Hi everyone!
The jet lag seems to still be affecting me a little bit. Woke at 5.45am today and couldn't get back to sleep so I read until the alarm went off at 7.30.
We set off to get the metro train from Hua Lamphong which is right outside our hotel. We mastered the ticketing system pretty quickly and changed to the BTS sky train at Si Lom where there were protestors. Then we walked through Siam Square area through lots of protestors!!!!
We started our day at the Jim Thompson House. Jim Thompson was an American born in 1906. After he served in WWII he was posted in Thailand and loved it so much he decided to live here. He had six traditional Thai houses brought to his property and assembled as one house. We took the 9.40am tour with a really friendly guide. The tour started in the beautiful rainforest gardens, where we learned that Thai people assemble mini houses in their garden so that the spirits they have disrupted by building the house can 'live' there. They burn incense to attract them and place food offerings in the house every day. Inside the house we saw lots of beautiful old furniture and artefacts. We learned that the doorways here have a step in them to keep snakes and evil spirits out, and if you step on it it's bad luck!! In 1967 Jim Thompson went walking in the Cameron highlands in Malaysia and disappeared mysteriously and no trace has ever been found of him.
We then walked along a canal (which stank!!) to Ratchathewi station and caught the train to the victory monument. Here we ran into another protest (a HUGE one) with microphones and people yelling on stage and people camping out in tents. We walked about 2km along the road with them, all the while being stared at weird and even having one man ask us for a photo, so we are now probably on Thai Facebook haha. The protests are quite peaceful, I did feel a bit nervous when the road got narrow but there was heaps of security and we walked beside them not amongst them. It was a real eye opener indeed, but I don't think I need to walk with them again!!
Next we walked along a really quiet road to the Dusit Gardens. We went to the zoo and saw a lizard and a turtle in the canal along the way. The zoo was pretty nice with a large lake and surprisingly big enclosures for where we are. We watched a really good seal show, had a look around and then walked to Dusit Palace. It was closed, and we have no idea why! None of the guards could speak English. But never mind!!!
So we decided to walk to the ferry and on our way enjoyed lots of street food, interesting shops and monuments to the king and queen. We passed the wet market where lots of yucky looking food was being sold haha. We got the ferry and went to the amulet market where we saw heaps of interesting items and lots of monks. We walked through a university on the way which was interesting to compare to Monash!! At the markets we bought jewellery, scarves, earrings and magnets! Brad, a lady tried to sell Laura a special ornament claiming it gave you good luck in love, and she proudly told her she didn't need it because she has you haha.
On the way home we stopped at a lovely little shop and got bags and pants and had a nice chat with the shopkeeper. We have made lots of friends!!!
Had a quick dip in the pool and then had dinner in Chinatown. Chinatown is nuts, colourful, traffic, food everywhere. I ate some spring roll type things and all this other food that I'm not even sure about haha. But all was yum. I made best friends with the street vendor's little boy who played with his train with me for an hour and climbed all over me and wanted to be in all my photos. Neither of us spoke each other's language but we had lots of fun and laughed a lot! Then we were joined by a German guy called Rennie who we chatted to for ages, he was really nice. It turned out we were all going to the red light district so we walked together enjoying strange desserts along the way. The red light district was ... Confronting. I think about 30 men approached me saying "ping pong?" To which I just laughed and walked off. Saw lots of women not wearing much and had a good laugh with Rennie who got approached endlessly!!!
Now we are back at the hotel and we have just met a girl called Sarah from England who is on our tour! We meet our tour tomorrow at 6pm after a full day of zip lining through the rain forest with monkeys - I'm very tired at the moment but I'm still really excited :)
Absolutely wrecked haha.
Love
Claire and Laura
Xoxox
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