Thailand

Spent 3 days exploring Bangkok - Royal Palace, Wat Pho and Wat Arun....all amazing places with hundreds of steps, carvings and gold. The Thai seem very fond of gold and all their temples and statues seem coated in gold or painted gold! The river ferry boats reminded us of the water taxis on the Grand Canal in Venice.
Following a night in a less posh hotel than the Sheraton we joined our new group down to the jungles and beaches of Thailand. Unfortunately for us they had all been together in northern Thailand treking so we are an add on! We spent the next two nights on rafthouses in Kao Sok National Park - a majestic place with towering limestone cliffs and the oldest rain forest in the world (allegedly). The journey took an hour by longtail boat across the lake to a dozen or so bamboo huts floating on platforms on the lake. The way to the loos was over planks balanced precariously between metal platforms and was very squeaky and noisy when one had to cross over in the middle of the night! The swimming was great as was the kayaking and a 3 hour walk up to a viewpoint was challenging but not too bad (for Ann) as the steepest part was clambering over rocks and most of the path was under the forest canopy. It was very humid and plunging in the lake was welcomed by all when we got back! The lake is manmade (a dam for hydroelectric power flooded the forest) in 1980 and unlike Halong Bay (which it resembles somewhat) it is almost deserted apart from some fishing villages of half a dozen floating houses and a few tourist rafthouse places so it felt totally isolated. Iain went out at night swimming and says that the stars were magnificent. We are now at Treetops for a night - still in the jungle but in houses built around trees. The whole complex will be great when its completed but there is still a lot of construction work going on and the pool has no water in yet. Luckily there are en suite facilities so Iain won't have to navigate the steep stairway in the dark! We have just come back from floating down the local river on inner tubes and are about to go and get ready for the festivities tonight! Mobile phone connection is patchy so if we don't manage to wish people Happy New Year personally please don't get upset! Also the time difference means that when we celebrate midnight it will be about 5pm your time. Have a great time everyone and all the best for 2009..lots of love Ann & Iain