Hey everyone - you may have noticed that Safia is also enterng stories on here so don't be confused if I suddenly seem to start talking about myself (it's probably her). She's likely to talk more about nasty animals and food than me!
Ok, so when Safia last wrote on here she was waiting for me to sort out my finances as I had been to a couple of ATMs to withdraw money and it hadn't worked so I ended up having to ring my bank from Bangkok to tell them again that I am in Thailand and that I need to be able to use my bank card here. Even though I called a few weeks before we left so I wouldn't have this problem. Anyway they sorted it for me and so I got money out at the next available cash point. Only problenm was after I put my money away I realised that the machine was overlooked as it was in a multi storey open plan sort of shopping mall and that a man had walked away writing something just as I finished with the ATM....hmmmmmmmmm I thought and so got another chunk of money out from another machine and then called my bank again to get them to cancel the card as I probably have enough money now with cash and my traveller's cheque. Decided it wasn't worth the risk.
Anyway eventually we managed to get a private longtail boat round the canals on the side of Bangkok noone usually visits and persuaded the driver not to stop at the nasty tourist stops. So we ended up seeing some tiny little shanty type 'houses' and some quieter residential areas from the water. We finished off at a Wat on that side of the river even though it was closed by that time and took lots of photos through the gate. Again we were quite proud of ourselves as we then took a cross river ferry (not a farang/foreigner in sight) and then caught the express boat back to catch the sky train to a night bazaar that we visited for the first time the night before.
It was so mahhisive that we hadn't managed to walk round half of it before we had to leave the first time and so we went back to try to buy some things we refused to pay for the first time. So have a few more gifts to lug round in our bags now....
Yesterday we travelled from Bangkok to Sukhothai by train, bus and lots of walks with our backpacks on. Fascinating and also gave us an idea of the sort of carriage we are going to be in on our overnight train down south in a few days (there weren't any sleeper spaces left!!!!). Richard Branson needs to visit the trains here - we got drinks regularly and two meals on a 4 hour journey and a little guy mopped and swept the aisle a number of times during the journey)
The guesthouse we are staying in is amazing. We've got a little bungalow with a four poster bed and muslin curtains to keep mozzies out, air con and there's a hot tub (not hot obviously) and some lovely hammocks too.
Sukothai is amazing - I've never seen so many interesting ruins in one place and we've only seen about 6 out of 50 in the area. We hired bikes and have apparently not forgotten how to ride, though we are both wobbling far more than we did when we were kids.
Tomorrrow we are going to get up at 5 to cycle (dewspite having sore bums from the bike seats) to a hill 5 kilometres away in time to catch sun rise. Well that's the plan anyway and then we'll be able to get back to the guesthouse in time for breakfast. This morning we got beautiful little apple bananas (I got double as Safia doesn't like bananas) and a piece of honeycomb complete with bees still in it!!!).
Anyway, will let you know how it goes but it may be a few days til we can write on here again. Missing you all loads.
Time to go and pack up again....only fits in one way now!
xxxx Kim
