Happy New Year to everyone, once again we've been slacking on the blog front somewhat so here's what we've been up to...
30th - Brilliant day, we took a local bus out to the botanical gardens, not only was it cheap but we got to see a bit more of the city. Outside the old colonial UNESCO heritage bit, it's much like some of the other cities we've seen in Asia. We were walking across the carpark as I said to Sara, "You know, i'll be gutted if we don't see a monkey today...oh my God, look up there, there are loads of them!" They were up in the trees, climbing the fences, and generally mucking about near the entrance of the park. We soon rrealised why, ou could buy nuts for them at the entrance. We watched them lark about for a while, and then jumped on a little tram thing that took you round the gardens, my foot still aching a bit and it was only 20p so laziness prevailed! We did a short tour around, seeing various caged plants (cacti, herbs, ferns), but really the gardens were just a really nice park.
The tram dropped us back at the entrance where I gave in and bought some nuts and set out on my mission to become a monkey god. They were loving me withing 2 seconds of opening the nuts! Both Sara and I started out throwing them the nuts, and some of them caught them without letting them hit the floor which astonished me. We then got down on our haunches and held the nuts out to them, and the little scamps ran up and grabbed them. Obviously this kept me entertained for about an hour - some of them were braver and would sit within easy reach, while others would rab and run, especially the mums carrying their babies underneath.
Once out of nuts, we went for a wander, through the "Japanese" garden, which had a little river which we (Sara) paddled in, and then found some huge leaves with well positioned holes that became masks for the next few minutes. We hunted round until we found one that we could get both eyes and mouth visible for a silly photo, and then wandered back, past the masses of jogger who had descended on the place. As we were walking back, Sara asked "I wonder if there are snakes here" and then exclaimed and pointed as we saw a great big black and yellow monitor lizard just chilling out under a bush. It must have been about a metre from head to tail and t was right next to me as we were walking and I jumped out of my skin. The odd thing was, no-one else we pointed it out to seemed bothered. They must be common over here...
Back in the Old Town, we had street food, trying some Malaysian specials, Wan Tan Mee, Curry Mee, then chapatis with a dhal mix and some corn on the cob. It was all delicious, and we spent £2 in total and were stuffed.
31st - Was well timed to be my first day off antibiotics! We didn't do much all day until I went out to get some cash, and the ATM swallowed the money but debited our account! We spent the next two hours trying to sort that out, only to find out that the money would be credited to us at a future date, it was a real pain, and also meant that we'd used our card the maximum for the 24 hours and got no money. We used a different card, which also didn't work, and finally got some cash about 7pm having tried 3 cards and ATMS. Panic over, we grabbed some food and then went back to wait until later for the fireworks and world record attempt for the most people at a dance class at one time. We missed the record attempt due to my shoddy timekeeping, but we did make it down to the promenade to see the fireworks and some of the lve music that was on. We were sat on the sea front, and suddenly fireworks started further down the coast, right behind a tree. I panicked and thought we'd chosen a blind spot to watch the fireworks from, but then the countdown started and the fireworks began. Shortly, they were all over, and we grabbed an ice cream for the walk back as it was still roasting hot even approaching 1am.
Showing posts with label Thailand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thailand. Show all posts
Thursday, 7 January 2010
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
"Nothing to do"
Sorry it's been a while. I'll carry on, like in the last post...
19th - Spent the day with Jinny's family who were lovely. We went to a school sports day, which was rather a sports day held at a school for all the local people. Different areas played each other a football, tug of war, sack races etc. It was great, and so many people were involved and having fun. We were also the only westerners there which meant we turned a few heads, it really wasn't a touristy area at all! We then met Jinny's friend Petoya again - she was a lovely lady, and had taken us for dinner at her restaurant the night before where we ate an amazing meal. She wanted to see us again, and to feed us, so we went to her restaurant for food. It was much busier than the night before, and we decided we could help wait on tables! It was good for a laugh, and we surprised quite a lot of the diners and got lots of photos taken with people!
20th - We spent the morning riding bikes with Jinny's nephew around the village. He was about 5 ish and happy to show us round, us chatting away in English and him chatting away in Thai. We left at about 11.30 to go back to Bangkok, where we arrived about 3 ish. We went straight to the meeting place for the bus later and dropped our stuff off, and then wandered round the corner for a look at a monster 7 story shopping mall. We were back at the meet for 7pm, where we were ferried by minivan across Bangkok back to the backpacker central - Khao San Road. There, we were sat on the grass right by 3 busy roads, with rats scurrying about in the bushes, waiting for our "VIP" bus. We didn't leave till 10pm - the bus had broken down round the corner, and some people had been waiting since 6pm. Luckily, the bus arrived before a scene developed! The bus ride wasn't great - the seats reclined right back but they showed a film and had the volume ridiculously loud for the 3 people that were awake and watching it.
21st - We stopped at 1 am for the driver to eat, and then again at 3.30 to let people off who were going to Koh Tao. We arrived about 6.30, only then to wait till 8 before getting a tuk tuk to another bus to drive 55 minutes to the pier. It was absurd, and to cap it all, our bags were put in a compartment right next to some moving parts of the engine, and got covered in black sooty rubbish.
We were on the ferry at 11, which took us to Koh Samui first, and then us on to Koh Phangan. We were in our resort by 2.30, pretty much an 18 hour mission, and fell asleep immediately on the beach. We headed into Thongsala the nearest town at about 9.30 to get something to eat, and found everything to be shut, or a bar playing hard loud trance with 1/2 men and a host of ladyboys. We ate at the resort restaurant and went to bed wondering what this island was all about.
22nd - We rented a scooter to explore, and saw a meditation retreat and some of the jungle before I managed to slice my foot open by standing on some glass. A swift trip to hospital, 3 anesthetic injections to the sole of my foot - the most painful thing I have ever experienced by miles, and 4 stitches later, I was told to rest, keep my foot up and to not get it wet. I hadn't even been in the pool, and had been in the sea once. Frustrating doesn't do my feelings at the time justice. Not only that, but I managed to rip one of the stitches through by going too hard on my still numb foot that evening, which was unpleasant to say the least.
23rd - Spent all day on the beach, apart from going to get the foot cleaned and re-dressed. Thankfully the Doctor didn't need to replace the busted stitch! I also got some crutches - Long John Silver style under the armpit ones - as I could barely put any weight on my foot at all. Even the 25 metres to the beach was a struggle, but we really were close!
24th - Another day of lazing on the beach. We slowly went to the next resort along for food - crutches and the beach are awkward, and then chilled out in preparation for the Half Moon Party, Sara having had a war with some cockroaches in our bathroom - i've never seen a horrible bug move so fast! I was pretty immobile, so Sara was whacking away with a brush and squirting it with the bum gun to try and get it down the drain. We got someone to come in and spray bug repellent around the place, which meant that any more that came in were found dead and on their backs and not scuttling and scampering about. We flushed 3 or 4 dead ones. Regarding the Half Moon party, the island is known for it and the Full Moon party, and we were there for this one so we had to go, even though I was on antibiotics and crutches so no drinking or dancing! We people watched mostly and had a bit of a laugh with two chaps we'd met at our resort who kept us company for a while, before we (I) hobbled off about 3.30am.
25th - Where else but the beach!? Our Danish chums Thea and Penille from the tour popped along on their quadbike to see us for a while, and then we went to a place up the road for a Christmas dinner with all the trimmings - the mash was out of this world! A Hungarian chap came with us to try an English Christmas dinner which was nice, and then we decided to go the next day to Koh Tao for a day, so we got some tickets and packed an overnight bag!
26th - We took the boat in the morning to Koh Tao, we arrived about 10.30 and found somewhere cheap to stay the night. It's the smallest of the 3 islands, and something of a scuba heaven - there were dive schools everywhere. The town we stayed in was tiny, on an amazing on a beach that curved round the west coast of the island for about 1.7kms. The only problem was that there was an pen drainage system running along which you had to cross to get to the beach and it stank.
On the beach however, the water was crystal clear and an amazing blue, and Sara tells me the sand was as soft as silk underfoot when you were in the water. We watched the sun go down, and then went for some food where I got a discount for being a "Sick Man"! We then went to a bar on the beach, where we watched a fire show, 5-6 thai lads doing poi and fire sticks to music which was incredible. They were throwing these fireballs up and down the beach and catching them, lighting cigarettes with them, and spinning them over our heads in the crowd. It was amazing!
27th - We were on the beach by 10.30, but decided to stay in the shade having got a bit burnt the day before. We lay under a tree on the beach and read until the afternoon when we ot the ferry back to Koh Phagnan. That evening we went for some grub with Chris and Emily who we'd met in Nha Trang and who live in Headingly and met at the Met! Hopefully we'll see them in Oz too!
28th - We'd packed up the night before to be ready for our 6am start - we left Koh Phangan on the ferry at 7, and arrived in Georgetown at 9.30pm (it's an hour ahead of Thailand) via another bus and two minivans. The difference between Malaysia and Thailand is immediate, with many more Indian people in Malaysia, and many more Muslims as soon as you get to the border and beyond. We had literally gone 10ks on from passport control when the heavens opened and we drove through a massive thunder storm, with some incredible flashes of lightning and some huge drops of rain! The journey was ok, just long, and also notable for the fact that as we waited for our first minibus, I had an argument with a chap who pushed in front of me in a queue to get some food. I said to Sara I bet he's with us all the way, but there were loads of people so the chances of that were slim. Said chap was then on the minibus with us all the way to Georgetown. Typical. Our hostel in Georgetown is really nice, and we're staying on a street called Love Lane, but we only had time to grab some food and then crash out after a long day bussing.
29th - We've been out for a wander today, getting our bearings and seeing some of the old colonial buildings. I also had my stitches out which is great, but I'm still bandaged up for the next few days. Roll on the 31st when all should be well again!
Happy New Year to everyone!
Louis & Sara
xxx
19th - Spent the day with Jinny's family who were lovely. We went to a school sports day, which was rather a sports day held at a school for all the local people. Different areas played each other a football, tug of war, sack races etc. It was great, and so many people were involved and having fun. We were also the only westerners there which meant we turned a few heads, it really wasn't a touristy area at all! We then met Jinny's friend Petoya again - she was a lovely lady, and had taken us for dinner at her restaurant the night before where we ate an amazing meal. She wanted to see us again, and to feed us, so we went to her restaurant for food. It was much busier than the night before, and we decided we could help wait on tables! It was good for a laugh, and we surprised quite a lot of the diners and got lots of photos taken with people!
20th - We spent the morning riding bikes with Jinny's nephew around the village. He was about 5 ish and happy to show us round, us chatting away in English and him chatting away in Thai. We left at about 11.30 to go back to Bangkok, where we arrived about 3 ish. We went straight to the meeting place for the bus later and dropped our stuff off, and then wandered round the corner for a look at a monster 7 story shopping mall. We were back at the meet for 7pm, where we were ferried by minivan across Bangkok back to the backpacker central - Khao San Road. There, we were sat on the grass right by 3 busy roads, with rats scurrying about in the bushes, waiting for our "VIP" bus. We didn't leave till 10pm - the bus had broken down round the corner, and some people had been waiting since 6pm. Luckily, the bus arrived before a scene developed! The bus ride wasn't great - the seats reclined right back but they showed a film and had the volume ridiculously loud for the 3 people that were awake and watching it.
21st - We stopped at 1 am for the driver to eat, and then again at 3.30 to let people off who were going to Koh Tao. We arrived about 6.30, only then to wait till 8 before getting a tuk tuk to another bus to drive 55 minutes to the pier. It was absurd, and to cap it all, our bags were put in a compartment right next to some moving parts of the engine, and got covered in black sooty rubbish.
We were on the ferry at 11, which took us to Koh Samui first, and then us on to Koh Phangan. We were in our resort by 2.30, pretty much an 18 hour mission, and fell asleep immediately on the beach. We headed into Thongsala the nearest town at about 9.30 to get something to eat, and found everything to be shut, or a bar playing hard loud trance with 1/2 men and a host of ladyboys. We ate at the resort restaurant and went to bed wondering what this island was all about.
22nd - We rented a scooter to explore, and saw a meditation retreat and some of the jungle before I managed to slice my foot open by standing on some glass. A swift trip to hospital, 3 anesthetic injections to the sole of my foot - the most painful thing I have ever experienced by miles, and 4 stitches later, I was told to rest, keep my foot up and to not get it wet. I hadn't even been in the pool, and had been in the sea once. Frustrating doesn't do my feelings at the time justice. Not only that, but I managed to rip one of the stitches through by going too hard on my still numb foot that evening, which was unpleasant to say the least.
23rd - Spent all day on the beach, apart from going to get the foot cleaned and re-dressed. Thankfully the Doctor didn't need to replace the busted stitch! I also got some crutches - Long John Silver style under the armpit ones - as I could barely put any weight on my foot at all. Even the 25 metres to the beach was a struggle, but we really were close!
24th - Another day of lazing on the beach. We slowly went to the next resort along for food - crutches and the beach are awkward, and then chilled out in preparation for the Half Moon Party, Sara having had a war with some cockroaches in our bathroom - i've never seen a horrible bug move so fast! I was pretty immobile, so Sara was whacking away with a brush and squirting it with the bum gun to try and get it down the drain. We got someone to come in and spray bug repellent around the place, which meant that any more that came in were found dead and on their backs and not scuttling and scampering about. We flushed 3 or 4 dead ones. Regarding the Half Moon party, the island is known for it and the Full Moon party, and we were there for this one so we had to go, even though I was on antibiotics and crutches so no drinking or dancing! We people watched mostly and had a bit of a laugh with two chaps we'd met at our resort who kept us company for a while, before we (I) hobbled off about 3.30am.
25th - Where else but the beach!? Our Danish chums Thea and Penille from the tour popped along on their quadbike to see us for a while, and then we went to a place up the road for a Christmas dinner with all the trimmings - the mash was out of this world! A Hungarian chap came with us to try an English Christmas dinner which was nice, and then we decided to go the next day to Koh Tao for a day, so we got some tickets and packed an overnight bag!
26th - We took the boat in the morning to Koh Tao, we arrived about 10.30 and found somewhere cheap to stay the night. It's the smallest of the 3 islands, and something of a scuba heaven - there were dive schools everywhere. The town we stayed in was tiny, on an amazing on a beach that curved round the west coast of the island for about 1.7kms. The only problem was that there was an pen drainage system running along which you had to cross to get to the beach and it stank.
On the beach however, the water was crystal clear and an amazing blue, and Sara tells me the sand was as soft as silk underfoot when you were in the water. We watched the sun go down, and then went for some food where I got a discount for being a "Sick Man"! We then went to a bar on the beach, where we watched a fire show, 5-6 thai lads doing poi and fire sticks to music which was incredible. They were throwing these fireballs up and down the beach and catching them, lighting cigarettes with them, and spinning them over our heads in the crowd. It was amazing!
27th - We were on the beach by 10.30, but decided to stay in the shade having got a bit burnt the day before. We lay under a tree on the beach and read until the afternoon when we ot the ferry back to Koh Phagnan. That evening we went for some grub with Chris and Emily who we'd met in Nha Trang and who live in Headingly and met at the Met! Hopefully we'll see them in Oz too!
28th - We'd packed up the night before to be ready for our 6am start - we left Koh Phangan on the ferry at 7, and arrived in Georgetown at 9.30pm (it's an hour ahead of Thailand) via another bus and two minivans. The difference between Malaysia and Thailand is immediate, with many more Indian people in Malaysia, and many more Muslims as soon as you get to the border and beyond. We had literally gone 10ks on from passport control when the heavens opened and we drove through a massive thunder storm, with some incredible flashes of lightning and some huge drops of rain! The journey was ok, just long, and also notable for the fact that as we waited for our first minibus, I had an argument with a chap who pushed in front of me in a queue to get some food. I said to Sara I bet he's with us all the way, but there were loads of people so the chances of that were slim. Said chap was then on the minibus with us all the way to Georgetown. Typical. Our hostel in Georgetown is really nice, and we're staying on a street called Love Lane, but we only had time to grab some food and then crash out after a long day bussing.
29th - We've been out for a wander today, getting our bearings and seeing some of the old colonial buildings. I also had my stitches out which is great, but I'm still bandaged up for the next few days. Roll on the 31st when all should be well again!
Happy New Year to everyone!
Louis & Sara
xxx
Saturday, 19 December 2009
A bit of a catch up!
Sorry everyone for the lack of a recent update, Laos was pretty cut off internet wise and we haven't stopped since we got back into Thailand. Anyway, at the moment we're staying with with our friend Jinny at her house, 3 hours or so north of Bangkok. She lives near the city of Nakhon Ratchasima, but out of the city enough for it to be quiet. Sara's tagging in...
The whole village is basically made up of her family, literally every house she points out is an uncle or someone – its really nice! The house opposite has cattle in a pen and their house is a wooden one on stilts, proper traditional rural like! Jinny's house is brick, it kind of reminds me of a French south of France type house, but she isn't happy with the builder as he didn't stick to her design so its somewhat half finished haha she even refuses to paint! Although to be fair she does spend most of the year in England and her sisters house is opposite!
She took us for a relaxing pamper day yesterday, we had our hair steamed, and then we went for a massage before her friend took us for dinner. (Me and Jinny took so long at the hair dressers that Louis the “Movie star/ Super star” as he has been named went ahead on his own for the massage, we had already been before our hair appointment to make a reservation, the place looked a lot like a hospital, but Jinny explained it more as a health centre. When we booked our massage they took our name, date of birth, height and WEIGHT! Haha I couldn't believe it! Apparently a real massage should be more of a health check! With our Laos massage in mind I was terrified and fully ready to be pinched to death! Louis went along and a full near 2 hour experience and in that time was lunch time so many of the nurses and staff came to have a look at him! Jinny tells us that the locals never really see tourists here, and its true - we've only seen one old white (pretty tanned now) man and nothing is really in English here , most of the locals only know Hello and Zankyou (That is the Thai word for overtaking someone! :). Its is very different to Bangkok and Chang Mai, its feels a bit more Thai and not nearly as commercialised – although there is a Tesco Lotus!
The hairdressers took so long because there was only one woman and it was also a corner shop, a lot of people popped in for bits and were shocked to see us sat there, Louis even served a few people, most just left the money in a pot. I am the first foreigner ever to have been to the salon and she liked my hair very much, although they were insistent we looked more Arab than English – I fear they have pretty low expectations of the English! Haha I had never heard of hair steaming, but it's basically intensive moisturising, the lady washed my hair with a gorgeous smelling shampoo and then an equally nice conditioner, using literally a fist full not the meagre midget portion you get at home, the water was cold, but I was about a million degrees so it was welcome and she washed and massaged my head for about 30 mins, a nice massage – I nearly fell asleep, it involved the ears as well which was a shock at first but really pleasant. She then caked on a conditioner of a sort and put my hair in a plastic cap, under 2 wet towels and then into a steam machine. It was hot but not uncomfortable, when I was finished we washed my hair again and started blow drying it, she was surprised that my hair was so different the cream was still there so I got my hair washed a third time! That is why we were late heh, my hair is so soft and shiny now though.
There is a reason Louis writes this blog as you can see, I could write 100's of pages and still miss things I'd love to tell about. This has been one of my favourite days of the trip, really easy going and relaxing as well as a really fun experience of real Thailand– Back to Louis now :))
Now a quick catch up since the last post, i'll try and keep it brief! Where were we when...?
10th Vang Vieng Tubing
11th Travel to Luang Prabang, Laos old capital, had a lovely night market with a lot of local handicrafts, and an amazing veggy buffet on the street that was about 35p per heaped plate of amazing food!
12th Luang Prabang – Elephant Riding! Can't stress how brilliant this day was, we had an amazing time at an elephant rescue village, where the elephants give rides till 1pm and then have the rest of the day n the jungle to muck about. They were mostly ex-working elephants, ours was a logger. She was so sure footed, even when going down some very steep slopes and getting into the river!The Mahout, elephant rider, sang to her all the way round, and it seemed that our money was going to a good cause! We then went to by fast boat up the river to see a waterfall, in the jungle – only five of us went, the rest stayed to sunbathe, but we were rewarded by a dip in a turqoise blue jungle pool. We were back to the elephant centre for lunch, and then back to town to look round some of the temples. We met a monk called Lai who asked Sara if she knew Steven Gerrard – he said he missed playing football, if you're a monk you can't! Walking back to town we stoppped for a Laos massage – it was more like GBH! We giggled our way through it, laughing as they did something to hurt us in a knew and ingenious way! The day ws rounded off with some more shopping and a trip to Mr.Veg again – his prices had gone up for the weekend, scandalously 25p more!
13th By 7am we were on our Longboat to ride all the way up the Mekong to Pakbeng that night and then Chiang Kong, Thailand the next day. It was a very relaxing day, although freezing in the morning before the sun came up – we had every layer on, scarves round heads, the full works to keep warm. Once the sun was up, the roof slid back and we had a good bit of sunbathing until we reached Pakbeng, a tiny stopover town with no electricity after 10.45, and a very good Indian restaurant!
14th Long boat all day back into Thailand - Chaing Kong, we did a total of 19hrs on the boat over two days! Went for a dip in the Mekong – it was pretty cold! On the way down to the water a little fluffy dog started yapping and then jumping up at me. I don't like dogs, Sara nearly wet herself laughing.
15th Drive to Chang Mai – stopped at an amazing white temple – an artisit had come back to his home town and built this white temple covered with little mirrors. I can't realy descrbe it, it was mental – have a look at some of photos! In Chang Mai itself, Charin (one of our guides) took us sightseeing to a couple of temples, we took part in a bit of “Monk Chat”, with a monk who could do a cracking "Liverpooooool" accent, and then part of the group left as per the original itinerary back to Bangkok – we'd decided to stay another nght in Chang Mai.
16th Charin sorted out a day elphant riding, trekking through the jungle past a big waterfall, seeing some of the hill tribe villages and then bamboo rafting down the river. Night train to BKK.
17th Very delayed night train, hour and a half late leaving meant 3 hours late arriving into BKK, arrived at 10.30am. Wandered round China town with Signe buying bracelets at wholesale price.
Taxi through rush hour to meet Jinny at the bus station, then bus with her to her hometown and picked up by her sister at 11, grabbed some street food and then crashed out.
18th- Sara's epic tale above!
We'll catch up properly once we're at the beach on Monday when we've got nothing to do for 5 days! Love to all!
Sara & Louis x
The whole village is basically made up of her family, literally every house she points out is an uncle or someone – its really nice! The house opposite has cattle in a pen and their house is a wooden one on stilts, proper traditional rural like! Jinny's house is brick, it kind of reminds me of a French south of France type house, but she isn't happy with the builder as he didn't stick to her design so its somewhat half finished haha she even refuses to paint! Although to be fair she does spend most of the year in England and her sisters house is opposite!
She took us for a relaxing pamper day yesterday, we had our hair steamed, and then we went for a massage before her friend took us for dinner. (Me and Jinny took so long at the hair dressers that Louis the “Movie star/ Super star” as he has been named went ahead on his own for the massage, we had already been before our hair appointment to make a reservation, the place looked a lot like a hospital, but Jinny explained it more as a health centre. When we booked our massage they took our name, date of birth, height and WEIGHT! Haha I couldn't believe it! Apparently a real massage should be more of a health check! With our Laos massage in mind I was terrified and fully ready to be pinched to death! Louis went along and a full near 2 hour experience and in that time was lunch time so many of the nurses and staff came to have a look at him! Jinny tells us that the locals never really see tourists here, and its true - we've only seen one old white (pretty tanned now) man and nothing is really in English here , most of the locals only know Hello and Zankyou (That is the Thai word for overtaking someone! :). Its is very different to Bangkok and Chang Mai, its feels a bit more Thai and not nearly as commercialised – although there is a Tesco Lotus!
The hairdressers took so long because there was only one woman and it was also a corner shop, a lot of people popped in for bits and were shocked to see us sat there, Louis even served a few people, most just left the money in a pot. I am the first foreigner ever to have been to the salon and she liked my hair very much, although they were insistent we looked more Arab than English – I fear they have pretty low expectations of the English! Haha I had never heard of hair steaming, but it's basically intensive moisturising, the lady washed my hair with a gorgeous smelling shampoo and then an equally nice conditioner, using literally a fist full not the meagre midget portion you get at home, the water was cold, but I was about a million degrees so it was welcome and she washed and massaged my head for about 30 mins, a nice massage – I nearly fell asleep, it involved the ears as well which was a shock at first but really pleasant. She then caked on a conditioner of a sort and put my hair in a plastic cap, under 2 wet towels and then into a steam machine. It was hot but not uncomfortable, when I was finished we washed my hair again and started blow drying it, she was surprised that my hair was so different the cream was still there so I got my hair washed a third time! That is why we were late heh, my hair is so soft and shiny now though.
There is a reason Louis writes this blog as you can see, I could write 100's of pages and still miss things I'd love to tell about. This has been one of my favourite days of the trip, really easy going and relaxing as well as a really fun experience of real Thailand– Back to Louis now :))
Now a quick catch up since the last post, i'll try and keep it brief! Where were we when...?
10th Vang Vieng Tubing
11th Travel to Luang Prabang, Laos old capital, had a lovely night market with a lot of local handicrafts, and an amazing veggy buffet on the street that was about 35p per heaped plate of amazing food!
12th Luang Prabang – Elephant Riding! Can't stress how brilliant this day was, we had an amazing time at an elephant rescue village, where the elephants give rides till 1pm and then have the rest of the day n the jungle to muck about. They were mostly ex-working elephants, ours was a logger. She was so sure footed, even when going down some very steep slopes and getting into the river!The Mahout, elephant rider, sang to her all the way round, and it seemed that our money was going to a good cause! We then went to by fast boat up the river to see a waterfall, in the jungle – only five of us went, the rest stayed to sunbathe, but we were rewarded by a dip in a turqoise blue jungle pool. We were back to the elephant centre for lunch, and then back to town to look round some of the temples. We met a monk called Lai who asked Sara if she knew Steven Gerrard – he said he missed playing football, if you're a monk you can't! Walking back to town we stoppped for a Laos massage – it was more like GBH! We giggled our way through it, laughing as they did something to hurt us in a knew and ingenious way! The day ws rounded off with some more shopping and a trip to Mr.Veg again – his prices had gone up for the weekend, scandalously 25p more!
13th By 7am we were on our Longboat to ride all the way up the Mekong to Pakbeng that night and then Chiang Kong, Thailand the next day. It was a very relaxing day, although freezing in the morning before the sun came up – we had every layer on, scarves round heads, the full works to keep warm. Once the sun was up, the roof slid back and we had a good bit of sunbathing until we reached Pakbeng, a tiny stopover town with no electricity after 10.45, and a very good Indian restaurant!
14th Long boat all day back into Thailand - Chaing Kong, we did a total of 19hrs on the boat over two days! Went for a dip in the Mekong – it was pretty cold! On the way down to the water a little fluffy dog started yapping and then jumping up at me. I don't like dogs, Sara nearly wet herself laughing.
15th Drive to Chang Mai – stopped at an amazing white temple – an artisit had come back to his home town and built this white temple covered with little mirrors. I can't realy descrbe it, it was mental – have a look at some of photos! In Chang Mai itself, Charin (one of our guides) took us sightseeing to a couple of temples, we took part in a bit of “Monk Chat”, with a monk who could do a cracking "Liverpooooool" accent, and then part of the group left as per the original itinerary back to Bangkok – we'd decided to stay another nght in Chang Mai.
16th Charin sorted out a day elphant riding, trekking through the jungle past a big waterfall, seeing some of the hill tribe villages and then bamboo rafting down the river. Night train to BKK.
17th Very delayed night train, hour and a half late leaving meant 3 hours late arriving into BKK, arrived at 10.30am. Wandered round China town with Signe buying bracelets at wholesale price.
Taxi through rush hour to meet Jinny at the bus station, then bus with her to her hometown and picked up by her sister at 11, grabbed some street food and then crashed out.
18th- Sara's epic tale above!
We'll catch up properly once we're at the beach on Monday when we've got nothing to do for 5 days! Love to all!
Sara & Louis x
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Wat Pho and a TukTuk Hero
Without much of plan, we set out this morning for What Pho, the temple that's the home of an enormous reclining Buddha statue, who's feet we're in front of. We thought we'd walk, it's really not far, but with our shoddy map it turned into an extremely hot half an hour or so. Just as we arrived, a very friendly (seems to be a theme here) Thai chap said hello, mentioned Picadilly, and then told us that the Temple was closed until 4pm.
He then threw us in a TukTuk, and pre neogotiated us a 20Baht fee (40p) to take us to a pier on the river where we could get a boat to the floating market and tour bits of the city. We had nowhere near enough cash on us, even with some serious haggling, cutting one guys asking price in half, it was still too much.
We left, and met another friendly passer by (another theme is everyone always has a pen...) who scribbled a few places to go on our map and then grabbed us a TukTuk to take us on our way, this time taking us on a route via a couple of temples and on his recommendation, a tax free shopping centre, again keen to get us married asap. The TukTuk driver was young, and clearly deferred to this older guy, making the trip 40 Baht in total.
We set off and saw the temple of the black Buddha, so called because apparently the statue was originally black, and has since become gold thanks to locals coming and putting gold leaf on the statue. There, our third good Samaritan of the day suggested a place to go to book trips and tours where the commission was much less than the touristy spots, so we added that to our TukTuk chum's route, and decided not to go shopping!
We stopped at the travel centre to book Christmas, and came away with a prettty good deal for a week on Koh Phangan in a beach bungalow, from the 21st to the 27th, including night buses from Bangkok, and on from Koh Phangan to Georgetown in Malaysia. Christmas on the beach. Perfect!
We've yet to find a quality suit maker, and when Mr. TukTuk asked if he could take us to a tailor where he'd get a free petrol coupon for bringing us there, we were happy to oblige, especially as he'd wanted outside the travel agent for half an hour. We had a look around, asked about prices and measurements, and generally waffled ourselves away from the hard selling tailor, and headed back to our grateful partner in crime.
He then drove us back across the city to Wat Pho, and asked us for 40Baht - having been driving us for about two and a half hours we thought he deserved a bit of a tip.
Wat Pho is amazing and beautiful temple, with the added bonus of the biggest Buddha you have ever seen. Words can't really do it justice, so have a look at the photos - just click the slideshow!
We're just off for some dinner...
Arrived in Bangkok
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| From Bangkok |
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| From Bangkok |
Yesterday we arrived in Bangkok after a flight filled with some pretty serious sleeping for Sara and some serious film watching for me. We sweated our way through immigration and hopped in a taxi driven by a gap toothed but friendly driver. Having established that we weren't married but were a couple, he whipped out a brochure showcasing an assortment of jewellery seemingly in the hope to get us married before the end of the journey. Perhaps he wanted some new front teeth?
He dropped us off and we wandered to our hostel. It's pretty basic, down a little stray cat filled alley, with a few friendly cockroaches running about outside but clean enough inside. It's what we expected really, our room has two mattresses on the floor, and thankfully a fan and air con, without which sleep would've been impossible although Sara did get bit cold! It really is outrageously hot, between 30-33 and humid, so it will take a few days to get used to i'm sure.
After a much needed nap, we went for a wander and some grub down the Khao San Road, apparently a backpackers mecca but essentially a load of bars and hostels in one place with assorted clothes/tat for sale all on the same road. We'll have a look in the day, but at night it's quite exciting, although the smell is something else – a mixture of diesel, poo, street stall food and occasionally sick.
Now we're off to explore Bangkok...
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