Bangkok Palace. Ayuthaya and Chang Mai

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Hello again!
How is everyone keeping? Let me know by sending me an email now and again or comment on my blogs or even better, give me a call on my number over here +66860941518.

Right then first of all the Bangkok Palace. Now THIS is a Palace! Really amazing place with so much gold, precious stones, mirrors and in general lots of shiney stuff that will blind you on a sunny day if you dont wear your shades! You cant wear shorts into the Palace so i rented out a pair of long pants and headed in with camera loaded. Ill just let the photos do the talking coz im not very good with superlatives but as you cal see its very beautiful. The detail, even on the walls outside the temples with tiny mirrors of all colours, is just great craftmanship and dedication. While i was on my around the palace i bumped into 3 guys(from kildare meath and dublin if i remember right. sorry lads i forget the names, its a common theme throughout my blogs) who i met (no prizes for guessing where!) in a bar a few nights before that. They were on the way to austrailia and south america too but on a different schedule to me. Anyway we decided to all go see the reclining Buddha which wasnt too far away. This is a HUGH Buddha lying down and painted in gold. Unfortunately the battery in my camera collapsed from exhaustion after getting a bashing at the palace so i just have to wait for one of the guys i met to email me the photos from there, so sorry about that.

One thing i noticed about alot of the temples and in general Thailand, is the amount of stray dogs! There are literally 1000s of them everywhere! They are harmless though and just concentrate on lying low and out of the shade for the day, which is much more cleverer than anything i do at midday when im usually getting a roasting!!!!Above you can see a video clip i uploaded of just some of the dogs "guarding" a temple i visited. Most of them are very healthy looking though which must be due to the amount of food stalls on the streets. I have visited 3 cities now and every street is lined with food stalls. These stalls sell every food imaginable. i have atefrom quite a few now and i have had some delicious meals for almost nothing! As long as you dont eat anything that looks too dodgy then go for it is what i say! Some of them sell fried maggots and bugs of all sorts.......i havent picked up the courage to eat these just yet!

So i am now in Chang Mai in North Thailand but on my way yesterday i stopped in Ayuthaya about an hour north of bangkok. Again my camera got another bashing as this small city, which was previously the capital until the burmese invaded, has so much history and ancient buildings you just have to take photos of it all. This is a must visit place!Unfortunatly im not sure about the history of the place as our tour guide reckons he could speak english but i only got about 1 word in 20. Nobody listened to him coz we couldnt make out anything he said which was a pity. We just all kept looking at eachother with a "Wha !?!?!" expression on our faces.

So after a few hours of snapping away, it was a 13 hour train ride to Chang Mai. Thankfully i slept for 10 hours of that trip on a bed i booked(still catching up on sleep from bangkok) and only woke up once to eat at midnight, once to move bed when a conductor told me i was sleeping in the wrong bed and to move, once again when the conductor told me to move beds like he had already told me or id be walking(i thought he was only messing the first time and just rolled over) and finally when someone cleaning the train told me the train had emptied out 10 mins ago and to get off coz we had arrived. Woke up with about 6 mosquitos bites for the sake of it too!! Not good!

OK im off now. Tomorrow i go on a 3 day trek into the hills and villages so ill let you all know how that goes. Let me know of any news from where you are.
Dont forget the view the videos i upload in the top left corner of every blog also. Let me know if they work coz they dont work properly for me.
A special hello to Jenn!
COme on the reds tonight!
YNWA

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