Have I Mentioned I Went to Thailand.... AGAIN!

Some of you gentle readers teased me a bit about my constant jabbering about my perfect trip to Thailand and Burma in 2005....well, I'M BACK!!!



I have to admit.... after a comfy 4 months at home on the couch with Atty, I was a bit hesitant about this trip.....the half life on my travel confidence is about 1 month - meaning all that confidence I got in Europe has been eroding. I sat on the couch smooching Atty madly at 7:30 as the SuperShuttle guy was waiting outside. I am thinking " I wish I knew how to quit you"(in an ode to Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain, who had just died) and Atty is thinking "They've come to kill us all - and that guy already stole your suitcase. I'll be right behind you".



But - all was good as I glided west and reread Lonely Planet's Southeast Asia. In fact, one day in Cambodia when Aileen was expressing some lingering concern about the safety of riding in a tuk-tuk with the crazy moto traffic- I realized I was perfectly relaxed.....

First stop Bangkok - landed at midnight after 21 hours in flight. I went to the guest house that I had reserved.... to have the receptionist tell me at 1:30am,"oh Nancy, my friend gave away your room. " I ended up convincing them to put me in a triple room for the cost of a single since I had 6 nights booked later in the week - night bargaining power.

I went to Ayatthaya first - before Aileen and her son John, and his galpal Preiya arrived. Ayatthaya was the royal capital of Thailand for centuries until the Burmese eventually ran it over around 1800 (maybe???). Getting there was half the fun.... I took a cab to the Train station (60 Baht), paid 15 baht for a ticket 3rd class for a 90 minute ride, paid an astounding 4 baht to have a ferry take me across the river.... and walked a block to a great guest house on the river. 79 baht..... that is about 3 bucks! I LOVE Southeast Asia - its so cheap compared to Europe last year.

I met some lovely ladies the first night - Karin and Jen - they were in their third month of a 3 month trip to NZ, Australia and Thailand. They liked George very much.

Here is a shot of the ferry that I took for 4 baht (about 10 cents) - I am sitting on the porch of my guesthouse. My room was on the river and I heard this boat start running around 6am. Note the three boys "skitching" off the back of the boat.

Lovely, isn't she? I mean the Buddha, of course, though technically he is a guy. This famous image is at one of the temples. I rented a bike for the day and biked to 5 temples - a nicer way to explore than a cab or tuk-tuk. Was bloody hot, as you can tell by my "glow". There were guards watching to make sure you kept your head down low in respect to the Buddha so it was a challenge to slide in without showing George - I didn't want them to think I was being disrespectful. Note what George is looking at with a grin!

Many of the buddhas were headless - the Burmese stole many of the heads... as well as subsequent looters.

A BIG reclining buddha - this represents the moment when Buddha reaches Nirvana. This bad boy was 35 meters long and dressed to kill. Note the person in black at the face area - gives you perspective. His head was reasting on a big lotus flower.

Aileen and team arrived after a few days. I met her in Peru on the Inca trail and we have kept in touch since. Her son John was going to backpack SEA so she wanted to join me and hook into his trip. Our first night in Bangkok we went to a restaurant named Condoms and Cabbages - its a non-profit that raised money for Aids awareness. Thus begun our ongong "eating and shopping for charity". Here we are with Captain Condom... a superhero. George is jealous. Oh, the whole restaurant was decorated with condoms and birthcontrol pills - very festive.

We were having a drink on the street when this girl tried to con John out of some baht with thumb-wrestling - it was a non-starter but she was pretty tenacious. Problem in Thailand - people are out to get your dollar at the more touristy spots. Its irritating - just gotta walk on.

AHHHHH a Thai massage. For those that haven't had one, its a very physical massage where these little 90 pound ladies use their bodies and twist you in all different ways. Its like one on one wrestling - and they always win. Here is Preiya in the foreground and Aileen in the back, just before the ladies climbed on our backs! Lots of bone cracking but it feels great afterwards.

Spent the afternoon at the royal palace and grand temple complex - here we spotted our first monk/umbrella combo admiring the three wat (temple) roofs). The next wat was Wat Arun - its a simpler complex covered with ceramics - most from Chinese sailors a hundred years ago.
These kids sat in front of me on the train from Ayatthaya - very cute. The little boy would not look at me - very shy.

Back to Ayatthaya - here is sunset at one of the more impressive temple ruins. There are two buddhas sitting on the left in golden robes - see 'em?

Same temple complex from the other side - there was a wedding reception being set up in front of it - nice digs! I took a boat tour to visit 3 temples at sunset which made for a unique experience - got to approach the temples from the water. Also got to see some of the stilt houses lining the canals around the city (three rivers converge here). And spotted a lizard that was at least 3 feet long in the canal - still haven't figured out what that was!

This shot cracks me up. At one of the temples, people were paying to buy a golden robe nicely folded up on a tray. I think the point was to "buy" Buddha a robe as a donation to the temple. After they prayed over the robe, this guy on the bottom would take your tray and whip it over his shoulder, without looking, so that the robe was flung to the guys catching on the second level - they would then drape the huge buddha statue. You can see one of the yellow-orange robes in flight.

A view from Way Arun in Bangkok on the main river - you can see boats on the river - TONS OF THEM - and the royal temple/palace complex across the river. It was less than a month since the death of the sister of the king - very revered - so there were lots of Thais in black mourning clothes visiting the temples.

We stayed just off the backpacker area (Khao San road) - STAY AWAY ITS NASTY - but our hood was nice. We had dinner at a street cafe for about $2 each for drink and noodles.

One day we took a bus (public!) to a floating market 100 KM out of town... it was about 10 % locals shopping, 40% tourists and 50% people selling to the tourists. As your boat came down the canals, ladies manning the stalls would grab your boat! We also had to negotiate the price - started at 700 baht and we ended up paying 300 baht - kinda fun to negotiate but also reminds you how often they start high and people just pay it not knowing the price for non-tourists. This lady below was cooking in her boat.

More shots from the market.

We spent a few days as a foursome - then John and Preiya headed south. John will join Aileen and I in Vietnam in a week or so. I was ready to go - like Bangkok for a few days but its big and noisy - and I am soooo tired of seeing older white men with young Thai women...yuck! On to Cambodia next!