Back to Bangkok

Khwap Ji la li,

Khwap Ji la li, li li li li li, khwap ji la li, li li li li li li

Or something like that!

That’s how we remembered how to say thank you very much in Laos! Singing it to the tune of I don’t know what….

‘So long Laos’ we said as we smoked on the banks of the Mekong river whiling away the last few hours in the country before our transport across the border to Thailand. A storm cloud approaching from the east, wait a minute, its approaching from the west too – we took shelter & ordered a bottle of beer each – (best thing to do in these situations) & watched the rain making its way towards us, for a few minutes we were having to shout to hear each other as the rain lashed down from the graying marshmallow above us, but by the time our beers were finished (yes only the one on this occasion) the skies were once again filled with sunshine, blue skies & the smaller more friendly looking fluffy white clouds, in about half an hour the only sign that the heavens had opened in such a torrent would be the odd puddle here & there, the ground & plants seeming to have slurped it up as quickly as it had fallen.

The time (approximately Chinese dentist o’clock) came for us to meet our transport to begin the journey across the border & so we loaded our bags in the back of the tuk-tuk type thing (they have many variations of this vehicle around these parts & the general road worthiness of said vehicles has about 20 times more variations ranging from ‘is it better if we walk?’ to ‘nice tuk-tuk!’ ‘it’s not mine sir, belongs to company’)

But basically they are the front half of a motor bike, welded to a small portable shed with a row of benches down either side; some are decorated rather nicely, some not so much.

So to re-cap! The plan was to catch a ride to the border control, check out of Laos, into Thailand (once again) & then catch an over night train from Nong Khau to Bangkok. The date was the 17th of May & we wanted to reach the islands in the Gulf of Thailand in good time for Jenny’s birthday.

We arrived in to Central Bangkok train station on the morning of the 18th. We spent a few days & nights in Bangkok, doing the Koh San Road bit (west meets east in down town Bangkok) & booked up for a coach & catamaran to take us to the island of Koh Tao (Turtle Island).
Oh one thing to mention in Bangkok was the Golden Mount which we went to one afternoon (man made hill started by Rama V, continued by Rama VI & completed by Rama VII a couple hundred years later) a few hundred steps to the top but the best bit was all the bells, I figured you had to give each one a ding dong on the way past (the Thai’s I saw agreed). The other thing I remember is that as with most places in Thailand if you go inside, you have to take you shoes off, outside of most shops & temples etc can be found a small mole hill of assorted flip flops, trainers & ‘shoes’.
Well here the top of the temple is outside & so the floor is hot enough to fry eggs on, probably even a 10oz steak or something big like that, so after taking in the views for a few moments (tourists) or prying to Buddha (Thai’s) everybody is doing a funny sort of skip to move around, like the roof was made of hot coals something.