Thailand

We went to the Elephant Conservation Center and took a ride through the jungle on an elephant.The next morning we got up early to go to the Thai Elephant Conservation Center, about 1 hour back towards Lampang right off the highway.…

Construction outside our hotel, the Libra Guest House. OCEA would not have been amused. It was a great hotel though, with amazing staff, super-clean, and great food. In the morning, we got going early again to Chiang Mai.…

Detail of the giant Buddha at Wat Phra Phai Luang We tuk-tuk’ed to the bus station in Ayutthaya, as it is outside the main city and quite a walk. The bus station is set up in a pretty strange way.…

Wat Phra Si Sanphet Early the next morning we caught a train to Ayutthaya. Contrary to what our guidebooks said, it only takes one hour 20 minutes on the train to get to Ayuthaya from Bangkok – faster than the bus.…

Sunset on Ko Samet Although we would have preferred to visit the beaches in the south (Ko Samui etc.) we didn’t have time, and decided to do an couple of days in Ko Samet instead.  This really wasn’t worth it.  We should have made the time to see the south or sk

Barbequed skewers of chicken for sale.First of all, it takes a long, long time to get there. Our guidebook didn’t actually tell us how long, but it took the better part of three hours.…

We went to the MBK Center, a huge shopping mall in Bangkok. This is the Tokyu department store, with some great slogans. We like the "onlooker" bit. English is very popular, but not very accurate.…

We got a cab over to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (and what a ride it was!). It was the most disappointing and "tourist trap like" of all the wats we saw – there was video slot Buddha machines just outside the temple, lots of souvenir stands, etc.…

A 5 minute walk from Wat Pho got us to a boat which took us across the river to Wat Arun. The river isn’t that picturesque, but taking the boat is fast and cheap (I think it was a dime).…