Sawadee Krarp!

Thats hello in Thai! We've had a busy week in Thailand. We got to Bangkok on the overnight sleeper train from Penang in Malaysia on 22nd August. It was actually fairly comfortable, except the kids below us when to bed very early as as our seats folded into their bed we had no choice but to do the same. Chana, Tish's friend has been very helpful. Her driver met us from the train station and took us to the shops to change our money and buy some things and showed us to our apartment they are letting us stay in. It is soo nice, we have a great view over the main river in Bangkok and we can use the swimming pool whenever we want and free internet which helps for writing this!

We only stayed in Bangkok for one night as we want to be here when Chana is her, shes in Melbourne until the 10th. We got the train north to Ayutthaya, which has lots of ancient ruins. We only got there at lunch time so we rushed to see a couple of the most famous ones. One had a buddha's head in the roots of a tree which is really famous here. The ruins are amazing, they are really peaceful to walk around. We went on a long-tail boat tour with our hostel which took us to 3 more temples. 1 was a working temple which had a buddha that was about 20m tall! It had scaffolding all around it so you couldn't see it really well but it was still impressive. Outside the second temple there was hundreds of fish, the temple visitors release the fish as a ritual. There was some old parts to this temple which included a reclining buddha, which is also famous. We reached the last temple just before sunset, the cheddi (towers) were glowing in the light and it was really nice to look around. The ruins date back to the 11th century.

We only stayed at Ayutthaya the one night and got a very early train (6am) to Lupberi an hour further north. They also have lots of ruins, but the towns smaller so its easier to walk aropund and see them. We looked around a few and strolled through the old palace grounds, the main part was closed off on that particular day unfortunately. We still some the remains of the former elephant stables. The main attraction to Lopburi is the monkeys, there is one old temple where literally hundreds of monkeys live. You can get food to feed them but you don't need to as they come really close anyway. One jumped on my foot and one jumped on to Tish's waist and tried to pinch the camera case! We took refuge in the building, which is all caged off, kind of like a backwards zoo with the animals on the outside, and played with the monkeys through the bars. They were gripping on to our fingers, it was really cool just to sit and watch them. To top it off there were also some bats inside the temple. We got on the train again at lunchtime and headed for Sukhothai.

We had to change and get an hours long bus to reach the town so we didn't get there until dark. We got a funny Tuk-Tuk with us sat on the front to our accomodation from the bus station. The next day we hired a motor-bike (really just a scooter) and drove ourselves to the old ruinned city about 12km from the new town. There are about 70 former temples or shrines to look at so we didn't see them all. There were loads of really big Buddha statues that were centuries old but still really impressive. One temple had elephant figures all around its base. Some towers are shaped like bells, others like the lotus bud. We particularly liked one shrine up a winding set of steps on a hill with a great look out. There was a huge Buddha here too. We also saw a very famous Buddha which has very large detailed hands. Riding the bike was fun, Tish felt safer driving than letting me so I didn't get to drive much! We stayed the night there again then got a bus up to Chiang Mai in the morning.

Chiang Mai is a city inside an old moat (well its spread outside the moat now), which is a bit odd. Our room was really nice and only about 5 quid! We did a Batik School which was really fun. The woman running the course was really cute and her Mum even cooked for us! We got to make 2 things each. We both made a picture on a piece of fabric and then I made a bag for Tish and she did a pillow cover. You use wax to do the lines and paint in the gaps, its quite simple but its hard not to make mistakes with the wax. The finished results all looked really good. We spent the evening at the night bazaar (the biggest market in Thailand) and had fun bartering to get some bargains to bring home. We upset one stall owner with our bartering who told us to go to hell, but other than that it was all good fun! The next day we walked around town (despite the constant attempts of Tuk-Tuk drivers to get us to go on a tour with them! They don't take no for an answer!) We looked at lots of the temples, they were all very impressive. One was made of teak which was a bit different. An important monk had died so they were having a funeral at one of the temple. Its not like our funeral, they even had a statue of him in the room and it was just an open house for people to come in and prayer to him. On Saturday we did a Thai cooking school so now we can amaze you with yummy thai currys, soups, desserts and more! It was out of the city in some nice countryside.

On Sunday we went to Chiang Rai, a smaller town in the North. We planned to go there to do a trek to see some hill tribes but the town was very quiet and all the tour groups were offering the same route so we didn't think it was worth the money to see a touristic (a word they have made up here!) village! Instead we hired a motorbike again from a dodgy geezer who couldn't speak much English. Tish rode again (she is too scared to let me!) and we went to a glorified people zoo! They have a place where you pay to see 5 of the different hill tribes in one place. It is quite possibly the saddest place in the world. These people perform dances for you but they can barely bring themselves to smile while they do it. We felt very sorry for them, they clearly don't want to be there all dressed up. We felt bad taking too many pictures of them, its a bit like they are a freak show. We spent a bit of time playing with some of the kids, the only time we saw any of them smile all day. There was a really cute girl who we wanted to take with us! We decided we seen enough hill tribes for the day and went on such of a waterfall. After a few wrong turns and some confused looking Thai-only speaking locals giving us funny looks when we asked them where to go, we made it there. It was beautiful. The 900m walk to the falls featured many smaller cascades, and there was loads of butterflys around, some of them huge! It was really hot so we took our time doing the walk and enjoyed the scenery. There wasn't a huge waterfall but the whole area was very nice. We then drove out to a sparkling white temple, it was like from disney. It was all white and silver, its only about 10 years old and they are still adding to it but it was amazing to see it! We had a little drama on the way back to town as we got a puncture on the back wheel. Luckily we were near town and also outside a tyre shop so we got it repaired fairly quickly and only for about 2 pounds! It was a bit of a panic for a bit though.

Then finally we spent last night on a bus getting back to Bangkok. It was pretty bad. Its not very comfy for sleeping and we had the noisiest snorer ever sat behind us which didn't help. So we've spent most of the day just relaxing in the apartment and even went for a swim in the pool this evening. more of the same is planned for tomorrow then onto the island paradise of Ko Chang! Enjoy wet England!

See everyone soon!

Gareth and Tish