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Saturday 27th January
We arrived back in Bangkok from Ko Tao and go to meet Kate's Mum and her boyfriend Nick who are here on a tour for a couple of weeks. It's lovely to see someone from home. I miss everyone heaps.
We've been on virtually all forms of public transport possible within the last 24 hours - the boat from Ko Tao to Chumpon, the overnight bus, then a water taxi and the Skytrain up to Khao San Road (backpackers hangout), and finally on the Metro (underground) to reach Kate's Mum. The only thing we didn't get in was a tuk tuk - hee hee. They drive like nutters here. And I had forgotten that in Bangkok my name was "Hello Taxi"!
We head up to the weekend market at Jatuchak which is just enormous. Infact it's so big they give you a map so you can find your way around there! You can buy everything up there from food, to clothes to pet pooches!
Then I was treated to dinner by Kate's Mum and Nick in their hotel - yummy. I'm really enjoying the thai food and so is my waistline!
Sunday 28th January
We joined Kate's Mum on their organised tour today and went to visit lots of temples around Bangkok. The first one contained a Buddha that was made of solid gold weighing over 2 tonnes!
We also saw a massive reclining buddha (have a look at the photo) at Wat Pho which was 42 metres long and 8 metres high. Pretty impressive. They wrap their buddhas and stupas in orange cloth which is so simple yet so striking - that mix between the old and new.
I'm glad I was wearing flip flops as you have to take your shoes off every time you enter a temple and you aren't supposed to point your feet towards the buddha image. Instead you kneel down to look up at it.
Next we headed over to the Grand Palace and to the Emerald Buddha temple. They were just beautiful. Apparently all buddhists try to make a pilgrimage here once in their lifetime; it's a bit like Mecca for the muslims I guess. The Grand Palace is vast and took over 7 years to build as they had to wait for donations from the people to buy the materials. The people also donated their own time and built the whole thing for free which is why there is so much attention to detail.
The buddhists believe they are re-incarnated 108 times before reaching either nirvana or hell. There are two types of buddhists. The most popular, Stone buddhists seem to wave lots of incense around and pray to various gods to make their wishes come true. The Star buddhists are significantly fewer in number as they are required to meditate a lot more - and since the human race is naturally lazy I guess that's probably why.
Originally Bangkok was built 5 metres above sea level but as they have built more skyscrapers and buildings here, it has sunk and is now at sea level. So it suffers from bad flooding at certain times of the year. They always choose a site for the capital which is near water as this used to be the main mode of transport years ago.
Thailand means Land of the Free, as it's never been conquered, although it was occupied by the Japanese in World War II.
Bangkok is the 4th capital city of Thailand. As the buddhists are a peaceful people they have moved the entire capital rather than stay and fight when others have come to try and take over. So when the Burmese sacked the city in 1752 and raised it to the ground, they just upped and left rather than fight back.
Here endeth the history lesson for today!
Monday 29th January
We got up early and headed over to Khao San Road which is a major hub for backpackers. As we sit in a cafe and get some breakfast, the monks stroll past and collect their food for the day from the thai people. Women are not supposed to look at monks or sit near them on public transport - so the back seat of buses is reserved solely for monks.
They even have their own seating area at the airports - but I still don't understand why a monk would be flying anywhere. Certainly we've seen them with big wheelie cases and man-bags under their arms. Very strange as I thought they were supposed to give up all their worldly possessions. Mind you - all thai men are only expected to become a monk for 6 months of their lives so I guess they could have been monks on their way home at the end of their term! Makes a nice change from being conscripted into the forces like in other countries.
Anyway, we went to the floating markets today. First you get on a high speed long tail boat which was brilliant fun. You can only fit around 8 people on this skinny, narrow boat. They have massive car engines powering them with turbo's if you can believe. And we're whizzing around these narrow rivers, dodging other boats and splashing people with the rudder - just hilarious!
We arrive at the floating market and change into a slow paddle boat, paddled by a woman whose skin is more shrivelled than a dried prune. I love the faces of the old people - they have such character - just beautiful.
Afterwards we head back to Bangkok and wander around with Kate's Mum. We soon discovered that you can only buy clothes here if you are a size 8!
Tuesday 30th January
Another early start and we head off to Karanchanburi to see the bridge over the River Kwai. In actual fact the real wooden bridge is around 300 metres down the river but they have built this one as a working monument to commemorate the thousands of prisoners of war who died while building the railway line from Burma to Malaysia. 7 million tonnes of earth were moved to make the railway line.
I'm always astounded at the things in this country that you just wouldn't see at home. You can walk on the bridge but it's all open at the sides and on the floor so you really have to watch your step so you don't fall into the river! Also, as the train goes over the bridge you can stand on the side of it as it passes by - literally a foot away from the moving train. It reminded me a little of the scene from "Stand by Me" if anyone remembers the film?
Next it was off to do some bamboo rafting - we spent a very sedate hour floating down the river Kwai talking to an australian man who had just married his thai bride. Nice!
After which we were hoisted up onto elephants which was such great fun. The Asian elephant is much taller than the African one but has a shorter body with a more prominent spine. So instead of sitting right on the elephant, you have to get into a sedan like seat on the top. It was really rocky and I very much doubt the Queen of Sheba looked quite so ungraceful as she tried to balance herself and hang on at the same time. I don't think I'd ever make it as royalty - too ungainly, no poise and decorum as I shriek my way around laughing my head off on this elephant! Hee hee.
Finally we headed over to the tiger temple - we had been waiting for this all day and really hoped that they were going to be well kept and looked after properly. It was a bit sad really. They were all together in a large concrete area and it wasn't until afterwards that we saw the cages they must be kept in overnight which were incredibly small.
We got the impression from the leaflets we read before coming here that they were left to roam around at night within a large area specially built for them. Unfortunately that area was still under construction!
Having said that I feel very lucky to have been near to some animals on this trip which are endangered and the next generation may just have to look at photo's of them.
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