Empor Empire

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So back in the empor empire, and must account for my last few days in Asia before they become missing days in my memory.
The train journey was fairly pleasant, not squeaky clean -we did acquire a few mosy bites and a tan from whatever was floating in the window- but had a good conversation with an elderly Thai guy who filled us in on a wee bit of current events in Thailand. After a couple of dodgy tummy days for Chris, it was a good excuse to sit and relax and have a snooze in the top, fold down sleeping birth.
After we chucked in on the train, got slightly fleeced by a tuk-tuk, we returned to Soi Rambutri. Back in Bangkok, the city where the high rises rise higher the land of troublesome taxis, tuk-tuks and to many things we wanted to buy, it was almost nice to return to a familiar place, almost! We wandered round the stalls and consumed a multitude of lemon and fruit shakes, we booked our trip for the following morning to Kanchanaburi. Just 2 hour-ish in our mini bus we were dropped at a resort in the small quiet village. We wandered in the exhausting heat and eventually, with the help of a rikshaw (we squished into a 1 person seat and he cycled us to a stop maybe 10 meters away, but he was just lovely) found ourselves a nice hut by the waters edge. We stayed for a couple of nights. More drinks and plenty of grub later we did some exploring and we headed to the tiger temple. This well advertised spot, in the middle of beyond, is a grassless brown dusty 10 or so acres with a numerous animals wandering about and a canyon to see the tigers. First thoughts - may not be so pleasant, small cages, tigers on chains and innumerable flashing cameras. We had heard people who were there before were disappointed and that the tigers were drugged so we anticipated the worst and thankfully it was more enjoyable than we expected. The conditions are not desirable but with the admission fee and a few donations, building is underway to improve matters. There are 18 tigers I think. It all began by the monks taking on 4 orphaned wee tigers and four became many-I don’t think I need go into the detail of how that happened.-. With original intentions of reintroduction of new cubs into the wild failing, all of the tigers remain for tourism purposes - which considering the nearly extinct state of these particular tigers- may be ok. The tourists line up and a sea of yellow shirted people kinda shove u in for a pic with the tiger. One person remains at the tiger, another grabs you by the arm and the third takes your camera, all keeping their eyes on the tiger. Its all over in seconds, your dragged along, told to sit in a certain place, get your hands on the tigers - always away from their whiter than white prominent teeth- pose for a pic and away you go again. They felt gorgeous. Their hair thinner than I imagined, steely green and black ever alert eyes, you can see the power - that they can just whip around at the speed of light if they so desire. It definitely seem like they are in control and have just decided in their wisdom to tolerate u because the yellow shirts with you are the source of their food. Its not so nice when they have to leave and walk the very short walk to their smallish cage, but its all to improve and they are bred in captivity - so in perspective, its not so bad, I sorta think that anyway. The rest of the dusty landscape is filled with ponies, peacocks, bores, humped backed cows, deer, goats and buffalo. We wandered and watched a kindof surreal event where al the animals, bar the tigers or peacocks , converge on a truck load of cucumbers dumped all over the road and swallowed them up like 100 of me and a truck load of chocolate - I could empathise somewhat. Anyhow, we returned to our village for some more lounging around. We biked to see the bridge across the river kwai - what the village is famous for - took a few pics - hanging across the bridge, bought a few souvenirs and headed back to Bangkok.
So overall , a fantabulous trip (thanks Chris)- Elephants that I’ll never forget, a fried egg with every meal (oh a fried egg hubba hubba - of course none cooked to perfection like the Empor eggs by our very own Tomi-I‘m going to buy u a chicken, to feed me when I‘m home!), chocolate pancakes around every corner - I never knew condensed milk was so delicious !, the lovely foreign words, sounded nicer in Laos again - musical - more slender vowel sounds I think - as opposed to broad in Thailand and to more of a hak sound in Vietnam (as in an unpleasant cough) , eyeball rolling wine (if one would call it wine), pupil dilating spicy salads, creepy crawlies who loved me and my body (who knew!), plumbing the leaves a bit to be desired (I never knew hose pipes were used for that…), my celebrity status as a white skinned blue eyed girl - until the rock climbing, where I looked like a yellow person from the hip down with all the bruises, the pleasure in withdrawing 2 million whatever from the bank, my fav - Laos for the permanently happy people-am I biased - maybe, but experience is relative and perhaps we came across exceptionally nice people in Laos and did more activities there than any other place, some of the villages there put what we have in to perspective, and the smiles, oh the smiles, iv seen more in a month than in a year, so genuine, welcoming, sweet, and remarkable - the best form of communication that exists!. We had laughed and smiled so much my cheek muscles still ache and I think the endorphins are still flowing!
Thanks for tuning in, and for the comments, I missed you all! Its good to be home. Empor will be loosing me to the USA next month, so ill be keeping you informed of my adventures.. that’s all folks
Until next time…….
Toodles
Gracie

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