Hello,

Just for a change of pace we took a month off touring Australia and headed for Thailand with our niece who was eloping with her partner Jules. We participated in their marriage ceremony, monks, elephants and all. We spent a week in Bangkok, 2 weeks in the islands and a week north at Kanchanaburi. The Thai people were very friendly and the scenery and culture is so different to Aus.

On a river ferry we passed many

housing units such as this one built right on the waters edge.

In Bangkok we travelled on the Skyrail

which has been built above the noise and congestion of the roads below. There are two rails and they connect at Siam Centre station allowing passengers to switch from one to the other via a mad dash across the platform.

If you wander onto the back roads you will find quite an extensive network of canals with longboats carrying around 50 passengers. A very fast, sometimes wet trip as you travel across Bangkok for around (Aus)20c a trip. The only problem was the smell of sewerage from the grey/black water. We looked at shopping malls, did a tour of Jim Thomson's silk house, bought Sandy's dress and Brendan and I our Jon De Burghs for the wedding.

In Khao San road the vendors chase the dollars from the backpacking community. The prices are quite cheap with a large variety of good for sale. The Tuk-Tuk drivers constantly try to get your business but a shake of the head usually sees them move on.

We were going to go to the Floating Markets but we all felt a bit off from the previous days outings, so we forfeited the trip.

We caught the cheaper 6am flight to Koh Samui, dropped our bags at the King's Garden Resort then went walking around Chaweng Beach and the local streets.

This is a view of a timeshare resort we visited. After the seminar and tour we decided not to take up the offer. They wanted to sign you up there and then and not let you think first. Earlier a guy on a scooter started talking to Melinda, Sandy and myself and offered us 3 scratchies which could win us big prizes and all we had to do was go to a 90 min seminar. Melinda and myself got a scratchie from the rear of his bumbag and Sandy got one from the front. Sandy got three stars, which entitled her to one of the grand prizes, video, camera, trip, cruise, gold etc. We won a tshirt each. After our tour and seminar Sandy was allowed to scratch the box on the front which indicates which prize she has one. She won a 7 day luxury holiday in the resort all expenses paid providing she took it between 3 and 18 months time, attended another compulsory seminar (failure to do so and they will charge you full price for the accommodation and meals) and other clauses which made it a very unattractive prize. Just for fun we decided to check out a theory the next time someone approached us. Sure enough the next day a german on a scooter stopped us with one for Sandy out of the front and two for us from the rear. Sandy got 3 stars again and then acting a bit dumb proceeded to scratch the front panel and sure enough she won the same prize again. He said it was OK and they would still accept the card as it was a mistake. We got a tshirt each again. I proceeded to tell him that we were already on a dream holiday and didn't need another one. Boy did he get upset, jumped on his bike and proceeded to abuse Sandy as he drove off as he didn't get what he wanted. 5 minutes later he drove past us again still abusing us. Such a con, it was nice to upset them so much, as anyone who signed could be losing a lot of money. The amount they were charging A$20,000, means that every villa built in the resort allows them to sell timeshares to the value of A$500,000 even though the actual cost to build would have been closer to A$10,000. The profile probably says the wife has more power over the husband so she would be the one to win the "big prize" every time. I have since heard that these cons are happening everywhere so beware. If you have 4 hours of time to waste and want a look go for it and get what you can, we got 2 x tshirts, 3 x lunches, a 20 min scenic tour, a resort tour and a taxi back to our resort after.

Just off Chaweng Beach on Koh Samui where we stayed was a small island which we waded out to and found this Buddah on top of the island looking out to the ocean. The many headed snake is protecting the sleeping Buddah. It was a surprise for us to find this amongst the vegetation with no other buildings in view anywhere.

THE WEDDING

The big day arrived. I started the day setting off hundreds of firecrackers outside the resort to scare away the evil spirits. It woke all the neighbours too, fun! Then the elephant arrived and the early risers were surprised to see the bride and groom riding the elephant up and down the beach.

Brendan, Sandy, Spud (best man), Elephant, Handler (on top), Melinda, Jules, Peter and Ned

The ceremony started with the monks arriving, the ceremony itself then the monks were fed by the now married bride and groom. This was followed by everyone who attended, blessing the couple with holy water. That evening Sandy and I as the eldest of the group helped in the blessing of the bridal bed.

We let off some more fireworks including some skyrockets that night then retired to bed.

Travelling around the islands you can use these utes which carry up to 10 people in the back, sort of like a mini bus. They do charge high prices for the journey but cheaper than the taxis. You negotiate the fare before you climb in. We hired a 4wd with Brendan and Ned following behind on scooters. Unfortunately Spud had heatstroke from the day before and spent the next three days in bed. We drove around the complete island checking out the sights.

Many stalls along the roads open up in the afternoon and stay open till late. This appears to be the norm in Thailand. This one had many timber carvings, I was unsure whether our customs would allow them back into Aus but have since been told that when they check them, if they don't find any borer holes your fine.

Look at the couple of "boys" I found on a late night walk!

The magnificent views from a restaurant where we had lunch on the island. To the right was the island with the snake buddah, to the left was Chaweng Beach where we stayed. In the distance is the next island Koh Pha Ngan.

A fishing village Bo Phut's main street. Accommodation, restaurants, ferries and shops. Here we found a near new house that could be rented out for A$300 a month plus electricity.

Ko Samui's big attraction the Big Buddha.

These are fish and we also saw squid being dried in the sun. Take a closer look and you will see the flies and ants having a taste too.

Go to next month to see the rest of our Thailand adventure.

Gone Asian

Peter and Sandy