My world walk blog Thailand - 1

I restarted walking Asia at a coastal region just south of Bangkok in the Gulf of Thailand plan for Asia part two is to walk from here to Laos to Vietnam and reconnect with my old Asia route in Vietnam and China. From there I will walk towards South Korea and Japan. I plan to also stop at Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

it was not advisable to step into the ocean! That first day it was hot and steamy and I had to adjust my mindset to get readjusted to busy Asian roads again. The road crowded me out in places and after the tranquillity of Australia, this was a bit of an effort. That first day I walked to the centre of Bangkok and stayed with my friend from Dublin, Danny Corrigan. I had arrived at the airport a couple of days before and just made my way to his house. That's where I left Karma. So that day I didn't have to push Karma as I was staying another night with Danny and his family in their lovely plush apartment in Kensington Mansions.

That night the world cup final between Croatia and France was on. Unfortunately, Danny is not a soccer fan so I ended up going downtown to a sports bar to watch the French get the better of a spirited Croat side. I noted that a pint of Guinness or Heineken was about seven Euro there, more expensive than in Dublin or even my thirty-kilometre taxi ride from the airport. As Danny said to me. "No, your taxi man wouldn't be hanging out in such bars. They are mainly frequented by the Thai upper-middle class." 

"Or foreigners?" I added.  

Second road day in Thailand I made it to Yu Charoen Village. It took me a while to get going that morning after a late night watching the enthralling World Cup final I eventually was off walking out of Bangkok at around ten am. Thanks a million to my hosts in Bangkok, Danny Corrigan and family. 

Walking out of the city was pretty tough for the traffic was so heavy. Ah yes, I miss the easy life in Australia already. Many footpaths have trees, posts and other obstacles blocking my way, so there was a lot of roadworks and down off pavements and bumping my way along. Three times today there were barriers across the road to block traffic crossing and also because of roadworks it was a huge problem for me as the pedestrian way across was over a steep flyover with four flights of steps up and four more down. The first obstacle I managed to find a gap in the barrier. The second I stopped to talk to a man called Dome. I offered him a hundred Bah, about two and a half euro to help me up and over the steps. He didn't want to take my money but I insisted on tr, eating him and his friends to colas, what a relief as there seemed no other logical way around it. 

On the third occasion with about fifteen-minutes of patience, I made it across to the centre of the road and then completed my crossing.

It was then late. As there was no sign of a hotel, so I walked and walked. At 35 km for my efforts that day I stooped at a roadside cafe. I was eying a covered location to lay my sleeping bag down. In the meantime, I had a good chat of sorts with the owner whose name seemed to be Nom. 

It's was the rainy season and I had to hop between rain showers.