Hi Everyone,

The first weekend of Rosies visit we ventured around the City as much as possible and had a good day jumping on and off various modes of transport to reach the Chatuchak Weekend market. This is a market to compete with anything you have seen and covers a 35 acre site which is just too big in reality. To do it any justice I suggest arriving very early, as soon as it opens up, unlike us who arrived early afternoon when it was so hot and crowded, it made shopping or even finding anything quite difficult, however, we did manage to find something so it was far from a wasted trip and something to do again in the future. The trip back into the City was via the railway system and boats, the sky trains are great, ari conditioned, clean and easy to get on and off. We went to the Central boat station on the Chao Phraya river which was a relief as we had a chance for some fresh air, I managed to put us on the wrong boat and only realised this as we went from one side of the river tio the other! Much to the amusement of those aboard. We did get taken back just in time to catch the correct boat and then had another great and very cheap trip, back up river to our 'station ' and then back to our Baan Dinso accommodation.
The following day was our tour of the Royal Palace and Temples, we had already visited Wat Po the home of the Reclining Buddha which remains as magnificent today as when I first saw it all those many years ago. The Palaces are overwhelming and provide the visitor with a lot of information regarding Thai history and culture. We hired an official guide which I believe is the best way to do it and then spent several hours going round. The guide is only supposed to take you for one hour but our Lady was content to let us see things at our own pace and wasn't hurried at all. We saw and learnt about everything and I came away with a lot more information then I realised.

When I last saw the Palaces extensive restoration work was being carried out and infact the work to restore the Cloisters had only just started. This work was happily supported by the Royal Family and has now just about been completed although I'm sure it is an on going programme. The Cloisters are now complete and have been fully restored to their former and original glory. The detail in the wall paintings is truly splendid with all the colours faithfully replicated. They tell Buddhist stories of enlightenment and graciousness, adventure and courage with vivd imigary enhanced with cpious amounts of gold leaf. The skill with which the work has been carried out is quite breathtaking and having been fortunate enough to have seen these same walls prior to the restoration only serves to enhance my appreciation of what has taken place here. If anyone has recently visited Wat Suthat Thepwararam (The Giant Swing Temple) you will have seen the walls and how they need upkeep, this is how the Grand Palace looked 20 odd years ago, so it is possible to carry out the necessary restoration and the reason why I am very happy to pay for entrance fees and official guides to keep these places as they once were. It is an exhausting time if you take it all in which we did and I confess that we had to take a cab back to the guest house, which is not all that far away.

Over the next couple of days we enjoyed being around Bangkok and organised a trip to the Floating Market as I wanted to show Rosie what that was all about, unfortunately I had booked to go to the wrong market (DOW!) and the version we visited was nothing more than a tourist trap selling all the usual 'bits'. I had intended to go to the food market but something got lost in translation, never mind, I'm sure there will be a next time.

Time was fast running out and I had tried to keep R's time in BKK as realistic and authentic as possible, so you will know me by now, I had taken her to eat Pad Thia on the street, we had eaten down side alleys with c*** roaches and rats etc., but I couldn't subject the poor girl to too much of that stuff. The last evening I took her to a decent restaurant just down from The Democracy Monument where it is possible to sit at tables on a very wide pavement, far enough back from the road so as not to get carbon monoxide poisoning and where the food is very good. We were enjoying our meal and having a nice time when the evening changed. It suddenly became an excellent evening when a baby Elephant came marching down the pavement with its owners, a lady and a man, and thrust its little trunk at Rosie. We fed it (I think it was a baby Girl) fruit which it clearly enjoyed as it probed R's chest enthusiastically for more, lucky thing!! It was the first time I had ever seen a baby Elephant on the streets of BKK and was one of those surreal moments that this City can throw at you from time to time.

It was now time to move South and get back on the move as we had a reasonably tight schedule, I had booked flights and accommodation in advance so we headed for Krabi and onto Ao Nang, not the prettiest of places but well located. Unfortunately Ao Nang is going the same way as Phuket and Pattaya which in my opinion have been turned into horror stories of commercial tourism with everything that unfortunately comes with it.

Ao Nanag has not been completely ruined but is on the way so go there soon, at least the Girlie Bars are hidden down side streets and back alleys away from the main areas. The place is well located and makes day trips to places like Koh Phi Phi an easy and great day out. Having negotiated a boat trip down from 2800Bht to 1300Bht per person (how many tourists pay the full amount I wonder?) we prepared for a day on the Adaman Sea. We visited a couple of locations, beaches, coves, caves and the location used for the film The Beach. We were able to snorkle for a couple of hours and at the risk of upsetting Australian friends, we saw more fish of different spieces than we had on the Great Barrier Reef. Perhaps we had not been taken to the right location but snorkling off Phi Phi is just wonderful. Whilst in the water I came acrossa curious little fish which was fiercly terrortorial, it could only have been 5 inches long and had the most marvellous pearlescent oyster colouring. When I swam too close to its area it would swim directly towards my mask and shake its body furiously and then turn away, I took it as a warning and kept going. On my way back through the same area there were about five of these fish in a small area, I was watching them smiling smuggly to myself when one bit me on the right calf - little b*****!! It actually drew blood. I admired its determination though and I did as it wanted and swam away, quickly! What a whimp.

'The Beach' is as beautiful as you would anticipate but I have to disagree with our guide PingPong (that's what he said!!) who claimed that this was the best beach and softest sand in the World. This is where the Aussies do have it, as far as I am concerned, having visited Whithaven Beach in the Whitsundays, I have to say that the sand there is much softer and the Beach is The Best, so there you have it is Official now!! Whithaven is the best beach, Phi Phi is the best snorkling (so far!)

We went back to Ao Nanag having had a really great day and later when I saw the young girl who had sold us the trip I complemented her because she had recommended our trip over some others I had been looking at and we did have a very good experience from it, so credit where it is due.

There's more to come.

See you soon,

Chris