Buddhism and divorce in Laos

The rain did not let up at all on Friday afternoon, so we headed back to our guesthouse and I read a bit about Buddhism, which seems to have a complex history and system of beliefs. The Buddhist tradition is founded on, and inspired by, the teachings of a charismatic person who lived around 566 to 486 BC. He was born Siddharta Gautama, son of a local rajan, or chieftan, in Kapikvastri on the Indian-Nepalese border. He was a member of a privileged and wealthy family and lived comfortably. Disillusioned with his life, he left home and adopted the life of a wandering ascetic and embarked on a spiritual quest. Still not satisfied, as he sat in meditation under a tree on the banks of the Nairangana in Northern India, he had a profound experience. Called Bodhi or "awakening", he had a deep understanding of the nature of suffering, its cause and a way of stopping it.

The Lord Buddha then devoted the rest of his life to teaching the way to cease suffering. By his death at about the age of 80, he had a considerable following and a well organised community. Buddhism is a rather flexible religion and teaches that nothing is eternal and everything in the world is subject to change. Buddhism has no unique creed, no single authority, no single sacred book. It focuses on the potential of each individual seeking to attain enlightment or "nirvana". Key beliefs and values are contained in the "Four Noble Truths", which comprise the essence of Buddha's teachings. They are the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of the end of suffering and the truth of the path which leads to the end of suffering. More simply put, suffering exists, it has a cause, it has an end and it has a cause to bring about its end. The notion of suffering is not intended to convey a negative world view but rather a pragmatic perspective which deals with the world as it is and attempts to rectify it. The concept of pleasure is not denied, but acknowledged as fleeting. Pursuit of pleasure can only continue what is ultimately an unquenchable thirst. The same logic belies an understanding of happiness. In the end, only aging, sickness and death are certain and unavoidable.

The Eightfold Path illustrates the moral principles in which all Buddhists should practice. It goes into detail about the basis of all Buddhist teachings: morality, meditation and wisdom. Following the Noble Eightfold Path helps a person realise that greed and selfishness cause all earthly suffering. With this new understanding, one's suffering may end...

This is the Eightfold Path:1. Right knowledge. 2. Right thinking. 3. Right speech. 4. Right conduct. 5 Right livelihood. 6. Right effort. 7. Right mindfulness. 8. Right concentration. Hmmm - not sure if I would be able to become a righteous Buddhist, as a lot of those principles seem to be unattainable for most ordinary mortals!

I mentioned earlier in my blog that family is very important in Laos. Our Lao guide, Wung, who lives in Luang Prabang with his wife and two children (it is illegal to have foreign guides in Lao so if asked, we had to pretend that Blair (tour leader) was part of the tour group) told us that the divorce rate in Lao is only 3 per cent. Whilst you go to the courts to get a divorce in the large towns and cities, in the villages, the whole family gets involved and decides whether you are allowed to get divorced. They all try to resolve your problems first, as divorce is seen as a last resort. If the family agree, the chieftain of the village grants the divorce.

If the divorce is on the grounds of adultery, the wronged party has to have proof of that - ie the couple are usually caught at it. Adultery is also a criminal offence in Lao and Wung told us that one of his boat captains who had been married for more than 10 years discovered that his 35 year old wife who worked on another boat had been having an affair with a 25 year old boat hand who worked with her. They were both sent to prison for 3 months! No wonder why divorce is not very common in Laos.

The standard of our accommodation has been varied but quite basic (mostly clean). Toilets in Laos have been a bit hit and miss - clean in the guesthouses but in some restaurants they have been absolutely filthy (who knows why, but it is not difficult to keep a toilet clean). Whilst I don't mind using the toilets, I seem to have developed a bit of a phobia about filthy toilets and dirty public transport.

And now for some etiquette. Buddhists believe that the head is the holiest part of the body, such that to touch a South East Asian on the head is considered to be a grievous insult. As I mentioned earlier in my blog, to point your feet at somebody (including a Buddha image) is considered to be an insult, as they are the lowest and dirtiest part of the body. You are expected to take your shoes off before going into temples and other people's homes. Women should never touch monks and for some reason should avoid sitting next to them on public transport. Signs of affection amongst couples are not appropriate in public places. The left hand should never be used for hand shakes, eating or to exchange money or goods (not that I have seen anyone complain when handing money over).

What I find really amusing is that whist you are expected to cover up as a women in Laos, it seems to be acceptable for monks to wander around in their orange robes with half their chest hanging out! Male logic, I guess.

(See photos of more buddhas taken during the trip so far).

Luang Prabang

On Thursday 31 January we boarded the boat again to continue the journey down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang (about an 8 hour journey). We stopped at a local village on the way, where the local women sell their handicrafts (embroidered skirts and bags are big over here). The villagers all seemed to be really content, especially the kids. When you took their picture, however, the first thing they asked for was money! (See photos).

At an hour before we arrived at Luang Prabang, we stopped at Pak Ou Caves (see photos), which are situated on the Mekong River in the side of a cliff opposite the mouth of the Pak Ou River. The caves are located 28km from Luang Prabang. The two sacred caves, Tham Ting (lower) and Tham Phum (upper) were apparently discovered by King Setthathirath in the 16th century. They are studded with thousandsof Buddha images - 2500 in the lower cave and 1500 in the upper cave (which is in darness) - of both wooden and metal design, some thought to be over 200 years old. For years the caves, which locals believe to be the home of guardian spirits, were also inhabited by monks. The King visited the caves during Lao New Year, staying at Ban Pak Ou, the village across the river. The caves are one of the main venues for Phimai in April, with locals making the pilgrimage up river from Luang Prabang (see photos and top photo for entrance of caves).

We arrived in Luang Prabang at about 5pm to stay at the Thongbury Guest House, which is a short ride by tuk tuk out of the main part of town. The lodges are lovely and peaceful and we have breakfast on the veranda. Luang Prabang was the former capital of Laos. with lots of royal temples and remnant of faded grandeur of the Lao Monarchy. It is nestled in a valley surrounded by high mountains and has long been the site of local Kingdoms. In the 14th century, the first Kinbgdom of Lao, Lane Xang, was established here by King Fa Ngum. Known as the Land of a Million Elephants, the Kingdom lasted two hundred years. The name of the city refers to the holy Pra Bang, Laos' most sacred image of the Buddha. King Setthathirath moved the capital to Ventiane in 1563. When the Kingdom of Lang Xang split upon the death of King Souligna Vongsa in the 18th century in 1694, Luang Prabang was one of three Kingdoms created. The city's importance diminished in the 18th century and eexperienced many invasions. The town has been successfully pillaged and razed over the years - the last invaders were the Chinese Ho in the mid 1880s. Vitually all traces of older structures have disappeared, as they were built of wood and susceptible to the elements.

Due to Luang Prabang's cultural and religious heritage, it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on December 2nd 1995 to ensure the preservation of temples and traditional Lao and French colonial architecture.

We are going to spend two days in Luang Prabang, but haven't seen much of it yet (other than bars and restaurants from being out last night). We went to the Art and Cultural Museum this morning to learn about the different ethnic tribes and handicrats but it has rained non-stop since yesterday evening. I have, however, managed to finally update my blog but I think I will have to wait until I get back to Bangkok to add the photos. The internet speed is a bit slow here and I will be here all day!

A kip millionaire in lovely Laos

We had a long journey by bus through rural countryside to the Thailand-Laos border at Chiang Kong on Tuesday 29th January. It was a nice experience crossing the Mekong River from Thailand over to Huay Xai in Laos by boat (which only cost 20 baht per person plus 10 baht per bag) (see photo). Three minutes later, we were in Laos. The first thing we noticed was how tranquil it was compared to Thailand and there weren’t many tourists around (unless people don’t stop in Huay Xai).

Laos is the same size as Britain but it only has a population of 5.6 million people. Again Buddhism is all around us and there are plenty of templkes (although not on as grand a scale as Thailand). Our accommodation was a very basic but clean guesthouse (the Arimid Guest House) and the owner was friendly with a permanent smile on his face. The concept of sanuk-sanuk is also important in Laos. Roughly translated as “having a good time”, it reflects the local’s easy going lifestyle and it is apparently very rare for people to yell and shout and show anger. Lao people are not accustomed to people raising their voices.

On Wednesday we boarded a boat for a two day journey down the mighty Mekong River (see photo of barges above). The boat travelled at a very relaxed pace (the first day journey took 8 hours) but the scenery is spectacular (see photos). Laos stretches 950km from China to Cambodia, with the Mekong forming its westerly border with Thailand and Burma and the Annamite Range dividing it from Vietnam. From east to west, the country ranges from 150km to 500km in width, with total land area of 236,800 square km. Laos is about half the size of Vietnam and is 30% larger than Cambodia. Over 75% of the country is rugged and mountainous.

The Mekong delineates Laos’ northwest border with Myanmar and traces a good deal of the Lao border with Thailand. The Mekong traverses over a third of its length in Laos, with 2,400km of waterways. We passed a number of villages and fishing boats and we also stopped to have a look around one of the villages. Laos is one of the poorest countries in the world but in the villages you notice that people do not go hungry, as it is a culture where relatives and neighbours provide support for each other.

Laos is sparsely populated, dominated by rural and farming communities with a high proportion of hilltribes in the northern provinces.In addition to widespread bombing, in 165-166 the US Air Force dumped about 700,000 litres of herbicides on the eastern side of Laos along the Ho Chi Minh trail (those Americans again!). Despite the enormous damage, Laos is very green and retains much of its original forest and tropical rainforest.

On Wednesday evening we stopped in Pak Beng (see photo), where about 20 youngs kids ran towards our boat just before we docked. They would be our porters - ie to take our heavy bags to our guest house. Some of those kids must have been about 8 years old. Our guest house (the Sivongsack) only operates the generator from 6pm to 10pm (or 10.30pm, depending on when the generator runs out). So we rushed back from dinner to sort all our stuff out and at 10.30pm, the lights went out! I never go to bed that early but there was nothing else to do other than go to sleep (which took me a long time).

Blair (our guide) told us that Lao food is not as spicy as in Thailand but all the food I have tried here is hot and spicy (I guess if you ask for it that way). Sticky rice (as opposed to steamed rice) is the main staple of the Lao diet. Beerlao is a light lager style and is terribly cheap – 10,000 kip for a 640ml bottle (there are just under 17,000 kip to the pound, so that works out at about 66p!). For the first time in my life I am a millionaire (shame it is not in pounds).

Onwards to Chiang Mai

The tour started properly on Sunday 27th January and our local guide, Ant, took us on a boat up the river. We stopped near a pier in one of the canals off the main river where hundreds of catfish were swimming around (see photo). Fishing is not allowed in that part of the river, allowing catfish to thrive and grow to huge sizes. Shame, as they are really tasty to eat! After feeding them with copious amounts of bread, we headed towards Wat Pho to continue the tour. Even though I visited Wat Pho on Thursday, there were a couple of other buddhas which, for some reason, Martina and I had missed (see photo).

My roommate Karen (who is from Derby and travelling for a year) and a friend of hers who is in Bangkok then headed to Chinatown for lunch. On the main street in Chinatown we struggled to find any restaurants, as the road was full of jewellery shops. As usual, we ordered loads but enough so that we would not be hungry on the night train to Chiang Mai. I went for a foot massage near the hotel, which was great and included me a mini head and back massage. Bargain value – 200 baht for one hour (about 3.50 quid).

At 4.30pm we caught taxis to the train station. Traffic in Bangkok is terrible, probably even worse than London but you could never see them introducing a congestion charge in this city. I pity the poor tuk tuk drivers and the damage they are doing to their lungs with the fumes. The train left Bangkok at 6pm on the dot. I was quite impressed with the service. The waiter comes around to take your order for dinner – you can have a la carte dishes or a set meal for 150 baht (all in second class!). The seats convert into beds and there is an additional bunk on the upper level. The train was full and we went into the bar to carry on the party, as people got into their bunks quite early. The Thais working in the bar and the conductors joined us for a few beers but at about 10.20pm, when we told them we had no more money, they abruptly shut the bar, told us to go to bed and scolded us for keeping the bar open longer than normal. During the middle of the night, a Korean child in our cabin started screaming “Mummy mummy” - apparently he had fallen out of the top bunk and was hanging out of it by one leg!

We arrived in Chiang Mai at 7am on Monday morning and took a taxi to our hotel, the People’s Corner. After breakfast, half of the group went to the Baan Hongnual Cookery School to do a course in Thai cooking. Everyone else decided to only cook 4 dishes but I went for the 6 course option, being a complete pig and I was also of the view that I never know when I will come back to Thailand. We first went to the local market to check out the fruit, vegetables and other ingredients for Thai cooking.

Back at the school (see photos) we had our own cooking station and cooked Pad Thai (sitr fried spicy noodles), Tom Yum soup, green and red curry, chicken and cashew nuts, sticky coconut rice with custard and bananas with coconut milk. As the saying goes “This piggy went to market…” and ended up rolling herself out of the cookery school. It was delicious and the food I cooked tasted better than the Thai food I had already eaten.

After the course I managed to squeeze in another Thai massage for an hour (at only 200 baht) before we went on a tour to Doi Suthep, a famous temple situated on a mountain to the North West of Chiang Mai. The temple was founded in 1383 and was chosen by placing a relic of the Lord Buddha on an elephant’s back and letting the elephant roam until it came across a place where it trumpeted and circled before laying down. This was taken to be a signal that an auspicious place had been chosen to build the temple. There are approximately 300 steps to climb with a golden stupa at the top and you also get a great view of the Chiang Mai valley (see photo). At 6pm you hear the monks chanting and we saw the sun setting over the valley.

After the trip to Doi Suthep, four of us went to a local stadium to watch Thai kick boxing (Muay Thai) (see photo). There were 9 matches in all but we stayed for just over an hour to watch 4 of them. The more experienced boxers come along later in the evening and it was much more interesting than watching boring old boxing (much better to kick the sh*t out of your opponent with your feet and hands!).It was a great atmosphere, with all the locals shouting and cheering when one of the boxers put in a good kick. After the boxing, we visited Chiang Mai’s famous night market, which sells all sorts of local crafts. I was very restrained (not much room left in my luggage), plus I have been looking for that elusive Buddha statue of which I can’t seem to find many.

Floating Madness and Big Beasts

I had an early start on Saturday morning (7.15am) as I joined a tour to the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, which is about an hour and a half drive from Bangkok. When we got off the bus, we took a short boat ride along the residential canals leading up to the market. The postcards of the floating market often show wooden canoes laden with multicoloured fruits and vegetables paddled by Thai women wearing wide brimmed straw hats. This quintessential picture of Thailand is, however, over 20 years old and is more a piece of history. Today there are rows and rows of souvenir stands lining the canals and the only way to get to them is on narrow boats. The boat rides only last about 30 minutes but there are so many boats jostling to get past that there isn’t time to stop to even try to bargain for purchases. You can still buy the odd bit of fruit from the vendors on the water – bananas and rock apples (the first time I have tried them). The pollution on the water from the motorised boats is also fairly bad and as the boats are full and low on the water, you have to be careful not to move about too much, otherwise you are in danger of capsizing the whole boat and getting a mouthful of abuse from the women steering the boats.

From the floating market we headed onto an elephant farm where I took a 25 minute ride on a 25 year old female elephant (whose name I forget). The guy leading my elephant got off her to take some photos with my camera. He did ask me if I wanted to ride on her neck (I was riding on a seat attached to her shoulders) but I declined on the basis that I would probably not be able to get back on the seat again. My elephant was hungry and kept on stopping to munch on large chunks of bushes.

After the elephant farm, we went to a snake farm to see a snake show. The performers jab at the snakes to narrowly avoid getting bitten by poisonous cobras a la Steve Irwin style. The commentator said that guys do die during the show if they get bitten and showed us a picture of the unfortunate fellow who bit the dust last year from a snake bite. Mind you, I am not surprised the snakes go for these guys, as there was a large cobra which was swung about by its tail, thrashed around in the water and thrown head first into the wall of the arena a number of times. I am surprised it wasn’t brain damaged in the process. Poor thing. It was good to see the snakes and they showed how to extract poison from the cobra but the RSPCA would have a heart attack as the show is cruel to the snakes (especially when they shoved a cobra into a glass box with a mongoose in it and the mongoose proceded to attack the snake (which they do in the wild).

On the way back to Bangkok we stopped off at a carving factory, where you could see the carvers from all over the world carve huge intricate murals. Pretty impressive indeed. The final stop was a large gem factory where I was surprisingly restrained (I am waiting till I get to Dubai where I can do some hard bargaining with my mother).

After the tour ended, I headed over to Chatuchak Weekend Market, which is the behemoth of Thai markets. It is only open at weekends and 15,000 stalls cater to an estimated 200,000 visitors a days. You can buy everything here – food, snakes, live chickens, crafts, antiques, herbal remedies, household goods, camping gear, clothes and more. There are aisles and aisles of stalls and you think that you are nearly at the end of a row when it continues further. I only managed to stay there a couple of hours, as I had to be back at the hotel for the Intrepid welcome talk at 6pm and I think I only scratched the surface.

Back at the hotel I met the 12 people I will be travelling with on the Intrepid Indochina Loop trip. They all seem quite nice – a couple of English women, Germans, Americans and Norwegians. Our tour guide, Blair, is a Kiwi. We all went for dinner near the Kho San Road, which is the party scene for backpackers.

Grand Palace and Emerald Buddha

I met Martina on Friday 25th January at the Grand Palace, which was established in 1782 and houses not only the Royal residence and throne halls but a number of governement offices and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. It covers an area of 218,000 square metres and is surrounded by four walls, 1900 metres in length. The palace was built after King Rama I’s ascension to the thone in 1782. Prior to this, the royal palace and centre of administration was located in Thonburi, on the west side of the Chao Phraya River. For various reasons, the new king considered the former capital to be unsuitable and decided to establish a new capital on the other side of the river. By his royal command, a new palace was built to serve not only as his residence but also as the site of some administrative offices.

The royal compound has been known since then as the Grand Palace. The buildings are pretty impressive – there is a reliquary in the shape of a golden chedi, the Mondop (a respository for Buddhist sacred scriptures inscribed in palm leaves contained within a mother of pearl inlaid cabinet), a miniature Angkor Wat crafted by order of King Rama IV (see photo) and the grounds of the Royal Monastery are enclosed by galleries, the walls of which are decorated with scenes from Ramakien (ie significant battles), first painted during the reign of Rama I and since then restored several times (see photo). Another building is the Royal Monastery of the Emerald Buddha, which is one of the most venerated sites in Thailand where people convene to pay their trespect to the Lord Buddha and his teachings.

The Emerald Buddha is enshrined on a golden traditional Thai-style throne made of gilded carved wood, known as a Busabok, in the ordination hall of the Royal Monastery (see picture of midget Buddha). The sacred image is clad with one of the three seasonal costumes (summer, rainy season and winter). The costumes are changed three times a year in a ceremony presided over by the current King. The Emerald Buddha is in fact carved from a block of green jade and was first discovered in 1434 in a stupa in Chiang Rai. At that time, the image was covered with plaster and thought to be an ordinary Buddha image. Later, however, the abbot who found the image noticed that the plaster on the nose had flaked off, revealing the green stone underneath. The abbot initially thought that the stone was emerald and thus the started the legend of the Emerald Buddha. The Buddha was later taken to Lampang, where it remained until King Tilok of Lannathai moved it to Chiang Mai, his capital, where it was enshrined. In 1552, an interruption occurred in the Lannathai line of succession.King Chaichettha of Luang Prabang, who was the son of a Chiang Mai princess and a Laotian king was invited to fill the gap. After a relatively short reign, he returned to Laos for 226 years until 1778 when a Thai army under the command of Chao Phraya Chakri (who later became King Rama I), captured Vientiane, the Laotian capital and the image was brought back to Thailand. When King Rama I had built the city of Bangkok, the Emerald Buddha was housed within the Royal Monastery with due pomp and ceremony. You are not allowed to take any photos of the Emerald Buddha but it is a midget buddha compared to the others we saw (only a couple of feet high). The Thais consider it an insult to the Lord Buddha if they point their feet towards any buddha image, so as not to have bad karma, we tried to shuffle along with our feet pointed at odd angles – not an easy task!

We wilted in the heat again after only a couple of hours of sightseeing, so we took a tuk tuk to the new city centre shopping mall, Siam Paragon, which opened last year. We bargained the driver down to 100 baht, but when we got in the tuk tuk, he pulled the usual trick of trying to increase the price. We agreed to pay another 50 baht (which is about 85p in the grand scheme of things!) but the driver mustn’t have been happy with that, as he then proceded to drive like a lunatic, swerving in and out of traffic coming in the opposite direction and chuckling to himself as he did so. When we got out, I told him he was a complete nutter, but he must have thought that was a complement because he laughed. I think that was our last experience of tuk tuks as we probably had a narrow escape. We bought a few things in one of the department stores (Paragon), as they had a sale on. I also managed a trip to the hairdresser (cut and colour for 40 quid) , as I was starting to look like a bedraggled old bag! I am also a bit more tanned than usual and I must look like a local, as some of the shop assistant have been talking to me in Thai, even though I keep telling them I don’t understand and shrug my shoulders. One woman talked to me in complete gibberish – I haven’t a clue what language it was!

I have found Bangkok cheap, especially taking taxis and eating out. You can get a decent curry for under 100 baht (about 1.50), which is great – I have been stuffing my face (nothing new there!). I am in foodie heaven for the next month. Hooray!

Bustling and Baking in Bangkok

Hot, hectic and humid – these were my first impressions of Bangkok as I flew in on Wednesday just after midnight. – and a city which doesn’t seem to sleep much. I arrived at my hotel, the Grand Ville (in the Chinatown area), at 2.30am and managed to stay awake for another hour before getting a few more hours’ sleep. My room is on the 23rd floor, so I awoke on Thursday (24th Jan) to bright sunshine and a great view over Bangkok (see bottom photo). The hotel is not actually that far from the Grand Palace but trying to get around Bangkok with a map with English names is a bit of a nightmare, as a lot of the street names do not seem to correspond with what is on the map (with the maps not being to scale).

I arranged to meet my friend Martina and her friend Irmi from Munich, who by coincidence, happened to be in Bangkok for the same few days as me. We met at Wat Pho, officially named Wat Phra Chetuphon, which is the oldest and largest wแt (temple) in Bangkok. It features the largest reclining Buddha (which is 46m long and 15m high, covered in gold leaf and the back of its feet are inlaid with mother-of-pearl (see photos above)). The grounds also contain the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand and it was the earliest centre for public education. It dates back to the 16th century but the original monastery was completely rebuilt in 1781. There is also a massage school just outside the grounds, which is the oldest in Thailand. If I hadn’t been meeting up with Martina, I would nearly have fallen for an age old scam, which involves blokes outside the temples telling you that the temple is currently closed and not open for a couple of hours but he will gladly take you in his tuk tuk to another temple until that one opens for an agreed fee, which is suddenly increased when the journey starts.

We then took a boat over the river to the Thonburi side to Wat Arun, a striking temple named after the Indian god of dawn, Aruna. From afar, the temple looks as if it had been carved from granite but on close inspection, there are intricate tiles covering the structures. The present wแt was built on the site of the 17th century Wat Jaeng, which served as the palace and royal temple of King Taksin when Thonburi was the Thai capital. It was the last home of the Emerald Budhha before Rama I brought it across the river to Wat Phra Kaew (another temple in the Grand Palace grounds).

The prang (Khmer-style tower) was constructed during the first half of the 19th century by Rama II and Rama III. Its brick core has a plaster covering embedded with a mosaic of broken, multihued Chinese porcelain. You can climb the stairs to a lookout point halfway up the prang from where there are fine views of Thonburi and the river. Holy moly – it was a bit scary going up and down those steps and some people were coming down them on their backsides. My legs were shaking even more than when I did my skydive! (See photos)

The weather in Bangkok was hot and after a few hours’ walking and sweating like pigs, we were in dire need of some TLC and air conditioning, so we took a boat down the Chao Phrayer river towards Martina’s hotel, which is in the financial district, and headed straight for a very nice spa to have a Thai massage and green tea (anti-ageing) aromatherapy facial. The massage was carried out my a very small Thai women in a private room. It is like a kind of deep tissue massage – i.e. the prodding can hurt but Thai massage reminds me of yoga – lots of weird contorted positions. How these tiny women can apply such hard pressure amazes me but at one point the woman was sitting on my backside and I was expecting her start walking up and down my back. Strangely enough, though, we really felt relaxed afterwards. The hour long Thai massage only cost 500 bath (about 8 quid) and the facial (also one hour)( was 1400 baht (about 22 quid). You can, however, find much cheaper places which do Thai massage for 200-300 baht but if you only have a foot massage, you are lined up in chairs in front of the shop window, which does not make for as pleasant an experience when every man and his dog are gawping at you.
After dinner (Thai curry, of course), we found ourselves in Patphong Street, which has a night market. Here you can buy every conceivable conterfeit good you can think of – I wonder if Louis Vitton, Tiffany and Lacoste have ever sent any of their counterfeit spies to Bangkok. Bangkok should also be named the Capital of Crap – I have never seen so many people selling all sorts of junk – used cameras, phones, TVs, bits of scrap metal and even false teeth! Being on Patphong Street, we also could not avoid the number of bars with dancing go go girls. There are some absolutely stunning Thai women but it is a real shame that dancing to dodgy music and letcherous fat balding blokes is how they earn a living. This is the seedy side of Bangkok which is quite off-putting.

On my way home I had my first experience of a tuk tuk in Thailand (the first time was in Delhi a few years ago where the driver tried to rip us off by increasing the price. When I argued vehementlly that we would stick to the original price, the driver said I looked Chinese because I argued so much and that consequently, I would make a bad wife! Well, bad but at least not boring). Unfortuantely the Thai drivers didn’t really have a clue where my hotel was and giving them the map didn’t seem to help, as they can ‘t read English. I did get there in the end.