Southeast Asia

Alarm went at 6:30 this morning so that I could get ready eat breakfast and leave by 7:10. Got a taxi to the southern bus terminal on the other side of town for only 100B. Had no problems finding the correct bus to Kanchanaburi and I was on it by 8:00. Of course the bus didn’t leave until 8:40 and the next 40 minutes were spend with people walking up and down the aisles trying to sell lollies, drinks and magazines while being forced to watch a terribly bad Asian soap opera. My taxi driver had offered to drive me to Kanchanaburi for 2000B (US$60) but the bus only ended up costing 78B (US$2.5). It was clearly a public bus because we stopped at least 40 times on the 3 hr ride and at one stage it was so packed we made sardines look like they have legroom. I was surprised that in the whole 3 hr drive we never really left the city. The density of houses and shops decreased, but thee were never areas of wide open spaces or anything. Every minute or so the driver would honk the horn at the up coming bus stop to see if anyone wanted to flag him down, in doing so he would slow down just enough so he could stop if necessary but if no one was waiting he’d hit the pedal and we’d take off again, this made for a very bumpy and noisy ride.

Arriving at Kanchanaburi I went to the TAT office and got a map and directions to the tiger temple before visiting the bathroom. Today was my first experience with squat toilets, it could have been worse I suppose, it was really quite clean. The bus from Kanchanaburi to the tiger monastery was 25B, had no air con and was packed solid. The drive took over an hour and the bus driver beeped the horn at anyone walking along the road in the hope to pick up an extra fare. I was very impressed with myself for spotting the stop to get off and telling the other 8 tourists on the bus to get off. Maybe I’m not a completely incompetent traveler. The walk to the monastery was 2km. Entry to see the tigers was 300B, but I donated an additional 500B. The tigers were amazing and so beautiful; I couldn’t believe how docile they were. Was talking to a guy who worked at Florida zoo and he was shocked that people were allowed so close to such dangerous animals and yet there had never been a serious injury. I took heaps of photos.

Took the 2 km walk back to the road and was waiting for a bus when a couple I had been talking to at the monastery offered me a lift back to town. He was European but he lives in Thailand with his wife and they visit the monastery regularly to donate money. We spoke for quite a while about the Tiger Foundation and all the work they are putting into building the new enclosure. They dropped me off at the Kwai River Bridge. The bridge, which was a strategic part of the death railway to Burma and attacked and rebuilt during WWII, was swarming with tourists (ironically many of the Japanese). There were also young boys jumping off into the water. I walked the bridge and part of the railway and took a few photos.

Next I went to the Jeath War museum to get a bit more background info on the bridge. It was a good museum, however they were renovating and many things were poorly labeled. Grabbed a motorbike taxi back to the bus station which was heaps of fun.

The bus back to BKK was only 62B, had far less people and only took 2 hours. I was however subjected to watching the drivers choice in TV which happened to be Thai stand up comedy. Of all the things to watch in a foreign language stand up is the worst because you have no idea what’s going on, but all of a sudden its extremely funny and the old Thai man in the seat next to you is elbowing you as he laughs. The driver obviously loved it too because he kept taking his eyes off the road to watch it. Noticed driving into BKK that all the fairy lights were gone, pity because they added a lot of atmosphere to the city.

When I finally got back to the hostel at 9:00 I went and got dinner with Dave and Derek, then we all stayed up drinking until 2:30, met another Aussie girl traveling with her father, they had just come from India. When I finally went to bed I died of exhaustion.

PS: give me a break on the typing, this is an Asian keyboard and I’m trying to do it in the least possible time so as not to be charged a fortune in this very expensive internet café.
PPS: I have not worn high heels for a whole week. I don’t think I’ve done that since I was about 12.

I saw my first car crash today as I was walking to the skytrain. 2 4×4’s collided in the middle of the road, not quite head on. its no wonder really given that the middle lane between the traffic is treated as a ‘free for all, either direction, give way only to anything bigger’ lane. A big crown formed to check out the commotion and all the sales people left their little stalls to have a good look. It is slightly confidence inspiring that people were interested since it suggests a degree of rarity.

Took a combination of the skytrain and the river boats to get to the national museum, even though I had to go a long way out of the way. It’s always much cheaper than tuk tuk or taxi and I’m sick of fighting with tuk tuk drivers over the price. Museum was huge and I spent a long time wandering around reading about Ayuthaya and Sukhothai. They were particularly interesting since I will be visiting those places in the next week.

Just one of the 120,000 stary dogs in Bangkok, this one was quite happily asleep on the chairs at the docks.

On the skytrain home I decided to take a detour and check out the new shopping centre. I discovered today that it doesn’t matter which country I’m in, I will always be my mother daughter and putting me in a brand new hopping centre with designer fashions and telling me not to spend any money is like taking a child to a fun park and telling them they cant go on any rides or eat any junk food. The centre was amazing, beautifully designed and the shop line up was fabulous, D&G, Gucci, Pucci, Mulberry, Hermes, Prada. Chanel, Chloe, Cartier, Paul Smith, Versace, Armani, Ferregamo…etc. Majority of the shops weren’t open but hopefully by they will be by the time I come back through BKK. The department store in the middle of the centre was open though and they had so many gorgeous things. However, it was packed with people spending every cent they owned and the queues at the cashier were at least 10 people deep. People were wandering around with 10 or 15 bags.

I also got to see a few fashion shows for the new season because they held a parade in the centre and they had models standing around everywhere like mannequins holding handbags etc. Since it was the first day they remained open until 11pm, but I left at 9 after the shows and went home for dinner.

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Passed out last night and didn’t wake up until 8:30. Breakfast is provided at suk11 so i ate enough food to try and avoid lunch for a while. Spoke to a German girl who suggested i head to China Town ... [Continue reading this entry]

Got the hotel shuttle back to the airport and from there managed to find an airport bus that went into the city for 100 Baht. Bangkok has some serious infrustructure, the express way into the city was 12 lanes and ... [Continue reading this entry]

I hit the jackpot on the plane, despite the flight being packed to within an inch of its life i managed to score 2 seats all to myself as did the guy next to me. this meant a great flight ... [Continue reading this entry]

Well, my trip aroung SE Asia begins now. After a mad and frantic morning trying to pack, get organised, have a farewell breakfast with jess and a bikini wax i finally left for the airport. Had to stop at Chatswood ... [Continue reading this entry]