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Published: August 25th 2008
My Asian exploration has begun with 5 nights in Bangkok. Four of those nights have been in the Suk 11 hostel in Sukhumvit, a fantastic little haven for me, even with airconditioning in the rooms!
So what have I been up to in Bangkok, well for my first real day of exploration I headed out on a ferry on the main river in Bangkok, the Chao Phraya. I cruised up and down the river on this ferry, getting off at The Grand Palace and the famous backpacker spot of Khao San Rd.
The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kew (temple of the Emerald Buddha) were my first real touristy sites, and amazing sites they were. There was a lot of gold paint and tiling, some very manacured trees and plenty of monstrous looking statues. I am sure they are the first of many temples to come on my travels.
I have visited Khao San Rd a few times now. I mainly go there to book my travel, and have not mastered the art of bartering with the travel agents yet, I am sure I am getting scammed left right and centre, but I guess as long a I
Wat Phra Kaew
Temple of the Emerald Buddhabelieve I am getting a good deal then it doesn't matter. I have also taken the opportunity here to eat a bit of street food, I have been brave enough for pad thai, fresh pineapple and sticky rice with mango so far, all have been fantastic, and I am not sick yet, so I might broaden my horizons soon.
One day I did a tour out to the West of Bangkok to the province of Kanchanaburi. Our first stop was the Bridge over the River Kwai, famous for its involvement in WWII. It was built by POW's and local labour and a huge number of people died in the consructing of the "Death Railway" from Myanmar (formerly Burma) to Thailand. We took a short train ride over the death railway, and it was really enjoyable as the train was full of local kids out on a day trip and they had the largest smiles as they hung their heads out of the windows of the train.
My next stop was an Elephant farm where I went for a short ride on an elephant (who's name I have forgotten). It was fantastic, and one of the reasons I wanted
Wat Phra Kaew
Temple of the Emerald Buddha to come to Thailand. It had a great motion, side to side, front to back. We had been running late so my elephant ride was cut a bit short, never mind I will just have to have another ride somewhere else.
The final part of the day was a visit to the Tiger Temple. It is a buddhist monestary that have adopted several orphaned tiger cubs and hand raised them. Therefore they are very used to human contact and are really placid. We got to go into the "Tiger Canyon" and pat about 7 tigers and have our photos taken with them. We also saw a tiger cub and they had feeding time for some herbivores (pigs, buffalo, deer) and we got to see a mini pig stampede that had me giggling for a long time afterwards. All in all a great day tour.
I am just chilling in some airconditioned malls today getting ready to take the overnight train to Chiang Mai tonight. I have taken a chance on third class and this may be the one and only time, but should be an experience.
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Kellie
non-member comment
Woah
Cool Jo, your are sure starting your holidays with some great adventures. Loving the photo's - you are a lot braver than me, I'm not so sure about those tigers!! Take care and keep the blogs come Kellie, Graham, Joe and Elsa xxxxxxxxxxxxxx