Intrepid in Thailand

Sunday 7th September
After a hard day at the office, Michael met me at work and we were having a snack in Terminal 1 departure lounge by 7.10, ready for our flight to Bangkok. You've gotta love having that IC!
On arrival we were pleased to see our name on a board in the arrivals area and were quickly transported to the Viengtai Hotel in Rambuttri Road where we met our Intrepid guide, Katie, before heading over the road for dinner. I was expecting to be kept awake by the competing bands playing across the road from our street-facing room, but fortunately this didn't happen!

Monday, 8th September
Monday morning saw an early start as we transferred to the main bus station by minivan for our 6 hour trip by public bus to Sukhothai. It also was time to meet our fellow travellers, a veritable United Nations. We had 1 Portugese, 3 English, 1 Irish, 2 Kenyan sisters, 1 American, 1 Vietnamese and 4 Australians, although Rani, who was born in Australia returned to Lebanon when he was one and came back to Australia as a non-English speaking 18 year old, 7 years ago. As expected we were by far the oldest members of the group and in fact the other 11 were all of an age that they could have been our offspring!
Travelling by public bus was reasonably comfortable and gave us the opportunity to chat to fellow travellers. It turned out that Gemma, an Australian Physio, lives on the Gold Coast and began her uni studies at Southern Cross in Lismore! After a brief stop for lunch it was on to Sukhothai.
The first ancient capital of Siam, Sukhothai was established in the 13th century. Located on a fertile plain, Sukhothai means the 'Dawn of Happiness' and is now famous for its World Heritage-listed historic park, which celebrates the Golden Age of Thai civilisation.
The historical ruins of Old Sukhothai are set amid beautiful lakes and gardens. The religious art and architecture of the Sukhothai era are considered to be the most classic of Thai styles and the Sukhothai Historical Park contains the remains of 21 historic sites with awe-inspiring Buddha images and four large ponds often filled with stunning lotus flowers in full bloom.

Restaurant view

On arrival we booked in to Le Charme Hotel, followed by our first Thai Massage, by the pool. We followed up with a cooling swim before dinner in the hotel restaurant overlooking the lake.

View from our room

Cooling off with Phuong and Al

Tuesday 9th September

The next morning bikes were hired for the ride around the park, except for me....my transport was different from the others!

Group, with me pretending!

My real transport

The Park contained a great variety of temples and we even saw some monks dropping in for a visit.

Elephant temple

Golden hand of Budda

After all that exercise it was time for a local picnic lunch provided by Khun Na and her daughter before returning to our hotel.

Picnic Lunch

In the afternoon Michael felt he was developing his usual post-flight cold, so he spent the afternoon sleeping while I enjoyed a relax by the pool.

Wednesday 10th September

We said goodbye to Le Charme after breakfast, where I saw this weaver bird's nest.

Our first stop was at a German-funded temple, then on to the Elephant Hospital, the first in the World apparently. There are some elephants missing feet and others are there waiting to give birth...one was 22 months pregnant and we could see the baby moving around. She did not look very comfortable.

German-funded temple

Matala lost a foot to a landmine

As we were getting close to our homestay the heavens opened and our way was blocked by a tree across the road....but not for long...

and another 200m on the road wasn't even wet.

We were met by Aoi and her family at our homestay and while the majority of our group were housed dormitory-style we managed to score our own little cabin...

Homestay

Homestay garden

Khantoke dinner

During our delicious Khantoke dinner we were entertained by a group of musicians, before some of us tried our hand at recreating the sounds.

I tried the Ranat Ek

Local students playing the Saw U and the Sueng

Michael had a go at the Sueng

After dinner we were lead in to the garden where a carpet had been laid out and we were treated to some of the local girls performing traditional dances for us. At the end of the performance we all decorated a paper lantern before releasing it skywards.

Boi performed the Sword Dance

Fingernail Dance

Traditional Dance

Candle Dance

Releasing our lantern

Thursday 11th September
After a good nights sleep it was an early start to cross the road to make an offering and receive a blessing from the monk. Our instructions were quite specific... offering must be placed in to the bowl gently, women must not touch the monk and bracelets were tied on to the right hand of the men and the left hand of the women.

Offerings

Local temple

After another tasty spread for breakfast everyone else mounted their bicycles for a road trip around the local area...I had the comfort of the front seat of the truck although with a driver who didn't speak English. This wasn't a problem as we made a number of stops meeting up with the rest of the group. First up was a government sponsored program where the women make fabric items such as bags, backpacks etc.

Michael teaches the word crocodile

This was followed by a school visit where we were each required to reach the children 1 new word and then sing our national anthems. Thank goodness there were 4 of us but the best rendition came from the Kenyan sisters, Kui and Wawi. At least we all knew more than the first 4 words (unlike some of our group). We joined with the kids to do the Hokey-Pokey and it just proved that kids the world over are the same... there were the reluctant participants and others who tried their hardest to bowl over the kids opposite them in the circle!

Kui and Wawi

From here we passed a number of workers and some pretty scenery on our way to a mushroom farm where the whole process, from collecting the spores to harvesting was explained. It takes 5 months from beginning to end and we were able to pick one bunch each which were then taken back to our homestay and included in our lunch.

Mushrooms ready for picking

Our final stop was at a rice farm where we were shown, and got to try, the de-husker and the separator. The demonstrator made it look so easy but you had to be careful not to end up
with a face full of rice husks.

Michael separating the grain!

Crushing the grain

As we approached a T- intersection on our way back to our homestay we noticed that the cyclists were all stopped in the middle of the road looking to the left. Then all, except Michael and Katie (our guide) headed off to the right. When we arrived Michael was indicating that we should stop and come towards him. There was a number of people standing on the roadside looking down in the ditch and 2 rather agitated looking westerners pacing up and down the road. They had just had a collision with a motorcycle and one of the riders was in the bushes at the bottom of the ditch. No-one seemed inclined to approach him so Katie called the ambulance and Michael went down to check on him. He was conscious but had a gash from the crown of his head to just above his eyebrow that went down to his skull. Katie had a first aid kit so we put some gauze pads on his head and wrapped a bandage around it by which time the ambulance arrived so we left them to it. Certainly showed why helmets aren't a bad idea!
After another tasty lunch we left our Homestay family to head in to Chiang Mai. The majority of the group had decided the cooking option was a great idea so we were booked in for the night ...we even convinced a reluctant Cairan, that he should come along.
After a refreshing warm shower we headed off to meet Ann at a market, where we she purchased the items we needed and Michael proved once again that he will eat anything, when he was the only one to try a 100 year old egg....which coincidentally aren't actually 100 years old!

100 year old egg...yum!

Shopping with Ann

Our new'family

Cooking up a storm

At the market

Friday 12th September

Today Katie had organised a minivan for those of us who wanted to get out to visit a couple of places. Our first stop was Queen Sirikit Botanic Gardens, which reminded us both of a very, very low-key Gardens by the Bay!

On the way back to town we stopped in at a waterfall for a bit of a walk through the jungle, where it was extremely hot as you can see by the state of our shirts. By the time we returned to our minivan Michael's shirt was completely saturated and had water/sweat dripping off it.

At the end of a sweaty walk through the jungle.

Next stop was at an orchid/butterfly place where we had lunch and a look around before returning to the hotel. We had a couple of hours before our 'farewell dinner'so we paid a visit to the massage parlour around the corner, where Michael indulged in a full body oil massage while I enjoyed (or endured) a foot/leg spa.

TV starts the Vodka Challenge

Dinner was a very nice restaurant by the 'new bridge'overlooking the river. The meals were very tasty and TV, our Vietnamese traveller, insisted that everyone try the Vietnamese Rice Vodka that he had brought with him just for this celebration.

Michael trying the Vietnamese Rice Vodka!

After dinner the young ones headed of to the lady boys cabaret while we met up with Kathy and Helen, colleagues from Singapore, for a night cap.

Saturday, 13th September

Today saw Katie hard at work again organising the minivan for us again. We had all decided to head up to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. It was first established in 1383 and is one of Northern Thailand's most sacred temples. A naga staircase of 300 steps leads to the wat at the end of a winding 12km road up the mountainside. Everyone made the 6.30am start, except Tom, who partied too hard, and who didn't venture from his room until it was time to catch our train!

When Katie had made enquiries about hiring the minivan she discovered that today was the first day of the University year and one of the Orientation activites involves the student making the trek up to Doi Suthep to make offerings to the temple gods. As Katie had studied in Chiang Mai and participated in this event herself she was well aware of the crowds involved, hence our early start.

As we made our way up the mountain we passed several thousand students, all in faculty outfits, making their way to the top. Those wearing a white version of the costume were the 'freshers'and were leading their faculties.

Looking up to Doi Suthep

Doi Suthep

Replica of the Emerald Budda

Selecting my 'fortune'stick

First group of students arriving as we left

Wave no.1

The temple was stunning but unfortunately due to the early hour it was foggy in the valley and we were not able to see the view. We were extremely grateful for the relative comfort of our vehicles as we passed all those sweaty students labouring up the 12km as we made our way back to town.
We then visited Wat Jet Yot, a temple built in the 15th Century, before meeting Helen and Kathy at their hotel for breakfast.
After breakfast we wandered over to where we thought the Saturday market was held to find that they only operate at night, so it was on to another market that Helen had been told the locals shop at. After an hour we left them to it and returned to our hotel to pack. After lunch we had time to squeeze in another visit to the massage parlour where Michael had a foot massage while I had a pedicure, before heading to the station to catch our overnight train to Bangkok.

Our crew getting their instructions

Very comfortable train, with Meredith being cheesy!

Sunday, 14th September

After a much more comfortable night than expected we arrive in Bangkok at around 7.00am and were able to leave our luggage in an available room. After a group breakfast across the road we headed off to the Grand Palace, arriving at the same time as what seemed like a million tourist buses! the Palace itself was astounding although we both found it rather ostentatious, considering the poverty visible in the surrounding areas. After an hour or so we headed back to the hotel, although we took the long way round after boarding a ferry going the wrong way...never mind!

Life imitating Art?

By this time we were rather tired and weary so it was back to the hotel for a swim and a rest. We made a booking for a Rice Barge cruise for tomorrow, before get organised to meet up with the others at the Skybar for pre dinner drinks. As it turned there is more than one Skybar in Bangkok, and we had a drink in the one we found before taking a tuktuk back to our hotel in the pouring rain...we weren't the only ones to go to the wrong skybar...at least 2 others did also!

Skybar

Monday, 15th September

This morning saw us having breakfast with Cairan, before taking a wander to try find him some alternative footwear...namely some thongs. He heads to Australia, staying in hostels and we suggested to him that thongs may be more useful than the big boots he wears constantly. Apparently Monday is the day when the streets/drains in Bangkok are cleaned...not a job for the faint-hearted...the one in the drain was up to his thighs in liquid!

I returned to the hotel for a cleansing swim while Michael went off for another foot/leg massage.
After lunch we met up with Cairan and headed off for our tour of the river. We were joined by a young American, Lauren, who is currently studying in Dublin so she and Cairan had lots to talk about. The river cruise took us past many interesting sights, including the Dawn Temple, frenzy of catfish, interesting mixture of homes and a view of the Skybar we went to last night.




Dawn Temple

Cairan and Lauren

Golden dome of the Skybar

Catfish feeding frenzy

After the river trip it was back to the hotel before a final dinner with Cairan and Lauren joined us as well. The waiter found it very hard to believe that anyone (Cairan) could possibly eat rice and prawns with no sauce/flavouring what so ever and insisted on putting the bottles on the table despite Cairan's reassurances that they weren't needed.
Tuesday, 16th September
Today saw us have a leisurely breakfast with Cairan before negotiating a fare to the airport and saying farewell to Thailand for the time being.
We knew we were back in Singapore when the person ahead of us as we got off the plane stopped in the middle of the walkway to use their phone and then had a family "cut queue"in the taxi queue!
Welcome back.