Otters crossing

We went for a lovely walk from our hotel to the famous Gardens on the Bay in Singapore this morning.

There are also gardens on the other side of the bay and on our way through them we suddenly came across an amazing sight. 

About a dozen huge otters jumped out of the bay, ran across the path and started playing on the grass right in front of us! 

After a few minutes they all decided to run towards the lotus lake, jumped in and swam off. 

We carried on walking and came across this sign, so we hadn't imagined it. 

It was very pretty when we got to the gardens, and they have grown massively since we last visited a few years ago. 

By this time it was the middle of the day and as we are so near to the equator the sun was directly overhead. My hat was so big that I managed to stand underneath it and be completely surrounded by my shadow. 

Bangkok Art and Culture Centre

I saw this place online and it looked interesting, so we walked to see it today. It is an amazing building and we spent ages just walking up and down admiring it.

It had some arty photos around the circular floors, so I was inspired to have a go at some myself. 

We also went around a very surprising exhibition, called 'I am me'. 

Below is an example of his work. I can't show more pictures as the artist was always either very angry or rude!

Lumpini Park

We had a busy day today and started with a 5 kilometre run around Lumpini Park. It was really hot and humid and I was on the verge of walking, but I made it around although I looked a bit worse for wear back at the end.

After a big breakfast we walked to Jim Thompson's House, which is a lovely old house set in beautiful jungle like grounds. We were dressed quite smartly as our next appointment was afternoon tea at the Erawan Hotel. 

I booked the afternoon tea and wasn't able to find the menu online, but it was highly recommended, although apparently with Thai dishes. 

When we got there I was a bit astonished by the menu as we had no idea what it would taste like, and Darren ordered butterfly pea tea, which was a navy blue colour! 

It was a mystery meal, and one or two things were a bit challenging, but overall very nice with mango and sticky rice, and crispy rice pudding with corn or spring onions being particularly good. 

On the way back we stopped off again at Lumpini Park, this time to look for the monitor lizards. We watched a dad and his little boy throwing bread to fish in the lake when suddenly one of them appeared. The man picked up his little boy and left immediately and I think that you can see why. 

They grow to over 10 feet long and have the freedom of the park. I was trying to pose for a photo but it was too scary, although I have since looked online and apparently they just eat turtles, fish and birds. Amazing sight though. 

Last day of the temples

We caught a train this morning to Ayutthaya, which was the old capital of Thailand.

We are getting a bit templed out now, and have been here before in 2013, so we didn't do nearly as good a job of our visit as we did last time. 

We just went into one of the temple grounds and found the famous  face in the tree. 

It belongs to a bhudda statue that toppled over hundreds of year ago, and gradually the tree picked up the statue and incorporated it into it's trunk. 

It looks a bit scary just over my shoulder, but I think that it is a friendly bhudda so I should be okay. 

This building reminded me of a giant chess piece.... 

... and here is a more traditional statue with the head still attached. . 

We are staying in a lovely little bungalow that is sat next to a large pond, and the reception area is on stilts over the water. 

It's all very calm and peaceful. 

Phimai Historical Park

Today we caught a bus 60 back up in the direction that we came from yesterday.

The reason was to visit the Phimai Historical Park which is said to be the inspiration for Angkor Wat. 

It is about 200 years older than Angkor Wat, but to my untrained eye looks almost identical. It is obviously much smaller and at 100 baht, or just over £2 it is much cheaper to visit. 

It is also much quieter and I even spotted what I think is a hoopoe in the gardens. 

Afterwards we walked down to a beautiful lake that was covered in lotus and lily flowers. 

Just around the corner was the biggest banyan tree in the world, or so it says. It is over 350 years old and sprawls across a huge area. 

We finished off with a beer at a local stall and then back to our hotel.

Train from Udon Thani to Nakhon Ratchasima

This morning was a Saturday so we did our own parkrun around the lovely Iake that was near to our hotel. It wasn't too hot, and I got round quite easily, which is good as we are in training for a real parkrun next Saturday.

In the afternoon we caught a tuk tuk to the station for our journey towards Bangkok. 

The station only has five trains stopping there each day, but it has a surprising number of staff, and lots of people waiting around. 

As expected, our train was late, but it eventually arrived and we all piled on board. 

The guard waved his green flag and blew his whistle, the driver waved his flag in response, and off we went. The engine was very noisy, the train shook and rattled loudly, but then this was called the slow train. 

It was a single track line, so we sometimes had to wait for trains to pass in the opposite direction before we could continue. Occasionally we changed onto a side line and the points looked like the ones you used to see on a child's train set. The stations were all beautifully maintained and looked as if they came from the 1950's.

It was slow going, but lots of people walked up and the aisles selling drinks, roast chicken on sticks, cooked quails eggs and lots of things that I couldn't identify. 

Seven hours Iater, and after 37 stops we eventually arrived at our destination. It was quite a relief to be on quiet and solid ground.