Day 27, Tuesday 15th December. Naughty News!
Last night Tea (as in Ti-a), David and I went out to dinner on a river cruise. It was actually a lot of fun, but I'm not sure I'd advise it because I ended up dancing on the top deck to the band which was not a "recommended" thing to do! We booked the whole thing through a local driver/guide that Tea found called Winai and I booked him for today to take me on a tour. He charges the same for two as he does for one – Baht 2,000 for the day, but he's very nice, speaks pretty decent English and very helpful. If someone wants to use him, you can get him on his mobile 08-3983-3360 and he's always happy to take our money!
So he picked me up at 8am this morning which meant getting up early after a late night and getting dilation out of the way which was a bit of pain. He insisted on an early start because of the traffic. It took just over an hour to drive to the King's Grand Palace. You also pay everything that's extra including tolls – 100B each way – and entry fees for yourself and him – another couple of hundred (not a big deal). It costs much less for a Thai to get a ticket so its really worth bringing him with you, especially if you're on your own, because he shows you around and takes lots of photos for you and of you with your camera (and take a camera!). Oh, I should also add that there is a dress code for the Palace - you're not allowed to show your knees (so trousers or a dress below the knees) or your shoulders (so a T-shirt or a scarf/shawl which you can buy when you're there for 100B). The tour round the Grand Palace was great – beautiful place – then we went across the river to the Buddhist temple.
After that we headed over to Ayutthaya (full name Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya) which was the ancient capital city of Thailand ransacked by the Burmese in the 1700s – it's beautiful, intriguing and sad because it has fallen apart and all the Buddha statues had their heads cut off by the Burmese (who are also Buddhist??!!). The Thais think that's why Myanmar (Burma) is such an awful place to live - they are paying the price of their nastiness.
After that (and this is the really naughty bit
!) I went on an elephant ride – fabulous animals
. I loved it and even managed to sit on the seat without my doughnut! The people who run the thing, milk you all the way through – 400 to ride, 50 to feed them, 100 to take a picture of you with you phone .... then the elephant holds out its trunk at the end asking for a tip! However, it was an experience of a lifetime which I wouldn't have missed for the world. Then we went off to an elephant farm/sanctuary. Oh, they are such beautiful creatures
. The place had five or so babies less than 6 months old who just wanted to play and be fed (50/basket of cucumbers!). Honestly, you can't resist feeding and playing with them, you can get right up close and they wrap their trunk around your hand and try and pull you past the fence to be with them. They climb all over each other and if you have food they are all, including the mothers, trying to get your attention. But they were gentle and lovely. I ended up doubling my costs for the day because I just had to donate to their home – the people there look after 200 elephants. One bit of advice, if you go there, take some wet-wipes because after you've been with them your hands have been stroking them as well as being held and wrapped by their trunks and it's not as if there's nice sanitary facilities everywhere!
We got back to the hotel around 5.30 after leaving the elephants about 4pm, so a pretty long time in the car because the traffic is so bad. It was only when I got back that I suddenly wondered whether Nurse Sri was due to visit me again today – if so I missed that! Either way, if you get the chance, I would highly recommend you taking the trip up there, it was a really fabulous day and Winai was good company.
