Last day in Udon Thani

Friday - 9 May 08

Hello to one and all. Today is our last day in Udon Thani and we have had a good, relaxing day. We were awake early (6am) and decided to take a walk to the 7 eleven to get some decent milk and some sugar cubes for our coffee (we bought our own big tin of Nescafe from oz) and besides the hotel charges you for the tea and coffee sachets you use and they are pretty stingy on sugar.

We stopped by reception and told them we will stay another day (today, as we pay daily rather than pay for days ahead in case we don't like it) our room had been booked for a new guest coming in so we had to room move but sat around all morning waiting for the people in our new room to check out so the cleaner could clean and we could move our stuff. We ended up with a huge room that you can fit 20 Thai families in and still have room to swing a cat.

The weather was probably the most humid day we have had since arriving in Thailand with lots of low storm clouds so we weren't in favour of going out walking too far today, so we hung around the hotel for most of the arvo catching up with emails and relaxing. Later this arvo we went for a walk to the Central bus terminal not far away to buy our tickets for the bus to Pattaya tomorrow. The bus leaves at 8.30am and its about a 12 and half hour trip so we probably won't arrive until 9pm tomorrow night, a long trip, so we are travelling first class, air con with a toilet, how lucky are we? The second class bus leaves at 4pm tomorrow arvo, no air con, no toilet I'd hate to be the people travelling on that bus. Lucky for us the bus is a direct trip to Pattaya which means we won't have to change buses in Bangkok like we had planned, so we get to avoid Bangkok which makes us happy. We met an older English guy(our age) at the bus station and he was giving us the info on the bus trip and about Pattaya, says its full of girlie bars and westerners and to go with an open mind because it can shock and educate. He was quite friendly and explained to him we don't drink so won't be hanging around any of those places or that area of Pattaya.

We haven't booked any accommodation as the accommodation in Pattaya and Jomtien Beach is quite expensive so we will have to look around for a decent place for a reasonable price when we get there. We only want to stay 2-3 days max and then head off to Hua Hin and then on to Koh Tao. We are itching to get up to Chiang Mai, Mae Hong Son and Pai in Northern Thailand and spending a few weeks there.

Tonight we were going to do the rest of the markets and go to Sizzler for dinner, but its still so humid and there is lightening around and we have to be up early to be at the bus station at 8am, so we had dinner in the restaurant here, steak chips and veges, and back to our room to sort out backpacks and what have you so we are ready to move on tomorrow.

Its Friday and it must be the big night in Udon Thani. The streets are buzzing with traffic, people and music, around 6pm this place comes to life every night but more so tonight it seems to be more alive, I guess like anywhere else it because its the end of the week and people like to get out and about. It still spins me out seeing whole families all travelling on the one motorbike and they are just so casual about it.

Anyway best get going and finish sorting these backpacks out. Until next time!!!!!!