Floating Market

Morning torture started at 6am, we joined a bus tour to one of the most famous pictures of Thailand - Damnoen Saduak Floating Market located 110 km from Bangkok.


Totally chaotic, narrow canals are filled with flat boats piled anything from fruit, Som Tam (spicy papaya salad) to BBQ chicken. Each jockeying for position and paddled by ladies ready to stop and bargain at a moment's notice. It's colorful, noisy, and touristy but great fun. Don’t get disappointed if you want see many Thais buying their daily needs at the floating market now days as most people visiting the Floating Market are tourists, but it does offer an excellent opportunity to see something different and take some great pictures.

City of Angle – Bangkok

There's no better place to begin our Bangkok tour than the incomparable Grand Palace, a fantasy of gold and glitter that absolutely knocks your socks off. It's a square mile complex of buildings begun in 1782 as a royal residence and Wat Phra Kaew, home to the Emerald Buddha, Thailand's' most sacred image.
The Grand Palace adjoins Wat Phra Kaew in a common compound, and is where you will end up after exiting Wat Phra Kaew. Despite the proximity of the two, there's a distinct contrast in style between the very Thai Wat Phra Kaew and the more European inspired designs of the Grand Palace (the roof being the exception). The Grand Palace is nowadays used only for occasional ceremonial purposes and is no longer the royal residence.


Wat Pho - this large and extensive temple neighbours the Grand Palace enclave contains a gigantic gold plated Reclining Buddha some 46 meters long and 15 meters high with inlaid mother of pearl soles. The temple is also regarded as the first center of public education and is sometimes called Thailand's first university.


Not far from Grand Palace across the river, it’s Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn). It's the star of many a "visit Thailand" poster. Perhaps a better known symbol of Bangkok than the Grand Palace. Like the bell shaped chedi, the central Prang represents Mount Meru, home of the gods. The four smaller prangs symbolize the four winds. High up on the four smaller towers, you can see a statue of Pai, god of the winds, on his horse.

Afterwards we headed to Bangkok's vibrant Chinatown for dinner. Like most of other China Town I visited, a huge ceremonial Chinese gate unmistakably marks the entrance of Chinatown. Lined with many gold shops, seafood restaurants and food stalls serving shark fin and bird nest soup became the highlight of the day.

The Rose of the North Thailand – Chiang Mai

We left Siem Reap at 6am yesterday at the same route back to Bangkok to catch the 12 hours train ride north to Chiang Mai, backpackers’ paradise. Chiang Mai (meaning "new city") was funded in 1296, is the largest and most culturally significant city in northern Thailand, blessed with stunning natural beauty and unique indigenous cultural identity. After we wandered among historic ruins and admire exquisite temples within the city, we went to the thriving Sunday Market for its famous food stalls and picked some souvenirs.


The day before yesterday we joined a day tour to experiencing elephant ride through the forest and trekked to Mae Se Waterfall with our guide. After a traditional Northern Thai lunch at a local village, we floating down Pine River for bamboo rafting which is relaxing and nostalgic. The local children have no fear when it comes to splashing tourists coming down the river. We were all wet, but it's was fun.

Yesterday an early morning tour drive through scenery from Chiang Mai by road along picturesque scenic routes pass the several beautiful northern mountains and valleys to the world famous “Golden Triangle” where the border lines of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet.


Activities we also joined around here are Thai massaging, Thai boxing show and of course, discovering fantastic temples, beautiful markets within the city.

The New 7 Wonders of the World - Angkor

Angkor is one of the most important archaeological sites in South-East Asia They are the ruins of Khmer Empire that lived here about a thousand years ago and disappeared leaving their cities and temples to the jungle. They were uncovered again about a hundred years ago and some of them have been restored, some not at all. In 1992, UNESCO inscribed Angkor on the World Heritage List, as well as the World Heritage in Danger List to save it from further destruction and looting due to destruction during the country’s recent civil war. I've longed to see the ruins at Angkor for years, and to actually be there in person was truly unbelievable. It's one thing to see the sights on TV but it's another to be there in person to experience it.





The temples of Angkor located 8km outside of Siem Reap where all the tourist stays. We hopped in a convoy of Tuk-tuks and took off to Angkor. After buying a 3-day pass with our photograph stamped on it, we headed towards our first day sightseeing. Keep in mind that the city of Angkor is enormous, and there's a lot more to see than Angkor Wat alone. We spent the whole day being dropped off at various temples along the Small Circuit. Each temple was unique and had many unusual features to make it different from the last. The day was finished by watching sunset over Angkor Wat from Phnom Bakeng, a temple on the only hill in the area.



The 2nd day, we stared the Big Circuit from Srah Srang, a hand-cut lake with a majestic landing platform, for sunrise. The day was continuing with sites along the Big Circuit and then meeting our driver for a lift to the next one. In the afternoon, we went back to some site Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom belong to Small Circuit for another look and to take photographs in a different light. It's still fantastic a second time round.



We headed to visit 3 sites 25-60km far away from the Angkor Wat - Banteay Srey, Kbal Spean & Beng Memala. Beng Memla becomes the highlight of our 3rd day. It like all other temples in the Angkor, abandoned for hundreds of years and the trees took over most of the temples long ago, but it’s unique because it has not been restored except a wooden walkway built along a path through the temple (built for the movie The Two Brothers).




I'd love to tell how marvelous the Angkor was but lack of writing ability. My photos will have to do it justice.

The real adventure begins

We arrived Bangkok at 9pm via Thai Air last night, a taxi ride to the hotel where we’ve booked 3 days stay at the end of our trip. The hotel offers complementary luggage storage, so we decided not to carry the stuff bought in Shanghai but leave them in Bangkok. By the time we got everything sorted, it’s already 10pm. Then we headed to bus station to catch the 3:30am bus to Seim Reap, Cambodia.

The scheduled early morning bus ride from Bangkok to Aranyaprathet (the Thai border town to Cambodia) was a good start - air conditioned, comfy seats and a bottle of water each passenger. We arrived at the border before the custom office opens (at 7am). Even in the early morning, the border area is like a zoo, people everywhere of all kinds of nationalities and border guards with machine guns patrolling the fences. Bit of a queue in the immigration office to get stamped out of Thailand. Then a 400 metres walk through no mans land between Thailand and Cambodia where the a few casinos and high end hotels situated in the mid of no where makes me wonder why.

We had heard that the road to Siem Reap was in bad condition and the best and most comfortable way was to take a Camry taxi, which we did. It costs $30 dollars to hire the whole car for the journey. Best piece of advice we ever had. The road was absolutely awful. Potholes the size of everything from a football to a bathtub, and I'm not exaggerating. Most of the time there wasn't even any road, just a field or driving in the heavy fog. Huge trucks use this road as well and it gets worse with each one passing through. So we had 4 hours of bouncing around inside the Camry and I was fighting with mosiqutos and flies during the whole time.

Well, after sorting out with a tuk-tuk driver for the next 3 days itneary, we stepped out for some local food and drinks. The food was great but the weather is so hot and I'm not sure if I can survive in the next 3 hot sticky days. Stay tune!

Shanghai - The Eastern Pearl

First let me catch you up on the past few days.

Shanghai is a sophisticated cosmopolitan with all of the trappings of a great place to live. it's not really a place for adventure, but a place to just relax and soak up city life. I was largely hoofed it around through gardens, different city quarters, hanging out drinking, tasting local food and in between, some shopping, of course.

We also visited Zhu Jia Jiao, an age-old water township with a history of more than 1,000 years, just 45 minutes drive from Shanghai. Zhu Jia Jiao water town is beautiful, but very touristy. The complex is traditionally styled and looks restored recently. The narrow streets full of stores selling snacks, carvings, and paintings on both sides. It lowered my expectations for the old town a bit. You may also wish to board on a boat trip. It will be interesting to observe the town from canal.

Off to Discover

I'm leaving in a few hours for a short journey through the path of my life to Cambodia and Thailand with a stopover in Shanghai. I'm glad to be leaving the cold and all the crazy snow behind and hopefully my flight won't be affected by this snow storm.

This is also the first time for Wen visiting a third world country as a backpacker, such a huge deal, but at the same time, he looks absolutely ready and let's hope he's going to see the world from a new perspective.

Ciao for Now