vinapu

Day 18 , back in Bangkok Alarm clock at 5.30, coffee and shower. At 6.20 our car arrived with one tourist already in and we set off for an airport. We missed breakfast at hotels but small restaurant there was opened so we managed to east something decent. Then we killed bit of time by checking dinosaurs on display across the airport. In waiting room itself there were coffee , tear and water plus some simple snacks available free for waiting passengers. I must say Bangkok Airways does excellent job taking care about their passengers at that airport. Few pics from the airport Going back I had feeling I could stay longer , specially if I brought some company to warm bed at night. Again we were treated with full breakfast on the flight. My friend K was supposed to stay in the same hotel but his reservation was messed up and since they were full he was forced to search for free room in another one nearby. My room was not ready at that early hour so I went to soi 6 for massage with N at Maha . When I returned room was ready , so after refreshing I headed to Happy Beer Garden on Suriwong where I was supposed to lunch with ichigo. It was our first meet and we had nice chat and boy information sharing session over the lunch. Afternoon was very lazy , one of those days when I feel it’s best to be busy doing nothing, bit of Grindr and forum , catching up with e-mails and some reading , in short lazybuming in full. At 20.30 I was supposed to dine with Anddy from the forum at Madrid Tavern so went there by BTS but they were closed already. Since he arrived on his motorbike it was easy to switch to G’Bangkok in soi 4 and have nice chat over dinner. From there to Hot Male where I treated P, the waiter with drink. K , my Sukhotai companion joined me there and we went to Moonlight. I hoped Y will be there and he was , we chatted over drink but it turned out he is already booked for tonight so I felt bit empty handed. After 3 nights of fasting it would be nice to have somebody beside thought I and decided to see if P is still there in his bar hoping drink I bought him will bring some benefits. He was and it did, 600 off fee and soon we were in my room.

another one who drinks gin on empty stomach, lol

you will not have that problem those days. Main street is filled with shops and restaurants, some opened till late and yes , there's substantial night market with at least 3 dozen if not more food stalls. I also noticed some restaurants in side streets , specially where hotels are. While sightseeing though make sure you stock on drinks and snacks as they are not that available other then Si Chum temple site. On another hand as I mentioned above, one is never really too far from the city so if need to nourish arises it's fairly fast and easy to be back.

dream on, those days everything has

all my life I wonder what is wrong with that other that fashion mafia's fascist phobia. no, nothing personal as I wear sandals without socks only because I like that way .I like be barefooted wherever possible . But when I know I'll meet somebody who believes socks and sandals don't match I make sure to wear both.

I can't praise enough breakfasts at O Delice's, my favorite in the area.

don't be surprised if somebody responds ' as far from all three as possible' as Songkran seems to be one of those events people tend to have strong opinion about. Some of our member love it and some hate. I have no personal opinion as never been in Thailand at that time but as with all things where opinions differ I advise ' go and see for yourself" . Kostik seems to be right as Pattaya Songkran is observed after Bangkok, that's all I know.

mercifully they are. Cambodia I first visited in 2001 and country now are like two completely different countries, so much progress was made despite all country flaws. Then when I asked if visiting Preah Vihear temple on border with Thailand is possible guy in travel office just knocked on his forehead, it's close to Anlong Veng , then still Khmer Rouge stronghold. Limbless people were begging everywhere tourist would congregate and it was bringing to tears to see they still managed to smile. And there was no Hanuman Black beer.

sad story, I must say I appreciate American Airlines decision from November,. We were about to pull from gate in Miami when captain announced we need to delay it in order to remove passenger who suddenly decided no to fly due to sudden outburst of some illness. It took while as they need to remove his/her luggage too but at least continued uninterrupted after taking off. few years ago there was guy , bit controversial but prolific contributor to gay boards who died on the plane on his was to USA. I think his name was Neil

sometimes I'm missing gallows

what happened with LH flight?

never drink gin on empty stomach

and here from central zone of Kamphaeng Phet includin "lion of Kampheang Phet" below

and here from Kamphaeng Phet "outside of the centre" zone

Day 17 Kamphaeng Phet I woke up at 8 , no rush since driver was supposed to show at 9. About quarter before that we met in front on my hotel wondering if he will show up at all ( remember we paid in full) only to discover that car parked aside is one which will be taking us there. It’s about 80 Km so it took slightly above 1 hour to get there. There are 2 complexes of ruins – to the north of the center which we visited first and compound in the very center where beside ruins there’s neat museum we visited as well. Admission here is 150 to each of two parts of ruins and 150 to museum as well. Equally impressive ruins as those at Sukhotai also not coverings as vast territory and by every mean worth of travel there even from Bangkok , ,not just from Sukhotai. Kamphaeng Phet may be good breaking point between capital and Chiang Mai as it’s exactly mid way. Early afternoon we were back in Sukhotai , as we were hungry we wnet to eat something right away and chicken with nuts was even better than one yesterday for only 2/3 of price. Then we went to museum in Sukhotai, quite interesting but on human scale. Then K went for massage and I went to survey temple near hotel not even shown on the map I got in the hotel and from there on other side of road I spotted another , also unmarked ruin so went to explore it as well, it was start darkening when I went back to the room . here are some pick of that 'forgotten ' temple: At 20.00 we repeated yesterday’s routine with stroll to the center and banana pancake for supper. Returning to the hotel I thought that actually tomorrow I could start that sightseeing all over again. I have strong suspicion it was not my last trip to Sukhotai. In the hotel I ordered van to the airport for our early morning flight for K and me at 350 per person.

and sadly so are guys playing music at Banteai Samre temple. Still it's only a shade of what one could see in 2001

correct. Only thing we tend to forget is that while we see final product sometimes it took dozens of years or even generations before final shape of what we marvel at was achieved. In absence of Netlix and Facebook ancients has a lot of time

you are correct but in Sukhotai there were neither during my stay or at least I did no notice any

that will not necessarily be good news as often replacing one autocrat or dictator with another one results in more mayhem. Generally speaking we should remember that for tourists brutal military dictatorship is safest place to travel as everybody is under the boot, crooks too. Unfortunately Americans may feel as exempted from this rule in some places due to bargaining chip danger mentioned above

Western Zone, lady on the last picture is not my friend K, just stranger she simply ignored fact that I'm trying to make picture standing there and checking Facebook or whatever so as penalty is is immortalized here :

Iconic Wat Si Chum in Northern Zone with 15m tall Buddha

Temples of Northern Zone

Few more:

In order not to have post too long I decided to post pictures in a separate threads. Here are temples of Central zone:

Day 16 Sukhotai ruins K and I decided to start early to avoid much of heat , at least in some monuments although it needs to be said that weather was extremely co-operative during out time in Sukhotai and it did not feel lie Thailand at all. Balmy 24 – 25 , that’s all. On another hand place is quite vast and if one needs to avoid heat is to come back to hotel and take airconditioned nap. Fortunately not necessary for us. There are basically three zones of sites, Central , Northern and Western, each requiring separate 100 baht ticket as well as 10 baht bicycle ticket as well. They did not charge us for bicycles at western zone. We had our breakfasts at 7 am and then I rented bicycle in my hotel, K opted for rental place nearby and we moved to central zone with Wat Mahatat first, son after site was opened. It needs to be said that while not overwhelmed if was quite populated by tourists , both individual and on tours. Temples on all three zones are quite close to each other but still not adjacent so walking would be way too demanding and cycling is ideal, Hence abundance of bicycle rental places. Some sophisticated tourists may opt for electric cart , with or without guide. There is some shade but a lot of ruins are in the open , there are places o the way where one can buy some drinks but as for temple sites themselves only most popular Si Chum has proper facilities with stores and toilets. Good news is while spread out sites are still quite close to the city so if one feels tired , returning to hotel is fairly easy. Some temples in the western zone require a bit of climb, definitely worth it in any case we went up. All in, that is very pleasant , interesting and easy ‘to do’ site and easily few days can be spend there exploring what’s available. Some smallish temples are not even on the map I attached for day 15. I.e. next day we noticed that there are ruins of temple in close vicinity to our hotels not even shown on the said map . When I went there , another ruins appeared in the trees across the road, also not on the map I estimate we visited today about 20 and on our way to them passed by another 15 without stopping there . Around 16.00 ( remember we started at about 7.30 ) I felt dehydrated and suggested we call today’s part off to which K agreed so we pedaled back to the city where we stopped for a meal, mine of course was chicken with cashew nuts, bit spicy there and costing twice as much as in restaurant we were dining lest evening. Tourist zone , tourist prices. Eariler , while on the way we discussed about plan for tomorrow as we had either Kamphean Phet or Si Satchanalai. Not feasible to do both as they are in opposite directions and by the way Si Satchanalai is relatively close to the Sukhotai airport. We settled on Kampheang Phet and stopped at the travel office on our way to see what price may be. Offer was 1500 for car with driver, bit cheaper than hotel offered so we agreed right away and even broke rules and paid for it right away asking driver to be at the hotel at 9.00. Finally around 6 pm we landed back in hotels and after bit of rest went back to the city to check night market where I had 2 banana pancakes for 30 baht each. While waiting for first to be prepared some French tourists took an interest in trying , then somebody else and it looked I made lady very busy all of the sudden. I was victim of that success as was forced to wait for 2nd one to be prepared such was a line. While day was pleasant , night was even more , hell with mosquitos , geckos , cobras and lions, I decided to sleep with open patio door and as we can see , survived to tell the tale.