Per començar unes imatges del nostre Petit Gran Hotel de 5 estrelles. A Khon Kaen.

Pensant que puc escriure al blog, o en Bikicat. No me siento las piernas...!

Anem a fer un Tai cofi. Despres de bastants dies al final l'hem descobert. Es un gran luxe al mati, amb unes 10000 calories. Cafe super carregat i endolcit amb llet condensada i sucre. Gel per diluir i bossa per emportar que sino es dificil.

Paraigües tipics per sobre de les parades i a l'alçada del cap/ulls

Bonic i picant o al reves

After a couple of hours bus trip, our driver signaled us to get off the bus, that we had arrived at Nam Nao National Park. We had been climbing through the mountains slowly on the bus and so during our hiking we actually didn't have to climb much. As we walked 2 kilometers to the visitors center, we felt the cool air creep in our clothes. This is Thailand right? We thought over our plans to camp in the park because we were very unprepared and decided to just do a day hike instead. As we were the only "farang"(or foreigner) there, we got a giggly greeting from a school group as we approached.

Entrada al parc, despres de que ens deixessin tirats al mig de la carretera

The forest was beautiful and not very quiet! There were lots of loud! birds but oh where is Robert and Sally when you need them! We had a hard time locating them up in the tall trees and only got a lucky view of a silver pheasant fairly up close. We walked through bamboo forest along the mountain stream and then evergreen/deciduous forest as we climbed and also savannah in the flat areas. There were impressive termite mounds and a nice view of the surrounding mountains at the top.

The best part is when we walked back out of the park to catch the bus to go on to the following town. We realized we had just missed a bus from the people at the information booth at the entrance, and so we sat on the side of the road reading, patiently waiting for the next bus to come in about an hour. After about 5 min., a SUV stopped right in front of us with a nice looking older man inside. We told him the name of the next town and he motioned us to get in...so of course we hopped on the opportunity. He spoke absolutely no English and of course our Thai vocabulary only consists of, "Hello.......,hmmmmm, and Thank you" so as you can imagine the ride was quiet. But he was a crazy driver!!!! At one point he passed 7 cars (en linia doble continua!!). We communicated through his son, I think, whom he kept calling on his cell phone to figure out where we were going and staying etc. We realized we were going to the same town about 2 1/2 hours away by his driving, probably double that in the bus! He took us all the way there and right to the door of our hotel! He was the figure of Thai hospitality and even stopped and bought us a big bag of tamarind fruit to munch on in the car! He seemed to get a kick out of picking up two farang on the side of the road.

The London Hotel in Phitsanulok was our destination, our cheapest hotel yet! (no pictures possible) Only 150 Baht, or about 4 dollars. We had a simple room with shared bathroom but right in the center of town near the river, it was a very old authentic wooden hotel. We set out to the night market and had an excellent dinner of Tofu with chili sauce, tom yum soup, and stir-fried rice.

On Saturday we rented a motorbike and visited Sukhothai Historical Park which is a World Heritage site and was the original captital of the first Thai kingdom. There were many ruins to stop and admire and the ride there and back was beautiful with views of rice paddy fields.

Tonight we will be taking an overnight bus ride to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. On to some new adventures.