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On tuesday me and louisa arrived in Bangkok to find out that tuk tuk petrol was free that day, so we managed to get one to take us round most of the markets, temples and buddhas of bangkok for 5 baht each, roughly 7p! the temples are beautifully colourful and the gold which characterises them shimmers in the sunlight, starkly contrasting the dusty, worn out temples in india that are swathed in the mists of pollution. Later we explored the market stalls on Khao San Road where we're staying, which is the main backpacker district, hunting for bargains among the designer rip offs, before heading to the bar for a few cocktails! The next day we walked down to chinatown which seemed to be an endlessly confusing warren of dark alleyways crammed with stalls selling all kinds of funny fruits, vegetables and flowers. Later we took a boat ride around the smaller back-canals of bangkok, which showed us a much poorer version of town in contrast to the touristy, westernised parts we've seen so far. the river huts hovered precariously above the water, and huge palm trees and jungly vegetation had sprung up around and between them. Yesterday we made the two hour trip up to Ayutthaya which used to be the capital in 1400s approx, but is now more of a ghost town. It's full of temple ruins made from dusty red brick as opposed to the gold of the newer temples, and was comparable to the ruins at the Roman forum in terms of run-down-ness. the architecture of the temples is quite strange, unlike any others we've seen so far, with dome shaped towers lots of pillars. Today we'll be going to the weekend market which is supposed to have 6000 stalls selling all kinds of treasures, so we'll see what that throws up! Tomorrow we think it's chinese new year so we're hoping to see some dragons before we head off to Ko chang on monday, a little island to the east of bangkok for a few days' relaxing after a pretty hectic week here!
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