This is just a short little entry, partly because I had a pretty uneventful weekend, partly because my next blog about my visa run to Laos will no doubt turn out to be mammoth, and partly because I'm running out of time in the internet cafe.

So last Saturday I dedicated to... shopping. Mainly souvenir shopping, so not all for me. I had another wander around the thousands of stalls of the infamous Chatuchak... I just can't get enough of the place! Then I headed to Khao San road for essential clothes and earring shopping, three pairs for 50b and a girl can never have enough pairs of earrings, and they're lightweight.

I did add a bit of a culture to my day by visiting a few of the temples I've not seen before - Wat Saket and the Golden Mount, Wat Saket and the Giant Swing, and Wat Rajanada (which didn't have either a mountain or a swing, so must feel quite inferior to its neighbours). It was nice and overcast that day so pretty good weather to be traipsing around temples with so many shopping bags... did I say 'so many', obviously I meant to say a few...

On Sunday I got up bright and early for the 9am train to Ayutthaya, where I was going to get a bus 30km North to the town of Ang Thong. Brilliant name! But turned out the 9am train didn't actually exist and I didn't fancy hanging around and getting one at midday, by the time I got there I'd be leaving again. Instead I decided to venture to the botanical gardens which I pass on the bus when I go to and fro the orphange.

I thought it'd be pretty simple getting the bus there, although it drove straight past the entrance and dropped me off about a km or two down the road. So I had to walk back up the side of a dual carriageway against the flow of passing cars, the passengers of which were no doubt staring at me wondering what a random ferang was doing walking along the main road... not that I could see though with all the dust being blown up at me.

Spent a few hours in the gardens which were quite pretty, found myself a some nice little secluded areas to sit and relax in the dappled shade, read my book, listened to music, wandered around the wooded areas, got a bit lost. By the time it came to head back it hadn't occurred to me that the bus wouldn't stop on the busy main road, but I figured I'd wait at the side of it all the same. When I darted across to the other side to my chosen waiting spot I also discovered there was a whole other section to the gardens there with mini-waterfall and lagoon and everything.

After three buses went by me I was starting to feel like a bit of a prat, especially as I was in full view of all the local teens Thais whose eyes were glued to me from their watery spot. Two cars actually pulled over and their drivers asked if I needed help. But even in Thailand when I'm stranded at the side of a mahusive busy road, I'm still a good girl and don't accept lifts from strangers. Luckily a songthaew pulled over and took me back to Saraburi, at snail's pace but at least I made it back in time for dinner.

Lovely way to spend the day before my epic journey to Laos on Monday night...