james' excellent adventure: August 2006

Kia Ora all,

as per usual I'm running behind so this will be my central Thailand recap; After leaving Bangkok we headed north/west to the Kanchanaburi. It's a small town about the size of Greymouth (the comparisons end there) with lots of picturesque floating guest houses and bars moored to the river edge. However it scenic nature belies its grim past being the site of the infamous Japanese prisoner of war camp which housed laborers for the Thailand / Burma railway. We visited a couple of great museums about the railway run by Buddhist monks to remember the tragedy, both filled with Aussie package tourists who literally went through the exhibits in ten minutes scanning everything with a video camera for consumption later. We spend two nights at the Nita floating guest house which had a great open air (roof, no walls) restaurant attached, run by a husband and wife team who shared cooking duties. Although fairly tranquil, Kanchanaburi's biggest pulling card for asian and local tourists are their party river barges (Disco Duck was my favorite). Even being low season party barges plied the river from about lunch time to 2am screaming out the latest Thai pop and mounted sounding karioki. Then if you're a true Thai you move from your party bardge to one the many pimped up party buses (yes, they have disco balls installed).

From Kanchanaburi we took a series of 'ordinary' buses to Ayuthaya, the site of the former captial from 1350 to 1767. Buse-wise in Thailand you have the choice between 'ordinary' and air-con, and usually there not much diffence between the buses except the ticket price. I really enjoy taking the 'ordinary' buses, you get to travel with the locals and they're very cheap. One of the buses we took out of Kanchanaburi was completely amped up with subwoofers in the back and huge speakers placed along the luggage racks (mirrored ceilings too), the Thai pop seemed to get louder the closer we got to Ayuthaya. My expectation for Ayuthaya were too high, for what was the centre of Thai civilisation has been destroyed through modern development in and around the old ruins. Ayuthaya sits on island at the confluenced of three rivers and was a major place of trading with other asian countrys, India and Europe. We spent two nights there and hired bikes to see the many wat's, chedi and buddha that are dotted through the town. The highlight for me was visiting Wat Cai Wattanaram, which is just off the island. Here we got to climb the central wat and had a great view of the whole area.

After the disillusionment of Ayuthaya we caught the train to Phitsanulok. It was great to some landscape from the train - they actually let you hang out the door of the train and sit on the steps as it's going! We desided to stay in Phitsanulok and taker an hour bus ride to Sukothai, the site of the Khmer empire capital from around 1257. This place was the highlight of the trip so far for me; the ancient city and surrounding area has been left free of development and has been turned into a world heritage site. I lost count of the number of temples we visited, all amazing in their own way but the stunner was Wat Phra Pai Luang and it's huge buddha. As we cycled away the afternoon monsoon descended with the heaviest ran I've ever seen complete with lightening and thunder. After a day visit to Sukothai we took the overnight train to Chiang Mai from Phitsanulok.

Hope everyone is good. Will put up shots of northern Thailand in the next couple of days, just crossed over into Lao yesterday. Love to all, James.

p.s. also ran out of time on the computer so will load up soom more photos next time and past some captions on.

Hi there,

this is my third attempt at posting this blog, the rest were lost through sketchy internet connections so I'm playing catch up!

After battling through Bangkok it was great to get to the low key island of Koh Chang down the South East of Thailand. The island revealed to us the struggle Thailand is going through to balance growth while trying to maintain its true Thainess. We made the mistake of booking accommodate from Bangkok and ended up staying at super resort place which really wasn't our thing. We spent three night there and then headed down the island to some fantastic huts on the water front set between coconut trees at Lonely Bay which was more backpacker styles and way more relaxed than the rest of the island. This place was great just to chill out and do nothing but read and swing in the hammock at the Tree House Cafe we found - literally built out over the sea and at high tide the breakers felt like they would crash onto the deck! We checked out the rest of the island by scooter, getting over to the eastern side which was mainly agricultural with lots of rubber plantations and way less tourist. Best beach was definitely Bang Bao at the bottom of the west side of island with beautiful white sands, blue skies and a group of snobby Parisians. As Koh Chang is a national park, I found it hard to reconcile the level of development happening there which is seriously polluting the beaches and costline. All this is a government initiative to push the island to a more resort style of destination, and they seem determined to sacrifice anything to achieve this which is a real shame. However there are some real gems still on the island, like the Lonely Beach area, which means I'll be back.

After over a week at Koh Chang we headed back to Bangkok for a couple of days before relocating to Kanchanaburi (of Bridge over the River Kwai fame). A day was spent rambling around Pratunam markets in central Bangkok getting supplies before heading West. The markets were amazing, each stall crammed into a 2mx2m area or less, literally hundreds of these sitting either side of narrow 'streets' (900mm wide). The whole area has a roof over it, so it has a dark, grungy pertina with temperatures pushing 35 degrees combined with some intriguing smells made for some interesting moments.

That's all for now folks. Love James.

Magic Garden Cafe Koh Chang