Yeah, I need to lose a bit of weight, I
know...Onwards...
Bangkok truly is a huge city. Returning
from Ko Phi Phi, Robin and I have landed again on Kaohsan Road also
known as Backpacker's heaven. This time I was firmly decided to see
more of the city and it has been a success. Robin has had a painful
swollen throat for a few days and has decided to go to an expensive
hotel to enjoy the comfort of a 5 star hotel at the price of a 2
stars in Geneva. He is leaving back to holland today. I will be
continuing my visit in Thailand in Chiang Mai which should be much
colder and quiet than the capital of the country.
Meanwhile, I have been walking around
the Koahsan road area, which is packed with temples and interesting
parks and building. I have been taking pictures like a japanese
tourist on steroid (reminder to reader : « Say NO to
drugs »). Over the past few days:
-I went to a thai boxing stadium to
watch a few matches. I was surprised at the body size and age of the
fighters. The first match was between two 12 years old boys (weighing
about 41 kg) who did not make any favor to each other. The highlight
of the match was between two 20 years old (weighing exactly 60 kgs
each) and it was not for the faint hearted. The match ended after the
fighter in blue short repetedly hit the other boxer with a dozen of
knee hits in the stomach. He then fell on the floor and the referee
interrupted the match. Quite enlightening.
I went to the national museum
where I managed to catch up on all the thai history I had never been
exposed to. I now have the basics of thai history, no sure for how
long though...The rest of the museum enabled me to also learn more
about thai culture and artefacts. I am not much of a museum lover,
yet going to the national museu enabled me learn a lot and since I
was on my own, I did it at my own pace which rocked.
-I also visited to the Gloden mount,
which a temple build by Rama IV (who as the king was partly in charge
of promoting the buddhist religion). It has been built on the top of
a hill and going to the top enables one to have a great view on the
magnificent city of Bangkok and its surroundings.
-I went on a day trip to see the
floating marketing which was real fun (pics are included in the
« Bangkok Madness – The Return » photo
album). Then there was another snake show which I happily passed on.
We then went to the Kwai River Bridge, made famous by the film from
the sixties. The view was very nice but guess what : once again, I
forgot to load my camera batteries. Thankfully, there were two
koreans girls on the day trip who accepted to take pics for me and
send them – so keep your fingers crossed to see the pictures. The
nearby World War 2 museum was merely a pile of junk mixed with a
building site. You know how I like to be optimist but this time it
was really not worth the visit. The day trip ended with the visit of
the holiest pagoda in Thailand, but I forgot the name. Was huge and
magnificent though. Oh, and if you are disappointed with the lack of
precision of my explanations, I recommend that you go check it
yourself, it is really worth it.
So what's next ? Well, I am now going
to the north of Thailand : Chiang Mai. I'll take the buse tonight
aroud 6pm t arrive at 6am the next day. This is not a sleeping bus
BUT roads are way better in Thailand than in Vietnam so I might be
able to get some sleep :) Coool !
Stay plugged, there is more coming !
C.
PS to my niece: Provence, there are
many elephant pics for you in my latest photo album; I hope you like
them ;)
