Day 33-40 Ko Pha Ngan to Bangkok to Ayuthaya to Laos!

wooo! long time no write! we were really busy in bangkok and ayuthaya and then the internet in laos has been reeeeallly slow so i haven't had a chance to update until now. since i have so many things to write about i'm not going to be very detailed. sorry :o/ when i finally upload all our pictures hopefully they'll fill in the blanks :o)

Day 33 - journey to bangkok

we took a taxi to the boat, a boat to the mainland, a taxi to the train station. then we hung out and ate dinner at a little thai place.

then we took the night train aaallll the way up to bangkok. we left at like 9 or 10 pm. arrived at 8 or 9 am. we didn't sleep very well because it was a fan only car. should have gotten an a.c. one.

bangkok was pretty crazy! LOTS of traffic! HOT! noisy, tons of people, shops, food, lots of weird smells, etc., etc. we stayed at rambutri villa and it was probably the most conventional, nice clean hotel we've stayed in. they had a pool!

we stayed near the famous khao sahn road that's touristy and filled with food carts, shopping stalls, some restaurants and bars....and lots of people! the most interesting thing we saw there was insects for sale for the purpose of eating! they had scorpions, giant roaches, grubs, etc. no we didn't eat any but i got a picture of them! ;o)

first order of business was to get me a new camera! we went to this huge electronics market called pantip plaza and went straight to a camera store and bought my canon powershot d10! i love it! it's waterproof up to 33 feet, shatterproof up to 4 feet and freeze proof down to 14 degrees. also it takes great pictures!

next we played around in this mall in the arcade, used a massage chair, did karaoke, got coffee and then we went to this international world music and bbq festival for dinner which was AWESOME! we saw a cuban band, a zydeco band from lousiana/texas (jens talked to the singer and told him we were from texas too!) and a japanese band. they had ALL kinds of food and bbq for sale but we settled on lousiana bbq baby back ribs, cole slaw and potatoes au gratin! yeah we were in thailand and could have gotten satay or something but we just couldn't resist that homestyle taste! Po: at least we can blame the fact that we haven't lived in texas for over a year so we craved a taste of home ;o) we ate, we danced, we drank cheap beer and then we went to the movies. we saw avatar and it was AMAZING!!! the things they can do with cgi these days blows my mind. i loved the forest!

Day 34 - seeing sites in bangkok!

we took a river taxi to see the grand palace which was incredible! i had never seen a palace so ornate! it was covered in gold and mirrors and all things that shine and sparkle! amazing! then we saw wat pho (temple) and the temple of the emerald buddha. they were also awesome!

after site seeing in the heat all day we went back to the hotel and swam in the rooftop pool. more topless french women were to be seen- i swear they take their tops off every chance they get lol and we tried out the camera in the pool- it worked great! it was a little difficult to take underwater pics when we didn't have goggles but we still got a few good ones. can't wait to try it with goggles on though (we shipped ours to the states because we won't be doing any more snorkeling this trip).

Day 35 - took train to Ayuthaya

the train to ayuthaya was preeeetty crappy but at least it didn't take long. maybe 1.5 hours. we liked ayuthaya because it was much quieter and less touristy than bangkok. that being said you only need about two days there at the most. it was probably the hottest place we've been to so far. it's so hot you don't really feel like doing much during the day but there's not much to do at night at all. because it's not touristy there aren't many restaurants or bars. in fact i don't think i saw any bars lol i think most people just take a day trip to ayuthaya from bangkok so there's not much need for a nightlife there.

we stayed two nights and 3 days in this AWESOME old teak house. i think it's my favorite place we've stayed so far. i loved our bungalow right on the beach on ko pha ngan but this teak house in ayuthaya had so much character i think it wins out. it was made entirely of teak wood that had been smoothed down over years and years of use. i think jens said it was at least 100 years old. our room was small but really cute. we had an iron bed with white mosquito netting all around, antique night stand and dressing table and a lamp. there were some old sepia photographs on the walls of thai people and some pith helmets hanging on one wall. it felt like it took me back to another time.

downstairs was the front desk and restaurants, lots of tables and chairs and a big porch facing the river with more tables and chairs. the guest rooms are upstairs all around a central "lobby". there was just a bench and an old iron and board in the lobby and a big expanse of that smooth teak wood. i loved walking on it! there was also a really nice balcony upstairs overlooking the river where you could sit and read and contemplate. across the river from us was a gorgeous temple.

the bathrooms were shared and they were down a few stairs in another building adjacent to the main building. i usually don't like shared bathrooms but i didn't mind these at all because they were basically 4 private bathrooms. each one had a toilet, shower and sink so that was nice. no hot water but like i said the town was so unbearably hot we welcomed a cold shower at the end of the day.

anyway! moving on! lol i'm getting so wrapped up in the details i'm not going to have time to finish this post lol

in ayuthaya the main attractions are the ruins of the ancient capital city of thailand. they have tons of ruins all over the city similar to angkor wat (but not as extensive). the first ones we saw were pretty impressive. i took TONS of pictures and we stayed quite a long time. it was really peaceful because there are lots of grassy fields and trees all around and not many people so you feel like you're all alone walking in a nice park with these awesome ruins all around.

that night we wanted to eat in the night market but we found out that because it was sunday not many of the stalls were open. so we spend quite a while walking through this spooky seemingly abandoned night market lol we came across a butcher chopping up a pig and jens wanted his picture with him. so i took it and then right after this other butcher came barreling through with a cart-load of dead pig parts and hit jens in the leg! lol he got pig blood all over his pants but hey it makes a great story :o)

we finally found a little place to eat and got pad thai- it was good and only about 75cents!!!

Day 36 - more ruins in ayuthaya

we got up, had breakfast and went out to see more ruins. by the way we rented bikes to get around the city. it was pretty stressful trying to ride bikes on the roads with all these buses, cars and scooters going every which-way, especially in the round-a-bouts! ugh those were scary! i only had one minor accident though and it was really stupid, i was trying to ride the bike between these two concrete curbs and i hit the side of it which made me ram my arm into the handle bar and stub another toe! i still have the bruise on my arm on day 40 lol

anyway we saw more ruins but the heat was so dang strong! we saw about two sites and decided to go back to the hotel, take a cold shower and chill out the rest of the day lol

that night we ate at a restaurant that floats on the river and it was really cool!

Day 37 - last day in ayuthaya

we weren't too keen on seeing more ruins by bike so we just took a tuk-tuk straight to this site over the river on the mainland (the main part of ayuthaya is actually on an island that lies where 3 rivers converge). these ruins weren't quite as ruined as the ones we had seen previously and there were tons of buddha statues everywhere. next we went to the japanese settlement hoping they'd have a restaurant with ramen but it turned out to be a teeny tiny museum with no food. so we ate on a road side place and then went on to see the largest sitting buddha in all of thailand and some recently discovered solid gold buddhas, as well as a chinese temple that was really colorful and ornate.

then we headed back to the hotel to shower, hang out, eat dinner and catch a tuk-tuk to the train station where we hopped on yet another night train (the 4th of the trip) to go up to laos. we got an a.c. car this time and it was a bit nicer. we slept well!

Day 38 - laos

we arrived at the border to laos, went through immigration and the guy said- OVERSTAY!!! we were like what? he said you overstayed your visa! it ended feb. 1 and today is feb. 9! we were like what??? we thought they were 30 days! this visa is only for two weeks! he said you overstayed you have to go to this other office to pay the fine.

so we did and it was $270!!!!! $15 for each day overstayed for each of us! needless to say we were baffled and pissed. no one could tell us why we had a 2 week visa and not a 30 day visa. we looked in the lonely planet later and it distinctly said thailand gives 30 day visas! i have a feeling thailand just does that to screw people over and get money out of them. so there's a lesson for us- always double check the length of our visas! laos's is 3 months!

so we got to our hotel in vientiane and unpacked. we're staying at the riverside hotel- conventional with a soft bed, a tv (with cnn, bbc, french tv5, and an australian channel! pretty awesome! lol), a fridge, a.c., hot water, the works! no pool though.

we walked around the town a bit and it's really nice and quiet. lots of cute little restaurants, cafes and coffee shops and LOTS of french food which we're loving :o) you know, laos used to be a french colony so their influence is still seen today. we had dinner at la terrace and it was wonderful! we got a big salad with bacon, veggies, and apples, tender duck with an apple sauce, potatoes au gratin, wine, espresso and creme brulee! heaven!

Day 39 - laid back roaming around vientiane

breakfast at scandinavian bakery, roamed around, found a market selling all kind of things: roots, bark, etc. for tonics, loads of fabric for traditional dress, laos t-shirts, and bottles of scorpion snake wine! we bought a few souvenirs and had lunch and a laotian restaurant housed in a huge old colonial building. we felt under-dressed but no one gave us any looks lol we got a laotian set meal and it was huge! most likely meant for 4 people but we didn't know that when we ordered lol it was a good way to sample a lot of different laotian foods all at once though!

we had purple sticky rice, lemongrass fish and veg. soup, smokey eggplant and veg. stew, spicy eggplant veg. mix of some sort, chicken pieces cooked in banana leaves, salty pork, a fish cake, ground pork cooked in fish sauce and herbs, spring rolls, steamed veggies, and fruit. the ruit plate included a fruit we couldn't identify but it tasted really good so we asked what it was. the guy didn't know the name in english so he brought us a whole fruit. it was the size and shape of a kiwi but not hairy and more of a grey color. the fruit inside is a dull peach and it's really sweet. it almost taste like rum. the guy said it's called laomoot in laotian.

after lunch we were stuffed so we just did some internet and went back to the hotel to relax, watch tv, read and nap.

we got up around 5pm and had a big beer lao by the river and watched the sun set.

then we had dinner at la terrace again because it was so good but this time we got pizza. it was delicious! after dinner we watched a funny french movie in our room and then went and saw a band play at a nearby bar. they were pretty good but not very energetic.

Day 40 - TODAY!

we had breakfast at a french place that had wonderful pastries and the best honey i have ever put in my mouth. i asked a guy where they got their honey and i have no idea what he said so i'll have to search it out myself lol we saw some honey for sale at this little market yesterday so we may try there. we wanna get some and send it back to texas. i swear it was the most nuanced honey i've ever had! they harvest it in laos and i'm sure it's most likely organic and comes from bees that pollinate gorgeous tropical flowers or something lol. hope we can find some!

today we're going to rent a scooter and see some sites!

whew! there you have it - a whirlwind week of traveling in s.e. asia! are you tired yet? lol