Travelling thoughts day 2 through to day 4

Actually as usual getting out of bkk is a headache and there never seems to be a simple way. The various mods of public transport are poorly linked, don't get you where you want to go, and the roads are impassable most of the time. I get a boat down to thaksin bridge to pick up the sky train. This is actually going in the opposite direction from the one I need, but I figure it will be more relaxing, maybe Ben quicker, certainly cheaper than sitting in a taxi. After getting on a train that went the wrong way, in spite of the signage on the platform, I do get to mo chit station. With a name the same as the required bus station you would think they would be reasonably near. Not even within walking distance. A 20 minute bus ride away, but at least there was no fare...no conductor on the bus at all. Mo chit bus station is a sprawling and confused mess, and I need to go from one sides to the other,through a rabbit warren of market stalls, and end up at a terminal building of 3 floors. After asking at several counters I finally find the counter for nang rong. Whilst waiting I get a soup and end up chatting with a Thai woman with a young child. She has an Australian husband and is back in Thailand on a visa run and trying to get her daughter to Australia. I get the impression it's a marriage of convenience. She gets a life for her daughter, he gets an obedient pretty woman. She's is already saying she plans to go there only for around 5 years. I guess there is nothing wrong at all with this. I'm sure in faring marriages both parties know it isn't real love. I wonder if its the same with gay marriages....from the Thai guys I have met, I can see that their are always ulterior motives. Take what you can get then thanks and see you.

Arrival in nang rong after 5 hours. It's dark, quiet, the taxi drivers chatty but not pushy, and they leave me to my own devices, ie walking to honey inn. Along a busy main road. I miss the turning, make a call, and one of the women from the inn comes and gets me on a motorbike. At first I get the feeling she runs the place, yet the whole time I'm there the one who is always there, and cooking, cleaning, renting motorbikes, trying to make communication, is the cute 70 year old, or so I guess, grandmother.

Phanom rung. This is the place I've wanted to visit several times but its always seemed too far or too complicated.

Phanom rung is a Khmer temple the same style as Angkor wat and its on top of an extinct volcano surrounded by rustling bamboo trees. Hardly anyone there other Ghana plethora of young painters from khon kaen university at each corner of the site. The place is calm, spectacular, relaxing, with lily ponds and monstrous red dragon flies. It follows the layout of a long bridge with lotus bud columns. Climb a steep flight of steps flanked by the naga serpent. More steps takes you to the plateau where there are lily ponds, extensive view to probably Cambodia and a view straight through the main entrance which carries on past the central silhouetted linctum stone to the opposite door. This is bisected in the middle by an east to west passage that similarly passes through several doorways, dark to light to dark. The roofs are mainly intact and the central carved tower with scenes of Krishna and vishnu. Fortunately the day is cloudy and I'm not going to get burnt. Famous last words maybe...

I carry on winding down the steep road to prasat meung tan, a Khmer sanctuary..impressively restored,the 4 l- shaped ponds with lilies buds are most enchanting

.

A posse of young school kids in blue shirts are sketching the ruins, many call out hello and how are you in English. I spend a meditative few hours here before a slightly uncomfortable ride back, the road now busy with trucks, overtaking each other willy nilly. I catch some glimpses of the rural life here. Old farmers wearing longyan with. Water buffalo crossing the roads, farmers planting paddies, wooden houses on stilts.

I decide to explore nong rung by motorbike. Not a lot here. The night market has a stall full of many new tropical fruits to me. The potato like one tastes of grapefruit. I get a banana pancake, recharge my phone and bump into Francois the French postman and his wife from reunion who are also staying at honey inn. I use my phrase book to point and show to manage to get a meat free pad thai, which is so so.

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

What does khaosan road, bangkok offer?

 

2 for 1 Chang or singha or Leo beer

Vodka buckets

Tattoos

Cheap suits

Pad Thai

Sexy lady, you want?

Smoking? You want? Opium, you want?......?.

Laughing gas

Neighbouring bars out- doing each other with deafening techno

Groups of ladyboys

Farang bars with reruns of premiership football

T shirt stalls

Laser pointers

Fried insect stalls (photo 10 baht)

Bemused European children in tow behind their " cool" parents

Frazzled island hoppers

Amputee buskers

Fake degree certificates

Oh, and also McDonald's, burger king, KFC

Tuk- tuk drivers and taxi drivers trying every conceivable way to meet whatever needs you have..or rather to tempt you

Babylon?

I can see how many people love this

But....

These are all things I do not come to Thailand for

Posted with Blogsy

Day 3

Don't feel like writing now, so here are some pretty pictures from Buriram and the Khmer ruins.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Day 1 landed and ensconced

Another mammoth journey, and now deeply entrenched in Bangkok. Vietnam airlines wasn't so bad, but obviously a step down from etiadh etc. vy limited in flight entertainment, and mostly Vietnamese films and music...but anyway I couldn't be bothered. Service not so much with a smile, and forgetful! Anyway, my neglected gin and tonic order becomes 2, what joy. Hard to sleep with the overhead screens on all night, and flickering with Bruce willis escaping exploding cars in Russia, though it looked suspiciously like Budapest to me. There's a woman across the aisle who seems to be vomiting with alarming frequency.

The transit in Ho Chi Minh could have been smoother, but for absence in signs, procedures or systems. Ho chi minh hasn't quite got it together to be a modern transport hub!

So, having left at 1pm uk time, and with the journey taking 14 hours in total, it didn't fit my body clock to sleep until arriving in Bangkok, but by then it was morning, and 30 degrees. An experimental languid journey in getting from the airport to khaosan area, where my hotel is. The train is fine, the 2 sky train journeys are fine, and the leg on the chao praya express (tourist boat) was slow but cool.

 

The big mistake came when I got off at the pier for the king's palace, and had to push my way along a pavement teeming with Buddhist trinket and cold drink sellers, and food hawkers. that indefinable but quintessential aroma of bangkok, hits me and hangs like a fugue in the heavy sticky air. To my amazement only one tuk tuk shark heckled me. They must be losing the knack, or maybe I have the aura of I know what their game is?? The walk was taking an age, and actually I wasn't even quite sure how far I still had to go, so I jumped on a moving number 1 bus, and pay my 15p or whatever, then the bus reaches a grinding halt. The bus in front has had an incident with a large woman on a motorbike who is now involved in an altercation with the driver. Once we get going again progress is rapid, but I still manage to get off too late and have to walk the last few hundred metres. An epic journey just to get to my hotel. It's called the green house and is above a lively backpacker travel agency and restaurant. The room is surprisingly quiet and comfortable, and I'm glad I'm not on the khaosan road.

I have wifi and I get a sim, but no word or reply from hon. I'm beginning to believe my hororoscope from the evening standard that told me prepare to be let down by someone and make a plan b. ominous, bearing in mind my choice of book for this trip is a re-read of tiziano terzano's " a fortune teller told me" , in which the writer against his own better judgement decides to follow by letter of the prediction the words of a Hong Kong fortune teller. Anyway after a kind of doze, I hear from him and we make a plan to meet.

Downstairs in the travel agency nobody has the faintest idea about how I should get to nang rong. In fact neither the young American guy nor the Thai woman have heard of it. Surely not so strange a route..I thought this was the place to use as a base for phanom rong.

It's started to rain and I go looking for the little courtyard restaurant I found years ago with fabulous vege food. It's empty as before, and feels forlorn and forgotten. There are many Thais coming in and out with bags of ice, crates of drink, a trolley with an amp and sound system. Busy, but to what ends? Maybe this is party city at night time. The cook ( maybe ) watches volleyball on tv, whilst a young guy comes up his fin in the mirror by the bar.

I order spicy wing bean salad and its very spicy! Sweet, aromatic, hot...just what I had hoped. And a mango shake. My favourite.

Once you make it into Bangkok you feel almost trapped, so time consuming and slow is it to get around. So dense and impractical is the traffic. I don't want to stay here too long, but tiredness and the need to recover is going to be a factor.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Departure, next stop BKK

A weird night of dreams of expression and repression, and best not described here. Waking up to a calm flat and ready for the off. I've left a jungle of plants for Fran to take care of, and I wonder how they will fare without me. The only decision left to make is how soon to get to Gatwick for check-in. It's a typical English summer day: breezy, damp, bright. Bangkok is also looking wet, but much hotter. Looking forward to eating when I get there (already). I will be there in 18 hours or so (I can't work it out with the passing through time zones). See you on the other side!

August-September itinerary

View 2013 Thailand Trip in a larger map

Waiting to go

2 days until I fly to Bangkok for Asian adventure number 6...wow...I've eaten all the food in the fridge, and pared down my packing to as bare a minimum as sensible. It seems I'll be there in the rainy season....