Sawat dee ka from Bangkok!

(That's hello in Thai, as you might have guessed.)

We are drenched in sweat, sitting at the New Siam I hotel down a small alley in the middle of Bangkok. Outside of our hotel lobby scooters, hot pink taxis and pimped-out tuk-tuks (3-wheeled passenger scooters) are spewing noxious fumes, "Asia's Best Hits from Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" is playing on the radio and tourists are sipping Singha beer, trying very hard not to drown in sweat. The air doesn't move much in Bangkok, the heat is stifling and everyone has a thin, shiny layer of sweat on their sunburnt faces - including us. Oh, and our room has a fan and no blanket - but, who needs a blanket when the air drapes over you like a warm, wet rag?

It's hard to believe we arrived only last night because we've already done all the essential Bangkok tourist activities - all in under 24 hours: we had street Thai food, got a Thai massage, visited the Grand Palace, took a tuk-tuk ride through the city, saw the Sitting, Standing and Sleeping Buddhas, ordered a fine cashmere suit for Ryan and a silk dress for me from Bangkok's finest tailor shop and dodged about a hundred people offering us overpriced tours, souvenirs and other services. Without a Lonely Planet (we were too cheap to buy one) this might have been quite a challenge but, fortunately, we had the help of a couple of friendly Thais along the way. And now we're realizing that we are nearly cashed out. So, woe is us - no elephant rides, jungle treks or bamboo rafting down the river - just Tiger beer, green curry and maybe a few more massages for the next two weeks. Or there's always the ping-pong show... uhm, I mean the beach.

Not much more to say for now, we've only been here for 24 hours, after all. Did I mention we are sweating a lot?

P.S. One more thing we forgot to mention about Uluru - we got engaged there! Stay tuned for photos.

P.S.S. For those of you interested in knowing more about Ryan's brush with Sydney's criminal underworld, here's his account:

Ok, it was our last day in Australia. We were parked in front of our hostel, packing up our things in the campervan when I heard the front door close. I looked in the front seat and noticed the camera was missing. Some guy had walked by and snagged it (with ALL our photos from the past 3 weeks). So, I jumped out of the van and he bolted. I chased the SOB for 4 blocks and into some crack house. We were running up the stairs when I lost him. On the street, fellow low-lives were trying like hell to distract me with "he went over there" and "no, he went behind the building", etc. I figured the camera was gonners. Back at the van, my "FUCK, FUCK, FUCKs" attracted the attention of a local who helped me find the police. The cops went with me back to the "hotel" that I chased scumbag into. The "manager" said he lives in room 16 but he's not there. So the police gave him an "open it up!" and we went up. They asked me to wait outside the door as they went in to grill some cracked out floosy inside. I heard shouting and pleading, and several minutes later they actually came out with the guy! He was sweating like a pedophile in a playground! A few minutes later the other cop comes out with our camera....can you believe it! Then they asked me to go wait downstairs. I heard some serious screams and cries from that guy as i waited. They must have been giving him a real good working over. Anyway, we got our camera and I gaurantee he'll make sure noone's in the back seat next time.