As life would have it, we happened to arrive in Bangkok in the middle of a national emergency (the red/pink and yellow shirts formed a veritable rainbow of protesters), sightseeing became a bit of a logistic nightmare, with people generally being a bit panicky and the sights closing at unfortunate moments (unfortunate for us, not the sights, of course). But during the week we managed to see pretty much everything that the guidebooks recommend for the capital, and we were quite impressed with the Buddhist temples with the various standing/sitting/lying golden Buddha statues, pointedly unimpressed with the terribly didactic museums (all of which seemed to have been designed to promote the nation's love of it's royal family) and quite smitten with the cinemas, which we have visited on more that one occasion (khem...).
We thought that the red shirts' protests were just a bit of a nuisance really and nothing much to worry about until we saw the military drive out 7-8 tanks through the city. Even then both the protesters and the military seemed quite relaxed, waving and even allowing tourists to take pictures. Then a day before we left Bangkok the hell apparently broke loose with both sides firing live ammunition at each other. We were far away at that stage, and thankfully all it caused us was some inconvenience, with the road blocks and the taxi drivers refusing to take us back to the hostel. All in all I was quite glad to leave Bangkok for Kanchanaburi and Ayuthaya.
Kanchanaburi doesn't have much in the way of tourist attractions to recommend itself, except of course for the famous bridge over the river Kwai and a little museum devoted to its history. Considering the heat and the sheer size of the bridge it seems difficult to imagine the process of its construction. The whole steel thing was so heated up that even touching it must have been torture. From there we went to the Tiger temple, which is not so much a temple as a place where you can have your picture taken with the 60 abnormally placid (we were told they were not doped, but in hindsight I'm not so sure) tigers. I had mixed feelings about the place. On the one hand it was an amazing experience to be so close to those animals and at least they were alive and well and not made into Tiger Balm, but on the other hand it was sad to see those magnificent animals reduced to a tourist attraction. Everyone can make their own mind I suppose. I'm posting a picture- please don't hate me for it.
We spend the night in Ayuthaya, the old Thai capital, and the next day we went exploring the old temples. Again, little was left, but even seeing the sheer size of the main temple complex was really impressive.
We have arrived in Chang Mai right in time for the New Year festival which means that wherever you go, people throw buckets of water at you. It becomes a several day long battle where you basically can't go anywhere without getting soaking wet. Great fun, as long as you don't have your camera on you. from Chang Mai we went on a 3 day trek in the mountains! This was probably my favorite experience of Thailand: beautiful sights (even though we went during the dry/fire season, which meant that a lot of the hills were still smouldering after the local tribes burnt out the old rice fields to prepare for the wet season), brilliant food prepared by our guides (the best I had in Thailand!- simple, home-cooked meals are always the best), and the friendly Karen tribe families with which we were staying.
We are now back in Bangkok and tomorrow we are flying to Phnom Peng in Cambodia.
We thought that the red shirts' protests were just a bit of a nuisance really and nothing much to worry about until we saw the military drive out 7-8 tanks through the city. Even then both the protesters and the military seemed quite relaxed, waving and even allowing tourists to take pictures. Then a day before we left Bangkok the hell apparently broke loose with both sides firing live ammunition at each other. We were far away at that stage, and thankfully all it caused us was some inconvenience, with the road blocks and the taxi drivers refusing to take us back to the hostel. All in all I was quite glad to leave Bangkok for Kanchanaburi and Ayuthaya.
Kanchanaburi doesn't have much in the way of tourist attractions to recommend itself, except of course for the famous bridge over the river Kwai and a little museum devoted to its history. Considering the heat and the sheer size of the bridge it seems difficult to imagine the process of its construction. The whole steel thing was so heated up that even touching it must have been torture. From there we went to the Tiger temple, which is not so much a temple as a place where you can have your picture taken with the 60 abnormally placid (we were told they were not doped, but in hindsight I'm not so sure) tigers. I had mixed feelings about the place. On the one hand it was an amazing experience to be so close to those animals and at least they were alive and well and not made into Tiger Balm, but on the other hand it was sad to see those magnificent animals reduced to a tourist attraction. Everyone can make their own mind I suppose. I'm posting a picture- please don't hate me for it.
We spend the night in Ayuthaya, the old Thai capital, and the next day we went exploring the old temples. Again, little was left, but even seeing the sheer size of the main temple complex was really impressive.
We have arrived in Chang Mai right in time for the New Year festival which means that wherever you go, people throw buckets of water at you. It becomes a several day long battle where you basically can't go anywhere without getting soaking wet. Great fun, as long as you don't have your camera on you. from Chang Mai we went on a 3 day trek in the mountains! This was probably my favorite experience of Thailand: beautiful sights (even though we went during the dry/fire season, which meant that a lot of the hills were still smouldering after the local tribes burnt out the old rice fields to prepare for the wet season), brilliant food prepared by our guides (the best I had in Thailand!- simple, home-cooked meals are always the best), and the friendly Karen tribe families with which we were staying.
We are now back in Bangkok and tomorrow we are flying to Phnom Peng in Cambodia.
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