Chatuchak Market

Yesterday I went out to Chatuchak Market again to look for silk. It's the largest market in Thailand. It's big. I got lost several times. There's a clock tower in the middle which I could see from the BTS, but I never actually got near it.

One of the roads through it.

The other direction.

The map...

There's LOTS of clothes here. Lots of them advertise being able to make copies of American brands. There are hundreds of tshirt stalls so if you need one this is the place to go. A lot of them have signs up saying no photos and no copy, but I'm sure half of it is copied from elsewhere. There was even one tshirt stall dedicated to rage faces.

Through it there are various coffee and other drink stalls, and some places selling food, massage stalls, a large group of pet stalls. Most of the stalls are grouped together by type (as shown by the different colours on the map) but there are different stalls all over the place too. Lots of things being sold here, although slightly more expensive than in other shops, but you're meant to bargain a little bit.

Lots and lots of rows like this.

100% fakesilk.

I was there to pick up some silk. I wanted real silk but I thought the likelihood of finding that was quite low. I found the above 100% Thai silk stall and they wanted 150baht (about $5AU ) per large piece. I picked out four bits and got them down to 500baht for the lot, not really trying. I'm sure I could have got it for less but I kept getting lost while looking around and I was only interesting in finding the store again so I could get it and then get out.

It is fake silk though, I tried the burn test to verify. But I didn't really expect to find real silk at that price. The real silk goes for around $30/meter from what I understand. I should have got it in the north when I was there. I avoided buying it in the north east because I read that it's produced over in the north west near Chiang Mai, but once I got there I didn't see any. There was also a silk farm in Cambodia which you could tour, but I didn't see any at the markets there either (didn't want to pay at the farm!).

I have since got some real silk from the Jim Thompson store, it's expensive there but most likely real. I will check however...

DOOPI!

A cafe hidden away inside the market.

My market haul! A lot of this stuff is sold all over Thailand/Laos/Cambodia.

My lunch. Some kind of chicken chilli fishball noodle soup. No idea what it's called, but I've only seen it in Bangkok (doesn't mean it isn't elsewhere)

So after the markets I headed up the road to get a photo of this!

The elephant building! Not the best from this angle, but I wasn't walking any further yesterday.

After market day I headed back to the hotel to remove my mashed up toe from my stupid shoes. I solved that problem today when I visited The North Face store and spent up big on better shoes and a jumper for Nepal.

All that's left to do is to wait for the sprockets to be delivered tomorrow, buy a chain and brake pads, pack, and then wait until it's time to fly to "Phase 3: South Asia. Part I: Nepal. Esquire.". Yes, that's the title I'm going with.

Elephants!

Yesterday I was going to do a loop around in the hills. But when reviewing the map I saw that one of the elephant camps was on the way and they had a show on at 1:30 which I could get to. So I went!

The one I went to was the Mae Sa Elephant Camp.

I wonder how often that gets confused...

As you go across the bridge to this place there is an area where you can feed the elephants that will be in the elephant show later.

Here's an elephant! 

I was taking photos near them when I saw one of the bigger elephants grab the chain on a smaller elephants foot and then try to drag it away, they made loud grunting and trumpeting noises for a little bit.

This is a list of all the elephants they have there.

Elephant and his trainer/owner/whatever. Each elephant has one.

Big elephant used on the elephant rides, with a small snack.

Male elephant... This one had his tusks cut, and so did the one above actually.

This elephant got grumpy when someone was near, it was quite loud...

Miniture elephant!

Most of the elephants were in the feeding area waiting for the show, but they all came from the direction that the little one did. So the trainer would get the elephant to sneak up behind people who weren't paying attention and tap them on the shoulder with their trunk. There was much surprised screams. The elephants would shake their heads and hold their mouth open when they did something like this, looked like the elephant was laughing, but I guess they were trained to do that.

All eager to get the banana.

The one with the mouth open just tapped the kid on the head. The kid started crying and the elephant looked amused. I think they're mean...

Little elephant chewing on the log. 

Half the elephants!

Bath time!

ELEPHANT MASSACRE! Also in the background you can see people standing with baskets. Their job is to collect up all the poop that's flowing down the river.

The one on the right kept kicking the left one in the head! Gently though, elephants don't move too quick. Although they did run when they had food.

Eep.

This was in the show later on, they took the trainers hats off, and then put them back. 

Playing soccer.

Painting. In the background you can see the trainer holding the ear, this might be how it works... When they were painting they became completely still and concentrated on the paint, or their ear...

Basketball!

Shows over, give us more food.

This was right near the Mae Sa falls, so after the show I headed down to have a look.

Falls level 5.

The same, but all HDR'ed and tonemapped.

It was really hot at this point, and I was broken because I had all my motorbike gear. I didn't get to any of the other falls levels because there were steep stairs.

Today... Sukhothai to see ruins!

Khao Yai National Park (And some sunflowers)

After Lopburi I headed towards the sunflower fields I was told about. The guesthouse owner gave me detailed directions on where to go so I followed them. Mostly. Problem was there were more fields marked on the map closer to Lopburi, and I ignored the fact that he said "You'll go right past them!" and interpreted this as "It's about 5km off the road". I did some searching where I thought the map told me to go but just ended up on some back roads and didn't see anything. Then I joined the main road again and finally saw a sign that said the sunflower fields were 20km away.

There's only a couple along the highway, the closest to Lopburi seemed to have the tallest sunflowers, but they were still pretty short. It cost me 5 baht to get in and take photos but I think the photos worked out ok:

Sunflowers!

Close sunflower!

A bee!

Mmm polarised. 

I think the top one was filled with big seeds. I'm not sure how these flowers work.

Next I headed to a guesthouse near Khao Yai national park that also ran tours. I was a bit unsure about taking the tour because it was 1300baht for a day, but I decided to do it because then I wouldn't have to ride. But it turns out, the tour was excellent and I would never have seen all the animals we did if I went by myself. The guide was quiet, and we didn't really know what was happening until we got to each spot.

The lookout on the road in. Lots of elephant poos on the road here.

These guys are everywhere.

Some deer, at the park headquarters

After the drive in it was time to go trekking through the forests. We had on leech socks too, just in case. After we'd wandered in for about a minute, the guide stopped, heard something and then said "This way!" and then walked off the main trail. We followed along, and eventually learnt we were chasing a family of gibbons. We saw a few hornbills and giant squirrels along the way, but no gibbons just yet. Then we started heading back towards the main trail and again, he heard something and we were off to find the gibbons again.

And we found them! Too high up for my lens though, and against the bright background.

They were easier to find though because they were very noisy, the baby one was yelling "wooooooow" or something like a gibbon sounds. They were sitting around above us for a while, one almost overhead (I know this because his poo landed just beside me). After a while we set off again to track down more wildlife.

Tree.

Very hairy Pat Mustard style hairy Caterpillar.

Strangler fig!

Some... Vine.

Bug.

Worm! with part of a shoe for size comparison.

We saw many giant squirrels, many hornbills, more other birds, spiders, and those things in photos! But for the most part the guide looked like he was gettting us lost, but we did get out, eventually.

Then it was back on the road to look at waterfalls. On the way he suddenly stop and pointed out some more gibbons by the road.

Black gibbon!

Haeo Suwat Falls. They were used in the movie "The Beach"

Closeup of the rainbow mist.

Some of the water downstream from the falls.

Holding up rocks, Thai style.

 After Haeo Suwat falls we headed to Haew Narok. But on the way we saw lots of people stopped on the road, and then we saw this!

AN ELEPHANT!

There were some guys on motorbikes that started running away of course. But the elephant turned off the road soon after that photo. We waited around a bit longer to see if the elephant would come back out, and apparently there was another one people had seen a bit earlier too.

After a while we went to the falls.

Along the walkway to the falls.

Engrish.

The stairs down. Very steep. Lots of them. Painful.

The falls! These are the highest in the park.

Then we headed back out on the road to do some more elephant spotting. And then we saw this:

ANOTHER ELEPHANT!

 We followed it up the road for a little bit, it kept wandering slowly left to right, making sure we were still following. Then finally it went to eat some leaves and we went around.

Closer photo!

After some more spotting it was actually time to go back.

Sunset.

So yes, I can recommend the full day tour from Greenleaf. The guide certainly knows where to find the animals. It was only 1300baht, which included the 400baht entry fee (there was a 30baht fee for a motorcycle too). The rooms they have are very basic though. Cold water only, but with a flushing toilet, and there's a fan in the room but it's not that hot there. The food in their restaurant was good and cheap too!

And now I'm in Nang Rong, tomorrow I'll be touring some of the ruins nearby and then I'll plan my way out of here to Laos.