Yesterday morning we got a rude awakening at 5.30am...Well, not quite...since we had set the alarm for this ungodly hour. Ungodly being the worst choice of words as you will see, but I can't be bothered to find another one ! Every morning at dawn, throughout the year, residents of Luang Phabang perform the ceremony of tak bat, or the giving of alms to monks. In complete silence, residents lay a small mat outside their house or shop, and wait...then, in the distance dozens upon dozens of orange-robed figures appear. The monks walk through the centre of town and each collects [View Full Entry]

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Alex and I have now been in Luang Phabang for six days now, which has allowed us to really explore the town and the surrounding countryside. The pace of life is this sleepy marvel of a town is an absolute pleasure. The town’s residents are invariably charming and even quicker to smile than the Thais, which is saying something ! Luckily for us, spoken Lao is similar to Thai to more or less the same extent that Portuguese is similar to Spanish (or even more), and written Lao is to Thai what the Roman alphabet is to the Greek. Which means [View Full Entry]

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Hello ! This entry is coming to you from our second country on this trip ! We left Lopburi yesterday morning, waking at six in the morning in order to catch the 7.07 to Bangkok Airport. We walked from our hotel to the railway station (only about 500 metres) and got some breakfast snacks to sustain us on the train journey. The station was already busy, mainly with schoolchildren, all in their pristine uniforms, and office workers heading to neighbouring downs. I'll hardly call Thailand a "commuter society" but there seemed to be a fair few commuters there...The train was already [View Full Entry]

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Phew ! Our second (and last) day in Lopburi draws to a close. It's been a real scorcher today, and walking round the old part of the city under the blazing Sun was quite a challenge. Still, we managed to take in a good measure of the atmosphere of Lopburi. The guidebook is quite right. The close juxtaposition of old and new here is quite amazing. In Angkor, for example, the ruins are located some distance away from the closest town Siem Reap, but here the very ancient and the very modern are squeezed together. Strangely enough, this juxtaposition works very [View Full Entry]

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Fresh of the third bus trip we head for our intended hotel, the Lopburi Asia Hotel. This is a Chinese-run hotel (as are very many in Thailand) about 10 minutes walk from where we have been dropped off. Asking for directions a couple of times, we find it with no difficulty. We decided to treat ourselves to air-con (shock ! horror !) as cities here tend to be a bit muggy. The room is quite simple but perfectly nice. No specimens of Periplanata americana to be seen - yet. Lopburi Asia Hotel it is, then. We head out for an exploratory [View Full Entry]

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After our usual breakfast of twelve little deep-fried doughnuts (about the size of an apricot, and filled with a delicious mixture of bananas and white pepper - strange but true), we finished packing our bags at the Blue Star Guesthouse. Another feline friend, a very cute black kitten who we baptised Catchanaburi came by to say goodbye and help us with our packing. He was very curious and tried on a couple of occasions to climb into our rucksacks... The guesthouse called a songthaew for us, and we were duly driven to the bus station about 10 minutes away. There we [View Full Entry]

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Our second-to-last full day in Kanchanaburi...We plan to leave earlyish Tuesday morning to catch our buses to Lopburi. We have had a great time here - Kanchanaburi is a wonderfully peaceful and relaxed town. We started the day with a visit to the main fresh-produce market in the south of town. It was about 10am by the time we arrived so it was quite quiet, but there were lots of vendors left in the covered building. On sale was a beautiful array of brightly coloured fruits, vegetables, meat and fish. The latter two were a bit gruesome at times - they [View Full Entry]

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Our hotel, the "Blue Star Guesthouse", is located on River Khwae Road, which runs parallel to the river. We pick a beautiful little wooden bungalow on stilts at the back of the hotel. Our balcony looks over to the river. I'm a bit worried we'll be flooded with mozzies but it turns out there aren't any really at all round here... I'll try not to waffle on in this entry - the photos will speak for themselves. Suffice to say that Kanchanaburi is a town with a fascinating albeit painful history, but one which has an awful lot going for it. [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Kanchanaburi on 22nd June. Leaving Bangkok immediately after writing the previous entry, we got a taxi to Thonburi, an old district of Bangkok on the other side of the Chao Phrayaa. An interesting note - did you know that the word "Bangkok" doesn't exist in Thai ? In Thai the capital is somewhat optimistically named Krung Thep, or "City of Angeles". Bangkok is apparently the deformation of the name of a place somewhere around Thonburi. Try Googling "full name of Bangkok" and you'll see it's quite a mouthful. Anyway, we get to Thonburi. Thonburi makes Ekamai lo [View Full Entry]

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Actually the internet here is very cheap and we've a few hours to kill before our bus to Kanchanaburi...we had a little wander 'round Banglamphu. It's an amazingly active commercial district that's completely mind-boggling. The Thais all buy their breakfasts and snacks (in Thai gin len or "eating for fun" !) at little roadside stalls. We eschewed the ubiquitous and rather boring hotel breakfasts for some more traditional fare. I had a sandwich made from slices of buttered brioche, dipped on one side in sugar and grilled over coals, then slathered in condensed milk (swoon) and sandwi [View Full Entry]

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