Since the last time I posted, we went back to Phuket for a little over a week, returned to Bangkok for about a week and then took a train ride to Aranyaprathet, a border town on the Thai side of the Cambodian border.
Our time in Phuket was spent in Patong, a "beach town" in Phuket (I use the term "beach town" lightly, as it was insanely crowded and you actually had to pay $3 to even sit on the beach. It was pretty miserable). Still, in Patong we found some fun things to do, and walked along the main street and beach street many times looking for book stores, good restaurants, and small souvenirs to take home. We have been reading a LOT, so any new (preferably cheap) bookstore that we find is usually worth stopping in. The cheaper the better, so that we don't feel guilty when we leave books behind!
We also found a great all-you-can-eat BBQ restaurant, where you choose your own meat (you can pick anything - shrimp, beef, pork liver, bacon, chicken, squid, bass, etc) and vegetables and cook it at your table. This was one of the best meals we had, even though we were a little worried we would go down with food poisoning in the middle of the night due to under-cooked meat. Luckily, we did not :) The best part of this diner was that it only cost us 120Baht, or $4USD. AWESOME! Finally, we had a chance to rent a scooter one day, and visit the largest Buddha in Thailand. Pictures of a few lookouts and the Buddha can be seen here: http://picasaweb.google.co.th/bridgetholmstrom/MoreThailand
After returning to Bangkok, we decided to stay in a more luxurious place and spend some time at the pool. We explored the streets in the district around us, as well as checking out Khason Road and some more touristy parts of Bangkok that we didn't try the first time around. We also spent some time figuring out our upcoming trip across the border to Cambodia.
The train ride from Hua Luomphong train station in Bangkok to Aranyaprathet took almost 6 hours, over an hour longer than expected. For a third class, non air-conditioned train, it cost 96Baht for two people (3USD total). After 7 weeks in Thailand this was our first time truly seeing inner Thailand, as our other trips were all by ferry, plane or overnight bus.
We saw many things: huge farms, irrigation systems and pools of water, pigs, water buffalo, men fishing with nets, very few large towns (mostly just farms and open land), smaller sheet metal shanty towns, random beautiful Asian style Buddhist temples in the middle of nowhere, people on scooters meeting the train to pick up friends and family, students riding on the train for over an hour just to get home from school, people selling fruit, meals wrapped in bags to take home, vegetables for cooking (no need to go to the market!) and drinks, and varied small houses in the middle of the plains. It was different than what we had seen before - the train was a great way to see more of the country.
As I am running out of time, I can't add pictures to this entry...but check out the link above! Send me an email if you have a chance, and hope everything continues to go well at home :)
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
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