Tokyo and Thailand

We had a whirlwind of a vacation the 3rd week of July and got to see some really neat things.  We spent a day in Tokyo and then spent a day in Thailand.  Our original plan was to take a 4 day train trip from Thailand down to Singapore, but the standby loads on the flights out of Singapore weren't looking too great by the time we got to Thailand.  We still had a great time though and loved every minute of it.

We arrived in the Haneda airport in Tokyo at 11pm and slept in the airport.  We got up and bought our rail passes and headed out for the day.  We went and saw some parks, ate at a rotating sushi restaurant, took a nap in the park, and just enjoyed the day.  We took trains to the Narita airport in Tokyo and flew to Thailand that evening.

Lotus Pond

Rotating sushi restaurant

We arrived in Thailand at 11pm and slept in the airport again.  We took the first train out of the airport at 6am and went straight to the Hualamphong Train Station.  We bought tickets to Lop Buri and took the 3 hour train ride there (round trip ticket $4!).  We heard there were monkeys in this town and holding a  monkey was on my life to-do list.  Since the plan was so last minute, we had no idea where to go when we arrived, but luckily there were some bicycle carts to take us to the ruins for $1.  It turns out the ruins were right down the street, but that's okay, it was worth the experience and got us exactly where we wanted to go.  Apparently they believe monkeys are the children of one of their Gods, so they hold them in the highest respect here.  They feed them and let them run all over the city.  There were monkeys in all the shops, on all the cars, on all the buildings, and all over these temple ruins.  They were everywhere!  We left our bags in a little shack on the temple grounds (the monkeys can be little thieves at times), and headed out to look at them.  They are so cute and playful.  We didn't know we were allowed to hold them at first.  Brett kneeled down for a picture, and the monkeys came a running for him!  He instantly had 3 on his back, and the worker came running and said "it's okay, it's okay!".  We then took turns holding them and playing with them, all the while trying to get good pictures without letting the monkeys steal our cameras.  I was in heaven!  We looked a mess by the time we were finished playing with them though.  They took the bobby pins out of my hair, pulled my braid partly out, tore a hole in my shirt trying to get my bra strap out, etc.... Inquisitive little beings for sure.  But totally worth it!  I soaked in every minute.

 

Our ride to the ruins.

 They let us go inside the temple, and the monkeys aren't allowed inside... This is them peering in at us.

 

We took the train back to Bangkok and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around looking at temples, eating $1 noodle bowls, spring rolls, crepes, buns, etc.... We also stopped and got an hour long massage for $6.  Everything is seriously cheap in Thailand.  After the massage, we stopped and got some more noodles for dinner and a plate of clams for Brett.  We headed back to the airport around 10pm, slept there again, and flew out the next morning.

 $1 Noodle Bowls.... delicious.

 Dessert crepes

  More noodles!

 Our bed at the Bangkok airport...the last night we had to sleep in an airport this trip. Thank goodness!

We were exhausted by the time we got home after spending 3 nights in airports and 1 on a plane, but our vacation wasn't over yet.  Since we weren't able to take the train all the way to Singapore we had a few days left of vacation at home.  We played 45 holes of golf one day, then went up to Brian Head and stayed in Brett's parents condo and went mountain biking another day.

Chalk this down for another successful vacation.