Guro and Caroline Blog

shiney new things!!! oh and tigers....WARNING - MEGA BLOG!

guro left y'all with the quick "hello we're safe blog" as we'd landed bangkok and were headed to the tigers so i'll take up from there.... sorry if there's a few bits missing and we back fill when home but dodgy foreign computers and all we're not quite sure if we've missed anything out (and to all the people that were involved in the bits we may have missed out we're sorry and you are very important to us!)

at the airport we were very clever and left half our luggage (only 32kgs check-on total - i know we obviously haven't bought enough souvenirs for you...) in storage and picked up a free bangkok map (eek no lonely planet - how will we cope?). renewed with travelling vigour, the thought of a truely home cooked meal not far away and the break 3 months work gave us, we got to grips with the map and were headed towards the bus (you may have noticed it was mainly taxis first asian time round) as we were politely accosted by a young indian man kris. he was actually asking us (obviously by now the seasoned travellers - he must have noticed the synical expressions as we warded of taxi after taxi and seen the fact the clothes we were wearing are see through they've been washed so many times) for help and advice.

and thats how it started.

it went from "where did you pick up your map" to "could you babysit me for my time in bangkok and can i do everything you do (and maybe have a threesome)". you'll be happy to hear we set him straight on the last request promptly and then bought him a bus ticket and found him a hotel room - him trundling 2 wheely cases down bangkok streets as we duck and weave with our shared backpack (feeling pretty damned cool!). we freshened up and promptly set out to find how best we could get out to see those big stripey kittons with kris in tow.

bangkok day 2 we met the rest of 'the group from hell' as we'll fondly remember them :) we'd booked onto a tour (too lazy to get the local bus - so much for renewed vigor, and the trip was too good to turn down) with an israeli travel company and hence we landed 'paris hilton', 'nicole ritchie' (p+n from now or 'the girls') and a couple with food poisoning. happy days. the rudest little bunch of people we have ever had the torture of spending time around (you didn't spend time with them, this would suggest they aknowledged your presence). all israeli and thank god we met a nice couple of israeli boys day 3 or i might have to start generalising about a nationality....

we set off by a/c minibus to kanchanaburi and booked into a beautiful hotel/resort. from here we went straight to the tiger temple and it was worth the journey (dont think couple boy agreed as he had to stop the bus to vomit..). the bhuddist temple is a sanctuary for all animals that wander in because they get fed! the monks do a good job of keeping the wild boar away from the tigers with tidy little sling shots - being monks am sure they only fire very soft things :) we both took our turns to pat the fiersome beasts (tigers not monks...) who actually got too narky for 'special photos' to be taken where for 1000baht the tigers would hop onto your knee and pose.... great plan. it was the thunderous rain making them jumpy. and p+n grumpy. and us wet!

from here to a floating deck where muscley thai ladies worked on our travel worn feet for half an hour (rather them than me) and dinner in their beautiful gardens complete with wildlife (didn't help the israeli mood that a gecko fell on ones head and a toad jumped across the room. oh and they didn't like the frogs being transported next to them in the bus day 3...) and back to the hotel a bit sooner than we'd hoped as the 'girls' had had enough. we left as the ladies had terrible headaches which it seemed got a lot better after returning to the hotel where they "had to" get to the internet........ to play a computer game involving fish! grrrrrrr.

beautiful sleep in a beautiful bed but day 3 did not see light fill the moods of our group. you wouldn't think you could go wrong with an omlete breakfast but with the manner in which p + n treated the staff we were suprised only one ant turned up in their food. after emptying a shaker full of salt onto breakfast 2 breakfast 3 was left almost untouched. p having lost her appetite. we all almost cried for her. honest. n then announced she wouldn't be joining us today for the elephant trek and bathing, boat trip, big bhudda and cave tour, waterfall trek and tour of the bridge over the river kwai - instead she insisted the unfinished pool be filled (it was a hole in the ground) for her to tan by. GRRRRRR!

we had a great day doing all the above. kris and we had a great walk to the 7th (top) tier of erwan falls. they are beautiful and you can swim in the natural pools at every level. gorgeous. with just 3 hours we could only swim at the top pool before meeting up with the others - who had been waiting for us for 2 hours as they couldn't be bothered to walk. they insisted lunch would be a quick affair unlike the lengthy dinner (yeah right) that they'd cut short the night before. paris and couple girl managed to order boiled rice and peanuts from a menu that included neither which were again uneaten and all hurried off.

it was about now they started complaining that the tour was boring and there was nothing to do! GOOD GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the elephants were beautiful and after a short ride we had great fun washing them - well couple and we did, of course paris having chosen to wash the elephants by now had changed her mind and wanted to go bamboo rafting instead.

despite the traumas from the special company the trip was amazing. our guide am was cool and guro is convinced the garden of the new house we will buy when home with all the money we have....... will be big enough for an elephant. and a tiger.

on returning to bangkok none said goodbye. we left (with kris... we're warming to him just in small doses) and have spent today buying shiney new things (which obviously being from bangkok will not be shiney and new by the time we get them back to the hotel let alone home).

and now we sit, waiting for time to pass as we fly to uk tonight, writing mega blog of all mega blogs for y'all to read at your lesiure. you could always print it off and use it as your toilet novel...?

posted by Caroline @ 12:23