The seventies Hippy Trail 7

Well I had better tell you what I have been doing. After Singapore, we went into Malaysia and caught buses to Kuala Lumpur , which is a big city and has a really large population of Chinese and many Indians. From Kuala Lumpur I caught a train up to Butterworth and caught the ferry across to Penang Island which is off the west coast of Malaya. There we went swimming and looking at the town and the incredible Chinese Temples.

Thailand

We then travelled to Thailand by train. The Thais are really incredible people and so friendly. The train ride through Southern Thailand was incredible. There are acres and acres of flat rolling pastures and there are volcanic plugs sticking straight out of the ground like a finger. The temples are incredibly beautiful with intricate carvings and paintings in beautiful colours. Most of the villages have typical wooden huts and houses.

When we got to Bangkok it was a real surprise. It is a really modern city and they have all the modern conveniences - traffic jams, smog, stone-faced people - all the trappings of Western Civilisation. But on the whole it is not too bad and the people are a lot more friendlier than Malaysia and Singapore. They have delicious fruit drinks there in Bangkok.

Oh yeah, we even went to see the Bridge Over the River Kwai and they have rebuilt it and it is a big tourist attraction. boo! They have got shops and souvenir places all with extortionate prices - the usual tourist trip. They are the same everywhere. Our hotel in Bangkok even had a swimming pool, air conditioning and a hot bath! Wow, and all this for only $1.20 - very cheap. There are a lot of bandits in Thailand and in the south there is a band of insurgents who go around kidnapping and creating havoc. The police do not seem to be able to do anything about it.

My next address will be :
Poste Restante, Istanbul , Turkey

Thailand Resources

Next Stage on the overland trail to Europe

Visitors to Thailand encounter an exotic, varied land. The new hotels, department stores, office blocks, and neon-lit night life of modern Bangkok barely hide the city of the klongs or canals and the meandering Chao Phraya River, a waterway lined with stilt houses and overshadowed by extravagant wats or monasteries. All through Thailand, thousands of towering, gold-leaved wats provide visible evidence of Buddhism;s ever-present influence. Saffron-robed monks are a constant reminder of the faith of the Thai people.
Romanticized by the movie of Anna nd the king of Siam and of the infamous Bridge over the river kwai, Thailand offers some intriguing travel sights. To the north is chiang mai, home of the hill tribes and ageless elephants working teak forests. To the west is Nakhon Pathom the birthplace of Buddhism in Thailand. To the east is Pimai, marked by ruins older than those of Angkor in Cambodia. South is a few hours drive from Bangkok where you will find summer resorts and miles of palm-fringed beaches along the Gulf of Thailand.
Further south along the Thailand and Malaysian border are fishing villages, lots of sheltered swimming bays, miles of sandy beaches, and uninhabited tropical offshore islands.
This is the country of Thai silk, respendently gowned Thai dancers, colorfully-garbed Buddhist monks, lush green flatlands covered with rice fields, lumbering water buffaloes, clear mountain streams, tumbling waterfalls, and best of all, the smiling and friendly Thai people.

.