The bus to Chiang Mai wasn't until 12:00 PM so we slept in, had a nice (free) breakfast, returned our bicycles, and walked into town.  While waiting for the bus we walked across the street to the river and found someone feeding the fish...you have to check this out...that is a lot of fish!!

We finally boarded the bus for our 5.5 hour ride to Chiang Mai.  The scenery was very scenic with open fields and mountain climbs making the 5.5 hours feel like...well...5.5 hours.  The good part of the trip was I was able to read the entire book (all 81 pages) of Siddhartha by Herman Hesse...a very appropriate book while we are visiting Buddhist temples.

Anyway...I forget to mention that the night before we left Sukhothai I searched online for an excursion for us to take out of Chiang Mai and came across one that sounded really cool.  I emailed the company to see if a tour was available for this coming weekend.  They responded within 30 minutes and said the tour was available and for us to send more information to book the tour.  I emailed back saying that before we book the tour we have some questions that would best be answered in person, so is it OK if we stop by the office when we get into Chiang Mai on Wednesday night.  He replied that that sounded fine, and if we want, he can pick us up from the bus station, take us to his office, and then take us to the hotel and that we should just call him at the number on the email.  I replied that that sounded great and I will call when our bus gets in around 5:00PM.

So, as we were pulling into the bus terminal we were wondering how we were going to call the tour guide and then we saw this sign:

Keep in mind...this is all before we even booked...or even agreed to book a tour with this group.  Needless to say, with the great customer service we agreed to book the tour.  Are you wondering what the tour is?  Well, you will have to wait till the next blog to see what promises to be an awesome time!  CLIFF-HANGER!

After booking the tour they dropped us back at the hotel which looks great (for only $30 USD per night):

After checking in we needed something to eat.  Luckily, only a 10 minute walk away is the Anusarn Night market.

Of course there was a food section.  This is the place we chose and our meal:

After dinner we walked back to the hotel and called it a night.  The next morning we went down to our free breakfast and hopped on a Tuk Tuk to get to the starting point of the  walking tour we are doing today around Chaing Mai.

The walking tour we did had 23 stops.  We started at 10:00 AM and got back to the hotel at 5:00 PM.  Needless to say, we saw lots of Wats.  Here are some of the Wat highlights:

Here are some of the highlights of the day:

We got back to the hotel around 5:00 PM pretty tired from the long walk in the heat, so we took a few hour break.  We went back out around 8:00 to the night market and had a bite to eat and then returned to the room.  Tomorrow is going to be an earlier day.  The tour guide is going to pick us up at 9:00 AM, so we have to wake up around 7:00 AM to pack, eat breakfast, and checkout.

Don't forget...the next post will be about our tour.  It should be very cool!  Until then...

We left the hotel and walked to the bus station for our first bus trip in Thailand.  We were only going 1 hour north to Sukhothai (literally meaning Rising of Happiness...I love this!) to visit ruins dating back to the mid-13th to late 14th century.  This makes these ruins older than the ones we saw in Ayuthaya.  As soon as we arrived at the bus station a bus was loading to Sukhothai, so we boarded immediately.  The bus didn't seem too bad for a 1 hour ride considering it only cost us 43 Baht ($1.30) each.

We made it to Sukhothai, but now we have to go about 20 minutes east to get to the Historical Park where the ruins and our hotel is located.  So, we boarded another bus to go there.  It was kind of crazy that this bus cost us 30 Baht for the short trip, but there was no other options.

We took the 15 minute bus ride and walked to our hotel.  We didn't know what to expect since the hotel we booked didn't have any reviews online since it was pretty new, but the price was right and the pictures looked nice, so I took the chance.  It seems the chance was worth taking!

After a little rest in the room it was time to head out to the ruins.  We rented bicycles for the standard 50 Baht ($1.50) per day to ride around town and to the ruins...I love when we can ride bicycles around towns!  Today, since it's already after 1:00 PM we headed to the northern part of the historical park that only has 3 ruins, but 3 very impressive ruins.

First stop, Wat Phra Phai Luang:

Next, the very impressive Wat Si Chum complete with a 50 foot tall seated Buddah.

Next stop is Wat Sorasak where we saw elephants for the first time:

Lastly we visited Wat Chang Lom...another temple with elephants:

On the way back to the hotel we stopped for dinner and walked around a fresh market:

Oh...we passed this beautiful scene on the way back to the hotel:

The next day we woke and went down to our free breakfast...which is of course included in our $27 USD a night hotel room!  We then headed back out on our bicycles to do the main part of the Sukhothai Historical Park.  This time we decided to do something different.  We rented an audio tour for 150 Baht ($4.50) that will explain different sites throughout the park.  We visited at least 10 sites today so I am just going to share the highlights:

Noen Prasat:

Wat Mahathat...the largest Wat in Sukhothai:

Wat Sri Sawai:

Wat Traphang Ngoen:

Wat Sa Si:

Taking a break:

One last ruin, Ta Pha Daeng Shrine, thought to be the oldest in the area, before calling it a day:

We return to the room to find new origami towel art:

Tomorrow is another travel day.  We have a 5 hour bus trip to Chiang Mai.  We are not looking forward to the bus ride, but we are looking forward to exploring a new city!

After two nights in Ayuthaya it was time to leave our wonderful hotel and continue heading north.  Today will be quite an adventure since we are going to experiance our first train ride in Thailand.  The plan is to take a train to Lopburi, get off for a couple of hours and see the sites, and then get back on the train to Phitsanulok where we are going to stay for two nights for a little relaxing in a smaller city.

Up to this point we have avoided tuk tuks for two reasons...one, we don't trust that they will charge us the proper amount, and two, they are crazy drivers.  In this case, the hotel owner negotiated the fare, so we were OK in that department, but now the crazy tuk tuk driver is going to be even crazier since he knows we are in a hurry.  We jump in not feeling good about the situation:

Guess what...we made it alive and on time, but the train wasn't the right train to take, so all that rushing was for nothing and we boarded a train to Lopburi two hours later.  It was only a 1.5 hour ride and cost 13 Baht ($0.40) each for a 3rd class ticket.  This is the cheapest seats where you sit on fairly uncomfortable benches back to back with other benches and there is no air conditioner (the windows are open).  

Once we were sitting is when things got weird...food vendors started going up and down the aisle selling street food.  They were selling everything from soda to rice dishes to bowls of soup.  This went on non-stop for the entire trip.  I called it a "sitting market" since we just sat there as the food went by us versus other markets that we walk through.

We arrived at Lopburi at 1:00 PM and immediately bought our ticket (second class this time) to Phitsanulok that leaves at 3:19 PM.  Why are we stopping at this town for two hours?  To see the famous Lopburi monkeys of course.

For some reason monkeys have taken over this town.  They mostly stay around the ruins of Prang Sam Yot since that is were the tourists are that feed them, but some are just wandering around the town:

After stepping around monkeys on the street we made it to prank Sam Yot.  Check out these pictures:

There were venders selling tourists food to feed the monkeys.  Here is a video of someone feeding them:

Enough monkey business...lets move on.  Our next train ride to Phitsanulok is 4 hours so we upgraded to 2nd class.  It cost a whole extra 66 Baht ($2.00) to upgrade making our ticket cost 163 Baht ($5.00) each.  Even though the car wasn't air-conditioned, the seats were a lot more comfortable:

Here is some of the scenery out the window of the train:

Finally at around 8:00 PM we pulled into Phitsanulok:

We went straight to our hotel and straight to bed. 

The next morning we slept in.  The plan is to have a casual day walking around the city.  First stop is looking for a vegetarian restaurant that is listed in the travel guide.  On the way we passed some interesting things:

After passing it a few times we finally found the place and I sat down (while Tim watched) to a meal that I didn't have to worry if I was eating meat:

After lunch, we picked up a better map at the tourist information center (there seems to be one of these is every city) and walked our way up a road that followed a river.  Since Tim didn't eat yet we stopped at a coffee shop that had an english menu.  After some chicken and rice for Tim he decided to order an banana split.  He pointed on the menu and the waitress smiles.  We then saw her take the picture to another waitress and she looked concerned and then a waiter looked concerned.  We then saw our waitress throw on a jacket, grab her keys, and run out the door to her scooter.  5 minutes later she returns with a bag.  We stared at her and she started giggling as she opened the bag to unveil bananas. Tim did eat the sundae and said it was pretty good...especially the fresh from the market bananas.

Also along the way we saw some houseboats.  These are supposedly some of the last house boats left since the country passed ordinances not allowing them and we also passed this really nice tree:

Of course we had to go to a couple of Buddhist temples (Wat Ratburana & Wat Phra Si Ratana Mahathat:

Then, back to the room around 3:00 PM for a siesta.  We left the room around 7:00 PM to find dinner and was pleasantly surprised to find a night market just down the street. Look at the goodies we found and ate:

Next stop, Wood Stock....a local bar with a 60s feel.  We experienced a new beer (Tiger) served table side with a bucket of ice, and drank it like the locals...in a glass on ice.

We are done, so back to the hotel.  Tomorrow we continue north to Sukhothai Historical Park.  By the way, here are pictures of our hotel room that cost 1,600 Baht ($49.00) for two nights:

We are finally leaving Bangkok and heading north.  First stop will be Ayuthaya, a 1 hour minivan ride from Bangkok.  Ayuthaya was the capital of Siam for over 400 years (1350 - 1767).  In 1767 the Burmese army destroyed the city.  What was left continued to crumble and now all that remains is ruins.  Ruins that we can visit and climb upon and photograph.  

The cool part of this town is that is it easy to get around on bicycles, so we rented bicycles from the hotel we are staying at for 100 Baht ($3.30) for 2 days.

First stop...Wat Rajaburana:

Next, Wat Phra Mahayhat, famous for a sandstone Buddha head entangled within a tree's roots:

Last for the day is Wat Thammikarat, know for the cool singha (guardian lion) sculptures.  It also features a large reclining Buddha and a bunch of roosters.  I don't know what is up with all those roosters?  I think the guy in the chair is the one that finally beat the Burmese back.  Maybe he was born in the year of the rooster so people buy and place roosters near him for thanks?

Now back to our hotel room, which is much nicer (and less expensive) than our room in Bangkok:

We then decided to take a walk and look for some dinner.  We came across this gas station used specifically by the scooters that fill the streets:

And then we happened upon a BBQ restaurant that looked interesting so we decided to try it out.  It wound up being a cook it yourself place.  We had to watch how others were doing it so we knew what to do:

The next morning we woke up with many more ruins to visit.  This is our last day in Ayuthaya so we wanted to make the most of it.  First stop is the most famous ruin called Wat Phra Si Sanphet.  Its three chedi (stupas) are the most iconic image in Ayuthaya:

On the way to our next stop, we passed by some tourists taking elephant rides around the ancient city:

We decided to stick with our bicycles, so we continued our way to our next stop, Wat Lokayasutha, home to a giant reclining Buddha:

Next we rode to Wat Chai Wattanaram, home to a 115 foot tall prang:

Next was a pretty long ride to the other side of town to visit Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon, home of yet another giant reclining Buddha and some more roosters:

Finally...the last ruin of the day, Wat Phanan Choeng, with its 62 foot tall Buddha surrounded by 84,000 Buddha images:

As we were walking the grounds of Wat Phanan Choeng I noticed a ferry going back over the river that took us quite a long time to ride over a bridge to get to where we were.  For a mere 5 Baht ($0.15) each we were able to cross the river saving us at least 40-50 minutes...SCORE!

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a night market and picked up some dinner to take back to the hotel. We really earned this meal with all the miles we rode today. I picked up some BBQ squid on a stick (become one of my staple items, a small loaf of bread, and some steamed rice and Tim found some pork on a stick.  

After the market we stopped at the 7-11 and picked up some LEO beer and water and arrived at the hotel around 7 PM sweaty and exhausted.  Tomorrow we leave Ayuthaya, make a brief stop in Lopburi by minibus, and finish in Phitsanulok for a relaxing 2 night stay.

After four days of going, going, going we decided to take it easy today.  We slept in a bit, had a leisurely breakfast, went back to the hotel and updated the blog, relaxed a bit more, and then decided to head to the mall to  check out the food court for a late lunch.  That's right…we are going to the mall for lunch.  I have heard good things about this mall, so lets check it out.

WHAT A MALL!  It is called Terminal 21 and is designed like an airport terminal.

The security guard is dressed like a pilot and greets each person as they enter the mall.

Every escalator is marked as departing and arriving a city based on what floor you are leaving and going to.  You see…each floor has a different city theme.

There was also Paris, Istanbul, and London.

Overall, the mall was a maze of floors and escalators going in all directions:

But…Tim and I are are not shopper.  Then why did we come to the mall?  For the food court of course!  But, this food court is not like what we are used to in the US.  First you have to buy a card that is used to purchase food.  Since the food vendors don’t have to deal with money the service is a lot more efficient.  And don't worry about putting too much money on the card…you just trade it in for the remaining cash when you are done.  And the cost…we had a vegetarian dish with rice and 3 sides, a bowl of soup with fish balls, shrimp pad tai, sliced pork and duck with rice; 2 steam buns, mango slices, jackfruit slices, and 2 waters for under $8 USD…and the quality was outstanding!

We tried the Jackfruit was saw yesterday in Chinatown. There was not much to lose since it only cost 20 Baht ($0.70).  Let me tell you...it was really good.  It tasted like a super flavorful banana.  Next time we see a street vendor selling it we will be sure to buy it.

After lunch we ventured to the bathroom and found a toilet from the future with all the bells and whistles you could ever want on a toilet.  Why don't we have these kinds of toilets in the US yet? Why do we still use the same toilet they were using in the stone age?!?  All I know is I pushed a button and water sprayed up and then I pushed another button and water streamed up, and then I pushed another button and a fan dried me off...this may be too much information, but I just loved this toilet and if I ever have a house again I will be installing one.

After nearly 2 hours in the mall we headed back to the hotel, bought a couple of Chang beers at the 7-11 and hung out in the lobby for an hour or so.  Then back to the room for some rest before we check-out of the hotel in the morning and head north to the ruins in Ayutthaya and leave Bangkok behind.

Today is set to be an exciting day.  We packed up our belongings, said goodbye to our elusive mouse roommate and checked out of the hotel.  Our plan is to move to an area called Th Sukhumvit, where our tour guide from the other day suggested we stay for a night or two.  But first we say goodbye to our favorite alley that provided us food and drink:

We get there by taking a ferry to the Skytrain.  First the ferry ride:

Next the train:

We exited the train station to a much different Bangkok then we left.  We are now in an area that looks like any large city in the US with raised train tracks, modern looking storefronts, and even a mall (more to come on the mall tomorrow).  We didn't know where we were going to stay, so I found a place recommended in the guidebook and luckily they had a room available.  Suk 11 is a hostel, but much nicer than ones we have stayed in the US.  We were able to get a room with our own bathroom, so we didn't have to deal with the typical shared bathroom that most hostels have.  Anyway...this place is pretty cool:

After checking in we threw our stuff in the room and headed out for a walking tour of Chinatown.  We purposely ate a small breakfast knowing that we would be eating our way through Chinatown today.  A train took us a few blocks from Chinatown where we had to stop and see the Golden Buddha, but we first needed a snack:

On to the Golden Buddha (Wat Traimit).  It is a 10 foot tall, 10 ton, solid-gold (supposedly) Buddha that was only discovered 40 years ago when it was dropped and the plaster cracked revealing a gold Buddha underneath.  It is housed in a new Wat that was built in 2010.  Unlike some of the other temples, this one allowed up to take pictures making me wonder if this place is just a money making Wat (they charged us 50 Baht each).  But at least a was able to get a cool picture of the Golden Buddha.

Onward to Chinatown!  Of course, it can't be Chinatown without a gate:

Chinatown was down-right crazy.  People everywhere, food venders everywhere, shops everywhere.  Here is just a taste of the sights we encountered throughout the day:

And some of the amazing, colorful, and unfamiliar food being sold:

And two more meals:

Do you ever wonder where all those electronic items you order from Amazon and Ebay come from?

Time to head back to the hotel…which way is the train station?  After walking, with a bit of backtracking, for 1 hour we finally made it back to the train and back to our hotel.  What a great day of just walking around and exploring the Chinatown of Bangkok.  Overall I felt quite at home today since I was reminded of the Chinatown in New York City that I have spent a lot of time visiting.  Tim on the other hand was a bit overwhelmed with all the people and all the crazy traffic we had to deal with every time we crossed a street.  It's OK Tim…tomorrow we will just hang out around the hotel and not do anything too crazy.  I promise...wink, wink.

After taking yesterday's tour and our tour guide telling us we need to see the Grand Temple we gave in and went. But first...breakfast.  Here is a picture of where were ate and is pretty typical of the kind of restaurants in this "backpacking' area we are staying in that caterers toward tourists:

 There were tons of buses for at least 1/2 mile from the site, and when we got there there half of China there taking a tour.  After pushing and shoving our way through the pack we finally bought our tickets ($15 USD each...quite expensive) and made our way to the renowned emerald Buddha.  We approached the huge temple and couldn't wait to see this Buddha.  As we entered, there it was...a tiny, little 2 foot tall green Buddah on an enormous golden throne.  Although the Buddha wasn't big, the ground were amazing.  Here are some of the highlights:

After the temple, we entered the area of the Grand Palace where the royalty of the past built building after building as they took power.  Great architecture, color, and landscape. 

Here is the obligatory picture of me with the royal guard:

After being Grand Palace'd out we decided to head back to the hotel and unwind.  On the way back we passed the Thammasat University with sculptures in yard.  We walked around and found out it was a Memorial garden for the fight for democracy.  There were some pretty cool sculptures:

Our plan was to spend a small time in the room to cool off in the air conditioning and then head off to the sites to the east of where we are staying.   First stop Wat Bowonniwet:

Next stop Golden Mount.  This is a temple built on a artificial hill that was created when a large stupa, under construction in the year 1830 collapsed.  It was a bit of a climb up there, but the views were worth it.

Time for a little snack after that climb:

Next we passed Ban Batt where the last remaining family hand makes alms bowls for the monks. I would have loved to buy a bowl that only cost $15 USD, but we can't carry it around for 4 months, so a picture will have to do.

Sao Ching-Cha (giant swing) and Wat Suthat.  I guess people used to swing on that red structure trying to grab a bag of gold.  Many people died trying, and around 1930 they stopped holding this contest.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped for our first (of I'm sure many) bowls of street vender soup.  YUM!

Before going to the room we stopped for a few beers and called it a night.  Tomorrow we check out of this hotel and move to a different part of Bangkok for a couple of nights.

Woke up at 7 AM to meet our tour guide at 8 AM in the lobby of our hotel.  Went downstairs and watched the Bangkok Marathon go by.  The guide was late and we started to worry a bit since we paid for the tour in advance online….but at worse we were going to lose only $40 USD.  Then the hotel owner came out and told us that the guide called and she was having trouble finding the hotel.  She was only 2 minutes away.  Finally Piyaporn showed up and was very sorry for being late…no big deal, she was only 10 minutes late.

She said that although a taxi would be the fastest way to get there, she will take us on a ferry to cross the river to teach us how the ferry system works…great idea!  Here is the ferry that we took.  We went about 3 stops at a stop on the other side of the river.  By the way, the ferry ride cost 15 Baht (50 cents) per person.

The stop we got off had a hospital that Piyaporn said was a world class hospital and that the King of Thailand is there currently and has been living there for a while since he is not well.  I don't know what the service inside is like, but the building is really cool:

She also suggested that if we want some good food to come to this area.  There is a medical school here, so the restaurants are geared to students, thus they are inexpensive, but very good.  I don't think we will come all the way over here for food, but it is good to know.

We (Piyaporn) hailed a taxi and 30 minutes and just over $3 USD later we were arrived at the Ladmayom Floating Market.

The idea of the floating market is that not too long ago there were no roads in this area. This area is full of agriculture (farms, coconut groves, mango groves, etc). The people that lived here only used the canals as transportation.  On the weekends all the people would take their boats to a market area and buy fresh produce, meat, and seafood from each other.  Eventually the roads were built and the market ceased to exist.  Then in the 1980's ( I think that is what Piyaporn  told us) the city decided to bring back the weekend market to give the local farmers a way to sell their goods to the public.  Today, middle class people from Bangkok fill the market on weekends to buy fresh food and to eat amazing food from the various food stands scattered throughout the market.

Although the entire market is now ground based, there is a canal boat tour that is available to take you by some of the canal houses where people still live without roads.  For only $1.25 each we got a 30 minute ride up and down the canal were we saw women cooking "boat noodles" for market goers and other foods being sold directly off the boat to the people in the market.  Here is our boat guide and a picture on our boat.  There were about 9 of us on the boat plus the "captain."

Here are some highlights of the canal boat ride:

After the ride we shopped around for varies dishes to eat for lunch and found a table and sat to a great meal:

There was so much food to choose from making it hard to settle for a few things, but this is just day 2 for us in Thailand, so there is much more food to be eaten.  One of my favorite things I did find at the market is a curry fish ball grilled on a stick.  I got one right at the start of our tour and then needed to buy one more just before leaving.  Tim went for something more familiar…grilled chicken:

Here are highlights of the floating market:

We took a taxi all the way back to our hotel for the cost of just over $6 USD and wound up in our hotel room around 1 PM.  8 hours later we awoke and realized that we had just slept our day away and now what are we going to do for the rest of the night were we won't be too tired.  Around 11:30 PM we left our room for dinner and a beer that cost under $8 (the beer was half that bill).  They were out of our familiar Chang Beer that we drank last night, so we got bottles of Leo Beer (kind of a cool label) that was a bit more expensive, but the taste was definitely smoother.

I am now here in the room typing this blog at 2:17 AM.  I have to finish this and get to bed since we have a full day planned for tomorrow.  Remember in 15 Nov blog that I said we didn't have time to go the famous Golden Palace…well, our tour guide today said that we can't miss it, so we are going to add one more night in this hotel and tour the Golden Palace tomorrow, and hopefully have energy to walk to the Golden Mount which is supposed to be cool as well.  Until tomorrow then…

I don't know if there were mice running around our hotel room last night, but I didn't really care.  We awoke at 10:30 AM after 9 hours of sleep and still felt a bit groggy.  After a shower, which was surprisingly great, we felt a lot better and was ready to hit the streets of Bangkok for our first day of exploring.

First, here are a couple of pictures of our hotel.  Tomorrow i will show pictures of the inside of our room.

I had printed out a walking tour of the old city of Bangkok that I wanted to do, so we left trying to find the starting point.  But first, we need something to eat.  We passed a few street vender that are known in Bangkok to be inexpensive, but delicious...however, we felt we needed something a bit safer, so we continued walking.

We finally came across a restaurant playing the BBC radio over the speakers that had english menus (with pictures) so we settled on it.  Here is a picture of our breakfast...try to guess (shouldn't be too hard) who ordered what:

OK...that is probably too easy since I was taking the picture and Tim is in from of the traditional "Big Breakfast", but I had a traditional Thai breakfast of rice soup with shrimp....yummy.

Onward we went on our walking tour...or will be the walking tour as soon as we find the starting point.  Finally, we made it to a park that is pretty easy to find on the map since it is a giant oval.  It is the Senam Luang Park (Royal Field).  A bit further...past the elephants in the middle of the traffic circle, and finally...the starting point...the City Pillar Shrine:

Although the biggest tourist attraction of Bangkok if right around the street, the walking tour takes us off the beaten path to a few block to the east, so we look over the wall to the Grand Palace and walk east where we saw some cool sites..and we were the only tourists around!  Here are some of the highlights:

Here is a gallery of pictures showing the detail of Wat Ratchabophit.  What great tile work!

After much more walking, we finally came to one of the better known temple complexes in Bangkok, Wat Pho, home to the giant reclining Buddha.  Yes...it is as big as it looks!

These temple grounds were awesome.  Beside the reclining Buddha there was so many other cool shrines and granite statues all over:

After What Pho it was too late to go to the Grand Temple.  After What Pho it was too late to go to the Grand Temple.  I am still trying to decide if we can say we "did" Bangkok without actually visiting the number one tourist attraction in the city, We decided to continue walking along the canal, go back to the hotel to rest for a couple of minutes and then head out to the infamous Khao San Road for dinner and some beer. 

But first...some BBQ squid on a stick:

One more picture for the night...an old Volkswagen bus converted into a bar:

Wow...this blog took a while to post tonight.  It is now midnight and we have to meet our tour guide at 8:00 AM in our hotel lobby.  Good night all!

The time has finally come that we are on our way to Bangkok.  We are both filled with excitement, but am also a bit nervous about the whole adventure.  My biggest concern is the language barrier...how much pointing can you get away with?  Tim's biggest concern seems to be personal security.  However, we really don't know what we should or shouldn't worry about until we are there...and here we go!

After about 22 hours of traveling through Cleveland to Chicago to Tokyo we finally made it to Bangkok at 11:30 PM.

After a 45 minute taxi ride that cost 500 Baht ($15) we made it to our hotel and got to our room around 1:30 AM. Now...about the room...hum...well...I guess I will start by saying that it only cost us $35 USD per night, so we really didn't know what to expect.  I guess that I can say that we got what we paid for, but did I pay for mouse droppings?  Oh well...we are only paid for 3 nights and for the first night, we were so exhausted, so I really didn't care what the room looked like, as long as it had a bed.

So...good night for now, and tomorrow I will show pictures of our hotel.