I’ve been in Bangkok for a few days now, after leaving the comfort of my Phuket haunts behind to venture towards the as yet uncharted North, where I check into Spicythai Backpackers tomorrow morning after a 12 hour train journey over night. – Seated sadly as all the beds were booked up. My fault for leaving it too long before booking the seat.

So since my escape from the Wat Suan Mohhk Meditation Retreat, I’ve been to the Full Moon party on Koh Phangan, where too many Mushrooms was the common theme among the group I was with, of course in my case I enjoyed it! It was a fun weekend which was an cloud of music, lights, dancing barefoot in the sand, buckets of drink and random conversations with strangers. To be honest, it was too busy to be my normal scene, and many of the people were exactly the people who go to all the clubs I avoid back home, but I was with Awesome people (Well, before I got lost in my Mushroom trance, and after I found them the next day!) and it’s another Thailand activity ticked off the list.

Here in Bangkok I’m staying at the Hostel International Sukhumvit (HI Sukhumvit) which is a wonderful place, less then 5 minutes walk from the Sky Train station which has allowed easy access to tons of sights, considering in the past I’ve not really ventured far beyond Khaosan Road I now feel like I have visited Bangkok properly.  I’ve been to several of the big shopping centers such as the MBK Center, Siam Center, Siam Discovery Center, MBK been the most interesting, much more of an indoor market type feel in parts, more traditional shops and fast food (Thai style) in other parts, the other malls been much more western in look and feel, with known brands and prices that pretty much match what you can find back home with little effort on the Internet.

My more random adventures involved meeting Chris – A fellow traveller from Phuket Backpacker – within seconds of getting to the hostel, so I checked in, and walked right out the door to take a trip to the big weekend market, which was huge though much of the stall contents is identical shop to shop, there were some unique items here and there, and I found it very worth visiting.

Yesterday on the way back from getting tickets I found myself and Ruth – Who I’d just met at the Hostel, also needing tickets to Chiang Mai, so we headed off together – faced with a Tuk Tuk ride to the Sky Train stop we wanted as our plan of walking rather then getting the Underground didn’t really work! We were offered a cheap fare of 10 bhat each, but would need to visit a Tailor on the way and spend 10 minutes there, so, it’s basically a scam, but I was impressed the guy was up front about it, and hell, we had noting better to do, so we agreed, and bounced around busy main roads, down back streets and wound up at the tailor where the guy seemed to focus on getting Ruth to buy a suit set rather then me,  I suspect my look suggests I am not really one to be buying suits, but who knows. He was asking about £50 per item, so jacket, trousers and skirt for £150 which you could easily get down to £120 if not less was actually a really good price, to be honest I really wish I had enough money to get a suit made up before I headed home as it would be very handy for interviews! Anyway, we played along and then decided we’d done enough to head out, and on the way the Tuk Tuk driver did try and take us to one more stop, we firmly declined, and insisted we go to our requested destination of the MBK center, and to his credit he smiled and agreed without hassling us any more.

Last night was also the inauguration of President Barack Obama in America, and I was pleased to find that as we arrived back at the hostel the small TV in the corner of the lobby had CNN’s live coverage of the event, so we added into our plan of drinking a few beers on the roof time to watch the event unfold later in the evening – Washington D.C been 12 hours behind we had a few hours to drink and banter with the girls we discovered already up on the roof, and at about half 11 when much of our group decided to turn in, I picked  up my laptop and settled down to watch history unfold.

There was an eclectic mix of people watching from the lobby of this Bangkok hostel, a few Americans – Included a woman who was a proud Republican – Which stood out as most Americans you meet travelling are committed Democrats, or at least that’s been the way things have seemed to me so far – Australians, and various Europeans.  Some people clearly cared deeply about what was happening, others were just having a beer and watching the ceremony just because it happened to be on. Personally, I was fairly moved to see so many people taking an interest in the event and was impressed with President Obama’s inauguration speech, and now if anyone asks “Where you the day Barack Obama was made President of the United States?” I’ll know exactly what I was doing: Drinking beers on a roof top garden in Bangkok.

First, to bring my progress upto date, long story short with all the protests aginst the now ousted government in Thailand my flight was delayed and finally rebooked for the 9th, but some where along the line that actually got booked for the 8th, so last night at 3am as I was about to finish a late night coding session and decided to check in online, found it telling me the flight was the next day, and had a mad panic to throw everything together leaving a lot of mess in my wake (Sorry Mum!) I had a nice easy day in mind to just tie the last few things together and going for carvery, but instead here I am, sitting in Doha tapping out a blog post.

So far it’s all been a bit dull to be honest.
Manchester Airport: Seen it before.
Fly to another country on my own: Done it before.
Doha Airport: Seen it before.
The Dark Knight in flight movie: Seen it before.
Hancock in flight movie: New!

Yes, so far the highlight of my trip has been watching Hancock, which was surprisingly good, and i’d recommend giving it a watch.

When I finally make it into Bangkok this afternoon I still haven’t decided where I’m going to head on the 11th, it might be a little close to the full moon to head to the party on Koh Phangan, so perhaps my initial track of heading to Koh Lanta – one of the quieter islands to the South West of the gulf of Thailand – might be the best option to get some sea air and just chill out for a few days while I chill out and plan some more wild adventures and work on some website stuff.

Oh and the food in Doha Airport is terrible, not because it’s strange, but because the quality just seems very poor – I’ll have breakfast on the next flight though, and worst the coffee chain in residence is Costa Coffee, which I loath. Why couldn’t it be Starbucks?! And I have no idea what the exchange rate is or anything, so just avoiding buying anything here for now.

With that out of the way, my travel plans for Summer and beyond are starting to really take form now as tickets are now purchased, as part of updating the blog I updated the count down to my new planed exit date of the 1st of December, to find that leaves me exactly 200 days before I fly off to Thailand and start on my adventure around South East Asia.

Travel Diary To Date:

July: Latitude Festival in Suffolk, England – Tickets Purchased.

August: Way Out West Festival in Gothenburg, Sweden – Tickets Purchased – With a side trip to Stockholm to catch up with a friend, including a trip to Garlic and Shots which I am promised is amazing.

August: Amsterdam – For a friends Stag Do, flights now booked.

December: Thailand! Starting in Bangkok on the 1st and working though the country to arrive at Lonely Beach on Koh Chang in time to spend Christmas there. While it’s a bit early to make detailed plans, I wouldn’t be surprised if Treehouse is where I end up having Christmas dinner.

Since there are people flying out to Thailand specifically to spend a couple of weeks over Christmas then it puts been on Koh Chang firmly on the schedule so we can all meet up, but beyond that everything is going to be pretty much on a whim. Though I am researching what festivals and events are happening around South East Asia for the whole period of time I am out there and will aim to make it to as many unique events as possible.

Filling The Gaps:

June is looking pretty empty currently, as is September so I’m searching for something to fill them up with and will hopefully get some time at a friends caravan, which will be a great way to chill out as a group of friends. October is going to be a local affair with my Birthday, my friend’s Wedding, and Warrington’s version of Oktoberfest which is an annual event everyone who’s anyone goes to in these parts. November is up in the air, depending on when my Sister is studying abroad in Finland, if she’s there I’ll be visiting, if she is going early 2009 I’ll catch her just after getting home from Thailand.

However, when it comes to seriously planning a round the world trip and making it a reality, a Volkswagen from the 70′s isn’t quiet as attractive when you actually have to deal with unmaintained roads, mountain passes and extreme weather conditions.

If I was just planning on driving around Europe, then one of the classic VW campers would be perfect, they have everything you need to make a homely living space, but as I start looking at viable routes, and reading up on other peoples experiences, it becomes clear that while not impossible in a camper van, they are massive advantages to driving a 4×4.

At first the concept of abandoning a camper van in favor of a four wheel drive jeep type setup was a bit disheartening, I never really pictured myself as a 4×4 driver, and I tend to frown upon people who use a 4×4 as their day to day vehicle. But since I’m not just driving to the shops, any conditioned guilt about large cars is soon replaced with certainty that it’s the most viable mode of transport.

I’ve started to have a bit of a look at the type of 4x4s there are out there, and have even seen a few camper van type models, but there is a lot of choice out there so I will have to carefully research the options.

Now I’ve settled on the 4×4 in order to better prepare for the trip I’ve also started looking up various off road driving courses around the country, which actually look very reasonably priced at around £150 per day, so something that would defiantly been worth while.

Without really looking into the practicality of any of these, here are the first five gadgets that leap to my mind:

Solar Panels on the roof

Gadgets need power, and I don’t need to be burning fuel needlessly, but adding some solar panels to the roof should give me all the power I need – I plan on getting a solar powered backpack too, which has enough juice to power a laptop of PDA/GPS so a whole roof full should be perfectly achievable and useful. Obviously something that needs some research but I don’t see any problem with mounting solar panels on to the top of a camper van.

Satellite Phone and Internet

This is on my must have list, not only can I keep blogging from near enough anywhere in the world and work in the most remote locations on the earth, but it’s unbelievably cool. I’ve already done some initial research into roaming with the BGAN satellite internet connection.

Titanium Inka Pen

These compact pens look amazing and since I came across them on David Seah’s blog I’ve been very tempted to get one. The regular version will do for right away, but when it comes to traveling I’d like the idea of having something as rugged as possible, and the Titanium version of the Inka Pen looks perfect. The fact it can fit on a keyring so easy to carry around near enough anywhere without thinking about it, combined with the fact it can write nearly anywhere make for a really attractive looking pen.

Odd Essay Vehicle Mounted Cam

The idea of having a camera mounted on a car has been mulled around in conversations with friends for ages, so I can’t be sure who came up with it in the first place, I think it was more a general realization that it would be ace to have something rigged up to take a picture at regular intervals, and driving around the world makes this seem like the perfect time to set up some sort of time lapse capture.

GPS

Pretty much a no brainer. GPS is a must for traveling long distances in unknown places and I think driving around the world comes into that category. I’m using the MDA Vario III right now (A rebranded HTC TyTN II/Kaiser) and I’d probably expand that with an antenna mounted on the bus.