We travelled from Pak Chong to Lopburi, which took the majority of the day. To get to Lopburi, we had to go back to Ayutthaya because Pak Chong and Lopburi are part of different train lines that happen to intersect at Ayutthaya. We weren't paying attention when the train got to Ayutthaya and after rushing to get off, my (Adrienne) bag got caught and by the time I got untangled, the train had already started moving and Nick was already off so I hustled to the door of the train and jumped. It sounds cooler than it really was, but it was definitely a lesson learned to pay attention at the train stops. After some supper in Ayutthaya, we caught the 6:30 train to Lopburi. We finally got to our hotel in Lopburi (which is actually very nice, especially for 23 dollars a night) around 8 pm.
Tonight, we are posting from a cafe since our hotels wifi isn't working, therefore we won't be able to post any of our pictures or videos. However, we will make sure to post lots tomorrow! This morning we had a good taste of home after finding peanut butter and bread at a 7-11 ( there is literally a 7-11 every two blocks in this country). We took a train this morning from Ayutthaya to Pak Chong which will be our point of access for the Khao Yai National Park which we will be visiting tomorrow. During the train ride, there was a big change in scenery. There are mountains, trees and rivers covering the land which makes for beautiful scenery. The temperature is a bit cooler here as we are at a higher altitude, which is a nice change. Pak Chong is around the same size as Ayutthaya, but is less "touristy" since the park mainly caters to local Thai people. There isn't much English in this area but we seem to be getting along just fine. We are in a very good area in Pak Chong, with lots of food and a small market right near our hotel. Since we have been out of Bangkok, we have noticed that everything is quite a bit cheaper and the people are genuinely nice.
After a walk near our hotel and packing up our bags, we moved to a different hotel closer to the train station (since we will be taking a train tomorrow to Pak Chong). After some relaxation and prep for tomorrow, we went for a walk to explore the city on this side of the river. Still can't believe how many dogs there are!! However, all of the dogs here do seem to be pretty healthy and although they don't have leashes or collars they know not to stray far from their owners who are selling stuff along the street. Once we got back to the hotel we did some hotel booking and blogging, and we are now about to tackle a load of laundry (which we will do by hand with travel packets of Tide).
Today we walked to The Grand Palace which is home to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The Grand Palace and the temples surrounding it had amazing detail, covered with gems and gold. It was an extremely hot day since the sun was out from behind the clouds so after we were done at the palace we went back to our hotel to cool off. We then checked out and set off to our new hotel. We had originally planned to take the bus but the Bangkok bus system is much more confusing than we had expected, so we had to walk quite a ways with our big bags on our backs. After eventually getting a cab and getting to our hotel we got some spring rolls for lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon in our room planning for the next few days and watched The Beach starring Leonardo Dicaprio (which is relevant because the beach is filmed at Haeo Suwat Falls in the Khao National Park of Thailand which we will be going). For supper we had beef wonton noodles and pork noodle soup. |