Day 1 GAP -Bangkok – start of GAP tour A full day of touring around in Tuk-Tuks - a three wheeled motor cycle with a back seat. The traffic and pollution are starting to get to me. But it's all part of the experience. The start of the GAP tour began at 6pm.The group introduced each other and met the tour leader named Cat. Cat is a tiny Thai woman who has been guiding GAP groups for several years – before that she was a tour guide for a competing company, Intrepid.She quickly got down to business, collecting our additional fees ($250) and making sure we had our traveler’s health insurance. I was on an abbreviated version of the trip – Bangkok to Hanoi, most of the others where on a 29 day trip that included the temples at Angkor Wat, Cambodia. We were now in the “shared room” phase of the trip.My room mate was Vic, a retired MD from Toronto - he is 72 years - and I thought I would be the old one on the trip. Anyway we had much in common and kept busy talking about our medical experiences over the years. Day 1 and 2 GAP -Bangkok - Headed to Chiang Mai on an overnight train A full day in Bangkok - visiting more Buddhas - I got the feeling that I had enough temple visits for Bangkok – even after the first couple of days. The group took a long tail boat river trip today - dirty water but sunny skies.We were able to buy bread who had a concession selling loaves of bread on a floating dock to feed the carp - thousands of fat carp all looking for their tourist food.This was followed by a trip to Wat Po and our introduction to Buddhist culture.
A tour around the harbor
Hungry cat fish
Visited the reclining Buddha today - huge Buddha with thousands of people trying to take photos.The area surrounding the reclining Buddha was like a carnival with lots of temples and statues.It was a little surprising to see a six foot statue of an erect penis decorated with flowers.Apparently, it’s a symbol of “adoration” and a good luck symbol for a happy life. Many women claimed the rocks to stand beside the statue to have their picture taken.
Face of the reclining Buddha
The massive reclining Buddha
Our tour group outside the reclining Buddha
Statue of the six foot, gold plated penis
Following the boat trip it was back to the hotel and a little more shopping – mostly looking.Since I was a “single bag” traveler, that meant limiting my buying or buying very small things.I did manage to find a shoulder bag that enabled me to sling my valuables across my chest – better safekeeping of my camera, money, passport and return airplane tickets.Later, I played it safe and kept most of this stuff in the hotel safe. That night we all went out to dinner at a fairly “high-end” restaurant geared for tourists – it was nice but a little too much of a tourist spot – food was good although we needed help from Cat on ordering – I found I have a new passion for Curry. On the way back to the hotel we passed through the “backpacker’s street” where thousands of young people from all over the world - 75% of them all sporting new tattoos made it look like the 1960’s all over again. The following day I went back to the backpacker’s street just to take it all in.I had a great lunch of Thai food - really is wonderful food.
Backpacker street
ID cards for sale - pick a new birth date!
The evening of our last day in Bangkok we all headed for the train station for our 13 hour overnight trip to Chiang Mai.We were housed in a “sleeper car” – really quite nice.With the flip of a coin and I got the preferred bottom bunk with a window.After dinner – the porter came around the turned the seats into beds complete with clean linen, pillows and blankets. We also ordered dinner – a mistake – the others bought their dinner at the train station.
Waiting at the train station before trip to Chiang Mai
Sleeper car on the train
to continue, go to Asia 2008 and click on Thailand 3.
