Chiang Mai

aliciav — Fri, 3 Apr 2009 23:40:00 GMT

I missed a couple of days, but it hasn't been easy finding the time and place to update the journal.

Here's a summary of what the J-Man and I have been up to:

Saturday, March 28

Banglamphu Neighborhood, Bangkok

Straight to Villa Cha Cha hotel in Banglamphu from the airport to recover from the jetlag and uncomfy flights. Cost: 500 Baht with a metered taxi, of which 25 Baht was the tip.

Cute hotel with lovely pool, good food, air con, hot water, ants in the bathroom, and terrible at giving tourist information.

We pretty much slept all day and explored the neighborhood near our hotel - Villa Cha Cha. Checked out Khao San Road, a place where all the backpackers seem to come in Bangkok. Got harrassed by mototaxis - tuk tuks. We were quite overwhelmed by the heat (35 ish degrees and humidity)

Slept at Villa Cha Cha hotel.

Sunday, March 29

Banglamphu, Bangkok

Visited the Grand Palace. There is the location of the Emerald Buddha. The holiest site in Thailand. I needed to borrow a skirt since I was wearing capris (3/4 pants).

Wat Pho

Holy grounds with many structures and a temple...

Slept at Villa Cha Cha again.

Monday, March 30

Kanchanaburi

At 10 a.m., we grabbed a mini-bus to Kanchanaburi. That was great. We had a

lovely but simple room in Bamboo House for 500 Baht (approximately 500 divided by 10,

divided by 3 = $17) for two.

That afternoon, we visited the Tiger Temple some 40 min away.

There we posed and petted tigers who seemed drugged. They were probably just

tired from the heat.... We decided to pay an extra $50 to feed and play with

tiger cubs :) They kept coming from behind to bite on Julien's ankles and one of also

attacked me from behind and bit me! My leg is healing nicely.

Tuesday, March 31

Switched hotels to a better one for 1250Baht. Had breakfast, hung out around the pool.

The took a train for 5 hours (return trip) just to check out a bridge. See the pic of the bridge.

Also checked out the Bridge over the river Kwai.

Slept at Bridge Over the River Kwai Resort.

Wednesday, April 1

Next day, left for Ayuthaya. Discovered that Ayuthaya is dirty, smelly, and infested with cockroaches. Wanted to get out of there asap.

Slept at the Ayuthaya Hotel and had a terrible breakfast.

Thursday, April 2

Visited ruins all day in Ayuthaya. Grabbed pizza at a pizzeria owned by a real italian. Grabbed the night train to Chiang Mai (from 7:50 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.).

Friday, April 3

Arrived at Chiang Mai. The weather is nice, not as hot as in Bangkok. More tourists, more English, cleaner city, more everything.

Booked a room at the Raming Lodge. Very nice.

Walked around town, we saw our first THai transvestite walking down the street.

Slept for a while...., updated this page.

Finally arrived

aliciav — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:37:00 GMT

The flight was long and pretty uncomfortable. The only good thing was the food on Thai Airlines.. It puts Air Canada to shame.

So we are finally at our hotel. There is particularly funky smell in this neighbourhood... it must be all the tourists. They are everywhere and walking about like they own the place.

Anyway, we should get going...

Alicia

Trying desperately to pack... but obviously using up valuable time to set this page up

aliciav — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:02:00 GMT

So here I am... 1 a.m. I am working tomorrow and need to finish packing my stuff quickly after work. I am behind, and the worst part is that I seem to have messed up my back a bit again. It feels stiff like a board and have a feeling that advils will be my best friend there... after Julien of course ;)

My flight leaves at 10:55 p.m. tomorrow. My mum, dad, and bros are dropping J-Man and me at the airport, isn't that soooo sweet!? I am only away for 5 weeks :) I know mum is going to cry, and I will too. I hate goodbyes... or see you laters.

I had my goodbye lunch today at work, it was nice and sweet. There are some great people that I will miss. Although we say we'll keep in touch, it's never the same...

Anyway, I gotta pack!!!! Will try to update this page as much as possible!

Love,

Alicia

Alicia's Album

Chiang Mai

Finally arrived

Trying desperately to pack... but obviously using up valuable time to set this page up