Now the fun begins.

(Enjoying a bike ride just outside of Bangkok in a scenic village on the other side of the Chao Phraya River…  after a 5 minute ferry crossing, urban Bangkok morphs into a more rural lifestyle! For more info on this bike tour, check out SpiceRoads)

Given that I spent most of the past month stressing and working hard on my assignments, a nice getaway was definitely due. But where to go after spending the past 4 months holed-up in my flat reading, writing papers, studying, researching and all that fun student stuff that everyone misses at one time or another… that is until you actually start studying then you realize that you don’t want to do it anymore. Ok, there might be some people out there saying I’ve been to Australia, Borneo, France, Canada, and Thailand in the past year, all for holidays… Yeah, yeah, I might sound like a slacker and shouldn’t be complaining about needing to take another holiday, but who wouldn’t need a holiday after 4 months of intense bookworming?

(We were waiting to catch the ferry up the river and I thought this shot of these Japanese women was interesting… they were all taking photos of the ferry with their digital camera phones just before I shot this one – I was just a tad late)

So where to? Anywhere in Southeast Asia would’ve been ok since the rainy season was about to end… Lao would be a nice choice, and so would Burma, but after some brief planning, I decided I needed a break not just from school and work, but of Bangkok. Don’t get me wrong, Bangkok is a nice (and cheap) place to be, but there’s only so much pollution, noise, traffic, and shopping a West-Coast Canadian can take. Who’s the evil twin of Bangkok you might ask? Well, according to me, that’s Singapore. I’ll be writing up about Muriel and my 4-day adventure in the “Garden City” soon, so keep an eye out. In the meantime, enjoy some photos from the past couple of weeks.

(Enjoying a nice brunch along the Chao Phraya river… I don’t remember the name of the place we went, but it was really quiet and even had a guesthouse… perfect place to get away from the hustle and bustle in Bangkok)

(mmmm… smelly fish just in front of Wat Pho, the temple and school where they teach Thai massage)