Turns out The Tootster was awake too. He finally gave up fighting his jet lag and went for a walk around five until the hotel’s restaurant opened at six for breakfast, at which time I thankfully fell asleep and started dreaming about being a cat burglar only to be woken by the alarm click going off half an hour later, (just as I was explaining to the lady of the house that I was burglaring that I had only popped in to make myself a Pad Thai?!)
Anyway, suffice it to say, by 8am when we met up with the group, we were both completely exhausted and struggling to stay awake on the short mini bus ride over to Wat Po, to see the worlds largest Reclining Buddha, measuring in at a mere 46 meters long. And as I stared up at this monumentally, magnificent, mammoth statue - who’s head was about the size of my Ford Fiesta - all I wanted to do was climb up, lie beside him and sleep.
Wat Po, or to give it, its full title: Wat Phra Chetuphon Vimolmangklararm Rajwaramahaviharn, (which I wouldn’t be able to say even if I was wide awake!), is found in the Phra Nakhon District in Bangkok and a must to go see. I had already been when I was last over in Thailand six years ago and I still found it just as wonderous as I did then.
Early as it was, the sun was already beginning to beat down on us as we walked through the grounds, admiring the various jewelled Stupors and smaller Buddhas. So, I was quite relieved to be told we were moving on, to go on a Klong boat canal ride. ‘How relaxing’, I thought, as I had images of us lying under canvas, on sun chairs as we drifted down the canal admiring the scenery.
Well this couldn’t be further from the truth! A Klong Boat is like a long canoe and we were required to don life jackets and sit two abreast as the boat travelled at speed, bouncing off the waves on the Chao Phraya River, whilst we caught glimpses of life living in stilt built shacks in the waterfront settlements, either side of the river bank.
However, it was great fun, despite being completely saturated and slightly concerned that I may have to bring up the small amount of food I’d had for breakfast. But it certainly woke me up!
After disembarking and eating a healthy lunch of noodles we were back on the bus for a two and a half hour drive towards Kanchanaburi. Where we climbed on board a Raft House; our accommodation for the night and then we were dragged out by Tug boat further up the river towards the Sirinakarin damn.
The rafthouse was moored up along the river bank and it was here that we got to swim in the cooling water, relax on deck chairs under canvas and watch as the sun slowly began to set. What an amazing and peaceful way to end the day.
Our room itself was pretty basic, big enough to accommodate our bed with about a foot at the end to squeeze our bags into. And strangely enough there was even a TV on a shelf in the corner of the room?
Dinner was delivered to us by speed boat, (not a Deliveroo or Uber sign in sight) and straight to the table; fresh fish which I hoped was not one of the many we had been feeding from the side of the Klong boat earlier that day.
The food coma started to kick in, probably exacerbated by the two over sweetened bottles of ‘Classic’ wine cooler that had accompanied my dinner and it wasn’t long before I was tucked up in bed. I didn’t care that the mattress was hard and the pillow felt like a concrete block, I was knackered and ready to sleep. And I did, for a couple of hours until the very familiar sound of South London snoring awoke me from my slumber!
No comments:
Post a Comment