Dear All,
Thailand. ahhhhhhh......ahhhhhhhh. It was lovely. I knew we got holiday days, but I didn't really believe it until we got there. My first thought was that 5 days of holiday are not really that many, but when I actually thought about it's not that bad especially since all contract workers and part time staff get no holidays at all. The only way out is up, unless of course you're like my brother who has scored a great job (*pinching his cheeks *) - Way To Go Bruce!!! (*cheering squad in the background*) - sorry this mushiness must be done online because I would be dead if I tried it in person (I may still be worried if in Canada but being in Korea gives me a bit of a head start)
So, I digress. Bangkok itself was not my favorite place to visit but there are palaces and cute little shops with shiny objects. It's funny because I KNEW that I didn't need shiny objects and I would keep telling myself that as I walked down the street and yet I would end up at these stores with Ryan politely standing there not understanding the mystery of not NEEDING trinkets and yet completely engrossed with looking at said objects. Maybe it's just me?
Our favorite mode of transportation were the tuktuks by far. There's just something exciting about driving on highways on 4 wheelers (well three wheeler's actually). I think it's the "inches from instant death" feel that adds to the thrill.
While in Bankok we also had the pleasure of visiting some temples.
Next on the list was the fabulous Kanchanaburi - loved it - bathing elephants in the river?!!! It just doesn't get better than that I don't think. I've never really appreciated elephants to the extent that I do now. I don't really know how to explain why it was such an awesome experience - you're just going to have to try it some day I think.
Here are various pictures from that day:
This is a 1-year-old elephant that was wandering around. We weren't able to get too close because it wasn't trained yet and it would try to charge and bowl us over like a full-grown professional football player. Ergo, it could be argued that professional football players are exactly like baby elephants.
This is a 72-year-old elephant. It's a bunch bigger.
In Thailand, it is important to know that every time you get into a vehicle you will not be taken where you want to go immediately. We were ready for this, having talked to experienced Thailand travelers before departing, but did not understand the extent. It takes about an hour for the transportation to actually leave and realistically an hour isn't bad. On top of that, however, you will never be taken exactly where you want to go... initially. You are always taken to a friend's hotel or restaurant. And so on our trip down to the lovely city our bus stopped at a BEAUTIFUL guest house with breathtaking (in my mind) rafthouses on the river (for $4 a night).
We had already booked another hotel for that night so we reserved this area for the following evening. The inn that we stayed at that night after a bit of a coffuffle with not being able to find our tour office (that turned out to be a blessing as the exact same tour was in another location at 1/4th of the price) also had raft houses but was not quite as pretty. Ryan was not as much of a fan of the raft houses as they had no airconditioner but I loved it.
The next night we headed back to the first location that we saw the raft houses and went to our room. We were just hanging out reading when I saw it. A bug. A HUGE bug. At this point I would like to describe how I selflessly saved Ryan fron the enormous cockroach one handed and armed only with a paperback ... but my 'would like to describe' and 'what actually happened' did not cross paths. In fact, although the thought "I should do something" did cross my mind, my next immediate thought was "but if I move it might eat me". After Ryan had finished with the beast we began inspecting the cabin for other bugs and discovered 6 very large spiders. We decided that the $4 for the room was not actually a charge for the sleeping itself. I bet it takes time to cultivate cabins for the bug-killing connoisseurs.
Tune in for the last of this exciting trilogy... sometime.