We were up and out of the hotel by 5:30 on our way to the train station. On the way the cab driver tried to convince us to have him drive us to Ayutthaya, "only 1500 baht", the express train cost 160 for both of us.
The train goes through some decidedly third world countryside. Seeing the way they lived caused me quite a bit of reflection, hopefully it will be reflected back on my actions.
Getting of the train a guy approached us asking if we needed a tuk tuk, we sort of waved him off as has become the habit with anyone offering something. He asked where we were from and after we told him he fumbled around in his fanny pack and pulled out a small spiral bound notebook. Flipping around for a few seconds he showed us several notes people had left about him for other tourists. At this point I was sold as I wrote in his book that afternoon, you can't go wrong with anyone who'll show you a book full of positive comments from past customers. My dad was sold when he showed him the Thai Tourism Authority's Sign with set rates, 200 baht per hour for tours (~$5.00).
The first temple we went to was very nice, the morning coolness helps make any place enjoyable though. [more to come here]
Among the stops at temples my Dad ended up riding an elephant, while I was waiting for him (after taking the half roll of film of my dad he wanted) I started reading there save the elephant stuff. They're having a hard time figuring out what to do with the domesticated elephants. They used to use them for logging but that was made illegal in Thailand ten or twenty years ago. After problems in Bangkok it became illegal to have them in the city, so now there's a lot of elephants who can't be put back in the wild and their owners have the tough task of finding a way to make money to feed them.
Posted by drewish at January 30, 2001 03:49 PMTrackBack URL for this entry:
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