The Thais LOVE their king, and rightfully so. He cares for his people - using his own money to fund projects to help those in need including hilltribe refugees. There are photos of him as a young man everywhere you go (he's now 80)...
This is a bridge over the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok... I have no idea what it's called, but it looks pretty spectacular when you go under it on the ferry.
I arrived in Bangkok the day before the Intrepid tour started. I went for a wander around the streets near China Town and found a whole suburb of mechanics with bits and pieces of old cars and things...
A boat on the Chao Phraya River
A place for monks to stand on the ferry!
Melanie at the entrance to the Royal Monastry of the Emerald Buddha - Bangkok (first day of our tour)
Melanie and Ellie inside the Emerald Buddha complex
A carved creature at the Emerald Buddha monastry... Actually the 'emerald' buddha is made of jade and unbelievably small considering all the pomp he's surrounded by. I think we were all taken aback at his sheer lack of stature. One is not allowed to take photos of him...
A photo of me!
Melanie and very impressive filigree on one of the many buildings of the Emerald Buddha
Pretty flower with bee
Me and Mel, sweltering in the Bangkok heat and ready for lunch... there's only so much Emerald Buddha pomp you can cope with at one time...
Our group outside the Grand Palace, where the king doesn't live, but he visits sometimes. From left: Mary, George, Todd, Linda, Bill (behind Linda), Margaret, Me, Ellie, Mel, Mike, Leta and Linda (yes, 2 Lindas)...
Leta on the little motor boat we took through a water canal off the Chao Phraya... We stopped briefly here for diesel
Mel, Linda and Mary on the Chao Phraya
Our accomodation in Chiang Mai (Raming Lodge) - the rooms were lovely but alas, pics were on my small camera... Down the bottom is where we had breakfast
In Chiang Mai, the whole group off to our Thai cooking class
First stop was the local market to learn all about the ingredients we would be cooking with and the best way to buy them...
At the cooking school
Lesson 1, Tom Yam soup!
My tom yam with 1/5 the prescribed chilli content... it was delicious!
George trying out his Phad Thai
Mel and Margaret mixing the ingredients for their steamed banana cakes
Learning how to make Som Tam (papaya salad)
Fried mushrooms with baby corn... note the award winning garnish.
Enjoying the fruits of our labour...
A busy street in Chiang Mai
George with his new hat
Thai girl waiting at the entrance to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep Rajvoravihara, dressed up to make money from people who might want to photograph her... like me.
The entrance to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep Rajvoravihara which is a temple up a mountain out from Chiang Mai, with a spectacular view overlooking the city, all year round except for the month of April which is when the hilltribes burn off the forests, filling the air with nasty smoke so you can't breath properly, nor can you see any spectacular views such as this temple is meant to have.
Our intrepid Intrepid leader, the one and only Dream
Dream giving us the lo-down on this temple with the long name and wonderful views
Bells
Dream showing what to do with the lucky flames...
Young monk. Many boys are given to the monastries in Thailand if their parents can't afford to send them to school. If they live in the monastry they are fed well and educated. When they are old enough they can decide whether they want to keep being a monk or not...
Boy monk praying
George waiting for us to come down from the temple. He had seen it earlier in the day when he did the up hill mountain bike tour which rode past here...
We had dinner at a cultural centre in Chiang Mai complete with banquet and Thai dancing
Traditional hilltribe dress
Our accommodation at Hmong Lodge. The photos from our visit to the Hmong village were on my small camera (sob)...
The pool, overlooking some rice fields
Leta taking advantage of all the facilities...
Elephants taking a bath at the Conservation Park - each one has it's own handler
They are a lot smaller than African elephants and much more docile and easy to train apparently
Take that!
They did very clever things like beating on this drum...
And painting!
You might wonder if they are happy being on show like this... not sure, but they do seem to be loved and well cared for. They have a siesta in the heat of the day which I thought sounded very decent...
Time for pats! They are very rough and leathery...
An elephant ride through the bush...
Mary and Linda
Me and Ellie
Baby elephant up close and personal
So cute... and fuzzy and a wiry hair sort of way
One night as a princess... This is a luxury hotel in Sukhothai which has just opened. Because it's so new and in order to secure business they have made a contract with Intrepid so they get the rooms for very discounted rates, which is why we could stay there. I took all the outside pics with my small camera (waaaa)
Everything was so clean and smelled beautiful. When I came back after dinner there were 2 sets of slippers at the end of the bed. For a second I thought I'd walked into the wrong room. Then I saw the bed was turned down with a little orchid and note saying 'sweet dreams'. Shame it was only for one night!
Hellfire pass, one section of the 'death railway' built by the POWs under the command of the Japanese during the war.
All this rock was dug out by hand and small explosives. Many many men died in the appalling conditions.
A bit of info
Leta listening to stories on the headset provided by the museum
Old diesel train using some of the 'death railway' track - we took this train for an hour and got off at the River Kwai Bridge
Mary and Linda on the train
Me and Dream
Rail carriage homes...
Small boy living in a rail carriage along the track
Looking out the window, further to the right is the River Kwai
The Bridge over the River Kwai (and completely sweltering heat)...
You can tell me and Mel are from Hong Kong, we carry umbrellas with us everywhere we go. It's a very Chinese thing to do. Everyone else had umbrella envy though so... what can I say? This train doesn't come very often, so you can walk over the bridge. When it does come, it crawls along at snail pace so you have time to get to one of the standing bays all along it. It was slightly nerve wracking when the train actually arrived, but strangely thrilling at the same time.
The train crawling along the bridge..
Bicycle tuk tuk! This was a lot of fun, especially since my driver had a radio with speakers blaring with music... it attracted a lot of attention and made him go very fast. We were the first to arrive anywhere... we visited the JEATH museum which chronicles the appalling conditions of the POWs working on the death railway
Leta smiling at me as I zoomed past with my loud Madonna music blaring...
Leta making strange hand signs on tuk tuk
George showing the tuk tuk man how he does it. The man was a little scared I think, he kept low in the back...
The memorial park for POWs. This young guy was only 18!
Back in Bangkok - a cruise down the river for the last night of our tour...
This bridge is even more spectacular at night
I have a Dream! It was after the cruise that Dream and I spent the next few hours working out where I needed to go to report my camera and then getting there and back. Quite a treck to the other side of Bangkok, to the Tourist Police Station which is the only place tourists can go to report losses of things... I was very grateful to have Dream come along with me. The next day, I headed north on my own to visit a Crossroads consignee. To be continued...
