Ayutthaya- 23rd-26th October... and the train of doom!

Firstly, sorry for the lack of updates.  To spoil the surprise, we're now in Melbourne, and have been busy looking for gainful employment! Should speed up now we're settling!

Ayutthaya was our next stop, a mere 7 hours on the bus down the road! We got there, and our hotel was... limited. We decided that sleep there would be impossible, so elected to move down the road to a nicer (and cheaper) establishment. This took us till midnight, and Ben got chased by a pack of feral dogs. Ben insists these were  tiger sized Rottweilers. Jenny is certain it was a pack of fluffy Shihtzus. The truth may never come out!

Regrettably, Ayutthaya was probably the first disappointment of the journey. Mainly concrete and traffic, with none of the charm of the prior few towns. I think that we both had a spot of temple fatigue after the charm of Chiang Mai, and the Indiana Jones scope and size of Sukhothai. As a result, we were much less snap happy- hence the lack of photos herein!

Due to the length of Thai visas, and that we wanted a change of scenery, we decided that our next stop would be a visa run to Laos. We booked onto the night train to the capital Vientiane, and readied ourselves for the 15 hour journey! As we had checked out of the hotel at midday, we had an 11 hour wait to even go to the station, so spent the day idling and eating- our favourite pastimes!

Waiting for the train at Ayutthaya. Chang beer model's own.

Our sleeper cabin seemed okay on arrival, and we went to the restaurant car for a snack and a few beers, and met the real life Borat! He was from a small disputed territory of Georgia and Russia called Abkazia (which actually has quite an interesting history if you like that kind of thing). He showed us a picture of his alarmingly young wife, and offered to introduce us to a Triad arms dealer in Bangkok on our return to Thailand. Suitably intrigued, inebriated and terrified, we returned to our room, sadly to find that cockroaches had settled in. We slept as best we could (Ben, being quite tipsy slept very well...) and woke up to find ourselves by the Mekong river, the border of Thailand and Laos.

Our luxury room. And appropriate Hitchcock film...

Sukhothai 16th-22nd October

The first thing to hit about Sukhothai New Town after our previous stops is that they don't expect so many English people there. This is a very Thai town, with very few hawkers trying to sell you suits/taxis/massages/drugs. We arrived around sunset, as their Night Market kicked off in earnest. The market is based round a Buddhist Wat, with a huge statue, and a big portion of the market is run by the monks themselves. A big town festival was starting in a few days, and they had a small (and incredibly rickety) fun fair, and a small area where locals were playing matches of a strange hybrid of football and badminton...

A luvverly bunch of coconuts

They don't have the hang of ripping people off here. For 20 baht (40p), we won 4 toys.

We also found several lovely restaurants. The first in a shed by the river;

The second had the greatest name ever;

Surprisingly tasty

And the final one, Dream Cafem just had the best food ever, and a selection of alcoholic elixirs claiming to give you energy, good health and virility!

Spring rolls 3 ways

Larb or Laap or I don't know they keep changing the spelling. Minced meat with mint and basil and chilli. It's lovely,

Various potions and crazy decor.

Chicken fried in banana leaf.

The main draw of the town is the UNESCO protected historical park in the old town. Tens of temples built by various rulers and kings over decades- proper Indiana Jones type stuff. You have to cycle round to see even half in a day!

Jenny being excitable

In other news... Ben ate insects and we failed to get a good picture of the music festival that we went to!

Grubs are horrible.

Grasshoppers not so bad

ROCK. Or bad pop to be honest...

Chiang Mai 11th to 15th October

Much like Hanoi, Chiang Mai just seemed welcoming from the moment we arrived. We werw staying in the old town, a mile and a half square inside the old city walls. You can't walk more than 100 yards without passing a temple, and within hours, a local Buddhist had filled us in on the best ones to visit, and the best way to get cheap fares around. It's that friendly.

The original temple was HUGE, but then an earthquake made it just big

Jenny disapproves

 

We went to the Night Market by 'tuk-tuk' (a motorbike with a couple of seats attached to the back) in the evening. Ben bought vests (shock!) and on 'Halal Street', the Muslim section of the market we bought the tastiest and hottest dish made from rice balls, made fresh in front of us.

A picture cannot capture the sheer amount of chilli in this!

We washed it down with much needed Tiger beer, and watched a fan dancer in the middle of the market. The beer was lovely, and the fan dancing odd, but very watchable.

 

 Later in the week, we arranged a trek through our guesthouse, involving an elephant ride, which was a little scary, as our elephant liked running up hills to fetch bamboo, but brilliant;

There are very few pictures where Ben isn't looking terrified...

This was followed by a trek through the jungle, with our guide Neo. He was a very funny chap, and had loads of info on the local wildlife (and what it tasted like!). We saw a chameleon, which was bigger than expected;

Some creepy spirit houses, where the local villages encourage evil spirits to stay out;

Shudder

A huge waterfall;

Some amazing views;

And rickety bamboo bridges;

We stopped off for a swim in a little lagoon by a waterfall, which was much needed after the walk, and was beautifully secluded. On the way to get some lunch, our tour guide showed us how to blow bubbles using plant sap!

 

After lunch, we went down the river on bamboo rafts. Ours was piloted by a 10 year old boy who liked hitting rocks!

And then we went and drank a lot of mojitos. There is so much more that's brilliant about Chiang Mai, but I think this post is now a little long. So I'll just put some food pictures to sum up the rest!

Mussaman curry in a coconut

Som Tam (papaya salad)