Doi Suthep National Park

Just outside Chiang Mai the Doi Suthep National Park has a big temple complex built on top of a hill.

Next day we took the motorcycle out again into the national park to go around the Mae Sa valley. A very nice scenic route through the hills. This is one of the waterfalls along the way.

Chiang Mai

The bus from Sukhothai to Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is the second biggest city in Thailand and is in the north of Thailand. From here a lot of trekking is done.

Dogs are everywhere in Thailand. Really everywhere. These ones are just chilling out on the steps of one of the wats in Chiang Mai. At this temple complex I also had a chat with one of the monks, a 24 year old from poor family who's only chance of getting any education was becoming a monk. The chats with tourists were his way of learning english.

Everyday of the week has a seperate Buddha image. If you count correctly however, you see 8 small statues. Wednesday has 2, one for the day and one for the evening. I haven't figgured out why yet.

The 3-day trek to Doi Ithanon national park. Including elephant riding, visit to a tribe village and bamboo rafing.

Our guide, Mister P, was hilarious. This 59-year olf Thai guy was a former farmer and had been working as a guide for 5 years now. His english was actually pretty good, but he still kept repearing himself with only a handfull of sayings:

"Enjoy your life!!" This he would shout out very loud at any time, mostly during dinner, lunch or breakfast.

"Same same, but different"

"Buffalo soldier" Everytime we walked passed a buffalo. There this was not the only song-related saying.

"No woman, no cry - no whiskey I die" A free interpretation of the Bob Marley classic.

But Mister P was great. He cooked us dinner, carved us chopsticks and took care of entertainment.

Si Satchanalai

More temple ruins.....

The Si Satchanalai National Park is more difficult to get to than Sukhothai so we rented a motorcycle. It was a nice drive through the ricefields to the temple ruins. This park, although also a UNESCO site, was deserted. I think in total we saw less than 10 people looking at the temples.

Wouter was driving, I was sitting at the back.

On the way back, next to the highway. According to the sign describing this golden Buddha, this is 'the most beautiful Buddha in this possition'.

Sukhothai

The Thai kingdom was first established in Sukhothai. In this UNESCO herritage site a lot of temple ruins can still be visited. After a short ride in the pick-up truck, we rented bicycles to go around the temples.

In the park we stumbled accross a school class who were right in the middle of a ceremony. Boys on the right, girls on the left, all listening to a monk reciting. After this the flowers were offered to the Buddha.

Later, at one of the temples, we met a couple of the school girls again. They had a short survey, which they needed to complete to learn to speak english. So Wouter and I had to fill in our names and which Thai dish was our favorite.

Sugars birthday

The place to be at night was actually a local internet cafe next to the 7-eleven. Here Sugar, a Thai lady, had some stools out on the pavement and everybody would just either buy a drink from the 7-eleven or take it from her fridge.

This night it was her birthday, so she arranged for a big BBQ with some pad thai. Al, traveling after teaching english in Korea, got the cake thrown in his face.

Erawan waterfalls

A couple I met the night before at dinner, Landra and Opossum, where in Kanchanaburi as the last stop before going home to Seattle. They were experienced motorcycle renters and told me the best way to get around is on a motorcycle. It is actually a small scooter/moped, although it has a lot of power. So we head off for the Erawan Waterfalls, about 60km.

The waterfalls, inside a national park have 7 steps and a most of the steps you can go in to swim. This is the biggest pool where you can climb behind the falls. Inside the pool there are a lot of fish. If you stand still in the water these fish will come to suck your toes. A strange feeling to say the least.

At the fourth level, there were even slides in the rocks.

Walking up the different levels, we passed this tree. The Thai believe that trees and especially tall trees have a close relation with the Buddha. This tree was decorated with dresses and ribbons, which were a sacrifice to Buddha.

Caves, waterfalls and hell-fire pass

Together with Inge, my neighbour in the guest house, we went on a day trip to the waterfall Sai Yok Noi. We actually took the train which runs accross the bridge over ther river Kwai - because it left at 6AM it was still dark, so again no pictures.
At the waterfall there was a sign to a cave, so we walked up there. At a ranger station there was a sign indicating that if you want to go into the cave you should register. We expected that registering would mean that we would probably have to pay another 'foreigner fee', but decided to do it anyway. But paying the 100Baht didn't only allow us to go into the cave but we were accompanied by the local ranger with a flash light and gas lamp.
And the cave was huge with multiple chambers, stalagtites, stalagmites, curtains which made different sounds. A nice non-touristy experience.

On the same day we also paid a visit to the Hell-fire-pass museum. Here there was a dutch audio tour available, because a lot of dutch prisoners also worked on the railway going over the Hell-fire-pass. It's very impressive to hear the actuals stories of the survivors, while walking on the old railway tracks.

Kanchanaburi: the bridge over the river kwai

Kanchanaburi, a small provincial town west of Bangkok is famous for the Bridge over the River Kwai. During world war II the Japanese completed the Thailand-Birma railway by forcing 15.000 prisoners of war and 200.000 Asian workers to work under terrible circumstances.

When walking over to the bridge I forgot my camera, so no pictures...

I stayed at a real relaxing guest house, the jolly frog backpacker. They had a nice garden at the edge of the river, where you could just hang around in hammocks attached to the palm trees.

The longboat trip

Bangkok, like a lot of capitals, is built along a river. The mandatory longboat trip couldn't be missed. Together with Eric, a Chinese New Yorker who I met the night before, we went along the canals and the river.

What is a wat?

A 'wat' is the thai word for temple. In and around Bangkok there is loads of them. Around 80% of the Thai are Buddhists, so they need a lot of temples.

Some of the big wats in town are also the real tourist attractions, but a lot of them are really quite with just a few Thai offering insence or flowers to Buddha.


Wat Pho has an enormous reclining Buddha. Almost the complete building is filled with a golden statue of a lying Buddha figure. When walking in you need to be bare feet, so there is a hudge row of flip-flops at the entrance.
Inside this wat is was also possible to drop a number of small coins in a row of metal bowls. The sound of this would fill up the whole temple.

The Grand Palace. Entrance fee is free for Thai, like a lot of the tourist attractions. This hudge temple complex also has a miniature of Ankhor Wat inside.

Inside with the 'Golden Buddha'. I got here with the free 'shopping tuktuk'. A lot of the tuktuk drivers have coupons which give them 5 liters of free gas, when they take tourists to travel agents, suit shops or jewelery stores. But I managed to withstand the insisting salesmen at the suit shop and in return my tuktuk driver took me to a couple of wats and the palace.

First stop: Bangkok

After arriving at BKK airport, I shared a taxi with Simon from Australia to the hostel suk11 on Sukhumvit Road Soi 11, a nice hostel close to both the Bangkok skytrain system and the metro.

After walking around a little, passing Lumpini Park where the Thai were jogging and doing some aeobics with a big soundblaster I had some dinner at a night market.

Then for the first thing I had planned after arriving in Bangkok: to get a haircut and a shave. I wasn't really looking for a barber at that time, but I just happened to pass one. While I was looking, the shop from next door signaled at me to come in. So I did. This was for me the first time I ever got someone else shave me with a single blade and it was worth it...

Apartment just finished

From September 2008 until the start of my trip through Asia in February 2009 I've renovated my apartement in Rotterdam. Just before leaving for Bangkok the finishing touches were done and it was ready to be rented out to an expat.

I'm pretty pleased with the result and would like to thank everybody who has helped me out with the demolishion, renovation and giving me a place to stay while I was working on it.