Giles and Susie's World Tour 2004/5

Bangkok - Same, same, but different Dec 3, 2004

(Updated by: Giles) Leaving Krabi, we boarded a 'VIP' coach to Surit Thani where we then changed to a minivan driven by someone who had learnt to drive on various computer racing games (unable to say exactly how fast he went as the speedo was broken, naturally). The trains are very efficient and all the staff are dressed up like senior military officials, the ticket inspectors especially appear to be 5* Generals ! Bangkok itself is the melee you might expect. Our place of retreat was the New Siam II Guest House - niiice. (Reasonably new and all rooms done to a high standard.) On the nearby Khao San Road, the street shopping mecca, you really can by almost anything (except for original/non-fake label goods !) On our second day, to fulfill our cultural requirements, we visited the Reclining Buddha in the Wat Pho temple, at 46m long and 15m high, it's huge (feet even bigger than Ian Thorpe !). Followed by the Royal Palace, which has the most stunningly perfectly kept temples all covered in acres of gold. After all this culture, we ended the day with a visit to the cinema to see 'The Incredibles' (fantastic) and got to experience the tradition of the royal national anthem being played at the beginning with a montage of pictures of the King requiring all to stand. This is actually taken very seriously as the Thai people all have a very high respect for their King and Royal family, who are certainly not subject to the same media story-digging seen in the UK. Got to bed later than planned (as usual) so suitably knackered for next days coach journey to Cambodia .... ooooh, and wasn't that to be an experience !

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