Blogs from Phitsanulok, Northern Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 2

Saludos varios, fenomenos! La entrada anterior la dejé en Bangkok, después de pillar un tuk-tuk desde Khao San hasta nuestro hostel. Sí, hostel! Yo pensaba que habíamos caído en un hotel, sin "s", pero no, al pillar una tarjeta con la dirección comprobé que mi reputación de viajero gumial sigue intacta, menos mal! Pues nada, nuestro primer paso por Bangkok ha sido anecdótico, como tenemos que volver a la capital para pillar el vuelo de vuelta, lo hemos dejado para explorar la ciudad últimos días del viaje. Así que a la mañana siguiente el reloj ha tocado diana muy pronto, a las 7:15, para pillar un tren que nos ha dejado en Ayutthaya, donde hemos visitado los templos y restos históricos. La visita a los puntos de interés están muy bien, todo el mundo lo hace, ... read more

Geo: 16.82, 100.27Out at 07:00 to do the final breakfast run then stay in the room for quite a while watching some old foottie and a film on TV. Did a lot of walking yesterday and my knee is hurting today.Go to Sugar Bar for lunch and to say our goodbyes then back to the room.Mid afternoon I visit the large Mae Ping Hotel where a travel agent is advertising short breaks in Burma that I want to enquire about. These are 3 or 4 day breaks from Chiangmai to Rangoon and cost about 400-500GBP per person. Sounds a bit expensive to me andI am sure we could do it a lot cheaper independently.We visited the Krungsi/Ayyudthaya Bank and renewed Jai's medical insurance for another year.Most of the street stalls by us seem to be taking ... read more

Another long weekend here in Thailand, this time it was the Queen's Birthday, which apparently doubles up as Mother's Day here. I took the opportunity to make an even further trip up north this time, travelling some six hours plus to Phitsanulok, almost at the halfway mark to Chiangmai. The main point of the trip was to visit the nearby Sukhothai Historical Park. The two cities, along with Ayutthaya and to some extent, Lopburi, are of considerable historical significance to the Thai Kingdom. Sukhothai was an ancient capital, and Phitsanulok was the king's preferred city of residence then. Phitsanulok today, like Lopburi, is an unassuming, quite typical Central/ Northern Thai city, devoid of the madness that accompanies the kitschy tourist traps. Having said that, the odd farang and/ or Japanese/ Korean tourist was almost always in ... read more

We besloten om doorheen onze maandreis met Jan's mama (Karla) het rustig aan te doen. Ook voor ons is het zoveel leuker als we niet hoeven te zoeven van de ene plek naar de andere. We namen dus opnieuw een trein en de ticketverkoper zei 'je kan de goedkope trein nemen: 3e klasse en een ticket kost 30 baht voor 3 uur of je neemt de express trein met airco en je ticket kost 400 baht voor 2 .30 uur.' We waren niet stom hoor! Natuurlijk werd het de 'trage' trein! Deze is trouwens veel plezieriger dan de frigo bak waarin je terechtkomt. De frigo trein is trouwens totaal niet sneller. Want in bijna elk station wordt hij gecontroleerd en er loopt gegarandeerd altijd iets fout! O ja: een uur vertraging of zelfs 2 uur vertraging ... read more

Starting to make our way down to the South and the first stop was Sukhothai/Phitsanulok for a bit of culture! The new town was so quiet except for the hundreds of birds in the evening. We went to the old town to the Historical Park to see a load of monuments. We hired bikes to go round the park which Rachel was so unsteady on much to the amusement of Paul and he felt like he should have been in the Sound of Music on those old style bikes so he sung the whole way round!!!!!! The park was quite cool with all these monuments from the 13th century, we didnt pay for the audio guide so all we can do is show some pictures with no helpful info about them! Enjoy....... read more