Scotland! (Ou l'histoire de 6 gourdes dans une voiture)

Day 1: Paris to Oxford
Km driven: 539

First night. Destination Scotland, which is why we are in Oxford.
Uneventful trip -we incidentally passed a spaceship (picture later, when we get a computer) on our arrival to the ferry in Calais.

Driving on the left: fingers in the nose, especially in queues. We had a few of those.

Oxford is a beautiful city, full of people dressed in strange robes with funny flat black hats (graduation day in most of the colleges, obviously). We arrived too late to visit something, especially since we left an arm and a leg in payment for the parking.

Tomorrow, we leave at dawn direction Gretna Green: we are secretly eloping.

Note de la petite soeur : nous nous habituons à la vie dans la voiture. Par exemple, on lui a appris à faire le café.  Utile quand on part à 6h... Et celle à la place du passager apprend à s'occuper. Lilly joue avec son GPS tout neuf et moi je fais des haltères avec des bouteilles d'eau !

Bangkok - last day

Our last day was uneventful. Leaving our (packed) backpack at the hotel, we visited the National Museum, which maybe we should have done first, since it explains about everything on Thai history, has a nice grip on culture and art, and displays countless artefacts, from statues of Buddha to palanquins and puppets to clothes.

The museum itself is composed of different buildings, some to expose those artefacts, other as places to visit: a temple, a (royal) house or two...

We started with a historic recollection of Thailand from the neolithic to today, with the intricacies of the foundation of today's dynasty, subsequent fights, foreign influences, and so on. Sculptures, in another building, were divided by period and style; palanquins, howdahs (elephant chairs), in gold and ivory, puppets, weapons, royal regalia, gold artefacts...

We wanted to try the Royal Barge National Museum, but we got lost following the directions (follow that side street so narrow that it is just a way between two buildings, although scooters still try to pass, and then get kindly redirected away by passing Thai. Hum. Helpful.)

We also failed in our attempts to take the riverbus (which was, anyway, too full to be enjoyable), so we ended up looking down at the street from a Starbucks':

 

Taking the bus

You might think that taking the bus could be a simple adventure in Bangkok. You would be wrong.

As there are more then 400 lines in Bangkok, there are no comprehensive map (ok, there is the 1-inch thick one that we decided not to buy). We had a few lines in our guide, we had scouted out the but stop the evening before, so we thought ourselves ready.

(A bus stop may or may not have a sign with the number of lines stopping there ; people, of course, are waiting 50m before the sign, not around it.)

There are buses with air-conditioning and buses without; we were taking one of the former.

So we waited with the other passengers, we went up in our bus, and started wanting to pay our tickets. There is a person with a box of money and tickets who is there for the purpose.

Ok, all was well.

Then, at the end of the day, we decided to go back with the same bus... ah!

Innocents that we were, we went to the other side of the street from where we stopped in the morning. No bus stop sign, but, well... it doesn't mean a thing. And we waited. We saw a number of buses passing by and stopping, but never ours -although we did see several going in the opposite direction. We still to this day don't know why it goes in one direction and not in the other; we took a taxi home.

In Thailand, motorbikes and scooters are everywhere, available for rent, and even as taxi. From the walkways (try to cross a busy thai street!), here it goes: there is a swarm in the front of every traffic light, waiting for it to turn green.

Siam Square

Bangkok - Siam Ocean World

So, a few burgers later, we headed to Siam Ocean World for the promise of fishes, sharks, turtles, and other otters.

The aquarium is under a mall (where else?), the entrance price is obviously geared towards rich western tourists, but it is (mostly) worth it.

We started with giant crabs, followed by seahorses, the promised axolotl was absent -in his place, a salamander-, and then we arrived nearby the water rats and the otters, the pinguins and the tunnel underneath the sharks' tank. There was also a giant 20-meter-high aquarium, which can be seen from 2 different levels -and on the bottom, a mermaid-throne-like chair to take pictures in front of the fishes. Oh, and no kraken. The whole story and legend of the kraken, and none to see. Very disappointing.

One of the main attraction was seeing some of the animals being fed: we got to see the otters performing tricks to get pieces of fish, with a running commentary from a different handler; and them, divers got into the shark tank with baskets of food -and pointy sticks to discourage those not welcome in the show.

After these adventures, we tried to buy some beer (of the brand Chang, which means "Elephant"). It wasn't possible before 5 pm, we were told. Oh. Well. Then, the only thing to do is take the bus back to the hotel... which is another kind of adventure all in itself!

Bangkok - Jim Thompson's House

As Solène said, we spent the morning visiting the palace and the neighbouring temples.

Back at the hotel to rest, we were kindly disturbed by the maid, which prompted our decision to go an hour at the swimming pool -hour which turned into the whole afternoon. Most of our suntan come from that day!

And once again, we procured our diner in Khao San Roa: a drink here, a plate of rice there...

We had decided to spend the next day pursuing more modern entertainments: Jim Thompson's House, the Hard Rock Café, and Siam Ocean World.

So we left in the early morning for Jim Thompson's House. James H.W. Thompson, an American spy, but more importantly the person who revived the Thai silk industry. he bought traditional Thai houses and had them dismantled, moved, modernized and rebuilt in Bangkok in the 60's. The result is a charming western dream of a Thai home, in the middle of a lush garden complete with pond, carps, and palm trees.

Having the possibility to have a French tour, we availed ourself of the opportunity, and with two other visitors we had a complete tour of the house given by a charming woman who spoke French. Actually, we understood quickly that it isn't possible to visit the house without a guide!

We learnt that all the small altars seen besides buildings or on the roofs where altars to the spirit of the ground on which a house is built, to ask for their blessing. All the threshold of the doors are elevated and one has to step carefully above it to enter a building or a room because the evil spirits can only move horizontally: it stops them entering the room... and keeps young children from leaving it if it is high enough!

A closed doll house built for domesticated mice was presented as the ancient version of television... for the entertainment of young children.

The house is shaped as a trapeze: walls, doors and windows have a wider base and a narrower top. It is to reinforce the building, since only wood is used: no nails, no metallic ties. We have found the same shape in older buildings.

We concluded our visit by a smoothie on the veranda by the pond, looking at carps, writing a few postcards, and relaxing in the quiet and shady environment before tackling the heat again... to find the Hard Rock Café.

Bangkok : farniente, temples et sunblock

(On m'excusera pour le titre, mais la rime était difficile). Voici déjà notre deuxième jour a Bangkok. Hier, le train de nuit ayant enfin eu un retard faisant honneur a son pays, nous sommes arrivées en milieu de matinée à notre hôtel. Ayant eu une nuit plutôt agitée (nos couchettes étaient sur l'essieu, effet shaker garanti), nous avons abandonne nos grands projets et nous sommes contentées d'explorer le pâté de maison et la piscine de l’hôtel.

Nous logeons a Khao San Road : au cours de la journée, la rue se remplit de stands (le soir, même les motos ne passent plus). On y vend tout ce qui peut attirer le touriste : sacs, vêtements, bijoux, tatouages au henné... Ma préférence va aux stands de fruits : pour 20 baths (60 centimes d'euro), on peut avoir un quart d'ananas, une mangue, une portion de pastèque, toujours juteux et délicieux.

Aujourd'hui, nous avons commence les visites, et avons réalise l'exploit de nous y rendre a pied. Pour ça, nous avons surmonte de nombreux obstacles : la chaleur, d'abord, mais aussi les passages piétons rares et peu respectes. Plus difficile, ce sont les conducteurs de tuk-tuk, qui ne comprennent pas qu'on puisse vouloir marcher, et enfin les "gentils" passants qui essaient de nous convaincre que les temples sont fermes pour nous emmener autre part.

Malgré tout ça, nous avons pu voir deux temples magnifiques, et un bout du palais. Le tout valait bien le détour, même au milieu des hordes de touristes et sous un soleil de plomb.

Le Wat Pho :

Wat Pho - Le Bouddha protégé de la pluie par le Naga a 7 têtes

Wat Pho

 

Wat Pho

Wat Pho

Wat Pho

Au Wat Phra Kaeo (temple du Bouddha d'Emeraude):

Kinnon - Wat Phra Kaeo

Thotsakhirithon - Wat Phra Kaeo

 

Nok Tantina - Wat Phra Kaeo

Jour de marché : bateau, dépenses et poulpe grillé

Hier (dimanche, donc), c'était jour de marché à Chiang Mai : le Sunday Market, un marché énorme qui investit plusieurs rues pendant toute la soirée. Ayant tout de même un bout de journée devant nous, nous avons choisi de faire une petite excursion en bateau sur la rivière Mae Ping, qui fait le tour de la ville. Nous avons donc pu admirer toutes les villas et résidences privées surplombant la rivière, notamment l'hotel luxuosissime pour rois du pétrole en vacances !

Notre bateau nous a mené dans une sorte de petite ferme, où nous avons pu visiter un jardin d'herbes (médicinales et aromatiques), manger quelques fruits frais (la base de l'hospitalité thailandaise) et voir des cochons domestiques (à ma grande joie, bien entendu).

De retour, nous avions remarqué que le ciel se couvrait, et à peine sommes nous rentrées près de notre guesthouse qu'a commencé une belle pluie tropicale : nous avons regardé passer le plus gros de l'orage assises dans un café, puis sommes parties au marché. C'était la première fois que nous avions de la pluie depuis que nous sommes arrivées, et ça a bien allegé l'atmosphère. Enfin, on va éviter de s'y habituer, vu que ce n'est surement pas ce qui nous attend à Bangkok (qui est bien plus chaude).

Il pleut !

Pour le marché, nous nous sommes perdues dans un océan de tissus, petits objets en bois, attrapes-touristes, bijoux, et autres, sans oublier les nombreux stands de nourriture, dont beaucoup se trouvaient dans les cours des temples. Nous avons fait des folies (surtout Elisabeth), nous en sommes revenues les bras chargés comme deux shop-addicts sortant des galeries lafayette, et bien repues. Néanmoins, je me suis contentée de prendre en photo les brochettes de poulpe grillé, sans les gouter (j'ai surement tort d'ailleurs).

Poulpe en attendant d'être grillé

Au final, nous y sommes facilement restées quatre heures et demie !

Des tongs pour geek