diary28

6th April 2006
Shared a taxi, with the guesthouse owner, to the airport. Flew to Bangkok - an hour flight rather than an overnight train or bus! Bangkok is manic, dirty, busy, noisy - want to go back to Ko Phi Phi!! After finding somewhere to stay we went to the famous Khao San Road and wandered up and down. Very busy, packed with Westerners. Had dinner there and met two blokes from Holland who recommended the band that played upstairs in the Irish bar, so we got changed and went back later on to find them waiting for us with a tribe of Swedes (why is every single Swede so good looking??). The band was excellant - probably the best pub band we've ever seen - not what you expect since they're Thai. The guitarists were phenominal and they did such a variety of songs and styles!

7th April 2006
Got up late and made our way to The Grand Palace to do the tourist bit! Quite stunning - lots of gold and bright colours. Saw the Emerald Buddha - a lot smaller than I thought it would be. I had to wear a long skirt and shirt to cover up, so with two layers of clothes found the heat unbearable! Thank God we had an air con room to go back to! Found a great place to eat near our guesthouse - slightly more pricey than usual (but obviously dirt cheap compared to England), but worth it for the organic food and best garlic bread ever!!

8th April 2006
Decided to escape the city and found a minibus to Kanchanaburi and arrived just after midday at a tranquil little village on the banks of the River Kwai - can breath again!! Walked down to 'the bridge over the River Kwai' to have a quick look, before getting picked up and taken to Tiger Temple - a Buddhst monestary that has rescued several tigers from poachers mainly. We were able to see the tigers during their daily exercise at the waterfall in the grounds and were guided in one by one and able to touch them whilst having our photo taken. It was very busy and upsetting to see them chained up - not how it was advertised. We spoke to a Dutch girl that lives in Bangkok and was visiting for the third time and she told us that they never used to be chained (just controlled by the monks) and it as never so busy. For all the good that the monks have done (in particular the head monk who has been on TV a number of times in documentaries about the tigers) it seems that fame and money may have gone to their heads - I hope this isn't true and that we're being synnical, but it did seem to be a tourist trap! That said, it was still a wonderful experience. To touch them was great and scary when one got annoyed near you - they weren't fluffy at all, very dry and brittle - solid muscle under that spattering of fur! There were a lot more farm type animals there too, which got fed while we were leaving - Terry decided they must have been there for tiger food!!!

9th April 2006
Left Kanchanaburi on the 'Death Railway' over the bridge over the river Kwai to Nam Tok. So called the Death Railway because it follows the route to Burma built by POWs during the Second World War - 16,000 POWs and 100,000 Asian labourers died whilst working on it. Was a two hour journey through the surrounding countryside, cutting close to rock cliffs and travelling over some unsteady looking wooden bridges - surely not still the originals??? Once at Nam Tok we decided that rather than getting a bus to Bangkok we'd stay on the train for the return journey to Kanchanaburi and onto Bangkok, so we had another 5 and a half hours on the wooden seats, getting covered in dust from the open windows - no air con! Arrived in Bangkok incredibly dirty and probably rather stinky too!! Popped onto a boat to take us across the river and back to our guesthouse where we had a great shower before another organic meal - delicous curries and of course the garlic bread!!!

10th April 2006
What a day!! Were due to fly to Chiang Mai at 6.45am (just an hours flight, leaving us the rest of the day to explore the town). Terry set the alarm the night before, using his mobile which is set to English time, so we always have to work out the time difference. Got up straight away and left so were in a taxi heading to the airport after 10 minutes, only to discover that it was 6.10am!!! We're 7 hours different at the mo not 6, Terry!!!!!!!!!! Asked the taxi driver to put his foot down - not something you normally have to ask in Thailand, but he still stayed in the slow lane saying hello to all his friends in the other taxis and we arrived at the airport just as the fight took off!! Great!! Managed to get another flight for that afternoon, but was a lot more expensive than the budget one we'd booked, and we got prepared to spend the next few hours in the airport. We queued up at the stand by desk for 3 hours and finally managed to get two seats on an earlier flight - Terry thinking he was forgiven for his mistake - as if I'll let him forget this one!!! Still arrived in Chiang Mai quite early and were relieved to find it quite small and compact and laid back compared to Bangkok, despite it being Thailand's second city. The old part is a square surrounded by a moat and the crumbling old city walls. Luckily we managed to find somewhere to stay for a week, as everywhere we'd phoned had been booked up because of Songkhran, Thai New Year, which is from 13th to 15th April. Everywhere in Thailand there are huge street water fights apparently and in Chiang Mai it is the most exhuberent. We planned the next week in Chiang Mai and then had dinner at a street stall place with a chess board - I won all three games, a total first when playing Terry!!

11th April 2006
The first of our Thai cookery lessons!! Went to the owners house - Sompon, Thailand's TV chef - in the countryside outside Chiang Mai - very nice place! We cooked 6 dishes and ate each one too - very nice even if we do say so ourselves! It was good fun and very interesting. Easy to follow! We were dropped back at our guesthouse after getting stuck in the traffic trying to get around the moat where the New Year celebrations had started early. Lucky we had the windows shut as water was being hurled from every direction! Once back we went shopping for bug spray to kill the bed bugs that had attacked Terry last night but left me alone - did we really think we'd get a room without any bug life??? Also bought super soakers to prepare for the fun and games that are concentrated around the moat (which the Government apparently cleaned out a month ago), but are in every street too!