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Published: November 6th 2007
Baby Tiger 4
He got a bit bored and yawned!!!
This link shows a world map charting our travels to date -
http://www.travelblog.org/gmaps/map_4Gi.html
Hey, welcome to our further travels! Onwards from Koh Tao, and on a mission to Bangkok for a visa which runs out in 4 days from leaving the Islands! Just so you know, all the Chiang Mai photo's are at the end of the photo log so perservere as theres loads to look at! Basically, we spent too long chilling out down south! We got up on a hot, bright, sunny day; with a cool breeze blowing in off the sea. Dirk and the instructors were taking some guys out diving, and it was looking like another lovely day in Koh Tao. Me and Claire were sad to leave. We got our packs on and bummed a lift off Nan to the harbour. After grabbing a couple of Croissants we got on the boat and sailed to Chumphon harbour. After this we queued up with loads of other travellers to get our bus ticket to Bangkok.
The Guinness Book of World Records has certified that the true name for Bangkok (Krung-thep-nakorn-boworn-ratant-kosin-mahintar-ayudhya-amaha-dilok-pop-nopa-ratana-rajthani-burirom-udom-rajniwes-mahasatarn-amorn-pimarn-avatar-satit-sakattiya-visanukam) is the longest place
Bangkok Sunrise
Taken from our train on route to Aranyaprathet, leaving Bangkok train station! name in the world. The bus's are aircon and not bad, so this passed quite quickly and we rolled into Bangkok at about 8pm. We were looking forward to our air-con guest house and broke our own rule and jumped a Tuk Tuk. NEVER bother with these if you go. They charge more (sometimes double) what an aircon taxi costs. In Bangkok they drive you through traffic fumes, not the best way to get around! Always get a taxi and ask for meter. If they say no, sack it and stop another. There are thousands in Bangkok and they are all aircon!
Anyway we found our guest house eventually and got into our room. We stayed in the GREENHOUSE Guest house and it was alright. The next day we went to the immigration dept to try and renew our visa's. Unfortunately for us the laws changed earlier in the year and now you can only renew for 10 days. This didnt give us long enough to secure our Vietnamese and Indian visa's in Bangkok and visit Chiang Mai. Our only option was to get the train to Aranyprathet and cross into Cambodia, then come straight back to Thailand, which
Khaosan Road
Traveller central - Soi Khaosan at night would give us another 30 days! Basically we went to Cambodia so we could stay in Thailand, Mad!
The trains had hardly changed since our last trip this way a couple of years ago. The only thing different, is there was now a bit of padding on the seats where as before they were wooden! Well worth the 1.50 pounds for a 5 hour journey!! The train left Chuamphong station in Bangkok and drove slowly through the railway slums and out of the city, revealing a beautiful sunrise. The slums are quite sad. People live in wood and corrugated iron shacks, whole families to one shack. They have there own shops (shacks) and a market. Some shacks had sattelite T.V. peoples priorities never cease to amaze me. Seriously though its easy too ask why they've got T.V's and stuff, but at home so have we and we aren't rich by a long shot! Think about the wanna be gangsters in Stoke Newington driving brand new Mercs and wearing more gold than the royal family; they're living in east end slums an' all!
Anyway after a long journey we arrived in Aranyaprathet, Thailands border town with Cambodia. It was
The Tuk Tuk Pimp
and his crazy Tuk Tuk (A Tuk Tuk is a crazy carriage welded onto a moped) This Tuk Tuk is one of a kind! red hot, to the point where you could feel your skin burning, so being me and Clairey instead of sorting a hotel and cooling off we went direct to the border! This border is the Wild West! We did it last time and nearly got robbed and did get ripped off, i'll leave Claire to tell you that story as it was all her fault 😊
(CLAIRE)
- When Tommy came to see me on my last trip, we ventured into Cambodi to Siem reap to see the infamous Angor Watt Temples. However in order to see this we obviousley had to cross what Tommy accurately describes as The Wild West Border. I've crossed a fair few land borders and to date , this one has been the craziest! I was a Lonely Planet worshipper and also wanted to do things as cheaply and "authentically" as possible (doesn't sound like me does it!). I insisted that rather than get the bus to siem reap , that Lonely Planet (AKA, at that time, The Bible!)says "$3 in a pick up to siem riep".
Great Claire thinks, cheap and adventurous, what more could we ask for?? Tommy really wanted to
get the bus, but also wanted to keep me sweet and more the fool him, perhaps thought that i had gained a little experince after 3 months of travelling!!
So after the rigmarole of getting through immigration, with the ever changing visa price according to how corrupt the officials on duty are, we met a guy who spoke very good english who confirmed that yes the price of a pick up was indeed $3 and that he would take us to his friends pick up, what a nice man!! So off we trundled past all of the pick-up trucks onto a tuk tuk with this guyto go to HIS pick up as we'd promised to go with him! When suddenleyas we had just taken off, a policeman grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and literally hoiked him off of the tuk tuk and dragged him away!! Tommy and i were a little taken back to say the least and decided that we may have been dupedand could possible have been nearly robbed, so got off of the tuk tuk and over to the rest of the pick ups (no claire hadn't given up yet).
We hopped
A view from 3rd Class
If you leave early to goto the Cambodian border 3rd Class is all thats available! onto a pickup and sat on the back to keep an eye on our bags and waited for a while, having loads of room to stretch out, thought that in fact this would be quite a good journey as long as the rain held off. Slowley more people came and got on and more and more, until there were 26 other people on the back of this truck (all locals, no other foreigners, you'd think that would have been a hint, but NO it just made it all the more "authentic"). It was like a bloody circus, everyone balancing on the side, holding onto each others legs, including mine. I was sitting opposite an old lady who had a grip of steel!! This wouldn't have been so bad if the rain had held off, which it didn't and it filled all of the potholes in the road, which the drivre tried to avoid, but failed on numerous occasions!! I wondered if we'd make it to Siem Reip as the pick up felt as though it was tipping from side to side, i thought we were going over on more than one occasion!! Anyway eventualy the rain held off and we
Our posh Hotel
In Aranyaprathet we splashed out on a Posh Hotel (the only posh hotel) It had air-con, a big bed, room service, a free meal and most importantly The Liverpool match on live! were starting to settle into the journey after about an hour, one cambodian girl said she liked Tommy and i said he was hers if the price was right!!! When we suddenley pulled into a petrol garage and were ushered off this pick up ,our bags were grabbed and i grabbed them back whilst clambering off. They then wanted us to get onto ANOTHER pick up which seemed to have more people on it and was smaller than the last one. Now Tommy and i are nowhere near the size of the cambodian people and looked at it and just knew that we'd never fit into it and live to tell the tale! Luckily for us or for her, we saw another distressed looking British girl, who also said "not a chance" and we decided to split the cost of a taxi for the rest of the way! What i would have given for a worn smelly bus seat at that point !! Still we made it and now its another take to tell, but needless to say our memories of poipet were still fresh when we approached it the second time!!
Tommy:-
Anyway you constantly get
Me an Claire
A bit worse for ware, back in Bangkok! people asking to help you cross the border e.t.c. after last time i just said NO! We did the Thai side with no problems and then tried to come straight back in! We were told we needed to enter cambodia, get stamped out, and then come back! So needless to say we braved the wild west. As soon as you enter you will be 'guided' in by local lads. Basically if your staying they let you walk on to a second group, who 'guide' you through immigration for a price. If your on a visa run like us you are guided to the side of the road just on the Cambodian side of the border! There you are given a seat in the shade whilst your 'guide' goes and gets a cambodian immigration bizzie(Police for non northeners). You are told it costs 1000 baht each to get in and they will sort all your stamps! We weren't to sure till the bizzie turned up, but in the end we gave the 'guide' our passports and cash which he gave to the bizzie. He then got on his moped and went off to do the buisiness. After about 20 (nervous0 minutes
Long live the King
These pictures of the king and the rest of his family are everywhere. It is an imprisonable offence to defile the pic or insult the Royal family. About a year ago a tourist got a 45 year sentence for throwing coke over the picture. It was kindly reduced to 5 years on appeal!!! he came back with our visa's and told us we needed to now give him 500 baht each to get stamped out of the country!!! Obviously this is a rip off orchestrated by the local 'guides and the bizzies, but hey! what can you do. We were knackered, hot, and the bizzie had our passports! So we paid the fella and headed back to thailand, across the road bridge. Along the way of course our guide asked for money 'for his time'. English con men have a lot to learn! We stamped back into Thailand and headed off to find a hotel.
As we were so tired and hot we thought "what the hell" and booked into the best Hotel in town. Compared to the guest houses it was an excellent 5 star jobbie, in reality probably a 4 star though. For us this was luxury! We had a big soft king size bed, air-con, a proper shower and SATELLITE T.V.! They also did us a free scran in the evening. The only down side is the town was the only place in Thailand not showing the Footy. Liverpool were due to play Derby (Tommy and i are
Top Curry House
Me and Claire pose for a pic in the best curry house in Bangkok (On Khaosan) Its called 'Spicy Affair' The curries were awesome. The others we tried were a poor second. The 'Royal India' on Rambuttri, being the priciest and worst! contesting this and have a tenner on it, it was NOT Derby) and i wanted to see the game, i was well pissed off! We were sitting in our room watching a crap movie when all the channels started to change by themselves! Claire immediately thought it was a ghost 😊 The Channels stopped on a glorious view, The liverpool Football team walking out onto the pitch, alongside Derby. Without boring the non-footy fans among you we thrashed them within an inch of there lives and a great 90 minutes was had by all, especially me!
The next day we left early and returned to Bangkok. We stayed one more night at the guest house then moved to Four Sons Village, Soy Rambuttri, Bangkok. This was the quiet end of the road on the opposite side from Khao San road. They gave us a large double room, ensuite, with air-con sattelite t.v. and a balcony! All for 500 baht a night (about 7 quid)! Bargain. We stayed here till we left Bangkok and i highly recommend it to all travellers and the budget conscious holiday maker! If i'm being honest we did very little in Bangkok, not because of
laziness, but because this was our third time here and we had seen all there is to see previously!
For those of you who haven't been though heres a quick list of the must see's -
There is one MUST SEE trip, and that is to the Grand Palace and Wat Pra Keow, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The second best trip I would be to go to Ayuthaya, the ancient capital city, and Bang Pa In. On the way you stop off at a temple and King Rama IV's summer palace, made entirely of teak wood. This trip takes the best part of all day, and you have 2 options, to go out by boat or to go out by bus. The cost is the same for both trips but the best way to go is most definitely out by bus. You leave quite early in the morning before the traffic gets bad and you get out of Bangkok quickly, when the sightseeing is over, you join The Oriental Princess for a leisurely cruise, with a sumptuous buffet, down the river back into Bangkok. Relax on the upper deck and watch the sunset and the antics
The Shell
Don't know how much you can see, but only in Thailand would you have an outdoor cafe, set up in the forecourt of a Shell petrol station! (Bangkok) of the people who live on the river bank. You arrive back at The Oriental Hotel at about 18.30 after a day of real contrasts and memorable sights. This is the almost the same trip taken by Prince Charles & Lady Di on their visit to Thailand.
There is Damnenrsaduak Floating market as well. Although this has gone very touristy, and isnt as good as it once was! There are also the Thai Boxing national arenas based here. Go on a tuesday or preferably a Sunday and you get the best fighters in thailand! The fights in most of Thailand are rigged and set up for tourists. The ones in Banghkok are the real thing. Make sure you get a ring side seat and not a tourist seat at the back! Another mecca is Patpong. This is the red light area with all the pingpong shows. It also has the tourist marke, just make sure you bargain hard, starting at less than 50 % of the asking price, then do a Claire and just offer what you want to pay for it and if they won't come down then just walk away, if its a decent offer they'll soon
Bridge over the River Kwai
Me and two friends we met (Kev and Nicole from the U.K.) pose next to the bridge. Its not the origional as we blew that up! call you back!!. Its worth a once in bangkok and never again look, just to say you've done it, but thats about it! Much better is Chatachuk weekend market. This is a huge market that has as many as 300,000 visitors every weekend as is 3 times cheaper than anywhere else in thailand (and most of south east asia) for your souvenirs and just about anything else you might fancy./ Make sure you get there early though (8.45ish).
As i've already said we mainly pottered around the book shops and bars and restuarants of Rambuttri and Khao San. One thing we really wanted to do was go to see Tiger Temple. We noticed an advert in one of the thousands of travel agents windows, and we had seen the program in England last Christmas with me mum. It looked fantastic.
These are qoutes from the RSPCA regarding tiger temple-
Drugged? Absolutely not! These tigers have been brought up with people and they are not afraid of us, so they have no need to defend themselves by attacking us or warning us off. The abbot is a remarkable man with boundless compassion for all creatures. In a Bridge over the Kwai
Across the other side of this and down the steps are a Baby elephant and its mum! part of the world where animal welfare is sometimes not even on the list, he is doing all he can to help protect the tigers. To suggest that the tigers are not properly cared for is an insult to him, the other Buddhist monks and all that they believe in.
The tigers are also ALL Buddist and live off of a diet of only cooked meat (never anything raw) and live by Buddist principles!!!!!
This was our definate must see! We booked a trip which took us to Katchaburi to look at the bridge over the River Kwai and then on to Tiger temple! The bridge isnt the real one built by the POW's in WW2 but anyone who has read the books and seen then film will like this trip, and with a good imagination get a sense of what the lads went through. We made a stop and walked upto the bridge, it is a bit unremarkable, but also a bit haunting when you consider the men who died tortured and impoverished under the japanese occupation, building it. Thousands of allied soldiers, predominantly british, aussies and Dutch died during the bridges construction. The origional name for
the river was the Mae Klong River (renamed Kwai Yai River in 1960).
Don-Rak War Cemetery
This War Cemetery is also known as the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery. It is located opposite Kanchanaburi's Railway Station on Saengchootoe Road. It contains the remains of 6,982 Australian, Dutch and British war prisoners who lost their lives during the construction of the Death Railway.
Chonk-Kai War Cemetery
The second War Cemetery is about 2 km south of town on the bank of the Kwai Noi River and occupies the former Conk-Kai Prisoner of War Camp. This cemetery is more peaceful, attractively landscaped and contains 1,740 remains (by countries: 1,379 British, 313 Netherlands, 42 Malayan and 6 Indian). It was the site of a base camp, a hospital and a church built by the prisoners themselves. The great majority of 1,740 casualties buried in this war cemetery, which is the original burial ground started by the prisoners, are men who died in the hospital nearby.
JEATH War Museum
JEATH is an acronym for the primary nations which participated in local action. These nations are: Japan, England, Australia, Thailand and Holland. The museum inside Wat Chai Chumphon has been constructed
Baby elephant 1
I say baby, but the little fella weighs over a ton!!! largely in the form of an Allied Prisoner of War camp which is managed by a Thai monk. The thatched detention hut with cramped, elevated bamboo bunks contains photographic, pictorial and physical memorabilia dating from the Second World War. To be honest before you come here, learn the history. Maybe read the book 'Prisoners of the Japanese' by Gavin Daws, to get an insight. This book is mainly from the U.S. POW view (there weren't many in Thailand) but is excellent and will give you a harrowing insight that would make your trip here, more poignant.
After walking over we saw a mother and baby elephant who were only to happy to be fed by Claire and pose for pics! After lunch we moved onto the temple another hours drive away!We were with a sound couple, also English, Kev and Nicole so were having a really good day. I have to say though, my nerves were kicking in when i thought about sitting next to a live tiger! Especially as Nicole told us a story about last time they were there. ' A yank tourist was talking loudly on her mobile (you are told to be quiet) and eating
Baby elephant 2
Claire is feeding him local fruit!!! a burger (The scent would be attractive to a tiger!) She barged through to see the tigers and was asked by a Thai helper to put her food down and be quieter. She ignored this helper and strolled towards the tigers, one of whome decided he didnt like her and growled and took a swipe at her! He didnt get her but i reckon she deserved it anyway' ! So after this heartening tale we were off to the temple!
Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yannasampanno Forest Monastery was established by the Abbot-Phra Acharn Phusit (Chan) Kanthitharo in 1994.
Since its opening Wat Pa Luangta Bua gained a reputation as a wildlife sanctuary. It started with an injured wild fowl given to the monk by the villagers, then peacocks came attracted by the calls of by then rather large colony of wild fowl. An injured wild boar stumbled in to the monastery and the monks cared for him until he could be released back into the forest. The next day he came back followed by his family group of about 10 animals. By now a countless number of boar find shelter in the monastery. Villagers also started to bring
Tiger Temple Thailand
This is me, Claire, Kev and Nicole walking down to Tiger Canyon at the temple, to meet the tigers. There are loads of pics so i will just call them tiger 1,2,3 an so on.... in unwanted pets: four species of deer moved in, followed by buffalo, cow, horses, wild goat and gibbons. All these animals are roaming the grounds of the monastery freely.
The first tiger cub arrived to the monastery in February 1999. It was a female cub of Indochinese subspecies (Tigris corbetti) and her condition was very poor. When she was only a few months old her mother was killed by poachers near the Thai-Burma border. The cub was sold to and the new owner ordered her stuffed. A local was hired to do the job, which fortunately he did not finish. Although he injected her in the neck with the preservative formalin the cub survived. When she arrived to the to the monastery she was frail and terrified of a slightest sound. She still has stitches in the cuts on her head. Her vision was impaired and her teeth were already worn, particularly the fangs, which appeared as if they have been filed down to the gum, blood oozing from the roots. Eating was a difficult task for her - she could hardly move her tongue, chew and swallow her food. Inspite of her condition she has never once attacked
Tiger Canyon
This is where you meet the Tigers! anyone. Under loving care of the monks the cub recovered, but in July 1999 she fell seriously ill with heart palpitations and died.
People who knew about the incident did not want to see another cub mistreated again. However it was not to be. The monastery is situated in Kanchanaburi province - an area lying adjacent to Burma. Large protected areas and national parks along the Thai-Burma border are believed to contain the largest surviving populations of tigers in Thailand. Unfortunately, while these areas are protected poaching still occurs. A Thai poacher can get up to US $5,800 for killing a tiger, several years' salary to a farmer. The profit is well worth the risk. And when the mother tiger is killed the cubs are taken as a bonus, or left to fend for themselves in the jungle.
Just a few weeks after the first cub had died, two healthy male cubs, intercepted from the poachers, were brought to the monastery. They were tiny - just a week old. A few months later the local villagers presented another two male cubs. And soon after the border police patrol intercepted cubs held by poachers and contributed four female cubs,
achieving tiger harmony.The Abbot, Phra Acharn Chan, kindly welcomed the animals. And so the monks ended up looking after the orphaned cubs. None of them had any training in how to handle tigers. They had to learn on the job.
The monastery did its duty. It became a sanctuary and it upholds the sanctity of "compassion and kindness to all living creatures." This place is awesome. It is run by quiet Buddhist monks and local Thai volunteers. It does accept foreign volunteers and students of meditation, but we didnt see any! You pay a small entry price (300bahts) and take a walk down to Tiger Canyon. Once in the canyon we were literally struck dumb and anyone who knows Claire, will know how awesome the sight must have been to keep her gob shut 😊
(Claire) "Cheeky git, but its true !!!!"
I cant quite describe what its like to see live, fully grown Tigers roaming about or lazing in the sun, with no bars between you and them! To actually sit next to these awsome creatures and then touch them was indescribable. I have touched Wolves but this was something special. I have to admit
when one i was touching got a bit grouchy and stood up and growled i shit me self! It helps (although its a funny sight) when the 5 foot tall Thai helpers hold your hand everywhere! We also got to see baby Tigers, ranging from a couple of weeks old to a couple of months, it was briiliant. I'll let Claire wax lyrical for a bit-
(CLAIRE)- I have to say that this was probably one of the best things that i have ever done, sitting and then walking with the fully grown tigers was quite on experience, you can see in the pictures that one of their heads is the size of most of my torso!! I really felt totally in awe of them and you quickly learn to respect that although they are hand reared and used to humans that they are still wild animals!! BUT the real highlight for me was to be able to hold one of the babies ,i nearly cried, they are sterdy little beggers, as you'd expect from a young tiger cub, but 10000000% adorable and something that i never thought i'd get to do! It's always been a dream of mine
Tiger 2
Claire poses! to see and touch and a young cub of the wild cats, but here i actually got to hold it and snuggle up to it, i was so happy i nearly peed myself !!!!!! However there were tourists there who were so desperate to touch and hold the cubs, that their behaviour was pretty appauling, they were almost snatching the cubs away from each other and crowding around the cubs. At times they became quite distressed and were crying out, but tha didn't stop people wanting to hold them, god forbid that the animals should have some space. In the end Tommy didn't want to hold them as he was getting so pissed of with the other people. I was lucky that i managed to be in the right place at the right time, when everyone else was fusisng over the others they bought another one out and there were only a few people at first so the cub was quite chilled out and seemed to be enjoying the attention!!!! Anyway its probably one of my favourite photos and if you ever go to Bangkok,
YOU HAVE TO GO HERE no doubt, its a 3 hour drive to get
there but worth every single second of it
Anyway after this we made our way back to Bangkok and got ready for a a slap up curry at the best Indian in Bangkok, called 'Spicy Affair' its on Rambuttri, top end, for those who may visit, reasonably priced and really authentic food, we tried about 3 others, but this one was number 1 by a long shot !
Chang Mai
The city of Chieng Mai is considered to be Thailand's second most important city and one its largest. Despite this, it remains a tenth of the size of Bangkok, with an estimated 400,000 people living in the greater urban area of the city. Eighty per cent of the local population are deemed 'Khon Muang' (meaning Northern folk) and they speak a slightly different dialect to the central Thai language. Chieng Mai is also home to Thailand's highest mountain, Doi Inthanon, along with five other peaks counted among the country's ten highest. It also has five main national parks and more than a dozen smaller ones.
One of the main draws to Northern Thailand is the trekking in Chiang Mai province and
the surrounding areas. Trekking through the jungles, mountains and visiting hill tribes around Chiang Mai , there are a tribe called Padong "long neck" tribe just outside Chiang Dao. Other treks visit other tribes and offer other activities such as elephant riding, whitewater rafting , mountain biking and bamboo rafting. People that we spoke to said they had an amazing time and we just wished that we'd had more time to spare to do this!!
Chang Mai is also probably one of the best places in Thailand to take courses on anything from Thai language to Thai massage (which i did the last time i was here for a week). They also offer meditation courses , the most serious option is to enter Wat Rampoeng, near the foot of Doi Suithep, which has a fairly strict but manageable 30-day programme. Here you'll live like a monk, taking only two meals a day (none after noon), undertaking plenty of meditating, vows of silence and carrying out the usual chores expected!! There is also the option that we chose of learning to make your favourite Thai meals (which a fare too many in our case!!)
Unfortunately due to time constraints,
Tiger 5
Claire strolls along with the Abbot and a completely unrestrained Tiger, trust me they are not drugged!!! we only had a few days here and didin't get to see any of the above reccomended activities, but did manage to get ourselves enroled on a thia cooking course for a day. The course included a visit to the market for ingrediets and learn about the unique vegetables, herbs and spices commonly used in this region. Tommy cooked his favuorie Massaman Curry, spring rolls (from scratch, it can be done!!) , Chicken and cashew nuts, Steamed bannana cake and I made Panang Curry, Spicy beef salad, Sticky Rice and Thai style steamed mussels, among others. It was v great there were only threee of us on the course, so we all got lots of help and attention, the beauty of it was that we also got to eat all of the food!!!! The problem was that there was just to much of it and we couldn't manage to eat ll of it, so took some home as well !! We alos got a Thai cookbook provided by the school to take home, so wacth out friends and family, we're going to be having Dinner parties to die for and have sent home chopsticks for authenticity (no knives/forks/spoons will be
Baby Tiger 1
They vary in age from a few months old to the smallest who is a few weeks old! permited!!! )
We also visited the Sunday night market, which if your ever in Chang Mai on the Sunday is an absolut must!! It starts around 14:00 and lasts until 22:00, with local craftpersons operating stalls along Rajdumnern Road on the inner-east side of the moat near Tapae Gate. It goes on forever down one street and brances of into a couple of other roads.
Not only are there a wonderful array of local handicrafts and clothes on offer here, various entertainments are provided throughout the market adding to the flavour. We witnessed some fantastic and terrible musical performnces here, two that stick out in my memory are a young thai girl of maybe 8 performing traditional Thai dance with lots of even younger girls trying to copy her, it was lovely to watch them. Secondly was another young Thai girl of maybe 9/10 playing the violin and it was the classic drone of an untuned and obvious beginner, bless her it was awful, but very funny. There were also groups of young people who were blind and with some other disabilites who sat in the middle of the market in bands, all in all great fun to
have all of this entertainment whilst shopping!!!
The selection of goods for sale is awesome and a far cry from the fake designer watches and clothes found in Bangkok! Ranging ffrom well made traditional handicrafts, hand carved soaps, wood crafts, live fish flap helplessly in shallow containers, stastrange collections of root and herb remedies that wouldn’t be out of place in a Shakesperian play! While others display their enormous selection of dried insects and bugs which ought to be in a curator’s draw, not offered as a delicacy, its true...we have pictures of sweetened cockroaches, grasshoppers, silk worms to mention but a few!
We stuffed ourselves on sticky rice and bought some pressies for people, including my grandparents who's 60th Wedding anniversary it was,
Happy Anniversary to you both again, hey your famous and on the internet now !!!!! I know you both had a lovely day at the super fancy French restaurant, sorry we couldn't be there but we were thinking of you both and had a drink in your honour!!!! We wandered around the quite soys and i had a few massages...well they're good for your health, then booked our three day trip
Me an the tigers 2
This one woke up when i was about to touch it. I shit meself and they made me sit slightly away!!! through to Luang Prabang in Laos o the slow boat (its called that for a reason.....it takes 2 days!!!)
If you ever visit here, try to allow at least one week as there is so much to see and try to do one of the treks, they are supposed to be very cool!!!
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glenis
non-member comment
thai pics
i loved the pics you sent on the day you went to tiger sanc but i adowed these of the whole day it looks fantastic and you must have had a wonderful time thanks for shering luv mum