April 2012 – Page 4 – Where is Phil now?

What Wat is What – 2

Day 88, Sunday 01 April 2012, Ayutthaya.

Pinch and punch for the first of the month, no returns.

Not a bad sleep was had in my luxury pad in Ayutthaya, I have been going through one of those sleeping badly phases again and once I am in one I just have to ride it out. Breakfast here was great, eggs on toast, fruit, yoghurt, fruit juice and coffee (instant was free, which suits me fine). I also woke up to some nice wordy emails this morning, so yay thanks family and friends ! I do love them.

Today was bike day and I was going to ride and see the western sites today with a plan to do the east tomorrow. My butt is still a bit raw from the riding around in Inle so no point in doing a long and uncomfortable day when I can do it slowly. I also want to avoid being out in the worst of the days heat as I am still a bit dehydrated and well there is no point in heat stroke either. My wheels were Ok, seat a bit low and the chain rattled like mad, so at least people knew I was coming !

The first stop was Wat Suwan Awas, it was not particularly exciting with the exception of this stunning Buddha, I just love this image.

Wat Cherng Tha. I liked this site as I was the only person here !

I particularly liked this pile of old broken plastic Buddhas, old photos and things that people had left on the various ruins.

I then cycles a couple of KM’s out of town to Wat Phu Khao Thong, though there was only this massive pagoda there it was well worth a visit. The building, like a lot around here is not exactly straight…. there was a group of photogs here, reminded me of some of the great Flickr meet-ups we had in Auckland – and the fact I just missed one at wonderful Muriwai beach : (

I rode back around the road on the outside of the river and found this bizarre park/temple thing, not sure what it was, it was like a small theme park, lots of statues, games amid the small temples. Weird… I had an awesome lunch there and later discovered I had again knocked the camera on to manual focus so most of the pictures here had to be deleted.

Wat Chaiwattanaram is one of the big guns at Ayutthaya but sadly was closed due to damage from the floods late last year. I took a photo tomorrow (which was yesterday as I type) that shows the water line on the temples.

St Jospehs Church – not often I get to take photos of churches ! The Portugese had a settlement here in the 1800’s

Wat Phutthaisawan. All around Thailand, and in every Thai restaurant in NZ are photos of the King, this one is on top of piles of sand bags used to keep water out of the temples during the floods. I am not sure how successful that was sorry!

There is always one who refuses to conform.

A ride on ride off ferry across the river.

Wat Worachetha Ram. The Thai used to put valuables, gold, rubies, jewels etc into the heads of the buddhas, when the Burmese sacked Ayutthaya they cut all the heads of the buddhas looking for the valuables.

My last Wat for the day – Wat Lokaya Suttha, i was not the only one. Loads of buses filled with Chinese tourists came here to see the reclining Buddha.

I was the only one walked around… the wats are all very clean, there are hoards of people sweeping leaves and rubbish off the ruins and if you poke around, like I do, you are sure to find a broom or two.

I then rode back to a cafe near the guest house and watched the sunset over the ruins while eating dinner. Dinner was had at the same place I had lunch, spring rolls and Thai basil rice with vege and tofu – they had run out of chicken !. It was damn good and very hot !. I am a wee bit skinnier than normal and in a semi-state of hunger all the time so have vowed to eat more and more often.

Well after nineteen days I finally took some concrete pills, some deep breaths and marched into the bathroom with the trusty Gillette in hand and had a shave. It was a real mission I can tell you, and my face is hardly smooth as a babies bum now, but good to get it done.

This was followed by a repeat of last night, music, RTD’s and blogging.

What wat is what ?

Day 87, Saturday 31 March 31 2012, Ayutthaya.

I didn’t really sleep that much last night, though it was unfair to call the place a flea pit as I woke this morning with no bites on me anywhere ! I got up and had the first cold shower in weeks. One of the benefits of travelling with Mike was we generally stayed in slightly more up market guest houses (yet still cheap) than I normally did on my own and most had at least lukewarm showers.

After packing up my gear Giovanni and I went and met R and B for another final breakfast together. After saying goodbye to the three of them for the second time I headed off to the river for the boat down to the train. I enjoyed the few days I spent with G and R n B and hope to maybe see them in their home towns one day.

I had originally planned to go to Kanchanaburi, the home of the Bridge over the River Kwai, but was told there was not a lot to do there for the four days I have to kill before heading back to Bangkok for my early flight to Da Nang in Vietnam on the 4^th. So I ended up deciding on Ayutthaya instead. Both towns are within a couple of hours of central Bangkok so no drama getting to either. I chose Ayutthaya as it was once the capital of Thailand and has a number of old temples to check out, and yes I still love old temples. Plus I have hardly used my camera in days and you must all be sick of blog posts that are not full of pictures. I may have to do some tests and see how many people actually read the words!

I caught a couple of trains to Victory Monument and then walked around in the brutal heat of 9.30 am looking for a mini-van that went to Ayutthaya, the vans are supposed to be only slightly more expensive than the bus, but get you there a whole lot quicker. As it turned out the mini-van was less than the guide book said at only 60baht for the ride, and it was new, air conned and we all had our own seats, it also only took 1 half hours to get there too – bonus start to the day. From the bus station I got seriously ripped off by a tuk-tuk driver in getting a lift to the hostel I chose off the internet – Prom Tong mansion. The tuk-tuks here are totally different to anyway else – still three wheels but that is about the only thing they have in common with others, this is a typical design, but an extravagant paint job.

I am going to have to say it lives up to its mansion name ! about $4 a more than the good hostel I use in Bangkok, but wow a world of difference, big room, the most comfortable bed I have slept on in weeks (if not months) , great breakie etc etc. My only complaint is the channels on the TV are rubbish – and no football ! I got used to nights in watching the beautiful game. The other thing I liked about it was the manageress took time to explain to me all the key sites in town, gave me a map and a guide book and recommendations on the best way to see them – without any suggestions of tours. I really appreciate it when hostels do this, and it was only the second time in three months.

It was mid-day, roasting hot – but not as humid as BKK, when i set off for a walk to the wats close to the guest house.

Ayutthaya is an island town built where three rivers – Mae Nam Lomburi, Chao Phraya (the main river in BKK) and Pa Sak, meet. Building of the capital city commenced in 1350 by King U-Thong and it was the centre of Thailand until being sacked and burnt by the Burmese in 1767. The current town has been built around the ruins. There are numerous sites all around and I have decided to break things up into 3-4 hour days and see the place over a few days, I like the hostel so no need to rush and it is damn hot outside !

At the first wat I had my first banana pancake of my travels, I have not consciously avoided them but banana pancake is also the name given to a type of traveller who follow a reasonably fixed route of party towns around SE Asia, anyway it was nice…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Pancake_Trail

First stop was Wat Maha That – which features the wonderful Buddha head in a tree.

The wats here are not in the same condition as either Angkor or Bagan, and sadly due to the flooding last year close access to a number of the sites is not allowed. There is also minimal carvings or murals to be seen. Part of me agrees that these sites are ‘as found’ and not overly renovated, but I do really miss the carvings.

What I did love with all the things I have seen here is the unrepaired Buddha figures, though many parts have been put together to form vaguely recognisable figures, i found them exquisite and have many photos.

Wat Ratchaburana

Inside the central pagoda in this temple was a stairway leading down to a small grotto with some lovely mural work. This apparently has also been recently discovered.

Wat Tummickurat

Like a number of the temples in town this temple had a working monastery attached. These monks were doing laps of the old monastery.

Wat Phra Si Sanphet

And the final Wat for the day

Wat Phra Ram

Tourists can take an elephant tour around the outside of the grand palace area, I didn’t do one as I do not agree with them in principle but I guess the elephants are probably better looked after than some working elephants in SE Asia.

I was pretty wrecked after almost four hours of walking, I foolishly decided to walk in jandals (flip flops to you readers not from NZ), instead of my usual sandals – my feet really did not appreciate the lack of padding and were quite sore by the time I got to lie down later in the day. After a shower I wandered down to the local market and had a meal and a beer and then stopped to buy an ice cream and some Smirnoff Ice RTD’s to take back to the room – a huge Saturday night in…

you will be pleased to know that there will be more temples tomorrow : )

My nephew Fraser is a great young musician and is the drummer in a two piece band, Heroes for Sale. He has an awesome record collection (mine) and a very good taste in music (just stay away from the dance music Frase, OK). His band played one of their first gigs a few days ago as part of the Titirangi Festival of Music and I so wished I could have been there to see them. Awesome stuff Fraser.

Not sure if the linky will work…

I ate a grasshopper – intentionally.

Days 84, 85 and 86, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 28/29/30 March 2012, Bangkok

Wow today (Wednesday) I celebrated 5 months of being unemployed ! wee dram, alone in the room etc etc – but that was later in the day, honest !

Did sod all on Wednesday, got up late, my room has air con and wifi so there is no reason to go out, Bangkok is foul at the moment, hot and humid so not going to go out unless necessary. So blogging and email was all I did in the morning, mid-afternoon I caught the train to MBK mall with the aim of buying a couple of shirts, a pair of shorts and replenishing my panadol and bathroom kit. I could not find any shorts I wanted, nor a light weight running shirt – at a price I wanted so settled for a couple of t-shirts.

I had dinner at the yellow curry place at the end of the hostel street, $1 and it is great and then went back to the room for a couple of whiskies and more blogging, emailing etc.

Thursday morning I booked my flights on the 4^th April to da nang – Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City on Air Asia and HMC to Da Nang on Vietnam Airlines and applied for my Vietnam visa on line. I then left the hostel into the oppressive heat and made my way to the China Visa office. I was kinda thinking that this would be more straightforward than Myanmar as not many euros would bother trying to do a visa from here, what I totally forgot about was lots of Thai people want visas’ so there was a massive queue…

I know a few people who have China visas with no detailed plans to visit, no flights booked or accommodation reserved. My research on the internet suggested that this was OK, but it was not. I waited for almost four hours in queues to have my application rejected as I had no flight booked. I was disappointed to say the least. If I decide to go I will have to apply when I am in Vietnam but at least I will have a plan then.

A while ago I read a couple of crime novels by John Burdett that were set in Bangkok, I recently discovered I had all four books on the e-reader so started reading them again, now that I can put a few of the place names in context, the stories are a lot more interesting now. The lead detective’s mother runs a brothel on a street called Soi Cowboy, which I thought was made up, it isn’t !

I saw it from the train station at Asok when I changed from the Skytrain to the MRT on the way to the China visa office, so I nipped down to the street to take a photo, and no I did not go in,

The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent doing more blogging, they take so long to write so by the time I was getting to the last few days I have noticed the mistakes are creeping in and the sentences are getting shorter.

I had an email from Giovanni saying he was in a flea pit hostel up by Khao San Rd (KSR) and was meeting R n B up there tomorrow. In Myanmar I vaguely committed to joining them up there and as I had not stayed in the area, and it is something that all back packers should probably experience – and most under 25 do – plus a few unrepentant hippies, I agreed to meet him up Friday.

So Friday morning I checked out of my nice clean, air conned, wifi’d hostel and caught a couple of trains and the boat up river to KSR and checked into the flea pit Sitdhi Guest House. It is under a quarter of the price of my old place and the room is like a cell in the middle of the building with no windows, it has a single bed and a fan in the room. It is hot hot hot and humid humid humid. It is not that close to KSR so hopefully will not be too noisy at night ( well that was a stupid thought !).

I spent an hour or so slowly dying in the room due to the heat and then decided to go for a walk around and found a bar with wifi and have a beer under a fan and do some interneting. I took a walk out the hotel – it was almost cooler outside, even under the mid-afternoon sun, and almost immediately ran into Richard and Blothnard (R n B) who were picking up a bag they had left in Bangkok while in Myanmar. We made a plan to meet later and i went back to the Sitdhi to find G and let him know the plan. I lay dying in my room for a bit longer and then had to leave for that beer and fan. The four of us all met up at 6.00, had a beer and then went in search of some cheap eats and t-shirts on KSR.

We had a great noodle meal for a buck and then G bought a bag of bugs for us to share….

Grasshoppers, crickets and grubs – I thank God he didn’t get the cockroaches – they were huge. I tried one of each, they were OK, deep fried and almost like a chip, but I ate them hesitantly as you just don’t know if juices are going to explode in your mouth when you bite into them… a bad photo, but I am eating grasshopper ( not the one from Kung Fu 🙂 ).

After the bugs we wandered for a couple of hours around KSR, it was pretty much as I expected, loads of cheap clothes and tourist stuff, and a load of noisy bars full of people drinking buckets of liquor ( a bucket is literally a small bucket, I would guess a litre, that is filled with cheap booze) and massive containers of beer. It was starting to get rowdy when we wandered off back to the quieter part of KSR and had a beer together before going back to our rooms. I grabbed a bottle of Pepsi on the way back and had a couple of drinks before lying on my bed sleepless for the rest of the night. The room was not quiet ! Amazing how many people after a night out managed to eat something that upset their stomachs.