en route to Laos
since my last post, we left Bangkok via 13 hour over night train - the food was good & we played cards during the daytime which was fun, but then the sleeping part came which would have been fine if the train wasn't so crap at stopping & so throughout the night we were jerked to a stop which banged your head on the wall (we were in a sleeper carriage). Arriving early in the morning we dropped our bags at the guest house and nibbled on some breakfast & off to ride elephants we went. after that we went on to bamboo raft riding down the river then back to the city center for a wee wonder before going to a wot on the top of the hill (name I'm not going to attempt to spell) at sunset & watched the light change around the gold along with being blessed by a monk before he & other monks & nuns chanted for a bit. Back into city center for dinner together at the night market, followed by shopping (yes even I spent a few bhaat (Thai currency)). this morning we had breakfast, drove 3 hours to a wot all in white (REALLY COOL), in chaing rai where we had lunch at cabbage & condoms (restaurant promoting safer sex & HIV/AIDS awareness - they've been able to reduce the average children per family from 7 down to 2 in just 30 years. an hour more driving & we got to help the rice farmers cut down the rice. 45 more minutes drive & we're in chaing khong a border town between Thailand & Laos. tomorrow we're on the boat for 2 days down the Mekong river (which btw is just outside my guesthouse door).
Labels: chaing khong, chaing mai, chaing rai, holidays, thailand
en route to Chaing Mai
Leaving Bangkok in about an hour via a night train to
Chaing Mai. It's been a lovely 3 days in Bangkok, where it is
flippin hot, especially in the sun!!!
Brief update:
Saturday after arriving in Bangkok, Anna & I walked from our hotel to what we thought was the grand palace, turned out to be
wat po where the 2
nd largest reclining
Buddha is (largest is only 1m longer), then we came back to the hotel for a wee nap whilst waiting for
Tash's boyfriend Rob to arrive. After he'd showered we went up to the 24
th floor sky lounge to see the sky lit up & the full moon.
Nute (Dave M's host child about 10 years ago) picked us up there with her fiance Charlie & took us to the
locals celebration of
Lai Kutung festival on the river - we took a boat over the river after watching the beautiful boat parade, then eat some wonderful food & hiked up the pagoda, made wishes on our
kutungs before placing them in the water, then back to the hotel to get Anna to the airport, where upon we headed to the tourist strip (name of which evades me now).
Sunday morning Rob & I walked to the Grand Palace, toured around there, went to the
BMK mall where we grabbed some food, then onto the sky train up to the weekend market, then back to the hotel for my group meeting. After that the group had dinner together in china town.
This morning - dressed in yellow (since Monday is yellow for the king day, pink is
Tuesday for the queen) we headed to the pier to pick up our long boat for a tour of the river & canals, from there a detailed tour of
wat po (where
Anna & I had been on
Saturday) then lunch near the naval base, then free afternoon. One of the girls on the trip is feeling a bit weird, so I went to the chemist to get her some
paracetamol & motion sickness pills . . .
amasing thing I learned you can buy anything you want without a prescription - including rather strong drugs!
Labels: bangkok, holidays, thailand
Khon Kaen
Safely here in Khon Kaen . . . hope everyone else is doing well. Took us 26 hours to get here, lots of time in airports, planes & crap airline movies & food, but well worth the journey!
Labels: thailand
