Intrepid Travels

My Intrepid tour began in Bangkok, where I moved from my modern, wealthy Siam hotel to the lovely Viengtai hotel in the old city known as Banglumphu. Khao San Rd (the backpacker ghetto) is worlds away from the part of BKK I had already seen. Neon lights, endless street stalls, markets selling hippy clothes and pirated DVDs, and of course thousands of young tourists getting their hair braided, body parts pierced and painted and enjoying the ready supply of beer on the footpath.

I met the group I would be travelling with and we all went out to dinner. They seemed an odd mix, but generally nice people. The first day was a slow start, and I began to get a bit worried that this trip would be a dud. We spent the morning in Bangkok and then caught a longboat down the river and were met and taken to a traditional thai house, made of teak where we would spend the night. The river trip was fascinating, seeing how many people actually live on the water and the women who travelled from house to house by boat, selling their produce.

The Teak house we stayed in was owned by a local family. It was beautifully built and decorated, with lovely rooms. We wandered the local market (very small, but interesting) and the local temple where the monks were very keen to watch us light incense. Dinner was cooked by the family we stayed with and we went to bed pretty early, as there was nothing to do after that! This was a good move because we were woken at dawn by the radio being played over loudspeakers.

Day 3 was a day of travelling and more travelling. We caught one bus from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi (2.5 hrs). The feature film was a thai teen horror movie (would have been good in my gothic literature class!) Lunch cost 35 Baht in a local restaurant - thats about $1.10 (Pad Thai and Coke). Another 4.5hr bus trip took us from Kanchanaburi, a large town with lots of foreigners, to Sangklaburi, a village on a huge lake where visitors don't often go.

After a hair-raising bus trip through winding, steep roads we arrived in this beautiful town in time for a sunset over the water, viewed from the guesthouse we were staying at. It made the trip feel worthwhile after all!