We saw the daily telegraph pictures this morning showing increased violence in Bangkok. We also saw that it featured as the main story on Channel 4 news last night. Glad we're not in Bangkok!
We had a nice relaxing day planned for today. A quiet walk first thing to the river for a coffee. Then a swim and a spot of reading in the shade...
However, when we tried to extend our hotel stay, we were told our room was booked out for the night. The hotel was full! We tried a few more places, also full! We had 2 options to stay.
1) A sweet little old lady had a room she rented out.
2) Rent a tent in the garden of a local homestay.
We deliberated for a while but decided to leave town as we'd done all of the things we wanted to do! As we made our decision and started to walk to the bus stop, which was quite far, a big 4WD pickup pulled up. Inside was a nice friendly villager who offered us a lift to the bus stop. We jumped in the back of the pick up and off we went. So kind!
The mini-bus left almost immediately to take us toThong Pha Phum. The journey went real quick (Zzzzz)...and we found a hotel across the street from the bus stop. We dropped our bags and headed out to see what we could find. There was a temple on the top of a hill, really high up. So, we headed that way to see if we could visit tomorrow. The journey took us across a fast flowing river on a cool suspension bridge! A little wobbly but great. It started getting dark so we headed back and we'll set off earlier tomorrow and try to make it to the top.
We spent the rest of the evening eating! It was great food, chicken noodle soup, tom yam soup and chocolate doughnuts!
There seems to be no western tourists here and everyone is really friendly! In the hotel we were using our phones to research on the Internet when the owner's son (age 30 ish) came to sit with us. He couldn't speak English and was mesmorised by the phones. He kept taking them from us, mid task and having a little go at swiping the screen. When he realised they had cameras we both had to have our photos taken with him several times! Great fun!
We had a nice relaxing day planned for today. A quiet walk first thing to the river for a coffee. Then a swim and a spot of reading in the shade...
However, when we tried to extend our hotel stay, we were told our room was booked out for the night. The hotel was full! We tried a few more places, also full! We had 2 options to stay.
1) A sweet little old lady had a room she rented out.
2) Rent a tent in the garden of a local homestay.
We deliberated for a while but decided to leave town as we'd done all of the things we wanted to do! As we made our decision and started to walk to the bus stop, which was quite far, a big 4WD pickup pulled up. Inside was a nice friendly villager who offered us a lift to the bus stop. We jumped in the back of the pick up and off we went. So kind!
The mini-bus left almost immediately to take us toThong Pha Phum. The journey went real quick (Zzzzz)...and we found a hotel across the street from the bus stop. We dropped our bags and headed out to see what we could find. There was a temple on the top of a hill, really high up. So, we headed that way to see if we could visit tomorrow. The journey took us across a fast flowing river on a cool suspension bridge! A little wobbly but great. It started getting dark so we headed back and we'll set off earlier tomorrow and try to make it to the top.
We spent the rest of the evening eating! It was great food, chicken noodle soup, tom yam soup and chocolate doughnuts!
There seems to be no western tourists here and everyone is really friendly! In the hotel we were using our phones to research on the Internet when the owner's son (age 30 ish) came to sit with us. He couldn't speak English and was mesmorised by the phones. He kept taking them from us, mid task and having a little go at swiping the screen. When he realised they had cameras we both had to have our photos taken with him several times! Great fun!
