Advertisement
Published: January 8th 2007
Edit Blog Post
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE !!!!!!!!!!
Today , Jan 8 2007 finds me in the ancient capital of Thailand called Ayuttaya, Its located just north of Bangkok about a 2 hour train journey. All in all the journey from Pattaya to here took about 5 hours including a mono rail and subway excursion through Bangkok to get from the bus station to the train station.
My departure from Pattaya after a one month lay over to refuel my flagging energy tanks was a welcome one. I met many great people both foreign and thai and have gatherd lots of email addresses names and phone numbers. Now the trick will be to keep in touch, perhaps pointing them to my web blog will be just the answer.
Life in Pattaya is like no other place on earth and to say you have seen thailand if one only visits Pattaya is like an alien saying he has visited earth but only landed on the moon. Pattaya is a world unto itself and could become addicting if you loved drinking all day and night, lying on the beach and cavorting with the thousands of ladies that ply their trade all hours of
the day. I stayed too long as the last week I was really spinning my wheels but since i rented my room by the month i had to stick around so as not to lose any money. No sooner had I left town on the bus than I could feel my stomach saying thankyou very much and I could feel myself start to unwind from the fast pace of life there . By contrast, life in Ayuttaya is a sleepy village and very relaxing, a welcome change of scenery I must say.
New Years in Pattaya was like no other I have experienced before. It was like a week long party between Xmas and New Years and since the Thais love to party this was a good excuse for a long one. Without a word of exaggeration, the fireworks display went on for hours all night . The sky was all lite up with hundreds of private displays of various sizes and intensity. Since anyone can buy fireworks here every one and thier uncle bought them and we arent talking backyard roman candles here, we are talking the bigboys like we have in Canada at 30 bucks a pop.
Sunset New Years Eve (spectacular)
this photo is totally untouched and natural colours The air was literally thick with dynamite smoke for hours and the noise was deafening. No one got any sleep new years eve I can tell you. Another favorite pasttime on new years is to send up miniature hot air balloons the size of a large kite. Candles are lite under the balloon and as the balloon fills with hotair from the flames the balloon rises. The night skies were full of them. Over the course of the night I would say thousands were let go. Filling the skies with UFO like lights.
The beach was full of holiday makers from all over the world, drinking, eating, swimming, seadoing and god knows what else. It was a great family event. I took a 5 minute video on my camera of just a small sample of fireworks at the stroke of midnight.
Experiencing Xmas and New Years in a warm climate , outdoors with no snow is a treat. All my friends asked me if New Years in Canada is the same and I said sadly NOOO. Its too cold to go outdoors like this and spend the evening on the beach or even in your backyard. I just
told them we stay indoors and drink our faces off then give everyone a big hug and kiss. Something the Thais dont do by the way.
The bombs in Bangkok had no affect on the revelry in Pattaya but the tourist trade has taken a dive since so many countries have given thailand a travel warning now. I will stay clear of the major centres where most of the political tensions seem to be centered. Having said that, where I have been no one seems to talk about the bombs or even the political tension . Life goes on for the thais, what ever will be will be.......
So here I am in Ayuttaya, an ancient capital of Thailand, no beach, just surrounded by rivers. The city is located on an island for protection from ancient warriors . The main reason I came here was to see the ancient remnants of the thai aristocracy and the many temples and edifaces that seem to be on every street corner here.......see pictures.
I did a day long bicycle tour on my own since its a relatively smart city and easy to get around in one day. I took in
about half the temples so far, the rest I will do tomorrow.
The next leg of my journey will be to two more ancient historial sites on my way north heading to northern thailand and ultimately to Laos in about a month.
I have already caught up on my sleep and the quiet nature of this town which closes shop at 9 pm while Pattaya didnt get started until 8 pm is a marked contrast in life styles and a welcome one at that. See you all soon........ 😊
Advertisement
Tot: 0.061s; Tpl: 0.02s; cc: 10; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0317s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Shari
non-member comment
WOW!
Great photos and commentary! The sunset is amazing. The gold temple with circling Buddhas is very similar to the one in Westbridge, B.C., Hümüh Monastery, where we played a concert last summer. Not a peep out of this community on New Year's Eve...maybe there was an agitated bark from a neighboring dog, we in our bathrobes laughing at the piteous rabble in Times Square, Dick Clark barely able to speak (stroke?), awful music until the glorious moment when John Lennon's "Imagine" was floating over the whole scene, but obnoxious commentators blabbed through it. Wished we could have had ourselves, bathrobes and all, projected onto the screen over the Square wishing "Happy New Year you sorry saps, we're cozy here with our wood fire and Munchie Mix." Good that you are learning how to party...a bit late in life, but what the heck....Shari Hi Bill, Glad to get your trip news. Once upon a time I too was a tripster. Shari and I spent our honeymoon summer hitch-hiking through Germany, Austria, France. We had a nice open-house here on the 30th....with the usual suspects and live music happening the whole time. Happy New Year to you Bill. .........Edmund