Visited the floating market at Damnoen Saduak about 90 km outside Bangkok.  Its a sleepy town and we stayed at the town’s top (only) hotel!  How to describe it? hmmmm think old NHS hospital corridor, huge, souless concrete room, no maintenance, no other guests, that’s about it.  It was cheap and it was clean.  No restaurants in town apart from the traditional Thai fuelling stations – street cart vendors and rows of plastic tables & chairs.  Food was great and cost JS & was supplemented with beer & coke from the Seven Eleven.

Got up before sunrise to be at the boat station, about 2km walk, for 7am to pick up our slow boat for 2.  Despite reservations that this might be touristy, which it was, it was thoroughly enjoyable and our 2 hour ‘cruise’ took in a few back canals to explore everyday life as well as the tourist market.  Take a look at the photos to see the range of ‘shops’, produce, services and food on offer.  We even had a floating breakfast of coconut pancakes followed by the best Pad Thai so far.

Paul – we took a slow rowboat, but we thought you might like to see some pictures of a longtail and the size of the engine which gives them the speed (and noise!!). 

Alex – please note in the pics the floating butcher with nothing but meat, meat & meat – your kind of shopping!

Walking back to the luxurious ‘Nok Noi’ hotel we found a shop selling real ground coffee – bliss. When Neil gestured to the proprietor how good his coffee was he was really pleased as I guess they don’t get many foreigners in his establishment as most people visit the markets on organised rip off day trips from Bangkok.

Got the bus – getting used to local transport now – to Nakhon Pathom to get to the train station.  Spent a lazy afternoon strolling around the markets & shops and visiting the Chedi in the centre of town.  The Chedi was an amazing structure, currently having a facelift and the scaffolding surrounding it was just as amazing, with unguarded ladders going all the way to the top – 127m high!

We saw our first street elephant – with a red tail light on his tail, because it was night time.  Got some snacks & booze for the 14 hour overnight train to Trang in the South.  Most of the ‘meaty’ treats were not really ‘treats’ and dubious they were also meat.  Leanne you will be pleased that we had some storming deep fried pigs in blankets on a stick which were excellent.

We decided to park the large bags for a few days and go off piste with just small back packs to Sangkhlaburi, passing through Nam Tok and Thong Pha Phum. S’buri is not far from the border with Burma (Myanmar as it’s now known).

First stop was Nam Tok which Neil decided means “nothing”. Why? Because there is nothing there!! That is apart from the grungiest room in the world for 100 Baht. They could have paid us 1m Baht and we still wouldn’t have slept there. We do it an injustice really as there are several stalls next to the bus stop selling more types of fried banana than you could imagine. Lot’s of flavours and, actually, really nice providing you like banana and Nam Tok!

We then moved on to T P P where we had a really great time, well Neil did, Cheryl had “one of her heads”!! Found the only guy in town to speak any English and he cooked a “great meal for one” for 55 Baht including a can of beer! We also visited the hill top temple with it’s staggering views across the town and surrounding countryside. One drawback, 281 steps up and 281 steps down!

Moving on to S’buri by the slowest driver in the world, average speed 22.5 MPH and also the smallest driver in the world (or the biggest steering wheel). Great picture of him as he grapples with the bus at breakneck speeds….ha, hardly.

S’buri is lovely, a beautiful lake, peaceful and very laid back. Cabin had a great view of the lake and the longest wooden bridge in Thailand, just over 400 meters long. Bit dodgy though, one heavy fart  and we’re sure it would have collapsed.

On the way back we moved from the slowest driver in the world to Lewis Hamilton on ACID!!

We’ve been in K’buri for a few days lazing on a river raft and watching the River Kwai flow by. We’ve got a local Monitor Lizard that swims by on a daily basis in the later after noon. Reckon he’s about 1-2 meters long from head to tail. Can’t get any decent pics as he’s pretty canny.

VN Guesthouse is great at 300baht a night , about 6 pounds. Nice bar for lounging in with great bacon and interesting walls between some rooms that don’t leave much to the imagination when an excitable Thai lady mves in next door….know what I mean!!

Had an annual viewing of an outdoor cinema showing a really crazy film. Sound was so loud. Cinema up one day gone the next!

The serious side of K’buri is the Burma railway. Went to the museum and then to Hell Fire Pass. Conditions must have been terrible and it really makes you think how dreadfully wasteful war is.

On our trip up to H F Pass we got to go on The Oriental and Eastern Express, well for about 10 seconds on our way through to the platform behind to catch our 3rd class train on the other side. Still, we’ve been on it and you haven’t!!!

Loi Krathong is an annual festival that takes place in November at the full moon. Thailand goes bonkers for around 3/4 days resulting in the floating of flowers with candles and incense on a banana leaf and various other options.

There is also a carnival on the river which is meant to celebrate the life blood of the city,The Chao Praya River. For those of you who have seen the Somerset Carnivals, it’s very similar.

On the night itself, it was just heaving with people eating all sort of good and dodgy things, hence the picture of bugs that Neil is going to sample……one day when he feels a tad braver!

Off to Kanchanaburi next to the infamous Bridge on the River Kwai.

Well, the flight was great….what we remembered of it. We both went to sleep after dinner and woke up for breakfast. Must have slept for 6-7 hours….bliss.

Bangkok is almost same same after 6 years with just a few exceptions. True, the traffic is still bad, in fact, it’s a whole lot worse. However, the air is cleaner!!!! All the cabs and tuk tuks are now on LPG so the air is so much better.

When we thought about this over breakfast we couldn’t remember all that we had done over the last few days. The trip is already a blur. Of course, there are a few highlights:

1. A long walk around China Town was fascinating. Whatever tat you want you can get it. Lots of Hello Kitty, pink everything, gold, gold and more gold.

2. Streets devoted to one thing. Car Part Street, Gold Street, Buddha Image Street (see photo) and Amulet Street just to name a few.

3. Walking along the side of a canal we seemed to enter somebody’s house (slum really but don’t want to be cruel here) and we were stopped to ask “how you say this”, ‘that’s body lotion”, motioning how you might rub it on. “Sawadee krup” he said and so we walked on leaving a beaming man sitting in his living room.

4. “How you spell hot dog” said the lady from the little restaurant. So we wrote it out for her and “sawadee kah” came the response from the smiling lady as she ran back inside her little business.

5. Tesco getting it’s hooks into religion in Bangkok.

6. Fast food for Thai drunks

Went to Wat Pho yesterday to see our old friend the reclining Buddha (see photo above). Really relaxing place with lots to see with amazing colours and architecture.

This week is Loy Krathong, a festival to celebrate the river, amongst other things. Lots of Thai food to sample and a Somerset type carnival but this time on the river. More to come later on this as the highlight is tomorrow.

Lowlight? Yup, Khosan Road. Horrid backpacker hell or maybe it’s because we’re too old and don’t want to see things involving ping pong balls and drink buckets of cocktails. We much prefer our own private show and a nice G & T on the balcony!!!! See, we do know how to have fun.

Off to the food fest now….yum!