The tuk tuk from hell!

After our trip down the canal, our guide spent some time explaining more about Thai customs - the do's and don'ts if you like - and then setting out the programme for the rest of our trip. She also collected a smallish amount of baht from all of us in order to tip various people along the way. This actually made life easier for us because who knows what is or isn't an appropriate amount to tip the guy who carries your suitcase for you in a foreign country? The plan for the afternoon was to visit the Grand Palace so on the way there we got to know each other a little better. As I've mentioned before, there is always "The One" on these trips - you know, The One who whinges constantly and is a misery to be around (see my description of Miserable Pete in Sri Lanka), but this time I was proved wrong because everyone was so very, very nice, and we all ended up getting along really well. The youngest in our group was just 23 (on a trip with her mom as a graduation present) and the oldest was a widower of almost 80 years of age and by golly have they travelled!!! I honestly consider myself to be rather tame after talking with them! I probably got along the best with C, a retired nurse who now works part-time in a care home for dementia patients. As she says, her nurse's pension pays the bills and the care home salary pays for the fun stuff, and man has she been to places I probably would never even consider. Siberia, Pakistan, Nagaland (I'd never heard of it either. It's a mountainous state in northeast India on the border of Myanmar), Borneo and goodness knows where else. On top of that, she's taking her son away for his 30th birthday and as he chose Georgia (the country in eastern Europe, not the US state) she's off there in September, but looking for somewhere else to go between now and then. In fact she even mentioned to me that perhaps we could go to Namibia together sometime since it's somewhere we'd both like to visit! Maybe I really am a bit tame because at sewing club last night I realized Cynthia (another club member) is currently in Mongolia (-25°C), hopefully enjoying the 60th birthday present from her partner! Not exactly Blackpool, is it!

There was also a French lady in the group with her English husband. She has lived in England for the past 50 years and when we got talking it turns out she was born and raised just north of Lake Geneva in a place called Gex. What a small world we live in!

Anyway, we made it to the Grand Palace in sweltering heat, the temperatures at this time of year apparently ranging anywhere from 35°C to 45°C (95°F to 113°F) and boy did we feel it!

It's probably the only photo I got to take
as the crowds were just toooooo much!

After that we visited the Emerald Buddha and the Reclining Buddha, all of it being spectacular - but the heat was just relentless! In fact we'd decided between us that we didn't want to visit the Reclining Buddha because we wanted to get out of the heat, but since our guide had already booked our tuk tuks, in we jumped for the tuk tuk ride from hell. Now I know they all drive like lunatics but usually there is so much traffic they can't really do much damage. But not this time! For some weird reason the traffic on the way to the Reclining Buddha was very light so we got to screech across Bangkok in what was basically a motorized baked bean can, all the while hanging on for dear life!

After we'd recovered somewhat, it was off to the train station to catch the overnight sleeper train to Trang, from where we'd get the speed boat to Koh Hai, the least developed of the islands in the Andaman Sea. While we were sweating it out at the train station, all of a sudden a certain music was played and everyone stood up. Assuming it was the national anthem, we all also stood, so if it wasn't the national anthem I bet we looked like a right bunch of wallies! The overnight train wasn't exactly the Orient Express - more like that train in the movie Some Like It Hot - but we made it to Trang on not very much sleep in time to catch the speed boat to the island. And despite being absolutely knackered by this point, our first view of the island made all that effort worthwhile - but I'll save that for another day!

The sleeper train in Some Like It Hot!

Koh Hai!