Bangkok - Sukhothai

We said goodbye to mum in bangkok airport on the 27th Feb. We took a taxi to the Siam Square area of the city and took a box room with a bed in it and not a lot else! Bit of a shock to the system after the lovely hotel we'd been staying in. It only cost 4GBP a night and included breakfast. We dumped our bags and went out to get food. We ended up in a big shopping centre and got sidetracked shopping!

The next morning we were up early and set off to find Wat Phra Keo, the holiest Buddhist temple in Thailand. We took the sky train then river boat. The temple is in the grounds of the Grand Palace, a huge site. We saw lots of amazing structures and glittering spires. Wat Phra Keo was the most spectacular sight of all. The Emerald Buddha is carved from a block of green jade and sits on top of a nine metre high column. Next we went to a shopping centre called MBK to buy a few clothes and had tea in the cheap cafe insude the supermarket there. Then we caught the sky train to Lumphini Park to find the Suan Lum night bazaar. We wondered into the park and came across a very unexpected sight of the biggest aerobics class i've ever seen! Hundreds of Thai people following a guy on a stage to music doing aerobics, a strange sight to see! We found the night bazaar and spent hours getting lost in row after row of stalls. I also had a foot massage and we had a beer in the huge eating area which had live music on a stage. The next day we went to Wat Pho which covers an area of 20 acres with all sorts of buildings including the oldest temple in Bangkok. It also has a chapel with the reclining buddha, i wasn't expecting it to be so big, it is huge! It looks like gold but isn't and is layed on it's side. It's 45 metres long. Next we went to Jim Thompson's House. Jim Thompson was an American who came to live in Bangkok and devoted himself to reviving the Thai silk industry. He built a lovely house in Bangkok which you can have a tour of and see some of the great things he collected over the years. He only lived there for 8 years before he disappeared in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia in 1967. It was very interesting.

Yesterday we spent 8 hours on a coach to Sukhothai, the ancient city. When we arrived we were approached by a tuk tuk driver and as there were no taxis around, agreed to travel in it. It wasn't as scary as i though it would be. In Bangkok there was no way i was going to go in a tuk tuk, it looked so unsafe and the traffic was too bad. Here the roads are quiet and as it's top speed was about 30mph it was fine! This one was different from the kind they had in Bangkok. Here it's a motorbike with a frame on the front with a few seats. In Bangkok it was a cart on the back of the motorbike. We found a lovely guest house. We have a very cute bungalow for 2GBP each a night. the main guy who works at the guest house called Surat speaks very good English and is a real character. Last night we stayed up drinking beer with him, a couple from England and an Australian guy. Today we decided to have a lazy day, mainly as i can't cope in this heat with a hangover! We have been playing old fashioned board games with Surat and lazing about. Tonight he is taking us to a bbq that only locals go to so should be good. Tomorrow we are going to look at the ruins of the ancient capital.