Thailand #1

So yeah. I went to Thailand on holiday by myself (Mike didn't have enough leave and I had loads of TOIL to use up). As I can't speak or read Thai and didn't really have any time to plan what I wanted to do in any kind of detail (but wanted to do more than just sitting on a beach), I decided to book a package deal and settled on a trip with Kuoni, who offered one with lots of variety on some very do-able dates. It's not what I would normally do, but it was about all I had the energy for...

Kuoni were actually really great. They sent me an itinerary with vouchers in for all of my hotels and the details of all of all my flights and basically sorted everything out for me from the moment I arrived in Bangkok. I was really impressed with their service and would definitely recommend them: I worked out that the difference in doing the tour with them and by myself roughly equated to £800 - but that was easily recuperated in transfer, travel, efficiency and time saving!

( Buckle up kids, this is a long one! )

Thailand #2

Day 3: Ayutthaya
Our first destination this morning was the Bang Pa In Summer Palace. I have to be honest. I was expecting something similar to the Grand Palace, just a bit further out (in a Buckingham Palace - Windsor Palace sort of way). It was a bit of a drive from Bangkok but we suddenly turned off the morotrway and started making our way along smaller and smaller roads. Very oddly, although a lot of the land was agricultural, we only really saw crops and not many animals at all. When we arrived at the Palace we made our way into a small (and not terribly grand) entrance hall for a passport check - and then out into what appeared at first just to be gardens.

The Summer Palace actually consists of beautiful gardens, parkland and lakes with ornamental buildings dotted around throughout. We first visited a small shrine then made our way to a recreation of a 'European' bridge (which had a frankly terrible mish-mash of knock-off classical figures and fairies cemented to it but you could see what they had been going for) - and then to a pavilion overlooking a lake where we bought bread and fed it to the fish - and turtles! (There were some real whoppers in there too!) Apparently, it's a Buddhist thing to do...

( In which we leave the city and enjoy some beautiful scenery and magnificent views. And more temples. )