All fed and Wat-ted

Well, faithful readers, this is the very last day. Catching the plane to Doha this afternoon and thence to the cold, dank, damp British Isles. Oh dear. Oh dear. I wonder how we’ll survive the transition (and the running theme in Frank’s poetry doesn’t fill us with great expectations, either).

Yesterday, we bit the bullet and went on one last cultural tour to Ayuttahya, having booked it up the previous day at my favourite tranny travel agents. It meant getting up at half past five in the morning (and it was my idea; what was I thinking!) but Linda, Carolyn and I were the only three on the tour. First stop was a visit to the Bang Pa-in palace (web link to a bit of detail), a summer retreat for royalty. If you are in to photographing sumptuous architecture this place will keep you amused on a cool, bright winter’s morning. In fact, here’s an example.

Second stop was to Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon, home to one of the largest chedis in the area built 400 years ago to celebrate the king’s victory over the Burmese. Some of the brickwork of the smaller, surrounding chedis are falling in amongst themselves due to the weight of years and underground water tables so the overall impression is one of great age. Finally, we went to one of the preserved ruins of Wat Phra Si Sanphet and the (apparently) famous three chedis that contain the remains of a king and his sons from the 15th century. This is the sort of thing that Steve would appreciate, mooching about in collapsing ruins in the heat of the day and wondering about the futility of existence and civilisation. On the way back we were diverted to the obligatory nationalised crafts factory, in this case a very plush gem and jewellery showroom. We were dutifully shepherded amongst a billion bucks of rocks but our hostess (and her armed guard) decided she was wasting her time as we were obviously more interested in the tropical fish in their display tanks (yes, it was that plush a show room).

It was a long day so we showered and mooched off for happy hour at the Robin Hood. Carolyn decided that we would enjoy a last Thai meal at the Cabbages and Condoms restaurant – so called because of the King’s desire to see the Thai opium crops replaced with cabbage crops and the need for everyone to wear condoms to stop the spread of HIV. In fact, the entrance to the (rather posh) restaurant contained mannequins and Father Christmases all dressed in clothing made from dyed condoms, and what Linda though was an after dinner mint was actually, yes, you’ve guessed it, a condom. Very strange but, hey, this is Bangkok!!

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And now I get an hour by the pool before we fight with the local taxis to get us and our baggage to the airport. Many thanks to the Faithful who kept with us on our travels. We hope you’ve enjoyed the virtual tour and we really appreciated all the comments. In fact, if it wasn’t for all the feedback, we probably wouldn’t keep this up for the sole purpose of writing a diary. A late Happy New (Western, Thai or Chinese) Year to you all!