Thailand
Bangkok and Chiang Mai
19th -27th Jan
First Impressions
- Life is lived on the street, shops and food outlets overspill, traffic is crazy
- Cleanliness of streets and public spaces, yet there is smog hanging over Bangkok
• Smiling, helpful and quietly spoken Thai people
• Bangkok is vast with so many different areas (be sure to download an offline version of google maps if you don’t have a local data package)
• There is so much “stuff” to buy. It is difficult for Westerners to declutter their life here! Though many families seem to live behind their street shopfront, so they will have very limited space
• Temples feature highly, beautiful but I found I was becoming “Templed Out”!
• Things work as they are described (well they have for us) …Examples are: Trains are on time; Launderettes are open as advertised on Google, the change machine works and the place is clean (not quite like this in Pwlleli!). Need some more passport photos for visas? The little street front shop as advertised (Google maps) is open, knows what size for each country and photos are ready within the hour
• The Royal Family are hugely important. They even played the National Anthem before the night train set off .
Highlights, some of which were unexpected!
• Bangkok is not sleazy, somehow we had thought it would be!
• The jazz and cocktail bar at the Shanghai Mansion hotel (where we stayed)
• Jim Thompson House (this was perhaps my favourite place in Bangkok)
• A dinner cruise on the river, on a small “rice boat”, the food was good and was an excellent way of “getting our bearings”
• Eat where the locals eat (we had a great meal at the MKB shopping centre, not the restaurants… more a kind of indoor street food section) for some delicious food at very cheap prices (£5 for 2 people including drinks…. Less money than 1 cocktail in the jazz bar!)
• Steve says that sleeping with 30 other people is not so bad, I will clarify that this is on the overnight sleeper between Bangkok and Chiang Mai! This train was very good, each carriage had its own guard and cleaner. The floors were spotless and frequently cleaned. The no shoes concept of the Thai house also applies. After food has been served the guard puts down each top bunk and makes the beds with clean sheets etc. the rest of the carriage occupants were very quiet. Only problem was that the lights are not turned out and the curtains are not black out! I have bought an eye mask for future journeys… but it does look like I am wearing a bra over my eyes! (I got the giggles trying to take a selfie of myself in my curtained bunk whilst wearing said mask!)
• The waterfalls in the Doi Inthanon National park were very impressive, as was the National Park with its Royal Pagodas https://https://www.thainationalparks.com/doi-inthanon-national-park
• Thai Cookery class was great fun, can’t wait to try these recipes out at home. Though we may struggle with Asian herbs in Ollerton… a trip to Nottingham or Sheffield should solve that!
• Tuk Tuk rides are fun (Val)
• A Thai Massage for aching muscles and knees, given as part of a women's prison work training program
• The live bands at the Night Market in Chiang Mai, one of which played an impressive repertoire of 70’s music
Still not sure:
• Tuk Tuk Rides (Steve)
• Why my spoken English is so unclear. We were offered coffee, I declined and asked for tea, “ No Thank you, tea please”, we were brought three cups of coffee….took a while to figure this out! 
• These temple sacrifices and the amount of stuff for sale around each temple for people to buy to sacrifice or to burn and send to ancestors.
• How many Buddhas there have been.
- Bamboo scaffolding! is it strong enough?
• How to appreciate a different culture and be an “ethical tourist”… eg visits to Hilltribe communities are our purchases helping or keeping them in poverty?
• How the electricity/ telecoms locate and fix a wiring fault
• When we celebrate/remember our history much of it involves military figures and battles. We did not see any military memorabilia. There obviously has been violence in the past, the Thai (Siam ) people were nearly wiped out in the C18, but wise negotiation rather than war seems to play a central role in the history
• Can I bring myself to eat insects? It will be for the good of the planet and is their much difference between a cricket and a prawn, or a tarantula and an octopus?
This featured blog entry was written by Valfowles from the blog Granny On the Rails.
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