E London

16 September - people asking me to talk 2 family members selling daughter s?
Finally arrived in London around 9:00am - although I was still in Thai time. More significant was the fact that i'd gone over two days without any real sleep. I made my way to Camberwell where I didn't have too much trouble finding Kimberley's house. I was still exhausted so didn't do much more than head down to the shops but met the flatmates and all seem very friendly. Ended up crashing out at 7ish (all in all about 72 hours before proper sleep). It's vey different wandering the streets and hearing nothing but English after so much Thai, Khmer or Vietnamese and a smattering of German, French, Hebrew (or Hip Bu as I saw it spelled in one place) and a little English. And all the accents are really hard London accents. I've realised how dark I've got comparing myself to all the English locals - except for most of the ones around Camberwell, consideringabout 90 percent of them ar black. There were a few black people in Asia but not many - I haven't seen so many of them since ... The last time I was living here. Nobody seems as friendly as they were in Asia - nobody trying to sell me anything or even making eye contact ... It's obvious i 'm in a different world.
Got a decent sleep after crashing out early but was still up hours before anyone else in the house, hopefully I should adjust today. Also went for a run in the local area and it was so different to Asia - not as polluted (it's rare that London gets that accolade i'm sure) and so much cooler, although it was quite sunny. Very pleasant.
ALso, remembered a strange thing that happened in MBK on my last day in Thailand. I was wandering the stalls lookingfor bargains when a Thai man did a double take at me, told me I was reallytall, asked me where was from and then was thrilled when I said Australia. His daughter is going there to study and could he talk with me about givingher some advice. He asked me to sit with him and bought me a drink (asked me to pay for it but I had no change) and then said that he wanted me to come with him or an hour to meet his daughter. I told him I didn't have tme (i wanted to go to the movies) and he was a bit upset but let me go. Later on that day a youngish girl (late20s) and her brother stopped me by asking me where I got my sandles from. Then asked me where I was from, Australia, wow! My sister is goingthere to study, sit with us. Do you want a drink? No. Chatted for a while and whn they found out I couldn't come with them to meet her they let me go. I just have to assume there was some scam going on and both people were doing a similar one (probably unrelated) but i've got no idea what it was going to be .. Would I have been kidnapped if I went with them? Would they try to get me to marry their sister/daughter? Very confusing - I think i'm going to have to google that one...