November: Fernie, British Columbia, Canada
As we sit in the lounge of our home for the next six months, the snow capped Rocky mountains glinting as the sun sets, our minds are cast back to the last few months spent constantly on the move. The novelty of being “settled”; paying rent and trying to find work together with finally being able to see all the fantastic pictures Chris has taken has brought on a flood of memories of our travels.
This will be a retrospective journey through the rest of Cambodia, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand. Whilst I am sure there are many forgotten incidents and gems, a little prompting from Chris' green book (a quick jotting down of the day's highlights- usually involving what we ate) and an electronic flick through the photos will bring the best parts back!
Kampot, Cambodia
After one of the first bus journeys for a long time to actually take as long as it said (about 3 hours) and to feature a driver that didn't play Khmer karaoke at full blast (instead an assortment of seventies dross with the highlight probably being T-Rex) we arrived in Kampot. A sleepy provincial town with quite a strong expat community who spotted its charm and laid back vibe and just never moved on. We settled into a nice hotel with a massive room, Chris went straight to the motorbike shop and got us a moped to see the sights. Our main aim here, and second after seeing Angkor Wat, was to visit the Bokor Hill Station. A deserted and creepy collection of French Colonial buildings that had been left untouched for decades. Unfortunately for us, the Cambodian government now decided to touch them and it was undergoing massive restoration with absolutely no public access. We had heard stories that if a certain guard was there on a certain day and a certain bribe was paid then maybe you could walk the road up (taking 8 hours and costing you $50 for a guide) But even this was not reliably happening so another example of Cambodian exploitation and corruption led to our frustration.
One of our fellow travellers through Laos, Eric, had also visited Kampot and had told us about an orphanage school run by a French speaking Cambodian lady. He and a friend had delivered an english lesson to the younger children. Great, thought I and proceeded to set one up of my own. A couple of conversations with the older boys who had pretty good english and I saw good to go. Now, either I am horribly out of practice or these kids would give South Oxhey children a run for their money! Perhaps trying to teach through songs and games outdoors wasn't the best way to go...Having said that, it was good fun and Chris was a brilliant TA!!
After my brief return to teaching we decided that a road trip was in order and as the roads were fairly safe and the price of bike rentals so cheap, Chris finally got his wish and hired a 250cc dirt bike. I took a little convincing, the bike wasn't really designed for two people to travel on it and definitely not in any real comfort. So we headed to Kep, a seaside town with a reputation for serving excellent crab. The journey passed quickly, the extra power of the bike meant that we could squirt pass most hazards and it took no time to cover the 30 odd ks to the sea. It was here that we probably spent the most on a room (after Viantiane) but it was worth it. An exclusive-style (wasn't that exclusive if it had us!) hotel set up the hill with a swimming pool and wonderful view. First port of call (!) was the Crab Market, this consisted of about 10 identical looking restaurants serving pretty much the same menu, the hotel had recommended a particular one and when we looked, it was the only restaurant with any customers so we went for it. And it was delicious. My mouth is watering just remembering it... needless to say, we ate there every night!
It was here that we met one of the most interesting westerns who had made the Far East their home. Marcel, a German audio engineer, had met and married a pretty Cambodian girl and had opened a bar named The Riel Bar, so named after the little used Cambodian currency. Here we learnt the history of the currency and the depths to which the Khmer Rouge had screwed up the most basic aspects of ordinary life. If you paid your bill in riels rather than dollars then a slight discount- we needed no encouraging! Marcel also provided us with a hand-drawn map to explore the backroads and see more of the real Cambodia, a task Chris was willing to experience on the mighty dirt bike!
One of the first stops was the Kampot pepper fields where we were assured some of the best pepper in the world comes from. We were able to wander around the farm (not much to see) and try the green peppercorns straight off the plant, spicy! We bought a bag of black peppercorns for $5 and it has made it through the rigorous controls of both Australia and New Zealand to finally be tasted four months later! Further along we went to visit some local caves which involved small children acting as your guides (although our small child got usurped by a teenager with much better english) The caves were fairly unremarkable until we got through the other side to a series of explosions and found yet again the beautiful countryside was being torn apart illegally to fuel the construction of the vast mansions for the ministers' sons. Our guide shrugged off our dismay by saying people had to work somehow to feed their families and even our arguments of how he will soon have no caves to make his own income failed to sway him. This was a prime example of the attitude of the Cambodians that Marcel had explained to us. The Cambodian people exist in the present, the devastation wrought by the Khmer Rouge means that the future holds no stock, who knows when it may be snatched away from you? Now is all that matters and Now also means to grab as much as you can.
We returned to Kampot with a few days to kill before we could enter Vietnam, one of the sights to see is the National Zoo just up the road so we thought we'd check it out. I have never been one of those anti-zoo people, I am prepared to admit that I enjoy the opportunity to see rare and dangerous animals up close but visiting this zoo broke our hearts. Chris got loads of brilliant pictures but every animal we came across seemed to be more traumatised than the previous one. We didn't want to leave the cages because you could tell that your presence brought some comfort to them. The only ones who seemed to be coping well with their lot were the orang-utans by the main entrance, their charming personalities meant that they were the best fed and the most interacted with, not so the poor otter trapped in an endless repetitive cycle, the pacing lion or the sorrowful black bear.
It was here that I had only my second Asian massage. I had wanted to check out the “seeing hands” masseuses in Thailand but had not got the chance. These are blind people who have learnt the art of massage and now probably have more money and a better future than most others. For $5 I received the deepest and most painful massage of my life so far! During that hour I must confess that I did not enjoy it very much (those fingers and thumbs are SO strong!) but afterwards I felt fantastic. An experience well worth having!
A journey back to Phnom Penh to catch a bus over to Saigon to begin the Vietnamese adventure!
VIETNAM
As soon as we crossed the border into Vietnam, we could tell we were in a different country. For the first time in 3 weeks there was no rubbish heaped up on the side of the roads, the houses looked like people could actually live in them in comfort and there was an air of, if not quite prosperity, something close to it. We drove through the suburbs of Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City if you prefer) and were slightly intimidated by the scale of it all. As the bus pulled up to the side of the road, the usual crowd of locals had gathered to “welcome” the newest arrivals. Almost immediately we realised that we would have to handle the Vietnamese differently from the Cambodians. Where as we had had to become accustomed to being extremely firm (really quite rude in fact) to get our message across previously, now we would have to exercise a little more tact (a lesson Chris learnt straight away from a little old lady.) As a matter of fact we learnt that the best way to avoid unwanted proposals was to completely ignore them, avoid eye contact, everything. Quite hard to do but extremely necessary to save your blood pressure!
We did our usual trick: I holed up in a café with the bags and Chris went to find the hotel which he did fairly quickly. A wander around the streets yielded some tasty street food, a welcome return to cheap and delicious food after the dearth of Cambodia. We also had our first experience of Bia Hoi, the fresh beer brewed daily and costing pence for litres. Unfortunately it tasted really rough, we did put it down to the metal container it was in rather than the beer and were prepared to give it another chance at a future date!
The next day we did the real touristy thing and took a cyclo to the War Remnants Museum (renamed from the Museum of American and Chinese War Crimes!) The little old bloke took the both of us (me sat in between Chris' legs) at slightly more than walking pace along the boulevards and through the insane traffic. The museum was a sobering experience, I found that it effected me more than S21. I think the fantastic, yet terribly disturbing, display of photographs from all the journalists who have died or disappeared over the war years is what made it so powerful. We were there for a good 3 hours and still didn't have enough time to quite see it all.
It was from Saigon that we were to have our initiation to the frustration and resentment that is the “open bus ticket”. On the face of it, it is a great way to travel. For $30 you can travel near enough the whole of Vietnam, including several stops but there is a price to pay which we were very soon to find out! The first of our stops was the mountain town of Dalat, only 300 km away yet it would take over 10 hours to get there, stopping at “Auntie's” restaurant which was inevitably overpriced and under quality. We arrived to the rain and a definite coolness, in fact we were to sleep for the first time in months without air conditioning and actually needed to put the blanket on! Bliss! One of the main reasons we wanted to visit Dalat was that we had heard that it was a great place for activities, however with it being the rainy season, rock climbing was out. With it also being incredibly hilly, I ruled that for me mountain biking was also out! So we went with a smaller independent company and booked a hike for me and a ride for Chris (keep us both happy!) The next day we went our separate ways, I had a really interesting, educated guide who told me so much about the history and culture of Vietnam, it was fascinating. ' Oh and the hike was pretty good too! Chris impressed the guys by doing the ride in record time and even giving the experienced guide a good run for his money (the show off!) As a reward for that Chris' guide took us to a proper Bia Hoi establishment, the kind of place that you only go to with a local. Between us we drank 6 litres of bia hoi and ate a delicious plate of chilli and lemongrass kangaroo! We had been reading the menu and asking Heu what the various dishes were and after seeing our surprise at “kangaroo” went and ordered it. It had to be one of the best beer munchies I have ever eaten!
We enjoyed our day of activity so much that we decided to go for the alternative to rock climbing which was canyoning. This involves abseiling down waterfalls, perfect for the rainy season! We teamed up with 3 Israeli guys and did a couple of straight abseils first. It definitely doesn't have the same thrill for me as climbing does but it was still fun. The last one was down a waterfall and that was a lot more challenging! I found it quite hard to get back on my feet once they had been swept out from under me and I wrenched my knee quite badly. However I still did the few metres freefall at the bottom (despite wearing contact lens) The very last highlight involved jumping straight off into a pool several metres below. The fact that a couple of metres below the top the cliff jutted out did put everyone off initially. It was up to Heu to show us how it was done: a run up and a head first dive was enough to convince Chris and 2 of the Israelis, I was far too chicken (I used my contact lens as an excuse!) After this we went for dinner at one of the most entertaining restaurants I have ever frequented. There is a great story behind Tu Anh and her “original” peace café. Once in Dalat there was only one Peace Café run by a group of typically hard-nosed Vietnamese women, one of which was Tu Anh who created all the dishes and cooked the food. Now for some reason she was thrown out by the other ladies and told to never darken their door again so she went and opened a Café a few doors down with the same name, the same menu and the same prices. The best part is that her Café is always packed whilst the other does well to get people to eat more than just the free breakfast. Tu Anh is a charismatic host (and a great cook) and revels in the chance to tell the story, which I'm sure she does every night but is indulged by her loyal customers.
Next on to Mui Ne, a beach town renowned for its kitesurfing, yet another totally different landscape with huge sand dunes and parched trees. We rented a motorbike from our hosts and went exploring, we soon found that there wasn't much to Mui Ne. It is all strung out along the coast and really required a motorbike to get around. We checked out ALL (and I mean all) the kitesurfing shops and were shocked that even in this incredibly cheap country, it was going to cost several hundred dollars for 10 hours of lessons and riding. After some deliberation we decided that it was worth it, a couple of hours a day was all that we would be up to so it would provide nearly a week's activities. It was amongst all these inquiries that Chris had his little “incident” which basically involved him getting into a strop with a security guard, driving the bike a little too fast over cobbles set in slippery grass and low-siding it. He wasn't hurt but the nearly new bike was, luckily only the foot peg was a bit scuffed and the end of the brake lever had snapped off. We found a mechanic (and his whole family) and through sign language and a friendly passer-by were able to sort the whole mess out. A new Honda brake lever (still in its packet for proof) was bought and replaced and the owners were none the wiser! Needless to say Chris was VERY careful after that!
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
No thank you...
We approached Cambodia with a certain amount of trepidation; most the information from fellow travellers was not the most complimentary and apart from Angkor, we weren't sure what we actually wanted to see and do. From the very start Cambodia was to prove that she is a very different country from Thailand and Laos, our first experience of how things are often done here was at the border trying to get our visa. We had been warned that the officials and completely corrupt and will try to make as much money as they can from each visa; you still don't quite expect them to blatantly ignore the sign with the real price and then close the window in your face when you try to argue with them (they did) However, it was relatively painless, they only fleeced $5 which we were prepared to pay anyway. After the officials it was then time to face the real, everyday Cambodia and it shocks you from the very start; naked babies lying in the filthy gutter, people without limbs dragging themselves around in the filth. Such sights only a few minutes in and the really sad thing was that I knew that given a little time I would become hardened to it, I would probably even become irritated by the begging.
We managed to get a taxi from Poipet to Siem Reap at a fairly reasonable price (took A LOT of arguing!) which we shared with a South Korean policeman. The road had once been lauded the title "worst road in the world" and some parts still felt like that but overall it was not too bad (I even managed to sleep for a while despite the constant bumps) On arriving in SR we were duly handed over to the tuk tuk mafia and offered a free ride into town (they want to try to get you to take them as your guide to Angkor) but they took us to a nice guesthouse with a crocodile farm out the back (had to be done really!)
We managed to get a taxi from Poipet to Siem Reap at a fairly reasonable price (took A LOT of arguing!) which we shared with a South Korean policeman. The road had once been lauded the title "worst road in the world" and some parts still felt like that but overall it was not too bad (I even managed to sleep for a while despite the constant bumps) On arriving in SR we were duly handed over to the tuk tuk mafia and offered a free ride into town (they want to try to get you to take them as your guide to Angkor) but they took us to a nice guesthouse with a crocodile farm out the back (had to be done really!)
We tooka little bit of time to explore Siem Reap - not that much to the town itself, constant hassle from tuk tuks who want to be your guide to Angkor. We eventually found a little man with a big pink umbrella that had good english, wasn't smarmy and gave us a good price for a sunrise start at Angkor Wat- that meant getting picked up at 4:30 am!!!!
We arrived at the temples as light was beginning to show in the sky and made our way across one of the largest moats I have ever seen to get to the familiar skyline of Angkor Wat. There were already many people there but I should imagine it was much quieter than it usually is. We were lucky and had a clear and fairly colourful sunrise, having said that it wasn't quite the spectacle I was expecting it to be, perhaps i am hard to please! Once the sun was truly up we went exploring and moved onto Angkor Thom and the Bayon temple- you all know the one I mean- the one with all the faces, very cool indeed. After that we had a spot of brekkie, we had been at it for at least 4 hours by now and had a play with the cutest puppy so far, don't worry, we've both had our rabies jabs! A bit of a wander through some of the less impressive (yet still quite impressive) temples under the umbrella (to keep the sun off though, not the rain) we beat a vendor down to a decent price for some juicy pineapple. We then headed to the temple we were most looking forward to- Ta Phrom (the one from tombraider) and whilst being really cool it was again a little disappointing. Despite all the literature saying that this temple had been left alone for people to experience the awe and wonder of seeing the trees encroaching upon man's creations(oooo get me) it has been tided up and "civilised" I suppose that is fair enough due to the large volume of people, they have to keep it safe and accessible but it did detract from it somewhat. In fact our favourite temple was one that you often don't get to see on the one day tour (our guide was nice to us or we were just very demanding!) Preah Khan is a very quiet temple which has been more or less left alone and is a great one to explore and wander about without seeing a single other person. It also has some great tree/temple mutations. We got stranded here during a fierce spot of rain but it was quite enjoyable because we were camped up with the Korean guy we got our taxi with! Once the rain eased up we visited one last temple which is the highest one and the best for sunset (we didn't last that long) I was very impressed by all the elderly Japanese men battling up the very steep steps! We made it back to town about 6:30pm and gave our exhausted guide (he'd been up working all the night before) $15 which about works out as a dollar an hour. A quiet and fairly early night followed by a lazy day to recover!
Next to Phnom Pehn, first impressions were not the most encouraging; when we got off the bus and looked at the book to see where to go for a GH we were literally swarmed by tuk tuk drivers- at one point there were 6 around us, all talking at once and trying to get our custom. We went with the first guy who hounded us (he showed he had perseverance) and found a nice room for just over $10. We spent most of this day by the river which unfortunately is undergoing loads of building work so is not the peaceful and picturesque spot I'm sure it usually is. The next day we hit the markets and tried our first sugarcane juice- absolutely incredible, am never going back now! And uber cheap at 1000 riel (25 cents to you and me). Chris managed to find a pair of Lee shorts which for once were not cheap knockoffs but proper factory made extras that have ound themselves onto these market stalls. These would usually retail in the states for $40 but he managed to wangle it down to $8 (he's much better at haggling than I am, I'm rubbish- sorry Mum!) After that we had a real treat and went for a Happy Hour cocktail at the Raffles hotel- SO GOOD! We just about managed to stop at one each, even at happy hour prices it was threatening to blow the budget! We then set off to the lakeside (the backpacker ghetto) to see sunset over the lake- unfortunately the large amount of cloud spoiled any chance of a good one. We then plumped for a really cheap Indian Thali meal, the cheapness was offset by the drunken Indian chef making a complete nuisance of himself. We were studiously ignoring him when Chris looked out the door and nearly collapsed with surprise. Who should he see but Keizo- our Japanese compadre from Laos (it is a VERY small part of the world) so that made for a very jolly dinner (even easier to block out chef's shouting and wingeing)
The next morning was our heavy day with a visit to S21, the torture and re-education centre of the Khmer Rouge, we paid a few dollars to have a guide take us fround and give us the stories behind the pictures and exhibits. It truely is a grim and depressing place, you can still see the blood stains on the floor of the cells and can tell that even working day in and out there hasn't made our guide immune; he still seemed affected by what he was telling us. We attempted to watch a video about the centre and 2 of the only 7 to survive but a couple of powercuts made that impossible; we left feeling very sombre. It brought back the realisation that this happened so recently, so many people that we pass everyday were personally affected by the regieme. They may not display the physical scars of missing limbs and the like (although so many do) but they must still bear the mental ones and I should bear that in mind eveytime I say " no"
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Laos continued...
Vang Vieng
This town is an oasis of depravity in an otherwise sedate and cultured country (ok it's not actually that bad) It is however the first time I have been embarrassed to be English abroad, to be fair to my fellow Brits I was expecting to have witnessed drunken and offensive behaviour before now but had been pleasantly surprised. Not so in Vang Vieng. Almost every raucous bellow and act of idiocy was an Englishman/woman, still, at least I behaved myself! the first day consisted of finding a guesthouse- was delighted that Chris found the Tony Guesthouse (very nice and clean), getting some dinner and adjusting from the cultural splendor that is Luang Prabang to the decadence of VV. So we decided to fully embrace the experience and resolved to go tubing the following day. This is the activity that makes young folk flock from all over the area, when I first heard about it I was not taken with the concept at all: floating down the river in a tractor innertube, stopping at bars along the way to imbibe quantities of BeerLao. Hmmmm flowing water and alcohol. Didn't sound very clever to me; but the rest of the gang were up for it and if it were to be done, with a group of mates would be how to do it.
The next day dawned wet and grey and we weren't sure what to do, a few episodes of Family Guy and some shakes later and the sun began to peek through the clouds so it was on! Half an hour later we are standing by the edge of the Nam Song river and could see/hear the revelries just a few metres down the river. The water was slightly chilly but tolerable with the sunshine. The first bar is the best demonstration of the other form of entertainment on offer: rope swings! Everyone apart from me had a go on this one (it was VERY big!) Most managed to land fairly gracefully (Seraina did do a fairly good faceplant however) and safely then it was on to the next bar to be hauled in by the obliging Lao and offered free shots of Lao whiskey. It was now, with a smaller swing on offer, that I decided to give it a go. Was a real thrill, only slightly marred by the fact that the force of the impact pushed my contact lens somewhere up my eye, a few frantic blinks later and it was back in place. And so the afternoon continued and unfortunately so did the rain from this morning, which put a slight dampener on events (!!) We all made it back safely despite it turning dark along the way; all in all a really fun day; even better, over dinner, the rest of the group decided to come rock climbing with me and Chris the following day.
At 8:30 am we were all ready at the Green Discovery office, with 2 Germans there were a total of 8 people in our group, all beginners apart from me and Chris. A short tuk-tuk journey took us to near the climbing wall and then the most challenging approach to a climbing wall yet, at least it could be looked at as a warm-up, I think some of the others saw it as actual climbing! When we got there, another group had already nabbed the easiest route so Chris was sent up a long and rather exposed route to set up the rope for us, he made it with no problems but I think it had been rather a scary climb! Two more routes were then set up, all quite technical and most found it difficult to get to the top (me included!) but I manged it on two of them and gave it a jolly hard go on the others; Chris of course sailed up most of them and even manged the 6a+ twice (the show off) I think everyone had a good time, they were all completely shattered by the end of it that's for sure!
The following day was a rest day, nearly everyone's forearms were out of action given the exertions of the previous day so Chris and I hired a moped and went exploring. Around VV are several acclaimed caves so we went to check them out. A visit to Klang cave was neither here or there really, we were the only ones there so it felt quite eerie but was nothing special. We also upgraded our accommodation and moved into a much posher room for only 10000 kip more (that's about 60p to you and me)
The next day we had planned to go climbing on our own; to just hire some gear and find another climbing wall but the comfy bed had greater charms and so another lazy day followed. We said goodbye to Erik (who had suffered a nearly completely ripped off toenail and a trip to hospital the night before) who was off to China via Bangkok. We lay in hammocks by the side of the river and watched the world (and tubers) go by, Fred made friends with the local kids and we admire a small boy's catch for the day. However, no more lazy days, the next day we booked to go with Adam's Rock Climbing School, a small independent shop, for a day's climbing followed by a day caving and kayaking.
The climbing was just the two of us with our very young guide and instructor, Apo; a Chilean couple were going to the same site but climbing on their own, they told us about a fantastic sounding wall near them in Chile that needs 36 pitches to ascend- crazy!! This wall was 22 km away,another difficult approach, this time crossing a river and having to deal with leeches, luckily most of the leeches were very small and easy to get off (unlike before!) The climbing itself was quite difficult again, especially for me because I had a bit of a freakout on the first route, some hauling on the rope by Apo and a few cheats here and there and I was up. The other routes were much better for me and I was really pleased to get up a 6a, the highest grading I have managed so far.
The caving and kayaking the next day was good fun; our guide, Lee, had good english and was able to give us information about Laotian culture. We visited Elephant cave, so named because a rock formation resembles an elephant- which it did, not much to see here then we went on to Water Cave. This one was much more interesting; you start off by putting on a head torch, we had our own which I wore) but Chris used one of theirs which involves a large battery pack hanging around your neck- a little worrying when you have to submerge yourself in water to get into the cave but we were assured that it was perfectly safe! To enter the cave we had to sit in tubes and pull ourselves in along a rope, further in you beach the tubes and then crawl on hands and knees deeper and deeper into the darkness. I thought I would hate it because I can be a bit funny in enclosed spaces but I loved it (I was pleased to see daylight again however!) the final part of the day was kayaking down the river for about 10-12 km and stopping at some of the bars along the way for a drink and a swing. The kayaking, although on a fairly gentle river, was still really physical and I quickly got tired despite sharing my kayak with our guide (I was at the front and I think he was making me do all the work-that's my excuse!) We stopped at a couple of bars and I chickened out of swinging but Chris had a couple of goes.
Final thoughts on Vang Vieng is that whilst it can be seen as a disgraceful party town, at odds with the rest of Laos it is also one of those few places where there is lots to do, cheaply and it is set in amongst the most beautiful countryside. If you want culture then go to LP but I would strongly recommend VV, give yourself a day to get over the constant blaring of Friends on the tellies and the semi-naked people staggering back from tubing and you'll love it too!
Vientiane
To get to Vientiane we planned to take a local bus from where we had seen one the previous day but like most thongs in Laos, the day we wanted it there it wasn't. So we decided to the 150 km journey in the back of a songthaew (a pick up) as we got on at the start of the journey we had seats (albeit highly uncomfortable ones) but at various points there were 6 or 7 people hanging on the back pushing the total number up to about 20 or 21! We had it (just about, bums and bladders about to give out) and got a tuk-tuk into the town centre. Now it was my turn to go searching for a guesthouse but I was soon to discover that Vientiane is at odds with the rest of Laos in terms of accommodations. There was very little that was nice at all and even the most hideous places were more than we paid anywhere else; in the end we went for a nice hotel at $20 a night. Coming out of it later we bumped into Keiso (he, Fred and Seraina had moved on from VV few days before us) and it was decided that we were going to visit a discotheque and party Lao style! The best discotheque is in one of the poshest hotels and at 11pm when we went completely empty; we were reassured that it would get busy at midnight and it duly did. The music was a mix of western and Thai and ranged from quite good to seriously awful but it is all part of the experience, as was having random Lao youth coming up to you and having their picture taken with the falang- felt a bit like an exhibit in a zoo! A slight sour note was having one of my flip flops go missing, I'd kicked them off to boogie good and proper and found out a little later that one was gone. Chris was suspicious of a group of young Lao girls near us and sure enough as the lights went up at 2am one of them handed it back, bold as brass. I think they thought it would be funny and I'm sure it was for them but it was a nastiness I hadn't expected or experienced in Laos till now.
We didn't get up to very mush else, the rainy season is truly upon us now and this usually means several hours of very hard rain, making it tricky to get out and about. We did see a free show at the National Cultural Hall which featured a group of Korean breakdancers, it was a very entertaining couple of hours. After a couple of days more or less killing time we decided to head back to Thailand to hopefully visit Kao Yai national park en route to Bangkok then on to Siem Reap in Cambodia.
Nong Khai
This is the Thai border town with Lao and to reach it you must cross the Friendship Bridge, we did this with a German couple who directed us to a really nice guesthouse called Mut Mee right on the banks of the Mekong. We hired a couple of bikes and made our way to the Sculpture Park, one of the craziest places in the world! The guy who set it up was a real character and it is full of massive Buddha statues and other Hindu deities, well worth a visit. We had only planned a day here but a fairly lethal attack of dodgy guts kept us here for a few more days to aid recovery. Once better, we booked on to one of the well regarded night trains to Bangkok; the seats get changed by a little man into a bed so you (in theory) can get some sleep. In fact the train is so noisy that it was quite difficult to get any sleep but at least it was more comfortable than sitting up all night.
Bangkok 11/06/08
Back in Bangkok and in the Ko San Road area (good for sightseeing) we're not too sure how long we will be here and what we are going to do, probably see some of the key sights that we missed first time round (although to be honest, neither of us are that fussed by it) I think we will use this time to have some cheap food and good shakes before heading to Cambodia.
This town is an oasis of depravity in an otherwise sedate and cultured country (ok it's not actually that bad) It is however the first time I have been embarrassed to be English abroad, to be fair to my fellow Brits I was expecting to have witnessed drunken and offensive behaviour before now but had been pleasantly surprised. Not so in Vang Vieng. Almost every raucous bellow and act of idiocy was an Englishman/woman, still, at least I behaved myself! the first day consisted of finding a guesthouse- was delighted that Chris found the Tony Guesthouse (very nice and clean), getting some dinner and adjusting from the cultural splendor that is Luang Prabang to the decadence of VV. So we decided to fully embrace the experience and resolved to go tubing the following day. This is the activity that makes young folk flock from all over the area, when I first heard about it I was not taken with the concept at all: floating down the river in a tractor innertube, stopping at bars along the way to imbibe quantities of BeerLao. Hmmmm flowing water and alcohol. Didn't sound very clever to me; but the rest of the gang were up for it and if it were to be done, with a group of mates would be how to do it.
The next day dawned wet and grey and we weren't sure what to do, a few episodes of Family Guy and some shakes later and the sun began to peek through the clouds so it was on! Half an hour later we are standing by the edge of the Nam Song river and could see/hear the revelries just a few metres down the river. The water was slightly chilly but tolerable with the sunshine. The first bar is the best demonstration of the other form of entertainment on offer: rope swings! Everyone apart from me had a go on this one (it was VERY big!) Most managed to land fairly gracefully (Seraina did do a fairly good faceplant however) and safely then it was on to the next bar to be hauled in by the obliging Lao and offered free shots of Lao whiskey. It was now, with a smaller swing on offer, that I decided to give it a go. Was a real thrill, only slightly marred by the fact that the force of the impact pushed my contact lens somewhere up my eye, a few frantic blinks later and it was back in place. And so the afternoon continued and unfortunately so did the rain from this morning, which put a slight dampener on events (!!) We all made it back safely despite it turning dark along the way; all in all a really fun day; even better, over dinner, the rest of the group decided to come rock climbing with me and Chris the following day.
At 8:30 am we were all ready at the Green Discovery office, with 2 Germans there were a total of 8 people in our group, all beginners apart from me and Chris. A short tuk-tuk journey took us to near the climbing wall and then the most challenging approach to a climbing wall yet, at least it could be looked at as a warm-up, I think some of the others saw it as actual climbing! When we got there, another group had already nabbed the easiest route so Chris was sent up a long and rather exposed route to set up the rope for us, he made it with no problems but I think it had been rather a scary climb! Two more routes were then set up, all quite technical and most found it difficult to get to the top (me included!) but I manged it on two of them and gave it a jolly hard go on the others; Chris of course sailed up most of them and even manged the 6a+ twice (the show off) I think everyone had a good time, they were all completely shattered by the end of it that's for sure!
The following day was a rest day, nearly everyone's forearms were out of action given the exertions of the previous day so Chris and I hired a moped and went exploring. Around VV are several acclaimed caves so we went to check them out. A visit to Klang cave was neither here or there really, we were the only ones there so it felt quite eerie but was nothing special. We also upgraded our accommodation and moved into a much posher room for only 10000 kip more (that's about 60p to you and me)
The next day we had planned to go climbing on our own; to just hire some gear and find another climbing wall but the comfy bed had greater charms and so another lazy day followed. We said goodbye to Erik (who had suffered a nearly completely ripped off toenail and a trip to hospital the night before) who was off to China via Bangkok. We lay in hammocks by the side of the river and watched the world (and tubers) go by, Fred made friends with the local kids and we admire a small boy's catch for the day. However, no more lazy days, the next day we booked to go with Adam's Rock Climbing School, a small independent shop, for a day's climbing followed by a day caving and kayaking.
The climbing was just the two of us with our very young guide and instructor, Apo; a Chilean couple were going to the same site but climbing on their own, they told us about a fantastic sounding wall near them in Chile that needs 36 pitches to ascend- crazy!! This wall was 22 km away,another difficult approach, this time crossing a river and having to deal with leeches, luckily most of the leeches were very small and easy to get off (unlike before!) The climbing itself was quite difficult again, especially for me because I had a bit of a freakout on the first route, some hauling on the rope by Apo and a few cheats here and there and I was up. The other routes were much better for me and I was really pleased to get up a 6a, the highest grading I have managed so far.
The caving and kayaking the next day was good fun; our guide, Lee, had good english and was able to give us information about Laotian culture. We visited Elephant cave, so named because a rock formation resembles an elephant- which it did, not much to see here then we went on to Water Cave. This one was much more interesting; you start off by putting on a head torch, we had our own which I wore) but Chris used one of theirs which involves a large battery pack hanging around your neck- a little worrying when you have to submerge yourself in water to get into the cave but we were assured that it was perfectly safe! To enter the cave we had to sit in tubes and pull ourselves in along a rope, further in you beach the tubes and then crawl on hands and knees deeper and deeper into the darkness. I thought I would hate it because I can be a bit funny in enclosed spaces but I loved it (I was pleased to see daylight again however!) the final part of the day was kayaking down the river for about 10-12 km and stopping at some of the bars along the way for a drink and a swing. The kayaking, although on a fairly gentle river, was still really physical and I quickly got tired despite sharing my kayak with our guide (I was at the front and I think he was making me do all the work-that's my excuse!) We stopped at a couple of bars and I chickened out of swinging but Chris had a couple of goes.
Final thoughts on Vang Vieng is that whilst it can be seen as a disgraceful party town, at odds with the rest of Laos it is also one of those few places where there is lots to do, cheaply and it is set in amongst the most beautiful countryside. If you want culture then go to LP but I would strongly recommend VV, give yourself a day to get over the constant blaring of Friends on the tellies and the semi-naked people staggering back from tubing and you'll love it too!
Vientiane
To get to Vientiane we planned to take a local bus from where we had seen one the previous day but like most thongs in Laos, the day we wanted it there it wasn't. So we decided to the 150 km journey in the back of a songthaew (a pick up) as we got on at the start of the journey we had seats (albeit highly uncomfortable ones) but at various points there were 6 or 7 people hanging on the back pushing the total number up to about 20 or 21! We had it (just about, bums and bladders about to give out) and got a tuk-tuk into the town centre. Now it was my turn to go searching for a guesthouse but I was soon to discover that Vientiane is at odds with the rest of Laos in terms of accommodations. There was very little that was nice at all and even the most hideous places were more than we paid anywhere else; in the end we went for a nice hotel at $20 a night. Coming out of it later we bumped into Keiso (he, Fred and Seraina had moved on from VV few days before us) and it was decided that we were going to visit a discotheque and party Lao style! The best discotheque is in one of the poshest hotels and at 11pm when we went completely empty; we were reassured that it would get busy at midnight and it duly did. The music was a mix of western and Thai and ranged from quite good to seriously awful but it is all part of the experience, as was having random Lao youth coming up to you and having their picture taken with the falang- felt a bit like an exhibit in a zoo! A slight sour note was having one of my flip flops go missing, I'd kicked them off to boogie good and proper and found out a little later that one was gone. Chris was suspicious of a group of young Lao girls near us and sure enough as the lights went up at 2am one of them handed it back, bold as brass. I think they thought it would be funny and I'm sure it was for them but it was a nastiness I hadn't expected or experienced in Laos till now.
We didn't get up to very mush else, the rainy season is truly upon us now and this usually means several hours of very hard rain, making it tricky to get out and about. We did see a free show at the National Cultural Hall which featured a group of Korean breakdancers, it was a very entertaining couple of hours. After a couple of days more or less killing time we decided to head back to Thailand to hopefully visit Kao Yai national park en route to Bangkok then on to Siem Reap in Cambodia.
Nong Khai
This is the Thai border town with Lao and to reach it you must cross the Friendship Bridge, we did this with a German couple who directed us to a really nice guesthouse called Mut Mee right on the banks of the Mekong. We hired a couple of bikes and made our way to the Sculpture Park, one of the craziest places in the world! The guy who set it up was a real character and it is full of massive Buddha statues and other Hindu deities, well worth a visit. We had only planned a day here but a fairly lethal attack of dodgy guts kept us here for a few more days to aid recovery. Once better, we booked on to one of the well regarded night trains to Bangkok; the seats get changed by a little man into a bed so you (in theory) can get some sleep. In fact the train is so noisy that it was quite difficult to get any sleep but at least it was more comfortable than sitting up all night.
Bangkok 11/06/08
Back in Bangkok and in the Ko San Road area (good for sightseeing) we're not too sure how long we will be here and what we are going to do, probably see some of the key sights that we missed first time round (although to be honest, neither of us are that fussed by it) I think we will use this time to have some cheap food and good shakes before heading to Cambodia.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Farewell to Laos
Vientiene - June 4th
Time is flying and it is already time to say goodbye to another country, we initially planned just 2 weeks in Laos but this has slowly but surely extended itself; in part due the country itself but more to the people we have met along the way. Before describing Laos however, a quick recap on the last few days in Thailand.
Chiang Mai is a great city, busy yet not too crazy and with the use of a moped, easily accessible. We spent a couple of pleasant days tootling round on one of Mr Beer's bike (I joke you not!) and decided upon a little adventure, this involved a 60 km drive from the city to the Doi Inthanon national park, here it is possible to climb to the highest point in Thailand. So off we went in the blazing sunshine with me on the back carrying a too heavy backpack. Once there the full power of the 125cc engine came into being (!) as we slugged up the hills in a heady 1st gear, still we made it to the park office and rented a tent to go camping for the night, perhaps not the cleverest idea during rainy season on high ground...
Another major attraction to the park is the many number of waterfalls, we attempted to find one that afternoon but after several minutes on a dodgy dirt track decided to head back and try to reach the top of Doi Inthanon. By this time the bike was making ominous noises, the top speed was about 15kmph as we negotiated the hill and we were being enveloped in a thick cloud. 500m from the top we abandoned the mission and headed back down to relative safety. After a tasty dinner we were in the tent by 8pm, the rain started lashing down at 9pm and by 10pm we were flooded, luckily Chris had brought an extra binbag so that kept us away from the ground and allowed us a few hours uncomfortable and slightly soggy sleep. Up before 6am and still in a cloud we decided to head down in the hope of leaving the rain behind (this appeared to work) one benefit to the rain was that the waterfalls were spectacular, perhaps a little dirty but amazingly powerful! Chris managed to take a few hundred picture (he'll have fun trying to pick the best one!) All in all a fun trip and the rain did manage to turn it into an adventure!
Next to Pai, a chilled out spot high in the hills; we didn't get up to much here, a little yoga and some healthy eating topped off with the BEST fruit shakes so far. Activites round here were not as appealing (read: more expensive) than originally thought so did not get up to much and so resolved to head over to Laos as we had got our go ahead to do the Gibbon Experience on the 18th, so off we went.
Huay Xai, Laos 17th May
We crossed the Mekong at Chiang Khong and were in a new country, the differences were subtle but immediate, despite there only being a 100m or so apart the people looked different (the women are even prettier!) There's not much to say about this town apart from a thoroughly enjoyable visit to the Red Cross Herbal Sauna where we also got a traditional Lao massage- WOW!!
The nexy day we checked into the Gibbon Experience and met our group for the next 3 days- Erik and Runa (Danish), Ron (Israeli), Seraina (Swiss), Jerry (Aussie), Marat (German) and us- so a fairly cosmipolitan group altogether! The first part of the journey was on smooth tarmac but that was all to end when we went through a river and off road, Chris and I had managed to blag seats inside the pickup cabin but 4 of the group were on the back and I think it was a little hairy! We arrived safely thanks to our driver's skill and met the previous group. Everyone looked absolutely exhausted and we soon found out that one of their group had broken her ankle that morning by coming in too quickly from one of the ziplines- this did not fill us with confidence, when they started talking about leeches I decided to stop listening. Next was a 3 hour trek into the jungle which consisted of crossing 4 streams of various heights and strengths (I got wet let's say) and scrambling up muddy hills. We reached the ziplines and they put Go Ape to shame (apart from the one in Scotland) it was brilliant to streak across the sky and see so much around you. We made it to our treehouse (60-80m up) with open walls where I discovered several leeches had made it down to my toes and were busy sucking blood through my socks- nice! We had some restorative lunch and headed out to the waterfall to have a dip in the pool. Sadly, not as stunning as made out but still good fun; our guide had left us to it but we knew the way back so off we went. On the second to last zipline we were all across apart from Runa and Erik when we head a frantic call for help and saw the line bobbing up and down wildly. Ron had some binoculars and we could just about see Runa hanging off the zipline but couldn't make out what was wrong. Ron got back on the wire and zipped/pulled himself over to the otherside, a couple went to find the guides and the rest of us hung around not sure what to do. After about half an hour the guides turned up and managed to get Runa off the zipline, it turned out that her gear was slightly different from everyone else and she had attached the wrong part to just her safety line, at least we knew they worked! She had no respite for to get back to the treehouse we had to negotiate a couple more lines, I think it is safe to say that we all felt quite nervous going across now but we made it back in one piece. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look on it) the treehouse did not have a store of alcohol, I think we all could have done with a stiff one! Tea had to do instead but it certainly hit the spot! We had many more pots to sustain us through the night, a praying mantis provided half an hour's entaintainment and many hands of cards made for an enjoyable evening.
The next day involved even more trekking to our new treehouse, we arrived at around 1:30 pm and our guide was all set to see us the next day despite there being several more hours of light and a whole night to spend passing time in the treehouse. We especially wanted the support of a guide given yesterday's incident, we made this very clear to him but a combination of laziness and poor communication skills meant that we were on our own again in the jungle. This venture turned out to be drama free and despite the steep uphills good fun, as a group we seemed to work well together. The night was less enjoyable mainly becaue we had run out of gas and so had no tea but at least there were fewer monstous spiders here!
The next day we had a fairly easy trek back to civilisation and BeerLao! In dicussing where next, Seraina and Erik decided to travel with us on the slow boat to Luang Prabang. We got there early (a tip from Jerry) and managed to get the last of the VIP seats (minivan seats at the front) whilst everyone else had to sit on wooden benches. We met an interesting Irish couple travelling the world for a year with their 3 children, an amazing experience for them. Eight hours on the boat poottling down the Mekong got us to the half way mark of Pak Beng, nothing here apart from the stopping point for the slow boat. The next day we decided not to rush down early to nab the good seats, which was a good idea seeing as it turned out that we were on another boat which had none! Instead we got some more space at the front to stretch out, here we met a Belgian/Phillipino called Fred and a Japanese guy called Keiso, we played cards with them and an 8 yr old Lao card shark, he really got the hang of all the games we played and had an excellent strategy! Time passed quickly and we were soon in Luang Prabang, a UNESCO world heritage site.
Luang Prabang
A charming place with plenty of french colonial presence, not a lot to do apart from chill out and eat which we did! The 6 of us did most things together (eating and drinking mainly) the night market was a picturesque wander, if we were just there for a holiday I would have spent a fortune! We went to visit the reknowned Kuang Si waterfall were you can jump off the top (it's only 3m high- i'm not crazy) into a beautiful blue pool (coloured so by the limestone) From there we all moved on to Vang Vieng, party town!
And that's another story...
Time is flying and it is already time to say goodbye to another country, we initially planned just 2 weeks in Laos but this has slowly but surely extended itself; in part due the country itself but more to the people we have met along the way. Before describing Laos however, a quick recap on the last few days in Thailand.
Chiang Mai is a great city, busy yet not too crazy and with the use of a moped, easily accessible. We spent a couple of pleasant days tootling round on one of Mr Beer's bike (I joke you not!) and decided upon a little adventure, this involved a 60 km drive from the city to the Doi Inthanon national park, here it is possible to climb to the highest point in Thailand. So off we went in the blazing sunshine with me on the back carrying a too heavy backpack. Once there the full power of the 125cc engine came into being (!) as we slugged up the hills in a heady 1st gear, still we made it to the park office and rented a tent to go camping for the night, perhaps not the cleverest idea during rainy season on high ground...
Another major attraction to the park is the many number of waterfalls, we attempted to find one that afternoon but after several minutes on a dodgy dirt track decided to head back and try to reach the top of Doi Inthanon. By this time the bike was making ominous noises, the top speed was about 15kmph as we negotiated the hill and we were being enveloped in a thick cloud. 500m from the top we abandoned the mission and headed back down to relative safety. After a tasty dinner we were in the tent by 8pm, the rain started lashing down at 9pm and by 10pm we were flooded, luckily Chris had brought an extra binbag so that kept us away from the ground and allowed us a few hours uncomfortable and slightly soggy sleep. Up before 6am and still in a cloud we decided to head down in the hope of leaving the rain behind (this appeared to work) one benefit to the rain was that the waterfalls were spectacular, perhaps a little dirty but amazingly powerful! Chris managed to take a few hundred picture (he'll have fun trying to pick the best one!) All in all a fun trip and the rain did manage to turn it into an adventure!
Next to Pai, a chilled out spot high in the hills; we didn't get up to much here, a little yoga and some healthy eating topped off with the BEST fruit shakes so far. Activites round here were not as appealing (read: more expensive) than originally thought so did not get up to much and so resolved to head over to Laos as we had got our go ahead to do the Gibbon Experience on the 18th, so off we went.
Huay Xai, Laos 17th May
We crossed the Mekong at Chiang Khong and were in a new country, the differences were subtle but immediate, despite there only being a 100m or so apart the people looked different (the women are even prettier!) There's not much to say about this town apart from a thoroughly enjoyable visit to the Red Cross Herbal Sauna where we also got a traditional Lao massage- WOW!!
The nexy day we checked into the Gibbon Experience and met our group for the next 3 days- Erik and Runa (Danish), Ron (Israeli), Seraina (Swiss), Jerry (Aussie), Marat (German) and us- so a fairly cosmipolitan group altogether! The first part of the journey was on smooth tarmac but that was all to end when we went through a river and off road, Chris and I had managed to blag seats inside the pickup cabin but 4 of the group were on the back and I think it was a little hairy! We arrived safely thanks to our driver's skill and met the previous group. Everyone looked absolutely exhausted and we soon found out that one of their group had broken her ankle that morning by coming in too quickly from one of the ziplines- this did not fill us with confidence, when they started talking about leeches I decided to stop listening. Next was a 3 hour trek into the jungle which consisted of crossing 4 streams of various heights and strengths (I got wet let's say) and scrambling up muddy hills. We reached the ziplines and they put Go Ape to shame (apart from the one in Scotland) it was brilliant to streak across the sky and see so much around you. We made it to our treehouse (60-80m up) with open walls where I discovered several leeches had made it down to my toes and were busy sucking blood through my socks- nice! We had some restorative lunch and headed out to the waterfall to have a dip in the pool. Sadly, not as stunning as made out but still good fun; our guide had left us to it but we knew the way back so off we went. On the second to last zipline we were all across apart from Runa and Erik when we head a frantic call for help and saw the line bobbing up and down wildly. Ron had some binoculars and we could just about see Runa hanging off the zipline but couldn't make out what was wrong. Ron got back on the wire and zipped/pulled himself over to the otherside, a couple went to find the guides and the rest of us hung around not sure what to do. After about half an hour the guides turned up and managed to get Runa off the zipline, it turned out that her gear was slightly different from everyone else and she had attached the wrong part to just her safety line, at least we knew they worked! She had no respite for to get back to the treehouse we had to negotiate a couple more lines, I think it is safe to say that we all felt quite nervous going across now but we made it back in one piece. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look on it) the treehouse did not have a store of alcohol, I think we all could have done with a stiff one! Tea had to do instead but it certainly hit the spot! We had many more pots to sustain us through the night, a praying mantis provided half an hour's entaintainment and many hands of cards made for an enjoyable evening.
The next day involved even more trekking to our new treehouse, we arrived at around 1:30 pm and our guide was all set to see us the next day despite there being several more hours of light and a whole night to spend passing time in the treehouse. We especially wanted the support of a guide given yesterday's incident, we made this very clear to him but a combination of laziness and poor communication skills meant that we were on our own again in the jungle. This venture turned out to be drama free and despite the steep uphills good fun, as a group we seemed to work well together. The night was less enjoyable mainly becaue we had run out of gas and so had no tea but at least there were fewer monstous spiders here!
The next day we had a fairly easy trek back to civilisation and BeerLao! In dicussing where next, Seraina and Erik decided to travel with us on the slow boat to Luang Prabang. We got there early (a tip from Jerry) and managed to get the last of the VIP seats (minivan seats at the front) whilst everyone else had to sit on wooden benches. We met an interesting Irish couple travelling the world for a year with their 3 children, an amazing experience for them. Eight hours on the boat poottling down the Mekong got us to the half way mark of Pak Beng, nothing here apart from the stopping point for the slow boat. The next day we decided not to rush down early to nab the good seats, which was a good idea seeing as it turned out that we were on another boat which had none! Instead we got some more space at the front to stretch out, here we met a Belgian/Phillipino called Fred and a Japanese guy called Keiso, we played cards with them and an 8 yr old Lao card shark, he really got the hang of all the games we played and had an excellent strategy! Time passed quickly and we were soon in Luang Prabang, a UNESCO world heritage site.
Luang Prabang
A charming place with plenty of french colonial presence, not a lot to do apart from chill out and eat which we did! The 6 of us did most things together (eating and drinking mainly) the night market was a picturesque wander, if we were just there for a holiday I would have spent a fortune! We went to visit the reknowned Kuang Si waterfall were you can jump off the top (it's only 3m high- i'm not crazy) into a beautiful blue pool (coloured so by the limestone) From there we all moved on to Vang Vieng, party town!
And that's another story...
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Pai
It is very nearly the end of our travels in Thailand (or is it... I shall come back to this shortly) and I can't believe that nearly a month has flown by. My lack of entries hopefully implies that we have been busy doing things most of the time (true) and not that we begrudged paying the internet fee (sort of true but we do have a budget to consider after all!)
Tomorrow we leave for the the border with Laos for our next venture into unknown waters and it is about time that I share some of our experiences of this fantastic country.
Bangkok 18/04- 21/04
A lot of the time in Bangkok was spent sleeping, avoiding torrential downpours and eating cheap and delicious food. Bangkok is a huge and rather crazy place and to do it justice you need to base yourself in a particular area then explore around on foot (traffic is silly); once you're done there- move on to another area. With only 3 days we didn't really get out to see much, we felt we had to do Khao San Road and actually quite liked it, yes it is completely farang orientated but it does have a certain honesty about itself too. We managed to resist the buckets of "very strong" cocktails and settled for eating at a street stall (scrumptious and a bargain at 30 baht for a good meal- that's 50p to me and you!) The other main site that we saw was Wat Po with the reclining Buddha, quite impressive! An interesting highlight was meeting a couple of genuine hippies (Chuck hadn't shaved since he graduated from high school in the early 60s and had a big old beard on him!) and going for a meal with them, I was expecting more wild and wonderful stories but maybe they have been lost in the mists of time (and other indulgences)!
Tonsai beach, Krabi Province, 22/04- 30/04
Took a 12 hour overnight government 4th class bus from Bangkok to Krabi and was extremely impressed with the service; you get snacks, drink, blanket and a meal all for the equivalent of 10 pounds to travel 600 kms (a bit more than that as driver managed to get himself a bit lost!) From Krabi it was a taxi ride then a longtail boat ride to Tonsai beach, have already started bargaining and knocked our longtail driver down a baht or two! At Tonsai we wondered about and plucked for the cheapest accommodation we could find for the moment, a dark bamboo hut, then went to find a climbing school. We went for Wee's Climbing school as had had some previous contact by email and they seemed professional, once there we found ourselves getting fitted into harnesses and shoes ready to do a half day that very afternoon! No matter that we hadn't really slept or eaten, "no problem buddy" a phrase we were to hear very often. This began our 3 day climbing course that actually spanned 6 days, it also began our friendship with Neung (our instructor) and later with Jesse (a Dutch guy that joined us) To go into too much detail would take far too long; suffice to say it was a great experience which left me covered in dozens of bruises but able to lead climb by the end- quite an achievement for me! A final thrill was going for a deep water soloing day out (where you climb up rock without a rope then jump into deep water) unfortunately it wasn't very thrilling for me as I couldn't get up the rope to begin the climbing so was taken around the corner for some shallow water soloing instead! Chris managed to get up about 8m, I only managed to get one picture of him jumping but it was a good one!
Koh Tao 01/05- 07/05
Another long day travel which included a one night stop on Koh Samui and having to deal with several dive school touts before getting to Koh Tao. We paired up with a French couple and scoured the island for a decent bungalow and dive package. For us it didn't happen on the first night but after a sleep we found a place the following morning- the clincher was the bungalow- literally on the seafront, you had to walk on rocks on the shore to get into the front door. A bit scary when a storm came in- lots of wind and rain beating on the glass doors! Our dive training included a swimming pool session- in which I had a bit of a freak out, is very strange being able to breathe underwater- Chris, of course, was fine (I've yet to find an activity that outfoxes him!) However the actual dives were much better and far more enjoyable, although the visibility wasn't as good as it could have been. The last two dives saw us down to about 18m (the max we can go to) and all done and dusted by 9:30 am, yes that did mean that we were on the boat by 6 am, slightly traumatic! Later that day saw us beginning the long journey to Chaing Mai....
That's all for now, will post the last part of Thailand and Laos at the next oportunity.
It is very nearly the end of our travels in Thailand (or is it... I shall come back to this shortly) and I can't believe that nearly a month has flown by. My lack of entries hopefully implies that we have been busy doing things most of the time (true) and not that we begrudged paying the internet fee (sort of true but we do have a budget to consider after all!)
Tomorrow we leave for the the border with Laos for our next venture into unknown waters and it is about time that I share some of our experiences of this fantastic country.
Bangkok 18/04- 21/04
A lot of the time in Bangkok was spent sleeping, avoiding torrential downpours and eating cheap and delicious food. Bangkok is a huge and rather crazy place and to do it justice you need to base yourself in a particular area then explore around on foot (traffic is silly); once you're done there- move on to another area. With only 3 days we didn't really get out to see much, we felt we had to do Khao San Road and actually quite liked it, yes it is completely farang orientated but it does have a certain honesty about itself too. We managed to resist the buckets of "very strong" cocktails and settled for eating at a street stall (scrumptious and a bargain at 30 baht for a good meal- that's 50p to me and you!) The other main site that we saw was Wat Po with the reclining Buddha, quite impressive! An interesting highlight was meeting a couple of genuine hippies (Chuck hadn't shaved since he graduated from high school in the early 60s and had a big old beard on him!) and going for a meal with them, I was expecting more wild and wonderful stories but maybe they have been lost in the mists of time (and other indulgences)!
Tonsai beach, Krabi Province, 22/04- 30/04
Took a 12 hour overnight government 4th class bus from Bangkok to Krabi and was extremely impressed with the service; you get snacks, drink, blanket and a meal all for the equivalent of 10 pounds to travel 600 kms (a bit more than that as driver managed to get himself a bit lost!) From Krabi it was a taxi ride then a longtail boat ride to Tonsai beach, have already started bargaining and knocked our longtail driver down a baht or two! At Tonsai we wondered about and plucked for the cheapest accommodation we could find for the moment, a dark bamboo hut, then went to find a climbing school. We went for Wee's Climbing school as had had some previous contact by email and they seemed professional, once there we found ourselves getting fitted into harnesses and shoes ready to do a half day that very afternoon! No matter that we hadn't really slept or eaten, "no problem buddy" a phrase we were to hear very often. This began our 3 day climbing course that actually spanned 6 days, it also began our friendship with Neung (our instructor) and later with Jesse (a Dutch guy that joined us) To go into too much detail would take far too long; suffice to say it was a great experience which left me covered in dozens of bruises but able to lead climb by the end- quite an achievement for me! A final thrill was going for a deep water soloing day out (where you climb up rock without a rope then jump into deep water) unfortunately it wasn't very thrilling for me as I couldn't get up the rope to begin the climbing so was taken around the corner for some shallow water soloing instead! Chris managed to get up about 8m, I only managed to get one picture of him jumping but it was a good one!
Koh Tao 01/05- 07/05
Another long day travel which included a one night stop on Koh Samui and having to deal with several dive school touts before getting to Koh Tao. We paired up with a French couple and scoured the island for a decent bungalow and dive package. For us it didn't happen on the first night but after a sleep we found a place the following morning- the clincher was the bungalow- literally on the seafront, you had to walk on rocks on the shore to get into the front door. A bit scary when a storm came in- lots of wind and rain beating on the glass doors! Our dive training included a swimming pool session- in which I had a bit of a freak out, is very strange being able to breathe underwater- Chris, of course, was fine (I've yet to find an activity that outfoxes him!) However the actual dives were much better and far more enjoyable, although the visibility wasn't as good as it could have been. The last two dives saw us down to about 18m (the max we can go to) and all done and dusted by 9:30 am, yes that did mean that we were on the boat by 6 am, slightly traumatic! Later that day saw us beginning the long journey to Chaing Mai....
That's all for now, will post the last part of Thailand and Laos at the next oportunity.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Mission Control
Hello Sheri, Chris and the world!
Yeah, in some ways I feel like 'Mission Control' in Houston waiting for news of the travellers, except that I'm in Abu Dhabi and you're navigating your way through Indo China as we called it in my school days.
I have tried to download a map of the region to give an idea of where this overland trip will be heading. I hope it comes out - sorry the resolution is too small - maybe you can increase the zoooooom level...
That's all for now, I promised not to hijack Miss Beale's blog, so will gracefully bow out and stand by to hear, with bated breath, of Sheri's exploits.
Bye for now
Love
Dad
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
'Twas the night before...
...the Big Trip. "Are you excited?" A question that has been asked many times, more frequently as the days counted down. Am I excited? It's quite hard to say, a major part of me doesn't actually feel or believe that it is ACTUALLY going to happen. This trip has taken the best part of 2 years to save for; planning for it has meant endless hours staring at a computer going through the vast amounts of information available and to make all this a reality I had to enter the scary world of supply teaching (in actual fact I loved nearly every minute of it!) But to think that this is going to be kicking off in less than 24 hours doesn't feel real.
Maybe it is the fact that I've just spent the last 3 weeks in Abu Dhabi, with my parents and my big little sis, the city in which I grew up- it feels like a normal holiday (particularly as I usually come at Easter time, the weather is gorgeous) I feel like I've had a lovely rest after the spring term and now am ready to head back to the UK and begin the slog that is the summer term. Instead I'll be heading several more thousand miles eastwards and will be in Bangkok. Suddenly all these names that have been casually bandied about are going to be real- I know that we are hardly discovering new lands but still!
Of the 13 weeks or so that we have to explore Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam (I know, it is a pitiful amount of time to see so many incredible places) we have the first 3 days accommodation booked! Well, we want to allow ourselves maximum flexibility (although I am a little worried that we may spend a lot of time in internet cafes finding out stuff.) After the first few days in Bangkok, we plan to head down south to around Krabi for some climbing then over to the Gulf of Thailand to learn to dive (can't wait!) Other than that, who knows? And even this is all open to change...through all this I will endeavour to record what I can, mostly for my own sake so I will have a reminder of this (hopefully!) incredible time.
...oh, I've just realised, I am VERY excited!
Maybe it is the fact that I've just spent the last 3 weeks in Abu Dhabi, with my parents and my big little sis, the city in which I grew up- it feels like a normal holiday (particularly as I usually come at Easter time, the weather is gorgeous) I feel like I've had a lovely rest after the spring term and now am ready to head back to the UK and begin the slog that is the summer term. Instead I'll be heading several more thousand miles eastwards and will be in Bangkok. Suddenly all these names that have been casually bandied about are going to be real- I know that we are hardly discovering new lands but still!
Of the 13 weeks or so that we have to explore Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam (I know, it is a pitiful amount of time to see so many incredible places) we have the first 3 days accommodation booked! Well, we want to allow ourselves maximum flexibility (although I am a little worried that we may spend a lot of time in internet cafes finding out stuff.) After the first few days in Bangkok, we plan to head down south to around Krabi for some climbing then over to the Gulf of Thailand to learn to dive (can't wait!) Other than that, who knows? And even this is all open to change...through all this I will endeavour to record what I can, mostly for my own sake so I will have a reminder of this (hopefully!) incredible time.
...oh, I've just realised, I am VERY excited!
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