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Jan 2/07
My tour group met the evening of the 2nd. We were 14, 12 Aussies, and 2 Canadians. Our tour leader was named Sin. We had a brief orientation, then got to go for supper and get to know each other. It was an early night because we had to catch the train early the next morning.
The First Hotel, Bangkok (yes, that's the real name of the hotel) was a fancy place, but they had bed bugs and I woke up the next morning to find my legs covered in bites and very itchy.
Jan 3/07
The train left at 8:30 (Thai-time), so we were leaving at 7:15. In the parking lot, the drivers were pushing the vans around, by hand, and we wondered if this was to be a sign of what was to come. But they got us loaded up and off to the station. The train was supposed to be 4 hours, so we were lucky that we arrived only 1/2 hour late. We transfered to a chicken bus for the remaining few hours to Sukhothai. A chicken bus is crowded, no aircon and bumpy, but fun.
In Sukhothai, we took a songthaow (pickup with a cover and benches in the back, open to the wind) to the guest house. It was a beautiful place with a wonderful garden around it. We had a few hours to relax, then went for a walk in the night market. It was really cool to see the variety of fruits and veggies that they grow here.
Dinner was at the guest house, where we discovered the delights of ordering in thai. George and I ordered exactly the same thing, and got two entirly different (both very good) meals.
After dinner conversation was question the Canadian. As most of the group was Aussie, they were very interested in Canada, though had a hard time believing that we really had -40 and moose that swim.
Jan 4/07
Today, we went to the Old City, the original, 800+ year old capital of Thailand. We had a choice of riding bikes, or in a tuk-tuk. Most of us chose to ride, which was lots of fun, and very easy. The temples, and palace were very cool. To chose a temple site, the ashes of Buddah were put on the head of an elephant and the animal was left to wander. Wherever it stopped, that was the temple-site.
Lunch was another surprise...fishcakes. They taseted like spicy rubber. Blech. I need to stop expecting food to taste the same as Canada. But a pleasant surprise was the fruitshakes. Fresh fruit (pineapple, oranges, watermelon, mango, coconut) with ice. It's great.
This afternoon we went to a pottery factory to see the local craftspeople. The artwork was amazing, and we even got to try. My pot was lopsided, but good enough to get a thumbs-up from the potter. But the potter was so quick, and made fantastic pots. They were so cheap, too. Only 50B for a pot big enough for a tree. (That's about 1.50$)
The evening was for swimming to cool down, and chatting after dinner.
previous travel blog entry
Ziggy says:
Hi, Bernadette. It was great to see more updates on your blog. I liked the pot you were making more than the bedbug bites. I'm so glad you're having such a wonderful time and seeing so many new things. Looking forward to more pictures. Love Mom