We saw an elephant!
What a week its been!! I dont even know where to start!
On Monday we met up with Glynn - he was late and we were worried that we were at the wrong place or he was sick or he was standing us up but in the end he was just lost in Bangkok and we eventually found him (or he found us). We battled the public transport system to the river and then caught a river taxi over to the Grand Palace. The ride on the river taxi was awesome! Most of the houses along the river bank look as though they are about to crash into the river at any moment! We found the entrance to the grand palace and then before we knew it we were in a tuk tuk and zooming around the city toward a completely different temple (damn touts!) we never did get to see the grand palace but I had a great afternoon and the tuk tuk is a great way to see the city (though it is noisy and my lungs hurt from all the pollution).
After our tuk tuk adventure we headed to sukhumvit road where we found a lovely restaurant to have dinner (and cold beer!). We found a great little tourist bar after dinner where they gave us connect four to play while we drank! Glynn was officially the connect four champion (except when the waitress played - she kicked his ass!)
On Tuesday we went to the Damnoen Saduak floating market. It is a LONG way out of bangkok and took ages to get there but it was well worth the trip. The three of us hired a boat and went through the markets that way. It was a beautiful area with houses and shops built along the banks of the canal. We bought beer and lunch from vendors in boats and floated around the market. It was pretty awesome. Oh and we also bought some tiger balm.. god knows why!!! I guess we will get better at saying no as time goes on.
After the floating market we came back to the city and we took Glynn to the market where we had dinner with Gap and Mah on Sunday night. After dinner Glynn went off to see a thai boxing match (too expensive for us) and we went home for some rest (too much excitement for us!)
Wednesday and Thursday were quiet days. We spent a lot of time relaxing at home and hanging out with Gaps cousin Chun. She has been driving us around and showing us the sites and feeding us lots of thai food (we like her a lot!) On Wednesday night she took us to a movie (TOM YUM GOONG) which was a thai movie but mainly set in Sydney - it was bizarre to watch, there were english subtitles for when the thais were speaking and then thai subtitles for when the australians were speaking and then both when the chinese characters were speaking!!! it was difficult to figure out when we should be listening and when we should be reading!
Then last night Chun took us out to dinner again and on our way home, about 2 blocks from the street where we are staying there was an elephant!! just a baby one walking along the footpath with a little red light attached to his tail so that noone would run into him! He was huge and tiny all at the same time (its hard to explain!) I saw him before luke (we were driving home and i was in the front seat) but at first I was so surprised to see an elephant walking on the footpath that i just kind of stared at it. Finally i came out of my stupor and told luke just as we were driving up by it so he got to see it too. Unfortunately we didnt have our camera with us so we didnt get a photo (darn) the camera is now not leaving my side just in case we see something great like that again!
We have booked our tickets out of Bangkok as well, we are heading out by overnight train tomorrow evening to ko samui (one of the south islands). don't know how long we will be staying there for, we will just take it as it comes! I am looking forward to getting out of the city though, the pollution is just too much for me at the moment!!
Well our hour is almost up so I will sign off.
You will hear from us again soon.
Lots of love
On Monday we met up with Glynn - he was late and we were worried that we were at the wrong place or he was sick or he was standing us up but in the end he was just lost in Bangkok and we eventually found him (or he found us). We battled the public transport system to the river and then caught a river taxi over to the Grand Palace. The ride on the river taxi was awesome! Most of the houses along the river bank look as though they are about to crash into the river at any moment! We found the entrance to the grand palace and then before we knew it we were in a tuk tuk and zooming around the city toward a completely different temple (damn touts!) we never did get to see the grand palace but I had a great afternoon and the tuk tuk is a great way to see the city (though it is noisy and my lungs hurt from all the pollution).
After our tuk tuk adventure we headed to sukhumvit road where we found a lovely restaurant to have dinner (and cold beer!). We found a great little tourist bar after dinner where they gave us connect four to play while we drank! Glynn was officially the connect four champion (except when the waitress played - she kicked his ass!)
On Tuesday we went to the Damnoen Saduak floating market. It is a LONG way out of bangkok and took ages to get there but it was well worth the trip. The three of us hired a boat and went through the markets that way. It was a beautiful area with houses and shops built along the banks of the canal. We bought beer and lunch from vendors in boats and floated around the market. It was pretty awesome. Oh and we also bought some tiger balm.. god knows why!!! I guess we will get better at saying no as time goes on.
After the floating market we came back to the city and we took Glynn to the market where we had dinner with Gap and Mah on Sunday night. After dinner Glynn went off to see a thai boxing match (too expensive for us) and we went home for some rest (too much excitement for us!)
Wednesday and Thursday were quiet days. We spent a lot of time relaxing at home and hanging out with Gaps cousin Chun. She has been driving us around and showing us the sites and feeding us lots of thai food (we like her a lot!) On Wednesday night she took us to a movie (TOM YUM GOONG) which was a thai movie but mainly set in Sydney - it was bizarre to watch, there were english subtitles for when the thais were speaking and then thai subtitles for when the australians were speaking and then both when the chinese characters were speaking!!! it was difficult to figure out when we should be listening and when we should be reading!
Then last night Chun took us out to dinner again and on our way home, about 2 blocks from the street where we are staying there was an elephant!! just a baby one walking along the footpath with a little red light attached to his tail so that noone would run into him! He was huge and tiny all at the same time (its hard to explain!) I saw him before luke (we were driving home and i was in the front seat) but at first I was so surprised to see an elephant walking on the footpath that i just kind of stared at it. Finally i came out of my stupor and told luke just as we were driving up by it so he got to see it too. Unfortunately we didnt have our camera with us so we didnt get a photo (darn) the camera is now not leaving my side just in case we see something great like that again!
We have booked our tickets out of Bangkok as well, we are heading out by overnight train tomorrow evening to ko samui (one of the south islands). don't know how long we will be staying there for, we will just take it as it comes! I am looking forward to getting out of the city though, the pollution is just too much for me at the moment!!
Well our hour is almost up so I will sign off.
You will hear from us again soon.
Lots of love