Time seems to be going so quickly. Yet at the same time it seems like soooo long since I left Korea, the kids are almost a distant memory.

Today I leave Chiang Mai and head to Bangkok to meet Katrina. Although Emily and I have been travelling for almost a month already it feels like once we meet Kat the journey really begins.

Chiang Mai has been a lot of fun. We’ve done some amazing things and had some unforgettable experiences. Having already done three countries it is great to compare and contrast with the last place we went to.

Korea has been the most developed and technogically advanced with many high rise buildings. Whilst the traditional Korean stuff is still there it feels almost as though it is being lost to development and westernisation.

The Philippines was an amazing experience, as I’ve said before Manila was a shit hole and somewhere I would never choose to go back to. Bacolod however was a lot of fun. Staying with Fatima and her family added to the experience as we were able to get a glimpse into a Filipino family and live with them for two weeks. This is definitely somewhere I would love to go back to. However Bacolod is still very poor. Everything there is poorly maintained and dirty, very little money seems to get spent on anything and some of the people there literally have nothing. It did however make me appreciate how lucky I am to have everything I have, the ability to travel and the security of knowing I not only have my dad place to go home to but also my own house in Preston.

Whilst in Bacolod I got on very well with Fatima’s brother, Federick. He is the same age as me and lives in the Piaid (Bamboo hut thing) in their garden. Brian isn’t there most of the time and it is important to have a man in the house, he doesn’t have a job because they like him to be around to help around the house and he lives off what they give him. It seems almost inconceivable that someone could live like that sleeping in a bamboo hut in the garden with almost nothing – yet by Fillipino standards they are a wealthy family!

After leaving bacolod we moved on the chiang Mai in Thailand. Thailand is much more wealthy than the Philippines and much more developed. Chiang Mai is probably the cleanest place we have been to so far with everything well maintained and the attention to detail on the front of some of the buildings is amazing.

I have another few days left in Thailand before we move onto Cambodia so my overall impression of Thailand will have to wait a while. But at the moment it is somewhere I would definitely like to come back to, if only because this is the first place where no one has stared at us!!!

Anyway. I have a plane to catch so best be off. Over and out!

* Posted by j150vsc on 07/07/2007.