A wise English writer once wrote “Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter”.
Thanks for joining us, We hope you enjoy reading about our travels.
Love Linny, Aidan & Olly x
So our first two weeks of our six month trip are almost up…… wow have we been busy!
We landed in Bangkok just before 10am after a long 12 hours from London Heathrow. All feeling slightly jaded, we found a local bus (180 baht or £3.50 for the 3 of us to get us to our Khao San road hotel about an hour away.
We retreat to the rooftop pool whilst the confusion about Oliver’s bed is sorted out and have a couple of hours catching up on sleep, taking a cooling dip and our first lunch. We wander around the neighbour hood which has changed dramatically since last visits many years ago, it’s busy, loud, & smells of food everywhere we look.The weather is hot, humid and slightly overcast but with so much to see we don’t really care!
The following day we visit Wat Pho after unbelievably sleeping til 2pm. Taking our first Tuk-Tuk ride is exciting, whizzing between cars and buses. A calm meander around the huge site & various temples and of course the main attraction the Golden Reclining Buddha, at 46 meter long and 15 metre tall with mother of pearl encrusted feet it is certainly impressive.
Olly paid 20B for a bowl of small coins to drop into each of the 108 bronze monk bowls along side the Buddha which we were assured will bring us luck.
We were lucky enough to visit during the ten day celebration of Wat Pho’s 230 years so the closing time was delayed until 10pm ( good for late sleepers!) and side shows & stalls were set up around the temples. We sat enjoying the puppet, dance and music shows whilst eating the most heavenly food.
Bangkok has to be seen from the river, so the next day we take one of the ferry boats to Chang pier and join the thousands of other visitors, buy an oversized pair of elephant print trousers for Aidan, pay our 500 baht each and visit THE Grand Palace. It certainly is Grand and we ducked in and out of the covered walkways admiring the murals painted during the reign of Rama 1 in the 18th century whilst dodging a bit of rain. One of the important structures is the Emerald Buddha in the ordination hall. After seeing the Reclining Buddha yesterday, the Emerald Buddha did appear quite small at 66cm tall and is actually made as we discovered from a type of jade called nephrite……. so there you go!
Now some amongst us love shopping! So we Tuk-Tuked across Bangkok to Siam square and as the rain had now set in spent the rest of the afternoon in the cold air conditioned vast shopping centres – Siam discovery, MBK and Siam Square. Olly had is eye set on a pair of trainers like his best buddy’s before leaving England and we managed to track them down here, one happy boy!
Day three and Aidan’s birthday takes us out of Bangkok and off to Mae Klong via a one and a half hour & 60 baht mini bus journey from the southern bus terminal.
The reason for our visit to Mae Klong is to see the renowned train market which is set up literally on the tracks, when the 8 scheduled trains signal their arrival, the vendors swiftly pull up their umbrella like awnings, clear their merchandise and wait as the three carriage train passes through the 100 metres to the station – truly unbelievable sight! We enjoyed our viewing from the steps of one of the many dried mango fruit sellers obviously tasting as we watched!
Backpack to Basics 