After the crazy hustle and bustle of Bangkok, where we stayed in Singburi was completely different. We got a public bus to Singburi bus station which took 2 hours, but our accommodation was actually 15 minutes outside of Singburi. It's owned by Greenway, the company who run the Siam Culture week we were booked on to. Our room was ok, it was a 4 bed dorm but we were the only people in it, though we did have to share the room with a number of ghekkos. We arrived late afternoon so we spent the evening settling in. The village we stayed in is very quiet but there is a small bar across the road that the locals made for us so that's where everyone spent the evenings. On day 1 of our busy week we met our guides, including Ya the ladyboy, who was the topic of conversation a lot of the time! They showed us around the village before taking us to our first temple. It is home to the second largest sitting Buddha in Thailand. It was interesting as they let us join in with the local traditions of lighting candles and incense while we prayed for good luck, health and love for us and our families. Then we stuck gold paper onto images of Buddha for luck as well. Throughout the week we visited several temples at which we took part in different luck rituals. We were blessed by a monk and had a go at a Chinese tradition of shaking sticks with numbers on them, then the number on the stick which falls from the cup first gives you your fortune. Apparently Katie is pregnant with a baby girl! The first day was rounded off with a trip to the nearest main town of Singburi so we knew our way around if we chose to go there in our free time. We all rushed into the air conditioned mall breathing sighs of relief, as we had been walking around in 40 degrees of humid heat and had to be covered up to visit the temples! Back at our accommodation we had a Thai lesson to learn the basics but the woman went so fast i think we only really picked up hello and thank you, and the word for pork which is moo! After dinner we were treated with a performance by a local school. The children danced, sang and played drums for us before giving us our own garlands of flowers and getting us to join in. The second day was spent at the old capital city of Thailand, Ayutthaya. It was destroyed during the war with the Burmese and instead of restoring it the capital was moved to Bangkok. The ruins of the old city are dotted around everywhere but the main part was full of chedis (where the ashes of important royalty are buried). The Buddha images there are all headless, apparently the heads were taken by the Burmese for the gold. Unfortunately our guides didn't speak English that well so it was quite difficult to understand but between the twenty of us doing the Siam culture week we figured a lot of it out. We visited an elephant house aimed at those not going on the elephant week but after seeing the baby elephant chained up none of the group wanted to stay long so we headed to a floating market. It wasn't as good as the one we went to in Bangkok but it was still a nice way to spend a couple of hours, can't get enough of shopping here! Our evening was again spent at the bar drinking brightly coloured cocktails out of buckets served by the adorable Kym, a 9 year old boy who loves helping his mother out by serving us drinks. The following morning we spent making friendship bracelets at a local shop before heading back to have a go at making our own lunch. All the food at greenway is vegetarian and we enjoyed most of it, we certainly never went hungry but we agreed the meals we cooked were the best because we could add exactly what we wanted, no tofu yay! We made spicy papaya salad and a flat noodle stir fry, both of which were delicious! After lunch we had free time in the town so we spent a happy couple of hours exploring before going for dinner at a famous BBQ restaurant! Some of the food was ok but not at all like the kind of BBQs we were used to!! Each table had a little bbq of its own, shaped like a cone, so everyone was in charge of cooking their own. The locals even cooked their noodles on it! Back at our accommodation we spent the evening where else other than the bar! Thursday morning was spent at what we think was an agriculture museum, though we really don't know for sure as we had no idea what our 'guides' were saying and all the information was in Thai. After this though we went to see people making amazing cross stitched pictures made from silk and woodwork carvings. They were part of a project set up by the king to help poor people earn a little extra money doing something they enjoy. The journey home was interesting. We were all sat in the back of our pick up truck when all of a sudden we were pulled over by police. We were all worried because we'd heard so many stories about the corrupt Thai police. We waited while they spoke to our guide, who then informed us that we had done nothing wrong, and that the police officers would like a picture with us!! We of course obliged while the officers held up dozens of cars as we posed for pictures in the middle of the road with the police. Bizarre! After lunch we went to another temple, followed by a couple of hours in Tesco!! Tesco Lotus, as it's known out here, is quite popular in Thailand. The whole bottom floor was filled with restaurants while the top floor was the supermarket. We think our scottish coordinator understood our need for western food after a week of traditional thai 3 times a day. We couldn't resist some pizza, it was so good we got the takeout menu too. We didn't have much appetite for tea back at our accommodation but we did our best! Friday was our last day of planned activities in Singburi and we went to Buddha's Footprint, a famous monument. Again, it would have been really good if we understood what the guides were telling us! The afternoon was spent at a monkey temple. It was an old disused temple which has been taken over by wild monkeys and they are everywhere! We were careful not to get too close but lots of people bought food so the monkeys would jump on them, which was funny to watch until 3 of our group were bitten or scratched and had to go to the hospital for precautionary rabies treatment. That evening most of the group headed to Bangkok for the weekend. We didn't feel the need though as we had already been to Bangkok before the tour and know we are going back twice before we leave Thailand. With most of the group gone it was really quiet but it meant we had lots of food with less people to share it with, and the rest of the group definitely missed out as we had pancakes with mango for breakfast! We spent the day at the swimming pool in the town topping up our tans before popping into the indoor market then returning to the bar for some cocktails. At £2 for a huge jug, why not?! This was our last night in Singburi, as the next day we left to go to Umphang, for our week looking after elephants, can't wait!!