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Published: October 28th 2008
Hello from the North of Thailand!
True to form, too many beers on the first night! Vik ended up having a broccoli pizza, very thai!
Visited the grand palace, checked out the emeral (jade) buddha (small) then walked to wat pho to see the reclining buddha (huge). Also managed to get face and neck burnt without even seeing the sun!
After a night of tropic thunder the third day started early and wet. Bus trip to cemetary where the POW's are buried that built the death railway. On to Kanchanaburi and visited the JEATH war museum which if I had to sum up in one word would be "Random", shame really. Viewed and went across the bridge over the river Kwai. A short bus trip was then followed by a train journey on the death railway which included a wooden bridge!
After another hop on the bus we went for an elephant ride, which as better than the one in Goa due to the scenery although "Michael" our eight year old mahout did try and gallop almost everywhere (in between cigarettes). After this it was time for a bamboo raft, made more interesting by missing the end point
by a fair bit!. Another evening of thunder and lightning and this time the ceiling tiles in our room were shaking.
We visited Ayuthaya which is like Thailands answer to Angkor Wat. This place was full of temples but after 3 hours of visiting we will probably avoid temples for a long time but dont get me wrong they were very beautiful.
We took an overnight bus to Chaing Mai, which is a large city in the north of Thailand. Famous for jungle treking so we booked a 3 day (2 night) tour. Our guides turned out to be a Cambodian with pidgeon Thai/worse english and a Tibetan with an American accent (who looked a bit like Bruce Lee). They had trouble communicating with each other let alone us so we all took turns at being tour guide and pointing out anything of interest. The first day was really tough where most of the uphill work was done. Day 2 was more relaxed until we arrived at the Laho (Lahu?) village and had to go straight into paramedic mode (well not quite). One of the women villagers had a badly sprained wrist. All we had were paracetamol and
a bandage but she seemed happy enough when we discharged her. Day 3, more trekking followed by white water rafting/bamboo rafting. The safety brief was not as full and concise as I had seen before unless you think "get in raft" is adequate. One of our group got swept downstream but made it out eventually. The guy from the rafting running into the water made me think of the Thai version of baywatch (minus the hoff in slowmo).
Rented a beast of a bike (the CBR it is not). A Honda wave 100cc was our transport for the day. Went to the mountains round Chaing Mai and got some nice views of the city. Got trapped at the Wat by a monsoon, ever the gentleman donating my waterproof jacket to Vik. As with most of Asia the rules to riding/driving are different to the ones at home. Basically there are 3 rules:
1. You have to not care if you live or die
2. You own the road
3. Every move you make is correct
Anyway we have enjoyed our time in Thailand. Mostly impressed with the food! a big hit for us. The roads are in good
condition and the green bus from Chaing Mai to Chaing Rai is the best bus in the world! - complete with a hostess which brings a drink and snack - a spotlessly clean bus with flip down screens and a safety brief and seatbelts!
We are off to Laos tomorrow and will take it from there and hope to update you all after that.
Love Neil and Vikxxx
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g.i jane
non-member comment
nice 1
good to read your blog...im going to thailand at xmas for 8 weeks(with a trip to laos/cambodia thrown in)and i start it working on an elephant sanctuary in chaing mai for 1 week...no plans after that ,,will just go with the flow...enjoy the rest of your trip and i will be looking out for your next update..x tammy