Hey all.

I am currently residing in a bed on a 13 hour train journey. As such there isn't a huge number of things to do so thought I may as well write a bit of bloggae down since most of the rest of the carriage seems to have gone to sleep.

Anyhu,. After the first day in bangkok we went out for a quick drink in the evening. The drink itself was acceptable and reasonable priced though not hugely cheap as had hoped. On the way there passed many market stalls plus a large number of men selling tickets to mature shows shall we say. We settled on an little pub on the corner and wasted the night away.

Following day was more to be done around bangkok. Since there were going to be a few new things we were unprepared for here we stopped in the morning to do a bit of shopping. Found a huge indoor market, performed some excellent haggeling, and walked away with products plus a cheap meal from a large market food court.

After this we caught the metro back into the old city, commandeered a tuktuk, and went over to the imperial palace. Several different palaces and throne rooms here that have been used over the years and the king resides in none of them now. But it means there were many rather nice buildings, in near joint condition, all just sat there. The crown jewel apparently was an emerald budda that is actually jade. Having the previous day seen a 35 meter or something bronze budda this seemed slightly insignificant as was something like 60 centimeters tall. But good things come in small packages I suppose, looked nice at least, and was sat in a lot of good ornamentation. The only down side to the palace was that due to being a Sunday several of the buildings we closed but nownt we cpould do on that front.

Later we were catching an evening train to Ayutthaya, our taxi driver delivered the tickets as was part of a package, and told us to wait for the announcer to say the train was here. What he failed to mention was that no train announcements were made in English. Nevertheless, we managed to find the right one and were soon living it up in 3rd class. They don't event get a toilet seat, the toilet just has some metal plates on the floor with a hole cut in it to the tracks. The train also arrived half an hour late meaning the taxi the was meant to pick us up at the other end had long since departed, but managed to find a tuktuk to get us to the hostel which was pretty close.

Following dsay we were in Ayutthaya. On general advice we rented bicycles to get around the numerous temper etc. There's no other way to say it, my bike was badass. It was pink and had a basket on the from which i it my water bottle in, can't think of anything more hardcore than that. On the note of bikes, this town has barely any traffic lights, cars come at you from every direction, meaning you try and weave your way through the cars driving every way around you but no one stops to let you through so generally you just go for it and hope for the best. This was at times hilarious, at other times suicidal. I feel the system could be improved.

Alutthaya was atone point a capital city, had lads of buildings, got taken over, buildings and temples became ruins, etc. Its pretty awesome. We toured 6-7 different sites in this one day. These areas are just everywhere. Some in worse condition than others, but many still have huge spires and ways and I forget the names of what the features are actually called,but the scale and some of the sites are awesome. We would have seen more had we not got mildly lost and ended up biking nearly the entire circumference of the town as we couldnt find the turning we wanted and there was a mild misjudgement of distance. Since I still have the map and may not for much longer and since I have far too much time to kill I shall list where I visited, enjoy:

- wat maha that

- wat ratchaburana

. whan phra mongkhin bophit

- wat phra sanpret

- ancient palace

- wat phraram

- wat pho khao thong

- chedi phu khao thing

- chedi suriyothai

- wat chaiwatthanaram (personal favorite of the day)

Not bad for a days work. After this returned the bikes, checkout out of hostel, and now on overnight train to Chiang mai. Good news! This time I'm riding second class in the sleeper cabin so have my own bed. Though it is just a bunk in a carriage made ofbunks, but is not bad, as trains go. Though it was 20 mins late to pick us up, I'm doubting the time management of the Thai train service.

Well, until I get bored again and decide to write to you folks.

Much lave

P.s. don't be getting used to these regular updates. It shan't last