Its taken almost a week but I have begun to settle into this travelling lark again. Its taken a few day to re-aquaint myself with the heat, the money, the language barrier and the same same but difference of it all but I think I'm getting there. Of course I go pretty hard in my first few days even when I've told myself I won't this time and collapse in a heap. But back to the beginning...
After an uneventful (and on schedule) flight I arrived in Bangkok, sailed through immigration and was in a cab and drinking a beer on the balcony of my guesthouse within the hour. Here I met the usual reprobates including that one guy who swears he's leaving tomorrow if only he could get his ticket sorted while regaling you with tales of the ping pong shows and that time he got arrested on one of the islands. The next day I headed off to the closest MRT station to take me to the river for a boat up to the Grand Palace. Avoiding the touted 150B daily ticket I instead spent 15B for a short trip. The trip was interesting if shorter than anticipated. I wandered the wrong way around the Grand Palace to find when I got to the entrance it was packed with people - Chinese and Korean tour groups by the looks of it. I gave up and started walking in the vague direction of Chinatown. And I walked. And walked. And walked some more. En route I wandered through the flower markets which sell the makings of the temple offerings; had a random bowl of soup at a street stall which turned out to be all offal (of which I ate half, it wan't bad, just a little alarming at first), drank iced coffee in a mall and got very lost trying to find the main train station. I returned to the hostel exhausted, with some serious cankles and collapsed into the air conditioning. That night I joined a few people to hang out at Nest, a fabulous rooftop bar in Sukhumvit. We drank cocktails and smoked apple shisha while overlooking the city. The following day was spent replacing my camera that had died - I think from heat exhaustion from being in my pocket all day. So off to MKV, a big mall selling all manner of electronics (some of it I'm sure was legit...). Its is also quite near the Jim Thompson house, an American who exported Thai silk from the 1940's. He bought a number of traditional wooden houses from the north of Thailand and used them to create his home. Its beautful - filled with antiques and surrounded by lush, green gardens. But it was time to move on, east a bit then north up into Laos.
While buses are quicker I love the romance of riding the rails. So I found myself at Hua Lumphong station (love that name!) just after 6am taking my window seat in a 2nd class, fan cooled carriage for my 6 hour trip to Nakhon Ratchasima for a connecting bus the Phimai. It was a very comfortable trip despite the lack of AC. I had 2 seats to myself and was kept fed and watered by a constant stream of food and drink sellers - grilled chicken and sticky rice - yum.
When I got to Phimai it was raining and I found myself only one of two guests in the guesthouse. Apparently it had been raining for 3 days and as it was too late to see the Khmer ruins I'd come to see I sat on the rather nice balcony reading. The next morning the rain had eased slightly allowing me to see the ruins and not drown. And they were worth going to see particularly as I had the whole place to myself, something I wouldn't get at Angkor.
I had thought to stop between Phimai and Nong Khai to grab a Lao visa to save time on the crossing but being a weekend and not overly enamoured of the towns in the north east I decided to go straight to Nong Khai to chill for a couple of days on the river. After 7 hours on local buses I arrived at Mut Mee Gardens Guesthouse, an absolute traveller's haven and one that is very hard to leave. Its owned by an Englishman and has everything one needs, a range of rooms in a lovely garden setting with plenty of communal spaces, an onsite restaurant, bookshop, yoga courses and and a running tab that you pay at the end. Its also right on the river with a view over to Laos. So most of my three days there were spent reading and relaxing. I did take a bike out for a couple of hours to see the sights - mainly the budda park - built in the 60's by a Lao man (who also made the famous one outside Vientiene). It is filled with huge sculptures of the budda and scenes from his life. There is also a fascinating (and slightly odd) group that shows your life cycle - if you all the right things you will follow the Budda to nirvana, if not you are doomed to start all over again. But relaxing as it was it was time to move on to Laos.
