I have plenty to say about yesterday, (like Bob's two near death expereinces- a slight exageration), but while it is still fresh in my mind I will report some of today.

Bob went for his first run this morning, 40 minutes or so up to the other end of the island and came across only one other jogger, a gentleman of Rad's age,dress and demenour. I showered and went down for (ugh) nescafe and a slice of sweet white bread toast (with a smear of precious brought from home vegemite), and did a little blogging.

We then headed off to the nearby Historical study Centre, a grand modern structure in the modern Thai style, with an interesting and concise display of the history of the region and Ayutthaya as the imperial capital of old Siam.

(Note: If this seems a little clodden and mistyped, then I am negotiating around both a Thai keyboard and thai script for each of the pages. Flashduck looks particularly cute).

Back to the hotel for a refreshing cold shower, and to pack up, before lunch nearby of shared mixed stir fry vegies, pad thai in an omlette for Bob, and a vermicelli glass noodle salad with cuttlefish and seafood for me. With water and tip, it came to around 135 baht.

We did had an agonising walk around the market area once more with a fantastic array of smells and offerings. We tried a couple of apples (5 baht each) which were floury and not great, so we tossed them, followed by a 'pineapple on a stick' - small whole pineapples with the stalk still attached to use as a handle, deftly peeled and presented to eat. Great takeaway dessert, for 10 baht between us.

We moved to the tourist district to rent a couple of bikes, (30 baht each) and we a went exploring. Crossing the river so that we were now north of the island, we rode up on the good local road to the Elephant Kraal, which wasn't touristy, and got accosted by elephants big and small! We then continued along through a procession of villages, passing more ethnicly diverse people, with a high concentration of muslims near the mosques. An amazing monument then rose up to meet us, and we paid homage to the great king (insert later when I have access to his name), you beat the invading Burmese in hand to hand combat (yay!) and lived hapily ever after in the depiction of his battles with crocodiles, sharks etc around the base of the massive statue.

The wierd thing though was the chooks. Squillions of giant statues of chooks. Big ones. Silver mirrored ones. Gold mirrored ones. Black ones. You get the picture. Lots, and lots of chooks.

Behind this monument was a ceromonial Prang or Chedi, the base of which had been built by the invading Burmese however the conquering Siamese king then built his Thai style oblisk on top. A functioning Wat or Budhist temple was behind this with some pretty cool, and heavily tatooed monks. The most beautiful looking chooks ruled the roost here though, with an ambundance of cared for cats provided climbing frames for the day old chicks. very zen.

We cycled back on a teritary road which passed a number of old temples on a wide concrete path used by motor scooters and the occaisional vehicle, but excellent for cycling. accross the river and we were once again in the midst of the hustle and bustle, returning our bikes and having a meal at the markets. Bob had discovered the local Chang Beer, which is fairly strong at around 6% and comes in large bottles (and very small cans).

we retruned to the hotel to collect our bags, however the owner, whose son has just started year 11 at trinity college in Melbourne and her english speaking staff member Nook, went out to buy us some sticky rice treats, cooked (as it was te evening) with a palm sugar caramel and coconut milk. It was very good.