Sah wat di khraip (Hello)

Greetings from the mighty Mekong river, and Chiang Khlong famous for giant cat fish (up to 3metres) and the slow boat crossing to Luang Prebang in Laos. But I digress, the aim of this blog is to bring you up to date with our travels since arriving in Thailand

We arrived in Bangkok early on the 29th Feb and made our way to Khao San road, where travellers gather. Unlike 18 years ago we had a great room, not a rat in sight!
Being back in thailand is fantastic, the people are so friendly, good food and stalls that sell almost anything, what more could you ask.

The plan was to make our way to Chiang mai by the night sleeper train, but as it turned out this was booked out far in advance, so we settled on a local agent who organised travel and board stopping at Katchnaburi, Ayuthai and Sukhathai along the way and this proved far better as we saw and did things we might otherwise have completely missed.

We set of for katchnaburi on 3rd march crammed into a mini bus with our fellow travellers. Travel in Thailand is both safer and less noisy than in India, no constant use of horns and less traffic volume. Our room in Katchnaburi was on a converted barge moored on the river kwai, a peaceful and beautiful spot except for the passing Karioke boats (Thais love Karioke)

Katchnaburi is the site of the infamous Kwai bridge, and there are several rather hopeless muddled museums commemorating this, by far the most poignant reminder is the Commenwealth cemetary which contains the remains of some 10000 service personel who died building it.

Onwards to Ayuthaya, once the capital of Thailand. There are many beautiful temples there and many still very much in use and all cared for. The only impediment to exploring too far off the beaten track are the packs of feral dogs who are very aggresvive and are known to bite the odd person. Claire and I are used to wandering for hours and this sadly put a stop to this.

Sukhothai our next stop was the original royal capital of Thailand and a large area of the old royal palace site is now a Unesco workd heritage site which we explored on bicycle, weaving in and out of temples and narrowly avoiding running down a group of Thai school children frantically waving at us. The architecture of the palaces and temples is superb, and a priviledge to witness.
It was here that we were also introduced to the pleasures of Maekong whiskey and Sangsun rum, they taste very similar, and at 80 percent proof can be used in drinks, as disinfectant or lighter fuel!

On the 9th Feb, 5 hrs of arse numbing bus journey brought us to Chiang Mai, main city of the north. Lovely hotel with pool, what luxury!
Chiang Mai is another very old city complete with remanents of the city wall and moat. Whilst we were there we visited the elephant sanctuary outside of Lampung here over 50 elephants are housed from across Thailand, who have been mistreated or whom their owners can no longer afford to feed as working elephants are not in demand anymore.

It was great seeing these wonderful animals being given a new life, cared for and protected. We even saw two mothers and their 3 month old calves, so sweet, Claire and I were feeding them bananas and it was hard to convince Claire that we couldnt fit one in our rucksack.

Lampung is also home to the oldest wooden temple Wat Prah tat luang, with two t wihans housing camera obscuras which project an image of the temple onto a white sheet. Buddhism is very strong in Thailand and every man is expected to become a monk although in reality this can be for as little as a week.

As we moved north the heat and humidity increased, as does the ferocity of the mozzies. The tropical strengh repellant is slowly disolving everything plastic we own (which hasnt already disolved by contact with the local rum!)

As I said in the beginning we are now in Chang Khlong, across the Mekong river from Laos. Tomorrow we will start the 2 day slow boat journey to Luang Prabang well prepared with cushions to sit on, packed luches and toilet paper!

To close I have some questions to put to readers, sensible answers welcome.

1) Are there tree dwelling snakes in Northern Thailand

2) Does anyone know what Frangipani flowers look like

3) How many Loa Kip to the pound

Scuse the lack of punctuation, but this keyboard is a bit mad. Also apologies for poor quality of the photos, but if I had not made them into smaller files I would have missed the slow boat!

Regards

Shane and Claire

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