Couldn’t leave Bangkok without a visit to the Royal Palace. It was so beautiful, when I arrived I got to get the changing of the guard before I was allowed in. The colours on the buildings and statues were so vivid, not sure the photos do them justice.
Included in the cost of the ticket to the royal palace was the Royal Thai dance. There was a free bus to the theatre, was a really nice show showcasing Thai dances throughout the decades and regions of Thailand.
Today I went on a tour to Ayutthaya, which used to be the capital of Thailand. As you expect I pick up things the tour guide tells us, here are some from this trip.
Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit”, is the full name of the city of Bangkok in the Thai language. It holds the worls record for the longest namd, glad we just call it Bangkok.
Around Thailand, I noticed the different oliured flags, especially when it came to the royal family. Yellow flag is for the King, as he was born on a Monday, and the Purple flag is for Queen as she was born on Saturday.
The Auspicious Colours for Each Day of the Week:
• Sunday-Red.
• Monday-Yellow.
• Tuesday-Pink.
• Wednesday-Green.
• Thursday-Orange.
• Friday-Blue.
• Saturday-Purple.
Our guide told us that the budda motto is to give without expectation, and you will never be disappointed. If you give with expectation, you are setting yourself up to be unhappy
He also explained the hand signals the statues might have:
– OK sign is blessing
– Left hand(full palm) clam the ocean
-Right hand (full palm) stop the fighting
-Both hands – surrender
Wat Maha That
Our first stop was at Wat Maha That, which is home to the infamous Budda face in a tree, said to be 900 years old. One of the stories says they moved the broken head to the side, and as time passed, the tree grew around it. We had to bend down for our photos with the budda head. It is very disrespectful to be higher than the budda head!
Wat Phra Sri Sanphet
Our second stop was at Wat Phra Sri Sanphet. This used to have a royal palace, but when the next kind built a new one, he used the bricks from the original. Instead, now this is a holy place that holds the ashes of King Borommatrailokkanat and his sons buried in the Stupas. There is also a temple here that hold a large golden budda.
Wat Lokkayasutha
Last stop before the river cruise was Wat Lokkayasutha, also known as the sleeping budda.
River cruise
We then boarded a cruise boat to have a buffet lunch and go back to Bangkok.
Had a week in Bangkok by myself before my next tour. Where Bangkok is so big, it’s meant a lot of grabs to get around places. This is what I’ve been up to…
Railway market
A planned day trip to these two famous markets. Didn’t appreciate how far they were though.
Railway market is 60 years old and the railway was built to the market that was 100 years ago. It was only 20 years ago that they put the market next to the train track. The 1 metre wide train track are so narrow with all the people. 10k tourist visit a day in high season from November! To get an idea how small it was check out the videos on insta.
We were prewarned that Thai people are very superstition, if you step over food, they can not then sell it.
The name of this market is actually the umbrella market, but called train market by the tourists.
We caught the train to arrive into the market and slipped round the back to get back in front of the train to watch it leave. The bus came and met us to leave.
Felt like a celebrity coming into station as everyone was waving at us! On the way on the train, we passed Thailands’ biggest salt pools, though its rainy season, so they are not currently in use.
Floating market
At the floating market we were in a row boat, there was quite a few boats with motors which I don’t think should be allowed as with so many boats all in the same place it was a nightmare trying to avoid banging into other boats and of course watching out the engines of those one didn’t hit you! We went in a big circle on the water and back at the start we when went for lunch in the middle section of the market.
Last day of the tour and a flight back to Bangkok!
I treated us to a nice room at the resort I stayed at before Nat arrived.
For our last day together, Nat and I had more spa treatments! We ended up with a foot massage and head and shoulder massage.
Afterwarda we visited the Olsen, which was a stream room, hot bath, and a cold one. We were given underwear to wear, which was baiscally tights – very funny, mine split so was basically naked. Thank goodness it was only the two of us! Fair to say we didn’t stay long lol
Nat very kindly took all my magnets and presents back with her so I had more space to carry on. Was so grateful she was on this tour with me. It was the weakest one so far in terms of people, activities, and guide. Might have been thrown in Thai jail for killing one of the karens if she wasn’t there lol
Today, we did some island hopping around Krabi. We stopped on two islands.
The first stop was Pakbia island for some photos. Was a small island, but with a swing and beautiful beach, it made for great photos.
Views on the way to the next stop..
The next island was Hong Island. We had a packed lunch of chicken and rice here, which was really tasty. As before, not everyone was happy with the food and refused to eat it!
We went in the sea here and could see the fish swimming around us!
Did have to laugh at one Chinese lady that was wearing a yellow hat with a face cover to stop the sun ageing her skin (but in a bikini), when she was swimming it looked like a yellow duck lol
When we went out for dinner, Jeff made a funny comment – I don’t get drunk, I get over served!
Our guide, Amy, gave us a present before we left the tour tomorrow. Our names in Thai!
Today we left Khao Sok and drive 3 hours to Krabi.
We headed straight to the pier to get on a Longboat for our day trip.
Our first stop was at Khao Khanab Nam, this cave has stories of giants of Krabi and inside there we giant bones to support this myth (art project but still very cool).
We got back on the Longboat through mangroves tribute of the river until we reached the Seafood restaurant and had a whole seabass streamed with Thai herbs.
We then toured the island on tuk tuks. There are 3000 people and 4 villages on the island. They mainly grow rice berry, which is plented once a year in rainy season, and when they reach 12-15cm, they harvest and replant.
We visited 3 business
– batik designer
– wooden crafts
– model boat craftsman
Back at the hotel, there was time for a beer and dip on the pool before we were to the good market for dinner.
Even with leggings and mosquito spray, I was eaten alive yesterday, especially on my legs! As I’ve found out from this trip, I react to the bites. Did end up going to the pharmacy to get some extra strong antihistamines and cream to help reduce the swelling and iching!
Today was a free day, but half the group, including Nat and I, went to Khao Sok Lake and dam for the day. The lake was beautiful, and we had a Longboat to take us around the lake.
We stopped on a floating island to enjoy the sceney, swim, and have lunch. At lunch we had an Elephant eared fish deep fried – it was so good!
We tried tubing, which I was rubbish at and lasted all of 5 minutes! We had brought some fish food to fed the red fish, which ended up being dried corn.
On the way back we did our usual stop at 7/11. Our guide recommended we tired the cheese and ham toasty, which was actually pretty good. We also stopped at a Thai Market and I brought some sausage balls, which were cooked like a ball beeded necklace. These were pork, rice, and garlic. Tasted a little weird but were good. We also treated ourselves to some doughnuts to eat when watching a film later that evening.
Today we catch a ferry to Khao Sok, our first stop was a local village for lunch. This village has approx 500 people from 92 families. We visited one family that cooked for the whole group. They alternate which family benefits from this from trip to trip to share the payment.
We had to cross a bridge that had a sign to say it was broken! Was very shakey, can’t say I enjoyed that part! On their land, they had rubber, palm, coconut, durian, as well as other fruits as well. We got to try Longan, which tastes like a large grape and looks like potatoes.
We checked into our Rainforst hotel and have a mosquito net on our bed here and advised not to leave anything outside at night.
Tonight, we went on the highlight of this tour for me – hike and dinner in the jungle!
We met ‘You’ who owned the farm and land we visited for this experience. Couldn’t help myself doing the scene from rush hour with ‘You’ and ‘Me’ and even got it up on my phone before we left, which he loved!
Our guide had advised we might get abit wet, when in fact we needed to wade across the streams. Slight misinformation lol
We started the tour at his farm and he explained all the vegetables and herbs he grew, with us smeling and trying them.
We then started our hike in, and it took some of the group awhile to pluck up the courage to wade through the first stream. We then walked up to a half cave/rock lip and You’s father had been cooking chicken and veg for us.
For dinner we for to prepare our rice. We first put our dry rice into banana leaves and folded in a certain way. They were then all added to a bamboo cylinder and filled with water and streamed cooked over the fire.
The meal was lovely! I tired everything. Was a shame not everyone was in the same mindset and a few of the group refused to eat th
After the meal, we hiked through the jungle a different way to get back, crossing streams, mud, and lots of vegetation in the dark with touches. Was such a great experience.
Today was a lovely chilled day in Koh Samui with the spa, beech and pool.
Our spa treatments were a triple: massage, body scrub, and facial. We were together on the same room and it was the best facial I’ve ever had!
In the evening we went down into the town for dinner and a fireshow on the beach. Catch the videos on insta.
Today we left Bangkok and got on a plane to Koh Samui, we went into the Bangkok Airways lounge beforehand.
Our hotel was really nice and on the beach. We booked our spa treatments for tomorrow and headed for the pool!
This was a nice chill day, with cocktails in the evening and the worst ever steak I’ve had lol don’t think they understand anything under well done here
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