"THAILAND" a Thailand Travel Page by aussiejen

We stayed in Bangkok at a really cheap little place (Reno Hotel) right near MBK shopping centre. Suited our needs perfectly. Close to all the major shopping places, not that we bought much but it's always interesting to wander through them. We also had a tour through the Jim Thompson silk museum.
I had read about the Monk's Bowl village in Lonely Planet so that was on our list too. It's the only place that still hand makes the bowls. Too expensive for the ordinary monks, they buy the "made in China" ones! Interesting time there. We were the only tourists there, I don't think they get too many. The old guys that attached themselves to us were just gorgeous. Shirtless, skinny, almost toothless! I even got to have a go at bashing the bowls! Easy, but the hard part was squatting down on those tiny little stools!!!
After leaving here we hailed a taxi driver who couldn't speak a word of English..hmmm...interesting. He stopped at a shop to find someone that could. He never did understand where we wanted to go to, so eventually we ended up near the Grand Palace. Wasn't where we had planned to go but it didn't really matter. It was fascinating to walk through there.

Next stop was Kanchanaburi. We caught the local bus, cost us about $3 each for a 3-4 hour trip. Bargain. A bottle of water was included in the price and we took our own lunch! Nothing wrong with the trip at all, aircon worked.

While waiting in Kanchanaburi to be collected by our hotel I managed to talk to some people walking along the street (not unusual for me!). Out of all the people in that huge city I chose the ones that came from my childhood home town in New Zealand!!

We loved Kanchanaburi, so much to do. The highlight was visiting Hellfire Pass where so many POW’s and locals lost their lives building the railway to Burma. Very thought provoking. We caught the train back to town along the Death Railway and crossed the Bridge over the River Kwai. Good fun on the train. While stopped waiting for another train to come along (single track) the local food vendors were plentiful, walking up and down the carriages. Couldn’t help but buy from them. The poor ice cream man had to keep giving us free ones as everyone we ate had a freebie on the stick!! Our guide thought it was hilarious. We paid for 2 and ended up with about 8!!
I don’t think I ate another ice cream after that 

Another highlight was going to the Tiger Temple. Of course we had our photos taken with the tiger’s head in our lap. A bit scary.

Also did a boat trip along the River Kwai and visited a cave. Our guides were 2 little children who couldn’t speak English! They were cute though. The hard part was climbing up a ladder to get out…I don’t like heights!! I watched a skinny dog climb up the same ladder quickly so figured I could too. Too far to go back the way we came and probably would have got lost, the kids were already out.

Next stop was Hua Hin on the coast for a week. This time we hired a driver to get there, public transport was too hard!
Stayed at a lovely place a few minutes out of town. A bit more upmarket than the previous 2 places. We enjoyed it so much that we stayed an extra night before going back to Bangkok.

We chilled out a lot more here, as was the plan, but we still managed to get some sightseeing in.
I met a young lady while out walking and we paid her to take us to some local tourist spots. She also had a local eating/karaoke place, her food was unbelievably good.
Feeding the monkeys was a bit scary! But I did it, unlike my hubby and brother. They always leave those stupid things up to me .

Along with a Danish couple we met at our resort we took ourselves off to a local smorgasbord restaurant one night. We were the centre of attention…only local people there. What a bargain, $3 each for as much as you could eat, but an extra $1 if you took too much and didn’t eat it!! The food was superb, not sure what everything was!
We cooked our own prawns and chicken in a steamboat. Even had dessert, don’t know what it was but it was good.

The trip back to Bangkok was by local bus. $6 this time. But it took over 4 hours, partly because we had to stop for ages to wait for a motorcade to come through. It was either the king or other royals.

We spent 1 night in Bangkok before flying home the next evening.
This time we checked out the night time Patpong Market. Very busy place. Getting invited to a bar to see the ping pong girls was one invitation I declined!!

Our last day was spent shopping!