Another hot day. Supposed to be teaching a class and a half today 5/1 and 5/2 but Robin’s arriving in Bangkok earlier so Dang and I are now to leave at 10.30 and get a bus from TAT AKO to Nakhon Sawan and then on to Krung tepp for me. My first class went easily enough. Though I think I’d left the smartest and actually prettiest girl in the class work from the other day in with the other years, so I told Jongrak of my err. I went over the words we had down yesterday, then we had a stand up oral, I would say “My Hobby is…singing” and those who liked singing would then stand up and say, I like singing, my hobby is singing. I then went through them individually as well. Along with the hand pronunciation “game” some of them are getting the words out a bit easier, other Ofc still find it difficult, i.e. So of the boys, but they’re trying. Bla came in for some sneaky pictures when I was going over a new page of verbs, “I like” “who is” I was doing it with word emphasis sort of like accents and they found this hilarious and joined in, a good thing to loosen up their way so speaking so it doesn’t sound so rigid , robotic and forced, guess its all about practise and confidence, tried explaining this to them by showing them how some of them sound and how they should try and sound, think they understood well enough.
Stomach set off, joyous, so having packed everything I just lay in my air con room then left the bins out and Bla, Dang, Chongrak and I all got into the car. In Ta tago the bus was ahead, Chongrak beeped and pulled over and it stopped. If only it was as easy as back home, would come in useful the amount of times Dad and I have played chase the bus for school or going into Belfast, he gets so angry and always swears he’s not doing it again, I shouldn’t take so long in leaving haha.
Started winding the new C CEOW wool I got. Bus journey wasn’t too long, no fans though! Dang was trying to get me to get the van from near their house but I told her I’d just get a bus from the station as the vans go to victory monument and I’m meeting Robin in Mochit. Was able to get one straight away which was handy, always a good think about travel to and from Bangkok, there’s always a bus and any going North always stop in Nakhon Sawan/ go past as it’s the “gateway to the North”
Usual bus journey, had an army guy in front of me and behind, oh ho J and there was a toilet, cleanest smelling one yet if it was sort of chemically, had dried lemons in it, such a nice smell!
Luckily arrived half an hour later than Robin at half 4, though was at the very back at the station and got a tad confused as to which way to go, its huge, there’s over 300 bus stops! And this is only one of the stations! There’s another!! There were no more buses from our station unfortunately until morning so we were to get a van, had to wait near an hour but it was air conditioned and not that many people were on it. Chatted away. Love how you can talk about anything in Thailand as no one speaks your language unless they’re a foreigner. We were sitting talking about how we couldn’t be gay as genitalia is ugly haha, least some one agrees with me.
I thought the trip would be short to get to KANCHANABURI but when can one ever depend on traffic, particularly Bangkok traffic round tea time, must have been stuck at a slug like pace for over an hour, panicked about where we were getting dropped off as we were on it for so long, but eventually arrived 3ish hours later at the bus terminal in Kanchanburi, luckily it had rained when we were in the van so least I wasn’t getting my silly black canvas shoes soaked and muddy again, think I’ve washed them about three or four time son this trip, and no one ever washes shoes!!
Got a tuk-tuk to our hotel, its lovely “Sam’s guesthouse” we sort of have our own wee bungalow, lovely floor length windows, air con, a TV, 2 comfortable single beds (pushed together) towels and a hot shower, there’s a “balcony” area out the front and the path has a bridge over a pond. River design or water, quite charming, favourite place I’ve stayed yet!
We walked to what we think was the night market, unfortunately it was trying to rain so the vendors were quickly shutting up shop, Robin got a Japanese cartoon purse, I didn’t see anything I particularly liked but I did see the famous bum pants haha! They look ridiculous!
He headed back to the hotel while I got a massage at a nearby massage parlour, 40 minutes for back and shoulders 150b. Heaven, nicest one yet, I had a young girl do it so her hands were softer and she was perhaps unsure about the technique maybe so she wasn’t as rough, felt so relaxed, she was getting all the in-between back bits, was so comfortable I started drifting off haha! She then finished with me sitting up doing th forearms on my shoulders, the best bit! Massages, my favourite guilty pleasure, how will I survive without them?? For so cheap too, much cheaper than China!
Getting up early tomorrow to sort out a day trip with the owner. Had a wondrous sleep, round 10/11 a bit earlier for once, but of course never enough!
SATURDAY 31ST AUGUST
Hand feeding exotic animals, being the first people to feed the leopards, giraffe’s stop at nothing for food! Tiger pics, feeing chickens and making friends with the volunteers. Eranwan with 7 phases of waterfall, getting bitten by Thai fish, using a waterfall as a slide and a tree as a swing, and simply chilling at the edge of waterfall number 5 like the bronzed goddess I am
Up at 7 to sort out the trip for today, the nice owner was up thankfully, his English accent is very good, very familiarised with nice which is good to hear. We’re getting a private tuk-tuk to the animal safari at 8.45 then going to Eranwan waterfall (Elephant apparently, elephant waterfall…) it’ll cost 1400B for the taxi so 700 each, not too bad I guess. Slept some more and had the nicest shower yet, it was so warm I considered turning the heat down! Its in the corner of the room, kept bloody forgetting about the step and tripping like an idiot! Dash to the 7/11 of course for my soy milk addiction, its so good here, they have flavoured ones 500ml for 16B (32p!) or with rice or barley, the black bean one is the nicest think, but I really cannot decide. And the flavoured 5 packs of gum are great too, cola and blueberry are my favourite I think, so sweet! And at 10p you cannot really complain.
When we arrived we had to pay 450b but with that we get a bus tour round the animals, and a crocodile and elephant show if we want. We then spent 50B each on vegetables for the animals. There were little leopard and lion cubs at the front you can get your photo, how cute!
There were 3 other lads all English on our bus, we went through 2 gates for each section electronically controlled metal fences to stop the animals getting out, our first section was the deer, we feed them the carrots, some little ones as well, a few different types, their eyes were so strange, like brown with black thick slits for Irises, would never have noticed. There was one that was fully fighting with a branch, pretty funny to be honest! The next section was more deer but there were ones that looked like bambi, so cute, and lots of them having little baths, they seemed to group themselves, wonder if there was a reason for that, group hierarchy or something or just the way they were, some wanted the shade, others food others a bath?
The next section had huge black bears, all were in the shade or inside their “man bear cave” the one that was out looked hilarious, a huge black bear but its head had a mane of hair, like myself in the mornings so strange! There was another in the very far corner having a good old stretch in the shade, it had become very hot for so early in the morning. The next section was the tigers, got some good views of them, one was resting in the shade, a huge tiger, his coat was beautiful, Asian tigers has such nicer coats then the ones I’ve seen at hope in the zoo, more stripes and a deep orange with hints of white underneath, a royal beast for sure. I think that one was the same one used for the photos. Next was the lions. One male, his back was to us unfortunately, he was huge though! No wonder he’s the king of the animals, we got closer to the females though, they weren’t lionesses really, they were cheetah lion hybrids, so there pale coat had an underlying pale leopard print, so gorgeous. There was two of them, stunning creatures, and the coats of the leopards in the next section were beautiful, so colourful, such a healthy sheen, the athletes of the feline world. There all had our backs to us, relaxing in the shade on platforms, lazily swanning there arms like a fan or stretching out into another comfortable reclining position. I think Leopards and Cheetahs had a sex appeal to them, the athletic slinking, the powerful bodies, they have utter control of the speed and it shows though all their movements I think, even if they’re reclining in the heat of the day. Their coats are my favourite, my room and majority of my clothes are leopard print, so my admiration of the animal is quite apparent, if I could be any animal I would be a leopard.
From this we moved to the herbivores of the safari planes. Zebras, ostriches and giraffes, there were meant to be Llamas but none appeared. I’ve never been so close to a giraffe before, there tall gait and movement reminds me of the brachiosaurus in Jurassic Park, its fascinating! And to think, that their long necks have the same amount of bones as ours in fascinating. We watched from afar, they look so strange eating, they spread out all four legs and lower their head to the grass, amazing. Then we were taken by surprise, turned around and there was a huge giraffe head poking through the window! It was huge! The size of my leg! And such long eyelashes! Lauren would be jealous.
We started feeding them carrots and taking photos, then more appeared, we had two in with us for ages and when we tried to slow down their food intake (they love their carrots!!) they moved in closer. Robin was standing up and his Giraffe hug became him getting pushed over and squished by the giraffe’s neck in its desire to reach the carrots we’d moved. We had two doing this in the bus at one point. Robin got corner on the floor by two heads, it was hilarious! Even more so when they started using their long purple tongues to try and reach the food underneath the seats haha! These things stop at nothing, the two basically ate al the food that all 5 of us had, the driver found it all quite hilarious! More came over, with some different coats, a paler one, and ones with larger or different spot design. My favourite was the pale one, perhaps as it was so different. We attempted to feed the zebra’s but they were either to scared or more interested in the grass to do so, they’re a sort of combination between a horse and a pony, I want to have one to ride! My second favourite animal print, and I love they’re mane, its short and spiky, sort of reminds me of Punk.
We then got dropped off at the next bit to walk around. We were covered in itchy giraffe hairs, they shed, A LOT. Would have loved a shower. We turned left and came across the animal rescue section, leopards, monkeys and other exotic animals. We were round getting close to the leopards cage, one was pretty angry he had a large growth on his stomach, and the one beside him was huge too, though not as grumpy. Turns out he has a hernia and she’s just fat and aggressive. We got yelled at by an English worker to move as it was dangerous, turns out there’s huge water monitors who live behind the cages and although they get fed chickens they’re not too scared buy humans. The woman then seemed to take us under her wing which was great! She introduced us to the first monkey, called “Chutney” he’d been body reared so he thought he was a person, and like most monkeys, at age 6 he grew his fangs meaning he was now sexually active and more aggressive, therefore he was given to the safari park, he was gorgeous, an orange colour with such a human face, he kept testing his hierarchy with Robin by grabbing his hand and seeing if he’d stay or pull (don’t pull, he pulls and it turns into a fight/game) she got him to run for us from one cage to the next, it was hilarious, he thought he was a person due to his rearing to he rand with his huge long arms that are used for his graceful swinging, bent upwards with his hands our and sort of waddled at a quick pace to the other cage, like a little poof! She then said we could feed the animals for 50B cut up fruit as a self sustaining way of the volunteer work, she’s been in this safari park for 9 months and they’re bringing it up to Western standards and trying to keep it sustained before they’ll leave. So we got some fruit and fed a huge bird, shaped like an ostrich with a head like a turkey but with brightly colour head feathers like a peacock, might be a guinea fowl, was impressive! The woman then offered us if we wanted to hand fed some chickens, so we got in the cage and started had feeding them, the mother hen was quite rough, but the little chocks were soft and adorable, not eating unless there mother was, the park had them as he friend uses her to attract males by mating with her and then he kills them for food =, as a results there were chicks but he couldn’t look after them so she got them. The floor of the cage is earth so they learn to naturally look for grubs that will go there due to the soil. She then took us round the different monkeys, one was used for coconut fetching she thinks but when sexually maturity reached, although the fangs were removed they were still aggressive. Laura was a female who didn’t like other females or skin, she scared the shit out of me when she knocked the fruit from my hand! There was another called trousers, again he had lived with humans but had been brought in when he was too aggressive, he’s a lot better now, he would have worn people clothes before too, he did a jumping up and down thing a lot, which apparently is an action they learn in order to express excitement or anger as the usual forms of behaviour they would show when angry or excited would be unacceptable to their owners and therefore they’d be hurt, this jumping and down behaviour is used as an acceptable method or releasing there emotions, fascinating but sad! When they first got him he’d pull his trousers down a lot and masturbate and be very aggressive, hence the name, apparently he’d do that like 90% of the time, now its perhaps only 10% which is great. We were then introduced to “king Kong” or big Daddy, sort of like my dad with the wild hair and because all he wants to do is eat, he’s a type of baboon I think, I really liked him due to his wild looks and his love of food, he ignores the workers and eats instead, we fed him a lot. I dropped my bowl and he’d scooped up lots and lots of nearby food the cheeky rascal! He’s like a hamster, he stuffs as much food as he can into his mouth (as when it’s full it means it will fill his stomach too) and then finds a safe place, pops it out and eats it, he was putting full slices of watermelon in his mouth, it was awesome! Then there was “Trouble” a silvered languor, there’s only 1000 left remaining in the world, no breeding problem and all the nearest ones are female. They’ve been hunted down as their kidney stones has magical powers…and cure diseases etc. she was lovely, very intelligent, she was like a wee old granny, and her jumps was class. She was very particular about her food, he favourite was eggplant. We spent ages with the different monkeys, Robin and Chutney seemed to bond, he rejected the food in order to play that had holding game and get his back scratched, quite demanding! Haha. We were then offered if we wanted to be the first to try hand feeding the felines, there were 4 leopard or another cat, a type of lynx I think, she was grumpy, but had the most gorgeous eyes, she only had 3 legs unfortunately. We tried feeding the leopard with the gorgeous blue eyes, a rare gene in leopards as the most common colour is green but the one beside him who had been aggressive in the safari with the keepers and was therefore moved, is on heat, so he was more interested in her than the food. So we feed the other girl, the fat one who I thought was pregnant but no, just fat haha. I was the first to, 50B for 3 pieces of meat, I skewered it onto the bamboo stick, she came over reluctantly at first but when she saw and smelt it, along with coaxing from the guy with dreads (the woman’s husband I think) she came over, it was great, I’m the first person to do it, she was so close, it was amazing! Its good for them too as they’re always fed chicken in the park as its cheaper and the beef is much better for them! What an exceptional moment! We said our final goodbyes to the animals before moving on, we were moved into the elephant show, at least there were no chains but they did have what appeared to be metal brush like whip things if they weren’t doing what was told, horrid! Robin volunteered for a trick along with two of the guys from earlier, they lay under blue sheets and the elephant walked over them, whilst play tapping on them, poor thing looked bored out of its head. 3 more came in, the leader with a hula hoop that walked up some steps, with two in tow. They played Gangham style and were supposed to “dance” it was pretty grim, one of the elephants was moving its head and feet so much it looked like it was going inside, awful! We then went back to the start, again another ethically questioning moment for me, I got a photo with a full sized tiger, drugged up to the eyeballs. The cubs weren’t but I didn’t really have the money for that. Through its haze it still followed the commands by the woman running it, we took lots of photos on my camera, lying down with the tiger and sitting up behind it. Apparently a tourist in the tiger temple, which we originally considered going to, was bitten in the leg about 6 weeks ago, like 20 odd stitches and still unable to walk properly…oh dear.
Our ride to the Erawan waterfall and national park took over an hour, quite a trip, I chilled and admired the view, passing beautiful jungle mountain scenery, and a dam, I’ve never seen a damn before! We had to pay in again, 200 each for us and another 30 for the driver as we’re tourists.
Lots of signs up to not feed the monkeys!! More animals! The waterfall has 7 main features, or phases. Going up to 1,500m, the peak is said to resemble “Erawan” the 3 headed elephant in Hindu Mythology,
Lots of tourists and Thai’s. we wore our swimwear this morning so we were prepared. The first section was quite shaded and absolutely freezing when we entered it, lots of people too, but we climbed up the waterfall like the other Thai’s being the adventures that we are, it was beautiful, climbing up was confusing though, the rocks had white parts, dark and green. The dark was rock, green was moss but the white was a mixture of both so you had to be careful, I nearly slipped and was a panicky careful mess from the start. Some of the rock was so eroded it was like touching coral! Robin went th awkward way back down to get our stuff whereas I climbed on over to the second level and back down, parts of the waterfall made rock pools, a sort of cold Jacuzzi, for level 2 there were lots of fish, small and big, very big!! Also monkeys in the trees, two of them, one cleaning the others coat. this was my least favourite of the waterfalls due to the amount of fish!! They’re the sort that are used for pedicure, Robin found this out first the hard way, they began nibbling his feet as soon as he got in the water, myself included, although awkward at first I resigned myself to it, but wanted away, we believed if we went to the deeper bit near the waterfall we would be okay. WRONG!! One swam after me nibbling my back, and it was sore! (I’ve unfortunately started peeling there too) Robin swan on to the waterfall half deafening himself, adding to the cuts he had from slipping on the way of level 1. I couldn’t cope and got out! One of the fish actually left him bleeding on the arm, EVIL! We had a bit of a walk to go to level 4 (level 3 was another direction) we actually bumped into some E.T.A’s but they didn’t have a clue or maybe they just didn’t want to know, that we were also, even though I go the girl I recognised to take a photo or Robin and I from the viewpoint. They also went to level 4. It was by far the most fun. We began by jumping into the water off a rock, bombing into the depths. The fish weren’t as annoying either. Everyone seemed to be using the two huge rocks of the fountain as slides, so we Ofc climbed up, trying not to fall and working out which stone areas were moss. Did the smaller one first, it was great fun! Scary at first but exhilarating. So Ofc we decided to do the larger one, even better, and more scarier as its more slippery on the way up. Robin did this one a couple times, whilst I swam over to a hanging vine and sat on it, swinging gently with my feet dipped in the water. If there was no one else around it would be a watery haven for sure! Robin then joined me on another vine, we decided to do one more slide and then attempt number 5. The adrenaline rush whilst doing this slide is amazing, just as long as you hold your nose in time as its quite deep at the bottom! Robin seems to be on a roll in trying to hurt himself, though he did get a big cheer for it, he went down the waterfall on his stomach had first, the force on his throat was painful! He’s now half deaf and raspy, going well haha. My feet were covered in little scratches from those horrid fish too!
The next level was a good bit further on, lots of steep steps carved to look like wood, we went down, across a little bridge and up again. Getting a full body workout with the swimming and the atrocious leg work! The path then ended as the trees and roots got closer and bigger, we had to climb over huge winding roots and around trees, all the while at a slit upward tilt. We then found the waterfall, well the lower bit. There were only some Thai students at it and ourselves. Therefore we climbed. It had lots of little pool areas made form the basins of the running water. it was sandy too, not muddy, how strange! We were quite isolated it was great. Having climbed to the peak nearest to where the rest of level 5 and the tourist were we stayed at the edge of the pool area, I lay in the edge of the waterfall like an eastern princess enjoying the complementation of the cool peaceful running water underneath me, washing under my back and through my hair with the sun rays warming my upper half. Wondrous. And Robin, he swam around pretending to be a crocodile. The upper levels close at four so we began our descent., the Thai student were still sitting laughing on the waterfall, and gave Robin a sip of their “Pepsi” in other words whiskey, strong apparently. You couldn’t get a nicer place for a drink, or much else to be honest.
But they time we got down to the bottom we were exhausted,. Got some photos beside the sign and I changed into some dry clothes as I’d been swimming in denim shorts. Had bought a disastrous “strawberry smoothie” from one of the shops earlier at the park, basically icy water with a hint of strawberry so I decided that I should give everything else a wide birth and had a Fanta grape. Two guys I had spotted with lots of tattoos were beside our van, they’d missed their last bus and wondered if they could get a lift, they’d pay us, so we let them jump in. we chatted for a while, turns out their both from Kent like Robin! They’ve been here a week so far and they seemed interested in the safari park. They’re backpackers. They gave us 400 meaning that we only had to pay 500 each for the van today J luckily got a van to Bangkok sorted when we got back too. While we waited we ended up reading an old nits magazine and laughing at comedians sex jokes such as one about “I’m respectable, you wont see my penis unless we marry, or you add me on skype haha” it started to rain too, but at least we were inside, paying 180 and getting picked up about 6.20. Apparently, according to Robin I say “class” too much? I didn’t think I said it that often? He’s just annoyed as I’ve got him saying it! He was telling me about the Game of Thrones drinking game they played, it sounds awesome!
Luckily there wasn’t many in the van, just tourists, but they were loud an their voices irritating, stuck my earphones and napped for a while. We had to change our van near Bangkok but we arrived at the other station at 9. We both were able to get Buses very quick, mine in 15minutes. It was here however that I discovered I had no single in either sim on my phone. And no matter how many times I turned it on or off or took the battery out nothing would avail. FML! Napped for a while, I’m always so tired now! Stuck the headphones in again as there was a Thai stand up on the TV and I was at the front, there was a least one that was a want to be lady boy so the sounds were quite shrill at times! There was also a female monk on the other row to me! They’re so few in comparison to the male monks.
Thankfully a man behind me leant me his phone and I rang Jongrak, again when I got to the station. She says she’ll look at the phone on the morning as it may need to be looked at in the shop…awesome not. How will I contact Tom for Sukhothai tomorrow?
SUNDAY 1ST SEPTEMBER
Sukhothai, Unesco world historical park. Saving turtles and spotting lizards!
Up before 7, shower was a bit cold so just had a quick wash. Chongrak had laid out the usual breakfast which I love, to stick in my bag and eat whenever, “bread” as she calls it, 3 soy milks, delicious and water. Least I drink loads of it here!
Her husband took the Sims out and put in his phone, they worked fine, but it was back to no signal in mind so they’re taken it to the centre for me whilst I’m in Sukhothai with Tom and his mentor, Net. Just my luck eh! Rang Tom off her phone but he didn’t answer so I texted him instead explaining the situation and that’d id be in Kampengphet for 10am. I’d missed the 7.30 van but luckily there was another at 8. Sat in the front with the driver. Napped for a bit, but kept waking with the odd bump and the fact that the driver was signing with his head phones in!! he was also were skinny jeans and was like a Thai version of Billy Idol…now, but grey. I thought he might be gay due to al the creepy animals and toys in the front of the fan, stuck on 3d butterflies and a terrifying baby doll that reminded me of Chucky, however when we stopped for petrol and the toilet, when I passed him when he was coming gout he slowly did up his trousers, shook and grinned at me…creepy!! Maybe he’s not gay after all, the creepy grin was accentuated by the fact he was missing some teeth and the ones he did have were quite yellow. BOKE! Thankfully within ten minutes we were at the bus station, PHEW! Ripped out my crochet as it was wonky, arrived before 10 which was good but Tom didn’t show up for ages, I panicked in case he though we were meeting at his favourite, “the big C” so I tried to lend a phone of a worker but they either did not understand me or didn’t want to, when I asked if there were any telephones she shook her head…I ended up finding and trying a pay phone which didn’t seem to work but the other one did, I got through to Tom, they were running late, thank goodness, 5 baht gone as it ate the last baht, for a quick second phone call, same as at home I guess!
Tom finally arrived, his mentor is lovely, half Chinese, she drove a fancy white car, his is a private school so it’s all quite fancy and the children work very hard, but I feel mine do too, even though its public. Her English and her accent was very good, though she knows even less Mandarin than me and that’s saying something haha! There was a herb that we thought was lemongrass as chewing it had a distinct citrus taste, it was quite enjoying, but she looked it up on her phone, its another type of basil, how strange!
It took about 2 hours to get there. There was a police examination day so there was a stop on the road as it’s the first of the month. Apparently the drivers of Sukhothai are famous for their awful driving, which we experienced as one in front seemed to drunkenly weave through traffic and the road thought sober. We stopped for lunch. Got the same sort of dish as I did on Tuesday night, soy bean sauce, very sweet and delicious, all cold. And the noodles were divided into 5 circles, all dyed different colours was well cool! Tom finally tried Pad Thai and loved it! His mentor is lovely, and quite pretty too, chatted away to her.
She paid for the food and for the park. It is huge! We had to drive around it, saw the main temple, it was so vast, with lots of different styled buildings, WAT MAHATHAT. there were Cheda’s , main halls and statues along with several other smaller buildings. The ruins, like in Angkor had been pieced back together when possible so got a good idea of the originally architecture. The Buddha’s are different here from Lop Buri and Ayutthaya apparently, a more square face rather than oval like in Ayutthaya, its due to the period and style apparently. Lop Buri is more like the Khmer design and Ayutthaya is more modern. There were ponds around it too, like a sort of moat and decoration, again like Angkor. On our way in we randomly found a small terrapin at the side of the path, so Tom and I rescued it, though personally I wished to take it to Jongrak but it is a wild animal, so we placed it in the pond. Hope it was okay, there were ants trying to attack it L next we drove to the older building, originally a Hindu temple taken over and made Buddhist, it was more like Angkor as it had the same architecture, like in LopBuri, WAT SI SAWAI, as it had rained on our journey up parts of it was buried in water, particularly the vast towers, the middle one was completely flooded and smelt strongly of decay so wasn’t able to venture in. spotted a huge black lizard, a grown up version of the ones in my house I think. And to the other side was a decomposing pigeon, would explain the smell. It was a lot smaller but very well kept together. Interesting yet unfortunately smelly. We passed a lovely temples that was completely surrounding by water, the only way to get to it was by a bridge, a simple monument off what still remained. We then visited WAT SA SI, it was mainly a Pagoda and partial remains of a main hall. There was a newer bronze Buddha statue, I really liked it though as it had a curved shape to it, remain me of a dancer or one of the spiritual designs they have on the walls. There was a little moat and island attached to this with a bridge going over. This is were the monks would have to go before become a monk or entering, sittings on the stone that marked the island and the outside territory of the temple. Bar the other tourists and the nearby cars, one could just imagine a monk meditating here on a stone with the slight breeze or shade of a tree to cool him from the hot day like today (it was BOILING I was a sweating mess!!)
We asked Net about the ghost film we keep seeing on TV, it was meant to be based on a true story but since AIS have taken over its now more of a comedy, its about 4 guys on a canoe who find the ghost, one falls in love with her, but she’s a ghost as while her husband was away her and the baby died and he never knew/found out. Haven’t seen all of it, seen the middle first and the start, would like to see it all, especially in English!
We tried to find another temple but unfortunately that area was closed, so we drove round again before going to the souvenir shop. It was quite expensive, Tom also wants soon of the lovely Thai brocades, there were even handmade ones, woven and embroidered, but they were 950B!! Got some gorgeous hand made pots, only made and painted in Sukhothai, one has a lovely pearl sheen!
To conclude this fun trip I got told devastating news….SEAMUS HEANEY IS DEAD!! The famous northern Irish Writer, I didn’t even enjoy his work as I had to do it for A level at the time but I know how talented he was and how he was one of the few people we could boast of in this country due to his sheer literary excellence, now we don’t even have that! His poems are filled with a sense of past and present that all can related to, with a heavy sense of nostalgia, particularly for northern Ireland and it’s history, not all doom and gloom for once. A respected knowledgeable man.
After this we headed back as I’ve another 2 hour journey from KampengPhet to Nakhon Sawan. It was raining by the time we got there, eugh. The next van wasn’t until half 5 and I’d got Tom to text J that I’d arrive at half 6. Thankfully there was a bus around 5 and I got in at 6.45. Learn some more Thai words on the way, ones that will be useful to teach such as KEAN write. CONJI understand. POO DAM repeat. did little braid plaits in my hair and began thinking about what defines a moment, as I seem to be having lots of wonderful moments and adventures on this trip….
Back in Nakhon Sawan we went to the restaurant beside her. I got Pad Thai from another stall (Tom put me in the mood) and I got some banana flower with it, slightly sour, delicious with chilli sauce. There was a cat there, its so strange here, they most definitely stump their tails, I wonder why, its really unattractive. Yet dogs don’t seem to?
The open market was on tonight so I went to that, there was a beaut Monroe skirt but I didn’t want to pay 150B for it, may as well as it was closed when I returned and I got dungarees, shoes for mum and leopard shorts for 150 each. Headed back after that, said goodbye to Dang’s son and Chongrak’s husband. Il not see them again, how strange! And sad! Even worse, back at home I started to pack! And according to the shop Bla went to, the signal thing happens to this type of phone and there’s not much you can do unless you send it to Bangkok, have the receipt ect so I’ll just go back on Friday or Saturday. Just my luck. Back to 2 really crappy Nokias!
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