Jenny and Dan's Trip

From Singapore on the 30th May we flew to Bangkok, we had booked into a hotel on the Khao San Road, one of busiest tourist streets in Bangkok. We arrived, eventually when the taxi driver found our hotel amongst the hustle and bustle and the many other hotels and shops. The Khao San Road really is something you can't describe it's just so busy with shops and market stalls selling everything from c.d's to hippy clothes to beer to gorgeous Thai food. Then there are all the taxi, and tuck tuck drivers yelling at you and other people trying to get you into their bars or restaurants or men trying to measure you up for a suit, it really is exhausting walking from one end to the other. However our hotel was pretty quite and was a nice escape from the madness. On our first day we decided to go and explore the city. We thought we would go to Chinatown and decided that catching the ferry would be a good way to see some sights. Well finding the ferry terminal turned out to be something of mission and we ended up walking quite a long way round the back streets of Bangkok which was interesting. On our little adventure we bumped into a very friendly Thai man who was extremely helpful, he must have thought we looked lost so he proceeded to write all over our guide book telling us where to visit and then informed us that the ferry wouldn't be open because it had rained last night and the water was too high. Dan smelled a fish here, he had read about these so called friendly men who try to rip you off in one way or another. We explained to him that we would go and see for our selves but he wouldn't take no for an answer and said we should get a tuck tuck, (a tuck tuck is a motorbike with a little carriage on back and you take your life in your hands if you decided to go in one) coincidently out of nowhere one pulled straight up. We reckoned they would have charged us an arm and a leg and taken us to places we didn't want to go so they would get commission. So we politely refused and carried on our way. Once on the ferry the first stop turned out to be about 5 minutes away from Khao San Road so we just laughed because luckily we quite enjoyed seeing a bit of the local life anyway.

China town again was all hustle and bustle, shops and street stalls, we also found several market places which were packed tightly with anything you could desire, allot of it tat but it was interesting all the same. We then got a taxi to a popular tourist spot "Jim Thompsons house" A famous trader and architect who had settled in Thailand and put his own spin on a traditional Thai house. Then we had lunch in the mega MBK shopping centre where we found a food court that sold food from all around the world, Dan was very happy. After a long day we ended back at Khao San Road to find a festival of food and dancing and all sorts of things going on, there was a spicy eating contest going on and they had a huge stage set up outside our hotel with people performing, what I don't really know because it was all in Thai.

The next day was slightly more serene, as we did the Temple walk. We found quite a few temples- Wat Phra Raew and Wat Pho where there is a giant reclining Buddha is were just two of them and also the Grand Palace where the King lives. They were such interesting places so beautiful, decorative and extravagant buildings but so peaceful and serene, that was an experience I won't forget.

The next day we got on a bus to go to Chiang Mai, but this was no ordinary bus it was a government first class bus. A double deccer with reclining seats, a hostess who brings you water and a meal. It took us ten hours but we hardly minded because it was so comfortable and we wanted to see a bit of the country on the way, which we did. We were so happy when we got to our hotel, it was a lovely 5 star but it only cost £15 a night! The next day we wanted to go exploring again, there were loads of temples here which we visited again, but to be honest we felt a bit overloaded by temples at this point. We also saw the famous statue of the 3 Kings which was outside the cultural centre which we had a quick look around too. We then found more temples and in the evening we were told there was a festival at one temple to celebrate the rainy season coming and that they were having fireworks and celebrations. We thought that would be quite an exciting evening but when we turned up there was nobody to be seen and we were only greeted by an angry looking dog, which I ran away from so that was a bit of a disappointment. However Dan managed to find us one of the best restaurants in Chiang Mai situated next to the river, it was very busy with locals and tourists and the food was delicious, a very good choice.

The next day we had booked onto a day trip to the mountains. The first stop was at an Orchid farm which was very pretty but a little pointless, they tried to get us to go to a monkey show but we weren't convinced we wanted to see a monkey riding a bicycle so we said no. Second stop was at Chiang Duo Cave temple, an ancient temple where Buddhist monks have be praying for thousands of years. We then carried onto see the big Buddha a huge statue of a white Buddha, (this was situated just over the mountain from the Burmese boarder). Then were carried on to what was the main reason for the trip, the long neck hill tribe village. This was very interesting, the ladies wear brass hoops round their necks and every four years another one is added, we never actually found out why they do this, it's just part of their culture that they choose to carry on with. At the tribal village there were so many stalls with scarves and bags and jewellery etc etc that the women had made and were trying to sell you as this is how they make a living. Well we ended up with bags of stuff as you just feel so guilty and everything was so cheap you couldn't say no. The women and girls are so beautiful and charming it makes it even harder to say no. So that was a good day full of new experiences, we were only in Chiang Mai for two days but we really liked it there.