Well, its been a while since we have had a chance to spend some time on the internet, so I'm a little behind... Last i wrote we were leaving Chaing Rai, from the far north end of Thailand. We took an overnight train to Bangkok on Tuesday night, arriving there bright and early wednesday morning. We got to the hotel and had a few hours to kill before our rooms were ready so we got some breakfast and wandered around. After getting ready we took some laundry down the street to a little shop that advertised 50 baht (which is just over $1, super pricey...) per kilo of laundry, its been a little strange having other people do our laundry, but nice at the same time! Its also a little awkward because at the shop we went to they hang everything to dry outside in front by the road.. but we didn't have to witness our own clothes hanging so out of sight out of mind ;) haha.
After taking care of that business we set off to do us some exploring... we walked to the pier nearby to catch a little public boat to go up the river where we could go to the grand palace. We were really grateful to our tour leader for suggesting the boat to us, it was only 13 baht (which is close to $.25!!) and it was so much faster than walking! We were at pier 13 and just had a quick ride up the river to pier 9 where we got off and walked the short distance to the grand palace. There is a temple next to the palace, the name has left me, but it was beautiful. Each temple we have been to has its own unique air around it and there is so much thought and work that goes into every detail. I'll just have to post pictures when i get a chance because i can't describe it. The coolest thing we saw was probably the "emerald" buddha. It was found in Chaing Rai back in.. i think the 1400s, it discovered behind the brick of a clock tower after it was struck by lightning, it was covered with plaster and the monk that found it noticed a chip one day and there was what he thought was emerald underneath (at least those are the details as i remeber them!). It's actually green jade, but its still really pretty. The buddha is set atop a pyramid of ornate gold and jewels and it is covered according to the seasons. It was really interesting to go inside (of course we had to remove our shoes) there was a hushed silence as soon as you walk through the door and people walk up to kneal in front of the statue. There were many people just sitting admiring, others praying and there were even other that were bowing in worship.
After leaving the temple we walked through the grounds of the grand palace, going inside to look at a few of the throne rooms. I think its so interesting how the people worship their king, there are giant photos of him and basically shrines everywhere. Most shops and restaurants have pictures of him as well and our tour leader speaks about him with reverence. You can just tell how much she adores him. To think what it would be like if we had a king, i just don't think it would be possible for everyone in the states to worship anyone!
Anyway, after leaving the grand palace we walked up the street to find a little place to eat, Laura and I have been enjoying finding random little family run places to eat, nothing sketchy, but little family run places. They are always cheaper and the food is just as good, if not better, than the bigger more expensive places. We haven't eaten any western food since we have been here and we are trying to go the whole trip without succoumbing to the fast food or chains that we have in the states.
We had to be back to our hotel by 6:30 to meet with our new group. Our group for the south trip is very different from the north, rather than just a small group of 6 of us, there are 12! We still have the two boys from London, Joe and James and now we have 3 from canada, 2 more from england, 1 from australia, 1 from ireland, and 1 from germany. We are quite the diverse group! Everyone is great though so it should be fun.
The next day we had most of the day free and then had an overnight train that night so we took advantage of our time by venturing out to the big shopping centers. We took the taxi boat again and then from pier 1 we got on the sky train. The sky train was really cool, its like the subway, but rather than being underground it goes up and over the road (hence its name). It was like riding over Gotham city :) We arrived first at the Siam Paragon, a HUGE shopping center full of designer shops, it was so surreal walking off the train, we were used to seeing little street markets and being in that part of the city was like walking into a whole new world. There was also a whole different type of people. We left that center after gawking for a minute at all the expensive shops and headed next store to the Siam Center, which is a similar layout, but caters to a less pricey crowd.. It was much like malls we are used to, although much bigger. There were about 7 levels. Next we walked up the street a little further to MBK, another GIANT shopping center that is much more in our price range! MBK is also 7 levels and there was shop after shop after shop of everything you can think of. We just felt totally and completely overwhelmed! After wandering a bit we stumbled upon a salon that was advertising pedicures and couldn't resist. It was really nice to get off our feel and calm down for a bit. Before too long we had had enough shopping and just wanted to get back to our side of town. After looking out over the streets and seeing the gridelock traffic we were so glad we were traveling by train and boat!
We made it back to the hotel just in time to grab our bags and load up the taxi to make our overnight train south... but first we had to make it to the train station... I'm sure most of you have heard something about the protesting going on in Bangkok and we happen to be IN Bangkok, both times, the very days were there were big gathering (don't freak out Mom!) They aren't dangerous to tourists, their issues are with the government, or the prime minister anyway.. they are more a nuisance than anything. We had to be on our train at 7:30 but we left for the station at 4:30 just in case of traffic, which there was LOADS of. With 12 people we had to take 3 different taxi's and our driver must have taken just the right route because although we didn't leave the hotel first, we were the first to arrive at the train station and then waited 20 minutes for the rest of our group to arrive. Apparently as soon as we got through there were protestors that were walking by and they had to close the street for a while to get them all through. So the rest of our group got stuck and then got as close as they could to the station and had to get out and walk the rest of the way. Our train also ended up being delayed about an hour, but we made it and boy were we glad to get out of Bangkok! Just in time too, I'm sure some of you have heard about all the chaos with the protests there, things escalated a lot since we left... fortunatley we are far away from all of that and when we go back to fly home we don't even leave the airport because our connecting flight is only 2 hours after we arrive.
Anyway, we woke up on the train upon our arrive in Surat Thani where we loaded onto a local bus to take up to the Koh Sok National Park. We stayed at a cute little place called Art's Riverview lodge and (surprise) it was right next to the river. We had to walk down a little path through the trees to get to our little bungalows, we felt like we were camping.. After we started to get settled is when the fun began... We got into out hut and opened the windows to get some air flow and then we our onto our little deck to read for a bit.. suddenly we heard a big crash and jumped up to see what it was, as we looked into the room we saw a monkey (!!) climbing in the rafters with Laura's facewash in his mouth! We tried to make noises and scare him off and he eventually went out the window and we cautious went inside checking to make sure he didn;t leave any friends behind, and i ran and closed the window.. once the inside was clear we opened the front door to find about 10 more monkeys on our porch! Three of them were fighting over Laura's facewach and a bunch more were running around. They all started to run off when we walked out and i tried banging to get them to go, but then a couple of them turned back and started heading towards us so we jumped back in the room and slammed the door.. We kept peeking out to see if they had gone but there was one little persistant bugger that was sitting RIGHT outside the door and when i cracked it open he even stuck his hand in and tried to open the door! So we were barracaded in our room from around half an hour! It was hilarious, we were scared out of our minds and could not stop laughing!
Sorry all, i am out of time, but i wanted to post something, i will try and finish the rest of this post tomorrow! Loves!
1 comment:
Why were you scared of a little monkey?
Post a Comment