Thailand Adventures

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Welcome to our next exciting installment.......Thailand (well, exciting for us at least!)

We arrived at in Thailand after a loooong day. What was supposed to be a few hours travel (the flight from HCMC to Bangkok is 1.5 hours) turned into an all day affair after our flight was cancelled. We had to hang around the airport for 6 hours (not the nicest airport.....) before getting on the plane and sitting on the tarmack for another hour. All in all we were in transit for about 11 hours including cabs etc. To rub salt into the wound, when we arrived at our hotel they had had a fire in the lobby and we had to be transferred to another hotel!! Oh, and did we mention the $45US excess baggage charge......... thanks to Rach's shopping

Anyway, enough whining. The hotel was very comfortable and had a wicked buffet breakfast as we discovered the next morning. After breaky we booked a bus tour to see some of the major temples around Bangkok (see photos). 2045 buddah's later......you get the idea! Following the tour Rach and I hit the famous Chattachuck Markets (forgive incorrect spelling) with Chris who we met on the tour. We didn't actually buy anything - thank god - but it was interesting. The fact that it was 40+ degrees added to the experience. That night we went to the top of the Sky Hotel - the tallest hotel in the world - for a 'couple' of cocktails. Needless to say, later in the night we went looking for our first 'ping pong' experience, only to be told that they have clamped down on such shows! Damn those feminists!!

The following day we were up early (blury eyed) for our next tour - The River Kwai (see pics). After a few hours on a bumpy bus, we arrived at one of the POW cemetaries from the building of the famous railway in WW2. A sobering experience - 6800 Aussies were at this one site in a town called Kanchanaburi. From here we went to a war museum and then onto a long boat for a quick trip up the river to the bridge. From there we jumped on the train for 2 hours before we stopped for our buffet lunch, then back onto the bus to head back to town. All in all a great day and a lot to take in.

The next day we headed out of Bangkok for a couple of nights down on the coast at a town called Hua Hin. We simply picked this town out of the lonely planet, booked a bus, and rocked up without any plans. It worked out well - we rented a scooter (along with the 'fashionable' and totally useless helmet you see pictured) and found a nice 3* hotel for around Aus$30/night. After sorting that out we spent the rest of the day exploring the area on the scooter. Had a quick swim before heading for a restaurant about 200m from the hotel - right on the beach. Enjoyed fresh seafood and some cocktails ('when in Rome') for dinner, then took a look at the night markets.......can't seem to get away from those damned markets! The following day we did some more exploring and came across a place where we could do a one hour elephant ride (see pics) which was great. That night we decided to eat a more traditional meal for dinner(as apposed to a restaurat meal) so we found a food stall at the markets that sold the old favourite - pad thai! It was great, and only cost around Aus$0.60!

Our last day in Thailand had arrived! We were determined to fit as much as possible into our last day - the last day of hot weather and the beach that we would have for a while. And what better way to do that than to hire a jet ski, followed by lying on the beach with a cocktail for a couple of hours. But alas, after lunch it was time to pack up and get the bus back to Bangkok, then on to our flight to Zurich later that night....... which of course you will hear about in the next installment.

Until then, we hope that you are all well and not working too hard! Make sure you send the odd email you slackers!
Lots of love
Justin and Rach

ps. For those of you wondering about the football in some of the photos, this ball was given to Justin by his touch footy team before we left with instructions of getting photos around the globe with the ball! The ball has been nicknamed 'Steed' by Rachael. Makes perfect sense........

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