TLC - go chasing waterfalls

15.02 - 16.02.

We're finally here. Arrived in Bangkok around 7 pm on February 15th, found our Guesthouse (K.C. Guesthouse, nice staff, good rooms at reasonable prices) and went straight out to meet Vera who we met over the internet before and Frank, who I (Dunja) work with, Benjamin, his friend and Katharina, who we met on the flight. We had a fun night on Khao San Road. We went back to the hostel around 4.30 am, had 2 hours of sleep and got up somehow to pick up our sleeper train tickets at the train station which were supposed to be handed over at 9 am. We took a train to Ayutthaya (about 2 hours), the former capital. Together with Vera we found a nice room at P.U. Guesthouse, slept a little bit and enjoyed a beautiful sunset at Phra Rama Park. We had a fantastic Thai dinner - a mixture between hot pot and grill. Tomorrow we'll explore the rest of the city and get onto the sleeper train to Chiang Mai at 7.20 pm.
It's so beautiful being back in this wonderful country - fantastic people, great weather (around 32 Degrees)and delicious food!

17.02. - 18.02.

After taking it really easy yesterday in Ayutthaya (we were in no shape to do much sightseeing after our whisky-liaison the other night), we decided to explore the city a bit more. After breakfast we were approached by a Tuk Tuk driver who convinced us to go on a sightseeing tour all over the town. Initially we wanted to to a bike tour, but changed our minds, which we didn't regret considering the scorching heat.
He took us to the most interesting spots, starting with Wat Yai Chaya Mongkol with one of the biggest laying Buddha figures in it. Since it was a Sunday, the place was pretty crowded with locals who were attending their religious rites at the temples - quite interesting to observe.
The second we visited was a Chinese style palace - we thought everything looked pretty kinky, almost like a Las-Vegas-China with flashing lights and loads of decoration everywhere. The next stop lead us to the King Palace which was surrounded by some nice markets with lots of food of which we had no clue what it was supposed to be...decided to go for some unadventurous waffles
By the parking lot our guide wanted to persuade us to ride some elephants, but we rejected - the animals looked pretty untended and had to take tourists for rides along a main road - not very authentic we thought.
The nicest place we saw that day was Wat Lokayasutha, a UNESCO world heritage site with beautiful Cambodian-style temples and spectacular views from the top. After yet another temple visit we were templed out for the day and went for dinner next to our Guesthouse. Dunja and Vera had some delicious Thai food and I was daring enough to try a super spicy Tom Yam soup - big mistake - couldn't eat anything else that day...
After a bit of relaxing we made our way to the train station to catch out night train to Chiang Mai.

We slept surprisingly well on the train, even though we heard an interesting snoring concert, as all the beds were in the same compartment.

Today we want to take it a bit easy and do some shopping (yey!!!) at the night market. We are about to check into our Guest House now and finally take a shower

Tomorrow morning Dunja and I are heading towards Laos, where our Gibbon experience starts the following day.