Bangkok - Kanachanaburi - Ayutthaya

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Moving on from Bangkok

It turned out that it was a good decision to move guesthouses as Bella Bella house was a lot more pleasant than the first GH - it just had a better feel about it and the fact that it had a window made such a difference.

That day we decided to go to TAT to get some help with train tickets up to Chiang Mai, some advice on Visas and for ways to see Kanachanaburi. We managed to get things sorted and a vague timeline worked out with how long to stay in each country and with some flexibility just incase we decided to stay on. The plan at the moment is to go on Chiang Mai tomorrow night, stay there for four days, with a 2 day and 1 night hill tribe trek, then a bus from the GH to the border with Laos, stay there one night, and then to get the slow boat over 2 days along the Mekong River to Louang Probang - meaning we enter Laos just at the end of July. A week roughly in Laos, then we will probably fly to Hanoi in Vietnam, 2 weeks and then a bus to Phnom Penh in Cambodia, up to Siem Riep for a few days to visit Angkor wat an then a bus back to Bangkok. This then leaves us with a week to go to the south of Thailand to see the Islands and the beaches to chill before flying back home.

On the saturday we spent the day sightseeing, looking at temples and visited the Grand Palace. The Grand Palace is so ornate and ostentacious (sp)! Everything seems to be covered in gold or mirrored tiles, it was quite a sight!

So we left BKK Sunday on a minibus to visit the floating market and then we thought to accomodation in Kanachanaburi, however it turned out we were on a bit of a package tour so went to this Tiger Temple (apparently the monks have managed to keep these tigers from cubs and they're completely sedate and chilled, but i'm left sceptical - we actually stipulated that we didn't want to go there). We also visited the Bridge over the River Kwai and the museum there, that was quite interesting and surreal at the same time, seeing something that has such a dark history being used as a tourist attraction with people smiling for photos.

After leaving the tiger temple we were taken to a waterfall and then to our accomodation, which was not in the main town of Kanachanaburi as we thought, it was actually a floating house on the River Kwai, quite remote - we were with quite a few other people, some young couples, friends and families. The accomodation, considering it was on the river, was really nice with A/C so we were well chuffed! The next morning we went to the Erawan national park to climb the 2.5km of waterfalls. They were absolutely beautiful and I couldn't believe how stunning the scenery was. It was a bit difficult as Rach and I were considerably unprepared as we only had our flip flops and this was more like a trek! After 2 hours of trekking up we reached the 7th level and to congratulate ourselves we climbed down to level 5 and swam in one of the waterfall pools. The water was actually quite warm, the only thing that made it slightly strange was the fact that the fish in there nibbled your feet!!!! (Zoe T - i thought of your reaction - i know how much you would have hated those fish!) After the waterfall we came back for lunch and then went to the Hellfire memorial museum which was a memorial to the Allied Forces and Asian people who died builing the Burma-Thailand railway. It was quite a poignant exhibition and we were able to walk through some of the cuts in the mountainside that the men were forced to work on in horrendous conditions. It was amazing how quickly nature had tried to claim back the land, with random trees growing where the tracks had once laid. (A lot of the railway has been taken up since the war ended)

The next day we were supposed to be bamboo rafting but after a night of heavy rain the river had swollen up to 5 metres higher than the previous day so it was called off. Instead we had a slightly longer boat trip up the river before going Elephant trekking, which was quite an experience. I felt quite nervous at first, getting use to the way they move and their random stops for bark or bamboo trees! One time our elephant actually ripped half a tree apart! Rach was able so sit on the elephant's neck, where the driver would sit!

We then travelled back to Bangkok and got on the train to Ayutthaya. We arrived at the station 19.00 and got on the 18.10 train which actually didn't leave til 20.00!! We arrived at about 22.00 and got a tuk tuk to our guesthouse, run by a really eccentric and quite sweet thai lady. Our room has carpet which feels really strange after so many tiled floors.

Today we have spent the day on tuktuk looking at all of the ruins of the city and different temples. Ayutthya use to be the capital before it was moved to BKK. It displays a lot of evidence of destruction as a result of wars between Burma and Thailand through the centuries. One of the Buddhas we saw today had been there since 1352. We bumped into a couple (Steve and Sarah, both from Essex) who was on the floating house with us randomly when we were at some ruins!)

The plan is to stay here one more night and then get the train tomorrow afternoon to Lop Buri (town of the monkies) for a few hours and then to jump on the over night train (9hrs) to Chiang Mai.

I have uploaded my photos to snapfish

http://www3.snapfish.co.uk/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1231463006/a=117061422_117061422/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfishuk/

I haven't edited them so there's lots of duplicates or some that are a bit dodgy but thought it would be just easier to do them all together and sort them out when i get back and have more internet time.

Hope your all well,

lots of love xx

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Comments

[Zoe]

you are so right!
you are so right I squeemed at just the thought of those fish! why do they do that? Hope you are still applying the sun cream, you look like you have alrewady picked up more colour, I suppose that can't be avoided no matter how much cream you slap on. Can you believe one week has gone already, its mad how time flies! Miss you lots xxxx