BANGKOK
After taking the train back down from Shimla and then the overnight sleeper to Delhi, I was on the midday flight from Indira Ghandi airport to Bangkok. Delhi is 4.5 hours ahead of London but Thailand is 6 hours ahead, so after a 4 hour flight I arrived in Bangkok about 6pm.
By the time I got through immigration and found a taxi it was dark but, as you can see, Bangkok by night is quite spectacular.
When I arrived at the Boonsiri Place hotel it looked a bit dingy but experience has told me that when you arrive somewhere new, and it's dark, and you're tired, it's best just to get some sleep and have a good look round tomorrow.
Sure there is a lot of traffic but it's disciplined and organised. The thing that really hit me was how relatively quiet it was compared to Delhi, and that was simply because drivers weren't permanently using their horns. That terrible constant deafening cacophony of sound always left your ears ringing.
I love walking and realise now that this was what I missed most in India. Apart from Shimla, walking in India was not a pleasant experience. I strolled to the river and found that Bangkok was turning out to be a very pleasant surprise.
What impressed me most was that the blend of old and new was so smooth you hardly noticed it. I didn't venture into the commercial city on the other side of the river, I imagine it's very similar to all other commercial cities around the world and I didn't want to waste time. So I stayed around the Khaosan district where, although commercialism has taken a foothold, it doesn't seem ugly.
The flavour of how I imagine old Bangkok to be is still very much there.
If the pictures are too small just double click on them on your screen.
Everywhere you look there are wonderful Temples. Colours and designs are formed by using intricate mosaics (below) including some of glass and mirrors which create amazing light effects.
All of the Temples house statues of the Buddha
And the gates to the Temples are guarded !!
The Temple of Wat Pho contains the Buddha above along with over one thousand other statues of the Buddha. All statues of the Buddha are shown sitting cross legged, like this one but Wat Pho is the only Temple in the world to have a statue of the buddha lying down.
It's very famous and known as "the reclining Buddha".
The "guard" statue on the left is just one of a pair located at every gateway
and entrance to the Temple.
There are many street markets in Bangkok but there are also a number of " floating markets " around the outskirts of the city. These are literally shops on water ! Boats loaded with produce and merchandise of all types. Not so long ago these floating markets were genuinely used by local people but now I'm afraid they mainly serve the tourists.
Also, just upstream from the floating market, it's very interesting to see how the locals live in their riverside homes.
You can't keep Grandad a.k.a. "the Old Geezer" out of the photos for long !!
You can't keep Grandad a.k.a. "the Old Geezer" out of the photos for long !!
Me in my new shirt on the left ............ which I bought from ............. the very happy lady on the right. !
Strange that the name of her shop was "I saw you coming" !!
Ladies, if you're interested, oriental neckline, 100% cotton, 300 Baht ( about £6.60p ) . ok it was XL but who cares at my age !
Made friends with this young chap while having a cup of coffee.
He wanted to sell me some postcards (which I didn't want !)
So I bought him a lemon soda instead.
As you can see, he was fascinated by my electrick cigarette.
I did get it back by the way.
(It's now been 2 years since I quit smoking!!)
(It's now been 2 years since I quit smoking!!)
Guidance coming up for Georgia, Josh, Harry and Emily !!
When you're older and you go travelling, if ever you find yourself in a strange city wearing a silly hat, always make friends with the local police !!
You probably won't believe this but the truth is I just stopped at this little police kiosk to ask for some directions. All they wanted to do was to have their photograph taken with me ! So I agreed provided that they took another one with my camera.
CHIANG MAI
Two days later I left Bangkok to go to Chiang Mai. Although I was looking forward to moving up to the north of the country, I was a little bit sad to leave Bangkok. The people were really friendly and I had a great time. The flight left at midday and only takes 1hour and 20 minutes so I was at my new hotel by about 3pm. Wow, what a hotel ! The Tamarind Villa, ( you can google it ). I must have had a rush of blood to the head when I booked this one. It's a bit posh for the old geezer !
Just as well as it happens because after I had taken the next few photos of the town I was struck down with the Thai tummy.
Confined to quarters and never further than 30 seconds from the loo !!
What could I do but sit by the pool and relax - what a shame !!
The hotel staff were fantastic. They fed me on "velly good lice soup", and they even gave me a get well card.
Chiang Mai is an ancient walled city though sadly not much of it remains.
Although it is very clean and quite quiet, it has succumbed to tourism and is actually quite uninteresting.
There are of course, many of the inevitable Temples and they are all very beautiful in their own ways. You can't help wondering at the amount of work that went into making these buildings.
Chiang Mai is a very pleasant place to walk around, and like Bangkok it has it's day markets and it's night markets but, as I mentioned earlier, these are really geared up for tourism now.
My plan was not to spend too much time in the city itself but to get out into the country and see village life.
Unfortunately the Thai tummy has scuppered those plans but I'm just grateful that it's nothing worse.
Oh well, nothing for it but to sit back and wait to get better. I didn't come all this way to watch TV but at night I can get CNN for some sort of news and I have also been able to watch English football.
It was good to see Brighton putting six past Blackpool and I wonder if Dan is planning a trip to the south coast next year ???
That's all for now, next stop is Laos and I'll see you there.
