3 Day Jungle Trek - Don Inthanon National Park.

In SK House (our hotel) they offered 3 day jungle treks – which is pretty much one of the things most people do when in Northern Thailand (especially Chaing Mai area) and after 2 minutes of Mr June (our hotel owner) talking to us about it we knew we were going, we booked on the tour for the next day – already excited about the prospect of an adventure. It was also going to be great as we hadn’t been anywhere too rural or jungle based on the mainland so it was going to be a great chance to discover the natural Thailand. The trek was to take place in the jungle in Don Inthanon national park which contains Thailand’s highest peak and some stunning scenery.

DAY ONE
So we got up bright and early on the first day, packed a small satchel type bag that we were issued with, with some essentials and jumped in a songthrew (which is a pick up with a couple of benches in the back). We drove for a couple of hours, and then stopped near and walked to Wat Phra That Si Chom Chom Thong, a very pretty looking temple at the top of a small hill. As well as offering lovely views about the jungle we were about to explore there was also an interesting collection of statues with all manner of Buddist symbols. The most interesting though had to be the one that a monk was busy completing. He was meticulously shaping the figure of a lady with cement and trowel which we were then told would be covered in mirrors, glass and gold leaf. I would love to go back and see it once it was complete which we were informed would be about 3 more months. After viewing the temple we wandered back down the hill and enjoyed our fried rice lunchboxes.

We then jumped into the pick up for another couple of hours and were eventually dropped off at a huge horticulture site set up by the king to grow and learn about all kinds of plants We (there were 3 other travellers trekking with us and our two guides Fu and Ec) all donned our raincoats and ponchos and set off down the lane. As we walked we passed rows and rows of Chrysanthemums which the villages grew to sell, plus a wonderful array of herbs growing wild such as lemongrass, mint and ginger. Fu pointed all the different plants and herbs out to us explaining what they were. As we walked down the lane it changed from herbs to expanses of paddy fields it was already very picturesque and we hadn’t even been trekking for 30 mins! We stopped again for Fu to pick some herbs and leaves which he planned to add to our dinner in the evening so we could sample them (we had stumbled across the Thai Ray Mears!!!) He also showed us a leaf that if you split the stalk you could blow bubbles with the sap (I particularly liked this plant!) Finally we veered off the track an entered the jungle! I was very excited at this point but was also having to concentrate on keeping up. Our guide had really picked up the pace! It was quite easy walking except for the occasional fallen tree trunk to jump over, the only thing that spoilt it was some chompy bug took a liking to my heel and managed to sting me, it was quite painful, but I told myself that this was to be expected in the jungle and carried on; it was about 10 minutes later when I looked down at my hand to see what I thought was a little slug sitting on the back of it, so I went to flick it off. The thing didn’t move and more disconcerting was the fact that the bloody thing appeared to be getting bigger! I quickly grabbed it between my nails and threw it into the bush, it was when I saw a little drop of blood that it dawned on me that it was in fact a leech. I was getting less sure about the jungle all the time……. Well at least it had stopped raining…..

We walked probably for another 30 or so mins as well as seeing an array of butterflies ants and other creepy crawlies we were lucky enough to see a massive green stick insect. We got to a clearing where there was a large wooden hut and then a smaller covered area with the remains of a fire in it. This was to be our home for the evening. We went to explore our new home it was very simple and consisted of about a dozen mattresses placed under mosquito nets and some blankets. We dropped our stuff and headed for the waterfall that was just behind and after a rather refreshing (the water was a little chilly!!) swim we headed back and had a wonderful green curry prepared by Fu and one of the local hilltribe people, with the addition of the herbs he had picked up earlier. After that we gathered round the fire. We chatted to Fu about the trek and the jungle, and he gave us some local rice wine to sample which tasted very similar to sake, after a little of that we were offered a sample of the local ‘tobacco’. It was prepared for us in a rudimentary bong that Fu had made for us out of one of the water bottles from the day. He promised us that he would make us a better one tomorrow should we enjoy the ‘tobacco’. We did indeed enjoy it!  So much so that we didn’t notice that Fu had disappeared until he returned. He stood just behind me and then I felt something slimy behind me – it was a frog clutching at my neck!!!! Fu had been out hunting and had caught us a couple of frogs for us to eat – proper bush tucker!!! After putting them on the fire we were each handed a ‘mini chicken drumstick’ (Rob’s phrase!). It was actually really tasty, though probably a little overcooked and chewy, reminded me of British bbq’s with that charcoal aftertaste! After our supper we retired to bed having consumed a bottle of rum, several bottles of local firewater and many beers, and having made some new friends on a very enjoyable day.

DAY TWO
Next morning we were up again bright and early and had a quick breakfast. We were then handed our lunch parcels for the day which to our delight were rice wrapped neatly in banana leaves and tied with a vine. We popped these it our packs and headed back toward the jungle. It was rather hot work and the terrain was much trickier than the previous day when we were climbing we were really climbing and the descents if anything proved more difficult and slippery. But we were still enjoying it and I was really amazed by the wealth of fungi and many amazing butterflies. Eventually after about 3 or so hours we stopped for lunch. Fu handed us each a couple of sturdy stalks that he had cut from a tree for us to use as chop sticks. We got stuck into our lunch and enjoyed the surroundings. We then headed off going up and down all the way. On our journey Fu stopped us – he and the other guide had spotted a squirrel hole. Fu thought it might be another good jungle food for us to try so the other guide quickly shinned up the tree and began poking a long twig up into the squirrel hole…. No squirrel emerged. Not disheartened by this Fu pick up a thin piece of pine bark which he easily lit and handed to the guide up the tree. He stuck this in the hole, trying to smoke the poor squirrel out. I am actually quite pleased to report that Mr Squirrel did not appear to be home as nothing emerged, though I am sure he was in for a shock when he did get back!!

We trekked for about another 4 hours, and after 7 hours of trekking up and down hills I was ready to get to our destination. I had had a good day, but it had been some of the most challenging walking I have ever done. We arrived at the village – it was pretty much as I had expected and we each had our own little hut to sleep in. It was a great scene we were in a clearing on the top of a hill with jungle all around us as far as we could see there was a communal table in the middle of all of our little huts with a villager carving himself a new handle for his spade that had just broken. We were greeted with much enthusiasm and many smiles. Our base was about 50 or so meters from their actual village and unfortunately we did not get to go and see their homes – but they all came up to say hello. Some of them spoke better English than others but all made a real effort to communicate and be welcoming. We then looked at some home crafts and I couldn’t resist and bought a few lovely scarves. After all of that it was time to clean up before dinner. After having a shower (well a hosepipe above our heads) we went and sat around the table. Much to my surprise there were too large black tarantulas on the table one dead and on a banana leaf and the other limping around the table. Fu informed us that he had caught them and the fangs had been removed of the one that was still alive so we could handle it! These were to be our starter for dinner! After everyone had a prod and a handle – some people including myself were more tentative than others – they were taken off to be bbqed. We were then presented with a leg each to munch on! It actually didn’t taste of much just crunchy non descript bbq meat! But it was defiantly an interesting one to try and add to the list! We then had a wonderfully fiery northern Thai curry with lots of potatoes and greens, a little more conventional than the starter!

The rest of the evening was spent sat round the fire smoking local ‘tobacco’ in a rather wonderful bamboo bong that Fu had fashioned for us, drinking rice wine and listening to some of the locals singing us traditional songs and playing traditional pipes (Kwe) made from animals horns and drums made from hides and tree trunks it was wonderful and we actually bought one of the instruments, and the villager showed us how to play it. It was a thoroughly good evening.

DAY THREE
The next morning we woke, had breakfast and started to trek away from the village. We trekked pretty much down hill all the way for a couple of hours and then were picked up by our truck where we were taken to an elephant enclosure. We climbed onto a platform and an elephant was lead towards the platform. The elephant had a 2 seater saddle type thing on his back. The guide signalled to us to get on. To my surprise we had to step onto the back of its neck, I was worried about hurting it but as I stepped on it hardly seemed to notice! Once me and Rob were in the saddle the elephant guide jumped on and sat on the back of his head legs dangling behind its ears. Then we were off! Not the steadiest of rides and we had bought some bananas to feed the elephant as we rode and it could obviously smell them as every couple of paces it would stop and the trunk would appear signalling for another banana. It was fantastic experience and what I enjoyed the most was seeing the animal so closely and being able to touch and feed it. I did not expect the skin to feel so much like slightly hairy sandpaper! After about 40 minutes the ride was over and we’d made it around the track with only a few detours up banks for the elephant to pull down half a tree to eat!

Once that was over we jumped in the truck again and were taken to the bank of a river, where we climbed on a raft made entirely from lengths of bamboo, and a guide at the front who was punting. Rob grabbed the back to steer and punt from there and nearly lost his head several times as we went under trees! We had a really fun guide who encouraged us to splash the other rafts and splash each other, and actually capsized the raft a couple of times to ensure we were thoroughly soaked by the end of the trip! The ride lasted about an hour where we all giggled and laughed all the way – it was in beautiful surroundings and was lots of fun.

And so that was the end of our trek. A thoroughly challenging, entertaining and enlightening 3 days. This was to be one of our last adventures in Thailand before heading to Laos and a great way to remember Thailand. The last cool thing about the trip is we met 3 great people, Marek and Agnieszka from Poland and Chris – the American of the group who was planning the same route as us to Cambodia so we had a new travel buddy!

JUNGLE TREK SLIDESHOW! Click on the pictures to see the full album....

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai was everything that we hoped it would be. After loud brash Bangkok this had a much calmer feeling to it, more like a small town that a 2nd major city. It had a historical aspect to it that had been in many ways swallowed and lost in Bangkok, with the 5 square mile ‘old town’ area surrounded by a crumbling defensive wall and moats which were apparently built 700 years ago to keep the Burmese out. What was also wonderful about it was it was a little cooler than in Bangkok meaning that the average temperatures were early 30’s rather than late 30’s early 40’s. It felt much more bearable and it made us want to be more active than when we were in Bangkok. We decided to rent bikes for the day and tour the city, exploring the many temples and checking out the town and park. It was lovely to cycle round, peaceful and quite pretty except for the occasional western takeaway place (like Mike’s Burger Bar which proudly claimed to have been converting vegetarians for 28 years!). We went to Wat Phra Singh which had beautiful murals and carvings, and is considered the top temple in the Chiang Mai city. It was built in 1345 and ended up to be a wonderful spot to watch the rain from. It proved in my opinion to be just as special a place in the rain with all the water cascading from the roof tops, the tranquillity of the surroundings accentuated with the sound track of the pouring rain.
In addition to this temple we went to Wat Suan Dok, this again was beautiful and had a 500 year old bronze Buddah, which we marvelled at and then jumped on our bikes and headed back to the hotel. I could go on about these temples for ages – but I’m sure it would bore you all senseless – much better that I bore you with the endless amount of pictures instead! They will do them justice far better than I will with my ramblings! We also cycled to watch the sunset in the park which was a great spot to watch the locals too, and headed home very pleased with our self propelled tour, although it became more stressful on the way home as once it turned dark we soon realised that bicycles don’t come with lights or reflectors here!

Travelling to Chiang Mai

Apologies for taking so long to place another blog entry – we’ve been having a busy month and far too much fun to type! But as we now have a quiet day before we leave Cambodia I can begin to tell you what we have been up to since our last entry. After deciding to move on from Bangkok we headed up to the north to Chiang Mai – this would be the Manchester equivalent if Bangkok was London. We were looking forward to getting away from the hectic and often chaotic feel of Bangkok and had been told that Chiang Mai although the 2nd city felt a lot more peaceful. We decided to use the sleeper train again as we had had such a nice experience last time. We were not to be disappointed as we ordered some food and settled back for a relaxing journey.

The food was fantastic – and there was so much of it! After a very spicy soup and a couple of curry dishes the staff (most of which were of questionable gender!) set about trying to get us drunk. Every time they would come up the aisle they would spin us a story about how it was the last beers they had and if we would be so good as to buy them they would get to have a break – me and Rob often don’t need much persuasion in these types of situations so were only to happy to oblige, and several Changs later we were having a very nice train journey indeed!

At about 7am we were awoken to a tasty if not a little sweaty egg breakfast, which we needed after our heavy evening! Then finally just over 14 hours later we arrived having had a fairly good nights sleep this time. At the station and were greeted by the usual hordes of tuk tuk drivers, and hotel representatives vying for our business. We found one which seemed ok called SK House so we thought we would risk it and get the free car ride there. In the car we met the owner Mr June who began telling us all about the city, where all the markets were and where to eat etc. That is when the alarm bells in my head started going off. It sounds horrible to say but you learn to be very guarded if someone is overly nice to you and especially having just come from Bangkok, me and Rob looked at each other quite worried about the place we were about to end up, but I am pleased to report that Mr June was the exception to the rule and we ended up in a very reasonably priced guesthouse with a lovely pool. This was to be our base for the next few days.

Bangkok 2

So next after we had indulged ourselves enough in the islands - though it would have been easy to have spent longer - we headed back by night bus to Bangkok. This was to be a slightly less 5 * visit than when we were in the city a couple of weeks ago. Once arrived in Bangkok we headed for Khao San Rd - pretty much the most famous backpacker haunt in Bangkok. We were lucky and found a guest house just off the main rd which had a slightly less hectic feel about it.

Khao San Rd was an experience! It is 1 long street with bustling market stalls, food vendors, bars and tuk tuk drivers (who after midnight offer a ride to the notorious ping pong show at Patpong!) We decided the head out into Khao San that evening and join the countless revellers and see what we could find..... We started off by having the 'traditional' Thai bucket - consisting of Red Bull, Whiskey and Coke.... a lethal combination!!! After a couple of these we found ourselves in a place called the Immortal Bar - a heavy metal / rock club. They had a Thai band rolling out all the classics in their own inimitable style - it was lots of fun - Martha you would have loved it!!

We staggered home late in the night and paid the price of drinking buckets the next day - had a very quiet one - managing eventually to leave the guesthouse and go for some western comfort food in the local Irish Bar - might leave it a while before I have a bucket again.......

The next day we felt a little more human and headed off to the shopping Mall in search of some aircon comfort. We used the express boat followed by the ultra modern Sky Train to get there. The Sky Train was great - it is a monorail that now connects large amount of Bangkok together - much better than the trams in Manchester! We also tried the underground to be able to say that we had taken pretty much every form of public transport available in Bangkok (Some feeling more safe than others!!!!).

When browsing we saw that the bottom of one of the shopping complexes is actually a massive aquarium, so we headed for a look. It was fantastic and much larger than I expected considering there is a shopping centre built on it! After staring at a wonderful array of crabs, fish, jelly fish, penguins and otters, doing a glass bottom boat ride and watching the best 3D (or 5D as they put it) film I have ever seen, we emerged 4 hours later feeling like we could have been anywhere in the world - not strictly a Thai experience - but a great one nevertheless.

We then rounded a thoroughly non Thai day by going to see Star Trek at the mall's cinema! It was a fantastic cinema - and despite being caught out by nearly not standing up for the national anthem we had a great day - and enjoyed a rather western experience for the day - isn't it funny how when you can't easily get something you want it so much more?

The next day we headed to the slightly less classy shopping mall - and enjoyed looking at all the stalls and arcades. We also had fun laughing at the karaoke booths and had a few games of ten pin bowling to round the day off - where I scored a turkey - but this was not enough when Rob showed his true skills and managed to beat me 2 - 1!

Our final day was spent doing a little bit if bartering and shopping before heading to the train station to grab the night train to Chiang Mai.

Snorkelling

While in Phuket we bought a 1 day package tour to visit some islands and do a bit of snorkeling. The whole trip got off to a fantastic start as the wonderful (but slack when it comes to blogs!) Rob managed to get the price of the trip pretty much halved - his bartering skills are really coming on!

The speedboat was fantastic fun - it was incredibly fast and wonderfully bumpy - I lost my stomach several times!!! It was also amusing to see the lack of people without the ability to smile all the way - and the few people clinging on to the side of the boat looking rather green......

The first stop was to Maya beach on Phi Phi Don. For those of you into shit films it is the cove where a lot of the Beach was filmed - it was breath-taking.... I don't think I have the vocabulary to do it justice - but it was idyllic (Rob's blogging job is now to insert photos - I write he sorts out the pictures - so I hope he picks a good one for this) We stayed about 20 mins milled around with a few other hundred tourists and then got back on the boat and headed to a place called Monkey Beach - where you've guessed it - there are lots of monkeys!!! After us all cooing at how cute they were and taking the few obligatory photos while watching the monkeys very dexterously scaling the cliffs we were off again.

We sailed (or should that be sped?) for about 20 mins until were relatively close to the cliffs and then all donned life jackets were given snorkels and dropped into the water. I had never been snorkeling before so was really not prepared for the magic of burying my head in the water. I looked below and saw wonderful coral formations, sea urchins, and so many beautiful coloured fish. I couldn't get over just how close the fish would swim to you. It was great too as the guides from the boat were dropping biscuits into the water where I was swimming - so suddenly I found myself surrounded by a shoals of beautiful fish. After 30 mins we got back into the boat - all carrying large smiles :)

Our next port of call was Ko Phi Phi Lay- we didn't really get to see much of the island but stopped for some food and a quick look round the seafront market.

In the afternoon we stopped at our last beach which wasn't much more than a small golden bar of sand and coral out in the ocean and had a little bit of a snorkel - nothing as stunning as the first snorkel and you had to be much more careful as you were in really shallow water with loads of the spikiest black sea urchins I have ever seen. This too was great fun - then it was back on board the speed boat to blast home.

When home we found a a shisha bar - and rounded off a wonderful day with a lovely apple tobacco - god I hate this travelling thing!

Island Hopping

As Rob is such a perfectionist / slacker he has not finished his blog entries yet - so I thought I would just give you a brief up date of what we have been up to, and let Rob fill in all the details!

We have been to lots of the Thai islands from Ko Samui to Ko Phangan (the place of the infamous Full Moon Parties - which we missed by 1 day) We will I promise publish some photos soon - but we're in an internet cafe at the moment as we haven't found anywhere round here for the laptop.

As you will have all read we did a cookery course in Ko Phangan and also we hired a 2 man canoe and went from our beach (Thong Nai Pan Noi) round the island to the next beach Bottle Beach, which was great fun. We did it with Matt and Dorina - who were very much better than us at the whole sea canoeing thing!!! After getting there enjoying a quick dip and a drink we canoed back - it was great - even if did get a little sunburnt in the process!!

We also found a great place on the island to eat - other than the Bamboo Hut of course!!! The guys from the restaurant went out to the fishing boats each evening and came back with a fabulous selection of wonderfully fresh fish which they then pack on ice. You come along and choose your fish / shellfish and they BBQ it for you, it was delicious - Rob had squid which has to be one of the best tasting squids I've ever had! And I had red snapper - lovely.... it's going to take some beating to have fish that good again!!!

After Ko Phangan we went to Ko Lanta. The drive was a rather crazy one - driven by a complete nutter who refused to do less than a ton all the way - and offered me and Rob these crazy leaves that tasted like stewed tea! (much to the amusement of all the other thai passengers - we were the only westerners on the bus!) Any ideas of the nature of these leaves would be appreciated!!! This is where i had the mozzie attack! Once I had recovered from that we hired a scooter - and Rob at the helm did really well - considering he had never ridden a motorbike or scooter before - he wouldn't let me drive!!!! Sensible really I guess..... We went round the island seeing the Sea Gypsy town and the went to the mangroves on the island. We found a community project who offered boat trips around the groves. We were sailed around the groves 0n a traditional thai boat - wonderful! We stopped by a little clearing and after our driver whistled a little and threw a few bananas a few monkeys appeared and came right up to the boat - wow! After spending some time observing the monkeys we went to a floating fish farm and saw all manner of crazy large fish, which lived in the mangroves. It was such a wonderful trip - looking forward to showing you all the photos.

In Ko Lanta we also found another fabulous restaurant to eat - it was wonderful food - but the best thing about it was the in house entertainment - the frogs!!! The majority of the eatery was outside and as a result was plagued by flying creatures of all shapes and sizes!!! It was a little unnerving - but then out of the corner of my eye I spotted a frog - and then another and another and a few toads for good measure too! they came in like a little army and began cleaning up all the bugs! Hooray for the frogs - they were great entertainment and Rob has some fabulous photos.

We went then from Lanta to Phuket. This was by far the most touristy of all the islands - feeling bit like a beautiful Blackpool. We found a nice Bungalow to stay in and did some exploring of the Old Town which was an interesting one as it was very European architecture and felt more like being in Spain or somewhere.

We also went on a day trip - but I will do a separate entry for that as we did loads in a day - and I definitely want to tell you those stories with the aid of pictures.

As you can tell - we did quite a few of the islands and loved each and everyone of them for their unique character and charm. Shall miss the sea for the next few weeks......

Bloody Mozzies!!!

Well we thought Ko Phangan was a chompy island and after accumulating just under 20 bites (to Rob's pathetic 4 or something) I thought it wasn't going to get worse....... how wrong I was!!! We left Ko Phangan after having a wonderful 5 days and we decided to get to Ko Lanta we would catch a night boat to Surat Thani and then bus/boat to Ko Lanta - which is easily the cheapest way and we thought quite fun too - and it was - we were on the top deck of a 2 deck ship and either side on the deck were just rows and rows of mattresses on the floor where you could lay down and sleep through the night while the ferry cruised through the night on its 7 hour journey. After a couple of games of scrabble me and Rob settled down for the night for a little sleep - unbeknown to us that when the buggers struck!!!!

Thankfully we were too tired when we got to Surat Thani to realise and then after dealing with the slick travel agents and many 6am minivan transfers we were finally put on a bus to Ko Lanta, so it was not until we reached out destination about 15 or so hours later that I realised the full devastation on my legs, we checked into our next bungalow and I felt a little itchy...... and then I felt very itchy!!!! I rolled up my trousers to discover the total had gone from 20 to nearly 50!!!!!

I spent a pretty uncomfortable night not really knowing what to do with myself and having nurse Rob administrating every anti -itch remedy we had! (God bless Germolene!!!) First thing the next morning we went into town and went to the pharmacy to show the pharmacist my bites - without going into too much detail I looked none to attractive - we got up there and she proved to be our saviour, (Rob had a few bites by this point too and I'm sure was happy to see the end of my whining!!) she took one look at them and came out with a cream and a pill that has put me on the mend - so now except for a load of blemishes I feel hundreds of times better.

Believe it or not we had been using loads of repellent but these b*stards don't seem to care - and if they are bothered they seem to be able to find the tidy spots that you haven't got repellent on - so me and Rob have waged official war on the mosquitos and now carry in our pack another type of repellent, tiger balm (which the locals swear by to sure everything!!!), anti itch cream, antiseptic cream, bug spray and 2 different types of mosquito coils - now let the little buggers have a go!!!

I am please to report that since then neither of us have been chomped by anything - and we are both feeling itch free and normal again - hooray!!!! So not to worry we're all good again and even more equipped than we already were. One tip for anyone visiting the island in the south of Thailand - don't rely solely on repellent, coils or long clothing - none of these seem to work!!! We have asked many islanders how they stop getting bitten and it seems to be a timeless questions which if anyone can find an answer for they would be very rich indeed - For Rob a great repellent seems to be me - as for whatever reason I am infinitely more tasty than Rob!

Thai Cookery Course

Well after a spot of Island hopping which I'm leaving Rob to Blog about, we went from Ko Samui to Ko Phangan (Ko meaning Island if you hadn't guessed). Once on the Island we went into full relax mode - what a beautiful island (but anyway don't want to spoil Rob's spot!!) We spotted a cookery course being advertised in one of the little shacks just off of the beach called Bamboo Hut. It also served food - so we decided to sample the food before committing to a course. The food was wonderful and while we were there we watched an Austrian couple start the course, and it looked right up our street so we went for it!

We were asked to choose 3 meals off their menu which they would would then show us how to prepare. We opted for Thai Green Curry, Tom Yam (a seafood soup / broth) and Pad Thai. Our teacher was a lovely Thai lady called Asia. We sat down in the main eating area of the hut and she brought out all the herbs and spices we were to use for the pastes and broths we were making, some of which I could not identify, but between all 3 of us we were able to put English names to them all! I had never seen tumeric in root form before - never realised it was so orange!!

We prepared all the herbs and spices and then went through to the kitchen at the back and was shown what to do with all the things we had just chopped, ground and peeled. The smells were wonderful and after only an hour we had in front of us 3 very authentic looking Thai dishes which we then sampled with our friends Dorina and Matt and I must say - rather boastfully - I was rather impressed with our efforts; so I can promise you a treat when you come round for tea at our house when we get back!

We also had a lovely time after eating (while Rob and Matt had fixed one of the corrugated iron gutters after it collapsed during a rain storm and threatened to wash away the bar of the hut!!) where Asia showed us how to make a body scrub out of coffee grounds and lemon juice. Then she very kindly sat down with us and explained about the 2 islands we were planning to do next, Ko Lanta and Phi Phi. With all this information in hand we left the Hut feeling very full of food and friendship - it was a fantastic 4 hours! We then walked up to our taxi to be taken on the next part of our journey - to Ko Lanta by nightboat, bus and maniac minivan!

If you're interested I'll put the recipies on here so you can try them yourself - let me know in the comments!

Finally just to say thanks to Rob's folks who gave me the money to do the course for my birthday it was a great gift.

The Grand Palace and Wat Pho

Well what can we say except stunning! We started our journey immediately being hussled by this Thai guy claiming he was a police officer packing us onto a Tuk Tuk and trying to take us to a private boat to take us up the river. We quickly realised what he was up to and got the Tuk Tuk driver to drop us off and found the Express Boat - the locals rivertaxi and about a 10th of the price we would have paid! It was a good reminder to keep sharp in the city - and we survived!

We went firstly to the Grand Palace which was where the Royal family of Thailand used to have their residency but is now only used by them for occasional ceremonies - one of which was to be on the evening we visited where a royal ox is asked to choose from a certain set of foods, which one it chooses predicts the agricultural performance of the country for the next year. So when we arrived there were many people busying themselves putting out red carpets and different ceremonial dishes etc. There was also many Thai people flower and insence stick in hand doing circuits of the palace blessing it before the families arrival.

In terms of the architecture in was beautiful. Wonderfully bombastic and over the top. As you can see from the photos it puts Winsor Castle to shame!! Myself and Rob particularly like the figures that appeared to be straining to hold up the buildings. Another favourite of Rob's was a beautiful painting that went round the entire wall of the grounds with certain figures picked out in gold leaf. It was depicting a story which was fantastical, and we will when we get bored on line be sure to figure out what it was staying.

Wat Pho was equally as wonderful. Having been told by no less that about 5 individual Thai guys that it was shut - we were a little disappointed to think we had missed out - however, lucky for us as we were walking back to the Express boat we discovered the entrance and it was in fact open - apparently after the reading the guide book it can be a scam by some Tuk Tuk drivers - telling you something is shut when in fact it is not - so they can take you other places.

The Buddah was an awesome sight. It is apparently the oldest and largest temple in Bangkok dating from the 16th Century and here's the best part within the temple is a stunning reclining Buddah 46m long and 15m high. The reclining position illustrates the Buddah passing into the final Nirvana. It is covered entirely in gold leaf and the soles of his feet are made from Mother of Pearl depicting loads of different Buddah positions.

As well as obviously the stunning spectacle what hit us when we walked in was the noise! We could not at all work out what the constant tinkling of metal was until we got round the other side - where Thai people were picking up small gold coins and walking the length of the buddah dropping a coin in each of the 40 or so bowls that lined the length of the wall where the Buddah lay.

It was stupidly hot so after two hours of melting like proper tourists we retreated back to air con via the Express Boat. What a fantastic day of sightseeing.

Hotel Lebua

Well what can we say? Except that the hotel has to be one of the most decadent experiences of my life! It was such a wonderful way to kick off our travels. We arrived on Thursday evening - and didn't venture out of the hotel - instead taking in it's ambiance by drinking several wonderful cocktails on the sky bar with awesome views of Bangkok and then enjoying a chef taster menu (we think it was 9 courses but we lost count of how many there was) Everything from sea trout with a cucumber shot to the most delicious beef to some courses we couldn't actually fully identify at all but were nevertheless extremely tasty!

Our room faced the river with a balcony (had to sign a HSE form to use it!!! The bastards get everywhere!) It was such a wonderful view both during the night and day, and all the amenities of a luxury hotel, plus service on hand in all areas of hotel including guys who it seemed their only job was to call the lift! All of it was done with the wonderful genuine thai smile. Something that I have really noticed since I've been here is the fact that the thais love to smile - it really helps you feel good.

We then spent the next evening at the hotel enjoying the pool and a round the world tapas - again each tapas looked like mini works of art and were very nicely washed down with a cocktail or 3!!!

So all in all it was a fab experience and if you are ever feeling a little plush or have a special occasion to celebrate I thoroughly recommend it - it is certainly a birthday present I won't be forgetting in a long time...... I should imagine our accommodation for the rest of the journey will be a lot less indulgent - or we'll see you all in a couple of weeks!!