The plane has landed

Day one:We went straight to BED and woke up at about 6 and couldn't get back to sleep. Our cooked breakfast was yummy and then we set off on foot into the big smoke- intrepid journey here we come!!! We passed the hagglers, 'SIr, Madam, you want ride?' We insisted on walking, you know get to know your surroundings experience the culture... well after 3 minutes I had had enough of this culture!! What an insult to my senses, but I trudged determined to be risky. 30 minutes later after tin sheds, ratty stray dogs, filth and pungent stench (I was actually dry reaching) I felt really queasy and pale and YUCK!!! I looked at Rob and he said 'It's o.k. hunny we can go back.' So we went back very silently. Rob was really understanding and thought I was silly for putting myself through it but at the same time Mums name came up!!! Looks like Rob will be doing third world risky, intrepid stuff by himself!!!

We went on a four hour temple tour that afternoon and pretty much turned into puddles, as you apparently had to wear trousers and shoes!! It was extremely hot and was only suppose to be an hour and a half but the guide LOVED sharing her culture so much we were treated to it ALL! The temples were pretty amazing. The first stop was the solid gold buddha. They found him in the hills still in his cast/mould and then when they took the mould off discovered he was solid gold! Fancy that! So he is about 5 tonnes and really big. We then went to the main temple to see the gold plated reclining buddha and he is really big like 60 metres long, his feet are very impressive as they are inlaid with mother of pearl in really intricate designs. we also got to see alot of traditonal architecture and Rama the 4th's temple, you know the King from The King and I? After that temple we went to see the walking iron buddha.. very rare, apparently.

Day two; We discovered SHOPPING, this really beautiful shopping mall, like the largest lifestyle mall in Asia or something , brand new!!! It was air conditioned and had rally funny sculptures and yummy food. So we hung out, my kind of intrepid journey sore feet from cold marble flooring. We went back to the hotel for our tour which was of the ancient cities. It turned out we were the only ones so we were V.I.P's. The ancient city tour is about an hour out of Bangkok and is a privately owned open air museum. Pretty much this rich Thai dude had recreated a small Thailand and rebuilt the capitals that were destroyed and Bangkok before it was westernised. The buildings are absolutely amazing! Some are curved to look like boats on land, there are sculptures carved into trees as part of them. The flooring is all original teak that is about 1m wide! They were very impressive full scale palaces and temples. There was also an ancient village with a floating village with people still living on them ( shop keepers, and care takers). Very cool tour, still hot, but manageable.