South Africa & SE Asia 2008

Day 49 – Wat U Mong

I took a pick-up truck/bus to this Wat which is about 5km out of town and explored this temple nestled in the jungle woodland landscape. Walking through to the temple there are painted signs in Thai, some with English translations, of what i assume to be Buddhist proverbs which are tacked to tree trunks everywhere you look.  In the temple surrounds there are plaques and stone relief slabs propped up against trees.  In a grass clearing there are a few dozen Buddha statues in lines, all made of stone, some missing arms, many missing heads.  In another area there are 100s of tiny statues made from different materials, depicting the Buddha and  a seated figure (the King?). 

The temple itself has a brick wall, there is little ornamentation here, and you enter the dark tunnels within guided by floor lamps.  Seemingly empty, you turn a corner and find an alcove with a shrine, a statue, a basket for offerings and other small items.  There are several of these alcoves, some larger and more important. I watched as small children kneeled praying and running their hands over their heads.

Days 43 – 46 – Chiang Mai

We got the night train from Bangkok, which was a different night train experience from anything else i’ve used before – there is an open carriage with bunk beds and curtains rather than cabins. It was on the whole a very comfortable experience. Book ahead is recommended to get a sleeper ticket – we bought our tickets from Kanchanaburi train station. 

It feels like we have done a lot since being in Chiang Mai – which i guess we have.  We stayed the first night in Happy House – dont do it – beds not nice, and moved swiftly to T-Room, (350 bht) TV, hot shower etc. We have explored the Night Bazaar, which was lovely to wander around, more peaceful indoors and with some different stalls other than the usual items sold. 

We did a day trip with a tour company – which was surprisingly good, lots of the tours seem to cram in a lot in one day. We went with 4 others in our group to go elephant riding which we had been debating about for ages, but it was good in the end, the elephants seemed to be from our inexperienced eye well looked after, and it wasnt a massive tourist farm or anything.  Im not sure how i feel about the whole training them to ride people though…From there we went on to do a 2 hour trek which was fantastic and stopped at a waterfall half way to take a shower, which was also great.  In the afternoon we had a short session of white water rafting.  That involved some team bonding thats for sure – it was a rough start – even the instructor with us looked concerned at our potential to flip the raft, but it all turned out well…

Today i have been on a cooking course, which if you have any interest in cooking – do it! Really really fun, I went with Pad Thai cookery school, 800 bht where you cook 6 meals, a breakfast, starter, curry, soup/salad, stir fry, and dessert. In each meal there are 6 choices, and you can do it veggie only if wanted.  We made a pit stop to the market so they can show you ingredients.  The teachers that run it have excellent english and a really good sense of humour.  They give you a small reciepe book so i can make some attempts at home – i think my favourite dishes were Prawns in Coconut Milk soup and fried bananas. As there were 8 of us of course you try other dishes because people are making different things.  Im just so full…

Days 39 - 43 Our coach from Phuket went to the Bangkok Southern Bus Terminal and from there we got a bus straight to Damnoen Saduak, where the floating market is.  We thought it might be a good idea to stay ... [Continue reading this entry]

Days 30 - 38 We were only 5 mins into our Krabi experience when i told a rude man that he was ripping us off as he refused any kind of bartering.  He then proceeded to lecture me on how ... [Continue reading this entry]

Day 25 - 28 Bangkok Emily and i can not make our minds up about Bangkok, our impression has definitly changed from our arrival on Thursday.  We were slightly overwhelmed by the noise, lights, stalls, cheap clothes, tuk tuks and people ... [Continue reading this entry]