After we left Pai, we
went back to Chiangmai and stayed there for a few days, unsure what
we wanted to do next. We didn't know whether we should go to
Chiangrai or go straight to Laos because it was getting nearer and
nearer to the time our Vietnam visas would begin and we didn't want
to eat too much into our time there. In the end, we were so
indecisive, that we ended up wasting 2 days in Chiangmai doing
nothing because our hotel was so nice. We did venture out at one
stage to go to the mall, which was nice, but nothing compared to what
we'd seen in Bangkok. On the third day, we kicked ourselves into gear
and did a bout of sightseeing. We hired a tuk tuk driver for the day
to take us to all the places we felt we should go. Actually,
there wasn't anything we really wanted to do, but we felt guilty for
doing nothing, so I decided we should go and see a hill tribe and a
temple. Lots of people go on treks in Chiangmai to see the hill
tribes, but we'd heard they weren't that good, and as we'd already
been on elephants, we didn't want to do that again. So rather than go
on a trek, we just took a tuk tuk to go and see a tribe, which I'd
read was going to be very touristy, and not a real tribe at all.
There were even signs pointing to where each tribe was
In
fact, there is some controversy surrounding these tribes and
questions as to whether or not they are forced into dressing up just
for the tourists. Anyway, we went, and saw the long necks tribe, and
it was so staged – just like Lake Titicaca had been – we had to
pay £5 to go into a 'village' made up of different tribes, which
looked like they had just been dumped there and dressed up for the
tourists. Oh well, at least it got my need to see a tribe out of my
system.
After this, our driver
took us along a really windy country road that made me feel really
sick, especially because of the fumes coming out of the tuk tuk. We
went to the most famous temple in Chiangmai which has views over the
city. It was quite nice. Once again, once you've seen the temples in
Bangkok, this doesn't really stand out. It was nice though, but we
couldn't look round too long because a monk told Jemma off for
wearing shorts and we had to get out.
I felt like we had
finally accomplished something in Chiangmai after our day out in the
tuk tuk rather than just staying in the hotel all the time. We went
back to Chiangmai and could finally book our tickets out of there –
a night bus to Laos, via Chiangrai.
For the rest of our
stay in Pai, 'Team China' were inseparable. We did everything
together. From drinking, to Thai boxing and moped riding. Dinner
breakfast and lunch, we were together. Why team 'China'? Well, that's
an inside joke that we came up with on our first night out, where we
got very drunk and went to every bar in Pai, including a bar/club
called Bebop which had live music and a resident tranny. It was right
on the outskirts of town so I had to get on the back of Inge's push
bike to get there. She cycled faster than most people go on mopeds.
Jemma on Inge's bike
After the first night out clubbing, the bond within our group was
officially sealed, and when me and Jemma were immobilised in our
guest house the next day with the worst hangovers ever, they came to
check on us and to invite us out to dinner.
Our first night out
We went for dinner
together (as we did every night) and then we went to a festival in
Pai, where there was fire dancing and live music. We only had one
drink that night. They also had a fire skipping rope there, which I
have heard/seen a lot about online but have never actually seen one
in the flesh. I was very excited to watch and video the drunken
travellers jump over the skipping rope on fire, but I would never do
it myself!
The next day, we all
went fro breakfast together in our usual cafe just next to our guest
house (It did excellent full English breakfasts with big hash browns,
milkshakes and hot chocolates and it was cheap). Then it was decided
that we should rent mopeds and ride into the hills to look for the
caves. Myself and Inge were the only ones who were scared of doing
this, so we begrudgingly agreed to get on the back of other more
experienced driver's bikes. Jemma was keen to rent her own. SO off we
went, me on the back of Dutchie Nicole's and Jemma on her own moped
for the first time ever.
Scenery on the moped ride
At first she was shaking with fear, but
after a while, she loved it and you could see she had found a new
passion for motorbike riding. We rode quite a way up into the hills,
when some of the bikes started flashing on empty. Realising we didn't
have enough petrol to get us to the caves, we stopped at a view point
and then swapped bikes so that the people on empty didn't have two
people on the bike. Then we rode back down to Pai. It was an amazing
ride through the hills, with stunning scenery and it is a nice
feeling being on a moped, zipping along with the wind in your face. I
relaxed into it by the end however I was still relieved nobody had
gotten hurt.
That night we went for tea at the local markets and then
decided to hit the clubs and pubs again. Pai is such a small place,
that by now, we recognised nearly all of the faces there and kept
bumping into people from the previous night out who would wave at me
and I wouldn't have a clue who they were. This time, the night out
wasn't so messy for me, I was the one who looked after everybody
else, and when we got to our last bar, bamboo bar, where I had been
incredibly drunk last time, I noticed there was a lady boy behind the
bar called Sara who everyone was friends with and knew. This shows
how drunk I was because I had no memory of her. Also there, was a bar
man who told me I had tried to barter him down the night before for a
portion of chips. I also had no memory of this! A few people in the
group got drunk and then we all walked back home together, and on the
way home, we stopped at 7eleven for a snack and a bloodied boy came
stumbling in, saying that he needed to go to the hospital. He had
ridden his moped drunk and had fallen off, cutting out a massive
chunk of his chin and leaving his legs and arms bleeding everywhere.
This was the second such person we had seen in Pai and really made me
never want to get on a moped again. We took him to the hospital which
was just up the road, and left him there with his friend (who was
also drunk and insisted on riding his moped to the hospital). The boy
had to wait 2 hours to be seen because there was only one nurse on
duty and she was treating a local man who had something in his ear.
We left him there with his friend and by the time we got to bed it
was 6am and the sun was coming up!
Relaxing by the pool
The next day we all had
a lazy day, and after meeting again for breakfast at 12.00, we all
went to Pai's swimming pool together. 'Fluid' the swimming pool, is
located up a hill just on the edge of town and is a perfect place for
hippies and travellers to relax. It has little bamboo covers to lie
and shelter in, tatami mats to put on the grass to sunbathe on and
there's a DJ who pumps out chillout tunes all the day long.
It is the
perfect place to recover from a night out, and of course, all the Pai
characters were there, except Rochelle the tranny, who isn't a true
tranny really, rather a retired Ozzie man in a dress who sprinkles
everyone in Bebop with glitter.
So we relaxed by the
pool for a while, listening to the music, chilling and eating at the
bar. And then we went home to relax and shower, before meeting up
again for tea. Before tea, we all met at Inge's for cheese and wine
on her porch. She and Nicole were both staying in the same resort,
which had a lovely fairy light-lit path outside and decorated trees
and fish ponds.
Wine on Inge's porch
After this, we went for tea somewhere I had been on
about going for ages: Burger Queen. It does the best burgers in Pai,
for an excellent price, and I was not disappointed, in fact, to
everyone's astonishment, I managed two, because someone else placed
the wrong order and didn't want theirs with BBQ sauce on. After
Burger Queen, everyone just wanted an early night and a few of us had
agreed to get up early the next morning to try out Thai boxing with
Inge.
The next day I got up a
7am and walked down to the Thai boxing place to meet Inge, Nicole and
Andre. Inge had been really keen to try it as its a good workout and
convinced the three of us to do it with her. I walked the 30 min walk
on my own through Pai centre in the early morning to the boxing ring,
observing the locals go about their daily business before all the
farangs (foreigners) got up. It was a nice walk. I waited for Inge
and Nicole outside the hospital where they had said the boxing place
was, but it got to 8.00 and they never showed up! I asked a few
locals where the Muay Thai school was and they pointed me in the
right direction. Eventually I found it, and Andre was there all ready
to go, but no Nicole or Inge. I looked around and was a bit
apprehensive about being the only girl, but the Canadian owner said
it was fine, and told me to get in the ring and start warming up with
all the others. After about 20 mins, the two Dutch girls showed up
and started warming up with us. What followed, was one of the most
intense, but enjoyable workouts of my life. I learnt the Thai boxing
methods first on a kick bag, and then was able to get in the ring
with a little Thai boxing champion who kept laughing at me every time
I tried to feebly punch or kick his big mits. It was really great
fun. At the end, we all had to get in the ring and do about a
thousand sit ups and press ups. That was really hard. Needless to say
by the next day, I couldn't move. I felt like I'd gone 10 rounds
with Mike Tyson.
Inge in the ring
After boxing, we went
back for a shower and Jemma picked me up on the moped. We then all
went for breakfast together and everyone decided they wanted to go
out to the caves and actually find them this time on the mopeds. I
wasn't keen, so whilst everyone else went out mopeding, I spent the
day relaxing by the pool and had an oil massage. We all met again for
tea that night, and had our last ever dinner together at the curry
shack, our favourite local, that does excellent curries. And then
Nicole starting feeling really ill with a fever, so Inge took her
home and we decided not to go out drinking because we were worried
about her. She turned out to be fine in the end, and the next day,
Jemma and I finally caught our bus out of Pai back to Chiangmai,
which we were originally meant to catch 5 days earlier, but had
changed our tickets twice due to loving Pai so much and getting stuck
there. We were sad to leave our little group and to leave the Pai
community, but we knew we had to move onto our next destination, if
nothing else because the time clock on our Vietnam Visas was ticking.
We set off for a bike
ride on a very hot and sunny morning with John from Ireland and it
was a scorcher. Jemma and I hired cheapo bikes with only 3 gears
(they cost us £1 for the whole day, can't complain), except I was
complaining, half way up the first hill, when my lowest gear was 3
and my legs couldn't turn the pedals. Still it was amazing fun, and
for every hill we had to push the bikes up, there was another long
hill to free wheel down, with the wind in our hair, cooling down our
dripping wet bodies and the amazing green mountains all around us. We
stopped half way at a view point, with psychedelic swings and chairs
and amazing views over the hills. The ride was 8km in total (to get
to the waterfalls) and when we got to 6km, I was so exhausted,
thirsty (having drank my whole 2 litres of water) and weak, I
couldn't pedal any more. What a pleasant surprise it was then, to
stumble upon a little farm, in the middle of nowhere, with a sign
saying 'stop here for fresh juice and fruit'.
Boiling hot and served fresh iced juice!
A man waved us over and
we stopped, unable to cycle any more. We sat down at a little table
in front of a quaint little farm, where we were served as much iced
red sorrel juice as we could drink (reminded me of Ribena ice lollies
I used to have as a child). He also served us passion fruits,
tamarind and potatoes with jam and peanuts. It was so refreshing! I
was literally dripping in sweat, on the verge of collapsing, and this
lovely local Thai man and his wife were waiting on us, topping up my
glass with fresh iced juice every time I finished a cup. At the end
they even produced a bottle of red sherry and insisted we all have a
taste! And all they asked for was a tip, the amount being at our
discretion. We gave him a £2 tip and he was over the moon, telling
us to come back after we had visited the waterfalls, which he
encouragingly told us were only 1km further away. Revitalised and
pumped full of fruit juice, we cycled on along the mountain path
until we finally heard the sounds of running water. Jemma and John
had gone on ahead (because I don't like going down hills fast) and as
I was coming down the last hill to the waterfall, a friendly Dutch
girl came past me on a moped and asked if I wanted a lift. She was
looking for the waterfalls too and I told her they were just down the
hill. Once at the bottom, I saw Jemma and John already in the water,
having dumped their bikes and run straight for the river. We chained
all of our bikes up and climbed the steps to the top tier, where we
saw a massive waterfall coming down from a canyon, with not many
people around.
Jemma and John cooling themselves
We all rushed in and cooled ourselves underneath it,
and then I got out and sat on the rocks and got chatting to the Dutch
girl (Nicole) and a Brazilian girl (Danielle). Jemma came out and
then slipped on the rocks and fell back in, which everyone found
amusing (apart from me because I didn't see it). When we had all
dried off, Nicole let me and Jemma have a little go on her scooter
and told us that we must hire one because they were so much fun.
Jemma and I have avoided mopeds like the plague this trip, after
meeting far too many people who have had accidents – I just don't
feel it is worth the risk. However Nicole insisted that they were
quite easy to ride and as long as you went slow and weren't drunk,
they were fine. I must admit, it was nice to ride on (for the 6
metres I went on it), but I was still too scared to hire one, even
though Jemma really wanted to hire them (they cost £2 to hire for
24hours! That's £1 more than the pedal bikes cost us!). Nicole told
us that she was meeting with another Dutch girl that night for
dinner, along with Dani, the Brazilian girl and an Aussie boy. I
asked if we could join them and we agreed to meet at 7pm outside the
bike shop. By this time it was about 3pm, so we'd have to get our
move on to get back to Pai in time to shower and make it out for tea.
Thankfully the 8km ride home was a lot easier than the ride there and
we stopped at our little farm on the way back, where we didn't even
have to get off our bikes: they brought the iced drinks to us until
we had quenched our thirst! The ride home was mainly downhill, and we
got home In time to have a shower, before heading out to meet our
group. We all met outside the bike shop. First there was me, Jemma
and Nicole from Holland, and then there was Inge, a Dutch girl Nicole
had met earlier that day, accompanied by Andre, an Aussie guy Inge
had met the previous day, Dani, a Brazilian girl, Nicole had met at
the falls and finally John, the Irish boy we had picked up on the bus
to Pai., who completed team China, our first proper unenforced team
of friends on our rtw trip.
Team China (left to right): Nicole, John, Inge, Andre, Dani
We set off from
Chiangmai at 10am in a minibus, and 762 bends later, we arrived in
Pai; the most perfect little hippy village I have ever had the
pleasure of discovering. Pai is right in the north of Thailand, 4
hours by bus from Chiangmai, and it is nestled in the most stunning
countryside of green hills and mountains. When we first got there, we
were a bit underwhelmed. We had taken travel sickness tablets for the
journey because we had heard it was a winding one, and as a
consequence, when we got to Pai, in the midday sun, we were really
drowsy and just wanted to sleep. We sat down at the nearest cafe and
had some pizza to try and wake us up and then we got in a taxi and
asked it to take us to a hostel we had been recommended: Spicy Pai.
We took one look at it and decided it wasn't for us. We then drove to
another, more luxurious hotel, which was in the same area (out of the
town centre) and we really wanted to stay there but they were booked
up. Finally, when we were too tired to look any more, the taxi driver
phoned a friend and took us to some huts in the city centre that his
friend owned. We walked with our big rucksacks, across a precarious
bamboo bridge to the huts and checked into the first hut they showed
us, for just £1 each a night! At the time I was so tired I didn't
realise that the floor of the hut had massive gaps in it and the
bathroom was covered in ants and other insects.
The hut we checked into
Looking back, I think
it was fate that the nicer hotels on the outside of the town were
booked up, because if we'd have stayed there we wouldn't have ended
up having the time we had in Pai... but before we could have an
amazing time, we first had to get through the first part of the
story. We put our bags down in the hut, and walked out into the town
to try and book a trek or some other activity. We had come to Pai for
the white water rafting but everywhere that did this was closed
because it was the dry season. There was one place offering tubing
(where you float down the river in a rubber ring) but I wasn't keen
on this (the river looked dirty and we saw a Chinese girl who had
just finished it and was far from raving over it. She said it was
basically just a long ride down a dry, dirty river). As she was
walking back from the river, we saw some locals scold her and tell
her to 'put some clothes on, you're not on a beach!' even though she
was dressed in a full swimming costume that was not revealing at all.
Having ruled out tubing and rafting, we began to look at treks, but
they were all more expensive than the ones in Chiang Mai, with one
man even wanting £90 to take us on his 'special trek' where he would
teach us to make a camp out of bamboo! I wasn't sold on this,
although Jemma wanted to do it, in the end we said no. We wandered
back to our hut a little subdued, and I lay on my bed under the fan
(the hut was like a sauna), reading the guide book. I read about
another hotel that was just down the road and cost £2.50 a night,
but was a sealed concrete bungalow, with a good fan, tv and bathroom
with hot water and flushing toilet. I checked it out online (even
huts have wifi) and it seemed to be a popular place among
backpackers, so we went down to have a look at it, and decided there
and then to take it and check in, and waste the £1 we had paid for
our hut. It was dark by this point, and we hauled our bags from our
hut, over the bamboo bridge, to our new accommodation.
Our new 'sealed' guesthouse. Mr Jan's
On the way we
met John, an Irish boy we had talked to in the minibus on the way to
Pai and he was on a bike. He rode with us to our new place and then
we went for dinner with him, followed by drinks in a bar called
'edible jazz', which was a bamboo hut with cushions on the floor. We
agreed to meet the next day to rent bikes and cycle to Pam Bok
waterfalls, which we had read in the guide book were meant to be
quite good. By the end, John was quite tipsy and stumbled off back to
his hut (which, coincidentally was the same place as we had checked
into originally) and we went back to our lovely sealed bungalow. I
was so relieved I didn't have to sleep in a hut with holes,
especially as it had no lighting on the outside: it would have been a
nightmare to get back into in the dark. Also, there are loads of
stray dogs in Pai, and on our way back to our bungalow, a pack
followed us. Luckily Jemma was able to put them off while I ran back
to the room, asserting on the way that I didn't like Pai and would be
leaving as soon as possible. The next day, we got up and went for
breakfast in the town (our new accommodation was smack bang in the
middle which was convenient) and then we met John and rented some
bikes. Within the next 24 hours, Pai was to turn from just another
town, into one of the highlights of our round the world trip...
The blogs have been a bit sparse recently because we have been stuck in Pai, having the time of our lives. We intended to stay here 2 days but its ended up being 6. But before I write about Pai, I need to catch up on Chiang Mai. After Kanchanaburi, we took a bus to Auyttya, or something like that, which is a cultural place, best known for having a Buddha's head in a tree.
Buddha in a tree
We went there just for a few hours whilst we waited for our night train to Chiang Mai. I didn't really think much of Ayutthya: after we had looked around the ruins and the Buddha in a tree, there wasn't much else to do and it was a bit more costly than Kanchanaburi, but we had to kill several hours waiting there as our night train wasn't until 9pm. We did this by having a meal and walking around the markets, and then it started to rain heavily, so we ran back to the tourist agency where we had left our bags and took cover. During this run in the dark, I tripped on a piece of metal and cut open my toe at the nail. I had to sit in the tourist place for a while dabbing away the blood and putting on a plaster. The rain was very heavy, and we caught a tuk tuk to the train station, getting quite wet in the process. Once at the train station, we waited an hour for our night train to come, and to our delight, it came on time!! (Only a 15 minute delay! :o). This night train was a lot better than the other one we had taken to Bangkok: we were in our own little cubicle with another woman, and Jemma was on the top bunk and I was on the bottom. It wasn't too bad at all. The next day, we got to Chiang Mai around 11 in the morning and took a taxi to Litlle Bird hostel - a hostel that had been recommended to us by numerous people around the world, including one boy in South America who absolutely raved about it. Chiang Mai is really cheap for accommodation, so we didn't really need to go in a dorm, but as this place had had such good reviews, we thought we'd check it out anyway.
Food is so cheap here, I am indulging every day
We paid £2 each for a bed in a 4 bed dorm, and we got what we paid for. I absolutely hated it. It was boiling hot, with just a small, rotating fan to keep the whole room cool, ants everywhere and a filthy en suite with a shower over the toilet that you had to flush with a bucket. Luckily, our room mates were lovely (two young girls from the USA) and we got on really well with them. They had been studying in Chiang Mai for the past 6 months and offered to take us out to the weekly night markets and show us around. We went round the night markets with them and had food and then when we came back that night, we stayed awake talking until 3am! After that, I didn't really sleep well anyway because of the intense heat and the next day me and Jemma decided to check out and treat ourselves to a £7 hotel around the corner. For that, we got a hotel room, with air con, satellite TV, a really nice bathroom, a fridge with free water and big comfy beds - it was bliss. The next day, we didn't do much, because we loved the room so much and spent most of the day catching up on sleep from the 2 previous nights and watching TV. In the evening, we met up with Tony, our friend from China, who has been doing a similar route to us and who we have met at various places. We were sad to hear that he was cutting his trip short and going home early because he had caught Dengue fever and had had to be in hospital in Chiang Mai for a few days.
Our teacher showing us around the food garden
The following day we were more productive and did a cookery course which was excellent. we cooked 6 Thai dishes which were all delicious and by the end of it we were so stuffed. The cookery school was in the Countryside and they had their own vegetable garden and it was all very tranquil. At the beginning of the day, the guide took us around the morning market to show us what ingredients we'd be using and at the end of the class we all got a cook book. That pretty much sums up Chiang Mai. We didn't do much there other than cook because we are going back there after Pai and are deliberating over whether to do a trek but probably wont.
More photos of Chiangmai in my facebook album, but for now I am off for an oil massage, got to make the most of cheap massages.
After our historical day at Hell Fire Pass, we decided to spend the next day doing something a bit more light hearted; we volunteered with elephants. We heard about Elephant's world off a boy in Bangkok, and when we looked it up on tripadvisor, we found that it was the number one attraction. Elephant's world is a sanctuary for old and abused elephants, many of which have lost their teeth and can't eat normal food any more. There are lots, and I mean LOTS of places in Thailand offering elephant trekking, but a great deal of these places are unethical and treat the animals really badly. For example, they hit them with metal spikes, feed them badly, make them carry tourists on their backs all day on wooden seats (their backs can only hold 50kg comfortably). So we decided to opt for an option that was a little more expensive than your average elephant trek, but a lot more rewarding. We spent the day on a big farm with about 10 elephants, where we worked for them, gathering banana tree stalks, making sticky rice (for them to eat because they have no teeth), feeding them and finally, the highlight of the day, bathing them in the river. We all chose an elephant (I asked for the most gentle one and they gave me 'Mali - the world's happiest elephant) and Jemma got John - a 5 year old, very naughty and playful elephant. I went into the river first, on Mali's neck, with the mahoot (the guy who looks after the elephant) behind me. My mahoot was only about 15 but he was lovely, and very caring with the elephants and I felt safe. We went into the river on her and she kept submerging herself in water and blowing it out of her trunk. Her ears were flapping constantly (which apparently means they are happy) and at one point, she even did a big trumpeting sound out of her trunk, which means she was very happy. It was great fun. I stayed on her the whole time and she was very gentle. John on the other hand, was not so gentle with Jemma. She had great difficulty getting on him in the first place, he kept wriggling around and blowing water. When she finally managed to get on him, he dipped under and threw her off, and also wrapped his trunk around her leg and kicked her at one point! I remember looking over and seeing Jemma behind this elephant, clinging to his back, whilst he put his hooves up on another elephant! I shouted over for her to be careful - if he'd have tipped over backwards she would have been squashed! She loved it though, and they said that he was just playful and loved to mess about in the water.
Jemma riding off on Mali
After a while, we rode the elephants out of the water and back to the farm, and I let Jemma get on Mali to give her a taste of what it was like to ride on a good elephant. When we got back, we said goodbye to the elephants and then we were dropped back at our guest house. We had got along quite well with the people there who were volunteering with us (2 English, 1 Danish and a Swiss girl) so we arranged to meet them the next night to go for food at the night market.
The water was beautiful
The next day, we got up early again, and took a motor taxi (a motorbike, with a little carriage attached to it) to the bus station. We then caught a public bus, for £1, to Erawan national park, to see, what we have been told, are Thailand's most amazing waterfalls. On the bus, we met a Dutch girl and two Belgian girls, who asked to come round with us. So, we all set off together, and climbed to the 7th tier, which took about 45 minutes. By the time we got to the top we were so hot, and got straight in for a swim. The other tiers were lovely to look at but they had loads of fish in them (the kind that nibble your feet and eat the dead skin), so we were a bit too scared to get in. The second tier seemed to be a popular one for swimming, and although it still had a lot of really big fish, we got in for a swim and swam under the falls. There were monkeys in the trees above our heads (the biggest I've seen), that would occasionally come down and steal people's food, even though people had been warned not to bring food! After we had had enough of swimming, it started to rain, which was a nice coincidence and we were glad we had come early and missed the rain. We all got some food and then got back on the bus to Kanchanaburi, which took about 2 hours. That night, we went out for food (in the rain, so we skipped the night market), with the people from the elephants and the Dutch girl from the waterfalls. We then went to a few bars and had some drinks and played pool.
Getting out of Bangkok
wasn't the easiest of missions. We first tried to take a taxi to the
northern bus station, but the taxi driver chucked us out after 2
minutes, telling us the journey was too far and not worth his while.
We therefore had to get out of the taxi, in the sweltering Bangkok
heat, with our big rucksacks, and trek up the stairs to the skytrain,
where we got on the train, and then off at the wrong stop, I lost my
ticket, we both got a bit tetchy and regretted not having paid for a
door to door minibus, got on another train, then got a taxi from the
last train stop to the northern bus station, where we quickly found a
minibus that was going to Kanchanaburi, and got in, along with a monk
who sat next to our bags (women aren't allowed to sit next to or talk
to monks). The journey there took about 4 hours but was relatively
painless, and when we got there, we shared a taxi with another girl
to the guest house we had booked. The driver initially took us to the
wrong one and then tried to charge us more for taking us to the right
one, but we weren't having any of it and I got out of the taxi, gave
him the money and refused to pay the extra. He wasn't happy about it
at all. We checked into Apples guest house, which had been
recommended by my cousin who stayed there about 12 years ago. The
woman on the front desk couldn't speak a word of English and there
was a big confusion about our reservation which we had paid for in
full online. We were dismayed to find they didn't have a pool, as
advertised in the guidebook, but the room was nice enough so we
decided we couldn't be bothered to try and find somewhere else. We
were so hungry, having not eaten all day, we ate at the restaurant
attached to the guest house, which is highly rated and is part of a
cookery school. The curry was nice but we were over charged for some
blue rice, which we didn't order and also for some cokes, so we never
ate there again. That night, we went into town, hoping to book a tour
to go to some of the attractions, but we dallied and hesitated for
too long and by the time we'd decided on a tour, the agency was shut.
We went back to the hotel and emailed the agency, asking if we could
join their tour at 8am the next morning. They emailed back saying we
could do the tour and asked us what our room number was so they could
pick us up. We emailed back and went to bed, ready for an early rise
the next day. The next day, we rushed about like mad women, trying to get
ready and have breakfast before 8am. 8.00 came and went and the bus
never showed up. At 8.15 we decided to ring the company on skype and
they said that because we had never called them at 7am to confirm the
booking, they presumed we didn't want to go. So we were now left,
having gotten up early, with no tour to the Hell Fire Pass (the place
where the Prisoners of war built a railway). So we got our guide book
out and decided to do it ourselves. We asked the woman in the
restaurant at our hotel, who also couldn't speak English, how to get
there, and somehow got it out of her that we had to catch a bus from
the main street in town. We went to the main street, but couldn't see
a bus stop, just a lost Israeli couple who were also looking for a
bus stop. In the end, we caught a taxi to the central bus station,
where we intended to take a public bus for £1 to Hell fire pass. As
we were just about to board the public bus, we were approached by a
taxi driver with a sign saying he would take us to Hell fire pass,
and all the other places on the tour we would have taken. He offered
it to us for £10 each, which was £2 cheaper than the tour, so we
took it. We got into his taxi (one of those open tuk tuk-like things)
and set off on the two hour journey to Hell fire pass. Half way
there, I looked at the driver in the mirror and realised it was the
same one from the day before who we had pissed off!
In the end, we had a
really good day and the driver turned out to be lovely. We got to
take our time looking around Hell fire pass museum and railway
cutting (we would have been rushed, had we taken the tour), and the
driver also took us to a waterfall we wanted to see and to the Bridge
over the River Kwai. It was a historically educational day and we
learnt all about the forced labour that took place during WW2, where
the Japanese forced the British, Australian, American and Asian
prisoners of war to build a railway, in horrific conditions,
resulting in the deaths of thousands. It was very moving, and
we had a free audio guide, that read out various accounts from
survivors as we walked around the remnants of the railway. Hell Fire
Pass is so called, because it looked like hell at night, when the
prisoners were forced, by the Japanese and Korean guards, to work
through the night, and chisel out a railway passage from big mountain
in the jungle, with vary basic tools. Many men died from exhaustion,
starvation and various diseases such as typhoid. The audio guide said
that the guards decided who was too weak to work that day, by making
all of the men do a stool sample, and if it contained more than 90% blood, they
were allowed to put down their tools for a day. Any less than 90% and
they were forced to work through it, being whipped and brutalised all
the long. It was actually very interesting to hear about this
Japanese brutality, after having visited Japan and the memorial
museum in Hiroshima. It almost went some way to explaining why the
Americans felt they had to drop the A-bomb – because the Japanese
simply would not give in. I'm not saying that this justified the
dropping of the bomb, but it was nonetheless interesting to see the
other side of the war. After Hell Fire Pass, the driver took us to
see a waterfall, which was a bit dried up and unimpressive, and then
we had lunch from a 7 eleven and made the 2 hour journey back to
Kanchanaburi, where he took us to see the bridge over the river Kwai.
It was just an ordinary metal bridge, and it was raining, and we
heard a train coming, so we took a few pictures and then got off it
quite quickly. They say that the film that was made isn't that
accurate and not that many died making the Bridge, but I haven't
fully looked into it. At the end of quite a heavy day, we
went out in the evening, for a meal in the town and then treat
ourselves to an hour -long massage for £5. I had an oil massage and
Jemma had her first Thai massage, which I kind of pressured her into,
telling her that she couldn't come to Thailand and not try a Thai
massage. She didn't like it any more than I liked my one on Koh Tao
and the next day she had a bad back. I felt really guilty.
The next few days in
Bangkok consisted of lots of shopping (we bought new vests for £2
with things like Chang beer on them). We went round the weekend
markets, went to the MBK centre more times than I can remember and
also went to see a movie at the Cinema there (American Pie the
reunion). This was an interesting experience, because at the start of
a film in Thailand, everyone in the Cinema has to stand for about 3
minutes, whilst they play a film of the King, documenting his life,
from birth until now. Its extremely patriotic. On our third night in
Bangkok (the night after we had been on a heavy night out), we let
the boys talk us into going out again, but this time we went to Soi
Cowboy, on the insistence of the annoying Texan, who had read about
it in a guide book and said that it was a must-do. We ended up in a
go-go bar, packed with teenage Thai girls writhing all over old,
obese Western men. We really didn't fit in, so the three of us girls
(me, Jemma and an Ozzie girl) got a taxi back to the hostel. The boys
stayed out and ended up doing the same again the next night and
spending a lot of money on the Thai women. My impression of them went
down quite a lot, not that I had ever had the best impression of the
Texan guy anyway. The next day Jemma and I went on a boat ride around
the main sights and we also visited another shopping mall called
Terminal 21, which is a brand new mall, with an airport theme, where
each level assumes the identity of a different city. They have Rome,
Paris, Tokyo, London, Istanbul and the Carribean!
The London section of the Mall (Terminal 21)
It was awesome! We
spent the whole time taking photos, and were delighted to find an
extremely cheap food court on the top level (San Francisco), where we
got a meal for 60p. There were quite a few things we missed out in
BKK but we intend to do them on our way back round. By the end of our
6 days, we were both ready to leave and were looking forward to the
more cultural and less seedy experiences that awaited us in
Kanchanaburi.
We stayed in Bangkok
longer than we had intended to due to a mixture of buckets, a nice
hostel, good people and the MBK centre (best shopping centre in the
world). We had intended to stay 3 days and then spend more time there
at the end of the trip, but in the end we stayed 6 days. We checked
into an amazing hostel called Smile Society. We didn't have our own
room but the dorms were so comfortable, with air con, bed lamps and
wifi. The owner was really nice, the hostel was modern, with lovely
bathrooms and we met some great people there. It also had a great
location: right in the middle of Patpong (the red light district)
which was good because there were loads of cheap stalls near bye and
we were right next to the sky train (best way to get around the
city). We were also one stop away from Siam square, the best shopping
area in Bangkok, and the first thing we did after we dropped off our
bags at the hostel and had a shower, was head to the MBK centre – a
shopping centre that I last visited when I was 17 and it was my
favourite thing about Thailand.
Inside the MBK centre
It is the best shopping centre in the
world! It has 7 levels packed with real brands, fake brands,
delicious food, and electronics. It has everything you could ever
want, both legit and fake, and it is an air conditioned escape from
the boiling hot city. It is a shopper's paradise! So, on the first
night we went there, we were really tired after our night train, and
ended up sampling the Thai McDonalds for the first time in Thailand,
looked around a few shops and marvelled at how much there was to buy
and talked about how much we were going to buy on the week before we
leave to go home. We even decided to buy new suitcases and just pack
them full of cheap clothes. We went back to the hostel and got
chatting to some people in the lounge and ended up going out for a
drink with them. I was really tired and went home to bed and Jemma
came back a few hours later.
The next day, we met up
with an American boy and a Canadian boy from the night before and
went to get our Vietnam visas from the embassy with them. It was
going to take 3 days so we booked a few more nights in the hostel.
After getting our visas, although we knew we were inappropriately
dressed for templing (we didn't have covered shoulders or legs) we
decided to go to the Grand Palace. We set off, in the hottest
temperatures I have experienced yet, with the two boys, the American
guy from Texas insisting on leading us there on foot and by sky train
instead of getting a taxi, which I knew would be the cheaper option
(taxis never cost any more than £2 to go anywhere in BKK). In the
end, he led us to completely the wrong place and we ended up at the
King's Palace and had to get a taxi in the end to the Grand Palace,
which would have been cheaper to do in the first place, but never
mind. When we got there, there was a man outside with a sign, telling
us the Grand Palace was shut due to a monk ceremony until 12.00 and
that it would be better if we visited the big Buddha instead and came
back later. Despite numerous warnings of this scam in all the guide
books, Jemma still fell for it, but me and the American guy cottoned
on and decided to try another entrance. Then we heard loud speakers
playing out a message to the crowds saying 'there will be people
outside the Palace who will try to delay your entry, do not listen to
them! The Palace is open every day from 9am till 5pm with no
exceptions!' This confirmed that we had just been approached by a
scammer. The next scam attempt came when we entered the palace and
tried to rent some clothes to cover ourselves up (Temple rules). We
were sure the clothes should be free, but there was a man telling us
all the free clothes had gone and we had to go outside and buy some.
Jemma and I nearly got into an argument because I was insistent that
I wouldn't pay for clothes and she wanted to go outside and buy some.
In our attractive borrowed outfits
Luckily the Canadian guy said he didn't want to pay either, and when
we asked the man again, he let us in and gave us the free clothes.
They were awful and sweaty and trekking around the palace in the
scorching sun in them was a bit of a nightmare but at least they were
free! I had been to the Palace before when I last visited Bangkok,
but Jemma was blown away by it and had to borrow my camera to take
pictures because she had lost hers. After the palace, the four of us
went for lunch at a restaurant, and then to another temple to see a
big Buddha lying down. The two boys then had a massage at the place
where Thai massages originated, but I thought they were overpriced,
and after my painful experience in Koh Tao with a Thai massage, I
decided to opt out. Jemma and I caught a taxi back to the hostel,
which took about an hour (BKK has the worst traffic ever), but only
cost us £2 between us. I then had a nap while Jemma went online.
That night, we went out for dinner and drinks on Khoasan road
(backpacker ghetto) with the two boys, plus an English guy called
James and a Korean guy called Juho. We ended up drinking buckets and
had the most hilarious drunken night ever. It was brilliant. We ended
up bartering with the sellers wandering around and bought about 15
bracelets between us with various funny sayings on them. We went to a
club and got chatting to some Thais, who taught us the words for 'I
am very drunk', which the owner of the hostel found hilarious when I
said it to her later that night in the hostel. We ended the night
with a McDonald's and rolled into bed around 4am.
I never took a photo so grabbed this one off google
We left our lovely
holiday resort in Koh Phangan early in the morning, and took a minbus
to the port, where we had to wait around 3 hours for the boat. when I
saw all of the hungover rahs at the port who had been staying on Koh
Phangan for the full Moon Party, I was so glad we had stayed in a
remote resort in Koh Phangan,. The port was full of gap year types/ annoying 'laads abroad',
dressed in fluorescent clothes, with fluorescent paint still in the
crevices of their faces, left over from the FMP. They reminded me of
Australia and everything I hate about travellers. Thank god we only
had to be in their company for a short while whilst we waited for the
boat. We busied ourselves for a while, by having a drink at a
restaurant, and then the bulk of the youths left for Koh Tao, making
us extremely pleased that we had done Koh Tao first when it was quiet
and not overrun with obnoxious gap yahs. The boat to the mainland was
fine and at the other end, we had to get on a coach that was waiting
for everyone going to Bangkok. We were a little distressed to be
getting on a coach (we have heard bad stories about coaches, whereby
a man gets in the hold with the bags and roots through everyone's
belongings whilst you're sat on the coach. Several of our friends
have had this happen to them and have ended up with more/ less items
in their bags that when they first started their journey). One of our
friends was missing all of her memory cards with all of her photos,
another found a new soap in a plastic box in her bag when she
unpacked after the journey. The men apparently get into the hold and
go through everyone's bags, taking no care to put things back
properly, so things get lost/ jumbled up. Its quite alarming because
we as travellers have no come back/ proof other than that things have
gone missing on the journey. One of our friends woke up in the night
to catch a man from the coach company searching through peoples hand
luggage whilst they were asleep! She went to the Police in Bangkok to
report it, but they fobbed her off and told her to go to the British
Embassy instead. For this reason, Jemma and I have gone out of our
way to avoid night buses in Thailand. Anyway, on this occasion, we
had to get on a coach, and it wasn't night, so we just had to hand
our belongings over and hope that it only happens at night. The coach
journey was about 3 hours, and they dropped us off outside the train
station, where we hurriedly wolfed down some street food so as not to
miss our train. No need to do that; the train was delayed by 4 hours.
So we sat there, from 6pm to 10pm, on the station platform, as the
sun set, with rats running around us and a cockroach running over my
hand at one point! Also at some point, Jemma either lost or had her
camera stolen. She isn't sure which, just remembers that the last
picture she took was of the sunset at the train station. Luckily,
whilst sat on our bags on the platform (no seats), we met a lovely
French couple, who helped us pass the hours, and engaged us in
conversation on all matter of topics, from French politics, to
Elephant trekking and Thai boxing. When the train finally came, we
had formed a small bond with them and they even invited us to stay
with them at their home in the French Alps! The train came and it was
not the most luxurious of experiences. A cabin of dirty bunk beds
packed along the aisles – with mine conveniently located just
opposite the stinking toilet and only fans to keep us cool. I tried
to get to sleep, but the stench was so horrific, I had to ask Jemma
if I could squash in top to toe with her. After an hour of trying to
sleep, cramped up and sweating, she decided to get in my old bed and
said that she thought it was a health hazard because the mattress and
surrounding wood was damp for some reason and absolutely stank. She
couldn't sleep so got up in the middle of the night and found another
empty bunk. I hardly slept at all. The train was the most noisy,
rickety, wobbly train I've ever ridden on in my life, and every time
I'd nod off, a loud whistling train would rush past ours and wake me
up. This happened about every 8 minutes, so I'd have an 8 minute
snooze and then be shaken awake by a screeching noise and an
extremely rattly cabin. It was a nightmare! Somehow, the hours passed
and morning came. The conductor came and folded all of our bunks up
so that they now turned into seats and I was sat opposite a Thai girl
and an old man/ young Thai girl couple. The train was really hot and
I was hardly getting any breeze from the window, so I was relieved
when we finally got to Bangkok station. When we got there, we went
for a farewell coffee with the French couple (I had an iced
chocolate) and then we said our goodbyes and made our way by taxi to
our hostel!
For the last few days
we have been staying here in Koh Phangan. Basically we've just
been on holiday. We've not done much, just sat by the pool,
overlooking the beach, eating in the restaurant every night.
Yesterday we took a day trip out on a boat to visit another beach
(bottle beach), which was probably the nicest beach we have seen
round the world. We also snorkelled a bit and then went to some
waterfalls (the King's favourite apparently) but they weren't very
impressive as its the dry season so they were dried up. Jemma jumped
off some more rocks and I sunbathed for a bit. We are staying in a
lovely resort recommended to us by our friend and we have a big room,
with a bathroom, air con, satellite tv, a fridge... the resort also
has a big pool on the sea front and a really nice restaurant. We have
had no cause to leave the resort except to go for a little walk.
Alas, we cant stay here forever (starting to get bored already), so e
have booked tickets to go to Bangkok tomorrow on the train and the
journey will take about 20 hours in total.
We are so relaxed here,
it isn't really travelling, its like being on holiday. We have a
bungalow on the beach, dozens of cheap, delicious restaurants to
choose from and lots of souvenir shops and bars. It isn't rowdy like
Koh Phi Phi, but really relaxed, which means we have stayed here
longer than most. We are paying £3.50 for our accommodation, and
never pay more than £4 for a meal, so we are doing well on our
budget too. During the last few days we have been to the Japanese
gardens twice to snorkel (an amazing snorkelling spot, consisting of
three little islands joined by sandbanks, where the water is crystal
clear, and the big fish swarm around your feet as soon as you step
in).
Japanese gardens
There are even cleaner rass in there, like the ones you get at
foot spas that like to nibble your dead skin. It really is a
snorkelling Mecca – the best snorkelling I have done in my life. We
have been out to the Japanese gardens twice, the first time we hired
a long boat (just me and Jemma) which cost about £4 return and took
about 15 minutes. The second time we went with Lisa (Jemma's friend),
who had recovered enough from being ill to join us for a day's
snorkelling. We have had some amazing food, Mexican, Thai curries,
English breakfasts, chocolate ice cream milkshakes, pizzas.... and we
have had good company (Lisa for 5 nights, Tony for two). After the
day we spent with Awesome adventures, we went back for another
English breakfast (super beans) as they were so amazing. We also had
a Thai massage (Jemma chose the oil one, but I chose the head, neck
and shoulder one thinking it would be relaxing but it was actually
extremely painful and I wished I'd had an oil one). I think I'll have
another one in Chang Mai where its cheaper, but not a Thai one this
time. It has been a lovely holiday and we are going to be sad to
leave. Tomorrow we are taking a boat to Koh Phangan, just in time to
miss the full Moon Party, which we both decided against going to in
the end. Koh Phangan is meant to be really quiet (well, in the
secluded area we have chosen), so it is going to be a few days of
relaxing, before heading off to hectic Bangkok!
On our second day on
Koh Tao, we got up at 7.00, checked out and got a taxi to the main
town where the diving shop was. We told the woman (Jemma's brother's
friend), that I'd decided against diving, but that Jemma would still
do an intro dive. We had breakfast in the cafe attached to the shop
(best breakfast ever – 'super beans on toast' = toast, topped with
crispy bacon, cheese, beans and Worcester sauce!)
Breakfast of kings
and then Jemma got
kitted up and went out for her dive whist I went out to look for new
accommodation closer to the main town. After looking at a few places
for £5 each a night, I settled on a 'cottage' by the beach for £3.50
a night. Very basic (you have to flush the toilet by tipping a bucket
of water down it), with a fan, not air-con, but excellent location
and no bedbugs – we were happy! After an hour and a half, I went
back to the Goodtime Adventures office to meet Jemma after her dive.
It was a really hot day and I couldn't wait to get in the sea to cool
down. We decided to go on a trip in the afternoon with Goodtime
Adventures, starting at 1pm, so we went back to our cottage, got
creamed up and then came back to the office where we joined a small
group of 6 other people. They gave us all flippers and snorkels and
then we got onto a little speed boat with a boat master, diving
instructor and climbing instructor and we had the most spectacular
boat ride around the island, where they pointed out all the main
spots, and even some of the other islands in the distance (Koh Samui
and Koh Phagnan). After a while, we stopped at a snorkelling spot
that was beautifully clear and the sea was gorgeous. We all jumped in
and snorkelled for a while, seeing such an amazing variety of fish.
One guy on the boat was having a diving lesson with the dive
instructor at the same time. They told us nothing was dangerous, but
that we might see reef sharks, which aren't dangerous, and also
trigger fish which can chase and bite you sometimes but you just have
to swim out of their territory and they leave you alone. After
snorkelling, we all climbed back into the boat and sped along to
another spot where we did cliff diving!
It was fantastic! The water
was so refreshing and turquoise. The climbing instructor showed us
how to climb up the rocks and we then got to jump off cliffs of
3metres, 9m and 12m. I was the last one to jump off the 3m because I
found it hard to climb up the rocks (it was quite scary, often having
to jump across gorges to get to the diving rocks). I was too scared
to jump off the 3m (it doesn't sound that high, but when you're on
top of a rock looking into the sea it is!) One girl couldn't do it
and simply couldn't bring herself to jump. She spent the whole time
on the edge fretting, with her boyfriend trying to coax her off. I
went eventually, telling myself it wasn't even as high as a high
diving board. It was fine, except for a little water up the nose.
The sea
We
then moved onto the 9m, which was a lot scarier, but I did it. I
could really feel myself falling for a long time and screamed
mid-air. I had a lot of water up the nose that time and clapped my
teeth together slightly, which consequently made me think it might
not be a good idea to do the 12. Jemma and all the others did the 12m
(apart from myself and 2 other girls) and most people who did it said
it hurt in some way, so I'm glad I didn't do it in the end. Jemma
said she did the splits in the water as she hit the surface and the
sea forced her legs into the splits which really hurt her hips. Some
people did dives and somersaults, and in the end, as the boat was
getting ready to leave, the girl who had been on the edge of the 3m,
by now for over and hour, was finally coaxed down by the diving
instructor and everybody clapped. It was an amazing experience, I'm
really glad we did it and I would highly recommend it!
Iced coke with the sunset
After the cliff diving,
we did some more snorkelling in an area renowned for sharks, and to
our delight, we saw 5 sharks!
We were so happy, it really rounded off
our amazing day! We then got the speedboat back to the office on the
beach and all had a complimentary beer/ coke whilst watching the
sunset on the beach. It was a brilliant day. Once we'd had our
drinks, we went back to the bungalow to get showered and go out for
tea with Lisa in the town. As we were walking to the restaurant, we
bumped into the Chinese guy, Tony who we spent time with in Penang
and Langkawi. We invited him out for dinner with us and we had yummy
Thai curry. It was the perfect end to the perfect Round the World
day!
