The Omayami Trans bus terminal is just 13km from Ninoy Aquino airport. A simple 35 minute (350peso) journey by taxi. Unless you are making it in rush hour - as we were - in which case I was advised the estimate is 'between an hour an infinity.' So far so good.
After a brief pit stop in London to replace my lost possessions, Hamburg was supposed to be a quiet night with some sightseeing the next day. 2 hours later I was being taught what may be the most complex card game I've ever encountered.
The encounter with Hungary's healthcare system had already made the trip somewhat exciting. It seems that Budapest was not yet done toying with us.
When you step out of the shower at 9AM, completely blind without contact lenses and someone shouts 'Ben will you take Rosie to the hospital?', you know it's going to be an interesting day.
The Czech's truly have turned drinking into an art form, or more specifically, into a sport. Introducing 'The Pub'. It's a lot like a regular Pub in many respects, there is beer, food and people drink said beer. There normalcy ends.
Prague serves exactly the food you'd expect in a country where the average daily alcohol intake for an adult is 1.5litres of beer. And that's real beer, not American beer. And it's incredible.
It's always a good sign when a trip begins by losing just one shoe the day before leaving. Armed with what I'm rapidly realising are a not so serviceable pair from Tesco's for a bargain £12, it continued none the less.
My approach to travel thus far has been quite simple. Arrive, find things thing to do. Repeat. Flawless and well designed as this process may seem, it can - on occassion - lead to missing things or nearly having to sleep on a beach in the rain. This summers trip to Europe will have a little bit more of a plan. As the more astute among you may have realised, this post is that plan.
Wikitravel furnished me with everything I could possibly need to know about heading south. Get on bus to Krabi, get off bus at Krabi, get in white pickup truck which will take you to Ao Nang, go to Irish pub, they'll tell you where's good to stay. It turned out to be not quite that simple...
Somehow my worldly possessions have been reduced to an amount which fits in the backpack I normally carry to work and going by the number of people laughing at the way I eat noodles, I appear to have made it to Bangkok.