Temples

Here I am refreshed and ready to start the next part of my adventure. I am feeling a lot more positive today than I have been over the weekend and I am once again looking forward to enjoying what is in front of me whilst absorbing the culture.

We woke around 7.30 this morning and begun getting ready for our day at the temples; due to it being a religious place, we had to wear long trousers and a top that covered our shoulders - I was so relieved that I had my thin elephant trousers. Breakfast was included this morning although it was only some toast and fruit which was a bit disappointing when I had been eyeing up the stuffed croissant and coconut shake. We also had a quick orientation this morning with our tour guide who explained to us what to look out for and the plan for the next couple of days, which I am sure you will find out in due course.

I was so relieved I never went out last night as by looking at the state of some of them at breakfast today, they were not in a good way. At 10.00, we all were waiting at

reception ready to begin the walk towards the pier where we would catch a long tail boat to visit the temples. Bangkok is very, very humid and it is impossible to not sweat here; you can also tell why they wear the masks covering their mouths and nose as you can really smell the pollution in the air. It is a very hectic city with drivers not seeming to follow any particular road rules and parts that seem pedestrianised often have mopeds or tuk tuks driving down them. If everyone of us manage these 4 weeks without being hit by one, I will be amazed. We all boarded the boat and had a ride down the river looking at all the buildings on the bank. The river was very dirty with lots of branches, rubbish and clothes in it, so we assumed it had nothing living in it, although after around 30 minutes, our tour guide gave each of us some bread so we could feed the fishes; there were loads of them that came up to the surface. On the way back, we also spotted several large lizards on the bank. The boat went quite quick although you did have to watch out for splashes that came from the waves that the other boats made as it was quite low to the water. It was the first time I have ever experienced a traffic jam on a river, with loads of boats honking at each other and having to stop in order to not collide.

After around 40 minutes in the boat, we pulled up along the west side of the river in old Bangkok next to this incredible building which we would soon find out was called Wat Arun (The Temple of Dawn). We could go in the temple and look at the impressive detail more closely. The stairs up the side of the sculpture were so steep that on the way back down, I was worried I might fall. Each of the 4 sides looked identical with 2 statue 'guards' at the bottom of the stairs and then a small path round the edge of it and loads of impeccable details on the tiles. Afterwards, we went to explore the prayer part of the temple where the Buddha statue was; to go in this part, we had to take our shoes and hats off. This part of the temple was covered in so many sparkly tiles that it looked royal and grand. Inside was the monk who blessed us all by flicking water over the procession with what looked like incense sticks and gave each of us a holy bracelet which was either red or yellow string with 5 white beads on it; the water felt so refreshing when it was flicked over us. We then got on a public normal boat to take us to the other side of the river to visit our second temple called Wat Pho, Reclining Buddha Temple. The Buddha in this temple is the third largest in Thailand measuring at 46m long by 15m high. This temple

was not quite as grand as the first one although the size of the Buddha was very impressive; what was also quite cool, was around the edge of the temple there were pots which people could put coins in and the sound that it made sounded kind of magical in a way.

After we were finished, we all headed round to get in a tuk tuk to take us back to our hostel for free time. The tuk tuk was an experience is all I can say; we were on the wrong side of the road a lot of the time, not giving way at roundabouts and quite simply gripping on for life. Amazingly, everyone survived the journey, although do not think I will be going in one of them again.

I have found most of the English people here to be quite embarrassing and by this, I mean not wanting to listen to the tour guides, wanting to drink all day, buying bracelets that say some quite explicit things on them such as '$1 sex' (and that is the tamest one), not wanting to eat local food but just McDonald's for every meal, etc. It makes me ashamed to be English in a way but thankfully the people from the Netherlands here have accepted me as one of them and they are all so lovely and down to earth plus it will also be nice to learn about their country whilst I hang around with them. Me and the six Dutch people all decided that we were going to go to the local pool for a swim to cool down and grab some lunch on the way. We stopped at a restaurant and I ordered

some Pad Thai as well as that coconut shake I had wanted at breakfast and they didn't muck around with the size of the shake; when I received my drink, it was literally a whole coconut filled to the brim with the juice and the best part about this drink, was that even though I felt like I had drank loads, it hardly seemed to be going down! The Pad Thai was nice as well; I was given chopsticks to use and I have never been more grateful for Jessie's lesson on how to use chopsticks at our last meal on the Garden route as it enabled me to be able to eat my meal without looking too silly.

I ended up not going to the pool in the end though as I banged my head on a shelf just before I left the room and during lunch, I had such a bad headache that I went back to the room to take some painkillers and lay down for a bit which although was upsetting, it was also well needed.

Tonight, was the welcome dinner which was a set menu and included in my package; we had rice, omelette, sweet 'n' sour chicken, mixed vegetables and finally some kind of curry thing. The food was nice although I did not find it very filling, but it was nice to try some authentic Thai dishes, although there were quite a few moans from people who are fussy eaters. After my lazy night yesterday, I said I would go out with everyone tonight, so we headed straight out and I got chatting to some people that arrived late last night from England at dinner and they seem a lot more chilled out, so I went out with them as the Dutch people were not going out until later and I knew that I didn't want a late night. We went straight to this bar that had good music playing, and we got a bucket of drink between two people, the others ordered more after this bucket, but I decided to only have the one knowing that we have a reasonably early start tomorrow and are on a bus for the majority of the day. The music was so loud and went right through to your bones, so you just had to boogie, even if you didn't know the song. By the end of the evening, all of the group had ended up at this bar, so everyone was dancing together; it was amazing to feel so involved with everyone yet still completely my own person.

I could not believe how busy the street was for a Monday evening; all the shops were open and there were so many people, so much music, etc., it makes me wonder if this city ever sleeps! Once it hit midnight, I decided to make my way back to the hotel as I knew otherwise, I would regret it in the morning plus I wanted to get a chance to finish my journal tonight. So that leads me to where I am now, in bed, ready to drift off at 1am after my third shower of the day.

Tomorrow we will be going to a place called Kachanaburi which is apparently a fair few hours drive away so sleep time it is for me.