Bangkok, Thailand

While we were in Hua Hin we had seen advertisements around town for Muay Thai (Thai Boxing) so we decided to go along out of curiosity. On the card was five fights of five rounds each, but only the first two fights went the distance. In the early bouts the average age of the boxers was 15 years old and each successive fight featured progressively older boys – until the main event, fight 5. I was shocked when two seven year old entered the ring and went through the pre-fight rituals before retiring to their respective corners. They both came out swinging and kicking and the pace never let up for the entire first round. I jokingly said to Sara that they would probably call off the fight as soon as one of them began to cry and it was well past their bed times. The fight was called off in the second round with the slightly bigger boy winning. Although the other boy came close to crying after the defeat he never threw a tantrum and held himself very well.

A HOT SHOWER AND A SOFT BED
The following day we caught the bus back up to Bangkok and checked into the hotel that my brother had booked. After two months in guesthouses and cheap hotels we were both excited to get to a real hotel with some of the creature comforts that we had been without – sheets, fresh towels, hot water, air conditioning and some other obscure things. We had stayed in some very small rooms so it was nice to open the door to our room and not have it hit the bed before it was all the way open. To make the most of the hotel we checked in at 2pm so that we could go for a swim and shower before Glen turned up at about 9pm. It was nice to see my brother again and he has injected a bit more spark into our daily routine. Traveling for such a long time can be quite daunting and over the past few weeks we have made an effort to slow down a little bit so that we can take everything in.

Rendezvous with my brother Glen in Thailand

Glen had also been to Thailand before (18 years ago) and was keen to see a few of the sights so we ventured to the backpacker area in Banglamphu for a nice cheap lunch and then rode a tuk-tuk to Wat Pho to see the Reclining Buddha and the Temple of Dawn. In the evening we used our free dinner vouchers at the hotel and watched some traditional Thai dancing.

The Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho

BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAE
Yesterday Sara decided she wanted to stay around the hotel and do some shopping at the Pratunam Market where she picked up a wonderful array of handbags. Glen and I went on a day tour out to the Bridge on the River Kwae near Kanchanaburi. The Thais have done a wonderful job of remembering and paying respect to he thousands of people that died during the construction of the Death Railway which made the bridge infamous. The tour featured a train ride on the railway itself up to Nam Tok where we stopped for lunch. We drove further west towards Myanmar (it will always be Burma to me) and stopped at an elephant farm where I shared a two-seater with my brother. Elephants are big at the best of times but the one we rode was massive – at one stage it reached out its trunk and pulled down half a tree with little effort.

Bridge on the River Kwae

Our elephant

For better or worse we began drinking beer in the bus back to Bangkok. We were joined by a New Yorker we had met during the day and after three hours we stumbled off the bus and into a pub to watch the All Blacks rugby team beat South Africa in Durban. In the pub we hooked up with three other English blokes and the six of us pilled into the back of a taxi and ventured out to Patpong (again) after the game. Another interesting evening in the Thai capital. At 1.30am Sara showed us her handbag collection.

Today has been much slower – a sleep in, Burger King for lunch followed by shopping in the afternoon. Tomorrow the three of us fly to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) in Vietnam. Out of interest the Vietnamese currency is called ‘Dong’.