Bangkok & Temples...!

  Ayutthaya, Thailand Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Well the day after I arrived in Bangkok, I checked out of my guesthouse and went to the hotel Hannah & Dave were staying in. My plan was to check in there too so the evening taxi ride from the airport would bring us all to the same place. However, my plan was scuppered when the only room they had at a reasonable price was a twin. The only double they had was very expensive - £60 a night so I had to rethink. I wandered over to another hotel I had spotted that I hadn't even known existed before. It was called Chilax and just across from Hannah & Dave's hotel. It seemed very nice when I walked in and despite my hot and bothered, drenched in sweat from carrying my bags across Bangkok in the searing heat look, They were very friendly and offered me a very nice room - for £61 a night. Now I was flummoxed. But not for long - I took the room at Chilax because for the extra £1 the room was so much better than the other hotel's. And I knew Bryan would forgive me for spending so much money for our first nigh back together again. Also, as he will have been travelling all day and figuring he would be very tired, I thought he would appreciate having the bath raised on a platform in the room! So I checked in and made use of the good hot shower/TV/mini bar/big comfy room for the afternoon. Later I took a taxi to the airport and just made it in time to get a good position by the airport arrivals gate to spot Bryan. I always spot his hat before I spot him but I also seem to have a sixth sense and know when he is about to appear. Soon enough he was here, and I became we again :-) He came bearing gifts too which was extra nice :-) We spent the next 3 hours at the airport catching up, before it was - Ding! Ding! - round 2. Back to the arrivals gate to wait for his Mum & Dad. Funnily enough they had left England before Bryan but had a few hours lay over at Muscat so their trip was longer. We knew they were excited to be coming to Bangkok and to be spending so much time in Thailand. Hannah had never been to Thailand before and Dave hadn't beed here since his old navy days so I'm sure it was going to be a very different trip for him this time! It was great to see everyone again and with a slight detour by our taxi driver to see some of the beautiful palaces and and temples lit up at night, we all made it safely to our hotels, met for a quick bite to eat, then they were all ready to crash out for the night. The next day, Bryan and I had to check out of our beautiful hotel room and look for something much cheaper so we eventually found the New Siam V - Palace View hotel which was only 1 month old. They still hadn't opened their reception desk and the whole ground floor was strewn with boxes and boxes of stuff waiting to find it's place. Still it was clean and very quiet. We spent the day showing Hannah & Dave around and helping them to get their bearings. We introduced them to Tim - our favourite lady in Bangkok whom helps us with all our trip and travel plans and tickets. We ate at the Magic Cafe which is always good and cheap and if you are lucky, the owner performs some street magic for you at your table. We had a fabulous foot scrape and massage each and we followed it up with a wonderful facial. Dave & Hannah had pedicures and manicures and we all left feeling polished and glamorous! Bangkok saw some heavy rain during the few days we were here and we occasionally found ourselves trapped in a restaurant or bar, but hey, we were there to relax so it didn't really spoil our mood. Actually it was kind of relaxing to watch this huge torrent of water being unleashed on us and watching the streets fill up. we could have done with boat taxis not tuk tuks. We all took a trip to Ayutthaya on Wednesday 25th March. This was somewhere we had wanted to go last time we were in Bangkok but ran out of time. Ayutthaya was the capital of Thailand before Bangkok. Before that even, Sukhothai was the capital and that was where we had visited in November last year, so we had a pretty good idea about what to expect. We took a private car for £25 each and headed north out of Bangkok for about 1 1/2 hours. The city of Ayutthaya is very modern and is actually difficult to see where Bangkok ends and Ayutthaya begins. Then dotted amongst the modern buildings are areas which look more like parkland. These are the temple areas which are now protected and is a UNESCO world heritage site. We had seen many many temples like this but for Dave & Hannah it was all new and fascinating. The temples themselves were really lovely though and the buddhas were all cloaked in yellow and gold sashes which added some interest to the photos. We moved from site to site in the car stopping once for lunch at a Thai restaurant. All the temples were in beautiful grounds with beautiful flowers and trees. At one location they were elephants giving rides but to be honest we didn't much care for how they were housed or were being made to do tricks for people that paid. After a few locations Dave and Hannah were all templed out and we headed home, just stopping once at a beautiful sleeping buddha which was all cloaked in orange. Our driver had gone straight past it but we insisted on going back. Of all the buddhas we had seen, this one definitely had one of the nicest faces. Smiling like he was having a lovely dream! Back in Bangkok we set about making sure we had everything we needed for our bus trip to Champhon on Friday and we were all getting excited about being on Koh Tao. So a last (for now) stop at Magic Cafe, a walk down the Koa San Road, and a few cocktails at one of the many street cocktail bars, and Hannah & Dave could put a big tick in the Bangkok box. They will be back however so will be adding a few more ticks to this box before they head back to England. The bus to Chumphon was a 7 hour ride and we started off at 6am on the Friday. It was a long old trip and no time to stop at the harbour as our boat was in and preparing to leave. Unfortunately the crossing was a little choppy and the image of people throwing up all the way across wasn't nice but we had been on worse. It's funny how you can predict the Chinese always start off first followed by the hungover people! We landed on Koh Tao just 1 1/2 hours later and again it felt like we were home. It felt right being here like we were supposed to be here. After all that moving around, we could actually fully unpack our suitcases and put them out of the way. The last time we had done that was when we stayed with Nigel & Cath in Sydney for 3 weeks. This could be a 3 month stop over so was properly going to feel like home!Hannah & Dave were excited too. Tired but excited. We did a quick shop for milk and bread at the 7-11 then Jody phoned her friendly taxi driver she had met whilst here on her own a week ago, and we all jumped into the pickup (we were in the back of the pickup with the luggage) Hannah & Dave in the air conditioned cab. We made it up the hill to Viking House and were greeted by Tony - the owner. He gave us our keys and explained a few things. Thailand is full of quirks - the electric in our apartment runs on 2 different supplies. A government supply and a privately supply. The Government one is cheap but very intermittent so if you need a boost to run the AC for example, you have to switch to the private (and more expensive) supply. We unpacked and chose our rooms, got the rum and coke out and settled in. But most of all we just stopped to admire the amazing view we had here. Paradise! 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