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Published: September 20th 2005
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Well it has been a long time since my last entry and so much has happened since then. I shall begin where i left off which was our venturing to the Bed Superclub. It was very cool and the entrance fee included two free drinks. The music was good and the night we were there was the k - swiss spraypainting championships so there were lots of spray painted art hanging around the club. As you may have guessed from the name this club has beds! What a great idea, you're tired from the dancing, you can sit back and watch the world go by! Unfortunately none of us had a camera with us so we have no pictures but there is a website which I think is www.bedsuperclub.com in case anyone is interested. We didn't realise but most places shut at 1am in bangkok.
The day after this we went to see the Grand palace and Wat po which are cultural must see's when visiting bangkok especiallly as they house some of Thailand most famous Buddhist icons. Wat Po is famous for the golden reclining buddha and the grand palace (as well as being one of the royal residences of
King Bhumibol and his family- there are some parts of the palace tourists cannot access) which is famous not only for having a high concentration of temples but also as this is where the emerald buddha is housed. It never ceases to amaze me quite how much devotion the thai show to their religion, not only in their actions i.e. offerings and the following of the rituals but also in decoration of their palace's - the painstaking care it must have taken to construct the temple of the emerald buddha -just look at the pictures. Ritual's include removal of shoes before entering the temple and often touching a lotus flower dipped in holy water to your head, placing pieces of gold leaf on the buddha's as a prayer, and offering garlands of flowers, lighting incense and candles. An interesting point is that during our visit to these temples we were approached by several groups of students to have our photograph taken with them -we think for a school project, but then a famous thai singer who was visiting the temple was spotted and all interest was lost in us but it keeps happening!
So from Bangkok we moved on
to Ayutthaya which was previously the capital of Thailand, a one and half hour train journey from Bangkok. It is famous for its ruined temples which were destroyed and looted by the burmese about 100 years ago I think. However it retains a mystery and beauty to it and is a pleasant change from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok. We tried to visit the most famous temples and due to a friendly tuk tuk driver giving us a good deal we ended up seeing approximately 8 temples in one day -needless to say we were a bit "temple-d out" by the end of it - we had braved the roads and cycled to the first two (very scary) -I'm afraid due to the sheer volume of temples and lack of a guidebook to hand I can't remember the names of the temples but most guidebooks recommend the ones we visited and I have a few photo's to help you feel like you were there!We stayed at the P. U. guesthouse which cost about two pounds each a night to share a twin room and had an en -suite bathroom. We had dinner at the floating restaurant by the river
in the evening which was very nice.
Unfortunately as we got to the last temple that day my camera stopped working which much to my chagrin turned out to be because normal aa batteries in thailand do not work in digital camera's, you need special enhanced aa batteries so I have no photos until the last day in lampang. But I will definately be getting copies of my friends photo's as this included a visit to the elephant conservation centre!
We travelled by train to lampang from ayutthaya which took approximately 12 hours and checked into the riverside guesthouse (see picture of our beautiful room below). We only stayed two nights but enjoyed ourselves and even made a potential contact for when ele and tom and i get to australia! We visited the thai elephant conservation centre which is a charity organisation and includes an elephant hospital, some of the elephants at the hospital have been there for many years, it was very sad. However on a cheerier note, the elephants used for demonstration and short elephant rides seemed very well cared for, we were able to see them having their morning bath, feed them from behind safely constructed
barriers, watch a demonstration of both traditional use e.g. a demonstration of their skills and strangth for logging and also the more unusual and slightly circus like demonstration of them playing musical instruments (long chimes) and painting pictures. For those who wish to, there are training courses available which last a few days to become a mahoot (elephant trainer). Examples of souvenirs available included items made from 100% elephant dung paper (there are a few envolpes in the post to some of you!!!!!!) and elephant paintings! We did go for a short elephant ride which included going up into the jungle and going through a lake! Ele and Clara's elephant sprayed them with water as he washed himself - v amusing!
Now in Chiang mai we are staying at another nice guesthouse for a similar price, however many of the tuk tuk drivers have problems finding it! We are going to get someone to write it out in thai for us to try and prevent this! We went for dinner at the old chaing mai cultural centre last night and had a traditional meal (tradition of northern hill tribe)served at weddings and parties etc followed by several traditional dances
of the hill tribe people. Anyway I've rambled on for far too long now, ele and I are off for a thai cooking course tomorrow and tom is off to learn some thai boxing! Hope you enjoy the photo's
Love Sarah xxx
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