Bangkok

So. The plane from Mumbai to Bangkok was full of mosquitoes and I was second to last on because our plane from London to Mumbai was late - it turns out that they only have one queue for women (and five for men) at Mumbai. I got lots of cross looks, but I tried telling people umpteen times that my flight was boarding and I really ought to hurry up. I figured that if they were relaxed about it, I ought to be too.

It's been a long, hot, tiring day. After a lot of prevarication and random aimless wandering, I started chatting to a friendly and safe looking security man in a temple. He convinced me to let him find me a tuktuk man to drive me around for the day after I realised that walking really was not going to be an option! For only 10 baht too. Anyway, it turns out that because it's New Year the government subsidise all tuktuks so they're very cheap today. It also turns out that the tuktuk men make massive amounts of money if you go shopping and (ideally) buy stuff. My man was lovely to start, but after the fourth shopping venue (where I was clearly going to buy nothing) I said no, and he got really angry with me and started shouting then turfed me out into the middle of nowhere. Not having slept much in a while, that kind of broke the straw, or whatever the phrase is, so I went to ask an old lady where in Bangkok I was and then started crying. The shame! It did mean that a nice lad who spoke English took over and stood with me at a bus stop to make sure I got the right bus home. An angel. I could've got a cab or another tuktuk, but the human kindness offered to me after what felt like deeply unfair anger calmed me and restored my faith in mankind.

He posted me (with instructions to the driver) to the Golden Mount, not a million miles from my hotel and I loved it there. You can climb right to the top and see for miles. The sounds of a trillion little bells, punctuated by the odd rumbling of a gong filled my ears.

To be honest, I think I am done being touristy. The shopping - why do I need jewellery and suits?? So much money spent on what? What for? I have turned into a home creature and love the company of people I care about. Happy doing treks and tours, but it's the human contact that means the most to me. I know it's just the first day, but right now a familiar hug would be worth the universe to me.