B A N G K O K
After the fall of the former capital Ayuthaya in 1767, the general Taksin moved his headquarters south, along the Chao Phraya river where today's capital is.
Few years from then, the area was meant to be a "New Ayuthaya" with the Grand Palace area and a temple devoted at the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew) built on the Ko Ratanakosin island,
and walls surrounding the brand new town which was built on stilt houses over the swamps, very efficient against the periodical floods.
In 19th century the first european architects and artists started to visit the city and under the reigns of Rama IV and Rama V the first "european style" stone streets and buildings were built.
Until the 1960s, when american soldiers came to town to have relax in go-go bars and brothels, Bangkok was still a small city. It was during the 1980s and 1990s that Bangkok became the city
we know, with lots of skyscrapers, concrete buildings grown up in a uncontroled fashion, to become a modern, cosmopolitan and international metropolis.
The reputation of "capital of sex tourism" then expanded in the west part of the world as well, and today Bangkok is the number 1 place for this kind of entertainment in the east Asia.
My impression of the city is partly like a western city, even more than Tokyo (English ads everywhere..), partly typically Thai with lots of small building and people outside talking, eating
(lots of places serving food, from small booths to proper restaurants).
A curiosity about the name: Bangkok is the international name for the city, the Thai name is Krung Thep (City of Angels), which is a short for the full ceremonial name
Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit,
which means City of Angels.
(Kidding, ok: "The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukam").
A Y U T H A Y A
Ayuthaya has been the capital of siamese Kingdom from 1350 to 1767, when it was occupied and ravaged by Birmanian army. During the following three years, Siam kingdom was split into many
small different factions continuously fighting each other, until the general Taksin unified the territories again and established in Bangkok the new capital.
Eventually, Birmanians fell back
setting the Siamese territories free again. Ayuthaya remained a wealthy city, but its treasures and wonderful monuments were left to the hands of the ravagers and the weather itself.
This decay process lasted until the 1950s when the government started to make concrete efforts to preserve the ancient temples in the city.
As for today, Ayuthaya is considered possibly as the most important site for historical tourism, despite the city itself doesn't offer many attractions or infrastuctures for tourists.
Most of the ancient temples are located in a central island, surrounded by a "circular" river created by other three external rivers converging into each other. When you visit them, despite they
are far from being in a pristine state, you still can imagine the splendor and majestic of those monuments when they were still intact, and often fully covered with gold.
C H I A N G R A I
Chiang Rai, a small city in the farthest northern province of the country, bordering with Laos and Myanmar (Bhurma), is not one of the most famous tourist milestones of Thailand.
Nevertheless, from there you can go to the mountains near the border and explore charming regions in the countryside where the cultures of China and Bhurma mix in, and in the city
you can have a taste of the "common" thai life style, far from the multiethnical melting pot of Bangkok, or the european touristic flavour of Phuket.
Unfortunately, after visiting the Tea Farm in the countryside I got car sick and we had to interrupt our trip to the "golden triangle" (the region in the mountains near the northen border with Bhurma)
anyway it was still worth a visit.
C H I A N G M A I
Chiang Mai, located in the northern part of Thailand, is one of the most important touristic sites in terms of historical monuments and sightseeing, and a modern and cosmopolitan center
at the same time. The first time in April 2008 we just passed by the city and we visited only the famous Night Bazar - a night street market - where you can buy all the kinds of handicraft products, and the Safari (or better the Night Safari if you join it at night like we did) in which you can see various species of animals from all over the world, living in a state of semi-freedom in their natural environment.
The most of the visits took place in April 2009, including all the beautiful temples for which the city is mostly famous, and the Tiger Kingdom - a place where tigers are breeded. Most of the temples are located in the city center, once surrounded by a wall which shaped the city as a perfect square.
P H U K E T
In our first trip on April 2008, we did a brief "deviation" from the north to the main touristic place in the south, Phuket, to enjoy some time seaside and visit islands around. My idea is that the Phuket area is very
touristic, you don't feel like in Thailand there almost at all. Almost all the Thai people you meet there are workers in shops, touristic sites, travel agencies etc. while all the rest are mostly
Scandinavian, English and other european tourists.
Of course, I had to have another sickness here (sunburn, not a light one) but this time I didn't let it change my plans!
P H I P H I
The first islands we went to visit with a tour in 2008 were the Phi Phi islands, arguably the most popular location for nice sightseeing, wonderful beaches, snorkeling and scuba diving.
In 2008 the experience was not so pleasant. We did snorkeling but it was a bit disappointing, because of the site (the water was not so clean)
and the presence of the big ferry boat and other 50 people around us. Staying seaside was not a significative experience, due to my sunburn and the fact that it was planned for 1-2 pm, when the sun was screaming
its light on your head and shoulders from 90 degrees vertically upon you...
Going back there in December 2009, also thanks to the tour made with a smaller boat (and my protection 60 sun cream...) we enjoyed snorkeling and sightseeing much more :)
P H A N G N G A
The second sailing tour we did was in the Phang Nga bay, which culminated in the so called "James Bond Island" (real name Khao Tapoo), from the movie The man with the golden gun which was played there.
This tour was much more interesting than Phi Phi, despite the bad weather (it was kind of raining during the first half of the sailing) which also partially spoiled the sightseeing. This time the boat
was a small, wooden one, made for max 10 people, and sailing with this boat almost at water level, with a bit of rain, and visiting a village built entirely on stilt houses was definitely worth.
T I G E R T E M P L E
On December 31st 2008 we went for a trip to the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi province, located about 100 km west to Bangkok
and not far from the famous bridge on river Kwai (an important strategic point during WWII built by japanese army and bombed to destruction by allied in 1945).
The Tiger Temple - official name Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yanasampanno - is a place where 17 tigers are breeded with love (that includes 6 cooked chickens each per day, beef and dried cat food) and grown up to be used to human company.
You can visit the temple and take photos with the tigers for free, but if you pay 1000 baht you can take more photos with them and have a tiger resting her big head on your lap.
That's what I actually did, and beside my pride for giving them money to fund this project, which will bring to a Tiger Island where tigers will be breeded into a more natural, semi-wild status,
it was a very nice feeling to have that big head on my legs. Tigers have been my favourite animals since a while and it was so nice to see this project going on with concrete results.
You will find a link to the Tiger Temple website in the photo album (I can't really put it here since you won't be able to click it, anyway if you wanna try: Tiger Temple... ;)
K A M P H A E N G P H E T
We made two trips to Kamphaeng Phet province. First, in April 2008 we visited the Historical Park. Kamphaeng Phet is one of those cities considered as part of the cradle of Thai civilization, and it was an important
and strategical point in the Sukothai kingdom from the 13th to 15th centuries.
In this park are located the most important and prestigious temples of that era, which eventually met the same destiny as Ayuthaya: they were destroyed and burned by Bhurma invaders. Differently from Ayuthaya, the temples
here still shows lots of burn signs. Many parts of them were originally covered with gold and precious gems, which were taken by the Bhurma soldiers.
After the Historical Park, we went to a hot spring to warm up our feet.
In January 2010 we visited the Klong Lan waterfall, apparently the second biggest in Thailand, and then an interesting ceremony for the installation of a brand new statue of a sitting Buddha in a temple called Wat Kongpracharach.
S A L O K B A T
Salokbat is not one important touristic or historical site in Thailand, but it is simply the small town where Pat's parents and relatives live (at least for the weekend). It was for me a nice experience for tasting the
life style outside the big cities. Less chaos, less frantic, more green, more relax. At least that was the first impression it gave to me.
On April 2009, we enjoyed the Song Kran celebrations (i.e. the thai new year) there and in nearby places, between religion at home and by the temples, crazy water pouring in the streets and people having bath in a not too clean river in Nakhon Sawan.
S U P H A N B U R I
On the day before my flight to Thailand in April 2009, the red shirts started their demonstrations in Bangkok. Together with the Song Kran celebrations that - as they're fun and relaxing in small towns, as they are chaotic and unpredictable in a big city like Bangkok - this made me divert the beginning of the trip from Bangkok to this place chosen by Pat, Suphanburi, a thai-only touristic site with several temples and historical sites.
Once again I enjoyed the 100% small town thai life style in this place, like I would have done for the most of my trip later on. First impact with the alternation between suffocating hot and humid, and taxi+hotel cold air conditioning - a "constant" now in all of my thai trips.
L O P B U R I / S A R A B U R I
During our way back to Salokbat from Pat's grandma house in the country in Saraburi province, we stopped by two beautiful temples: the Phra Prang Sam Yod in Lopburi town, a Khmer style temple populated by a lot of monkeys, which reminds you the glorious monuments in Angkor, and the Wat Phra Phutthabat temple in Saraburi province, a very nice Thai style, white-and-gold temple on the top of a small hill reachable by a sumptous stairway.
S U K H O T H A I
From Salokbat we did a daytrip to the nearby Sukhothai Historical Park, a very important site which once was the capital city of the powerful Sukhothai Kingdom (1238-1583).
The park is surrounded by city walls forming a rectangle of about 2 x 1.6 km length. It contains about 193 ruins and it's been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Other temples and shrines are located outside the walls, inside the forest on the nearby hills.
S O N G K R A N
C E L E B R A T I O N S
Some photos taken in the streets in Salokbat/Nakhon Sawan/Sukhothai areas, during the Song Kran days (April 13-15) when people celebrate the Thai new year by throwing water to each other.
The typical way in the thai provinces is to drive around sitting on the back of a pick-up car, with a barrel full of water, throwing it to other cars or to the people along the streets - which do the same in turn. You might also have your face "painted" with a mix of water and flour.
I've been part of it too eventually, sitting on the back of the car etc, but you won't see photos of it. You don't want to take your camera around in such a situation... all the photos have been taken from inside the car. And remember you have to lock your car doors if you want to drive on those days.
A O N A N G
Few shots from our headquarters area in December 2009, our hotel was located in the touristic town called Ao Nang, not far from Krabi town.
K O H H O N G
On December 30th 2009 we took our second island day-trip sailing to the archipelago of Koh Hong, smaller but equally beautiful as Phi Phi and with slightly less tourists around.
Less snorkeling but enjoying quieter beaches and bays.
E M E R A L D O O O L
In Klong Thom district in Krabi province, there's this beautiful natural pool, which is part of a set of attractions called "Unseen Krabi". Not far from it, in the middle of the forest you walk to an even more magic, mystical Blue Pool. Thanks to our very nice guide for having showed it to us!
B A A N B A N G K R A M
H O T S P R I N G
In our "inland" trip on December 29th, 2009 after the thrilling tour of Le Khaokob cave we had relax bathing in the most famous natural hot spring in the area.
W A T T H A M S E U A
The first destination of our second "inland" tour on December 31st was the Wat Tham Seua temple, also known as "Tiger cave temple". The two main sites are a small temple set up in a cave, and the topmost main temple on the top of the hill - to reach which you have to walk more than 1200 steps. Unfortunately we lazily decided to skip the latter, and later I discovered that the view from up there is just amazing. Next time...
L E K H A O K O B
C A V E
This was the first destination of our first "inland" daytrip on Dec 29th. The tour takes place with a small boat, and you stop here and there to walk visiting the sub-caves. What we didn't know, which made the tour so thrilling, was that a good half of the boat part goes beneath unbelievably low tunnels, at the point that you have to lay down on the boat and stay as low as you can. I could neither take photos nor videos in those moments because I had to flatten myself like a carpet inside the boat, turning my head on the side and seeing the rock solid roof literally 2-3 cm from my cheeks while the boat driver was pushing the boat with his hands against the roof to go forward. Quite an interesting experience!
H U A Y T H O
W A T E R F A L L
Last destination of our short holiday in Krabi was this "unseen" waterfall area, very intimate and calm, located at the Khao Phanom Bencha national park.
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Memories in motion from December 2008.
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Memories in motion from December 2009.
B L O G - 2 0 0 8
The story of our trip in December 2008.
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The story of our trip in December 2009.
