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Our last week in Kolkata was predictably a bit hectic. We had several loose ends to try and tie up and Drew had to offer to finish a few of the IT projects he was involved in remotely (it's pretty amazing that this is possible!) A new website is in the pipeline, which is quite exciting.

On reflection, we really enjoyed our time in Kolkata - we've read in a few places that many Kolkatans are annoyed by the fact that the name of their city is associated with poverty, squalor and suffering. We've certainly met a few people (Indians among them) who have never been there but have a very negative idea of the place. We were probably quite intimidated by this reputation, and were actually very pleasantly surprised when we arrived (we had a similar experience in Delhi when we landed there 5-and-a-bit years ago on our honeymoon). Kolkata certainly has its problems, but we enjoyed meeting a lot of very friendly enthusiastic people there, and it was a pleasant change for us to become part of a small close-knit community of volunteers.

Before we knew it we were setting alarms to head off to the airport in the morning, and leaving India and the sub-continent behind. The taxi ride to the airport reminded us how little of the vast city we'd actually seen. We flew with Kingfisher (yes, it's the same company as makes the beer!) who did very well at looking alter us. A two-and-a-bit hour flight with food, drinks, and a choice of entertainment on the screen in front of each seat was over in a flash compared to some of the long journeys we've undertaken in the last few months. Then suddenly we were in Thailand!

Possibly our very first impression was how hot it feels here - it's actually about the same temperature as Kolkata but can feel a lot more sticky because of the humidity. The next thing we noticed was that being in Bangkok is like being in the future! A lot of what we see around us is very hi-tec, clean, modern and efficient - from the space-age looking Japanese cars (quite a contrast to the ubiquitous Ambassador in India) speeding along beautifully smooth 4+ lane expressways, to the Skytrain and skyscrapers. The metro here has the glass walls along the sides of the platform with automatic doors at which the trains stop perfectly aligned, and people follow the arrows on the platform to indicate where embarking and disembarking passengers should walk. All very orderly after some of the bun-tights we encountered on the Kolkata metro.

Our plan here in Bangkok was to find an apartment rather than staying in a hotel for a month as we did in Kolkata. Whilst we found our feet, however, we headed for the main tourist drag around Khao San Road. Whilst Kolkata might host something like 3 times the population of Bangkok, it's certainly not one of the main tourist destinations in India, and it took a bit of getting used to the sheer volume of farang! We stayed in a very cheap and basic guest house. This gave us a good incentive to get our act together and go apartment-hunting. Khao San Road is not very well connected to the Metro and Skytrain; there are plenty of buses but despite the modern infrastructure the traffic at peak times is terrible. So it was a bit of an effort getting around, but we rewarded ourselves with nice Thai beer (did we mention Indian bottles of beer are full of glycerol which is used as a preservative which does little to add the flavour and is renowned for giving you a banging headache?) and delicious Thai food, which is a stark contrast to rich buttery Bengali / North Indian curries. (We're not putting Kolkata and India down, but a bit of a change is always welcome.)

We didn't have a lot of luck searching online for places to rent for only a month or so, and within quite a specific area that we'd been advised to look in - for its convenient access to the office Drew will be working for, and its proximity to the Metro system, which would allow us to get around the rest of the city easily. So we set off on foot exploring the area and walking into every building that looked like it might have apartments for rent. We saw quite a range, from a beautiful newly fitted-out place with two bedrooms, a huge lounge, a great kitchen and a pool on the roof (but sadly a bit of a price tag to match) to some very basic places which weren't much of a step up from our digs in Khao San.

We ended up with a difficult choice to make. One of the places we'd spotted online and visited had a large modern studio apartment with two little balconies, a really nice pool on the roof, and sat in a quiet neighborhood only 5 minutes walk from the Metro station. The other place on the short list was a retro seventies tower-block which didn't look much from the outside but had a real shabby chic charm (although admittedly with the emphasis on shabby!) The room had a slightly broken parquet floor, vertical blinds with prints on the inside, a dark marble bathroom, but best of all it was on the 9th floor and two of the walls were almost entirely darkened glass looking out over a breath-taking view of the city. The owner of the tower block was a very eccentric but extremely friendly lady who didn't speak much English, but did her best to assure us that we'd be friends and she'd look after us if we moved in. It was really tempting to take a chance on the retro pad with the view and see how things worked out, but it was really hot the first few days we were here and the lure of the swimming pool won us over in the end. We're not regretting the decision; going for a swim with views over the city (admittedly only from 6 floors up!) is a brilliant way to start the day.

Having seen the city from the 9th floor, we decided you still needed to get up higher to see things properly, so we went to the legendary Vertigo bar in the Banyan Tree Hotel. This is situated in the heart of the new city and your ears pop as the elevator whisks you up to the 59th floor. Still not sure which made Heather's head spin more... the height or the prices of the beers! Regardless, watching the sunset and the lights come on across the city was spectacular and really brought home to us the scale of the place we are in.

A week into our time here and we are really enjoying the simple pleasures of having our own space again, being able to make ourselves a cup of tea just how we like it - not with yak butter and salt or with copious amounts of sugar and powdered milk - is a real treat. Just opening our fridge to see cold beers and even some cheese is a pleasure! We have very limited kitchen facilities - a fridge, a sink and a metal kettle in which we can cook rice, noodles etc. This would appear to be a very common set up for residents of Bangkok, with fully-fitted kitchens rare in rented accommodation. However, the population is very well served by amazing street food - from noodle stands to stalls selling small clear plastic bags full of mysterious delicacies. The area that we are in is off the normal tourist map and we have found that very few people understand any English... this has led to our dinners being something of a lucky dip! Any thoughts of remaining vegetarian are rendered impossible by our lack of Thai, and we are unsure of what meat we have eaten, but it has all been pretty tasty and we've not had any adverse reactions! We have steered clear of the snails, frogs and insects on sticks though. Our favourites so far are probably the Som Tam (spicy green papaya salad), and Tom Yam which is a fragrant soup with plenty of lemon grass and ginger - both usually come with shrimp which we've surprised ourselves by quite enjoying.

The apartment has an internet connection, but to use it we needed a cable. This was a great excuse for Drew to drag Heather to IT City which is a 4-story shopping mall packed with computer shops selling most things a geek could possibly want. Heather was very patient and wandered around for a couple of hours. However when we went to leave we found a heavy storm had taken hold outside, and we were effectively stuck in IT City until the storm passed. One of us was less upset by this than the other. Luckily they did a nice papaya salad in the food court downstairs.

We have been out a few nights trying to explore a few bars - which has included a British pub selling home-brewed bitter and an excellent jazz club with a fantastic big band; these are however in the main business districts, patronised mainly by expats and wealthy locals and therefore a bit of a strain on our budget. Luckily on the way home from the jazz bar the other night we stumbled across a roadside bar very near our apartment which was very friendly and full of character. We were encouraged by several people to join in the karaoke, but sadly they only had one disc of songs in English and we didn't recognise a single track or band. We promised to return with our own karaoke CD, and we might just do so one night soon!

Last night we decided to treat ourselves to a break from the point-and-hope Thai dinners and have a bottle of red wine and a pizza in front of a film in the apartment. Having been disappointed with tiny pizzas elsewhere we ordered two large ones to be delivered. We should perhaps have paid attention to the name of the restaurant we were ordering from though - 'Big Pizza'. When they arrived they were enormous! We certainly enjoyed our dinner, and you can probably guess what we had for lunch today too.

Work wise we're settling in; Drew has been out to the office of the NGO he's building a website for a couple of times to discuss it with them, and is now working from the apartment for a few days getting the ball rolling on the site. Heather was thrown in at the deep end - being asked to teach a three hour lesson to a group of disadvantaged women (mainly sex workers) with very basic level of English. It looks like Heather might spread her time between a handful of different organisations, including ones that work with refugees, children from the slums, and blind children.

We're keeping busy and have in fact borrowed a second laptop so we can both work away at the same time (this necessitated another visit to IT City!)

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