Advertisement
Published: February 15th 2007
Hello from Chiang Mai in Thailand!
After our 11 or so hour flight we arrived in Bangkok, tired and Hungry! No change there then! Finally after catching the right bus having toured around the airport site on the shuttle bus, we were heading in the right direction towards the city. When we arrived at our stop we got off onto a bustling main street, where the strong smell of food and smog was overwhelming. We toured the streets to find the road leading to our hotel, entering the air conditioned lobby felt like heaven.
Venturing out onto the streets of Bangkok we were collered by a "Lawyer" who sent us in the direction of the tourism office he quickly hailed us a tuk-tuk to take us there for a mere 20 baht (thats 30p), which was an experience in itself. We managed to arrange all our trains and transfers to our destinations in Thailand leaving us with little to worry about apart from turning up on time.
With only 3 days in bangkok we wanted a taster of as much as the city had to offer. We wandered the Labryinth like streets of china town, we witnessed
what would appear in the UK apparent poverty but is very much their way of life. The streets were riddled with stalls selling everything you can imagine from thai food to toys to everyday household goods all appearing to sell something slightly different from the last one they were all packed in the smallest of spaces, yet no matter how little space there were people crowding to buy what was on offer.
Later that night we headed to one of the cities parks to witness something quite phenomenal, several hundred fit fanatic people all jumping around to the biggest areobics class your ever likely to see. Not only aerobics but many people running in the park and also and outside weights area, which was interesting to see. They appeared very fit concious in Bangkok.
We followed onto the night Bazar for a spot of late night shopping and dinner.
We thought it would be a good idea to walk to the Grand Palace in extreme heat, turned out to be one of those "seemed like a good idea at the time" situations. The Palace however was quite spectacular with its gleaming exteriors and outdoor undercover mural and very well
respected. We took a boat back down the river enabling us to see the city from another perspective. On our night train South towards Koh Samui, plus a bus journey and boat crossing to the island
which all in all totalled 16 hours of non stop travelling.
The Shambala Beach House did not disappoint and more than made up for the way we felt after all that travelling.
For the next couple of days we took time to soak up the sun and sea on what appeared to be a private beach. We stayed in a cosy hut containing a bedroom, bathroom, a balcony and hammock to chill with the view of the sea. The Shambala beach House was on the less toursit part of the island which we found more relaxing and a taste of the Koh Samui lifestyle. Sadly we had to leave our small slice of paradise after only 2 days in order to repeat our previous journey in reverse.
Ayathuya was our next destination we only spent one day and one night in the ancient city. We took a boat trip around the river surrounding the city to take in the majority of
the sites, rounding off the trip we stopped off to see some real elephants almost close enough to touch! We toured the inner city ruins on almost prehistoric bikes before boarding our 2nd to last sleeper train to the Northern City of Chiang Mai where we leave you for now!
Hope that everyone is well and we hope you have enjoyed our journey so far!
Be in touch soon
Sarah and Nick
Advertisement
Tot: 0.169s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 56; dbt: 0.1139s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mum Hodson
non-member comment
Wow
Fabulous account of your first week in Thailand. Can't wait for the next one. Take care and have fun! Mum x