9/12/09 Kanchanabari to Bangkok

We woke early to visit the Kanchanabari War Cemetery and museum before leaving for Bangkok. We asked the reception what time we needed to check out and she said 7!! We asked her to type it into the calculator and the number she meant was 11 !! We had originally booked a minibus to Bangkok leaving at 9am but had changed the time to 11 am so we had a couple of hours. We went to the cemetery and were pleased to find it really quiet and we spent a long time walking round the immaculate cemetery reading alot of the headstones. A lot were messages from mother or mum with no mention of dad but we realised that dad had passed away in the first world war!! Then a few tour buses arrived and the place wasn't so peaceful. We decided to leave and look in the adjacent museum as we had about half an hour left. On our way out of the cemetery we bumped into Ciomhe who we had been on Fraser Island with two months before. She was on a tour from Bangkok for the day and so we arranged to meet up with her later that night in Bangkok as she was leaving for home in two days.We went to see the Thai-Burma death Railway Museum which was really good and we were disappointed we only had time for a quick look round. There were some excellent models and information there but we had to go to cach ou bus to Bangkok. We got back to the hotel to wait for the bus and the receptionist said that it had already been for us at 7!!! Phil got her to type the number into a calculator and she meant 9!! Bless her she only had one number she knew in English. We thought that the change to our booking hadn't been changed so Phil had to go to the office to check we had transport. Phil went to check the booking and the staff said it was ok. We waited for ages and at 11.30 Phil went to go back to the office again but the bus arrived. We clambered in with our multiple bags just about fitting and set off. The bus then pulled into another guesthouse and there were two large Canadians with huge suitcases, golf bags and hand luggage to get into the small van. After a lot of rearranging of people and baggage we all squeezed in and set off. The driver obviously had a very important appointment as he drove like an idiot to Bangkok, swerving between traffic and overtaking wildly. The Canadian chap shouted him to slow down or we'd all get out !!! We arrived into Khoasan Road in one piece thankfully and checked into the D and D guesthouse. The receptionist was a real sour faced girl who was really rude but we booked in anyway. We went out and went to see Sai again to collect our tickets for the night train, then we went to call the dive doctor, Dr Chasit in Kho Tao who said it would be fine for Liz to dive and he would certify her fit to dive when we got to the island. We caught the bus to the Siam Center, a huge shopping center to take a look at Bangkoks famous shopping. It is next to the Siam Paragon and we spent a while exploring the amazing shopping centres. We had seen nothing like it before and the xmas decorations were amazing, with huge trees and xmas carols playing. It was quite surreal walkng around in our flip flops and shorts singing jingle bells when Phil had a seasonal dump to the piped music in the toilets (thought you'd like to share that folks)! We went to the food court which was just huge wiith all the foods you could think of but with pretty high prices so we just shared a small meat kebab stick...sad backpackers!!! In the basement there was Asias largest aquarium and there was an Imax multiex on the 6th floor. We went up to see what films were on and had seen Christmas Carol reviews which sounded good. The Imax was playing Christmas Carol in 3D and it was about to start so we got two tickets and got very excited about the film. There was a bit of a buzz around the cinema as there was a premier if a new Thai film and there was all foods and drinks being handed out. We got our huge 3D glasses and went to watch the film. Phil looked like Joe Ninety with the huge specs on. At the start of the film after all the trailers we all had to stand as they played the national anthem and showed a picture of the king on the screen. The film was really good and the 3D effects were brilliant with snow and plenty of ghosts coming out of the screen. By the time the film finished we were running a bit late to meet Caoimhe and ran down the road to the Central Plaza to meet up with her. We waited about half an hour but there was no sign of her so we went off to explore the xmas decorations. There was an enormous tree and loads of big toy soldiers, bells, lights, reindeer etc. We felt really festive and also a bit wierd to be away for xmas. We didn't have a phone so couldn't contact Caoimhe but knew there must be a good reason for her not to show and we would check on Facebook later. We stayed a bit longer soaking up the lovely atmosphere then headed back to the hotel. we checked the internet and poor Caoimhe had only got in really late as her bus broke down so we arranged to meet up the next day. We went off to bed after Phil had called his friend Darren to wish him Happy Birthday.

10/10/09 Bangkok

We overslept and had a lie in till 10 am which has been a rarity on this trip. We started our day after breakfast by visiting Wat Ratchanaddaran which had good views around the city. It was a multi level Wat with some lovely carvings and corridors and we spent a while at the top taking in the views. On the way there we had passed through big groups of protestors all wearing red t-shirts which looked really effective. They were peacefully demonstrating against their government who they feel are corrupt after ousting Taksin their previous prime minister. Some Thais though believe Taksin is himself corrupt. He is now advising the Cambodian government on financial affairs whilst being investigated for financial irregularuties in Thailand !!! We chatted to a few protesters who were all very friendly and keen to educate us about their cause. Town was full of the red shirted protesters and some helpful happy police too. At 2pm we waited at the Giant Swing monumant to meet Caoimhe. She arrived and we went off to get some lunch and stopped at the first cafe we found which had really good food as it turned out. After a long chatty lunch we went to see Wat Saket, the golden mountain temple. On the way we called in to see Wat Thepthindaran where the fireworks had been before. We had a quick look round then went towards the golden mountain. The temple is built on a man made hill overlooking Bangkok and it was nearing sunset when we starting walking up the steps to it. Caoimhe had been travelling for 12 months and this was her last night before travelling home to Ireland for Xmas so it was nice for us to share her last night. There was quite a nice sunset there and Phil and Caoimhe got some cool shots of a few monks who were up there. We stayed quite a while then left to get a drink before Caoimhe had to go. We walked towards Khoasan Road but there were hoards of protesters sitting all across the streets at the democracy monument and we struggled to get past them all. Eventually we made it through and headed to the Balcony Bar for a few cocktails. The atmosphere was very relaxed there with a good singer on too so we stayed for a few then walked Caoimhe to the taxi and said our goodbyes. We went back for a few more drinks then went off to bed ourselves.