Advertisement
Wat the...!
One of the impressive temples inside the Grand Palace- note the interesting use of colour separation Our flight from Saigon was a tad delayed (this should have been an indication of things to come) still, we boarded the plane eager to get back to Bangkok and get our heads down as it had been a busy a few days. And it was going so well- until a random bit of turbulence made our measly little plane feel as though it was dropping out of the sky around an hour into the journey. Now, i know Kelly can be a bit of a drama queen at the best of times, but take it from me- we were crapping it. In fact, everyone seemed to be crapping it. Even the airhostesses turned a little paler than normal. Then they started making announcemnts that included the phrase 'lifejackets under your seat', as we came in for landing so it was a hairy half an hour to say the least! The landing was met by whoops and cheers and a round of applause- it left us shaken and our stomachs a little stirred as we contemplating another mode of transport (any other mode at all!) to get us between countries in the future...
Bad journeys aside, we were back safe
Bless!
We bless each other with holy water at the Grand Palace and sound in the good old D&D Inn on the Khao San Rd, sipping Cheers lager and eating dinner from our favourite street food stall in no time. The next day was spent shopping- a little retail therapy works wonders! Not before visiting the Grand Palace- Bangkok's 'must see' sight. Then that evening we met up with Ed and Michelle, whom we'd organised to meet (they were on thier school hols in thier final term of teaching out in KL, Malaysia). The evening was spent catching up on all our adventures over a few more cheap beers.
Day 2- and after breakfast we took a taxi to Chatuchak weekend market- which is the Thai equivalent to Western International back home (big market selling mostly the same gear). We did a little more shopping and then when we'd bought all the Thai tat we could manage, we took the metro and sky train back into the city. After we'd introduced the guys to the cheapest and best Thai street food this side of Sukhamvit, it was the time I'd been waiting 2 months for- the FA Cup final. We watched it in the most random place imaginable- a disused petrol
Oi beardie
One of the imposing sculptures at the Grand Palace station. Then when the heavens opened we has to take shelter under the main roof. It certainly was surrel! Feeling somewhat halfcut we wasted no time after the match (which like every Cup final was a bit of a disappointment) and visited another bar where we whiled away the night and early hours on the infamous buckets of Sangsom, Red Bull and Coke.
Day 3- Feeling pretty rubbish after only 3 hours sleep we visited the floating markets, early the next morning. We pretty much chilled out for the rest of the day then that evening Ed and Shell insisted that they wanted to treat us both to a slap up meal as an early birthday gift for Kelly- it was the nicest Thai meal that we've probably ever had in really nice surroundings. We then rounded off the evening by visiting the tallest building on the Bangkok skyline (the Bayokee Sky Tower Hotel- thanks Bridget and Cynthia for the tip!) and had a drink in the bar on the 83rd floor. The veiw was something else! And the live band was certainly interesting (mis-pronunciation of western words acted as superb entertainment for us!)
Day 4- And it
Bucket of fun
The girls made light work of the infamous Sangsom buckets was time to say goodbye. It was lovely to see some familiar faces and spend the weekend with them but there's no rest for the wicked- after our goodbyes we hopped on an overnight bus and around 9 hours later we were in Chinag Mai. Turning up bleary eyed to the first (somewhat filthy) guesthouse we were met by a barrage of cockroatches from the minging bathroom. We did some rooting around and found another one for much the same price which was much nicer and bug free. After a couple of hours sleep we were picked up and whisked off to our Thai cookery lesson which we'd booked a couple of days earlier. It was really informative and very well organised- the 2 chefs spoke really good English and had a great sense of humour. first off we learned how to grind up our own curry paste using an old fashioned pestle and mortar, then we cooked a Penang Curry (yummy), then a Chinag Mai pork speciality, sweet and sour vegetables, minced meat noodle salad and finally black rice pudding. Don't think i've ever eaten that much in such a short space of time. Kelly's already planning who we're
Floating market
·I try and get arty with some colour separation while at the floating market going to cook a traditional Thai meal for 10 months down the line when get back home- so it may well be worth sitting through all our inane chatter about 'our travels' and the numerous slideshows i'm lining up just to get a freshly cooked Thai dinner out of us!
The next day we decided to do some biking in the mountains and it was awesome! The company we booked it through dressed us up like gladiators (best health and safety we've experienced in SE Asia so far) before we mounted our bikes and set off downhill. Rocks, mud, puddles, dirt tracks and roads- you name it- we encountered it all on the way down the hills at breakneck speed. I was a bit crazier than Kelly as i attempted some single track routes which were quite lethal. It was so nice to be back in the saddle again. That evening i stayed up and watched the Champions League final in our guesthouse with the night porter. Actually quite an exciting game. Satisfied with a Chelsea loss (sorry Glen, but I'd rather Utd anyday) i trudged up to bed at 5am.
Our last day in Chiang Mai and
Here's looking at us
83 floors above Bangkok we explored the city a bit. It actually seems really beautiful and laid back and if we didn't have prior engagements (Gibbon Experience and Volunteering in Vientianne) we'd have stayed a little longer. We visited a few Wats- the best of which allowed you to talk to the Monks. So not ones to pass up on such a once in a lifetime experience we got a'monkst it (ahem) and started talking to one of them in the aptly named activity 'Monkchat'. His English was immpeccable and he had a wicked sense of humour (smething we didn't expect) and we bent each other's ears for nearly an hour on heavy subjects like literature, religion, spiritualism and American Pie the movie. Needless to say it was a really cool thing to do-something to tell the grandchildren.
Early the next morning we got a tuk tuk to the bus station and by breakfast time we were on our way to Chinag Kong (border with Laos). By 3pm we had crossed the Mekong River (a mere 40 second boat ride) and were on Lao soil in the primitive litte town of Houayaxi. It was all so easy and we were proud of ourselves-having
Gordon Ramsey eat your heart out
Kelly poses with her freshly cooked Thai cuisine during our cooking class it done it all off our own backs (no travel agents or ticket agents involved at all.) Stay tuned, there's more to come soon.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.095s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 10; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0681s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Chris Anna
Anna & Chris
oh @£%@%@! hell!
thanks guys, you have just put me off flying even more. that sounds horrific! i'm off to find that blog about the couple who went from london to auckland without flying... keep the adventures coming! xx anna