Huge apologies for the length of time since our last entry. Every day has been taken up with sightseeing, meeting people in the evening or travelling. We are tired but we are going to relax for a while when we get to the Thai islands.
Okay we last left you at Louang Prabang. Such a nice town and its taken a long time to see another one.Unfortunately we missed the 'VIP' bus to Vang Vieng and had to get a local one. It really didnt look bad from the outside but when we got into the bus we had to climb over bags of rice that were 2 bags high all the way to the back of the bus. We piled on and when the bus was full,on arrived monks so the locals had to move. There is a rule that the back seat is kept for the monks in case they get on but tourists (who had missed their bus) sat at the back and the locals moved instead. Monks aren't allowed to look at women or sit next to them. Some seem strict but others love the attention of tourists. A while into the bus ride we heard a mobile phone ringtone of a Christmas jingle, we had a good laugh when a monk pulled a brand new flip phone from his robe!Stuart said that he saw a group of monks and one of them takes out a central locking remote and sees the lights flashing for a new Range Rover. They all jump in and turn on some tunes.
The bus ride was fine , scenery was absolutely beautiful as we were going from one mountain to the next which at some points was particularly hairy. Bourkie was sitting next to the window and only told me these things afterwards.
We got into Vang Vieng around6 and got somewhere to stay. We bumped into an Irish girl that we had met onthe slow boat to Louang Prabang and was all excited about the tubing and that she was going again tomorrow. The town has a lovely laidback atmosphere with bars where you can lie down and watch episodes of Friends,Family Guy etc. There was loads of Irish there after having come back from tubing. Basically its going down the river on a rubber tube stopping off at bars on the way. Unfortunately myself and Bourkie didn't actually make it tubing after enjoying the atmosphere a little too much the previous night and we were a little tired and emotional!
From there we got onto a local bus from Vang Vieng to Vientiane which was only 5 hours. It was actually quite difficult to get somewhere to stay and Louisa,Stuart,myself, Bourkie and Jimmy had to wander around for a while to get somewhere decent and reasonably priced. We took a stroll around the city to get some of the atmosphere and found none.There was a mini arc de triumph and a fountain that was set to music from such artists as Ronan Keating and Shane Ward, a little surreal.The following day we made it our mission to get out of Laos as soon as possible since Vientiane was such a disappointment. We found a 24 hour bus for $18 dollars to Hanoi ,also known as the 'Hell Bus' which left that night.
The bus was a filthy, cold wreck driven by lunatics and one very strange man who slept at the back of the bus and made me want to cover myself from head to toe after he touched me. He ordered people to sit in particular parts of the bus for no particular reason even though there were plenty of free seats. I had put one of my bags on the seat next to us which he kept on moving from one seat to the other for people rather than telling them to sit in a free seat. He even asked two people to sit together so that the bag sat on two seats. At midnight they stopped the bus and turned off the engine. This was a very bad omen. They never turn off their engines, even when filling up their tanks. The poor innocent Irish girls on the bus thought they were coming back,we knew better. At 6am the drivers and the wacko from the back of the bus returned , refreshed and well fed.On we drove to the Laos border to exit and the Vietnam border to enter. When we got to the border we were literally at the top of a mountain and it was cold and rainy.We arrived in Hanoi at around 6 o clock. I actually didn't go to the toilet once since I had an aversion to squat toilets. A fear that I have now overcome. Ourselves and the Irish girls went to a backpackers place that they had booked but they had no rooms. We trudged through Hanoi trying to find somewhere to stay. After our traumatic bus ride we treated ourselves to a nice hotel for $30 for two nights.Okay I think this entry is long enough so we'll continue tomorrow. I have finally succeed in getting some photos onto Kodakgallery but have to copy the photos onto a computer first so will hopefully have photos on the blog tomorrow!!!Let me know if you have a kodakgallery account and I can share photos with you!!
Hope all the Americans had a great thanksgiving and prayed for us here going through the typhoon which is Vietnam at the moment!
Friday, November 23, 2007
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Buses,boats and waterfalls-Laos style
I forgot to include some interesting things from our last blog entry.
We caved in and had Burger King on the Sunday and it was good, actually settled our stomachs a little bit. Talking about stomachs,lots of conversations with other backpackers have been based on our digestive movements but its common over here,everyone does it. But we have been lucky so far.Actually last night one guy came out of his bedroom while we were sitting on the balcony with others and just said 'Ive got to puke now,Ive got food poisoning'. It seems he wasn't the only one and his friend joined him quite frequently.
Okay so we've been in Laos for 4 days but boy was it a trek to get here, 3 days in total.
We really didnt have a clue, thinking it would be a couple of hours on a bus and 2 full days on a boat. It was 6 hours on the bus the first day to the village of Chiang Khong which is on the border with Laos. We had the name of the guesthouse with us and looked it up in our guidebooks and got all excited when we read the review that it had hot showers and ensuite bathrooms. We were sorely disappointed. It was 4 walls and a bed with shared bathrooms. Though the little village was cool with an English bookshop and bars when we could pick the film you watched so we watched Blades of Glory and Fracture which wasn't bad.The following day we got on a boat to cross the river to the border which some people thought was the boat for 2 days(will include pictures here later!). Went through immigration on the other side and made our way to the little port. There we were sat down and the guy who gave us the tickets engaged in some scaremongering which definitely worked on me. He said that we would be on the boat until the evening time and that we would stop at a village where only his guesthouse had electricity and the rooms would be $20.Unfortunately some girls booked his guesthouse and they were supposed to be met there but nobody showed up and they paid in advance.The guesthouse didnt even exist.Rooms turned out to be quite cheap and we got a lovely ensuite room(albeit with only cold water) for less than $8.On top of that he said everytime the boat stopped that the locals would try to take our bags off the boat.Oh and that the little village(Pakbeng) wouldn't accept anything but Laos kip(the currency). All complete bull. But to be sure we locked our bags in with an English couple who we have been travelling with for the last four days. Yes the village was basic and yes the electricity went out at 10pm but it wasn't all that bad since we fell in love with the Laos coffee- definitely try coffee with condensed milk,yum!
8th-Slow boat to Pakbang - The boat packed in about 100 people with bags in the back and had plastic garden chairs for around half the people which weren't secured to the ground.God was it slow, the first hour took forever but people started to socialise and there was some lovely scenery on the way. The first day they only sold beer(to the delight of the Irish on board) and at some stops locals came onboard with taytoes and soft drinks.
9th-Slow boat to Luang Prabang - In the morning we were up bright and early to get the boat and didnt really know where they were going to be. We started looking for the boat but then we could see loads of people on another boat and asked if it was going to Luang Prabang and jumped on. But we could still see that people were just sitting on the port as if they were waiting for another boat. This is not a place you just want to wait at as there is nothing to do and there would not be another boat for a day. We called out to some friends who finally came on board. They were told that there was going to be another boat but realised this was not going to be the case. We were packed in like sardines and there were little wooden benches instead of plastic chairs. Luckily we bought a cushion before we left Thailand, the fact that there was so many for sale was enough of a hint that they were needed.We reached Louang Prabang at around 6pm and there was some rush off the boat to get rooms. Basically every day the boat arrives in and everyone scrambles to get a room. Most dont have guidebooks but even though we knew where we wanted to go, there are few street signs telling you where you are. Finally we got somewhere cheap, again shared bathrooms but we were glad the panic was over. Due to my fantastic haggling abilities I got our room for 100,000 kip for 3 nights. Expensive eh? Not when you consider that there is 13,500 kip to the euro and our accommodation had only cost us 7.40 euro.
Everything here is cheap but its strange in other ways, breakfast cost us two nights accommodation and the beer is half a night's accommodation, but for 80 cent for 640ml(over a pint)where can you go wrong.
The town is really nice, small but a really laid back atmosphere. There is a French colonial feel here with wooden shutters and cafes on the street. It's been the first place where we can get baguettes(yum) and lovely coffee.Other than that there isn't any French spoken or french signs. The streets are lit up with old style lanterns and lovely night markets selling jewellery, bedclothes and cakes. The town shuts down around 11pm with our guesthouse closing its doors around 10:30 and you need a dancing licence for the late bars of which there are only 2!After 11pm everyone goes onto the bowling alley where there isn't a dancing licence. They all pile onto tuk tuks.Last night I saw about 20 people on a tuk tuk ,weighed down with people hanging off and scrapping the ground. Unfortunately they have a tactic of stopping the tuk tuk half way home and saying they have broken down so that people can mug you. Myself and two other girls were sitting on a street just about to go back to where Bourkie and the others were watching a soccer match when these two guys stopped and asked us if we wanted a 'good time'. We said no and we got up to leave. At this point the bars on the street had closed and there were only some people passing on mopeds. We walked on and they circled around and stopped when we were looking at a Wat and asked did we want see it. Again we said no and carried on. Suddenly,one of them jumped off the moped and snatched Louisa's bag. She turned and ran after him throwin a bottle of beer at him as well as the other girl. Since I was a couple of steps in front I didnt see what happened and thought he had just slapped her arse.It was only when she came back that she said he had gotten her bag. Unfortunately it was a light material one and he could break the strap.Distraught as we were,we realised that there was just a few euros worth in the bag and cards that he would need pins for. Nevertheless she cancelled all her cards but when she went to report it to the police they were closed.Amazingly, police here only have to fight crime from 9-5,Monday to Friday.Criminals dont need day jobs. Turns out as well that our guesthouse isn't the safest as a guy that we were talking to found one of the staff in his room when he came back a couple of minutes after leaving to get his passport. Supposedly a mouse ran into his room.You couldn't fit a piece of paper under the door. From this we have learned that we will now use our own locks for the doors. Other than that Lao people are really nice. Food is lovely just not as spicy as Thailand.There is one ATM in the town which usually has a queue and you are limited to taking out 50 euro at a time!
11th-Kuang Si Waterfall- Today we headed to this waterfall about 40 minutes from Louang Prabang in the back of an old pick up trunk.Apart from being really impressive size wise,its also a great place to swim.There are smaller waterfalls that can be jumped off and a rope to swing from. The guys suddenly turned into 5 year olds and had to be dragged out. There is also rescued bears and a tiger on the same site.
Tomorrow,myself,Bourkie,an English couple(Louisa and Stuart) as well two others James and Tara are heading to Vang Vieng. Further south,this is just a little town but known for loads of different activities such as tubing, zip-lining and rockclimbing. Some Irish girls(one from Knocknagree,Sile from the QuickPick shop!) are meeting us there tomorrow.Off we go on the road around 8am tomorrow morning for a 6 hour bus ride there.
We really hope its just as nice as Louang Prabang.
Still trying to work out our route to Vietnam but more on that later.
Talk to you soon
Richard and Clare
We caved in and had Burger King on the Sunday and it was good, actually settled our stomachs a little bit. Talking about stomachs,lots of conversations with other backpackers have been based on our digestive movements but its common over here,everyone does it. But we have been lucky so far.Actually last night one guy came out of his bedroom while we were sitting on the balcony with others and just said 'Ive got to puke now,Ive got food poisoning'. It seems he wasn't the only one and his friend joined him quite frequently.
Okay so we've been in Laos for 4 days but boy was it a trek to get here, 3 days in total.
We really didnt have a clue, thinking it would be a couple of hours on a bus and 2 full days on a boat. It was 6 hours on the bus the first day to the village of Chiang Khong which is on the border with Laos. We had the name of the guesthouse with us and looked it up in our guidebooks and got all excited when we read the review that it had hot showers and ensuite bathrooms. We were sorely disappointed. It was 4 walls and a bed with shared bathrooms. Though the little village was cool with an English bookshop and bars when we could pick the film you watched so we watched Blades of Glory and Fracture which wasn't bad.The following day we got on a boat to cross the river to the border which some people thought was the boat for 2 days(will include pictures here later!). Went through immigration on the other side and made our way to the little port. There we were sat down and the guy who gave us the tickets engaged in some scaremongering which definitely worked on me. He said that we would be on the boat until the evening time and that we would stop at a village where only his guesthouse had electricity and the rooms would be $20.Unfortunately some girls booked his guesthouse and they were supposed to be met there but nobody showed up and they paid in advance.The guesthouse didnt even exist.Rooms turned out to be quite cheap and we got a lovely ensuite room(albeit with only cold water) for less than $8.On top of that he said everytime the boat stopped that the locals would try to take our bags off the boat.Oh and that the little village(Pakbeng) wouldn't accept anything but Laos kip(the currency). All complete bull. But to be sure we locked our bags in with an English couple who we have been travelling with for the last four days. Yes the village was basic and yes the electricity went out at 10pm but it wasn't all that bad since we fell in love with the Laos coffee- definitely try coffee with condensed milk,yum!
8th-Slow boat to Pakbang - The boat packed in about 100 people with bags in the back and had plastic garden chairs for around half the people which weren't secured to the ground.God was it slow, the first hour took forever but people started to socialise and there was some lovely scenery on the way. The first day they only sold beer(to the delight of the Irish on board) and at some stops locals came onboard with taytoes and soft drinks.
9th-Slow boat to Luang Prabang - In the morning we were up bright and early to get the boat and didnt really know where they were going to be. We started looking for the boat but then we could see loads of people on another boat and asked if it was going to Luang Prabang and jumped on. But we could still see that people were just sitting on the port as if they were waiting for another boat. This is not a place you just want to wait at as there is nothing to do and there would not be another boat for a day. We called out to some friends who finally came on board. They were told that there was going to be another boat but realised this was not going to be the case. We were packed in like sardines and there were little wooden benches instead of plastic chairs. Luckily we bought a cushion before we left Thailand, the fact that there was so many for sale was enough of a hint that they were needed.We reached Louang Prabang at around 6pm and there was some rush off the boat to get rooms. Basically every day the boat arrives in and everyone scrambles to get a room. Most dont have guidebooks but even though we knew where we wanted to go, there are few street signs telling you where you are. Finally we got somewhere cheap, again shared bathrooms but we were glad the panic was over. Due to my fantastic haggling abilities I got our room for 100,000 kip for 3 nights. Expensive eh? Not when you consider that there is 13,500 kip to the euro and our accommodation had only cost us 7.40 euro.
Everything here is cheap but its strange in other ways, breakfast cost us two nights accommodation and the beer is half a night's accommodation, but for 80 cent for 640ml(over a pint)where can you go wrong.
The town is really nice, small but a really laid back atmosphere. There is a French colonial feel here with wooden shutters and cafes on the street. It's been the first place where we can get baguettes(yum) and lovely coffee.Other than that there isn't any French spoken or french signs. The streets are lit up with old style lanterns and lovely night markets selling jewellery, bedclothes and cakes. The town shuts down around 11pm with our guesthouse closing its doors around 10:30 and you need a dancing licence for the late bars of which there are only 2!After 11pm everyone goes onto the bowling alley where there isn't a dancing licence. They all pile onto tuk tuks.Last night I saw about 20 people on a tuk tuk ,weighed down with people hanging off and scrapping the ground. Unfortunately they have a tactic of stopping the tuk tuk half way home and saying they have broken down so that people can mug you. Myself and two other girls were sitting on a street just about to go back to where Bourkie and the others were watching a soccer match when these two guys stopped and asked us if we wanted a 'good time'. We said no and we got up to leave. At this point the bars on the street had closed and there were only some people passing on mopeds. We walked on and they circled around and stopped when we were looking at a Wat and asked did we want see it. Again we said no and carried on. Suddenly,one of them jumped off the moped and snatched Louisa's bag. She turned and ran after him throwin a bottle of beer at him as well as the other girl. Since I was a couple of steps in front I didnt see what happened and thought he had just slapped her arse.It was only when she came back that she said he had gotten her bag. Unfortunately it was a light material one and he could break the strap.Distraught as we were,we realised that there was just a few euros worth in the bag and cards that he would need pins for. Nevertheless she cancelled all her cards but when she went to report it to the police they were closed.Amazingly, police here only have to fight crime from 9-5,Monday to Friday.Criminals dont need day jobs. Turns out as well that our guesthouse isn't the safest as a guy that we were talking to found one of the staff in his room when he came back a couple of minutes after leaving to get his passport. Supposedly a mouse ran into his room.You couldn't fit a piece of paper under the door. From this we have learned that we will now use our own locks for the doors. Other than that Lao people are really nice. Food is lovely just not as spicy as Thailand.There is one ATM in the town which usually has a queue and you are limited to taking out 50 euro at a time!
11th-Kuang Si Waterfall- Today we headed to this waterfall about 40 minutes from Louang Prabang in the back of an old pick up trunk.Apart from being really impressive size wise,its also a great place to swim.There are smaller waterfalls that can be jumped off and a rope to swing from. The guys suddenly turned into 5 year olds and had to be dragged out. There is also rescued bears and a tiger on the same site.
Tomorrow,myself,Bourkie,an English couple(Louisa and Stuart) as well two others James and Tara are heading to Vang Vieng. Further south,this is just a little town but known for loads of different activities such as tubing, zip-lining and rockclimbing. Some Irish girls(one from Knocknagree,Sile from the QuickPick shop!) are meeting us there tomorrow.Off we go on the road around 8am tomorrow morning for a 6 hour bus ride there.
We really hope its just as nice as Louang Prabang.
Still trying to work out our route to Vietnam but more on that later.
Talk to you soon
Richard and Clare
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Jungle Boogie
We last left you on the night before getting the bus to Chiang Mai. We arrived there around late afternoon and found out that we weren't going trekking the following day so we went to the Irish pub, U.N Irish pub to watch the Arsenal V Man U game and just chatting to a Scottish guy and two lads from Galway. The Guinness(for Bourkie) and the cider(Clare) was nice, a tad expensive by Thai standards but we stayed for a few or more and the Scottish guy brought us to see the local 'delights'. Since we hadn't seen Thai lady-boys in Bangkok we couldn't leave the country without seeing them!The Galway lads got fierce nervous trying to figure out which was a real lady, one of them having already falling for a prostitute in Bangkok and now they are texting! We only stayed there for one and went on to get kicked out of another bar because we wouldn't pay for drinks that we hadn't ordered. The local femme fatale had ordered them in the hope that the Irish lads would be suckered into buying them and more. After that we called it a night.
The next day we walked around the Sunday markets.It was which was full of really cool trinkets and tit-bits.We landed in an Irish restaurant called the lucky leprechaun, Bourkie was hankering for mashed potatoes and boy did he get them!The bar was owned by a man from Limerick who had an accent like Terry Wogan and was married to a local girl. Savage meal with Guinness steak and kidney pie and the best club sandwich ive ever had with fried egg!
We got ourselves to bed early in preparation for the next day's trekking.
We met our group the night before which contained Irish, Danish, English ,Canadian and French and mostly around our age which made for really good craic. First we went to the authorities to give copies of our passport just in case they had to contact a family member if we died along the way which wasn't the best start!After lunch we went elephant riding for about 40 minutes. Bourkie got to ride the elephant without the guide but the elephant kept on blowing out slimy stuff from his trunk.The elephants weren't exactly free and we felt exploited in the sense that they kept stopping for the tourists to buy the elephants bananas. The elephants knew every time we were stopping cause they would bring their trunks back in a way asking for bananas as the guides didn't feed them, well while we were there anyway. They stopped to eat some of the vegetation every now and then. This was followed by a couple of hours trekking and then to a waterfall where everyone jumped in for a swim(I didnt have the courage). Glad in a way that I didnt,you should see the photos of Bourkie in the water in a state of shock under the waterfall. Unfortunately this computer doesn't even have a USB for us to plug our camera in.Again we will try in Laos to post photos.
On we trekked to the local village where we were staying after having trekked in total 8 kilometers over rough uphill terrain.We were all sharing a room on bamboo stilts.There was a bucket of water to flush the toilet and another to shower with though nobody ventured to take a shower probably cause they couldn't figure out which bucket to use! The locals kept to themselves apart from making us dinner and breakfast. Because it was dry we were able to light a fire and we all sat around singing and drinking in the jungle over 1000 metres above sea-level.
Today we trekked for a couple of hours uphill which was harder than yesterday, stopped for lunch before going bamboo rafting.The guide reckoned that we covered 15 km today which explains why we are both so tired now!
Bamboo rafting entails balancing 4 people and a guide on 6 long bamboo shoots tied together going down river. There is nothing you can do but embrace the coldness of the water. Bourkie was sitting at the back and had to use a bamboo to steer his way to avoid rocks and trees. We bought a funny photo of us on the water, wait til you see Bourkie's face!We returned to our guesthouse a couple of hours ago and are getting ready for our next journey, a two day slow boat along the Mekong River into Luang Prabang in Laos. To be honest we are glad that there isn't much effort needed for this as it seems we have been on the go since we arrived.
Our next entry im hoping will contain photos and will be brought to you from Laos in two days.
Until then,keep it real.
Clare and Bourkie
The next day we walked around the Sunday markets.It was which was full of really cool trinkets and tit-bits.We landed in an Irish restaurant called the lucky leprechaun, Bourkie was hankering for mashed potatoes and boy did he get them!The bar was owned by a man from Limerick who had an accent like Terry Wogan and was married to a local girl. Savage meal with Guinness steak and kidney pie and the best club sandwich ive ever had with fried egg!
We got ourselves to bed early in preparation for the next day's trekking.
We met our group the night before which contained Irish, Danish, English ,Canadian and French and mostly around our age which made for really good craic. First we went to the authorities to give copies of our passport just in case they had to contact a family member if we died along the way which wasn't the best start!After lunch we went elephant riding for about 40 minutes. Bourkie got to ride the elephant without the guide but the elephant kept on blowing out slimy stuff from his trunk.The elephants weren't exactly free and we felt exploited in the sense that they kept stopping for the tourists to buy the elephants bananas. The elephants knew every time we were stopping cause they would bring their trunks back in a way asking for bananas as the guides didn't feed them, well while we were there anyway. They stopped to eat some of the vegetation every now and then. This was followed by a couple of hours trekking and then to a waterfall where everyone jumped in for a swim(I didnt have the courage). Glad in a way that I didnt,you should see the photos of Bourkie in the water in a state of shock under the waterfall. Unfortunately this computer doesn't even have a USB for us to plug our camera in.Again we will try in Laos to post photos.
On we trekked to the local village where we were staying after having trekked in total 8 kilometers over rough uphill terrain.We were all sharing a room on bamboo stilts.There was a bucket of water to flush the toilet and another to shower with though nobody ventured to take a shower probably cause they couldn't figure out which bucket to use! The locals kept to themselves apart from making us dinner and breakfast. Because it was dry we were able to light a fire and we all sat around singing and drinking in the jungle over 1000 metres above sea-level.
Today we trekked for a couple of hours uphill which was harder than yesterday, stopped for lunch before going bamboo rafting.The guide reckoned that we covered 15 km today which explains why we are both so tired now!
Bamboo rafting entails balancing 4 people and a guide on 6 long bamboo shoots tied together going down river. There is nothing you can do but embrace the coldness of the water. Bourkie was sitting at the back and had to use a bamboo to steer his way to avoid rocks and trees. We bought a funny photo of us on the water, wait til you see Bourkie's face!We returned to our guesthouse a couple of hours ago and are getting ready for our next journey, a two day slow boat along the Mekong River into Luang Prabang in Laos. To be honest we are glad that there isn't much effort needed for this as it seems we have been on the go since we arrived.
Our next entry im hoping will contain photos and will be brought to you from Laos in two days.
Until then,keep it real.
Clare and Bourkie
Friday, November 2, 2007
We wanted to include a picture of Thailand so that you can get a good idea of where we have been and where we are going but for some reason there is has been errors with this for the last few days, we will update the other posts with photos soon.
Cant believe its already been a week since we've left and what a week we've had, each day has been action packed!
Yesterday we left you with getting into Sukhothai at 4:30am, half asleep and absolutely exhausted. A guy approached us as we got off the bus to get a tuk tuk, trying to rip us off so I said that we would just wait for the bus so he reduced his price!The tuk tuks here are different with the passengers in front and the motorcycle behind. This we took to the old city of Sukhothai for 12 kilometers.
To give you some background, Sukhothai was the official capital of Thailand between the 12-1300s with we estimate over 50 temples and shrines adorned with sculptures and statues of Buddhas.
The old city is divided into 5 areas, central being the biggest, then north, south,east and west.
Having only gotten to sleep at 5am we could only cover the central area yesterday on foot which is covered with different Wats or temple ruins.
We woke up in a hard bed and a walled area for the bathroom with sink, toilet and shower. The shower is right next to the toilet so basically the whole of the bathroom gets soaked everytime we have a shower but we are most certainly not complaining, its a hot shower and we now know how to use the toilets in the more remote areas.
Today we went to the museum after breakfast but unfortunately it started to rain and we were stopped from exploring the other areas until later in the day when we rented bikes. We headed to the Northern part of the old city which is completely surrounded by a moat which is easily 50 metres wide.Afterwards we saw another Wat in Northwestern part where we saw the strangest thing yet. This fish was wriggling its way across the carpark over gravel and grass from and to god knows where. We were gobsmacked and watched it til it apparently stopped. After we came out it had gotten to the end of the carpark near the entrance where there was a little grassy hill to the river. He looked like he was out of stream so we helped him on his way. Bourkie tried to pick him up but he was too slippery. He was a kind of catfish with whiskers at the side of his head and he was quite big(we will add photos later!). We left content in the knowledge that we had helped a fish live another day.Next we headed onto the Western part which contains Wats on hills, by this time it was getting close to dusk so we climbed what looked like a wall 250 metres up a hill to another Wat. After this we really got concerned about the time as dusk here starts around 6 and its already dark by 6:30. We raced to a cross roads and with no recognisable places shown we took a chance, coming to the next crossroads we started to get worried but saw a sign for a Wat we recognised but it was still over 2 km away, in the end we cut through the central area and boy were we sweating by the time we got home. We reckon that we cycled around 10 km in about 2 hours with breaks to see the different Wats. We both agree that we really like Sukhothai but we are all Wated out and ready to move on. The highlights had to be the lovely Wats in the central area and the delicious local food with Thai green curries, thai omelettes, apple and coffee shakes!
But to be honest we have been very lucky with the weather, humid but nicely overcast and it only rained today and we are getting further into the cool season.
Tomorrow we get a bus to Chiang Mai which will take about 5 hours and is the second biggest city in Thailand. Here we have an action packed 3 days of trekking, elephant riding and rafting but more about that in the next few days.
Hope all's well at home and please keep us up to date with the goings on at home and thanks for your comments, keep them coming!
Love and Bubbles,
Richard and Clare
Cant believe its already been a week since we've left and what a week we've had, each day has been action packed!
Yesterday we left you with getting into Sukhothai at 4:30am, half asleep and absolutely exhausted. A guy approached us as we got off the bus to get a tuk tuk, trying to rip us off so I said that we would just wait for the bus so he reduced his price!The tuk tuks here are different with the passengers in front and the motorcycle behind. This we took to the old city of Sukhothai for 12 kilometers.
To give you some background, Sukhothai was the official capital of Thailand between the 12-1300s with we estimate over 50 temples and shrines adorned with sculptures and statues of Buddhas.
The old city is divided into 5 areas, central being the biggest, then north, south,east and west.
Having only gotten to sleep at 5am we could only cover the central area yesterday on foot which is covered with different Wats or temple ruins.
We woke up in a hard bed and a walled area for the bathroom with sink, toilet and shower. The shower is right next to the toilet so basically the whole of the bathroom gets soaked everytime we have a shower but we are most certainly not complaining, its a hot shower and we now know how to use the toilets in the more remote areas.
Today we went to the museum after breakfast but unfortunately it started to rain and we were stopped from exploring the other areas until later in the day when we rented bikes. We headed to the Northern part of the old city which is completely surrounded by a moat which is easily 50 metres wide.Afterwards we saw another Wat in Northwestern part where we saw the strangest thing yet. This fish was wriggling its way across the carpark over gravel and grass from and to god knows where. We were gobsmacked and watched it til it apparently stopped. After we came out it had gotten to the end of the carpark near the entrance where there was a little grassy hill to the river. He looked like he was out of stream so we helped him on his way. Bourkie tried to pick him up but he was too slippery. He was a kind of catfish with whiskers at the side of his head and he was quite big(we will add photos later!). We left content in the knowledge that we had helped a fish live another day.Next we headed onto the Western part which contains Wats on hills, by this time it was getting close to dusk so we climbed what looked like a wall 250 metres up a hill to another Wat. After this we really got concerned about the time as dusk here starts around 6 and its already dark by 6:30. We raced to a cross roads and with no recognisable places shown we took a chance, coming to the next crossroads we started to get worried but saw a sign for a Wat we recognised but it was still over 2 km away, in the end we cut through the central area and boy were we sweating by the time we got home. We reckon that we cycled around 10 km in about 2 hours with breaks to see the different Wats. We both agree that we really like Sukhothai but we are all Wated out and ready to move on. The highlights had to be the lovely Wats in the central area and the delicious local food with Thai green curries, thai omelettes, apple and coffee shakes!
But to be honest we have been very lucky with the weather, humid but nicely overcast and it only rained today and we are getting further into the cool season.
Tomorrow we get a bus to Chiang Mai which will take about 5 hours and is the second biggest city in Thailand. Here we have an action packed 3 days of trekking, elephant riding and rafting but more about that in the next few days.
Hope all's well at home and please keep us up to date with the goings on at home and thanks for your comments, keep them coming!
Love and Bubbles,
Richard and Clare
Thursday, November 1, 2007
CIE Thai Style
Cant believe its Thursday already, having a hard time remembering all thats happened since Tuesday!
Because the jetlag hit us on the Monday, could not sleep on Monday night, actually stopped my alarm clock before it went off at 5:30am!
The van picked us up at 6:30am with our take away breakfast rolls and bags of fruit in tow, we headed West to Kanchanaburi with some other travellers(the mcdonaghs from galway,not!)
Bourkie woke me up 3 hours later, we arrived at the WW2 war cemetary at Kanchanaburi where the WW2 soldiers who died during the construction the bridge over the River Kwai and the railway known as the Death Railway, going from Thailand to Burma. Most soldiers were between 23-30 and from England, the Netherlands and Australia. Beautifully kept but very poignant.
Next we went onto the see the actual bridge over the River Kwai and took the death railway along the river.After that we got lunch at a floating restaurant on the river.Unbeknownst to us, there were extras to be seen, such as tigers, unfortunately we didnt bring enough money and presumed they were all in cages anyway. This French dude called Raphael got it into his head that he wanted to see caves and as there were only 3 of us left and because we are nice, we went along,as you can tell I was a little bitter but did enjoy them.
After dinner we got a speed boat to our 'hotel'. Raphael had told us that the floating hotel was nice so we had images of a flushing toilet and hot shower, we were to be disappointed. Basic is a nice word that we will use. After a couple of unfortunate tries on other toilets we figured out how to use these ones, throw away the toilet paper and use a hose to flush.....the shower was cold and did we know it, to say Bourkie was making strange noises was an understatement, I thought he was hyperventilating. I didnt have the courage to put my head under.
Next morning we headed to the Erawan national park where there is a 7 tier waterfall and it takes 2.5km uphill trek to get to the top with some makeshift ladders and steps, very glad we wore good runners but there was beautiful scenes.
We were brought back to Bangkok where we picked up our bags and passports with all our visas for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. One of the travel agents brought us to the train station where we expected to get the train further north to Sukhothai. That was not to be. There was a train strike, announced 10 minutes previous and they had no idea of when trains would run next. Our first reaction was whether we could get a bus to Sukhothai instead. With some help, we found out this was possible and raced to the North of the city through rush hour to the station. We thought that all tourists would have headed to the Mo Chit bus station in the North but noticed that we were the only 'non-locals' there!!!!!!! We couldn't understand why more didnt follow especially since we could see the tv and see people sleeping in the train station and we got a '1st class air-conditioned' bus ticket for half the price, CIE- eat your heart out, it only cost 7 euro each to take us to Sukhothai, 450km away.
Blurry eyed, we reached our destination at 4:30am after leaving at 10pm with air conditioned meaning air conditioning the whole time, whether or not its freezing, thank god they gave us blankets and even a little drink with a cake!
Well, we are hungry and there are cheap cocktails to be had so we will tell you all about Sukhothai tomorrow! Planters Punch all round!
Because the jetlag hit us on the Monday, could not sleep on Monday night, actually stopped my alarm clock before it went off at 5:30am!
The van picked us up at 6:30am with our take away breakfast rolls and bags of fruit in tow, we headed West to Kanchanaburi with some other travellers(the mcdonaghs from galway,not!)
Bourkie woke me up 3 hours later, we arrived at the WW2 war cemetary at Kanchanaburi where the WW2 soldiers who died during the construction the bridge over the River Kwai and the railway known as the Death Railway, going from Thailand to Burma. Most soldiers were between 23-30 and from England, the Netherlands and Australia. Beautifully kept but very poignant.
Next we went onto the see the actual bridge over the River Kwai and took the death railway along the river.After that we got lunch at a floating restaurant on the river.Unbeknownst to us, there were extras to be seen, such as tigers, unfortunately we didnt bring enough money and presumed they were all in cages anyway. This French dude called Raphael got it into his head that he wanted to see caves and as there were only 3 of us left and because we are nice, we went along,as you can tell I was a little bitter but did enjoy them.
After dinner we got a speed boat to our 'hotel'. Raphael had told us that the floating hotel was nice so we had images of a flushing toilet and hot shower, we were to be disappointed. Basic is a nice word that we will use. After a couple of unfortunate tries on other toilets we figured out how to use these ones, throw away the toilet paper and use a hose to flush.....the shower was cold and did we know it, to say Bourkie was making strange noises was an understatement, I thought he was hyperventilating. I didnt have the courage to put my head under.
Next morning we headed to the Erawan national park where there is a 7 tier waterfall and it takes 2.5km uphill trek to get to the top with some makeshift ladders and steps, very glad we wore good runners but there was beautiful scenes.
We were brought back to Bangkok where we picked up our bags and passports with all our visas for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. One of the travel agents brought us to the train station where we expected to get the train further north to Sukhothai. That was not to be. There was a train strike, announced 10 minutes previous and they had no idea of when trains would run next. Our first reaction was whether we could get a bus to Sukhothai instead. With some help, we found out this was possible and raced to the North of the city through rush hour to the station. We thought that all tourists would have headed to the Mo Chit bus station in the North but noticed that we were the only 'non-locals' there!!!!!!! We couldn't understand why more didnt follow especially since we could see the tv and see people sleeping in the train station and we got a '1st class air-conditioned' bus ticket for half the price, CIE- eat your heart out, it only cost 7 euro each to take us to Sukhothai, 450km away.
Blurry eyed, we reached our destination at 4:30am after leaving at 10pm with air conditioned meaning air conditioning the whole time, whether or not its freezing, thank god they gave us blankets and even a little drink with a cake!
Well, we are hungry and there are cheap cocktails to be had so we will tell you all about Sukhothai tomorrow! Planters Punch all round!
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