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Well, today was a very non-eventful and personally frustrating day. After awaking at 10ish and getting ourselves ready, we pretty much did nothing for the next three hours.... We packed a bit more for our tour, had a slow breakfast and lunch, and then decided it was time to DO something! So we headed out at 1pm to Jim Thompsons House, about 15 minutes away from the apartment. I was glad to finally be doing something! The trip began with a stop at an ATM - an interesting experience for Meagan, when it appeared she had completed the transaction and not received money, but we left it for the time being and vowed to sort it out later. Then onto the trains to National Stadium, and a short walk down the road and we were at Jim Thompsons House Museum... Jim Thompson was an American who came to Thailand and basically single-handedly restored the art of silk-weaving to Thailand. He built a tradtional Thai house which is now filled with relics and antiques. The Thai house is built on stilts to protect it from flooding and rains (the house is by the river!) and he had created a beautiful jungle-like garden (a nice tranquil escape from Thailand's heat). There were stilted houses all over the grounds - a maid's room, a gardener's room, and Jim Thompson's main house, which was beautiful. The house is red and all wood (unsure which type) inside and out and decorated with all fancy olden day things!! No pictures inside the house (bugger!) but I really enjoyed looking at everything in there - the statue of the Budda's, the guest room, the cat and frog chamber-pots for little boys and girls respectively, the guest bedroom with the lowered bed, Jim's own room with a mouse-house (complete with fake mouse), his study, where he spent most of his time in air conditioned comfort. Interesting thing with his study - on the wall there is a Thailand fortune telling thing, that had the day he moved into his Thail house, and his birthday fortune. Jim was born in the year of the Horse, and there is a prophecy that tells people born in the Year of the Horse to be careful when they turn 61. Jim went missing in Malaysia - when he was 61 - and has never been heard of again. Is that too spooky?!
Many pictures around the gardens later, we headed back to Auntie Susan's apartment to head out to the hotel for the beginning of our trip - sorted out Meagan's ATM adventure, and plonked our suitcases on our back. I was wanting to leave at about 4ish - to check in, settle down, make sure we were at the right place in plenty of time, but we ended up leaving at 5. We caught a taxi, thinking it would cost about the same to taxi or train it, and once in the taxi, it started pissing down with rain, so bonus for us. But the taxi ride took almost 50 minutes to get to the hotel, and by the time we eventually arrived, we had about 0.25 seconds to check in, dump our stuff, and race back to the lobby for our pre-tour briefing - meeting everyone! We are doing our Siam Encounter's Gecko's tour with 6 other people - Emma (from UK), Jo (from South Africa), Lester (from Canada), and Tim, Deanne, Sophie and Daniel, all from Australia. After our tour meeting, we all headed out to dinner together, to a place around the corner for a Thai meal - Fried Rice with Chicken and a side of fries - really Thai hey! But it was good to sit around and get to know everyone a bit better. Plus dinner was dead cheap - 80 baht for a whole meal including drink (approx AUD$3!)
We walked back to the hotel and passed this internet cafe on the way - 20 baht for an hour, as opposed to 150 baht for an hour in the hotel, so after saying goodbye, Meagan, Emma and I are here writing these up! We leave for Kanchanaburi tomorrow bright an early, so that's it for me for a few days I think! Unless there's internet cafe's further up!
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Roz
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Hi
Hey Chick! I'm reading. I'm looking forward to hearing about your adventures of your tour when you return!! Love ya