Hello everyone!
We thought we'd just write a short entry as we're off to Laos tomorrow and don't know when we'll next have internet. We've been in Thailand for just over a week now, again it's very different from everywhere else. We feel like we've started a completely new part of the trip. It's much more touristy than any of the other countries we've been to!
The flight from Colombo to Bangkok was interesting. We arrived at Colombo airport around 9.30pm but our flight didn't leave till 7.20am so to begin the nightmare we had to spend the night in the airport - most uncomfortable - Sarah didn't even try to sleep! Check in created further problems, as Sri Lankan Airlines decided they'd overbooked the plane and for some reason we were the ones picked to be chucked off! They offered us a route leaving at a similar time, but via Singapore (!) which added about 5 hours on to the journey time. As you can imagine we weren't best pleased and to make matters worse the check in man was completely incompetent and kept telling us different stories! Anyway we finally made it to Bangkok, feeling very tired
but slightly appeased by the fact that the plane to Singapore was really nice and had films and good food, and also that there was a Boots at the airport (obviously we had to spend quite a long time in there)!
Bangkok is incredible, and certainly unique! It feels like a cross between a Club 18-30 holiday (on Khao San Road) and a really nice historical city. The infamous Khao San Road was different - Sa loved it and wants to go back, but Phil found it slightly odd. Although there is a very nice ice cream cafe and lots of lovely shops! The first day in Bangkok was spent sightseeing around the oldest part of the city, which involved getting a river taxi (ferry) - obviously Sa loved this! We went to see Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) and Wat Pho, which has the largest reclining Buddha in the world - it was huge! Very annoyingly the man at the entrance to Wat Phra Kaew decided we couldn't go in as we weren't covered up enough, even though we had brought scarves to wear which covered us to the elbow, and he was allowing people
in t-shirts through!! It seems they have a stupid rule that no scarves can be used to cover up, so we had to hire disgusting Hawaiian shirts from a lady at the entrance!! Over the next few days we did lots of shopping on Khao San Road and around, lots of eating at the food stalls and cafes, and lots of smoothie drinking (and the odd cocktail!). We also took a trip into downtown Bangkok to visit the shopping malls there. Central World Plaza was the first stop, where we were highly disappointed that TopShop has yet to open so had to console ourselves with Starbucks muffins and cups of tea. The best mall by far though was Siam Paragon, which has a whole floor devoted to food!!! There was an amazing gourmet market selling every kind of food you can think of, and loads and loads of food stalls, which of course we had to sample!
On Tuesday we got the bus to Kanchanaburi, the site of the famous Bridge over the River Kwai. We stayed in a guesthouse called the Jolly Frog (!) which was lovely but completely infested with ants! The first afternoon we visited the
Thailand-Burma Railway Museum, which was really worth going to and very well laid out, and then we went to visit the Allied War Cemetery, where many of the PoWs who helped build the railway are buried. It's all very nicely kept, with flowers between all the graves, and it's a very peaceful place to stroll around. The next morning we walked out to the Bridge, which was really good as we could walk all the way over to the other side. We wanted to book a tour which involved a ride on the train over the bridge, but the budget is becoming tighter and tighter now, especially since Bangkok, so we were good and restrained ourselves!
Back to Bangkok for a night before taking the night train to Chiang Mai in the north. Sarah was unfortunately attacked by a very weird man (well, he grabbed her arm and wouldn't let go) because we sat at the wrong table at a food stall. He was vile, and sat there swearing at us the whole time we were eating, as well as blowing smoke in our faces and stubbing his cigarette out on Sa's food!!!
Anyway, the journey to Chiang
Mai was uneventful and quite comfortable. The train was really nice - even nicer than the Indian train as it only had two tiers of bunks and there were curtains to pull across the beds. The bunks were rather narrow though, which wasn't an issue until the train began to move. The bendy parts of the line nearly threw us out of bed!! The journey took nearly 15 hours altogether so we were glad to arrive on Friday (9th). We were railroaded into staying at a nice lady's hotel at the station, but it turned out to be very nice, with a swimming pool (luxury!) and clean linen, although we are on the sixth floor!! Saturday was just spent walking leisurely around town, seeing lots and lots of temples and generally exploring. In the afternoon we managed to go on a free tour round some handicraft shops, including jewellery, silk, carpets and lacquerware. Unfortunately the sangthaew (truck-type thing with two benches in the back for passengers) broke down half way through so we missed the rest! That night we discovered the incredible night market - thousands of shops and stalls selling everything from clothes to lamps to more jewellery. We're having to be very restrained with the shopping here as there are so many shopping opportunities. We're hoping Laos will have fewer shops so we can save our budget! We both bought some earrings. Yesterday we splashed out on an expensive day trip to Doi Inthanon National Park, which involved visits to some very beautiful waterfalls and Hill Tribe villages and a market. We also went up the highest mountain in Thailand, Doi Inthanon (2565m), which was unfotunately very cloudy at the time so we didn't get much of a view. Lunch was included in the trip and was very tasty - a fried whole fish, chicken soupy stuff, chicken curry and vegetable curry. At least we're managing to eat the local food here, as the food stalls are much cheaper than eating in restaurants!
Last night we visited the Sunday Market, which was similar to the Night Market but had a larger variety of products, and also food. We snacked on chicken nuggets and chips, thai sausage, sweetcorn and waffles with honey and banana - yum! Then it started to pour down with rain, the first proper rain we've had since we arrived in SE Asia. No stalls seemed to sell umbrellas, so we got soaked! Today we completed the rest of the handicrafts tour, visiting a paper umbrella factory (very pretty), a honey factory and more jewellery stores.
We're dreading the journey to Laos, which we think is going to take 3 days altogether. Tomorrow is only a 5 hour bus journey, but after that comes a two day boat journey down the Mekong, which sounds lovely but apparently they pack you in like sardines and the benches are very very hard! We'll tell you about it next time...
Thailand's Flag
Map of Thailand