Ban Khlong Pak Kran

Dear travel journal,
The holidaying begins. Borneo was amazing but we where there to help and learn and give feedback and make good impressions - of was awesome fun but we were kinda working and I had to use my brain. Now I'm just a random backpacker sight seeing in countries I have never been to before.

I was up early today to pack and move rooms because I had a tour organised for the city and temples, with a hotel pick up at 8.30am. At 9am I rang to see where they were - they weren't coming, nice of them to say.... Any who I had a chat with the tour guide at the hotel, praco and he took me on a private tour out to the old city. On the drive out he taught me sa wat dee ka (hello - if your a female) and compookah (sounds not spelt like) (thankyou). It was interesting because I speak no Thai and his English is very minimal. He pointed out different buildings as we passed and told me they once had a massive flood down near the don muang international airport that had everything under about 5 meters of water, just from the sheer amount of rain in a wet season. That's a Brisbane type flood right there lol. We went through quite a few tolls, remember the old school stop and pay cash?? Yep they are everywhere! The old city was about an hour and a half drive outside of bangkok, and I honestly couldn't believe how big it is, the towering buildings go on for ever. Eventually you could see the skyline but everything was still built up for ages. Its not surprise the roads are soon busy 24/7. There must be a gazillion of people living here. Once we made it to ayuthaya. We first went to watyaichaimongkhol as our first old city site. There were lots of minks, Buddhist shrine and a massive temple. A walk up the stairs and I thought the opening would be quite big but it was quite small with 6 small buddahs and well in the middle people have put coins down. You could fit maybe 6 people while looking around at a squeeze. Then down a bit and the 'veranda' was quite big and ran around the entire Temple. The stone was was amazing, it would have been awesome to see before it fell apart. The main court yard with the temples and Buddha statue's had a high wall with smaller buddahs facing in towards to tower, the whole length round. There were also newer huts around the edges which I think the monks live in. Its an interesting mix of new and old. Then off to the giant golden Buddha at penungchueng. Out the front a massive marquee had been put up and school kids, monks, officials and military personnel where everywhere, to do a ceremony in respect for the king who has passed away. The king was king bhumibol adulyadej is was the longest reigning monarch in the world. He ascended to the throne 1946, although the last few years his health has deteriorated and his successor rama ix has been conducting the majority of the official business. Inside you could hardly get through the door with people kneeling to prey in front of the giant golden Buddha. Its huge. Smaller buddhas lined the walls, with offerings placed everywhere. Outside the main hall, where two smaller ones (still big) with status and offerings to other deities. Outside the main building where other buildings and tents set up with offerings so many different gods and goddesses and people scattered around the place at various shrines praying. Weirdest thing ever, monk in traditional dress - talking on a mobile phone - huh, modern advancements hey. After there it was onto 'wat maha that' another city section. It usually costs 50ba to get in but because they are in mourning over the king it's free today. This bit is huge and very cool. The perimeter has stone fences with some of the entrance archways still in tact. You can see the foundations of buildings and the remainder of still standing towers. And in one section there is a Buddha face showing out from between tree roots. The roots have started climbing the brick fence and take over. Not sure if there was any other parts of the Buddha but now it just looks like the tree has taken on the spirit of the Buddha. Very cool. Then off to lunch in a local cafe and off to 'Wat lokaya sutha' a reclining Buddha as our final stop. It was huge. They dress a lot of their buddhas, especially the ones laying down in a bright gold or yellow cloth. It stands out amazingly against the stone of the buddhas. Then back in the car and back to bangkok. The river that runs through this region comes all the from the sea through bangkok. That's a pretty epic distance. Back in bangkok at the hotel and I did some last minute shopping and prep. Collected my washing (yay its all still there and clean!) And then down to reception for the intrepid meet and great. The tour leaders name is Jane. And met my fellow travellers for the first part of the journey (Indochina unplugged is a few smaller length tours squished together, I'm just not getting off until the end). There are only 6 of us Dana, Nicola, Nadine, Micheal, euen and myself. Tonight I'm sharing my room with Nadine. A lovely lady from Germany who speaks quite good English. We are pretty similar in age and get along quite well. She is only on the trip for the first 2 weeks. In the evening we headed down to the foyer for our meet and great. Everyone seems pretty nice. Our youngest is 19 (girl from melbourn), then euan (nz), Nadine (German) and I are around the same age and then Micheal (Dublin) and Nicola (UK) are 40-50 ish. We headed up stairs for our meeting and on the way down our lift broke, lol yep welcome to the tour, step one we all get trapped in an elevator. It was quite funny. I think we maxed the 450kg limit with 7 people. Woops. The hotel guys pried open the doors and we were free after only like 5-10mins. Lol. After the meet and greet and paper work, Jane took us out for dinner. It was a little local place about 15 mins walk from the hotel. The food was quite nice. We all chatted and got to know each other a little. We have all done a bit of travel which is cool. Then back to the hotel and bed time. Ready for our city adventures tomorrow. Night.Read more