Thailand
Facts:-
Part 2 - Nong Khai to Bangkok, via Ayutthaya
Day 353 - Tuesday 27th June 2006 - back into Thailand
We breezed through Thai immigration and, a few minutes later, our bus dropped us in Nong Khai and we set about finding a room. It was hot and sweaty work, taking us almost an hour before finding the Ruan Thai Guest House. (As it turned out, the first place we tried had probably offered the best value for money, but we had walked too far to want to go all the way back in this heat!).
Almost immediately we wandered out for some lunch, where we were looking for a place the LP recommended for Laos-style baguettes. Even though we found it, we both ended up ordering typical Thai dishes. Fed and watered, we tried to change our remaining Laos kip into Thai Baht. It soon became clear, however, that no banks wanted our kip. Fortunately, though, we were pointed in the direction of a money changer somewhere deep in the market. The market consisted of a single (long) alley with stalls on both sides which made the moneychanger easier to find and so eventually we managed to change our kip - at a lousy rate, but at least we had got rid of them.
Back at the guest house, we hired a couple of single-gear bikes and headed out of town towards the Sala Kaew Ku Sculpture Park. We left town and had cycled for a few kilometres before we saw the Mekong again and realised that we were going the wrong way. After re-tracing our route a bit and finding the correct road, we were soon at the sculpture park. There were certainly plenty of impressive sculptures here. Each statue was different, yet ornate, apparently cast by untrained workers under supervision by Luang Pu, who spent his life building this (and - before the communist take over in Laos - another similar one across the river).
The style of sculpture was very unusual, being a blend of Buddhist, Hindu and other of Luang Pu's ideas! But with the tallest (a seated Buddha topped by a multi-headed serpent) standing 25m tall and others nearing this height too, it was an impressive place. The heat today was oppressive, but at least the gardens, in which the statues were situated, offered some shade. We popped into the only building on the site. There an old guy told us a little about Luang Pu - we didn't understand too much (even though he was using English!), but picked up a few interesting facts.
We cycled back to town and decided to head a couple of kilometres further to the railway station. There we bought our tickets for the morning train south. Then, back by the river, we tried to take a sunset cruise, but a couple of Brits we passed told us that it was already fully booked. So, we dropped our bikes back at the guest house and decided to take the opportunity for a final riverside beer by the Mekong. We walked for a while, trying to get away from the concrete river defences that seemed to be in a state of part-construction everywhere. In the end we didn't have the enthusiasm to walk far enough and settled down for a couple of beers in a restaurant back in the market.
After freshening up, we headed out to the Mut Mee Guest House for dinner. There we enjoyed the cool and shady garden setting near the river (we even spotted a large black scorpion walking past us in the grass). The atmosphere was also very laid back, with self service ordering and beer service. There was also clearly someone there with a sense of homour as, according to the menu, the unfiltered Mekong water would have set us back 173 Baht (about $5!). The food was also pretty good, Nikki had chilli and lemon chicken, Ian two dishes (well, the special on the blackboard where you handed in you order sounded too good and cheap!).
It was very hot in our room that night, where we had to make do with single beds. Unfortunately, the air-con system from downstairs also kept us awake for most of the night. :-(
Day 354 - Wednesday 28th June 2006 - south to Ayutthaya
We were up early and had soon checked out and caught a tuk-tuk to the station. Given the efficiency (and punctuality) of the Thai rail network previously, we were surprised that, when we arrived at 7am, the 7:30am train was not already in the station (it was the terminus after all). But, at 7:20am a train pulled in early and we relaxed. Ian thouhgt he had clarified with one of the railway workers that this was indeed out 7:30 "Diesel Express" service towards Bangkok, but on trying to board, was told to wait "5 minutes".
We sat by our bags on the platform, until, without warning at 7:25am, the train left! We were a bit worried - but there was nothing we could do now anyway! After a few minutes, the same train returned on another platform. So, somewhat confused, Nikki went to the ticket office to find out what was going on. It turned out that our train had been involved in a accident (or breakdown - we couldn't be sure) on its journey from Bangkok the previous night, so our service was cancelled. Instead, we had to wait for the 9:05am slow train departure (indeed the train now sitting on the other platform). At least we received a refund of the additional charges for the fast train.
So, we had plenty of time for breakfast in the station restaurant. There, Ian foolishly ordered a plate of rice with chicken and basil, which was likely to be the only thing on offer on board the train during our long day ahead! Just before 8am, someone turned on a radio over the loudspeaker in the station and at 8am music began to play. We had heard that the Thai National Anthem is often played at this time but we weren't familiar with the tune. We looked around to see if people were standing but there weren't many people around. However, when the music finished, we saw some people sitting down so realised it had been the national anthem and perhaps we should have been standing too!
There was no broblem boarding our train this time! and at 9:05am precisely we were on our way south. We settled in for the long journey ahead. We read a lot and Nikki managed to sleep a bit too and altough the scenery was occasionally interesting, it was not as scenic or picturesque as the route north to Chiang Mai a few weeks before.
After about 4 hours, we indeed did have lunch of chicken, basil and rice! and continued to enjoy our 3rd class seats. As before, we particularly liked the fact that we could have the window fully pulled down allowing the air to blow through the carriage.
Due to our cancelled service we were now due to arrive in Ayutthaya at 8pm, rather than our originally anticipated 4pm. As a result we passed through a very heavy thunder storm, with some of the darkest clouds we had ever seen. Fortunately not much of the rain made it into the carriage, but 3rd class is obviously not the best choice in the monsoon season!
Fortunately, it was dry in Ayuttaya when we arrived and we had no problem in catching a 1-minute ferry across the river opposite the station entrance. We soon found a room at the Chantanna Guest House and, very hungry now, decide to leave showers for later and headed out for food. We managed to walk passed the restaurant we had in mind (there seemed to be no sign) and after checking out one of the night markets (which seemed to be winding down anyway) decied to return. We sat virtually over the river at the Chainam restaurant where Nikki's very large green curry alone would have filled us both up!
Day 355 - Thursday 29th June 2006 - Ayutthaya
We both slept well, especially Ian who had not been feeling too well the previous evening. So, refreshed, we found ourselves a good breakfast at the "Thai Boat Food & Drink" across the road from our guest house. But it felt a little odd, as our table was well into the street!
We hired a couple of bikes (single gear again!) from a nearby place. They were actually pretty good - Ian's even had a seat high enough for him for the first time!. So, we set off on our tour of Ayutthaya Historic Park. We actually started at the Ayutthaya Historical Study Centre - a modern exhibition outlining Ayutthaya's history, including the period of several centuries when it was the Thai capital. We had looked around pretty much everything there, when the place was invaded by about 100 primary school kids making a real racket (there were already about 50 or so older school kids there). so now it was definitely time to leave!
We cycled on to Wat Phra Si Sanphet, just avoiding a couple of elephants crossing the road ahead of us - we didn't remember the part of our cycling proficiency course that covered that! - but we managed it without being squashed!
The wat itself was dominated by 3 large ruined chedi in decent condition. But all around were all sorts of other structures. After a quick walk around, we cycled across the road and decided to stop at Wat Phra Ram - again ruins in a poor state of repair, but surrounding one large stupa, clearly of khmer style (like Angkor Wat).
Next, we decided to cycle all the way out across the river (Ayutthaya is an island formed by 3 - canalised - rivers to Wat Chaiwatthanaram. It took at least 20 minutes for us to get there - but it was easy enough going - apart for the steep arched bridge across the river itself, that certainly tested our leg muscles on our single-gear bikes. Wat Chaiwatthanaram itself was another Khmer-style wat. But it was in by far the best condition of anything we had seen in the city. Also, as we were a little out of town, there were not many tourists around. We enjoyed wandering around the grounds and taking a few photos before heading back.
We had thought about stopping at one of the local restaurants we had cycled past on the way out here, but in the end resorted to the safety of an English-meny place in the centre of town. We actually ended up at Tony's Place (so, even an English Name!) and the meal itself was actually pretty good. After a quick internet stop, we were back on our bikes for more sightseeing.
We cycled to Wat Mahathat and wandered around the scattered ruins, looking for a Buddha's head entwined in the roots of a tree, as shown on the front (and back) of the small pamphlet we had bought. Eventually we found it. It was actually quite small at only just over a foot or so tall but quite bizarre. The ruins here were otherwise were unimpressive.
In contrast, the wat across the road (Wat Ratchburana) was very well preserved (or restored). We could easily make out some of the highly decorative figures near the top of the main chedi. We were even able to climb up the main structure and down inside into the burial chamber, which had been broken into and robbed back in 1950s.
All wat-ed out, we headed for a beer across the raod at Malukor and checked it out as a potential dinner spot. We decided against visiting any more ruins, so returned the bikes, showered and treated Nikki's sunburn (Ian had forgotten to pack the suncream for the day's excursion!).
We enjoyed our last BeerLao (which we had been carrying, having failed to drink all our beer supplies while watching - or more accurately falling asleep - in front of England's World Cup misery) on the balcony and then walked back to Malakor for dinner. We were a little disappointed that the nearby Wat Ratburana wasn't as well lit as we had been expecting, but our dinner itself was great and we relaxed and enjoyed it on a low table area, sitting on the raised floor. We even had time to spend a little while using the internet before heading to bed.
Day 356 - Friday 30th June 2006 - back to Bangkok
We had hoped to go back to the Thai Boat for breakfast, but is wasn't open, so we chose to head to Tony's Place again. Ian was disappointed not to be able to order Thai food, so ordered an omelette instead. Both of us also wanted banana shakes, but we were told that somehow they had run out of bananas! However, they soon found enough for one shake for Ian. Consequently Nikki was a bit surprised when her pineapple pancake was mostly banana! and as for Ian's omelette - neither of us had ever seen an omelette so small - it was barely larger than a fried egg. And the rest of the plate was barely covered with a lonely lettuce leaf and a couple of slices of tomato - this was certainly not enough to fuel him until lunch. He was soon thinking about snacking at the station.
We packed and were soon on short ferry back towards the station. We had noted down the train departure times, so as expected, we just missed a train and had a 50-minute wait for the next. Ian was also disappointed not to find any snacks to his liking. Fortunately we were just about aware enough to realise that we needed to cross the tracks and wait for our train a few minutes before it arrived - otherwise we would have had to negotiate a different train standing at the main platform - it was difficult enough boarding a train with our backpacks - they barely fitted throuht the doors, but to squeeze into and then out of the other side of a train simply to access our platform would have been a pain.
The journey itself was ridiculously cheap (20 Baht - about $0.55) for 1hr 90-minute journey, but there weren't even any train snacks :-(. Back at Huamphalong Station we spotted a train on the departure board headed all the way to Malaysia, but it didn't seem very appealing with an almost 24-hour journey time and only a little cheaper than the cost of a flight!
At the station, we grabbed a few pastries to keep Ian going and tried to find our way to the river and the Chao Phraya River Ferry - we had already experienced more than enough of Bangkok's congested traffic for our liking. The route took us through some very narrow streets, winding through the edge of Chinatown and after one false turning down to the river, found a jetty near the Port Authority building.
We had missed a ferry by a few seconds, but only had about 20 minutes to wait for the next. It was a breezy journey standing on the open deck at the back of the ferry. The 30-minute journey was quite enjoyable, giving us a completely different view of the city than we had seen on our previous brief visit. It was 11 stops to Thewet, where we had decided to try and find a guest house - it was close enough to the Grand Palace, which we wanted to visit, close, but not too close, to Khao San Road, and cheaper and hopefully nicer too!
We soon found the Sa-wat-dee Guest House, where a pleasant enough wooden-walled room with a fan only cost 200 Baht - Ok the toilet, wash basin and shower were downstairs and the staff were a bit grumpy, but this seemed a good price for Bankgkok. Almost straight away, we went looking for lunch (food was at the forefront of Ian's mind today!) and found some good cheap meals at the Sai Ta La restaurant. We even stopped at a streetside roti vendor nearby for a banana roti for dessert! :-)
We needed to check our e-mail, as we hoped to meet up with Sal and Rob (we had first met them in Easter Island and last seen them in New Zealand) but we hadn't been able to finalise details. Sal had left Ian an email, so we had a time to make and a place to find!
We had quick showers and then it was time to test out Bangkok's public transport system. We used a ferry / Skytrain combo to make our way across the city and by the time we arrived at the Skytrain station meeting point we were pretty late. Then we actually re-traced part of our route to meet some other friends of theirs (a Dutch couple) before heading to the Suan Lum night bazaar.
After some looking around, Sal and Rob found the way to the food court and we settled down near a stall where they had eaten a few days previously for some tasty food. Lots of vendors kept coming to our table to offer us expensive (and unknown) foreign beers, but eventually Ian went off and found a jug of Chang, and then another. We enjoyed a bit of a chat, although the music was very loud. It was fun to catch up with our various travel stories since we had last met in Taupo.
After eating, the Dutch couple left us - it was their last night before heading home, so wanted to buy some specific things. The rest of us just sauntered around the market browsing and buying a few things - Nikki bought an identical vest top to one she had bought in Chiang Mai, just in a different colour.
We had a long journey back home ahead of us, and after riding the metro and Skytrain with Sal and Rob for a few stops, we headed our own way. We thought we were doing well when we left the Skytrain and soon caught a bus, apparently heading towards Banglamphu which would have been good for us. But, of course, the bus wasn't quite heading that way, so it was still a long walk for us after we got off. In the end we got home after after midnight and about 2 hours of travelling.
Day 357 - Saturday 1st July 2006 - the Grand Palace, Bangkok
We ate breakfast in the guest house just across a small alley from ours - the Shanti Guest House. Again Ian wasn't able to order a Thai dish, and instead had disappointingly small pancakes - he was not on a good run of breakfasts! Nikki on the other hand had a tasty omelette with hash browns.
We were soon on our way to the river again, where we caught a ferry down to the Grand Palace. There, we joind the hordes streaming in. It turned out that Ian had to borrow some tasteful brown trousers before being admitted. Apparently the sarong that had served him well in all the other temple complexes so far wasn't good enough here. The first complex we headed for was Wat Phra Kaeo, which contained many different buildings, including Wat Phra Si Rattanasasadaram (or the Temple of the Emerald Buddha). Almost all these buildings had at least one thing in common: they had highly ornate and colourful exteriors. There was also a golden chedi and several statues or Yaksa Guards
guarding various entrances, a model of Angkor Wat (dating from the time when Angkor was part of the Thai kingdom). We wandered around for a while, trying to find quiet spots at least a little away from the crowds. We took loads of photos too and learned a little about the buildings from our guidebook. Unfortunately, most of the buildings themselves were closed to visitors. The exception was the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, although no photos were allowed inside. The Buddha itself was situated high on top of a large gold altar - of course it looked much like the near-identical replica we had seen previously in Chiang Rai.
Next, we walked around to the Royal Palace itself. Here, none of the buildings were open to the public, but the surrounding gardens were pretty. After taking a few more photos, we headed out of the complex and looked for some lunch. We found a small corner noodle place, were Ian also treated himself to a small ice cream dessert. Then we decided to head over the road to Wat Pho. We walked around the grounds first, where there were several large mosaic stupas, before heading to see the main attraction - an absolutely enourmous reclining Buddha!
It was just immense at 45m long and almost completely covered in gold leaf. It completely filled the building housing it.
On our way back to our room, we decided to get a Thai massage from Wat Pho massage school experts (we had decided to leave Thailand the following day, so this was our last chance of a real Thai massage for a while). Once again the massages were excellent - Ian even managed to get more attention to be paid to his lower body, so his leg muscles and joints got the attention they needed! After our very relaxing hour (and a bit!) it was now raining heavily. But we managed to catch the ferry back to Thewet where we showered and rested for a while.
This evening, we had planed to go to Khao San Road to watch England's World Cup Quarter Final against Portugal, but the rain was so heavy that instead, we only made it as far as the Shanti Restaurant across the alley. We even managed to secure prime seats at a table right in front of the TV. Our dinner was also good, but like the football we endured, the TV reception was pretty ropey. Somehow we managed to stay awake this time, the litre jugs of draft Chang may have helped!
Day 358 - Sunday 2nd July 2006 - flying to Sabah
We ate breakfast at the Taewez Guest House, just along the street from our place. Ian was even able to order some Thai food this early in the morning for a change. We were soon checked out and heading down to the ferry. Once again it was pleasant to be travelling so relatively easily around Bangkok. We then re-traced our steps to Huampholang Station. Unfortunately, there was no train leaving for the airport in time for our flight. But we were directed to a bus stop immediately outside. We grabbed a few pastries for lunch and ran to catch our bus as it was just pulling out.
We were stuck in busy traffic for ages, to the point where we were wondering whether the 3 hours we had left ourselves prior to departure would be enough! Gradually we reached the faster highways, but still made slow progress as the bus stopped very regularly. After 80 minutes (not bad for 7 Baht - about US$0.20 each!) we were dropped off on the highway by the airport and we were soon checking in for our Air Asia flight to Kota Kinabalu, the state capital of Sabah (Malaysian Borneo). We had some issues with the 15kg baggage allowance. But as we carry almost no hand luggage, we were simply able to carry a few items that are usually in our backpacks by hand, so managed to avoid any excess baggage charges. We made use of the duty-free shops available air side stocking up on a few essential toiletries before boarding.
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