shop and he would get a petrol coupon. We thought fair enough, but after he had taken us to two tailor shops and one jewellery shop in addition to all the temples and buddahs we wanted to see we were tired and over the whole thing. We asked him to take us to Siam Square so we could indulge in the airconditioned malls. The driver however was not yet satisfied with his amount of coupons and repetetively started saying "I help youuu. Youuu nooo help meee". He then pulled over and said it would be better if we took a taxi 'from here'. But where was here? We walked around for a little bit and after talking to four different drivers we found a guy claiming to be Michael Schumacher, who defenently would have given the real Michael a race for his money, even in a tuk-tuk. A few split seconds and a flash later we were at Siam Sqaure. Here, we met up with Tyrons cousin Jason. Who, over a starbucks coffee, could tell us all about travelling in Asia, having spent the last 15 years there. After coffee we caught the skytrain to the red light district in Nana. Like moths we couldn't resist the neon lights, and were quickly comfortably seated in a bar with a drink each. We got back to the guest house in a reasonable time (2 am) but only after the two boys had been harassed by the lady boys (the worst off being Jono with someones finger up his bum as he walked past), Tyron checking out the most beautiful "girls" who happend to have male genitals, and Maja got a quick spanking by a naked local. Today we have changed rooms (we felt like a something with aircon and a plug point...), and now we are off to get our first thai massages (I am sure there are many more to come).