72 Ekamai Bangkok

... Buddhas to last a lifetime. The biggest Buddha was also the laziest, the famous reclining, or lying down to you and me, was very impressive. Probably some 75 feet long and 20 feet high, this golden fella certainly kept us in the oohs and ahhs enough. He can be found in Wat Pho temple complex which boasts a lavish structure of ornate and detailed buildings. In the grounds there is a massage school where Liz and I had a 45 minute foot massage whilst the kids ...

... 8211; and then we headed down to meet up with my aunt and our guide (who had been on a tour of the old capital).

My mom has not traveled with me in a while nor has she spent as much time in Asia as I have, and I think she was not very comfortable with my style of wandering the streets to get where we needed to go. I knew we had to follow the river, but my map was very general, without the names of the majority of the streets we passed, so it was very ...

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Nath bought himself 6 shirts, some socks & a laser light for the dog to chase! He also desperately wanted to buy a BB Gun & bring it home. He was sure he could get it past customs & I was glad when he decided to not bother!

More shopping at Siam Centre over the road & he had spent all his money.

I had to buy some lights to take back for work so we caught the ...

... our way through the little alleyways, taking little glimpses into the homes of the locals, lying around in their rooms on the floor, the dogs mingling with the cats mingling with the children mingling with fat mothers and grandmothers and aunties, the water rising and falling day in day out, sometimes their living room under water, sometimes not, but always the ever present humid heat that required the fan to hum from all corners of the slums. The TV's showed cheesy daytime TV, and ...

... from the Khaosan Road and took a famous Tuk-Tuk to the street. Indeed..this is backpackers heaven probably. All the types in the world are here. Old..young..very old and never saw t.v. probably the last 12 years... But thatīs the way it is.and it was amusing to see. Thought it would be bigger though..but it was enough for us. Walked over towards another market near the river.Although Sunday..it was very crowded....so we hesitated for a river trip to the ...

... and left to bake in the sunshine, but I went along with it at the time and had the typical tourist picture with them. The final stop on this trip was to the Kwai River Bridge (Death Railway Bridge), a beautiful setting with an emotional history.
On my final day in this mad city I visited the Grand Palace and lapped up the atmosphere for one last time!
Tomorrow im setting off for Northern Thailand on a 17 hour train journey......

... gate...turned around and saw a Vietnamese guard, complete with gun, angrily shooing us away. Maybe the wrong entrance we thought, so walked around the corner and tried to get in the open entrance on that side. Same situation. We asked the slightly friendlier guard what the deal was, it was a monday he said. Blank looks from us. Everything closed on monday!.....Double bugger.

Hanoi, in short, was not treating us well. We persevered for about half an ...

... truly amateur thing to do. There went my entire plan of heading down to Patpong, the notorious Bangkok red light district, for some gaudy night time photographs. Dejected, I hoped on the Sky Train and headed down to Cabbages and Condoms for some supper. At the Sky Train stop I found Robinson’s Department Store and decided to give them a try for a new pair of sandals. One of the employees began to animatedly sell me some ties. I responded by smiling and lifting up my ...

... and he has extensive knowledge on child labor and child prostitution in Thailand. He has done a lot of work with HIV/AIDS, and was in charge of the UNESCO Program. His argument was that human trafficking does not exist, that exploitation does. Though some of us started to get a bit confused about the entire issue of human trafficking, and whether or not it exists as Simon argues, our thinking certainly got stirred up. Based on the required readings, we ...

I love Thailand sooo much. It's a nicer and cleaner version of India but unfortunately I didn't like the food there. It was time for me to go on holiday after all the hard work in Africa and India, so it's 4 months break! I spent a month in Thailand on a programme which gives you an idea what the country is like, as well as trekking through the jungle, before going to Australia. The hard physical work of my travels was over!!

When I first arrived to ...