Bangkok! Also I got sunburn.

Oh hiiii guys... or should I say sabaidee! That's one of the five words I know in Lao now. 

Actually I have finally started Lao lessons and I'm pleased to report they are going well so far. I'm on top of introductions, phrases to use at the markets, ways to avoid pesky tuk tuk drivers and I can also say that I'm from Australia and that I don't understand Lao. Tom has been doing lessons since he started work so he is way more advanced than I, although I did manage to offer our security guard some homemade brownies the other day and he actually understood what I said!

My main shortfall has been getting to grips with how tonal the language is. Seriously the word for 'I' and 'testicles' is essentially the same bar a slight inflection which means when I do try to speak Lao in the real world I'm constantly paranoid that I'm ordering my balls a coffee. Awks.

But, I'll get to Laos life in a later post - yes, I am really going to try and apply myself to this thing - for now let's riff a little about a trip we took to Bangkok recently last month...

God, I love Bangkok. It's so big and loud and dirty. A literal concrete jungle so crammed with traffic that it takes half an hour just to get around the corner in a cab. Refreshingly hectic, gigantic and full on compared to sleepy little Vientiane. As much as I like Laos and the novelty of living somewhere far removed from Western comforts, I have to say it's nice to get away and drown myself in consumerism. In Bangkok you can go to shops like H&M and Muji, watch a movie at the cinema, drink amazing cocktails at a rooftop bar 60 floors up, eat a Whopper at the airport (yeah it was awesome) and pay for all of this on a credit card. No cards (eftpos and cc) are accepted anywhere in Laos so paying by card has actually become a total novelty. A not-so-good novelty.

Beep beep, toot toot!

We stayed in a lovely hotel on a small soi off the main shopping drag in the city and I loved the little side streets in this area. Exploring this part of the city was new to us so it was fun wandering down pokey lanes and stumbling upon cool buildings and great food stalls. Some things we found:

Love!

Cementing my new-found status as a WAG (oh jesus) we took this trip because Tom's football team, the Lao Elephants, were playing in the AFL Asian Championships just outside of Bangkok. The football itself was actually pretty fun. I was expecting school sports day vibes but it was quite the set up with around 14 teams from across Asia (including China, Japan, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Singapore) and it was held at a gorgeous polo club. The Elephants won a game which was awesome but sadly in the last game Tom pulled a 'hammy' and had to sit out :((((. He was hobbling for a week or so but doing much better now and he's even prepping for the next team trip to Cambodia. I also left game day with an injury... a crippling bout of sun burn. Ugh. I NEVER get sun burnt and so I guess this was punishment of 27 years of pretty careless slip, slop, slapping. It was not fun at all and now I understand what this horrible affliction is all about. I still have a terrible tan line on my shoulders to remind me. Noooo!

Game face. 

Look at this guy! So sweaty.

After game day Tom hobbled and I whinged-about-my-sunburn around Bangkok. We splashed out and had dinner at a Michelin Star restaurant Nahm which was amazing. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. Way better than the airport Whopper.

Then for some reason, maybe to completely counteract the classiness of Nahm, we also decided to do some real touristy crap and got a double pass to an aquarium on the basement level of a mall and Madam Tussauds. I just wanted to figure out how they got freakin' sharks and stingrays through a shopping centre and underground but we ended up mostly dodging Thai school kids and Russian tourists. So many Russians, what's the deal with that?

How did you guys even GET HERE!? 

N'aw.

Madam Tussauds was full of Asian celebrities. But there were a few familiar faces.

Hat, cane and jacket: model's own.

Yep. This happened.

You guys, he's so much taller than I imagined!

AND THIS.

Annnnd I have to end this post because Tom will probably murder me now. That's one of the reasons I'm skipping town this weekend and heading to BKK again with some girlfriends! Bye!