Out of Routine

The four of us took a night bus that would get us from Luang Prabang down to Vang Vien without the fuss of using up a day travelling. Bleary eyed, we arrived at around 4am and jumped in the first guest house we could find - something we'd tried our best to avoid. The rooms were a bit skanky, the beds stained with goodness knows what... but we were tired and didn't want the hassles of finding somewhere else in pitch darkness.

So after a long sleep, quick shower, trip across time to a new guest house, another shower just to make sure... we were ready to go tubin'!

A tuk-tuk drives you about 3 miles up stream and drops you off. The river doesn't flow particularly fast but it is littered with bars all along. We made a point of stopping at each one for the first section of our adventure, but would soon find we wouldn't have enough time before sundown to complete the route back to town.

As we stopped at our second watering hole, we couldn't help but notice a huge swing and zip line suspended above the river. We took turns in sliding the zip line and gave ourselves points for artistic impression for the landing. If you held on long enough, the jolt from stopping would whip you in any random direction. Andy Ludlow delighted the crowd With a beautiful face-slap to surface landing. The results of which stayed with him for the afternoon.

After negotiating rapids, logs, kayakers and floaters - the sun was on its way down behind the impressive hills. On one of the banks, we spied some crafty hopeful tuk-tuk drivers who were the proud owners of a whole US dollar for driving 4 shivering, slightly drunk Englishmen back in to town.

***

After what seems like way too many rough bus journeys across Nepal, Thailand and now Laos, it was great to discover a new mode of transport to get us to the Laos capital - Vientiane. Again we jumped on the back of a tuk-tuk for an hours drive, this time however, we were dropped by the river again, but with Kayaks.

The scenery we took in was quite breathtaking, huge jagged rocks and dense jungle foliage dominated the landscapes. Soon we were more concerned with staying upright on our kayaks, since it was the first time most of us had tried our hand with a dual paddled... err paddle. Dave and Ludlow managed to test the water several times before we broke off for lunch.

The heat we'd gained from the exercise made Nick and I quite envious of the other guys earlier dip. So along with Flo, a German guy also on our trip, we took turns in jumping into the river from the rocks we'd landed on. The tour leader noticed what we were doing and ran off in typical fashion laughing and shouting "big jumps, hehehehe"... so of course we followed.

The first drop he led us to was probably around 3metres in height, but everyone jumped right off straight away... The 2nd took some bare-foot climbing skills to get to the ledge for jumping. As we looked down the 8metre dropped, it took a few second thoughts to make the jump. But eventually, we all made the plunge with finesse.

We jumped back in the kayaks and paddled the remainder of the journey. Another tuk-tuk would drive us the remaining hour into the capital.

***

Our day spent in Vientiane was pretty good, since we'd headed South for the past few days, the temperature was nice and hot again. The city (reflective of the country) is not very well developed just yet, although it does have it's share of glamorous hotels etc. We dropped into the Laos National History Museum before heading to the bowling complex. Maybe I play better nearer the equator, but I couldn't quite believe the score I racked up in my first game... 120-130 would be a pretty regular score for me; but today, the bowling Buddha must've been shining on me setting a PB of 198.

Our time with Dave and Andy was now over and we headed off to different bus terminals for our night time transfers. We were headed for Vietnam. We'd been warned about the trip we were about to take:

"One of the worst 2 trips in SE Asia"

So, armed with a plethora of baked goods, we took our seats on the 24hr trip across the Laos/Vietnam border. We'd heard the route was used by 'Nam citizens to traffic their contraband - it was 5minutes before we noticed the sacks in the overhead stores moving. 3 sacks loaded with snakes. We quizzed the driver about them - he did his best to deny the contents but our questioning succeeded in seeing them moved to the luggage hold for the trip. Good thing too!

We managed to sleep a small amount before the bus proceeded to border control... we felt a little like POWs as we were herded between no-mans land but eventually, we got our passports stamped and Hanoi was awaiting us.

Speed of Sound

After a day trip on a couple of bus rides from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai, and then from Chaing Rai to Chaing Khong on the Thai border, we were ready to pass over into Laos. The morning came and we made our way across the river over the international border. From there we were to wait for a speed boat that would whip us down to Luang Prabang in double quick time (6hours).

When booking it seemed like a no-brainer as to which trip to choose - a 2 day slow boat or a 1 day speed boat for not much extra cash. As we got closer to boarding, locals were starting to notice we were waiting for the speed boat and, slightly discouragingly, were saying:

"Oooh Speed boat -Very Safe, Very Safe"

This didn't fill us with the most confidence, but we boarded the 25ft wonder nonetheless. We were told to wear ear plugs to drown out the engine sound. That was good advice. The boat put out some real grunt and before we knew it were skimming the surface of the river at speeds of around 55-60mph.

Just when we thought our rears couldn't handle anymore of the cramped conditions our journey ended in Luang Prabang; a city based amongst the typical Laos - jungle backdrop.

***

During the boat ride we'd met a couple of guys; Dave & Andy who had invited us along for a fishing trip. The four of us set off via minibus and then long-motorboat to Muang Ngoi Neua - a quaint and picturesque mountain town based by a riverside. In typical style of arriving in a new town, we set to work on drinking some of Laos finest - BeerLao. The rest of the evening was spent slung up in hammocks listening to the crickets battle the iPod speakers for audible acclaim.

***

Fishing Day - and I once again was stricken down with the "Delhi-Belly" probably caused by some bad "Laos-Chow" (that does rhyme by the way; Laos with a silent 's'). I battled my way through the day though only made it as a spectator as the others fished with old style weighted nets and more modern rods. We saw some great views as we paddled up and down stream - including a few Kingfishers flashing by in the bright sunlight. The following day we travelled back to Luang Prabang whilst I finalised my recovery.

***


Out last excursion for this part of the country was a visit to a waterfall, we had heard you could swim there but upon arrival, there wasn't a huge expanse of water to play in - so we checked out the sights before playing Frisbee in the sunshine. This evening we travel on to Vang Vieng - mid-way between our current location and the Laos capital city Vientiane.

Fight the Feeling

After the one month marker had passed, I had been counting myself lucky; and just starting to believe that I had a stomach lined with steel. Though things caught up with me and I went down with my first 'belly full of delights' of the trip. So the couple of days following the elephant riding, I was out of action and feeling pretty dead to the world.

Alas I still took advantage of my surroundings, and went for a full recovery program consisting of 2 days by the pool side (with frequent trips to the bathroom!), Thai massage and generally taking it easy. The time by the pool allowed us both to work on neglected suntans, and the time under the Thai womans hands just allowed me to say "ahhhh", "mmm" and the occasional "ouch!"

Last night I got in my first beers for several days whilst watching Muai Thai kickboxing. There was a British guy in action which added to the interest.

After shaking off my bout of food poison, we set off out today; our last day in Chaing Mai. We checked out the nearby Snake park. Not much to write home about - typical Thai animal keeping standards ie. not particularly great. We'd hoped to get in some Thai cooking lessons but now we were out of time - just enough left to get our very own Muai Thai lesson! The cost was 200baht for 2hours tuition - I'm glad it didn't cost very much since I spent the entire time out of breath. 20mins skipping, 10mins jumping on an old tractor tyre, then some round house kick practice before finally getting the gloves on and getting in the ring. I got to learn some quick fire punch combo's along with Muai Thai blocking, kneeing and kicking techniques. I couldn't say I managed to perfect any of them - but I felt like someone out of Streetfighter for an hour or so which was good enough for me.

With freshly blistered toes I hobbled on down to the Chiang Mai night bazaar for a bit of a shop before getting the bags packed again to move on again.

Float On

Destination Chiang Mai. We arrived after a long rainy bus journey - it wasn't too terrible since we got a couple of seats to ourselves. With our new gameplan in mind, we set straight to action of what we could do. The evening was pretty much waiting for us and it turned out to be one of the most surprisingly marvellous things I've seen so far.

It being festival season in Thailand and all, we were smack in the middle of town as a carnival prosession was getting ready to kick off. Kids marching, bands playing and 'little Miss Thai girls' on floats - all very nice as we sat atop the Th Phae Gate where it all started. As we were chatting amongst ourselves, we both jumped as 3 huge fireworks launched from between the city gates - about 20ft away from where we were balanced!

It was all underway and after watching the first few dozen groups pass we noticed something quite phenomenal in the sky. Tradition of this festival says that the city dwellers get these paper hot air balloons - powered by a hefty wick and flame. The wick is lit and 90 seconds later, the 4ft glowing white jellyfish are drifting skywards. Some times modified with extra fireworks trailing as they float toward the stars. Within 30minutes it was all you could see - no stars, just a big full moon and hundreds of these things drifting along. It was seriously alien! (Click on the picture - it's not great but is the best I could manage with my snappy cam)

Our first full day we got up and headed straight for the Lanna View golf course. It was much more of a classy affair than we'd been used to so far - we had to pay a couple of quid for caddies to accompany us - money well spent as it turned out. The sunshine beat down for all 9 holes as we tried our hardest not to lose balls to water, sand and sprinkler systems. It was a perfect way to spend a day though. Although my score card was far from perfect! I blame the rental clubs!! We felt a little underdressed in combat shorts and rolled up T shirts but the members took great humour in seeing some Westerners striding their course... or they were just laughing at our shots!

Next up was the Chiang Mai 1 day trek. It allows you an elephant ride, a short trek to a waterfall and an experience of white water rafting. A really cool day started out at the elephant sanctuary. A couple of women were placed on the elephants seat and then the Thai guy said something like:

"You man, sit up front"

I laughed it off thinking he was messing with me. He pretty much grabbed me and sat me atop the beasties head! I was a little taken aback in honesty but after an initial shaky first 5minutes - me and the trunked one were exchanging life stories. Through squishy mud and rivers we went - a few times headed off into the shrubbery but a great experience I'll never forget!

We saw the waterfall which was a little bit of a non event after the ones we'd seen in Nepal then had some lunch. Afterwards we headed to the beginning of the rafting river. I'm pretty sure they just like to make the tourists look as ridiculous as possible but after donning my fluroescent helmet, we were headed off. Nick and I were doing the work as our only other passengers were a couple of young lads who were just along for the ride. After getting a few heavy soakings through the rapids we were done for the day.

Cannonball

After an early night in Bangkok (?!), we got our gear together and jumped in a cab to the cities North bus terminal. Like a mini-airport, the locals rely on buses way more than us in the Western world (there are also similar terminals at the other compass points too). We found the window marked Ayuthulla and purchased a ticket. 1hr15mins later we had arrived in Thailands last capital city.

The whole city is surrounded by a moat/river which would've been key in defending against Burmese invasions... until that is, the Burmese forced their way in and ruined the city. The took the heads off of all the buddhas which is something still very much apparant in the ancient remains scattered all around the city.







It was about 3 o' clock when we'd sorted our room, so after that we borrowed some bikes and went for our own self-made tour of the city and it's sights. An awesome break of freedom from the regular tour groups/cabs/tuk tuks etc etc. The temples were far more interesting than those we had seen so far, especially with the majority red-brick glowing so in the afternoon low sun. At one of the Wats, the two of us were hounded by Thai school kids that weren't used to seeing Westerners. They battered us into submission and we posed for a few photo's with them. Sadly, I don't have any copies of those photo's

The following day we shipped out again, the 14th of November - 1 month on since we departed Heathrow! We boarded a delayed train and headed to Phitsanuluk. Around 4 hours later on an "air-conditioned" train (read "several fans mounted on the ceiling") we arrived to grab another bus ride to Sukththai. We went for all out cheap this time and rode with wide open windows with many local people to our destination.

The Loy Kratong festival is currently running and was our main reason for visiting this destination. The festival celebrates the history of the battles in this region with dance, Thai fighting, a light show and fireworks. We checked it out and participated in some of the locals traditions. Most notably - the purchasing of a flowery boat thing that you stick a candle on top of, make a wish and set it afloat along with every one elses candley boats. What a great thought - so with that I put a coin on my boat and wished for future lotto success ). As I watched it float - I thought that just maybe - now, it could be me! That was until the local young urchins came along with their specially crafted fishing wire + anchor; to hook the boats back in to steal the money! I took great pleasure in seeing mine capsize as they pulled it ashore meaning there bounty was lost to the bottom of the pond for all time.

Today, we visited the same sight as last night to check out the relics by bicycle. It was good fun if not a bit too hot. We stopped for lunch before we headed to the communal sports club. The best afternoon since Nepal followed. The main ingredients: Swimming Pool, Hot sunshine and no cares to get moving any time soon.




Tomorrow we're going to make a fairly long trip up to Chiang Mai - possibly our most Northerly destination in Thailand. Mountains & Elephant rides await...

Chess

Bangkok, Thailand

It's been a little while since I embarked on TG 320 from Nepal to Bangkok, I've been taking a rest since writing those huge posts below!

In truth, I've done awfully little since arriving - worth talking about here anyhow! We got out of the airport on Tuesday night and planned to go live it up for the first night in a decent-ish hotel before heading to the backpackers institutions. Though on the bus, we got chatting to a guy called Wes who was able to recommend a good place to stay - just far enough from the Kao San Road (Blackpool Promenade stuck out in Thailand!). The place we're in is pretty good and I think I've stayed in worse Travel Inns in the UK. We both pay about 2 Pounds Stirling per night which is pretty reasonable I reckon!

The first night seems a distant haze already as we learned a quick lesson in how easy it is to drink till '?' O' clock in the morning. By midnight, Wes, Nick and myself had already played some pool after eating Thai curries, and maybe a few beers. The pool place closed so we moved on elsewhere - we were initially told that beer had stopped being served! But not to fear as we could still order spirits... pretty soon after this, we were told we could only order a 'bucket' of booze for the 3 of us to share! 4am rolled around and it was time to crash. Only problem was the next day seemed to have gone by the time we ventured from the room.

Since then we've had time to learn how to turn down all night drink sessions and even made it to a few sights... yesterday!

Having visited Bangkok once before when I was 14, I had some idea of what to expect. The Temple of the reclining buddha was a little dull and the buddha itself was undergoing repair work. We thought things would get a little more exciting at the Crocodile pool housed in the same grounds. Closed.

So then on to Budsit Zoo - we were there all of about 5minutes when the rain started to fall. We hung out in a food court type area as long as we could stand the boredom... finally the waters eased off enough for us to shoot around the various animal enclosures. Bare in mind we're in Thailand in it's late-monsoon season - the zoo wasn't very busy in terms of people or animals, the reptile and nocturnal houses both shut. But hey - just as if those little rascals in Kathmandu weren't enough weeks ago, the monkeys were still cheerfully swinging from tree to tree here. Some Giraffs and Meer Cats filled our sightseeing thresholds for the afternoon.

(I fully recommend avoiding the two above tourist sights if you should ever go...)

We headed over to Siam Square to check out the shopping and also got in some noodles. Stuff here is pretty much as expensive as back home so we returned empty handed but planned to go to the big weekend market the following morning. Siam Square does have a gorgeous shopping mall sat under a sky-scraper that sadly wouldn't let us take photo's - so you'll have to visit for yourself!

We'd also since learned how to have a better time of an evening here, so we dined in style at a restaurant called "Cabbages & Condoms" - named for it's policies for promoting anti-HIV in Thailands villages (and I guess - the promoting of eating cabbage). I had an awesome pork curry with Jasmine rice. Afterwards, we thought we'd try our hands at Table Tennis.

***

The market today was pretty cool, I picked up a few new T's and other bits n pieces. Most notable was the absolute barrage of rain we witnessed - many of the main roads were flooded with 10cms of water which we hear is quite a regular thing during monsoon season - just a shame the season seems to have be dragging a bit this year.

So tomorrow we're looking to head off and get this travelling lark underway proper. Next destination - Ayutthaya

Power Out

Since arriving back in Kathmandu, I've spent a lot of time hunched in front of a screen trying to prepare my blog, the ropey connection has meant waiting ages for pictures to upload - luckily the rate is cheap as chips.

We took a minibus ride back from Pokhara on Saturday 5th - as you guys were probably thinking about letting off fireworks! It was cramped, hot and took 8hours. But it was a great relief to get back to our hotel room for hot showers, unlimited electricity and of course local ammenities. On Sunday we took a trip into Durbar Square Kathmandu. Probably the closest comparison would be Traflagar Square or Piccadilly Circus. Although the area is made up of historical monuments - temples and museums etc. We paid to look around and battled to keep the touting guides away. After an hour or so, 'Michael' was very persisitant and we conceded to let him show us around the Royal Museum. It was really interesting especially since I read a lot into the Royal family before I came out here.

After that we dined on the roof top overlooking the city and then had a trot around the local markets and the hippy-fied 'Freak Street'.

Monday, we went to look at another Durbar Square - this time in a place called Bhaktapur. This place was quite different to teh rest of what we've seen here in Nepal. The whole town kind of had some theme going on - very Red and rustic looking. Round every corner the locals were either making Clay pots or vases, or the women were drying beans in the sun using all sorts of methods.

The square featured similar temples to the Kathmandu Sq. A student came and talked to us and showed us around his school (that old chestnut!) - before showing us Nepali Mandalas. I finally found one I really liked so decided to bite the bullet and get it as a lasting souvenier of Nepal. There were many places to buy these but here we at least got to see them being made - as well as the money going to a good cause.

We got up at 4.30 am today to go check out morning prayer at Boudenath - a huge temple out of town. It was quite something - all the locals circling the temple and the monks performing their chants. For once we were the only tourists there which made the experience pretty special.





This lunchtime we end our 3 week Nepali adventure and fly to Thailand. From here we will stay grounded until after Christmas and take in sites around Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Malaysia.