Bangkok continued

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Day 2:

Tour with tong
dealing with Tong was fine, she does take a little while to get back to you but it’s worth it in the end. We tried to squeeze a lot in as we were off to Phuket the next day. Our guide for the day was Charlee, he was brilliant. His knowledge of Thailand was 1^st class as he claimed to be an ex teacher of Thai history (He also claimed to be ex CIA J). He was lovely guide & kept everything on track. We travelled in a luxury 4 door Toyota tilde which was very comfortable. The driver was no problems either.

We did:

Train Market:

Read about it, heard about it & saw it on TV, but until you are there you cannot believe it. One of the highlights of our trip. Great market as well.

Floating market:

Again, just amazing. Probably touristy, but hey I’m a tourist. Loved it.

Wood carving:

Seen a lot of wood carvings in Bali & Jepara in Central Java, but this place was fantastic. Some of the works were outstanding especially the elephants. Loved the rocking chair as well.

War Cemetery & Bridge over river Kwai:

Again, we would love to come back & spend more time here. The war cemetery is well maintained & felt like a little bit of Australia is here. Bridge over river kwai was also good. Not sure about the tourist train though.

Tiger Temple:

We love tigers & I don’t want to get into a political debate, but we thought we would check it out for ourselves. The Tigers seemed to be well cared for & yes we did the touristy thing of patting the tigers but we left it at that. Maybe we will come back & do the breakfast thing maybe not. We liked what we saw.

Elephant Bath:

We did an elephant trek last year in Koh Samui & we said we would never do that again, my wife loves elephants so I thought bathing with an elephant would be good. We didn’t realise we had to ride the bloody thing BAREBACK down to the river. We are both big boned if you know what I mean so as soon as we hopped on bare back we were pooing ourselves. My wife was virtually crying within seconds & hugging the mahout so tight he nearly fell off. I’m at the back reassuring her everything will be ok whilst looking for the safest place to jump lol. We rode the elephant down to the river down a steep incline & vowed never to ride one again & we would walk back up (Huh). Anyway once we got to the river & the elephant started splashing us it was all good. Loved this, playing & splashing the elephant, being lifted by his trunk & sitting on his foot. Now as I said we were going to walk back up but the stones in the river & on the banks of the river were so sharp we went back on our word & rode back up with no mahout & me at the front holding his ears. We only started to enjoy the ride once we were up from the steep incline. Fair to say we will never do another elephant ride though. The actual bathing, splashing & playing with the elephant was great though & we loved THAT part of itJ.

We squeezed in lunch near the elephant park which was nice & cheap enjoyed the chicken & cashews & fried rice & few large bottles of beer to relax.

Our Stay:

We booked Siam@Siam design Hotel & spa on the recommendation of our travel agent we were pleased we did. Location was great, virtually underneath National stadium Bts station, tesco lotus just up the road.. Free tuk tuk ride from MBK. Got upgraded to an executive room at check in, Nice room, free access to executive lounge on the 24^th floor which has free drinks & canapés between 6-8pm so worth the upgrade if you wanted to pay as the people who did pay said they got their money’s worth. Wandered up to rooftop restaurant for dinner one night which has 360deg view of Bangkok skyline. Great hotel, infinity pool & pool area was fantastic. Done a review already here-:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g293916-d649258-r119122625-Siam_Siam_Design_Hotel_Spa-Bangkok.html

Tour with Tong review:-

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g293916-d1580840-r119121252-Tour_with_Tong-Bangkok.html

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Photos

Train Market 1
Looking down the track

Train Market 2
@ Min warning

TM3
30 sec warning

TM4
Its here

tm4
Its gone

tm5
At the station

tm 6
The train

war1
Lovely maintained garden

war2
Sacrifice