- ลุ ง ก ะ ป้ า ไ ด อ า รี่ -

Ok, I have no idea of what that titles means, just showed up when I wanted to say something... and as I am surrounded by it right now, and still can't get photos, I thought I'd give you a bit of thailand that way ! (Pour les francais, desole mais je suis un peu fatigue :).. la traduction demain !).

Ok, it'll be a short one today.. bit tired and not many exciting stories to tell in the last couple of days. Well actually, we did have another mad night in Ayuthaya, again going out with the bar owner next door to our guesthouse. This time, she took us to her brother's birthday party, which he had at his own bar. In fact we were on the tables outside the bar, which had closed by then (by law)... anyway, chit-chatting with the lady owner we started getting suspicious that these guys weren't the goodie two shoes of the area... Ue (the owner) starts explaining that she has some commection to the local mafia...10 minutes later, a car with smoke screen windows pulls up and some girl comes out of it to offer a present to the brother, everyone bowing to him...

At that point, we got all the confirmation we needed that we were having a party with the local mob !! On top of that, the local police turned upa bit later and we (ben and I) had to hide in the toilets..... After that it's getting hazy, I remember ben playing the thai version of poker with some of them (and getting slightly fleeced !)... remember biting on a chili which nearly made me puke...

Had a great time, in bed sometime after 4, feeling very rough !

The next day, I left for Lopburi, made my goodbye to Ben and took the train. Arrived at Lopburi a couple of hours later and decided to leave it as soon as I could !!! Tiny town, no westerners there, so very isolating for poor little me and a bit of a dump frankly.

Next morning, decided to do the temples in the shortest time possible and say hello to the monkeys of course ! It took me the whole of 45 minutes (I did say it was small)... the monkeys were cool but a bit scary (there are guards around the temples with stick for them to piss off). Managed to pack in 10 minutes and catch a train to Phitsanulok

Phitsa-something is a bit like Lopburi but in bigger... did the sites (well the one site ! which you can see pics here http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=phitsanulok&sa=N&tab=wi) in 40 minutes and went back to the gueshouse (bit of a dump actually.. thank you NOT lonely planet !).. Bumped into Kirsten who had just arrived and went with her to the local night market... 3 beers and lots of thai food later, still there talking... On the river, looking at the sunset... very nice !

Left the place this lunchtime for Sukhothai (http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&q=sukhothai) with Kirsten, checked in a guesthouse which is almost full (first one since I have arrived, this is the dead season though) so hopefully some nmice socialising on the way for the next couple of days before I go to Chiang Mai... 2 biggest city in Thailand, capital of culture and apparently great fun... !

Hope all is good.