This trip to #Saraburi / #Lopburi is the scariest, dangerous and almost disappointing trip I've ever made in Thailand.
Some of you might have received a postcard from me mentioning what happened, the rest would need to either read it from my blog or wait for my tweets.
I will try to make this as simple, as short and as sweet as possible (hemmm.. perhaps I shall make it in point form [kan tengah mode malas]).
Once upon a time....(yeah right...)
We were approached by a tuk-tuk driver as we arrived at Ayutthaya train station (will blog later on how to get to Ayutthaya) offering tour packages by hour/day/destination/bla bla bla... we insisted that we ONLY need a ride to our guesthouse and that we will 'take care' of our sightseeing trip ourselves (of which we have almost no plan whatsoever, well... maybe a tiny bit of planning was done).
As we arrived at the guesthouse, he parked his tuk-tuk outside (rasa cam blackmail lak) and offered us (again) the packages hence we decided to ask whether he can take us to #Saraburi or #Lopburi (since he is so persistent). He said ok and the ride will take us approximately 1.5hrs and B1000. OK! Looks good and reasonable too, pickup time at 8am next day, hemm.... perfect.
Everything went perfectly well, seriously! Perfect scenery, great friends and a little bit of a bumpy ride but nothing chatty us can't take (I mean, after all, we are a rough and tough ex-girl guide right [konon]?).
The ride went on and on and on and on..... and on. At a point we almost ran out of topic to talk (betul tau!). 1.5 hrs later.... Erk! Still no sunflower. I beginning to get worried.... like, REALLY WORRIED (note the capslock). Just then, we start seeing fields of sunflowers... panic mode gone but this was not the one I went few years back! They had elephant ride too, really.... ELEPHANT. Don't believe me? Check out my old entry HERE.
As we hunt for the 'right' sunflower field, we saw a police roadblock and our tuk-tuk driver pulled to the side few hundred meters before it. We wondered why, all kind of assumption came to mind.... (risau, risau, risau). After about 5-8 mins, he then did a u-turn... and as we guessed, the police car chased us. Drama dak my trip?!??!
The police ask us to pull over, checked out passport (nasib baik bawak!) and talked to our young driver... (lama jugak, warning kot). Apparently, a tuk-uk cannot cross-over a few district (I think we crossed 2-3 districts kot - ignorant us!)..... ahhhhh.... those who is planning to do this, please DO NOT TRY and immediately abandon this idea okay! Over adventurous lak...
As we reached Saraburi (I skipped the dam story as it was not that interesting), the locals said due to weather and what not; the sunflowers have been harvested last week. so NADA, ELEKPOCHIK, HABIS, NO sunflowers. Disappointing right? RIGHT? Marah tak?!??!
As we were too tired after the 2 hours of long and bumpy ride, we decided to give up. Sumpah, tak tipu!
We told the driver to let's turn back, and if... IF we see any sunflower field by the roadside, he should just stop and we shall settle for it, no matter how small. Guess what we found....
View more pic in : https://www.facebook.com/lilyrianitravelholic
Some of you might have received a postcard from me mentioning what happened, the rest would need to either read it from my blog or wait for my tweets.
I will try to make this as simple, as short and as sweet as possible (hemmm.. perhaps I shall make it in point form [kan tengah mode malas]).
Once upon a time....(yeah right...)
We were approached by a tuk-tuk driver as we arrived at Ayutthaya train station (will blog later on how to get to Ayutthaya) offering tour packages by hour/day/destination/bla bla bla... we insisted that we ONLY need a ride to our guesthouse and that we will 'take care' of our sightseeing trip ourselves (of which we have almost no plan whatsoever, well... maybe a tiny bit of planning was done).
As we arrived at the guesthouse, he parked his tuk-tuk outside (rasa cam blackmail lak) and offered us (again) the packages hence we decided to ask whether he can take us to #Saraburi or #Lopburi (since he is so persistent). He said ok and the ride will take us approximately 1.5hrs and B1000. OK! Looks good and reasonable too, pickup time at 8am next day, hemm.... perfect.
Everything went perfectly well, seriously! Perfect scenery, great friends and a little bit of a bumpy ride but nothing chatty us can't take (I mean, after all, we are a rough and tough ex-girl guide right [konon]?).
The ride went on and on and on and on..... and on. At a point we almost ran out of topic to talk (betul tau!). 1.5 hrs later.... Erk! Still no sunflower. I beginning to get worried.... like, REALLY WORRIED (note the capslock). Just then, we start seeing fields of sunflowers... panic mode gone but this was not the one I went few years back! They had elephant ride too, really.... ELEPHANT. Don't believe me? Check out my old entry HERE.
As we hunt for the 'right' sunflower field, we saw a police roadblock and our tuk-tuk driver pulled to the side few hundred meters before it. We wondered why, all kind of assumption came to mind.... (risau, risau, risau). After about 5-8 mins, he then did a u-turn... and as we guessed, the police car chased us. Drama dak my trip?!??!
The police ask us to pull over, checked out passport (nasib baik bawak!) and talked to our young driver... (lama jugak, warning kot). Apparently, a tuk-uk cannot cross-over a few district (I think we crossed 2-3 districts kot - ignorant us!)..... ahhhhh.... those who is planning to do this, please DO NOT TRY and immediately abandon this idea okay! Over adventurous lak...
As we reached Saraburi (I skipped the dam story as it was not that interesting), the locals said due to weather and what not; the sunflowers have been harvested last week. so NADA, ELEKPOCHIK, HABIS, NO sunflowers. Disappointing right? RIGHT? Marah tak?!??!
As we were too tired after the 2 hours of long and bumpy ride, we decided to give up. Sumpah, tak tipu!
We told the driver to let's turn back, and if... IF we see any sunflower field by the roadside, he should just stop and we shall settle for it, no matter how small. Guess what we found....
View more pic in : https://www.facebook.com/lilyrianitravelholic
Happy!
jeles..jeles..jeles!...gambar2 semua cantik...
ReplyDeletelove the giant sunflower with small u under it :)
ReplyDeleteHAHAHA adventure sangat!
ReplyDeleteGambi sunflower with small u tu elok. nampak u kecik sket.
*gamba - typo
ReplyDeleteWell at least you got some terrific photos of the sunflower field! Great vibrant colours..
ReplyDeleteDuncan In Kuantan
it is so beautiful!
ReplyDeletethanks for introducing me this wonderful spot. now i'm aching to go there!
I definitely have to go here one day!
ReplyDelete*Btw, after all the troubles that u guys went through, there's always a silver lining out there. Jumpa jugak sunflower farm. Finally!
mimi,
ReplyDeletebunga tuh yg cantek, i snap jek.
biq,
i can imagine you berphoto disini, sure loncat2 nye.
janggel,
cis! ingat kata i dah kurussss
janggel,
ReplyDeletetak pa,typo tuh i maap kan. hehehehhe
duncan,
yeah! finally, was kinda upset at first. god with us :)
jeff,
a must visit but make sure you get the season right yah.
zara,
alhamdullillah. dah depress dah at that point of time but like you said, silver lining. Good is great.
wow.. cantik tempat nie!..
ReplyDeleteCantiknya..worth kena kejar dgn polis..he he
ReplyDeletehi..i plan nk g lop buri on 27th Jan 2014..u rasa time tuh ada lg x eh sun flower? ke dh kena harvest..huhuh
ReplyDeleteAnon,
ReplyDeletedah habis dah tuai, tengok batang je lah kot.... ehehheh... try pegi Hua Hin, not bad. email me then i gve my blog link on hua hin. lilyrian@hotmail.com