The journey into Laos

Tuk Tuk to the border
Originally uploaded by Hol Riz

We set off to Chiang Mai bus station to get the 6 hour AirCon bus direct to the border of Laos, only to be informed we had missed it. We ended up instead getting two local (boneshaker) buses and a 'Tuk Tuk', and eventually got to the border 15 minutes before it closed. The border patrol officer on the Thai side looked at his watch and laughed at us, at which point we realised it was infact the last day of our 30 day Visa and if we didn't leave the county in the next 5 minutes we would be fined 500 Baht per day each. We quickly hopped on a small wooden boat to take us accross the river to the Laos side of the Mekhon. This was the first of 3 days travelling to Luang Prabang and things didn't improve.

Once safely in Laos we stayed one night at the border town before setting off to get the bus to the second stopover of our journey Lam Namtha. The bus station was a shed with a mud floor and the bus was made of mud. Two hours in to the journey the bus got a puncture and we all piled out to wait for it to be changed, an equally flat tyre was put onto the jacked up bus and we finally arrived. We tried to explore the town but with none of the local taxi drivers speaking English and none of us speaking any Laos we gave up, had dinner and went to bed.



The next day was the worst with the boneshaker of a bus throwing us about with each bump in the road. After 3 hours driving we reached the infamous route 13 where apparantly highjackings have occurred, we were inclined to believe this when our driver stopped the bus to hop off and buy a huge knife which he kept close at hand for the rest of the journey. 7 hours on and Becky was starting to feel a bit sick, not helped by the girl infront of her being sick out of the window and the bits blowing back into Becky's face. After 9 hours the bus finally pulled in to Luang Prabang, it took 3 days but we had made it andalthough the beautiful scenery on the way had made the trip worth while, next time we think we will fly.

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai
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We flew up to the jungle city of Chang Mai and after the usual fun finding a guesthouse we decided to enrol on a cooking course at 'The Best Thai Cooking School'. After eating so much great food here we wanted to be able to make some at home. Despite Hollands earlier misgivings about cooking, this was a really cool course with a crazy guy called Perm teaching the class and making jokes. It was a hands on course and we all got our own stove and the chance to try 'adventure cooking' which means cooking over a huge flaming wok. We were so stuffed by the end of the day as we got to eat all the food we made but somehow we still managed to find the energy to walk to Chang Mai's huge night market and haggle with the locals for some souvenieurs.

the next day we set off on a two day jungle trek staying overnight at a hill tribe village. We started off by visiting the 'Longneck tribe' so called because they stretch their necks using metal rings from the ages of 5 unil 30 adding a new ring every year until their necks are abnormally long. We then joined the rest of our trekking group to do some elephant riding. Unfortunately as one of the elephants was ill we were told if we wanted to ride the elephants we wouldn't be able to trek with the rest of the group, so we opted for a quick ten minute ride rather than the normal hour ride so we could stay with the group.

The trek was arduous, starting in the midday sun we were all sweating heavily after just a few minutes, the path was steep and for the first 3 hours continually uphill, we also didn't want to stop too long for breaks as that was when the mosquitios swooped in for a feast of 'white legs'. We finally arrived at our destination only to realise it wasn't as remote as we had thought - in fact a main road runs straight past it, however we descended into a valley where all we could see was beautiful forested mountain and could almost imagine we were miles from civilisation. We all stayed in a bamboo hut that night, had our showers in a nearby waterfall then we stayed up late drinking homebrew thai whisky and chatting to our guides.

The next day we set off for some more demanding trekking, this time the walk was broken up by a visit to a georgous double waterfall which you could jump into from some rocks about 7m above if you dared. Holland jumped several times into the frothing pool of death, but Becky decided not to yet still managing to badly bang her knee slipping on some lower rocks.

We then trekked for another hour to the start of a short stretch of water we were to white water raft. Our guide was like a drill sargent, yelling orders and telling us off the whole way whilst steering us into every rock he could, we bravely paddled on, scared to stop while the other raft laughed and joked with their guide and rainbows and bunnies seemed to hang in the air above their raft. After the white water rafting we did a short bamboo raft to get to the pick up point where we would be taken home, stinky, wet, exhusted but happy. It was an awesome trek and we met some cool Scotish guys who we plan to travel through Laos with.

We spent one more day in Chiang Mai enjoying the atmosphere and relaxing with our new friends Pam and Rob and went off to sleep that night not realising it would be 3 long days before we would be at our first stop in Laos

Kanchanaburi

Us on an elephant

Away from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok, Kanchanaburi is an oasis of tranquility that sits on the River Kwai. We stayed in a beautiful hut right on the river where we could just sit and watch the river flow by.

Our first tour here was to a Tiger Temple where Buddhist monks and tigers supposedly live as one. This was not the temple we experienced though, rather we were guided through to touch several seemingly drugged tigers, while a helper took our photo and we were then pushed onto the next tiger. The tigers were then 'walked' back to their concrete cages but with several of them it was more like dragging as they were so sleepy. It was pretty sad to see, but the one thing that did make the trip worthwhile was the 2 month old tiger cub they had at the temple which we were able to handle and play with. It took a real liking to Holland biting his nipple and refused to let go. The lady worker yelled at him "don't get tiger bite you have to go to hospital".

In Kanchanaburi we also got to do something Becky has been looking forward to ever since she learned she was going to Asia, elephant riding. We were split into two groups to ride the giant beasts. To get onto our elephants we had to mount a high platform and the elephant is then manoeuvered, with amazing obedience to voice commands, next to the platform so we were able to easily hop on. Being the nice people we are we let the rest of the group hop on first and then realised the elephants had 'run out', "don't worry" shouted our tour guide "they bring out another one". Suddenly, booming through the jungle came the biggest elephant we had ever seen, far bigger then the other ones the rest of the group were on. Slightly nervously we mounted the chair construction that had been tied to the elephants back (one might point out, rather sloppily) then our elephant charged off to follow the others. Once we got used to the lurching movement of the elephants walk we began to relax and enjoy the ride. Our elephant was called 'Channa' or winner in English and he was the naughty one who stopped to grab a trunk full of leaved whenever he thought he could get away with it and also managed to snuffle up the most bananas when we fed the elephants at the end of the ride.

After the elephant riding we went bamboo rafting for about half an hour down a calm river, the river was a bit shallow and we had to jump out at a few points to get the raft over the river bed without our weight on it but it was fun.

Unfortunately Kanchanaburi was not always so idyllic and was actually the scene of some of the worst Japanese caused POW crimes of the second world war. The so called 'death railway' that took the lives of over 200 000 people during construction runs right through Kanchanaburi. We took a trip to see the infamous 'Hellfire Pass' and the 'bridge over the river Kwai' to get some history on the atrocities, it was a sobering experience.

Our last day here was spent organising our travel to Chang Mai in northern Thailand, we wimped out of the train as the flights were nearly the same price and 15 hours quicker!

Holland and Becky

Bangkok

Street food
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The bustling capital of Thailand is an in your face slice of the Thai tourist culture, we stayed just off Khao San road, a notorious backpacker hangout where you can't walk two steps without a local shouting at you to buy something; offering everything from massage to suits to tuk tuks to sex shows (we don't think pussy smoke cigarette refered to a cat!). You really have to firmly say no or you will not be left alone! Most people are also trying to scam you and prices are hiked up to extortionate levels for anyone with white skin and any number of lies are told to get you to spend money with them. However once you get used to the bedlem there is a lot to like about Bangkok, its pace and energy are infectious.

Tuk Tuk

We took a hair-raising tuk tuk ride accross town to watch the thai boxing (muay thai). Terrified, Andrew, Holland and Becky all gripped the sides of the three-wheeled, open-sided taxi as it lurched from one side of the road to the other, overtaking bigger cars and lorries and precariously tipping around corners. At one point the driver casually pointed out that the lights had turned red only to press his foot down on the pedal and weave the tuk tuk across the 4 lanes of fast on-coming traffic from our left.

Muay Thai - Kickboxing

The Thai boxing was expensive (again we had to haggle with numerous touts to get even a half decent price) but worth the money as we were ringside and could see the blood and sweat up close. There were about 10 fights altogether starting from young hopefuls up to the professionals, Holland and Andy even got a photo with the winner of the main fight. By the end of the first fight we all got into the spirit and had visions of showing Rocky a thing or two with our newly learned Thai boxing moves which includes the use of feet, knees and elbows.

That evening we explored Khao San road, eating at stalls, listening to Thai bands sing western songs and drinking at petrol stations which become bars at night, we also managed to combine two of our most favorite drinking experiences from our travels by buying a 'Caiprinhia' bucket (anyone who has been to South America and Thailand will understand).

On our second day in the city we did a walking tour of some of the cities most famous temples. Again, on the way there we were beseiged by con-artists who told us the temple was closed and they could take us somewhere else but luckily we had been warned about this and ignored them. We also walked through a small eclectic colection of street vendors whose stalls were just blankets on the floor which they appeared to have haphazardly tipped their household junk onto and which including such gems as half drunk bottles of baileys and used false teeth.

Reclining Buddah

When we finally got to the temples they were amazing. Our first stop was the Grand Palace, adorned with jewels, glass and gold the buildings are beautifully ornate and we spend a good couple of hours exploring them. We next went to Wat Poh which houses a giant reclining budda - 43m long and 15m high with mother of pearl decoration on his footprint - awesome.

Temple of the dawn

We then grabbed a cheap ferry accross the river to climb the Temple of the Dawn which has a tiered symetrical structure. The temple was very high and the steeps up were frightenly steep but the view from the top was great.

That evening we took a trip to Bangkoks more seedy area, Pangpong to see the night market and go to a few bars. The sleeze hadn't been under-estimated with girls in string bikinis trying to dance you into each bar. Holland and Andrew were in their element in one bar until someone pointed out that the sexy ladies weren't actually ladies atall! Becky had never seen two men leave a bar so fast.

Our last day in Bangkok we said goodbye to Andrew, After travelling with us for two and a half weeks it was strange to be just us two again but we imparted on him the most important travelling lesson and he promised he will be spreading the bat and ball phenomonen throughout Cornwall.

Phi Phi and Phuket

Phi Phi island - long beach
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We flew into Phuket for one night where there was not much going on, except for an enormous all night vegetable market, so the next morning we took an hour and a half boat ride to Koh Phi Phi. It was here that we finally saw the Thailand all the brochures talk about; Koh Phi Phi is beautiful.

Phi Phi island - Hol and Andrew
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The first day we took a nice afternoon walk around the coast path to Long beach. The path weaved over rocks and in and out of several deserted sandy coves where we swam, played bat and ball and Holland and Andrew played the guitars they had rented for the day. When we got to Long Beach Becky had a massage on the beach while the boys entertained the tourists and locals with their music, and drank banana shakes. That evening we went out to the busy bars and fire shows and watched the tourists fight each other in the Muay Thai ring for free buckets.

Phi Phi Lay - "The Beach"

On our second day we chartered a longtail boat to go and explore Phi Phi Lay (the island where they filmed 'The Beach'). The beach itself was great, there are no houses or shops here (or anything that isn't natural) so it felt really peaceful, a real paradise. Our captain took us around the dramatic islands to all the best coral reefs. We did more great snorkelling (it's never going to get boring) and as we weren't on a tour we could spent as long as we wanted where we wanted. One of the best days in Thailand so far!

Railay Beach

Sadly we had to say goodbye to Phi Phi and made our way by a big then a small boat to Railay beach via Krabi. We made the mistake of booking our room in advance through a tout and ended up walking in the blazing sun for half an hour to the highest furthest room from the beach! Railay beach was nice but was no Phi Phi, we spent a relaxing day on the beach and a pleasant evening eating great food, watching movies and partying with the locals in the Reggae bar, before catching our flight to Bangkok the next day.

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