The Oriental, Bangkok

Hello from Bangkok. Long run yesterday so we got an early start. Today we are resting. The highlight yesterday was a visit to the Bridge on the River Kwai. A real tourist trap today but very moving none the less. The original bridge is gone and replaced by a steel one. Thousands of Allied soldiers died as the Japanese tried desperately to complete a rail link from Burma to the Port of Bangkok. The cemeteries gave me the same feeling I had walking through those cemeteries on the Normandy Beach...

Dear All, We've been on the road now for a bit over a week, and the days are flying , as usual. I am happy to have Clara Miles as a backseat companion this trip, a fellow "desperate carwife" as my friend Thelma Howells has dubbed us since the South Africa trip. We are in charge of snacks, amendments, water, and ocasionally we serve to backseat navigate just to make things interesting. We have noticed that, so far, our trips are becoming less 4x4, and more opulent. I repeat, so far. I fear Joh...

Greetings and blessings from the Cathedral of the Assumption in Bangkok! One of the priests here, Fr. John, has been kind enough to offer me the internet here in the rectory office. So here I am in the cool respite of the a.c. from the boiling sun..ah..... First mishaps: 1. Last night I locked my padlock on my PacSafe bag (secure little pouch) and somehow I accidentally reset the combination, aack!! So this morning somehow fortunately I had not locked it properly, but now the lock has, well, ...

I have to abandon my undying love for central and South America for one moment and express some love for Bangkok, Thailand. It was such an incredible city! We only got to spend two days there unfortunately but it was one of the most breathtaking cities I have been in. We got there a bit late due to the fact that the Royal Caribbean people are complete idiots and made it impossible to get off the ship. It was about a two hour ride from the port to the city which was perfect time to get some wo...

Hello, It was a special overnight bus trip to Bangkok from Krabi, I thought that by now we were pretty well practiced on the bus, but the14h journey rivaled some of those we had on the unpaved roads of Bolivia (and the roads are paved here!) in terms of bumpiness. I think when we head back south to meet Rob it will be the train for us! We are staying a few blocks away from Khao San Road in Bangkok which is a haven for backpackers. It is actually a pretty fun place too, with a huge market and ...

On tuesday I went to see the Grand Palace (the kings crib). He doesnt actually live there anymore because 1. its a tourist spot and he probably couldnt even go outside. 2. when the king declared thailand a democracy, he decided he wouldnt live in the palace anymore. Now the king is a figurehead, like Elizabeth II of England. The palace is very beautiful. All the structures have thousands of inlaid colored glass that would probably take me 50 years to put together. The amazing part - the entir...

If I am but a speck on the face of this planet, I can never be surprised by the great distances I must travel to visit the reaches of the globe. Yet however far away the continents may physically reside, the experiences I have contain the unique ability to pull the world's corners remarkably closer together. And while every place I may visit occupies a special place inside me, there is a small collection of places that occupy an area very close to my heart. Thailand is one of these places. Si...

April 26, 2007 Christian and Duang's party last night was great. We both had a good time and we are paying for it today. But there are a few sights we have to see before we leave Bangkok. Irina still wants to see the Emerald Buddha and the Reclining Buddha. This time we take the BST to the Saphan Taksin station and walk a very short distance to the Central Pier for the Express River Ferry. The ferry takes us up the river and we get off at the Tha Chang pier which is at the Ko Ratanakosin area...

Ho lasciato Ko Tao e sono andato a Bangkok con mio zio. Dopo tutti questi mesi di ostelli e misere guesthouses finalmente sono in un bel albergo! L'Oriental Hotel di Bangkok. La citta in se per il momento non sembra niente di speciale. Abbiamo visto il templio che sicuramente merita, ma per il resto al momento davvero niente di speciale, vedremo poi nei prossimi giorni!

Being back in Thailand is a bit of a drag, but for some reason the place seems more organised than before. The new Suvarnabhumi Airport is really well organised for Thai standards. The runway at night is full of amazing coloured lights and the terminals look really good from the outside. From the inside, they are very big, but are a little colourless and are made of grey concrete, metal frames and glass. There a lot of spinning metal doors and blue lazer lights on the glass roofs. There are a...