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Day 11, 20 July 2012 – Sri Lanka – Sinharaja Rainforest

Posted on 20/07/2012 by magwood

When Anton collects us for an early start, he asks us what we thought of the hotel. He tells us that although there are staff quarters for the drivers, they all sleep in their cars because they believe the hotel is haunted – I’m glad he didn’t tell us that the day before!

We drive for some time to reach the Sinharaja Rainforest (one of the few virgin rainforests left in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinharaja_Forest_Reserve).

Having been warned by the tour organisers that there are leeches in the forest, I am paranoid to avoid them. I am wearing my new trousers with elasticated bottoms with socks tucked inside, which may not have looked too bad with hiking boots, but alas, I only have my walking sandals, and my fear of the leeches is greater than my fear of looking an absolute fool!

We are allocated a guide at the welcome lodge and Anton accompanies us on our trek. Our guide is a charming young man, who seems quite shy but very keen that we don’t miss anything of interest.

He and Anton are both very interested in all wildlife and particularly the feathered variety. Between them they point out dozens of birds, but of course by the time we have focussed on where they are pointing our feathered friends are long since gone from the scene!

The first creature I see is a tree frog and Anton grabs my camera and positions himself to take a shot. On removing his foot from the boggy ground he quickly removes a leech from his leg which had attached itself underneath his long trousers in a nano second. I really appreciate Anton’s bravery (or stupidity) when he tells us that he has an alergic reaction to leeches which can make him quite ill.

The guide assures us that if we walk in the middle of the track, away from the boggy areas at the edges, we should avoid being attacked.

It is obviously a beautiful and lush environment with many colourful flowers on show, and it is very fresh and pleasant at this reasonably early hour – 08:30 by the time we get started.

Our next creature is a snake which poses more considerately for a photo

There are, strangely, a lot of chickens wandering the forest paths – some very fine specimens

Our guide offers to take us off the main track on a walk to see something of interest, but warns that we are more likely to be attacked by leeches on this narrow path, so it wasn’t a difficult decision to decline his offer. Just as we approach the junction to this track, another guide emerges with his client, who looks like a character who might have been journeying with David Livingstone – complete with pith helmet, long khaki shorts and gaiters. The poor guy was totally unaware that his legs were pouring with blood, which was trickling down over his gaiters. Anton and the guides set to removing very many leeches from under his shorts – totally disgusting! (No photos of this you’ll be pleased to note!)

A little further on our guide invited us to take a track to see the tallest tree in the forest (possibly in Sri Lanka?). Ella opted not to join us on this diversion as she didn’t have suitable footwear for the steep climb, so Anton stayed with her whilst we found our way to the tree on rough tracks with steep log steps and twining creepers, over a rickety rope bridge with the biggest millipede I have ever seen.

The Giant Nawada tree is 43 meters high with a girth of 6.3 meters and a volume of 110 cubic meters. Anyway I couldn’t see the top, but whilst we were there I did see a rare hump nosed lizard.

Apparently there is an elephant and twenty or so leopards in the forest but they are very rarely seen and didn’t put in an appearance today. And although we could hear them, we didn’t see any of the monkeys that live amongst the trees. All in all it was a very enjoyable expedition, with the added benefit of not having our blood sucked by the dreaded leeches.

En route to our next stop we pass by an elephant reserve where the inmates hang around at the perimeter fence hoping for tourists to feed them. We stop and donate the contents of our packed breakfast box which includes an odd assortment of food including bananas for which the elephants are very grateful. Whilst we are stopped we look up and see a hornbill in a tree overhead.

We make our way, via a stop for lunch, to Tissamaharama where we stay at the Hibiscus Garden hotel in a decent room with a small veranda that overlooks a green field. There is a pretty pool area and an interesting restaurant where there is a wide choice of food from a buffet bar and we can have some dishes cooked to order at the counter. We have another very early start in the morning so get to bed reasonably early.

Posted in South Asian adventures, Sri Lanka | Tagged Rathnaloka Tourist Hotel, Sinharaja rain forest, South Asia, Sri Lanka, tissamaharama, travel | Leave a comment

Day 10, 19 July 2012 – Sri Lanka – the guided tour begins

Posted on 19/07/2012 by magwood

Today is the start of our organised tour. A company called Unique Travel (http://www.theuniquetravel.co.uk) has worked with Ella to provide us with a tailor made tour to fit our time scale and our budget – apparently not an easy task when dealing with skin-flints with only six days to spare!

We will have a driver/guide and an air conditioned vehicle to take us to our pre-arranged stops.

Our guide is waiting at 09:00 and introduces himself as Anton. He is a young man, with a mass of curly hair and an enormous smile. He loads our luggage and we leave Galle Fort for what is scheduled to be a long drive to Ratnapura where we will spend the night.

We leave the hustle and bustle of the roads in and around Galle and are soon in the countryside and about to join a major toll road. As we drive onto the deserted road, Anton runs his hand down a string of beads hanging from the rear view mirror and puts the crucifix that hangs from it to his mouth and then crosses himself. We find this a bit alarming in a giggly sort of way and sit back and hope that God’s intervention isn’t required during our trip.

The journey takes less time than scheduled and we arrive at our destination, the Ratnaloka Tourist Hotel (http://www.rathnaloka.com), just before mid-day. It is a very strange place, situated at the end of a very long and rough dirt track, absolutely in the middle of nowhere.

It is huge, with a vast dining and lounge area, but with seemingly no guests.

We are taken to our room which is enormous and very pleasant with a balcony overlooking a tea plantation and lagoon. There are long corridors leading to the rooms and we both think the place has a very strange ambience and rename it “Shining Towers” as there are elements of both The Shining and Fawlty Towers.

We did not have breakfast so go to the restaurant in search of sustenance. We both opt for a sandwich, I choose smoked salmon and Ella chooses bacon and egg. When they arrive we cannot tell which is which, neither has salmon or bacon, but both have eggs! Each sandwich has five layers of filling between six slices of bread and is impossible to eat without deconstructing it. They taste ok, but we are very puzzled by the variety of contents.

We go to sit by the pool and realise that there are some other guests. The pool area is delightful and as soon as we arrive a nice man brings us cushions for the sun beds and swimming towels.

We stay until the sun sinks below the surrounding trees and walk back through the pretty gardens to the hotel.

Dinner is equally odd. We are served an abundance of food, but the waiters hover over us whilst we are eating, I assume so that they can service our every need. It is very off-putting and I feel guilty that I can’t eat the mounds of food that they have provided.

There seems to be about twenty guests in all, one table of Germans, one of Japanese, and the two of us. There is a bar but I only dare have one G&T as we have to get up at 05:00 in the morning for a 06:00 departure.

Posted in South Asian adventures, Sri Lanka | Tagged Galle, Galle Fort, Ratnapura, South Asia, Sri Lanka, travel | 2 Comments

Day 9, 18 July 2012 – Sri Lanka – day of relaxation

Posted on 18/07/2012 by magwood

We have arranged for the same tuktuk driver to collect us from the guest house and take us to the beach today and he is waiting for us when we emerge at 10:00.

We travel for about an hour and on the way stop to photograph the “stilt fishermen”. There are a lot of images about these guys on the Internet, but not much info, although I did find this explanation –
Stilt fishing is unique to Sri Lanka and mainly found along the South coast. This is no ordinary form of fishing, the fishermen in this scenario sit on small cross poles attached to poles which have been stuck into the ocean bed a few meters offshore. There are no large fish caught either, just small sardine sized reef fish. Traditionally the skill, and the pole itself, was passed down from father to son, and some poles were considered to be better than others based on location and surroundings. The stilt poles, known locally as riti panna, can be seen all along Galle Road, sadly however many were damaged or destroyed during the tsunami.

We finally arrive at a private beach resort at Milissa, with the use of the resort facilities, restaurant, etc. I am stunned by the beauty of the beach – pristine fine white sand fringed with towering palm trees, and huge breakers rolling up the sand.

I soon test the water and it is heavenly – no “ooh” factor when it reaches the delicate area, and although it is much too strong a current for me to swim, I spend a lot of time in the water, trying to keep my balance against the waves.

I also spend considerable time studying the tiny crabs that scuttle along the beach, picking fights with eachother, but not moving far from their hidey-holes that they race to take shelter in whenever I make any movement.

We reluctantly tear ourselves away from the sand to have a bite to eat in the restaurant and leave the resort at about 16:00 and stop off en-route to the Fort to collect my anti-leech trousers and Ella’s dress.

The driver receives a message for us to call in at the jewellers, and Ella starts to become anxious that the ring she commissioned yesterday will not be as she hopes and expects. However she is delighted with the custom made ring and continues to admire it for the rest of the evening.

It has been a wonderful relaxing day, the only one we are likely to have during the three weeks of our trip, and we have thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is our last night in Galle Fort, and we pack up ready for our departure in the morning.

Posted in South Asian adventures, Sri Lanka | Tagged Galle Fort, Sri Lanka, Stilt fishermen, travel, tuktuk | Leave a comment

Day 8, 17 July 2012 – Sri Lanka – tuktuk tour

Posted on 17/07/2012 by magwood

Today we have arranged for a tuktuk to collect us at 09:00 to take us on a tour of the local places of interest. Our driver is a charming man called Chamdi.

Our first stop is a twenty minute drive outside Galle at a silk factory, where we see silk worms feeding on mulberry leaves. They feed for 19 days before making their cocoon. Each cocoon has a single thread of silk more than one kilometre in length. We saw an old fashioned spinning wheel twisting the threads from three cocoons that had been soaking in water. There was also a lady weaving a brightly coloured scarf. Our tour inevitably leads us to the sales room, but it was not very inspiring and we were not tempted to buy anything. I wish I had bought a piece of Thai silk as it was stunningly beautiful, although I did buy a silk neck cushion from the palace textile museum in Bangkok.

The next stop is a moonstone mine, where we see the mine shaft and a guy panning for stones – I am not at all sure this is a genuine working mine, although our guide insists it is – much more likely a deep hole dug to impress gullible tourists. We then see stones being cut and polished on old machinery and then a goldsmith making jewellery. The moonstone is only found in Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Burma and India.

Inevitbly, we are taken to the showroom. Ella actually wants to buy a sapphire ring and we spend ages here while she ponders what design she prefers, and eventually decides to have a blue sapphire ring made in quite an unusual setting which will be delivered to our guest house the following evening.

We then move on to a beachside turtle hatchery. Five of the seven species of turtle breed in Sri Lanka and they have greenback and oliveback turtles hatching in this centre. Turtle eggs are illegally collected by locals and are eaten, but also the hatchery will pay for eggs that the fishermen find, which are then re-buried until they hatch.

They are kept in tanks for four days until they are strong enough to stand a good chance of survival and they are released on the beach. We are allowed to pick up the baby turtles and get a very close look at some adults that they have for various reasons, some are injured and being nursed to health. Turtles can live up to 100 years and the largest species can weigh up to 230 kilos.

We next visit a spice garden where we are given a tour by an ayuardic practitioner and given information on the health properties of many herbs, spices, and trees and he tells us what spices are mixed together for various health-giving oils and potions. He says there is a seven year apprenticeship before being allowed to practice this type of natural medicine.

The tour progresses to the teaching area, a shaded platform overlooking a beautiful lagoon where we are given the option of a massage by students, free of charge, but with an optional voluntary donation. Two hulking great lads had appeared on the scene and my “student” proceeded to apply cream to my face and massage this area before pouring what seemed like an enormous amount of oil onto my head and giving a very thorough head massage through my very knotty hair that has been blowing about in the back of the tuktuk all morning.

We are then instructed to lie face down on the wooden benches and my vest top is unceremoniously pulled over my head, my bra strap undone and my trouser legs pushed up. A hard shoulder, back and leg massage follows. When finished I reclothe myself with as much dignity as possible (which isn’t much) and I can only imagine how dreadful my hair looks, full of knots and oil, but as there is no mirror I do my best with a hair band and a couple of clips. Then, guess what? We are led to the shop where they sell all the potions we have been told about. It was actually a very interesting visit

En-route to the next stop we see a large iguana crossing the road and a kingfisher perching on a cable over a river.

Next stop, the Handunugoda tea plantation http://www.virginwhitetea.com/, which is by far the most interesting and informative visit we have made. Our guide is a fabulous elderly chap who explains how the bushes are maintained and the leaves are harvested, points out the other crops on the plantation, mainly rubber trees, and tells us about the various plants we pass as we walk through the plantation.

Peppercorns growing on a vine – they are harvested green and then dried until they turn black

A section of bark is removed from the rubber tree and the sap that drips from the scar is collected in a pot – rubber is a major export product from Sri Lanka

We progress through the plantation to the owner’s house, which has a long covered veranda where we are invited to sit at a small table set with tea cups. A lovely little lady brings a pot of tea and some very sweet cake. We drink the tea without milk and to a second cup we add some cinnamon. Then a different brew is brought for us to try.

The cool veranda where we sip tea

This plantation makes 23 blends of tea and after a tour of the factory where our guide explains all the various processes, we go to the shop/museum where all 23 blends are lined up and we are each given a soup spoon to take a slurp from each cup.

The leaves of the tea plant are slowly air dried during the first stage of the process

The plantation is 44 years old and the owner, Herman Gunaratne, is also an author. Ella buys one of his books and we both buy a pack of tea (lemon grass for me), and we write a glowing testimonial to our guide in the comment book.

It is now mid afternoon and we are ready to eat so our tuktuk driver takes us to a beachside restaurant where we have a snack and Ella takes the rare opportunity to have a beer (there is no alcohol available in most restaurants).

On the way back we stop at a roadside shop because I want to buy a pair of long trousers with elasticated bottoms in preparation for our rain forest walk as we have been told that there may be leaches. I shall be wearing elasticated trousers, socks and sensible sandals – it will be a sight to behold and there will definitely be no photographic evidence. I order a pair of loose trousers and Ella orders a sundress in our own choice of fabric that will made for us to collect tomorrow.

Our driver suggests that we visit the Japanese peace temple on the way back – we can see this across the bay from the Fort.

Apparently the Japanese Buddhists build a temple in every country, this was built quite recently, after the tsunami. There is another Buddhist shrine close by with many different Buddha statues, that was built single handed by one monk, who is present when we visit, and he blesses us by pouring more oil (sandalwood) onto our heads and tying a good luck bracelet (piece of white string) round our wrists.

The sun is falling towards the ocean as we finish this visit, providing another photo opportunity.

We finally return to the Fort in the early evening and have another quiet evening meal with no alcohol and manage to find our way back to the guest house without too much difficulty.

Posted in South Asian adventures, Sri Lanka | Tagged Galle, Galle Fort, Handunugoda tea plantation, Herman Gunaratne, Sri Lanka, travel, tuktuk | Leave a comment

Day 7, 16 July 2012 – Sri Lanka – Galle

Posted on 16/07/2012 by magwood

Another leisurely start and we set off at 11:00 to walk through the Fort gate to the town of Galle beyond. The main road runs along the sea front and the sea is very rough with high rollers due to two different monsoon systems meeting at this point. It is very hot and humid but there is a nice breeze coming off the ocean.

Galle is a busy fishing port, which is obvious from the very pungent smell that surrounds us. The fishing boats are a very unusual design.

The main road is very noisy with much traffic all blasting their horns every few seconds. We see familiar forms of transport and those less familiar.

We find various markets selling fruit, veg, fish and spices. We buy a few oranges which are ridiculously expensive, we can only imagine that they are not grown here. We are restricted in what we buy by having no knife to peel skin, although we buy some mangos and the vendor cuts them up for us.

I also buy some fresh vanilla pods which smell delicious.

It occurs to me that the shabby and dilapidated buildings must be the result of the boxing day tsunami in 2004, and when I later look for info on the Internet I see that in Sri Lanka more than 35,000 deaths and 22,000 injuries were caused by the flooding and more than one million people were displaced, with 5,000 deaths in this area alone.

We then come across a tourist information office which is a haven of coolness and we settle down with the very nice young man who tells us all about everything and shows us videos of various tourist attractions. I have to admit to nodding off a couple of times.

On the way back to the Fort, we pass by the famous international cricket ground (although not that famous – I was not aware of it), which has a backdrop of the ramparts and the sea beyond.

We have lunch within the Fort and then set off to find an ice cream shop that a local man had given us a card for. We eventually find it and ring a bell for attention, to be greeted by a gaggle of small giggling girls, who ask us where we are from. Mum emerges from the back of the property and I choose a vanilla ice cream which is home made and absolutely delicious. We sit outside to eat it in the shade and Mum comes out to talk to us, telling us all about life in the Fort and about the Muslim fast that is about to begin and how the children cope with not eating all day.

We return to our room for a snooze before leaving to find the best spot on the ramparts to watch the sun set. There are many other people doing the same thing and I take photos for a few couples whilst we wait. It is very hazy so the sun set is not as spectacular as it sometimes is, but very pretty nevertheless.

We wander on along the Fort walls and come across a couple in wedding dress having professional photos taken, and see a group of young men playing cricket. We find as nice restaurant and have the best meal of our stay so far and then proceed to get thoroughly lost, walking in ever increasing circles around the streets in the near pitch black as there are very few street lights.

We finally come across our guest house, and watch an episode of Damages, before calling it a day.

Posted in South Asian adventures, Sri Lanka | Tagged Galle, Galle Fort, South Asia, Sri Lanka, travel | Leave a comment

Day 6, 15 July 2012 – Sri Lanka – Galle Fort

Posted on 15/07/2012 by magwood

We leave the hotel in Bangkok at 04:00 and the streets are still full of life with people partying and food stalls still operating.

We take off a little late at 07:15 and Ella is soon asleep so I find myself a window seat at the back of the plane and study the landscape below.

Once away from the city the land is totally flat with vast expanses of farmed countryside and a bit further inland I can see a few hills and ranges of small mountains, all totally green, with farmed plateaux on the ridges. There are very few towns and villages. Soon we rise above the cloud line and I settle down to read.

After a three hour flight I can see the landscape of Sri Lanka, which is totally green and lush. There are palm trees everywhere and I can see tea plantations and huge swathes of grassland which might be rice fields. There are many dwellings dotted amongst the greenery and rivers winding through it all.

We land at 09:15 local time, having dropped back one and a half hours from Thailand, and after passing through immigration, we change up some money to Sri Lankan rupees and head outside to take a taxi to the train station, which takes the best part of an hour. Every driver seems obliged to beep his horn every time he passes another vehicle and the roads are chockablock so there is a great deal of horn blasting going on.

At the station we call into the tourist information office to be told that we have just missed the train to our destination and there is a four hour wait for the next one. It is not possible to book a seat and there is a chance that we will have to stand for the full two hours of the train journey. Having already been up and travelling for nine hours, I decide that the £35 taxi charge to take us the two and a half hour drive to our hotel is entirely reasonable, and off we go. There follows a further hour of horn blasting as we drive through the outskirts of Colombo. We don’t see the city centre but the areas we drive through are very poor and run down, very shabby with all buildings either half built or falling down and many areas looking like shanti towns.

Eventually we reach a new toll road that takes us through the beautiful green countryside as far as Galle, the largest city in the south of the country, and once again mayhem rules the roads.

Our destination is Galle Fort (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galle_Fort), an absolutely charming village enclosed by fortress walls – designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site – with architecture influenced by Portuguese, Dutch and English, and a multi ethnic but largely Muslim community living there today.

We are dropped at our guest house, the Mango House, which looks charming and is extremely rustic and makes the hotel in Bangkok seem positively sophisticated. A big enough room, but with no hanging space and a very primitive bathroom, but at least it has an efficient A/C unit that has controls that work.

We have a French couple next door, and a party of four oriental lads over the landing and everyone is very friendly.

We go out for a wander through the village and to find something to eat. The food is more expensive here than in Bangkok, but there is no shortage of cafes and restaurants to choose from, and we eat on a roof terrace before again ambling around.

We climb the ramparts and alongside the lighthouse we see a pretty beach at the bottom of the wall, which is full of people, I imagine locals, making the most of their sunday afternoon.

We come across a privately owned museum and are given a personal guide around the collection of local artefacts and see demonstrations of lace making, precious stone cutting and silver smithing, all very charming, but of course we are ambushed into a jewellery sales room at the end of the tour. However they won’t be making any money from us!

We return to the room for a siesta and I am soon out like a light.

We have another nice meal for dinner and make sure to return to the guest house before 23:00, when the gates are locked.

Posted in South Asian adventures, Sri Lanka, Thailand | Tagged Colombo, Galle, Galle Fort, Mango House, Sri Lanka | Leave a comment

Day 5, 14 July 2012 – Bangkok – Grand Palace

Posted on 14/07/2012 by magwood

Today I don’t feel like moving very fast and so we have a late start. Ella goes to the pool terrace for 45 minutes whilst I make a very leisurely start to the day.

We decide to visit the Grand Palace that was just closing when we first visited.

With the help of google maps we work out a route that is only one kilometre from the hotel, so decide to walk. There are several eight lane roads to cross, some with signal controlled crossings and a couple of zebra crossings with no traffic lights, which are very hairy. However we soon have the palace in our sights.

When we are close some Thai gentlemen approach us and tell us that the palace is closed for a religious ceremony. They are very pleasant and speak good English. They make several suggestions for alternative visits we can make and whilst I am politely listening to them, Ella walks away and beckons me to follow her, so I excuse myself and catch up with her.

She tells me she has read about this scam whereby tourists are told that an attraction is closed and are then encouraged to take a conveniently situated tuktuk to a different venue. I feel very gullible when I notice that from the position where I was talking to these very plausible guys I could actually see a line of visitors queueing at the palace gate.

The palace is a totally amazing place, so full of colour and sparkle, with huge temples in every direction, all with different decoration, and wonderful statues of demon guards and warriors. Much of the decoration is made from jewel coloured glass mosaic, with row upon row of towering columns and gold spires.

The palace grounds occupy a large area and although it is very busy with tourists from every nation it is actually quite peaceful, particularly considering that it is, in effect, situated on a traffic island with eight-lane highways running along all four sides outside the high palace walls.

It is a lovely day with a beautiful clear blue sky and it is pure joy to amble around and take in all the splendour.

This massive door is made of inlaid mother of pearl – see close up below – absolutely stunning

Between the temples are beautifully manicured gardens and there are two museums.

The Emerald Temple museum is full of artefacts showing the construction materials of the buildings, being wooden or metal framework with plaster finish.

There is also the Queen’s textile museum which is really interesting for both of us, showing outfits worn by the Queen over the 60+ years of the monarch’s reign, ranging from the very petite garments from the beginning of the reign, and spanning a variety of sizes to quite plump in recent years.

We learn that during the period from the mid 1800’s to 1940 the royal family had been wearing increasingly western style dress, and in 1941 the government decreed that all citizens should wear only western clothes. As a result when the new king took the throne there was no traditional Thai costume and many crafts had been lost. The queen has worked hard to reverse this trend and all her ceremonial outfits are made of Thai silk, mostly in traditional style.

There are video demonstrations of the different styles of traditional dress and also a film about the making of Thai silk, from the breeding of the silk worms through spinning, dyeing and weaving. As you can tell, my love of fabric has not diminished and we both find this exhibition entirely engrossing.

We both have to wear most unflattering men’s shirts to cover our shoulders during our visit, and although a deposit was required, this is repaid when we return them.

We leave the palace as it closes at 16:00 and retrace our steps to the hotel, once again having to negotiate the eight lanes of traffic, which I find particularly fraught, having been used to village life for so long.

We pick up some street food to eat in our room, have a snooze, make a start on packing, and go out to eat for the last time.

I set the alarm for 03:15, giving us two hours of sleep, before setting off to the airport for our 07:00 flight to Sri Lanka.

I have been very impressed with Bangkok. The Thais are totally charming, even when they are trying to rip you off, and try really hard to make conversation in English, always asking where we are from. They seem to work very hard, are always polite, and we encountered very few beggars. Although the buildings in the city all look rather grimy, probably from the traffic pollution, the streets are kept clean at all times. The food is delicious and available at any time of the day or night, at ridiculously low prices. Although we visited at the start of the rainy season, the rain was not a problem, never lasting very long, and often falling at night.

All in all a wonderful experience, and one that I would very happily repeat if the opportunity ever arose.

Posted in Bangkok, Far Eastern adventures, Thailand | Tagged Bangkok, Grand Palace, Thailand, travel | Leave a comment

Day 4, 13 July 2012 – Bangkok, Ayutthaya – more ruins than you can shake a stick at!

Posted on 13/07/2012 by magwood

Today we are visiting a World Heritage Site situated not far from Bangkok, about an hour and a quarter drive. We arranged a good price for the trip with our taxi driver yesterday and he will collect us from the hotel at 09:00.

We set off on time for Ayutthaya Historical Park, and the traffic is not too bad. Nevertheless the city is so huge that it takes quite a while before we leave the industrial areas behind and start to pass through vast areas of green fields, with lots of trees and many rivers and waterways. I presume that the fields are growing rice. The area is completely flat, as is the city. We haven’t seen a hill since we arrived.

The Thais drive on the left, so at least something is familiar. Our driver is very sweet and quite shy, which is very unusual amongst the Thais that we have met, and he says very little, which makes the journey very peaceful. Mostly the drivers don’t stop talking, which can be endearing but also becomes a bit annoying after a while.

Ayutthaya is a huge site of ancient temples spread over a vast area – you can find out more at this UNESCO website: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/576

Our first stop is fascinating with many ruins and no officials to tell us what not to do. We are free to roam around at will with not too many other visitors around.

The first of hundreds, or possibly thousands, of Buddhas that we see today

We are really glad to have a private car and that we are not part of an organised coach trip, which was our original intention. We have the freedom to stay as long as we like and are not herded from site to site.

I won’t describe the ruins in great detail as the photos will do a much better job. However I would thoroughly recommend a visit to this fascinating area – you could not fail to be impressed.

Our second stop was at an elephant taxi station. There must have been at least twenty adult elephants giving rides, and quite a few young calves around to entertain the visitors.

They seemed very well cared for – when they were waiting for passengers they were able to group together in the shade and feed, and as each elephant completed its twenty minute stroll, it was given a shower.

Our elephant was fourteen years old. It was a bit like being in a very slow tuktuk, not too secure and weaving in and out of the traffic, although most of the journey was on side paths. It was a great experience that we both really enjoyed.

We visited many more sites, some obviously on the organised tour route that were much more busy. And a few were closed to the public owing to the damage that was done by recent severe flooding, which reached a height of about 150cm.

one of Thailand’s iconic images – a stone Buddha head trapped in the roots of a bodhi tree at Wat Phra Ram

We finally decided that we had actually seen enough ruins and buddhas for one day and returned to the city at about 15:00 and ate a cheap lunch in a street cafe. Once again, excellent food.

After a prolonged afternoon rest at the hotel, we ventured out again in the evening to the quieter street, parallel to our hotel and ate dinner in a very nice restaurant with some live music. I had a Thai green curry which was probably my least favourite meal so far, and Ella had a grilled snapper which was her most favourite food to date.

We returned to our room with some fresh fruit from the street vendors – mango and pineapple – and watched a couple of episodes of the series “Damages” (American lawyer ‘who done it’ drama) that I had downloaded onto my iPad. We are both already hooked.

Beautifully presented pineapple from the street vendors

Posted in Bangkok, Far Eastern adventures, Thailand | Tagged Ayutthaya Historical Park, Bangkok, Thailand, travel, Wat Phra Ram | 2 Comments

Day 3, 12 July 2012 – Bangkok – shopping, but not as we know it

Posted on 12/07/2012 by magwood

Its raining this morning – not the unrelenting downpour of our first night, but enough to need to take cover. So we decide to take a taxi to Siam Square, famous for shopping opportunities.

I was expecting a mall similar to those in the uk, but this is really just like a huge version of the street markets, six floors full of stalls and shops packed closely together and selling a lot of the same things, some items quite lovely – beautiful colourful silk scarves, endless shelves of handbags of every colour, bright and sparkly shoes. I was tempted by a few items but don’t buy anything. Ella buys a pair of cheap shoes and that is it.

We then cross the road via a pedestrian bridge to another mall which couldn’t be more different – very spacious and sophisticated – and expensive. We don’t stay long in here and emerge at street level to the normal array of street vendors and food sellers and a couple of covered markets.

We wander around until we get hungry and find a restaurant in a food court of one of the malls. We eat a very nice meal (noodles again for me), for very little money, and then we cross back over the bridge system towards the cultural centre where we view an exhibition of sculpture that I find very interesting.

The pedestrian bridge system is like spaghetti junction above a complicated road junction, and it is quite fascinating to just look down at all the traffic below. The traffic is as colourful as the markets, a lot of the taxis are bright pink, and bright yellow, the hundreds of tuktuks are all painted the colours of the rainbow, and there are motorbikes and scooters weaving in and out all over the place – totally manic.

After the cultural centre we negotiate a price for a tuktuk to take us back to the hotel, but by now the traffic is really congested, and it takes an hour to get back. We would have loved to take the sky train, but there is no stop near where we need to go.

Being in a tuktuk is a lot like being on the dodgems. The drivers weave in and out of the traffic, often going on the wrong side of the road and pulling out in front of other vehicles. It all feels a bit unstable, particularly going round bends because it really leans over to the side. You feel a bit vulnerable because you are basically unprotected, the sides are open apart from a low rail, and there is just a sun shade for a roof. They zoom along as fast as any car, but can negotiate a lot of short cuts because they are so small and can get down the narrow lanes that bigger vehicles cannot access. But all in all they are great fun and most of the foreigners using them seem to have the sort of expression on their faces that you see people at the fairground wearing. We have not seen any accidents whilst we have been here, nor any aggressive driving.

In the evening we find another pretty restaurant in a parallel street that is a bit quieter than the mayhem of the Khaosan Road and we have a nice meal and a couple of drinks. We are entertained for quite a while by a troupe of break dancers, who are excellent.

Then we return to the hotel and finish watching the last couple of episodes of Gavin and Stacey. I wanted to introduce Ella to this fabulous British comedy sitcom and she wasn’t disappointed. It never fails to conjure up a smile and a laugh, and even a tear on occasion. If you aren’t familiar with it – you don’t know what you’re missing!

Posted in Bangkok, Far Eastern adventures, Thailand | Tagged Bangkok, Gavin & Stacey, Siam Square, Thailand, travel, tuktuk | Leave a comment

Day 2, 11 July 2012 – Bangkok – a culinary adventure

Posted on 11/07/2012 by magwood

We set the alarm for an early morning wake-up as we are being collected from the hotel at 8:20 to attend cookery class. We have booked with an organisation called ‘Baipai Cookery School’ http://www.baipai.com/About.html, and are picked up in a mini bus. There are nine in our group and on the way to the school we stop off at the fabulous Or Tor Kor covered market, selling a huge array of food – meat, fish, fruit, veg, dried goods and some fabrics and pottery also. Everything is beautifully displayed.

We are greeted on arrival at the market by our course leader who is obviously very well known to the stall holders. We have a guided tour of the various produce with explanations and tastings along the way. It is a very impressive market, spotlessly clean and everything clearly marked with prices. There are many unusual looking fruits and vegetables that we’ve never seen before.

Our fabulous class leader

Weird and wonderful selection of fruit

A huge array of spices

We then proceed to the school, which is set in the most beautiful gardens and is run in a most professional manner.

We are kitted out with aprons and recipe cards for our menu of:
* Golden bags (minced pork with herbs and spices wrapped in spring roll sheets and tied with shredded chives)

* Spicy grilled beef (fillet beef marinaded and served with spicy salad and dressing)

* Pad Thai (stir fried rice noodles with special sauce, fried egg and prawns)

Our diverse group is made up of a delightful mother and daughter from Pakistan, an Australian couple and their teenage daughter and a honeymooning couple from New Zealand.

The two women instructing our group are a great team, very amusing and helpful. There are several other helpers constantly clearing away and cleaning up. We eat each course as it is finished and it is all thoroughly delicious.

The whole experience of the market visit and the cookery course was fabulous – set in a haven of peace and beauty with faultless organisation. It was also nice to be away from the hustle and bustle of the Bangkok streets for a while. All in all an excursion I would highly recommend without hesitation.

We are returned at the hotel around 15:00 and Ella goes up to the roof pool terrace while I stay in the room to write these notes and cool down with the freezing A/C.

As we have eaten pad Thai for every meal since arriving we decide to find a restaurant tonight and after a bit of google research discover that there is a recommended restaurant in our street that we have never noticed. The hotel receptionist points us in the right direction and we walk through the absolute mayhem of food sellers, bar touts, wandering vendors, shops and bars lining both sides of the street, travellers of all nationalities and the occasional motor bike weaving it’s way through the chaos.

We finally see a sign for the restaurant down an alley between a couple of shops and we suddenly enter another haven of peace and loveliness, and the noise and craziness of the street totally disappears, The restaurant is in an open courtyard with water features and amazingly is not very busy. A group of Thai dancers in colourful costumes is entertaining the diners when we arrive, but unfortunately we have missed most of the show and they are gone by the time we are settled at our table.

We order from a huge menu and have our first meal that doesn’t consist mainly of noodles. We choose soup and chicken wings for starters, and for mains chicken with cashew nuts and prawn and asparagus with a small portion of rice. As often happens in Spain, we receive the mains about ten minutes before the starters! We have two drinks each and the bill comes to approximately £24, as opposed to £2 that we have been paying for street food, but we both feel it was good value and we will probably make a return visit.

We wander back to the hotel by midnight and Ella catches up on the episode of Gavin and Stacey that she fell asleep half way through last night.

Posted in Bangkok, Far Eastern adventures, Thailand | Tagged Baipai Cookery School, Bangkok, Cookery class, Pad Thai, Thailand, travel | Leave a comment

Day 1, 10 July 2012 – Bangkok – discovering the thrills of a tuktuk ride

Posted on 10/07/2012 by magwood

It seems that ella has no problems with the accommodation (being a seasoned traveller she is used to much worse), but nevertheless, I can’t really unpack because there is nowhere to put anything.

We both wake late and wander off to find some breakfast. After this we stroll the streets which are a hive of activity. There are vendor stalls everywhere, lots of food stalls and the smell of it all makes me feel a bit queasy.

We wander for a while and then are accosted by a young Thai guy who persuades us to take a tuktuk to see various sights. He assures us that the driver is very safe and asks us to go to a commercial outlet so that the driver can receive a voucher for free fuel.

……..trust me – I’m a tuktuk driver………

So, we climb in and sit on the bench seat and I experience my first hair-raising ride on a tuktuk. It feels a bit like a cross between two fairground rides – sitting in the Noddy car on the baby’s roundabout crossed with the dodgems driven by maniacs – we didn’t actually get barged by any other vehicles, but the imminent possibility kept us very alert and giggling like nervous schoolgirls.

We visit several temples with various buddhas. The temples are beautiful structures, very ornate and colourful with lots of gold and red with twinkly mirror glass.

Ella is invited to bang the gong of happiness

The only gay in the temple!

In the event we are persuaded to visit four commercial enterprises, two tailors and two jewellery stores, and although we receive hard sell pressure from the shop assistants, we find it quite easy to resist any purchases.

Apparently the government have a scheme whereby the tuktuk drivers can charge only 20Tbhart (about 40p) for the trip, which can take hours, and in return customers are persuaded to visit retail outlets, which will be good for the economy, and by concession the drivers will get free petrol vouchers.

We do quite enjoy our trip which lasts several hours and we are finally dropped off at the royal palace, just as it is closing. At this point we are persuaded to take a river boat trip, which is very interesting, particularly seeing all the properties along the riverbank, built on stilts (mostly wooden shacks lilting very ominously towards the water).

The river is seething with big fish that come to the surface with their huge mouths open whenever they think there is a chance of being fed. It was like a frenzy of thrashing bodies in the water.

a thrashing mass of huge fish rise to the surface wherever they detect a chance of food

a thrashing mass of huge fish rises to the surface wherever they detect a chance of food

We have the boat to ourselves, although there is room for at least 20 people and we stop by a small floating market where vendors on boats selling souvenirs pull up alongside and are very pushy about selling us something. I buy a small toy for Mikey. The trip lasts about an hour, and as the bench seats are very uncomfortable, I am pleased to disembark.

a boat all to ourselves

the unusually designed pleasure boats

We wander around for a while and then negotiate a price for a tuktuk to the hotel – without a commercial stop!

We arrive back at the hotel at around 18:30 and buy some street food – pad Thai again (this stuff is seriously good, and so cheap), which we eat in our room and then we both zonk out for a couple of hours.

We venture out again around 23:00 to find a snack and again eat in the room, whilst I introduced Ella to joys of Gavin & Stacey.

Posted in Bangkok, Far Eastern adventures, Thailand | Tagged Bangkok, Far East, Pad Thai, street food, Thailand, travel, tuktuk | 2 Comments

Getting there, 8-9 July 2012 Malaga to Bangkok

Posted on 09/07/2012 by magwood

I set out for Malaga airport at 09:30 on Sunday 8 July and once I landed at Stansted I immediately tuned my iphone to radio5live in order to listen to the commentary on the Murray Wimbledon final. He was one set up when I first tuned in but went on to lose to Federer 3:1

He’s going to have to wait another year!

The bus from Stansted got me to Heathrow by 16:45 and my flight to Bangkok left a little late at 21:45 – we arrived at 15:15 local time, 9 July, after an 11.5 hour flight.

The queues for passport control were interminable but eventually I was able to take a 45 minute taxi ride into the city. I was glad I had done some research and I knew how much the fare should be because the driver tried to charge me double. I refused to pay more than I was advised and the driver didn’t put up much of a fight.

I was dropped at the end of a road, where the driver said I would have to walk to the hotel at the opposite end of the pedestrian street.
The hotel, is situated on the Khao San Road, a very busy area, full of shops, stalls and bars, very noisy and buzzy. It was quite an effort wheeling my case between the crowds and stalls and tuktuks, but I finally made it to the Rikka Inn.

Khao San Road, Bangkok

The room leaves a great deal to be desired, just big enough for two single beds, a view to a rusty fence on a neighbouring rooftop, AC which is either icy cold or off, three coat hangers, no drawers, and a small very basic bathroom. I didn’t unpack in case Ella also hated the room and we decided to leave and find somewhere a lot better.

I didn’t really feel comfortable exploring on my own so got a couple of hours’ sleep and then watched a few episodes of a tv series that I had downloaded to my ipad.

Ella isn’t due to arrive until much later – I think she lands at about 23:00 so I won’t expect her until the early hours.

She finally arrived just after 1:00 am and after a short while catching up we went out for a drink. The street outside is full of bars and shops and is still full of life with people everywhere. We wandered up and down for a while and stopped at a bar for a cocktail and some beer.

Khoa San Road, busy during the day, is absolutely buzzing at night

We stayed for a couple of hours, during which time the rain started and it absolutely lashed down, with rain bouncing off the street and lightening flashing above us. We have timed our trip during the rainy season, so we expect this to be a regular occurrence during our stay.

We ended up with some street food at 4:00am, pad thai noodles with chicken, which we took back to the hotel room and really enjoyed – excellent value.