Day 1 & 2 Thailand Adventure

We arrived very early Thursday morning and checked into out hotel. Had 4 hours sleep and got up for our breakfast - good but mostly cold!! Spent a few hours at the rooftop pool - very nice and oh, so what I needed!! I LOVE THE SUN!!

Decided that we better get some activities organized for the rest of our trip so we booked a day trip around Bangkok for Friday, then booked a trip North to Chiang Mai on the overnight train ($23) on Saturday night getting in early Sunday morning. We booked a guest house for Sunday night in Chiang Mai ($21)and booked the overnight train back to Bangkok Monday night arriving early Tuesday morning when we will fly to Phuket ($55). That's all we know so far.

Khaosan Rd. where our hotel is in Bangkok is about 400 metres long but is lined with vendor after vendor selling all kinds of name brand rip offs for unbelievably low prices - e.g. rip off Birkenstock sandles for $7.50. The food vendors selling chicken skewers for 60 cents, banana crepes covered in chocolate for 60 cents were so yummy!! We had a 1/2 hour foot massage for $3. Amazing. There are so many tourists from all over the world - mostly back packers it seems - all shapes and sizes. The street is very dirty, busy and crowded but really interesting to do people watching!!

Again we were up late 2:30 a.m. and had to be up to catch a bus at 6:30 for our day trip. Our day trip consisted of seeing a few Buddhist temples, ruins of the ancient capital, royal palace, the largest Golden Buddha in Thailand and a reclining Buddha (kind of tired of seeing Buddhas and temples!!) We had the option of taking a 1/2hour elephant ride but declined and will do that either in Chiang Mai or when we go south to the beaches. The summer royal palace was amazing and we got some great pictures which will have to be down loaded at a later date. We met 2 guys - one from Washington D.C. and his friend from Mexico and also a really nice Canadian girl from Vancouver who is a casting director. We had a 3 hour boat cruise back to Bangkok including a Thai buffet lunch. It was quite good - great to taste Thai cuisine.

It's sad to see these elephants in Bangkok being chained up but I guess it's part of life here in Thailand and a way to make money. I know the ends doesn't justify the means but life in Thailand isn't easy for anyone - elephants or people. We also saw litle kids selling flowers to people in cars on incredibly busy streets as well as at the temples. Life is really different here.

Tonight we will have another foot massage and hopefully hook up with Cameron my contact in Bangkok. Tomorrow we will go to one of the markets early and then head to the train station in the afternoon to board our overnight train to the north. That should be an interesting experience.

We are asking different tourists about their experiences and getting some good advice. The girl from Vancouver is going to go to the market with us in the morning. She has been there before so it will be good to have someone who knows the ropes. The vendors expect you to barter with them but I feel bad doing that when everything is so dirt cheap!!

Well, time to go. Will keep you posted.