Sukhothai to Bangkok
More pictures uploading as I type! My domain + /trip2/index.html. If nothing else watch the short video at the end, involving Thai animal noises - we compared English and Thai with our guide in Chiang Mai. Great moments in cultural exchange, as Zawji put it.
Would have had something up last night, but got to a very slow internet cafe, was almost done, and there was a neighborhood-wide blackout. Z and I grabbed a tuk-tuk (http://www.into-asia.com/bangkok/tuk-tuk/) back to the hotel because it was so dark everywhere, even though se were just a few blocks away. Sukhothai tuk-tuks are backwards - the seating area is in front of the modified motorcycle the driver is driving, as if you were sitting in an enormous bike basket. We were zooming around and the little old man driving the thing was having a fit of merriment, whether because of us silly farang or the blackout, I don't know.
Sukhothai was a little like Angkor and some of the architecture was Khmer-influenced, but they had structured beautiful green parks around the ruins and they were almost totally deserted, although we were told that during the peak season, November-January they have more visitors and even elaborate son et lumiere shows. We were, after a lot of luck with clear skies even in the incipient rainy season, finally getting overcast days, which meant we sweated and just stayed wet.
Wish I could keep up with a running list of everything we did, for heavens sake. Instead I'll list the amusing personal tics I've noticed among our traveling party:
When passing nice houses, Hank always asks our guides how much they would cost, converts Thai Baht to US dollars out loud, and then says, "That's really cheap!" He also changed his shirt in the middle of the checkin area at the tiny Sukhothai airport today, much to the amused shock of the staff.
Peggy goes on about how people use plastic chairs everywhere in southeast Asia.
When a guide is telling us about Buddhist stories or terminology, Zawji rushes to spit out the terms before the guide can say them, to show that he knows them.
I point out exactly how each thing reminds me of or is dissimilar to something in Syria, or occasionally other ME countries.
Luckily, no one seems to be annoying each other too much.
We're off to an island, Samui, tomorrow with our Bangkok hosts Ted and Alice, although Ted has to come later from a sudden business trip to Vietnam. Back Monday night, one more day in Bangkok, and then off to Tokyo! We will snorkel and sea kayak (yikes!) on Sunday in Samui.
Would have had something up last night, but got to a very slow internet cafe, was almost done, and there was a neighborhood-wide blackout. Z and I grabbed a tuk-tuk (http://www.into-asia.com/bangkok/tuk-tuk/) back to the hotel because it was so dark everywhere, even though se were just a few blocks away. Sukhothai tuk-tuks are backwards - the seating area is in front of the modified motorcycle the driver is driving, as if you were sitting in an enormous bike basket. We were zooming around and the little old man driving the thing was having a fit of merriment, whether because of us silly farang or the blackout, I don't know.
Sukhothai was a little like Angkor and some of the architecture was Khmer-influenced, but they had structured beautiful green parks around the ruins and they were almost totally deserted, although we were told that during the peak season, November-January they have more visitors and even elaborate son et lumiere shows. We were, after a lot of luck with clear skies even in the incipient rainy season, finally getting overcast days, which meant we sweated and just stayed wet.
Wish I could keep up with a running list of everything we did, for heavens sake. Instead I'll list the amusing personal tics I've noticed among our traveling party:
When passing nice houses, Hank always asks our guides how much they would cost, converts Thai Baht to US dollars out loud, and then says, "That's really cheap!" He also changed his shirt in the middle of the checkin area at the tiny Sukhothai airport today, much to the amused shock of the staff.
Peggy goes on about how people use plastic chairs everywhere in southeast Asia.
When a guide is telling us about Buddhist stories or terminology, Zawji rushes to spit out the terms before the guide can say them, to show that he knows them.
I point out exactly how each thing reminds me of or is dissimilar to something in Syria, or occasionally other ME countries.
Luckily, no one seems to be annoying each other too much.
We're off to an island, Samui, tomorrow with our Bangkok hosts Ted and Alice, although Ted has to come later from a sudden business trip to Vietnam. Back Monday night, one more day in Bangkok, and then off to Tokyo! We will snorkel and sea kayak (yikes!) on Sunday in Samui.
posted by Bint al-Gharb at 11:07 AM
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