Thailand - Culture week

---

So last friday (27.03.09) we went to monkey city, aka Lop Buri, which is pretty much as the title suggests, lots of monkeys which just live in the city. They can be pretty cheeky, you have to hide your stuff or they will try and nik it. Last weekend we did a trip away, on the saturday went to Erawan national park to some waterfalls then out in some random town we were staying in, don't even know the name of the place! On the sunday (29.03.09) went to see the bridge over the River Kwai, pretty horrific what happened there. We got to walk on it and get a train over it, apparently the allied POWs made it as unsafe as possible in the hope it would collapse. Two of the group managed to miss the train and got lost so spent most of the day trying to find them, didn't get much else done. On tuesday (01.04.09) we had a temple stay, which meant sleeping on a really hard floor and getting up at 5am to meditate with the monks, then walking around town to collect food. Buddism is a pretty cool religion but these monks just don't seem to do anything. They get free food, can't eat after 12, can't drink, can't have sex and meditate 6 hours a day to try and achieve enlightenment! Wednesday was mel's birthday so a few drinkpoos in the bar was had. Thursday (02.04.09), my birthday!! we were supposed to go for a bike ride into town, but we all decided against that and went to a theme park instead! It was called Dream World, one of only two theme parks in thailand, pretty much like ones in england but smaller and probably a lot less safe. they also have independent street vendors there selling food and stuff which is good, makes things a lot cheaper. Yesterday (03.04.09) it was local market in the morning then zoo time in the afternoon, they had all sorts of animals as you would expect but seemed to have loads of tigers for some reason. We got to go int the pen with some lion and tiger cubs, i'm not gonna lie i was pretty scared. Apparently there teeth aren't very sharp at that age, but they looked pretty fearsome to me. We got to feed them and take a few picks, they tried to bite a few people then one of them started chasing me, at that point i felt is was time to leave! Last night we went to Twin house, where some people from other groups are staying, for a few birthday drinks.

Today we've got some free time so have come into town to hit the pool and sort some stuff out for next week. We leave tomorrow to for a weeks trekking in the jungle...

---

Comments

[Karen Manger]

Sounds Fab
Following your travels in Thailand with interest Neil. You sound to be having a great time and seeing a lot of the place. The encounter with the tigers sounded a bit scary! Almost as scary as mine in Brazil with the giant fanged catterpillar!! Have fun and stay safe. Love Karen