Thailand Trip
We just got back from our trip to Thailand. Fantastic trip. Here are the highlights and recommendations.
We arrived in Bangkok on January 17th around 8ish? We stayed at the New Joe's Guesthouse on Khao San rd. for 2 or 3 nights. It was a bit pricey for what it was but it did have a really yummy restaurant downstairs open form 6m to 12am. Khao San Rd was crazy and everything was overpriced.
We ended up signing up for a group tour to the Floating Market, the Bridge on the River Kwai, and the Tiger Temple.
So in our second day we went to the Floating Market about 2 hours West of Bangkok. It was quite a novelty to see all the boats on the river full of fruits and foods. The smells were intoxicating and the sights were vibrant.
After the floating market we went to see the bridge on the River Kwai.
A Kanchantaburi tourist site explains it's significance "In 1943 thousands of Allied Prisoners of War (PoW) and Asian labourers worked on the Death Railway under the imperial Japanese army in order to construct part of the 415 km long Burma-Thailand railway. Most of these men were Australians, Dutch and British and they had been working steadily southwards from Thanbyuzayat (Burma) to link with other PoW on the Thai side of the railway. This railway was intended to move men and supplies to the Burmese front where the Japanese were fighting the British. Japanese army engineers selected the route which traversed deep valleys and hills. All the heavy work was done manually either by hand or by elephant as earth moving equipment was not available. The railway line originally ran within 50 meters of the Three Pagodas Pass which marks nowadays the border to Burma. However after the war the entire railway was removed and sold as it was deemed unsafe and politically undesirable. The prisoners lived in squalor with a near starvation diet. They were subjected to captor brutality and thus thousands perished. The men worked from dawn until after dark and often had to trudge many kilometres through the jungle to return to base camp where Allied doctors tended the injured and diseased by many died. After the war the dead were collectively reburied in the War Cemeteries and will remain forever witness to a brutal and tragic ordeal."
Finally we went to the Tiger Temple. At some point the monks there began taking in abandoned tigers and formed a tiger Sanctuary. There is quite a bit of controversy here as some people think the monks (a. Use the money that tourist pay to buy times for items for themselves and not the tigers and 9b. the tigers are so calm because they are doped. I don't know...when we got to the temple there seemed to be a huge wall being built to extend the territory of the animals and tigers kept at the sanctuary. Also the tourist pet the tigers in the middle of the day when they are half asleep anyhow. Also the monks have raised many of the animals form birth so they are quite used to humans. At any rate you are allowed the once in a life time opportunity to pet adult and baby tigers.
To learn more about the tiger temple and it's surrounding controversy you can go to this travel sight http://travelhappy.info/thailand/tiger-temple-thailand/
or National Geographic http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080620-tiger-temple.html
These are sites I wish I had read before I visited the temple. It was a wonderful experience and I did not see signs of misdoing personally but after reading up on it I kind a wished I hadn't gone.
Here some pics..they are still cool...Oi!
In Thailand vacation 2, we redeem ourselves at the Elephant Nature Park and hopefully even out our Karma. So stay tuned.
The next day we spent some time in Bangkok before going to the train station to take an overnight train down south. We viewed the Royal Palace from the outside
and then made out way to Wat Po the birthplace of Thai Massage. Here you can view the largest reclining Buddha. It put us both in states of awe. I highly recommend it.
We walked all around the temple grounds and viewed the beautiful and intricate buildings around the temple.
Here is an old drawing of the Sen Lines as far as I can tell.
And the cutest little happy statue I ever saw.
To the train station...
Good way to travel for sure. I had never been on an overnight train and for travel lasting 10 hours or more, it is definitely the way to go. I got off at Surat Thani and took a bus and then a ferry to Koh Samui where I hung out on beaches, drank coconut water, and got certified to practice Thai massage. I stayed in a sparkling clean, huge room at a bungalow place run by a super kind and helpful family. (I have these pics on a disposable camera so will have to wait to post them separately.
After Koh Samui I met up with Michael who had stayed in Koh Lipe way down south. We took a bus from Surat Thani to Krabi (cheap and easy) and a little red bus to Ao Nang and then a long tail boat to Railley. Railley is an isthmus surrounded by limestone cliffs only reachable by boat.
We enjoyed the back packers side of the isthmus and stayed there were food and lodging was cheaper. We ate tons of mango sticky rice and pineapple shakes.
At low tide our beach looked like this:
But at high tide it was really beautiful.
Sunset on Ton Sai
Here are the cliffs that surround the Isthmus and the long tail boat you take form Ao Nang (15 mins, 80 Baht) to Railley.
We attempted swimming several times but kept seeing so many jelly fish that it just wasn't worth it. In fact one day when we were having another go at swimming we got stings all over our legs from what someone said was baby jellies!
Unfortunately for us we got ridiculously ill with food poisoning on the 3rd day and saw nothing but the four walls of our bungalow and the toilet. We had lots of diarrhea and high fevers. Michael was awesome and assured me we wouldn't die and that it would pass. I had a high fever finally break around 10 pm and at long last slumbered.
The next day with spirits high we took an over night bus to Bangkok. Please don't ever take the over night bus unless you have to. Ugh, so cramped and miserable. But we were troopers! We got to Bangkok in time to catch a day train to Chiang Mai. So 14 hours later we were up North. Here I felt the deals were better, everything was cheaper and more delicious and the people were warmer. I had been doubting this land of smiles business for a while and was so overjoyed to see that it was true, just maybe more true up North.
To be continued in Thailand vacation Part 2!!!! (the best part really!!!)
No comments:
Post a Comment