Culture of a different kind

It's been a while since I posted, mainly due to laziness and being bogged down (literally) by what I presume was food poisoning. The symptoms began on night one of the two day slow boat journey from Luang Prabang, Laos to Chiang Kong, Thailand. The idea is that you spend 8 hours each day on the slow boat with recycled car seats and one night in a small village half way. I ended up there for two nights and visiting the medecins sans frontiers clinic to check I wasn't dying. Fortunately the check up and medications were free, though I did make a donation. The village is very remote and apparently the hospital there is of very poor quality.

Dosed up on anti-everything medication, I was able to continue the journey to Thailand and spent a couple of days each in Chiang Kong and Chiang Mai...doing not very much at all.

A week into the sickness, when I gave into getting antibiotics, a very kind missionary family from my hometown church took me in for a few days in Chiang Mai to recover. Chiang Mai is a beautiful city, with the old town being walled and surrounded by a moat. There is also a lovely mountain called Doi Suthep where the Royal Family has their summer palace and wonderful views of the national park can be seen.

If you're wondering what caused the food poisoning aside from my own stupidity, well, that would be the cold vegetarian buffet at the night market which had probably been prepared about 4 hours prior. Interestingly there was a perfectly good cafe beside which served a vegan burger but I opted for culture...and ended with cultures of quite a different kind!

Recovered, I headed to Bangkok on a comfortable overnight bus and spent 2 days there. Bangkok is an interesting city, some call the old town the Venice of the East. The river boats which act like buses were very handy to reach the old temples (called Wats) and famous roads. The BTS and MRT 'skytrain' system is a great and cheap way to get around the newer parts, much like the London Underground...but above ground.

And now for some rest and relaxation on a Thai island and a Malaysian island.