Hi All,
We stayed in Chiang Mai for a couple more days before heading back to Bangkok. We went for a swim in the pool, and a chat to a norwegan diplomat at the hostel one morning which was quite nice but in the afternoon I found that I couldn't hear out of my right ear and figured it was just clogged. Perhaps putting my head underwater was not a good idea. Went to the local chemist who didn't have any earclear but recommended some 3% hydrogen peroxide which I purchased. Checked on the internet and it seemed to be alright from what we could find so tried it. Certainly got plenty of bubbles in my ears but the end result seemed to be that my ears both got worse. So not hearing well at the moment. This certainly is not good for my mood.
Next day.
Up early to catch the train to Bangkok. Got to the train station and found that it had been cancelled. Why? Train isn't working but might be going again in a couple of days. Got our money back and headed to the bus station and caught the 830am bus. I don't really like long distance buses but this one was fine.
The bus hostess was interesting. A Thai lady boy straight out of priscilla. Nice wig. Are mini skirts that short part of the uniform? S(he) was so proud of her breast implants that she unzipped her top to show them to us for a photo. We politely declined. Quite the character anyway.
Trip was also quite interesting as there were frequent police checks along the road. There is a bit of unrest in Bangkok at the moment with the 'red shirts' holding a protest tomorrow. The claim is that there could be up to 1 million protesters and the government has 50,000 police and military ready in case it gets out of hand.
It is amazing how many touts try and distract you from getting to a cheap taxi ride when leaving the bus station. They are so convincing. The trick is to have a plan before getting to them and stick to it. I had noted where the taxi rank was when the bus arrived so confidently ignored their 'help'. Didn't cost much to get to our hotel Roofview place.
Next day.
Floating markets.
Not far away from Bangkok are the Damnern Saduak floating market. We had read to get there early as it gets flooded with tourist (like us) from about 830am. We arrived at that time and there were only a few tourists but numbers were building rapidly. We were initially disapointed as we couldn't see any genuine floating market but we found some in a quiet section in some shade. Interestingly there also were not many tourist in the area. It was nice to find. We bought some bananas and went back towards the tourist area to feed some young elephants on display. When we got to the centre of the market we found some seats and just watched the number of boats full of tourists building up in the narrow channels and then the inevitable traffic jams. It was great viewing! The locals skillfully navigated around the jams with drinks and food making good trade.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
