Cheesy title. Kate's choice. We've been in Thailand for the last week. A few days in Bangkok, followed by a bit longer on a beach on Ko Chang.
Bangkok wasn't quite what I expected. Actually I can't justify that, as I don't really know what I expected - but I think I liked it!? Having spent the last 2 weeks in Nepal, the big city came as a bit of a suprise, as did the heat and humidity. Hotel was around the main backpacker area, but comfortably far enough away from the infamous Khao San Road. I think I expected to see everything you hear about Bangkok to be on one street. Lots of bright lights, clubs, markets, food (oh, I'll have to mention food!) - good fun! Had a couple of beers there, but didn't hang around too long.
Yes, food! Loads and loads of street sellers, and unlike in India, it seemed (reasonably) safe to try them. How can you resist a 50p plate of fried noodles! Well, I couldn't resist, many times. Saw one person selling deep fried insects, although I think her real profit was in the charging for photos.
What else, temples, palaces, boats on the river... Very nice, but we needed a holiday (from our holiday), so off to the beach.
Ko Chang is an island just off the south east coast of Thailand. We've spent four days being very lazy. If we weren't on the beach, we were in a hammock, and if not there... then riding an elephant.
Our 13 year old (former working) elephant was called An-na, and she took us for a trek up a mountain and along a river. The clear high point, and possibly of the trip so far, was swimming with the elephant. Great fun and I think, I hope, An-na enjoyed it too. Did you know that elephant poo floats...?
Off to Cambodia tomorrow morning. It's a 12 hour bus journey, so had to buy some more books. Looking forward to a decent night's sleep (our beach cabin is very noisy at high tide, at 4am) and a hot shower (pouring buckets of cold water over your head isn't fun).
Shouldn't complain though - life's a beach!
Map
Round the World in 180 Days
Round the World in 180 Days
5 comments:
Lying in a hammock, on a beach certainly beats scraping ice off your windscreen at 8am every morning!
Keep enjoying yourselves guys, I'm not one bit jealous.....much!
Looking at your Bangkok photos was a bit like playing snap with my ones from a few years ago:
http://picasaweb.google.com/tom.compton.nu/Thailand2004?authkey=YCpkGENmwnY
Looks like you're having a great time anyway, now I just have to concentrate on doing some work instead of being jealous ;-)
I can hear the moans from across the UK as Paul and Kate are joined on their journey by an ELEPHANT!!!
I was hoping to be able to reassure you with that fact that they are re-routing their journey to go north east through Russia up to Alaska and through America which actually wouldn’t slow them down at all. An-Na the elephant can walk steadily at 7.5mph meaning they can still travel the remaining 18,982 miles in 105 days (and get home 24 days early than expected).
Unfortunately news from Thailand comes in that An-Na's preferred method of travel is SWIMMING!!!
With the average swimming speed of an elephant being 1.5mph and Paul and Kate having to drastically change their route across the south pacific it means we will have to wait a further 540 days for their return.
Estimated return date is now....
15th July 2010.... Sigh!
wow, the pics of Thailand are amazing! absolutely stunning!
A thousand thanks for your traveling story. If i have a chance to visit in Bangkok again , i will go to Grand Palace and looking for the hotel around Kaosarn Road. I think that Kaosarn Road is good for young travelers like me.
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