Pictures from Thailand

My bike from today
Feeding the elephants
Buddhist sayings atuck to a tree 'The most valuable service is one rendered to out fellow humans'
Giant seated buddha at Wat Mahathat in Sukhothai
Finding my fortune at Wat Pho in Ayutthaya
View of a temple complex at Sukhothai


Buddha head engulfed in a tree

Me with tiger and monk
The train that came over the bridge (luckily there were many places on the bridge to stand out the way and it was going quite slowly)
The floating market at Damnern Saduak
The weird jelly which our tuk-tuk driver gave to us in Bangkok.
View over Bangkok from the top of the Golden Mount

Ayutthaya to Chiang Mai

I have now made my way up North to Chiang Mai, where it is slightly cooler than Bangkok. Admittedly this pretty much means that instead of a cool 25 degrees at night time it is now perhaps down to only the low 20's.

Both Ayutthaya and Sukhothai were amazing, they were fairly old cities so most of the temples were ruins, but they were still impressive to look at for all that. At Ayutthaya we saw the well-known buddha head in a tree as well as wandering the ruins of the ancient palace, the old seat of power of the Thai kingdom, now mostly foundations and the bases of a few pillars. I quite enjoyed the setting of the temples in Sukhothai, as many of them were surrounded by restored moats which had been there when they had first been built.

From Sukhothai we came up to Chiang Mai by bus, finding our way to the Guest House with a bit of difficulty caused by the language barrier, but we made it in the end. In the evening we headed out to see some more of the city and accidentally came across the funeral of a very important monk - they had a huge statue in front of the main chedi in the complex and were giving out food, which was fairly confusing at first and I thought we might have wandered into a religious festival. The celebration, or not celebration, as I'm not sure what word to use to describe a funeral as they seemed half celebration half sombre affair, seemed to go on for a few days and the princesses even attended, although I missed seeing them there.

I have also now been blessed by a nice monk who was in one of the other Temple complexes we visited, so I am expecting lots of happiness and health to come my way. Today though we got out of the city, hiring bikes from a little shop near the Guest House. It might have gone slightly easier had I had a map to direct us, but after a slight detour we managed to reach the tribal museum we were aiming for, and after we got lost the second time a couple of girls on a motorbike showed us the way back.

I am enjoying the food stalls that seem to line every road and am eating quite a lot of my meals from them too because I can't resist the smells. I will soon be heading out to the night market which should be fun, and hopefully I will not buy too much to bring back with me.

Fortune sticks

Today at Wat Phra Mongkon Bophit I discovered my fortune - kneeling in front of the statue of Buddha in the temple I shook a box of sticks and the number on the stick which fell out is supposedly your future. Think Chinese Fortune Cookies with more sticks and less cookie. Mine was as follows:

Any business goes well. Trading brings high income. Pregnant will get baby boy. Lost items will be found. Money will be paid back. Sickness will get recovered. You will be delight and happy.

Altogether looks like the next couple of months are going to go well!

Temples, Trains and Tigers

I am currently sitting in Ayutthaya, having arrived here this afternoon after another hectic few days, and taking the time to add a quick update as I'm not sure when I will next get the time to do so.

As the title suggests, I have seen many temples in the past four days (it's hard to believe that it has only been that long). Whilst I was still in Bangkok we visited Wat Pho (which houses a large reclining Buddha) as well as Wat Arun, the Temple of the Dawn, which was more or less directly across the river from Wat Pho. This evening once we arrived in Ayutthaya we also wandered around and saw a couple of the ruins here lit up with a french couple we had met on the floating hotel we stayed at on the River Kwai and then ran into again as we were walking around. As a change from temples, we also went out to visit the floating market on our last day in Bangkok.

On Monday we headed West to Kanchanaburi to visit the POW cemetry and the bridge over the River Kwai. The bridge itself was rebuilt after WWII so later in the morning we took a train along Death Railway and we went over the original wooden bridge over the River. It's really quite shocking to think that thousands of POW's as well as conscripted Asian workforce died to build the bridge. On the second day we visited the Hellfire Memorial museum, from were it is possible to walk down to Hellfire pass where there is a memorial.

We also went to see the Tiger Temple, possibly one of the most exciting parts of the trip so far as I got to see tigers up close and even to stroke some of them! There will be pictures soon, but as the computer I am using currently is finding it hard to keep up with my typing, I don't think it can quite handle uploading photos. It was a very wildlife filled two days as during that time there was also elephant riding - the elephant which Helen and I were riding even played the harmonica to us.

All together a very exciting and busy, if exhausting, few days. I have definitely enjoyed every moment so far, and am still in one piece.

First days in Bangkok

Well, I have now arrived in Bangkok, to be fair I arrived a couple of days ago, but this is the first time I have been near the internet since then. At the airport I was slighlty worried we wouldn't quite make it - the plane arrived late and we knew that the snow was set to start over heathrow at 9.00 and unfortunately by 8:30 we were still sitting in the departure gate. Luckily, the plane did manage to take off, one and a half hours late as the snow was just starting, but we made it out before it started freezing the runway.

I am still having trouble believing that it is snowing in Surrey, much less that it is so bad that schools have been cancelled! It is incredibly hot here, I was not expecting the wave of heat that hit us as we left the airport, but I think I am quite enjoying the warmth now.

The past couple of days have been remarkably busy too. There have been many temples, buddhas and palaces visited, and I have decided that the best way to travel is by tuktuk - one man even said we could have a free trip if we agreed to go and look in one shop! It seems that they get free gas if they take tourists to certain shops, but I'm not about to complain if I get a free trip out of it.

It turns out that we have turned up at a holy time for the Thais as the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew (where we were planning on starting) were closed for half the day to foreigners, but people have been very helpful and friendly which means that we have managed to see just as much of the city working around the different opening times.

I am very much enjoying Bangkok so far, and after the weekend we are planning on heading out for a coupe of days to see the River Kwai as well as some Tigers.

Preparing to leave

I just thought that before I left for more exciting places I would say goodbye to you all and hope to see you in 4 and a half months time fit and healthy.

I am now nearly ready to depart on the big adventure... nearly ready as I seem to have managed to pack far too many clothes despite being so sure that I could ruthlessly keep my baggage down to a minimum. Other than that though I am all ready; flights, insurance, emergency contact details for the British Embassy in case I get arrested, and even though I am slightly nervous mostly I am excited to be getting off.