That’s a wrap for Bangkok and Thailand

Well, started off our journey this week with a 100 km train ride to Bangkok.  We decided to take a local train, which meant we had to travel 3rd class.  However, we were amazed how comfortable the 1.5 hours ride was, with a bonus that it only cost 15 Baht each (NZ$ 0.75 – yes 75 cents).

But, the biggest shock for us when we arrived in Bangkok was seeing so many tourists, tour groups and ‘westernised’ bars and eateries. It felt really strange after 2 months being in different remote areas of Central/Norther Thailand and Laos.

Therefore, we stayed away from the Grand Palace/Wat Pho, which are ‘tourist magnets’ and at Baht 500 (NZ$25) for a ticket each we decided they held nothing special we hadn’t seen already. Instead, we visited a small number of select local temples, including Wat Arun, Wat Saket (Golden Mount) and Wat Ratchanatdaram. We reached Wat Arun by taking a boat across the Chao Phraya River (Baht 5 each – 25 cents (NZ)), which gave us an opportunity to see this really unusual temple that is covered in porcelain tiles. We also put on our walking shoes to see Wat Saket (and other temples), which which sits on the only hill in Bangkok – Helena still loves Alan after the 344 steps up to the top of the stupa to see the wonderful Bangkok landscape.

We also had to chuckle, when we came across a portable washing service on one of the street corners for locals to use – and no we did not utilise this great entrepreneurial service..

Our final excursion, was on the number 3 bus (costing Baht 17 – 85 cents (NZ)) to the Butterfly House, which is in Chatuchak Park. Here we managed to walk through and take some great photos of butterflies, and a fairly large spider having some dinner.

….. this finishes our time in Thailand and we are now just about to board our plane heading to Taipei (Taiwan) to visit another country, and of course to meet up with Bex.