Temples and more temples - "suits you Sir!"

Today was our first full day in Bangkok and we hit the ground running, up and out by 8 o'clock for a half day "City and Temples" minibus tour. When we go away to a new city we like to start with a tour so we can get our bearings and a few ideas about where to go back to later...

As well as touring the city we went to 3 different temples, each special in their own way. A Thai temple is called a "Wat", ("what?", I said a Thai temple is called a Wat... Etc etc etc).

Our first stop was Wat Traimit, a temple which housed a solid gold Buddha, weighing 5.5 tons, the world's largest solid gold statue no less. It had been "lost" for hundreds of years because it's gold had been plastered over to avoid it being stolen during a war with neighbouring Burma. After a construction accident last century the dull facade became cracked and the true identity (and value!), was revealed... Go into your garden and check your gnomes, you never know...

 

 

 

 

(The Golden Buddha)

 

 

 

 

 

The second Wat we visit was Wat Pho, and this housed the famous "reclining Buddha", a massive golden stature of a.. Er.. reclining Buddha. The figure was too long to include in one single photo, and for size each foot was certainly several feet...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(The Reclining Buddha)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last Wat of the morning was an Italian marble clad affair, I think our guide explained why they used Italian marble, (when this is Thailand after all), but by now we were both a bit "templed out" and so I can't explain.

(Wat Benchamabophit, built with Italian marble)

After the temples and the city sites our minibus just happened to be passing "Thailand's largest jewellery outlet", and so the guide told us we must take a look... The whole experience was a shabby piece of commercial opportunism, but somebody must buy the stuff - but not us!

 

In a few days time we will be on the Eastern Orient Express train to Singapore, (the journey takes 3 days), and there is a formal dress code, so I decided to find a tailor whilst in Bangkok - to buy one of the "48 hour" suits the Far East is famous for. So in the afternoon we found one of these very emporia, haggled self consciously, was measured, (even more self consciously - in the middle of the shop), and after a final fitting tomorrow the suit should be ready on Sunday! (and a jacket, and shirt, all made to measure - "best price"... Watch this space).

("ooh what a nice big chest Sir")

 

By the way, I had no idea that Thai tailors had a "special" way of taking inside leg measurements!

 

The weather is cloudy but very humid, I was very sweaty and unkempt at times, Jan "glowed" healthily. Back at the hotel we chilled and swam and then chilled again.

 

Tonight we will go for an Indian, well what else would you eat in Thailand?

 

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And we're off... Far East here we come!

(Our carriage approaches - courtesy of Midland Mainline)

 

So the trip begins, and for a change we have decided to "let the train take the strain". After being dropped off at East Midlands Parkway by good friends Stuart and Frances, we headed to Heathrow, an uneventful journey except for the fact that Jan managed to spill coffee on her white trousers, not once but twice! - food and drink spillage may become a recurring theme on this trip...

(Notice how we decided to "slum it" in the posh seats!)

 

We crossed London and took the "Heathrow Express" from Paddington, first shock: £20 for a single fare! The journey is only 15 minutes!

 

Heathrow was predictably busy but we had loads of time for coffees and snacks. Before we left home I took the time to print boarding passes online, and at Departures we "pre checked-in" at the baggage drop - both seemed like a waste of time as we then queued for as long as everybody else, there seemed to be no advantage, (not for us anyway, the arrangement may have suited BA).

 

Jan had forgotten about a bottle of water in her hand luggage, and consequently security held us and asked us to explain this oversight... We grovelled appropriately and were left off with a warning.

 

Coincidently a work colleague -Vanessa, and her husband Andy, were travelling from terminal 3 today, and we met them for a chat and a Facebook photo opportunity, Bon voyage Ness!

(With Vanessa - Off in a few hours!)

 

The flight was long and uneventful, the in-flight entertainment including such "must see" treats as: "Robot & Frank", "GI Joe - Retaliation" and "The big Wedding", I slept...

Not much more to report today, we arrived and got to our hotel - very nice, jet lag is catching up with us so we went local for a meal. There's an early start tomorrow when we begin exploring in earnest!

 

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Trans Pennine - North East bound!

I left Windermere and crossed my last Lakeland pass of the trip, Kirkstone pass, it was mean and moody today, shrouded in mist and rain clouds, did wonders to clear my head though as I felt a bit groggy from an uncomfortable night's sleep.

Ullswater

I stopped along the shores of Ullswater for a photo opportunity before leaving the hills and stopping in Penrith for a MacDonald's coffee

If you look really hard you can see the road... 

The road over the Pennines from Penrith to Alston is the A686, described by some as one of the best drives/rides in the country... And I agree, it's brilliant! Smooth surface, swooping bends, not busy, great scenery and it climbs and climbs into the moors and mists... At the top is a nice cafe, (Hartside Top), I recommend the cheese scones.






Alston is nearby, and is the highest market town in England, cobbled High street and plenty of atmosphere, and then a glorious decent of Wear Dale, more sweeping corners and hardly any traffic - I will be back!

Darlington FC... welcome to the lower leagues...

Before I got to Stockton I passed two curious landmarks; a football stadium in the middle of nowhere, (Darlington FC's ground, surely the best stadium belonging to a non league team!), and a brick sculpture of the famous "Mallard" steam train appearing from a bank of earth. Hmmm... Strange!    

A train of bricks... 

Resting with the folks now, back to Notts. tomorrow.

Road trip!

This is a short test run for the blog to make sure I can remember how to do it later in the summer when we go to the Far East!So it's the first day of my holidays and its time for a road trip! I thought I'd go up north to my parents in Stockton, but take a detour to make the journey interesting...I've always hankered after seeing Antony Gormley's "Another place" figures which are sited off Crosby Beach just north of Liverpool - so on the way to an overnight stop at Windermere youth hostel I took a detour...At low tide they look like this...When I got there today it was 1:05pm, and high tide was due at 1:14pm, so what I saw was this...Bah! So I had a really tasteless "Jumbo hotdog" from a catering van and headed for the Lakes.When I got to Windermere I was so hot in my biking kit that I did a discrete little strip tease in a back street car park - for a long journey the armoured knees and hips of my "Hein Gericke" gear is great, but for a slow "pootle" in today's heat I'll take a risk on my jeans. I found the hostel and left my stuff and went for an explore.The "slow pootle" I had in mind was a traverse of 3 high lake land passes; Hardnott, Wrynose, and GreatLangdale. I've ridden them before, but they're so exhilarating that I keep coming back for more!

After 270 miles I finally rolled into Bowness to find a pub that does food and Wi-fi. The food was good but the Wi-fi didn't want to work. Ah well, I'll sort something.Posted with Blogsyx

Last day...

Monday 9th April..

I'm writing this final blog at 31,000 ft, on the return flight to Blighty.

This morning Sally arrived at our hotel and we sorted our bags into the left luggage place, (we didn't need to get the train to Newark airport until 3 so had to leave our stuff somewhere), then we decided to revisit the place we had enjoyed the most - Greenwich Village.

I treated myself to an authentic New York made "flat cap" from a hat makers on Bleeker Street, and Sally bought herself a souvenir t-shirt... After coffee in another great little cafe and a long, relaxing sit down in Washington Square we returned to the hotel to collect our bags and leave once and for all.

Footnote... The luggage check in arrangement for United Airlines at Newark is bloody awful! The system is a "self service" set up, where you go to unmanned terminals and input your flight details, except this is not explained anywhere, so people are confused and desperately waiting for a airline representative to help them out. This caused a load of stress and tempers were frayed..... Sally subsequently told us that Virgin Airlines were efficient and no problem at all.......

 

Coney Island and the Heights of Brooklyn..

Well as it's the holiday weekend and the weather has been so good we decided to visit the seaside today - Coney Island to be exact.

I had my early morning run in Central Park, and then we had our customary breakfast at a local Deli, then we took the subway and headed coast wards!

Coney Island is actually a long way from Manhattan, but as every subway journey costs the same, this time we got our money's worth, a 50 minute trip for less than 3 dollars.

Coney Island is a resort area, a bit like Skegness, amusements and funfairs, hot dogs and chips - the place is actually very grubby but it is an historical place, with a really old wooden roller coaster called "The Cyclone", and an equally old Ferris wheel called "The Wonder wheel". Sally and I went on the Cyclone, and all of us went on the Wonder wheel - Jan usually avoids fairground rides, but today she was brave, only screaming and shrieking for some of the time!

On the way back into Manhattan we stopped in Brooklyn and had some coffee, and then explored a really atmospheric old area called "Brooklyn Heights", this area was very quiet, leafy, trendy and obviously expensive.

At the weekend there is a lot of maintainence on the subways, and so the rest of our journey was a bit painfull due to delays and diversions, but now we're back in the room and chilling before we go out tonight for our last evening... I'll write the final posting tomorrow on the plane.

 

9/11 and Brooklyn..

Saturday 7th April...

Lots of walking again today, at the moment my feet are steaming!

We began by collecting Sal from her hotel and walking "Down town" to find a breakfast Diner, waffles and oatmeal and all the coffee you can drink... Lovely!

We had booked a "time slot" for a visit to the 9/11 Memorial site and set off on the Subway to the World Trade Center stop. Much security later we were in the Ground zero site, it is obviously a work in progress, several massive skyscrapers are under construction, but there are two "Memorial" fountains - both situated on the "footprint" of the two towers. It's been done really well, and when the trees become bigger and the grass is settled it will be special.

After this we set off to the Brooklyn Bridge Footpath, I was slightly unsure about where it was until we got close... Hundreds of people were doing the walk! The bridge was packed, in fact the cyclists who were on the bridge as well could hardly pass by!

Our idea when we arrived on the Brooklyn river side was to find a Diner and eat lunch, except there were hardly any "eateries" there! And those that were there were packed, So we returned over the river and headed for a water front area called "Pier 17". In the shadow of the bridge we found a great bar-"The Cow girl Sea horse"(!), and we are there now, I'm on my second beer and it's really chilled.....