Bangkok (again)

Becky catching the bus

So this time we decided to stay in a different hostel in a different part of Bangkok, and what a difference!  We were in the newer part of town where many international and business hotels are located.  Of course, this meant that there was still a 7Eleven within spitting distance but added to this was a sky train and metro station and a giant mall called Terminal 21.  This place kept us entertained for a good few hours as we ate amazing and cheap food in their food court and took silly photos as each floor was themed.  There was a London themed floor with Royal Guards, a giant London bus, a giant tube train and post box, Brick Lane (near where I live in London) and lots more.  Becky had to leave the same day we got to Bangkok and I will be forever grateful to her for taking a whole bunch of stuff (shopping) home for me – thanks Becky!!!

London calling

So Anushca and I were left to our own devices for a few days until I flew to Singapore on the day Thai New Year started and until Anushca left after New Year to go back to India/Miami/Jamaica.  We could have filled our days going to see some ruins out-of-town or going to another beach or to another waterfall but what did we do instead?  We explored some crazy gigantic shopping centres, visited some important little temples that we’d missed before, drank more iced coffee, had a dodgy massage, ate more delicious food and then checked ourselves into a 5 star hotel for one night.

The shopping centres were crazy!  One was two buildings, each five storeys high, filled with clothes (and a food court, of course).  We also went to another that had one floor entirely filled with electronic goods, stall after stall of iPhone covers, mobile phones, computer accessories etc etc except that they all sold the same stuff.  How anyone could actually choose what they wanted to buy in these places was beyond me but it was fun looking and people watching.

 

Temples and shrines in the middle of the city

As for the dodgy massage, we only wished that Becky had been there because it would have been even funnier!  The hostel recommended a cheap place round the corner but maybe we should only have had a leg massage or Thai massage.  Of course, feeling adventurous, and not knowing when we’d be able to get cheap massages again, I opted for a Thai herbal oil massage and Anushca an oil massage.  We were shown to a small cubical (literally, some partition walls with a door) that had to thin shabby mattresses on the floor.  We were given a towel each but no instruction whether or not to undress (and how much) and what to do… and so the giggling started.  My massage was ok and I enjoyed the traditional Thai herbal compresses after the oil but Anushca said the girl doing her massage was copying everything my lady did but not so well.  So all was fine until we sat  at the end with the towels draped around our shoulders while they massaged our necks.  After this they did that famous Thais massage manoeuvre where you hook your hands behind your neck and then the lady hooks her arms in, swings you from side to side and then flings you off to one side to release your spine.  Of course when they did this the towels didn’t stay in place and all four of us ended up in a fit of giggles!  Not quite what we had in mind when we paid for a massage but you learn to expect the unexpected when you’re travelling!

We came back to find our slipper laid out, the lights turned down, the beds ready and a small note with the weather forecast

The five-star hotel called Lebua was amazing!  It’s where the famous Sky Bar is located so after spending the afternoon lapping up the luxury in our suite (they don’t have rooms, only suites) and enjoying the swimming pool, sauna and steam room, we treated ourselves to a cocktail and a wonderful view of Bangkok by night.

Finally, I had to say goodbye to Anushca too and I was back to travelling on my own.  I’d had so much fun travelling with both of them and spent so much time laughing that I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about travelling on my own again.  Only one way to find out – next stop Singapore!

Balcony view

Sky Bar

Me and Anushca at the Sky Bar

Sawadeeka!

My favourite dessert - black beans with sticky rice and sweet coconut milk - yum!

Colourful taxis in Bangkok traffic

Don't Drive Drunk Foundation

Koh Samet (Thailand)

Colourful hostel in Ban Phe

To get back to Bangkok we took another crazy tourist mini-bus from Siem Reap to Bangkok.  Getting to the border was straight forward, as was crossing the border (though for a minute we wondered whether the Thai border guard would allow Anushca back in but he hadn’t read her visa properly…).  We then had to wait around for ages at a cafe on the Thai side waiting for all the tourists to arrive before we were then packed into more mini-buses like sardines.  Fortunately, we were with a good group of people (mainly Brits for some reason) and spent most of the journey putting the world to rights and talking about our travels in South America and Asia.

Petrol station on Koh Samet island

We couldn’t leave Thailand without going to the beach so after a morning shopping for souvenirs at Chatuchak Weekend Market (the biggest and best market in the world) we took yet another mini-bus (this time for Thai people rather than just tourists) to Ban Phe so we could go to Koh Samet island in the morning.  Of course, our driver thought he was Michael Schumacher (don’t they all!)  but we made it to Ban Phe and went in search of somewhere to stay.  Everywhere we asked was full but one place sent us to the only hostel in town, which was a colourful little place with two rooms with mattresses on the floor.  We had the room to ourselves and spent the evening having a beer with yet another drunk Steve (we’d met a few drunk Steve’s already) who taught English (no way I’d let him teach anything to anyone, let alone kids) and who insulted Becky’s nail polish and clothes to the point I thought she might hit him.  She gave him a secret V-sign but it turns out that the V-sign doesn’t mean anything in America – the things you learn when you’re travelling!

Shirtless policeman

In the morning we took a colourful boat over to Koh Samet and then opted to walk to the beach rather than take a shared taxi.  On the way we passed a police station that was manned by a policeman not wearing a shirt (who we managed to photograph covertly) and I guess that really set the tone of the place.  When we got to the beach it was like a postcard – white sand, blue/green clear water and blue skies.  Paradise!

We found somewhere to stay just across the road from the beach and then quickly bagged ourselves a spot with some chairs and umbrella to save my pale white skin from the sun.  Turns out that Thai beach sun is even fiercer than I thought – despite factor 50 suncream (Boots Soltan clear spray – won’t be buying that again!), sitting under an umbrella with a thin sarong over my legs and less than 45 minutes actually swimming in the water, I still managed to get comedy sunburn on my legs, face, shoulders, neck.  Not fair!  Luckily we were only staying one day and at night it was too dark to see the damage.

Becky getting her henna tattoo done

In the spirit of encouraging Becky to try as many new things as possible, she got a small henna tattoo on her wrist.  It looked really good but unfortunately she was allergic so it went all red and itchy after a while – oops!

We had a chilled out evening walking and sitting on the beach looking at the amazing moon, despite starting the night with a pina colada bucket (and eating rubbish food served by a dodgy waiter) and finishing it with home-made cocktails of coconut rum mixed with pineapple juice and ice in a juice carton.  We’re classy girls you know!  Oh, and I had to listen to Danza Kaduro coming from the beach-side bars at least three times that night (manos arriba…)

We enjoyed a tranquil morning visit to the beach again before heading off the get the ferry and bus back to Bangkok.  Becky was leaving the same day so we had to get back to the hostel to pack our bags and see her off in time.  It was the end of an era…

Koh Samet

La playa!!!

Enjoying the good life

Bucket time!

Koh Samet by night

Home-made cocktails

Boat from Koh Samet to Ban Phe

Pai (Thailand) to Luang Prabang (Laos) by road and the slow boat

Putting our luggage on the tuk tuk to go to the boat office

Funny sign in a shop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, I thought that travelling in Bolivia by bus was a bit of an adventure but I hadn’t reckoned on the roads in northern Thailand and Laos!  Our adventure to Laos started with the 8pm mini-bus from Pai that basically took us almost back to Chiang Mai (where we’d been before Pai) via the road with a million curves up and down mountains.  Even in an AC min-van it was impossible to sleep as our driver drove Michael Schumacher style around each corner (I was sat behind him and I saw him physically lean into every bend!).  We had a couple of toilet/snack stops at some 7/11 in the middle of nowhere before finally arriving at the guest house in Chiang Khong at 3.30am (instead of 2am).  The thought of having to get up again at 7am was not appealing but we needed to do that to cross the border to Laos and catch the slow boat to Luang Prabang.

Slow boat - day 1

We’d booked the bus and boat separately, rather than booking a bus and boat package from Pai.  Turned out this didn’t actually save us any money as planned and worked out exactly the same cost, oh well.  After exiting Thai immigration we crossed the river (which I guess is the Mekong?) to Laos immigration.  We filled in a couple of forms, attached a passport photo, paid our US$35 and had our Laos visas within 15 minutes (a proper full-page sticker visa, not just a stamp).  Then there was lots of hanging around for the boat to leave.  This gave us time to buy sandwiches (for some reason they sell baguette style sandwiches everywhere in Laos – probably for tourists but also a lasting influence from French colonial times) and marvel at the snake whisky on sale – yes, bottle os whisky with a snake and some herbs inside which is supposed to make men strong (whatever??!!).

Of course the boat didn’t actually leave at 10.30 and I think we actually got on our way about 12.30 but not before the boat was overloaded with tourists and local people.  We were all supposed to have allocated seats but this turned out to be a bit of a joke as people who paid the same as us for a seat ended up in the back engine room with one small window, sat on top of their bags and whatever else.  As you might imagine, these were the people who got off the boat after two days saying it was the worst two days of their lives.  We were lucky enough to bag a car seat each (yes, they literally had pairs of car seat placed in rows down each side of the boat that were not even fixed in) and our big bags were stowed in the hull of the boat.

Village by the river

The trip down the Mekong River was pretty amazing, even with all the smog you could make out the hills and mountains as we passed by.  We also passed by lots of small villages and picked up people and their luggage (including their motorbikes) and saw people going about their daily lives in and along the river – washing, fishing, sifting stuff (still don’t know what) and zipping up and down in little motorized boats.  It was obvious that people lived a subsistence life and the villages we passed looked pretty basic in terms of housing and facilities.

 

 

 

 

So how did we pass two days on the boat?  Well it was a combination of sleeping, watching the scenery, eating snacks, drinking beer, chatting with fellow passengers, braiding each others hair (apart from mine), making hemp bracelets and hair wraps (yes, I’ve become a handicraft hippie), taking silly photos, reading, listening to music and generally watching the world go by.

Beautiful sunset - day 1

The boat stopped for the night in Pakbeng where we were enthusiastically greeted by the guest house touts.  We accepted a lift on the back of a truck to one guest house and after a quick look around, agreed to take two twin rooms for 100 baht pp/pn, after all we were only here for one night.  After a delicious Indian meal (although Rebecca was a bit taken aback by the fact her curry had banana in it) we crashed early after not getting much sleep the night before.

Everyone learnt their lesson from the first day and got to the boat much earlier than the 9am departure time to grab a decent seat.  I felt sorry for the guy who’s girlfriend had slept in because they got their late and had to sit in the engine room again for the whole day (the second day is longer with a journey time of about 9 hours).  We got the last seats at the back of the open part of the boat, next to the toilets, engine and snack bar (selling crisps and beer).  I was very glad to have my ear plugs!

We passed another day much the same as the last and with more stunning scenery.  It was made slightly more eventful though when the boat started to leak (or something) and the boat lady (she seemed to be in charge) ran up to the boat driver and we had to turn of the engine and float to the shore and wait a bit.  With the water levels so low at this time of year it was easy to see how the boat could get damaged scraping on the rocks of the river.  Becky said they fixed the problem with a rag and a couple of knives and we were soon on our way again.

Enjoying the best things in life - Beer Laos and seaweed flavoured crisps

We were very grateful to eventually get off the boat in Luang Prabang.  Again we were greeted by a bunch of guest house touts and by luck more than anything we ended up in a nice little guest house about 15 minutes walk to the night market in a nice and quiet part of town.  Obviously we were lucky with our experience because we heard so many bad stories about the boat and the people who paid the same as us and had to sit in the engine room obviously got a bad deal.  That said, it was a great adventure and a wonderful way to reach a new country where the local beer (Beer Laos) is better and cheaper than Chang beer in Thailand.

Anoushka braiding Rebecca's hair

Snake whisky

Maria (with new hair braid), Ivan (from Argentine who we met at Laos immigration) and Anoushka

Beautiful sunset - day 2

Pai

Beautiful view across the river in Pai (you can't really see the mountains because of the smog from the burning of the rice fields)

Typical Pai art

Well, what to say about Pai?  It’s a small town in the Mae Hong Son Province in northern Thailand near the Myanmar (Burma) border.  It’s about 80km north of Chiang Mai and the road has more than 700 curves on it.  The Lonely Planet calls it the Khao San Road of northern Thailand and in terms of the number of backpackers and hippies you can see how it got that name.  Pai is a super chilled out place that is like a mini-paradise (if you are a backpacker or hippie or just want to chill out for a few days).  You can rent a riverside bungalow for £3 a night, there are lots of bars and chilled out places to go at night, cheap and delicious food, and a night street market.  There are also hardly any cars so everyone zips around on mopeds or bicycles, or you can walk around the town centre because it is really small.

We spent the weekend here doing a little bit of sightseeing and chilling out before our epic bus and boat journey to Laos.  As there were four of us (me, Rebecca, Maria (from Peru) and Josephina (from Chile)) going sightseeing so it worked out cheaper to hire a taxi for half a day to visit the Chinese village, temple and waterfall that are all just outside of town.  We thought our driver was quite funny until he asked us if we liked whisky and asked Maria if she wanted to go for a walk around Pai for 10-20 minutes that night.  When he asked how old I was I said that I was an old woman and he replied ‘I know’ – thanks very much!

The Chinese village was a bit odd because it is sort of in the middle of nowhere and kind of looks like a deserted Disney land version of some Chinese style buildings.  We played on the Chinese swing, walked around the castle/temple, ate some Chinese food before heading off to the waterfall.

As it’s the end of the dry season the waterfall was lovely but you could tell the water levels were low.  There were lots of Thai kids and teenagers splashing about and sliding down the rocks into the small pools at the bottom.  I’d read that Thai people are quite modest and go swimming in their clothes, and it’s true because everyone was swimming in shorts and t-shirts.  It was so refreshing to swim in the waterfall as it was such a hot day.  Of course I managed to slip on a slippery rock on the way out and fell flat on my bum and got my clothes all wet!

The castle/temple at the Chinese village

Crazy swing at the Chinese village

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ate lots of super yummy food including new types of curry, more fruit shakes, more roti (this time banana, cheese slice and nutella – yum!) and also tried traditional Thai iced coffee.    We had to take a photograph of the ingredients because it’s super delicious despite the inclusion of margarine!

At the waterfall (me and Rebecca doing our best to look as super-white as possible next to the South American chicas)

We also did a lot of hanging out at our riverside bungalow and in the bamboo common area.  Josephina was a newly trained yoga teacher so I took my first yoga class in Spanish on the riverbank – bliss!  Our other yoga spot was on the grass under the papaya tree next to our bungalow.

The night market had a lot of hand-made products by local artists and designers, and there’s definitely a ‘Pai aesthetic’ to the products and souvenirs on sale.  We met an artist/writer called Moon Tree who made the most beautiful hand illustrated postcards and sold them on a blanket at the side of the road.

On our last day we went to a swimming pool/bar to hang out (some more) and escape the heat for a bit before taking the evening bus to the border with Laos.

Recipe for traditional Thai iced coffee

Taking silly photos...

Funny beauty salon

Me and Anoushka on the rickety bride across the river

 

 

Chiang Mai

The best fruit salad and fruit smoothies in Chiang Mai

We all stayed at Little Bird Guesthouse in Chiang Mai, which was super chilled and cheap.  The bonus was that it was right next to a little food market that had several fruit smoothie and iced coffee stalls.  There was one very sweet lady that sold the best fruit salad with muesli and yoghurt and my favourite iced coffee made with fresh coconut milk and a dash of cinnamon.  It was also opposite a laundry service so you (and everyone else and their dog) could see your clothes and undies hanging out to dry.

On our first day me and Becky headed off to do a walking trail and visit the main temples but we only got as far as the Chiang Mai Arts and Cultural Centre down the road.  The museum gave a good overview of the history of Chiang Mai but all of the interactives didn’t work and there were some dodgy mannequins in the street scene you could walk through.  Just before leaving the museum we discovered they had a free Thai painting class where you could learn how to paint flowers, birds and butterflies that are typically painted in umbrellas and fans.  Despite 3 years at art school I have to say my efforts looked like a five-year old’s but my butterfly wasn’t too bad.  Becky’s paintings were much better so maybe that’s why she’s a silversmith and I work in a museum with other people’s artistic creations!  It was super relaxing and a lot of fun though and the lovely Thai teacher had a little girl who also painted with us.  We also met an Irish girl there who invited us to a St Patrick’s Day party at the Irish bar near our hostel.

Painting class

My painting efforts

I don’t think I’ve ever celebrated St Patrick’s Day before but it seemed like a fun thing to do when you’re not in your own country and we also met some great people.  After the Irish bar we gate crashed the end of karaoke at bar Loco Elvis and me and Maria belted out a bad version of Bohemian Rhapsody with some random people before we headed back to the hostel.

The next day we managed to visit the main temples in Chiang Mai and were lucky enough to see some apprentice monks chanting and also go to a Monk Chat.  Monk Chats have been set up at some temples in Thailand (mainly Bangkok and Chiang Mai) so that foreigners can ask the monks questions about their daily routines, Buddhism etc. and the monks get to practice speaking English, so it’s meant to be something of an exchange.  The monk we spoke to was a bit too cool for school but we did find out that you can be a monk for any length of time (not sure if this is actually true – could you be a monk for a couple of days?).  Another monk also started talking to us but he was a bit mad (talking about snakes) and a bit creepy, so we decided to leave.  Only afterwards did we think of more questions, such as ‘can monks have mobile phones?’ (I saw one visiting a temple with his iPhone 4!!!).

The same temple had a garden filled with Buddhist(?) quotes fixed to trees.  Me and Rebecca got our fill of advice and took loads of photos.

Novice monks at the temple

 

Lots of advice...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went to the women’s prison (twice) for a traditional Thai massage.  For anyone that hasn’t had a Thai massage you have the massage fully clothed (in nice Thai cotton clothes) and it’s kind of a mix between lazy man’s yoga and acupressure.  It can also hurt a bit but you feel amazing after all that stretching.  When I say we went to the prison, we actually went to the prison shop across the road where they have a space for massage as part of the prisoner’s occupational training programme.  You can see Karl Pilkington’s visit to the women’s prison here and find out more about the reasons behind the programme here.

Riding elephants

Walking in the National Park

We also did two days of trekking in the Doi Inthanon National Park close to Chiang Mai with Maria (from Peru), a couple from Canada, three girls from Argentina, a couple and a guy from France, a guy from Israel and a French woman who lived in London.  Our first stop was the elephant camp where we took a ride on an elephant.  Rebecca and I had serious reservations about this beforehand and quickly knew once we got on the elephant that we were not too happy about how the elephants were treated and vowed not to do any more animal related activities on this holiday.  In the afternoon we trekked to a waterfall where we could swim and then on to our village camp for the night.  The landscape of the national park is quite hilly and the landscape very dry because we are in Thailand at the end of the dry season.  We also saw where the fields and land has been burnt, supposedly to regenerate the land for new crops.  In reality though the burning of the land creates smoke and pollution that means, at this time of year, the sky around Chiang Mai and northern Thailand is always cloudy and you can really feel the pollution in the air.

We stayed in lovely traditional wooden hut next to a hillside village for the night.  The guides organised for the children from the village to come and sing songs for us around a camp fire and in exchange we each had to sing a song from our country.  Our combined effort with the Canadian couple was pretty poor (we sang In The Jungle) but we had fun.

The second day of our trek took us back through the hills of the national park to another waterfall for swimming before we went bamboo rafting.  This was similar in style to the rafting I did in Madidi National Park in Bolivia and of course we all fell in the river at one point.  I got to have another go at navigating and even managed to steer us safely through some small rapids.  As we got to the end of the river we passed lots of riverside bamboo huts, which were full of Thai people eating and drinking around small tables.  There was even a basket pulley system in place for sending food and beer across the river.  The Thai children had a lot of fun splashing water at us as we passed by.

Wat Doi Suthep

After we got back to Chiang Mai we headed out for some drinks at the bicycle cocktail bar (where Becky sat chatting to a lady-boy without realising, much to our amusement) before going on to some other bars to dance the night away to international backpacker hits such as Danza Kuduro and Super Bass.

Of course, we also filled our days eating yummy Thai street food, drinking fruit smoothies and iced coffees and visiting the day and night markets.  After some shopping I had to post a box home, which was much less eventful that posting anything from South America because the post office was calm and organised (and run by a lady-boy).

Once we’d had our fill in Chiang Mai we decided to head to Pai, which we’d heard was a nice chill-out place and was sort of on our route further north to the border with Laos.  We took a small air-conditioned mini bus that took us up and over the super windy and hilly roads.  I don’t get travel sick and even I was feeling a bit rough by the time we got out of the bus 4 hours later in Pai.

Cute little garden at Wat Doi Suthep

Unusual silver temple with gold interior (women were not allowed in)

Me airing my once dirty but now clean laundry in public

 

Bangkok (Thailand)

First street food - green papaya salad - yummy and spicy!

After my flight was delayed leaving Sydney I ended up arriving in Bangkok in the early hours of the morning.  Fortunately, getting a taxi wasn’t any hassle (or a rip-off) and I got to the Smile Society hostel ok (what a cute name for a hostel).

Rebecca also arrived without any trouble (and with a little help from a lovely Thai person) and it was so great to see a friendly and familiar face again.  I was immediately laughing at all of Rebecca’s jokes and sarcastic comments and I could tell we were going to have a fun time in Thailand!

Coolest bag ever!

The same day we met Anoushka (from Jamaica) in the same dorm room and all headed out to the weekend market.  Going shopping on the first day of the trip probably wasn’t the smartest idea but the market was a lot of fun!  It was HUGE sold everything but mainly clothes and accessories for ridiculously cheap prices.  I dived straight into eating some street food to test my stomach of steel and had a green papaya salad and vegetable spring rolls, later washed down with a fresh coconut – yum!  For dessert we shared a typical roti, which is a pancake with egg and banana in the middle with condensed milk poured over the top – also yum!

First fresh coconut with Anoushka and Becky

After the market we found a little street bar and enjoyed some beers and good music (mainly Belle & Sebastian) and made friends with a Thai lady called Jenny and her friend Wai.  To get out of the bar we had to climb over the market gates and then we went to the Saxophone Bar to see some live blues and jazz music.  It was a pretty fun and crazy start to our trip and it was great to meet some lovely Thai people, even though Jenny told us not to trust Thai people every five minutes (s0 why we trusted her is anyone’s guess?!).

We spent the next few days in Bangkok visiting temples, the grand palace, the famous Kao San road, getting a foot massage, going to more markets and taking a cooking class.

Me and Becky spent half a day at May Kaidee Vegetarian Cooking School learning how to make various typical Thai dishes.  First we went to the market to buy ingredients, to taste some street food and to see how the rice paper rolls are made.  Our cooking teacher Ms Om was super enthusiastic and energetic so we had a lot of fun singing, dancing and taking photos while we were cooking and eating.  The food was super delicious and I realised that the right, fresh ingredients are the key because the actual cooking part was quick and easy for each dish.

Miss On our cookery teacher

Cooking Thai food with Miss On

Me and Becky also went to Monk Bowl Village to see traditional alms bowls for the temples being made.  These bowls are typically machine spun these days and only a few families in this neighbourhood in Bangkok are making them by hand.  It was a treat to see the bowls being made but the families live in relative poverty, which is why the Bangkok municipality is trying to encourage tourists to visit this area and buy the handmade bowls.  We bought a couple of bowls but not after much hilarity when I tried to explain that I needed to use a toilet to get my money to pay (my money was in my money belt under my dress, so I couldn’t get to it without lifting up my dress to waist height).  They thought I needed to go to an ATM so a lady got some keys and indicated for me to hop on the back of the scooter with her (no helmet, of course) and it was only after we drove off and I asked again about the toilet that she realised the misunderstanding.  Of course, everyone thought this was hilarious, me included, so we all had a good laugh and I got to use the toilet inside someone’s home.

We visited a various temples and the grand palace and I’ve never seen so much gold, gold leaf and gold paint in my entire life!  At Wat Pho we made a donation and wrote a message on a tile that would be later placed on the new roof of the temple.  We also saw loads of buddhas (mainly gold but also some emerald) and enjoyed the peace and quiet as we sat in the main temple spaces, which are all still active temples today.

The bar in the market

Our next stop was Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand so we decided to catch the overnight train.  We  managed to get beds in the second class sleeper carriage (no air-con but fans and windows that opened).  It might have been the pale green interior but Becky decided that the train looked like a prison train and took the bottom bunk with the window and I got the top bunk.  I’ve never taken a sleeper train before but this one was pretty cool, I thought.  Miraculously the train left 5 minutes early but this gave us false hope because we arrived the next day in Chiang Mai about 3.5 hours later than schedule.  It didn’t matter though because we passed the time enjoying the view as the train passed through lush green scenery and little towns.

You can see more photos on my Flickr page here.

Street vendors on Kao San Road

Tuk tuk driver - for once not asking 'where you want to go?'

Giant reclining buddha

Lots of beautiful gold buddhas

Grand Palace Bangkok