Thailand - a huge sigh of relief! Oh, and some great food.

From the moment we touched down in Bangkok you could almost hear a huge sigh of relief from everyone - we had left India behind.  Many describe Bangkok as a manic and dirty city.  To us it was like manna from heaven.  The roads were good, the streets were clean and there was  no blaring horns at every turn.

 

We got to our hotel and after everyone had showered they were quickly out to enjoy the sights of Bangkok - more than one bucket of cocktails was consumed that night!

 

We had a lovely few days there, Jo and I went out on the river and Skytrain to the lovely air conditioned shopping malls where I bought a couple of tops from Next!

 

Others did some of the more touristy sights such as the Grand Palace and Wat Po.  I've been to Bangkok a few times and have done these on previous trips so I used the time instead to make some plans for when the Odyssey part of the trip ends.  For those of you who don't know, after I leave the Odyssey group in Singapore I'll be flying to New Zealand to stay with the lovely Lucia Bowie for a bit.  A few weeks later my friend Katie flies over from Melbourne and we will hire a car for a bit to see some of the North Island before going to Waiheke Island to meet up with our friends Angi and Peter for a few days.  I met Katie, Angi and Peter when we all did the same Intrepid trip in India a couple of years ago and we've kept in touch - proof that good things can happen in India!  Katie and I then leave NZ and spend a week on the beach in Samoa before she goes home.  I'll then go to Fiji for ten days before returning to NZ to say goodbye to Lu before heading back to Asia where I'll meet up with Becs from the Odyssey group in the Philippines.  That's where I'll fly home from just in time for Christmas - exciting times!

 

Anyway, back to Thailand.  We left Bangkok on the overnight train to Chiang Mai in the north.  I've done overnight train journeys in Thailand before and they are OK.  Unfortunately our air conditioned carriage got very hot and stuffy due to broken air con so it was less than ideal.  Plus there were numerous delays on the line which meant it took about 3 hours longer than planned - all in all we were on the train about 16 hours!

 

When we got to Chiang Mai I was exhausted as I hadn't slept on the train so it was a quick dinner and an early night for me.  However the next morning I was booked on a cooking course.  Quite a few of us went and we each made a soup, a noodle dish and a curry - it was really good fun and the food was delicious.....

 

At the market with the cooking teacher

Bugs anyone?

Packet of blood???

 Ready to get started?

Ingredients for soup

My soup :-)

Noodle ingredients

Pad Si-ew, my favourite

James and Dave setting the place on fire!

 Curry ingredients

 

Mussaman :-)

Mahala and I in team Mussaman

 

It was really good fun and very well organised.  If anyone is going to Chiang Mai and is interested in doing this it was the Siam Rice cookery school.

 

Later that night we went out for a few drinks to celebrate Kelly's birthday....

 Radioactive coloured cocktails



 
The next day was a free day and after a fairly relaxed morning I decided to head out and see some of the town's temples.  Armed with a map Jules and I headed out - we made it to one temple (see below) before I managed to slip and fall injuring my left hand and right foot.  I am a clumsy idiot.   I managed to make it back to the hotel to try and rest up and heal my wounds, although bandages were necessary :-(

Temple with the offending slippery steps

The next day it was time to head off towards the Laos border.  With no Calypso any more, we had a nice 45 seater air conditioned bus that would take us to the town of Chang Kong, a Thai border town just across the river from Laos.  Firstly though, we stopped off at a temple known as the white wat.  Now we have visited a lot of temples on this journey, however this was by far and away the weirdest.  Below I have pictures of the outside as we were not allowed to take pictures inside.  However painted on the walls inside were images of Superman, Harry Potter, a Nokia mobile phone and Elvis Presley to name but a few.  Very very weird.

White Wat.....

 Scary hands coming up to grab you

 

One red painted fingernail?

Rather elaborate public toilet!

 

From there we headed to Chang Kong.  There was not much there, it was just the closest point we could get to Laos for our border crossing across the Mekong River the next morning.  Our balcony did have a lovely view over the river to Laos as seen below....

Hello Laos!

 

Whilst we had only spent 6 nights in Thailand, it was such a welcome relief.  It is a major backpacker/tourist country so we were all able to get some home comforts that we were all missing.  It helped to raise spirits and everyone once again is enjoying the trip a lot.  This is not the last of out time in Thailand - we will be returning after visiting Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.  Can't wait!