Reunited!

After bidding a reluctant farewell to Laos, we took a quick detour to Bangkok to pick up Joe, Sam’s younger brother. Joe is out for a month’s holiday and will be joining us as we steam through Cambodia. I think we must be chronically unproductive because in the 48 hours or so Joe had alone in Bangkok, he managed to see about 5 museums, 10 wats (including the Golden Palace) and get the full measure of the Khao San experience. Admittedly, he was jetlagged and woke up unnaturally early, but it took Sam and I about a week to do what he’d done in those hours! It’s lovely to see him, and hear all the news from home first-hand. Plus, he brought me a very exciting present: an English copy of Now magazine, which frankly was the highlight of my week. Is my shameful gossip addiction such an open secret? I bow my head in shame!

Incidentally, I am incredibly behind on news (gossip and otherwise) and am rather dreading job interviews when I get back. They are bound to drop in some passing reference to a major news story which broke whilst I was in deepest, darkest Borneo looking for monkeys. I shall look at them blankly, and they will assume I do not read the news. Au contraire! It’s just out here, we tend to catch up with the news several times a week, rather than several times a day as is my neurotic habit at home. My understanding of the last six months: everyone hates Gordon Brown, the economy is going to hell, there were big natural disasters in China and Myanmar (and something also happened in the Philippines), Britney’s still barmy, Boris is Mayor, Ashlee Simpson seems to rather have eclipsed Jessica, and Russia seems to be going rather mad. Is that it? Did I miss anything? We had CNN in a hotel room a few days ago, so I am all up-to-date on Russia/Algeria, thankfully. Although may I just digress even further and tell you all how much I hate CNN? I am ignorant – tell me there are better news options than this in America? Because frankly, if I lived there and had the choice between CNN and Fox News, I would probably just read the Onion and be done with it.

Before heading into Cambodia,  we spent a few more days in Bangkok and Koh Chang, a big island a few hours’ south. Every time I return to Bangkok, I like it even more. There’s so much to the city: endlessly different neighbourhoods from the worldly, chic Siam shopping malls and bars around Sukhumvit to the frenetic chaos of Chinatown. On this trip, Sam and I were keen to stock up on all things Western having been away from cinemas and chain shops for a month in Laos. I will take this opportunity to shamefully plug Bangkok’s cinemas to anyone stumbling across this on Google (I may have already done this – if so, I do apologise for being so tedious). The perfect lazy afternoon here constitutes heading to Paragon or MBK, curling up in one of the lovely armchairs and enjoying an Imax or VIP cinema experience there. We saw The Dark Knight on Imax and now I can’t imagine seeing it any other way.

The other highlight of our third trip to Bangkok was the Weekend Market. Joe’s Rough Guide pointed us there – and how right it was! We had a wonderful afternoon. Sam bought far too many t-shirts, I found a pretty green cotton dress which I’ve been living in ever since, and Joe bought a watch for a bargainous price. In between our rare display of consumerism, we drank peach iced tea and watched the crowds go by. There was a lot to see: adorable litters of well-brushed puppies for sale, beautiful arty house accessories (I just thought of the postage costs and gave up in despair), and bus-loads of eccentric locals and tourists. We all agreed it was one of the best things we’d done in Bangkok. I am very annoyed that my flight home is on a Friday night. A last hurrah at the weekend market would have been ideal.

After Bangkok, we wandered down to Koh Chang in search of some beach living. Although we relaxed on Don Det, we didn’t dare swim in the river water (crocodiles! parasites! my latent Daily Mail sensor went off like mad). So spending some time on an exotic beach was most welcome, especially for Joe. And Koh Chang actually surpassed our expectations. It was a perfect beach, and really quiet because it’s off-season at the moment. It did rain a fair amount, but we had one idyllic day in the sun. I watched the boys cavorting in the sea, and mentally composed affectionate e-mails to their mum (‘Boys getting along so well. They are very sweet together. Today, I saw Sam trying to put Joe on his shoulders in the sea.’) Naturally, at that moment I saw Sam coming towards me from a completely different direction. He read my thoughts immediately: ‘You thought those two boys were us, didn’t you? After three and a half years together, you can’t tell who your boyfriend is in the sea!’

Well. In my defence, it was a very sunny day and I had lost my upteenth pair of sunglasses.

One more random digression – Congratulations to my (not so very) little sister Jane, who just got straight A’s in her A-levels and is off to Cambridge to study History. I was almost as nervous as she was on results day, and I was stuck in a tiny Cambodian village with limited internet access. Thankfully she’d e-mailed me so I could pick that up with little difficulty, rather than Skypeing her as I’d planned. See? Both clever and dutiful! I am looking forward to lots of weekend shopping jaunts in Cambridge, and fully playing the Bountiful Older Sister Card(tm).