After a day relaxing at the hotel, our second day was spent aboard a boat on a day trip to the Phi Phi Islands. I was pretty excited to walk in Leonardo Di Caprio's footsteps (and in a kind of geeky way Tilda Swinton's!) on the islands that featured in the film 'The Beach'! We stopped at a number of beaches with about 30 minutes on each, seeing the one from which the characters began their swim to the island and the straight of water where Leo's character freaked out about a potential shark attack. Our last stop before our buffet lunch was 'The Beach' beach itself Maya Bay. An absolutely beautiful corner of the world only slightly marred by the fact that we were on of about 20 tour trips and thus 4 of about 400 people enjoying the bay. Not that I expected anything less from what is now a major tourist attraction for the country and remains a beautiful group of islands. We also enjoyed several snorkelling opportunities in the crystal clear waters of the Phi Phis. All in all it was an amazing experience and one of the major ticks of my trip checked!
Our last day in Krabi was spent by the pool until we got our connection to Hua Hin in the evening. After something like 8 hours we arrived into the city at about 2am and it must have been another hour before we got to our hotel - a resort a little out if town - that our taxi driver had never heard of! After a few phone calls to the owner he very kindly came to the top of the main road and took us the rest of the way. The next day we spent by the pool and playing mini golf before a meal at the hotel and a film which I missed completely - falling asleep about 2 minutes in! I think the early start for Phi Phi and late night to Hua Hin caught up on this old codger! The next day we hired mopeds to explore the city where the king lives, and although we were unable to see the main, Klongkanwon palace we did get to see the beautiful Marukhathaiyawan 'summer' palace - where my shorts were too short for the second time in Asia and I was dressed like a Thai to explore the palace and its grounds - as well as the apparently famous railway station which was inspired by a European style, a little piece of 'The Railway Children' in Thailand (although it was never actually colonised). After a failed attempt to get the night coach to Chiang Mai we stayed and extra night on Hua Hin and took a look around the Night Market that evening - enjoying some very cheap Pad Thai (cliche but my absolute favourite dish in Thailand and all the better when served at the side of the road I feel!) as well as pork kebabs and banana pancakes with chocolate sauce - in a nod to the fact it was Easter Sunday!
The next morning we headed into town to get our coach to Chiang Mai. It was an absolute revelation - after some less than comfortable rides we had experienced thus far in Thailand, a coach that included loads of snacks, complimentary (albeit soft) drinks and a canteen meal eased our passage to Thailand's northern capital quite nicely! We arrived in the evening and so had a quick tea and headed for bed ready for a day in the city. It seemed like Chiang Mai was the Thai headquarters for Liverpool FC supporters club as the badge and Liver Bird were plastered on every second car we passed - a fact my mother and a few friends at home will no doubt be happy with (not least as Man U seems to dominate otherwise in Thailand!). After a lie in we headed to the Tha Pae Gate - where the greater part of the city walls 'survive', despite the fact that they are merely reconstructions, but good to see all the same. Then we visited the many temples that fill the 'intramural' city, including the huge Wat Chedi Luang and the ancient (purportedly older than the city itself) Wat Chiang Man. They were all very beautiful and at one of the smaller ones we were told a lot about the city by a helpful Thai lady who recommended some others to visit and informed us that our elephant tour we had booked for the following day was reasonably priced! That evening we went to the Night Bazaar for food and the girls bought a few souvenirs.
The next morning was an early start for our elephant tour. Exactly how I felt about it ethically I'm not sure. During the show the animals did many things such a moving logs etc that seemed close to natural behaviours and others such as football penalties and slam-dunks which were definitely not but on the whole they seemed to enjoy the attention - as far as I could gage emotions from elephants. We enjoyed a ride on the elephant and I got up on one of the larger ones as the mahut had him stand on his hind legs - which I can't say I enjoyed too much but tipped him anyway (everyone is on the make in Thailand haha!) for his efforts! After a really good buffet lunch we went to an orchid farm, where it unfortunately started to rain but we got the jist and then were taken back to our hotel.
Our last day in Chiang Mai saw Ben and I hire another scooter to head up to Wat Doi Suthep. It was lauded as a great climb involving 300 steps but to be honest I barely noticed and refused to believe that it was actually 300 until I counted them on the way down! Disappointment at the stairs aside the temple was beautiful and had good views of the city - even though it was a bit cloudy! After a failed attempt to get to the museum and the cinema we headed back to the hotel and then had dinner before our coach to Bangkok that evening. I a beautiful Thai Phanang curry - the food generally in Thailand had been amazing and pretty cheap at around £2 a day! We were surprised again by the quality of our coach to BKK. Having only paying 500 Baht we expected very little but there was as much leg room as the last one (and more than our flights so far) and including some cake snacks and another midnight canteen meal!
Arriving in Bangkok at about 7am we made our way to the hotel - which was no mean feat as the taxi drivers hadn't heard of it again and I had to show our driver its location on the map Alice had brought with her! That afternoon being the day of the Royal Wedding we headed out to Mulligan's Irish Bar (rather ironically) to enjoy the nuptial extravaganza amongst our fellow Brits and over a couple of beers! We agreed the dress was beautiful and all felt a few pangs for good old Blighty! After eating on Khosan Road - the main backpacker destination in the city - we headed back ready for a day exploring the city.
We got up earlyish and took the boat up the river in two groups. After visiting Wat Po - where the massive golden reclining Buddha is housed (depicting the prophet at the moment of his death and Enlightenment, which towered over the visitors - despite having heard about it I wasn't quite prepared for it's magnitude or indeed the beauty and intricate design on the mother of pearl feet) and the Royal Palace, Ben and I asked a local for directions who promptly designed a tour for us and flagged down a Tuk-Tuk (another big check on the travelling experience list!) and insisted it would only cost 40 Baht for the full trip. Whether it was all a set up I'm not sure as it did genuinely seem like he'd just called on a random driver. As it transpired after taking us to a couple of temples to see a standing and a sitting Buddha our driver asked us to help him out by taking us to first a suit shop, then a souvenir shop and then a jewellery shop - saying we only had to spend 10, 1 and 5 minutes at each respectively - in an effort to get some coupons for him. We didn't do too well - myself leaving Ben to bullshit the suit makers as I had no idea what to say at one point, but I got what I thought was one at the jewellery store after I hadn't realised Ben had already left and the man escorted me into the 'gift shop'! We were called upon one last time to help our driver out after visiting the Giant Swing and the democracy monument before he would take us to out last destination the national museum. As it turned out he got a phone call on the way and dropped us off at the museum speeding away to something at home and not waiting for any payment. It was all pretty weird but we got a free day's transport around the city so it was all good! After a street-food dinner we hit the hay pretty exhausted!
The next morning the girls and I got up early to see the weekend Market just outside Chatuchack Park on the recommendation of Alice's guide book. It was nice to be there early to miss the most of the crowds and the heat of the day (something we may have to get used to doing in India our next destination given its 40• days!). The girls got yet more souvenirs (they have bottomless pockets!) and I got a new shirt. The stalls were all really cool and sort of a Thai version of vintage stores in Manchester's Northern Quarter or Sheffield's Forum and on and around Division Street. We also enjoyed a breakfast there and I got a Thai style ice coffee made with condensed milk to which I've in the last two days become addicted to! After a chilled afternoon spent in the Benjakiti Park and the hotel we headed out to Phat Pong Road for an infamous 'ping pong show'.
It was quite the experience, and I have never been so uncomfortable in my life, in a sleazy bar watching ping pong balls be 'projected' at us! :-S To be honest I started to feel really guilty - worried that I was funding near- sex-slavery especially as we had been told the show was free and the beers only 100 baht each. In hindsight we shouldn't have been so naive as after the show we were accosted by 'Madame' and her 'heavies' (other female pimps) for an amount of money we didn't have. We gave them all we had to placate them and got the hell out of there! Alice and I were terrified and handed over the meagre sums we had straight away - though Ben and Chatlotte negotiated a little! In the end we paid the equivalent of about 500 Baht each which - according to Ben who had made some prior enquirers haha - was about average! The experience actually shook me up a little - which is probably as much as I deserved for being such a foolish and in this case potentially morally suspect tourist - never again, definitely not my scene haha! ;)
Thailand has been a whole lot of fun - despite the fact that it was more inconvenient to travel around than Malaysia it has been such a beautiful country and provided such great food (I feel I'm eating my way round Asia)! Even Bangkok was a beautiful city - although there are such extremes of wealth and poverty within it I was expecting it to be a lot more seedy and sketchy than it was - our final night excluded obviously! Hopefully it will have prepared us for India a little where at least we have more time to move around!
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