Thailand so far: Chiang Mai - Bangkok

Chiang Mai

We arrived in Chiang Mai on the 17th of February. It’s an area known for its hill tribe trekking, its temples (almost as many as in Bangkok even though the city is half the size), and its food. We were keen to get started on a Thai cooking course and so we booked one for the following day. We visited a local market to find out about ingredients and then we got stuck into learning how to cook six dishes of our choice. Among the things we learnt to cook were spring rolls, thai green curry, prawns with curry powder, papaya salad and chicken soup with coconut milk. It was a fantastic day! We ate everything we cooked and came away with a recipe book so we can try it all again at home (don’t expect any dinner invites until we have perfected the recipe!).

The following day we hopped on our hired motorbike and drove to one of Northern Thailand’s most famous temples - Wat Suthrep. It is perched 1676m up on a mountain and once again we had to face some long winding roads. Rich thought it was great fun but I was holding onto him squealing at every turn - it was scary even though Rich drove so well! We FINALLY reached the top only to see the main attraction covered in scaffolding (doh!) but because the temple has a lot of gold plated ornaments it was still quite impressive. The main monument (it’s called a chedi) also has 17kilos of real solid gold at the top.

That same evening we had booked tickets for the night train to Bangkok… it was an easy going journey which got us into the very sweaty city at 6:30am.

Bangkok

Ah… what a great place! As we stepped off the train we had some friendly information men offering their help. We found out local train times, bus routes to our hotel and the answers to a whole lot of other questions. They made it so easy for us and we loved it! We were soon on a free (yay!) local bus which stopped almost directly outside our hotel (another yay!) and we were checked in before we knew it. The hotel is like a boarding school dorm with prison type beds, a sink in the bedroom and tiny windows. It brought us a few giggles but we are staying coz it’s clean and cheap which is all we really need.

Day 1 in Bangkok was spent exploring the local backpacker area - it is a street lined with market stalls and bars but the humidity is so high that we didn’t last long outside. After an afternoon rest we jumped onto a river ferry which is a maim transport method in Bangkok (avoids the road traffic jams) and made our way to Chinatown and the evening flower market. All in all it was a productive and enjoyable day and we were looking forward to getting down to some serious shopping.

Day 2 was our shopping day. We headed out early to the weekend market - a market notorious for making you buy things you never knew were needed. We arrived at 10am and only left at about 2pm… we came away with 6 t-shirts, 2 girlie vests, 12 pairs of chopsticks, a pair of ’pearl’ earrings, a hand painted bag and 3 leather belts… it all cost £40 - bargain! We then headed to a mall to buy the bits we hadn’t been able to find. We eventually made it home after dark (around 6:30pm) absolutely exhausted. After a cold shower we treated ourselves to a leg and foot massage (£2 each - loving it!) where they pulled, pushed, stretched and yanked our legs and feet in various directions. It was sometimes sore but mostly quite good and we definitely felt more relaxed afterwards.

Today we relaxed for a bit and treated ourselves to an air-conditioned cinema where we watched Avatar on Imax. It was incredible and it was only £5 each! Tomorrow is our final day in Bangkok - we have a night train and morning ferry booked to Ko Tao - the scuba island where we will spend my birthday doing some diving before heading to Koh Phangang for the Full Moon Party.

Our trip has been amazing so far - a brilliant opportunity to meet new people and learn about different cultures. We miss aspects of England (roast potatoes and breakfast fry ups) but it has been definitely worth it! One of the best things about this trip has been the local people in every country - they are so friendly! Today we had a thai man start up a conversation with us on the bus; and even the tuk tuk drivers (renowned for trying to rip people off) offer their help with directions. We never get bored or cease to be amazed by their friendliness; it makes us smile on almost a daily basis.

Check out our Thailand photos at
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2186263&id=60506421&l=cfe81d4dae

Lots of love
S&R. xxxxx

In the Tubing: Vang Vieng!

Vang Vieng is the ultimate place to party. Ok well maybe ultimate is a strong word but still - it was brilliant. And it was good because they have everything... water to swim in, a hot sun, cheap drinks, good music, late night bars, late night pancake and sandwich stalls and great places to relax after a good night out.

The area is made up of numerous bars perfect for chilling out. The bars come equipped with cushions and mattresses and episode after episode of Friends or Family Guy. The food was pretty good; a lot of barbeques and western grub so we enjoyed the 6 nights we spent there. On day 2 we decided to hire a tube and get down to the river.

The tube hire all goes through one company so you pay your money (55,000kip + 60,000 deposit = £8.50) and jump on a tuk tuk which is already loaded up with several tubes. The tuk tuk takes about 12 people and hey presto the party begins! The first stop = bar 1... It is packed with people sun tanning, barmen giving out free shots, dance music blasting out of loud speakers and the occasional person swinging from a high rope into the river. It was awesome!! We stayed there for a few whiskey buckets and then toddled off to get into our tubes to head down the river ready to get pulled into bar 2... But our tubes had been stolen! So we walked the few metres to bar 2. We had soon forgotten about the lost tubes and were dancing with a bunch of Manchester students in the hot sun. I then went on mission: ’find the tube’ where I grabbed two tubes and kept them to one side ready to actually use them.

So you get the idea… we soon moved on to bar 3 where Rich lost his tube again and had to swim to bar 4. It was already past the cut off time for getting the tubes back but we still rushed to the tuk tuk in the hope we wouldn’t lose part of our deposit. The tube guys weren’t having any of it but after such a great afternoon partying we didn’t mind… food was the next thing on our mind! Our last meal had been breakfast before 12 so we grabbed some BBQ chicken, had another whiskey and headed home. We were in bed by about 8pm and woke up with the normal mysterious bruises that come with a great night out.

Our other tubing experience involved actually tubing rather than partying. We did the entire 4km route with only about 4 bar stops and we saw some interesting things… mud volleyball, hash brownies and opium shakes - surreal! We stopped only for a whiskey bucket and some photos along the way, we also floated into a herd of buffalo, got pushed over the shallow water by some local kids shouting “money money money” (I dutifully obliged - they were so cute!) and eventually made it to the end of the route with about 15minutes to run the length of Vang Vieng to make sure our tubes got back before 6pm. We had great success (Borat style)!

After another day chilling and a day trip to see a few caves and a pretty lagoon we booked the bus which would take us on winding roads over a mountain range and into Luang Prabang. The roads were so windy they could give you motion sickness! I was sitting in an aisle seat and spent most of the 7hour journey trying not to fall out of my chair… I was so pleased when it finally came to an end and we arrived (on 14 Feb) in Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang is a cultural world heritage site… it has pretty streets, old buildings, GORGEOUS bakeries and French restaurants and a lovely night market selling gift type things. It was a pretty place to visit and we spent one morning watching the monks receive alms - daily food from the locals. Unfortunately it has become a tourist event with tour groups giving alms and most of the locals staying away (we got up at 6am to see it! Disappointed!). Anyway, we were keen to get into Thailand and so we hopped on a cheap flight to Chiang Mai at the earliest opportunity.

Laos Don Det, Motorbiking round the south and Vientiane

Don Det... it is another world altogether. If you stay there too long you get sucked into the chilled atmosphere and you will never again have the energy to leave your hammock! It has got to be the most laid back place I have ever been. It took about 40 minutes to find the waiter at the restaurant (so when our friend asked for a candle instead of ordering his food we never let him hear the end of it! It took another 30minutes before the candle arrived and we could order our dinner).

Don Det was all about swimming, reading and chilling in a hammock. Our two energetic moments in four days involved an hours bike ride and Rich stripping to his birthday suit and leaping over the side of a bar into the river several metres below... since it was 1am we were all promptly kicked out. And because all this was done under a "if you do it I'll do it" challenge we planned a covert operation for the remaining three boys in our group to 'break' (ie: climb over the small fence) back into the bar, strip down and take the plunge. Rich was camera man and I was protector of clothes. Mission was successfully accomplished without bar openener waking up. Good fun!

After Don Det we headed to Pakse; the city of the South. We hired motorbikes at the earliest opportunity and after a morning of learning how to ride a motorbike (and with only two close calls; one involving a group of children jumping out of the way of my skidding bike!) we were planning our trip around the countryside. We headed off the next morning... first stop: Tad Lo. It was the first of many waterfalls. The area was pretty; we stayed in a lovely bamboo bungalow set in lush gardens and recovered after several hours on the bike in the hot sun.

One of many waterfalls we found

Over the next 3 days we visited another 3 small cities; we saw some beautiful scenery and we enjoyed the friendliness of the locals. Lao people are amazing; kids waved to us constantly and even adults gave us a few shouts of hellos with huge smiles. We had local ice cream (very coconutty), tried the coffee farmed on the fields we passed by whilst riding on the Bolaven Plateau and ate quite a bit of noodle soup. The hours on our bums took their toll but the freedom the bikes gave us was fantastic. I loved the challenge of driving on bumpy dirt roads and dodging HUGE potholes (it really hurt if you failed to dodge them!) We made it back to Pakse with not even a puncture and after indulging in some western food we planned our trip to Vientiane - Laos' capital.

We only spent two days in Vientiane; being the capital it really catered to tourists and the prices were double to what we were used to. But we took advantage of the great restaurants and enjoyed the food we found. We hired a motorbike again and explored the city and drove out to see the Buddha Park. It was a great day. The bike did get a puncture though but luckily there are repair shops every few metres; so 20minutes and 10,000kip (less than £1) later we were back on the road.

The Buddha Park

After two days we decided to make our way to the party town of Vang Vieng; famous for its pub crawl along the river. We get tubes and float down the river until a bar catches our fancy; then the bar staff throw you a rope to pull you in. Should be fun! Will send an update ASAP.

S&R.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cambodia II: Mondulkiri - Ratanakiri (motorbike madness!)

Mondulkiri was muddy; we had clay-style red mud everywhere! We were apparently surrounded by jungle and the only way to get to Laos was to head back down south only to go back up North. Unless of course you were crazy enough to head to Laos on motorbike through Ratanakiri on the road that isn't really a road; through dried up rivers, remote villages and 'thick' jungle. When it was put like that to us we thought 'that sounds like great fun!'.

So after a few days exploring Mondulkiri Rich and I found ourselves the best guides available (the ride is too rough to do it on your own or to do it with inexperienced bike riders) and we were off. The bikes were loaded with our bags at the front and food&hammocks at the back. End result = being far too close to the conservative Cambodian man.

After 45 minutes I was groaning from cramp and we got our first rest. We soon hit the road at full speed (when we requested helmets we were told we wouldn't need them! Little did I know we'd be doing 100km p/h on paved roads for some of the way) and got half way to Ratanakiri after a few hours. Then came lunch (it looked like chicken livers but you can never be sure), and then came the bumpy road...

HUGE bumps, tree trunks, sand (worst terrain to drive on), dry riverbeds and a whole lot of dust. It was great fun and our guides' driving was impressive! I would call the jungle more of a forest but it was still pretty. After a few tough hours on our bums we ended up at the 3-hut village where we spent the night. No toilet facilities; no shower facilities; no electricity etc. We found a river where we washed off the dust; our guides cooked over a fire (this time it was definitely chicken but the only reason we're sure is coz we saw it being butchered into tiny unrecognisable pieces). The homestay family were lovely and welcomed us into their home; we showed them photos of our travels (they seemed a bit confused upon seeing a photo of a zebra) and they forced us onto their scales so they could gawp at our weights. When it got dark we got bored and climbed/fell into our hammocks to go to sleep. All in all it was a good experience.

The next day we arrived in Ratanakiri completely covered in red dust; i have never been so filthy before. We didn't even bother showering; we headed straight for the volcanic lake nearby and spent the afternoon swimming. It was perfect.

Aftter a good night's sleep we hopped on the bus to Laos; successfully argued my way out of paying the bribes at the Cambodian border, unsuccessfully argued the bribe at the Laos border and before we knew it we were back on a minibus in the direction of Laos' river island of Don Det.

More to follow soon.

Love S&R.

xxxx