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We arrived in Bangkok on Wednesday 27th May. Our initial impression of the city was excellent; we made use of the Hotel swimming pool, the Thai massage and Thai cuisine... so a pretty relaxed time! On our second night the darkest cloud crept over the city and within 20 min the streets were flooded, but its been mostly sunshine since.
On the weekend we got the traveling bug again and took an organised tour North to the Kanchanaburi province. This trip consisted of sleeping in a boat house for two nights and visiting a WWII cemetery/museum, hellfire pass memorial museum, the Erawan waterfalls, Bamboo rafting, Tiger Temple and Elephant riding & bathing!
It was interesting to learn about the large death toll of allied soldiers during WWII as they worked as slave laborers under their captives, the Japanese, to build the Thai-Burma Railway. Hellfire pass (pictured below) is were groups of men worked around the clock for 16-18 hours to complete excavation of the 17 metre deep and 110-m long cutting through solid limestone and quartz rock in only 12 weeks.
Hellfire pass web link The Erawan waterfalls are among the best I have ever seen and due to the high
humidity we were glad to jump in for a dip. The Tiger Temple allowed us to get close to the Tigers and all the other animals that are ''free'' to roam the temple, but the highlight of the weekend was riding the Elephants down to the river for a bath! This was a fantastic experience; Gemma's Elephant was well mannered whereas mine liked to squirt water and throw me off in the river... It was like being on a rodeo bull. (I guess i shouldn't have put my hands over her eyes!)
Back to Bangkok on Monday evening and we went out for dinner and met up with our tour organiser, Jimmy who brought us to some of the top clubs in the area, one with an excellent live band. Last night we visited the night markets were we haggled and bargained for some new clothes and sunglasses. Gemma's haggling has improved!
Today is our last day in Bangkok so we visited the Grand Palace and surrounding Buddhist Temples. Tomorrow we fly to Vietnam for two weeks before we return to Thailand to explore the south Islands and Phuket.
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Nuala
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Fab photos!
Hi guys, It all looks fantastic as usual! Seeing your photos makes Jason and I realise how little we actually did in Thailand. The only thing we did out of that list was go on a tuk-tuk, and we almost got ourselves killed! I can't believe you were able to get so close to those tigers. Have a brilliant time in Vietnam - the best of Thailand is yet to come. Phuket and the islands are like paradise!