Died-tired we arrived in Bangkok. The flight from Cape Town to Singapore had a stop-over in Johannesburg and took about 13 hours. Then a 3 hour wait at Singapore airport, and a 2 hour flight to Bangkok. Lasse and Sil were sleeping in the taxi to our hotel. It took us a couple of days to get over our jetlag. Not only due to the difference in time and climate, but most of all due to the cultural differences. Bangkok, a really big city, with about 7 million people in it, but very well organized, clean (except for the smog) en breathing a relaxed atmosphere. We spent our first week sight-seeing Bangkok, the canals, the streets, markets, the different houses, the temples and Buddha's, the street vendors, the restaurants, the toilets (who needs paper?), the tuk-tuk's, the taxi's, the mopeds, the guys wanting to sell you a tailor-made suit (that would be really the last thing we'd like to be busy with at this moment) ,everything. Our hotel, Rambuttri Village Inn, was really downtown, so we could see the smallest wheels of the economy turning and churning, right in our street.

Let's describe some of the differences with Africa! No (male) macho-behaviour, but friendliness and joy in the streets. Thai people are very aware of their own well-being and take good care of their mind and body. Everywhere you can see massage and beauty shops, lots of fruit sellers on the streets. And of course lots of monks all over the place. The Thai are very religious and next to the tens of dozens of huge temples around the city, there are mini-temples on every street corner. Sights that both we not often found in Africa. Furthermore, Thai people are very organized and ambitious, as opposed to Africa, where people tend more to accept things the way they are, being very close to, and in balance with nature and the animals.