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Published: November 8th 2007
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Touched down in Bangkok... but where are the smiles?
After a smooth flight with Air Asia, we arrived at Bangkok’s brand new Suvarnabhumi International Airport and cruised through customs. Our introduction to Bangkok’s way of life was a swift one as we were harassed by all kinds of touts offering rides to the city. We hustled down to what we thought was an acceptable price and set off...the journey was even more petrifying than those in the Malaysian taxis! From what we have seen so far, there are no such things as traffic laws or speed limits; if they do exist they are definitely not enforced!
The place we stayed in is not far from the infamous Khao San Road, so we dumped our luggage and set off. It was all hustle and bustle, stalls lining every inch of pavement and most of the road space, the familiar sewerage stench (not quite as strong as Malaysia) and, unfortunately a Starbucks, Burger King, neon signs and of course the ubiquitous tailors! A complete assault on the senses and extremely difficult to take it all in. We weren’t overly impressed, although the array of fake EVERYTHING available is amazing! However, we
did manage to find a wonderful, quieter street (which didn’t smell either!) which had some smaller stalls and lots of great restaurants, complete with low tables and a varied Thai as well as western menu - heaven!
One thing that has struck us is how respected the Royal Family is, pictures and shrines adorn roadsides and shop fronts, so The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo (the countries holiest site) were must sees. Once again the attention to detail was fantastic, gold glints in the
sun light off of the statues and roof eves, and the whole area surrounding the Temple itself is wrapped in a shroud of insense. Wat Phra Kaeo houses the most sacred image of Buddha in Thailand - The Emerald Buddha, who is in fact made of Jade despite his name. Upon entering the temple you are required to take your shoes off and either kneel or sit cross legged with your feet facing away from the Buddha, as the feet are considered the most unclean part of the body and therefore offensive.
The Grand Palace itself has beautiful manicured gardens, complete with Elephant and armed guards! It is a magnificent white building, with
the only adornments to be seen on the elaborate green, red and golden roof.
After the busy street markets and the palace visit we took a day trip with yet another suicidal driver to Kanchanaburi, home of the notorious Death Railway and the River Kwai. Our first stop was the War Cemetery, home to almost seven thousand allied POW’s all of whom met their end working on the Death Railway (hence the name) it was a sobering visit, seeing thousands of pristinely kept plaques bearing the names of so many soldiers - most of whose families will never get to see their final resting place.
Next was the JEATH war museum, nope not a typo it stands for Japan, England, Australia (And America) Thailand and Holland, it was without a doubt the most random museum either of us had seen!! An obscure collection of artefacts, complete with numerous stray dogs and warped figurines inside jeeps and displays...needless to say we didn’t stay too long!
Included in our day trip package was a ride on the railway itself, which now functions as a commuter line aswell as a tourist attraction (which is unfortunate for the poor locals just
wanting to get from A to B!). It was an extremely bumpy ride, but the scenery was gorgeous, extremely green and vibrant, the stations themselves were only noticeable because the train stopped, there are no platforms to speak of, you just hop down off the train. We crossed the famous Bridge over the River Kwai and witnessed for ourselves the short stretch of line that took so many lives during its construction.
Lunch was served buffet style upon a traditional raft house close to the Burmese border, and it wasscrumptious - a chicken and pumpkin curry, red Thai curry, stir fried local veggies and either fried or steamed rice.
After lunch we headed to an Elephant camp where we took a short elephant ride, thankfully the elephants themselves seemed happy enough and the riders weren’t cruel and constantly beating them, they let them happily plod around the circuit stopping to munch at vegetation and allow us to take in the amazing landscape and the first peace and quiet we have had since Bangkok. Craig even got to sit on the elephants head/neck, although the elephant was having none of his attempts at encouraging movement, so he switched back
to the seat and off we went (Check the grin on his face!).
We stopped briefly at a very picturesque waterfall (as seen in the pics), the name of which we have completely forgotten...before heading for the Tiger Temple.
The temple started life as an animal sanctuary, but it wasn’t long before a tiger cub whose mother had been killed by poachers arrived on the Monks doorsteps. The poor cub was extremely ill, having survived a botched taxidermy attempt, and the monks managed to nurse her back to life, she unfortunately developed a heart condition and died in 1999. However, more cubs arrived as poaching continued, and the temple now houses fourteen adult tigers and at least 5 cubs (The tigers bread within the sanctuary of the Monastery) along with numerous other creatures, Water buffalo, wild pigs, bears and jungle fowl to name a few. It was absolutely incredible to be in the presence of these big cats, watching the monks playing with the cubs as if they were just kittens was brilliant, the adults however were a slightly different story.
All fourteen adults are lead into a canyon, complete with rocks and a shaded pool and
attached to short-ish chains, for the most part the cats look reasonably content, a young male at the front who was most definitely more interested in playing than posing, taking swipes at handlers and any stray tourist who was unfortunate enough to be in range! A few of the larger cats seemed to be agitated, pacing up and down the short length of chain available to them, tail flicking in their wake, this was the only thing that we didn’t like as one particular cat seemed more restless than the others received a few squirts of a cloudy liquid directly into his eyes, we left the canyon at this point as neither of us wanted to see anymore.
No rest for the wicked unfortunately... the next day saw another early start as we began our journey to Siam Reap, Cambodia. We started at seven in the morning and four hours into our drive, we stopped for lunch to fill out the relevant paper-work, and then headed for the border of Poi Pet.
To be continued...
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