Friends & Elephants in Northern Thailand

Although we were really sad to leave, our last few days in Laos weren't quite as care-free or relaxed as the rest of our visit. After a few days in beautiful Luang Prabang, a small city full of European-esk buildings and decked out in colourful fairy lights, we headed off on the 'slow boat' - a two day trek up the Mekong River to the Thai border. The journey itself was beautiful, cruising slowly through fields, forests and small villages. Luck wasn't on our side however. Firstly we'd totally misjudged how much money we had left & managed to run out with pennies in our pocket and not an ATM for miles around. Thankfully we had just enough money to pay a cheap hotel for the overnight stay & for both days of the boat journey, but not enough for food so spent 2 days sharing cups of plain, cold noodles. Thank goodness for our electric water heater.

When heading out for day number 2 on the boat it became apparent that my flip-flops had been nicked from outside our hotel room, not a nice find when your other shoes are at the bottom of your bag & you're going to be late for the boat. Bare foot it was for me then. All this time we were presuming that a boat to the border crossing would arrive in time to actually cross the border – that makes sense, right? Well we were wrong, which was unfortunate considering it was the last day of our visa and meant we would be overstaying our time in Laos. Luckily this particular town had a surplus of ATM's all more than willing to give us the 200,000 kip we had to pay in fines the next morning.

All was made well when we arrived in Thailand and were greeted by some kind of colourful procession. It turned out it was the first ever 'peace walk' for the Mekong – a 9 day, 119km trek alongside the river being made by nearly 100 monks and nuns. Seeing them happily stroll bare-footed along the roadside made my loss of flip-flops seem very insignificant. We walked the 1km to our bus stop with them and the streets were lined with locals donating food & drinks to the monks and nuns - it was all very beautiful and most definitely peaceful.

Nat

Our next stop was Chiang Mai where we were meeting our friend Natalie and her uni friend Rishi. We had a couple of days to find our way round the city before they arrived (ie locate the knitting shops) and managed to buy ourselves a new camera after being without one for a couple of weeks. Hurrah! Chiang Mai is a delightful city and a very easy place to be...in the old part of town there are endless amounts of narrow back streets lined with cute cafes, cheap restaurants, English bookshops, and cheap but nice guest houses. There's also plenty to do & we soon learned that a week would pass easily without us getting itchy feet.

Camper van coffee shop!

With the arrival of guests who were only staying a week we'd decided to allow ourselves a bit of a 'treat week' – a holiday inside our holiday. Basically it meant we were allowed to pay to go in buildings rather than just looking at them from the outside, and that we had a beer each in the evening rather than one to share. Oh what luxury! We also wanted to make the week as fun as possible for Nat & Rishi and so found lots of exciting things for us to see and do. Our first priority was to have a Thai Massage, which wasn't difficult to find and very good value at £3 for an hour. Next on our list was a cookery course, where we learnt to make a number of classic dishes including spring rolls, Pad Thai and curry.

Isn't that scrambled eggs Rishi?!

My Pad Thai

My friend Natalie has written a wonderful and inspiring list of 100 things she'd like to do in her lifetime, one of which is to see elephants (outside of a zoo). There's no better place than Northern Thailand, as once upon a time they were used regularly here as working animals in the logging industry. Unfortunately with the increased use of machinery, the majority of these elephants (who can live up to aged 70) have found themselves redundant but unable to return to the wild. A number of centres have been set up around the north to rehouse the animals & provide work (mainly in the tourist industry) for them and their Mahouts (trainers). We were slightly sceptical about how ethical these places would be, but after a lot of deliberating found one that seemed to fit the bill. 

I don't think I'd quite realised what we'd signed ourselves up for until the next day when I was being hauled 2 ½ metres up onto the neck of a huge elephant (although apparently he was just a teenager). I'd like to pretend that I took to it naturally but I'm not going to lie, I was terrified. It was amazing to be in their presence but I was so much more content being on the ground, a good few metres away just in case one decided to roll over & squash me underneath.

Contemplating the down hill

Rishi was a natural

As the morning went on, we learnt the tricks of being a Mahout – how to ride the animal with a few simple commands and gentle taps behind their ears. I was still pretty scared by lunch time & not really looking forward to the hours trek we had planned that afternoon. Thankfully one of the mahouts was on the elephant with me (I think he found my fear very amusing) and after a few minutes on the flat I finally felt comfortable. It was also reassuring seeing the others on elephants around me, not that they could have done much had my elephant decided to stampede through the forest. Luckily that didn't happen and we strolled peacefully through the jungle and down into the river where we swam & bathed the elephants. 

By that point me & my elephant (Son Chai) had an understanding & the worst that happened was he sprayed me with water. As the trek came to an end I was sad to say goodbye to Son Chai and was really grateful for the experience I'd had.  I can't get over what beautiful, graceful animals they are, especially considering how enormous they can be. 

The next day Rishi headed off to Malaysia and we went northward to the riverside town of Pai – a laid back place even more easy going than Chiang Mai. It was great to be in the countryside & it didn't take long for us to hire bikes and head off into the hills. Me & John have quite a major bike ride planned a few months down the line & so I saw this as a bit of training & chance to show him what I'm made of...turns out I need a lot, lot more practice if I'm going to make it home in one piece. Our journey to a local waterfall took us about 3 hours to get just 10km as it was up hill all the way & many rests were needed.   It was worth it when we arrived though & for the downhill journey back to camp.

Unfortunately our weeks 'holiday' has come to an end & Natalie is heading home, but its been great fun and we've felt like proper tourists for the first time in ages. More of our pics can be found here.

We've got a couple of rest days before heading up to Chiang Rai where we'll be volunteering for a month at the New Life Foundation, a rehabilitation centre for people recovering from addictions and stress. We're really looking forward to it and to being fixed in one place for a while. First things first though, I'm off to write my list of 100 things to do before I die...

 

North by North North

We're working our way north through Laos, doing a bit of unavoidable but enjoyable backtracking.  It seems as though there's only really one (?)  major north/south road with any surface that is fit for traffic (no trains here no no), running up the western edge of the country to the mid-section and capital.  And so when I say our enjoyable backtracking, I mean epic rolling voyages of local chicken-buses flinstone'ing along at a supremely leisurely pace to avoid being shaken apart by the road.  We notched up a serene 11 hours for a 368km trip-  stop off’s to load and unload a LOT of cabbages, chickens, rice, and 2 motorbikes were partly to blame. 21mph average.  Seems freight and passengers are combined..

pity the passengers on this one

Our destination was Tha Khek, a stop off point to get some sleep.  Arriving in the dark (journey was timetabled 6 hours, was 11, see above) we found a nice place, with probably definitely the best room we've had in months. And cable telly (I watched Universal Soldier: The Return – rubbish).  So we stayed in, watched that for 2 days and made some new plans.

There's a 450km motorbike circuit, known as The Loop, done by a lot of travellers coming through this area. It takes in several smallish caves, a lake, dirt tracks, small villages, jungle, more off road dirt roads, an absolutely giant cave, highway riding and then home.  We'd not planned doing anything like this, and had never done anything on proper bikes before, but it sounded great, quite easy and you get a free map clearly drawn by a child to follow! What could go wrong? Its a 4 day / 3 night route- all we needed was a Bike and some glasses.  I ducked into a market and came out with this pair.

Laura: “hey cool! Just like the A-Team!”
“Yeah! like Murdoch?”
“yeah! Oh No.. not the a-team, Village People”
“that is a very different thing.”

We soon met a nice group who were on the same route, and we had ourselves a learner bike gang.  Petrol is sold from the usual stations in towns, as well as from glass whiskey bottles on road side stands by children for a small profit, and has an attractive reddish colour, like strawberry Fanta.

The bikes took an absolute and thorough beating, but held up.  Korean 100cc manual's are where its at, according to the locals who all seem to ride them too.  I think a dirt bike would have been a lot more suitable though.  Id hate to rent these bikes out to grinning tourists and set them loose on the roads we were on, with a quick 2 minute driving lesson (“he fine! No problem!”).  But as always I love the refreshing (non-european) 'lets just work it out', confident approach here.  A lot like my  cycle trip through Mexico 5 years ago. Our electrics did blow out on the first day though, after making it sing a bit loud on a short solo ride without Laura on the back ;)  It had a kick start on it too so we were OK for the rest of the trip.  It was a really fun time, and well worth the effort.  Here's some pictures...

The cave itself (on our day 3) is 7km long, and explored in boats of 3 people, plus 2 guides who push and pull the boat over the shallow parts.  I’ve been in several caves before, but this is by far the biggest.  Parts of it are cathedral sized spaces, and is a real mind blower.  We rented a good torch to fire around in the unlit  gloom.

Unfortunately our second camera is now broken as well.  I’ve had it into 6 pieces and back together again, but it still doesn’t work.  So that’s something we need to sort out asap.  Not really an expense we wanted :( Neither of us have worked since April last year, which is a funny thought, and hard on the ever decreasing finances.

We had a brief stay in the capital Vientiane, mostly occupied by arranging our Thai visa, so we can re-enter into the north with a full 60 day permit, instead of the walk-in 15.  Anyway, that went quite smoothly (just a lot of queueing) -  all in order officer.  We're presently in a little bamboo bungalow in Vang Vienne, 4 hours north of Vientiane, home of the notorious booze fuelled river tubing set-ups.  We are mainly getting our kicks from our hammock and eating nice food instead.  Too old for that now! It's a young man's game ;)

'Beer Laos' holds something like a 90% market share here apparently, and is an omnipresent Laos feature.  I think you could drink it in school and it would be OK.  Nice too :) “Drink of the wholehearted people” is the innocent tag line.  

I’ve never been in a country where everyone seems to get up uniformly at 5 or 6am and start banging and playing and motoring around.  Truly living on the sun's schedule.  It is the land of a thousand cockerels, and is a rude but natural soundtrack to each morning.

Laos is treating us very well indeed.

Next up, Luang Prabang - a long bus ride, do think of us...

john.

Lovely Laos...

Answers on a postcard please...

Having spent a month in super easy, developed Thailand we were ready to get back on the road & experience somewhere a little more rustic and 'real'. Laos was the perfect next destination and we immediately fell in love with the country. Some say it's like Thailand 15 years ago, before it was well and truly placed on the tourist trail. Although not completely undiscovered, you can definitely travel through Laos feeling like you're seeing real people living real lives - the pace of life here is most definitely slow, the people friendly and the beer flowing.

The view from Wat Phu

After crossing the border we spent our first couple of nights in Pakse, mostly hunting for an ATM that would let us withdraw cash.  Eventually we found one that worked, and realised we needed to take 2 million kip out of the bank.  Paying for things with 50,000 notes and carrying around such a fat wad, we've never felt so rich.  Long may it last. 

John's new favourite head gear

After Pakse we headed south to the one street town of Champasak to see the 6^th century Wat Phu ruins. I'm somewhat ashamed to say that this was only our 2^nd visit to any kind of temple since we arrived in South East Asia before Christmas, so we made the extra effort to wake up early and headed off by bike at 7am.

Visiting the old ruins

Old Buddha statues

I'd been finding it relatively easy to find vegetarian food, until arriving in Champasak.  The concept of not eating meat seemed a bit more alien and I was struggling to get across to one restaurant owner that I just wanted vegetables with my noodles.  After struggling with my bad Lao and drawing numerous pictures of chickens, pigs & fish, I luckily managed to find another westerner in the restaurant that was fluent in Lao.  He confidently explained to the woman that while John wanted beef with his noodles, I just wanted veg.  It was great, apart from the decorative piece of beef slapped on top.

Our house

Our next destination was the island of Don Det, not far from the Cambodian border on the mighty Mekong River and part of the 4000 Thousand Islands.  Here we found our cheapest digs so far, at £1.70 a night for a wooden bungalow on stilts over the edge of the river.  The island was super laid back and the hammocks on our porch made it difficult to do anything but relax, knit, read and sip cold Beer Lao's.  Our most strenuous activities were strolling a few kilometres around the island and 'tubing' down the Mekong at sunset.  

Tubing down the Mekong

Tubing basically involves being taken up stream a few kilometres by boat & then floating back down at a very slow pace sat in a large rubber ring. Easy! Until you have to try and cross the river to get back to the beach.  Luckily there being 4000 islands meant there were enough clumps of trees in the river for us to hold onto while the boat came back to rescue us.  It's really popular in the North of Laos but is often combined with lots of drunkenness & accidents, so it was nice to have the option of trying it somewhere easier. It was great fun & soooooo relaxing, floating back down the river over the course of a couple of hours and watching the world go by.

The Mekong River

Back in Bangkok, after a few months off, I managed to find myself some knitting needles & yarn, a couple of patterns on the internet and have occupied myself for many an hour since trying to accomplish various new knitting techniques. My new year's resolution was to actually get good at knitting, & since I have so much time on my hands I have no excuse. Saying that, the 30 degree heat isn't the most inspiring for making winter woolies but I'm persevering all the same. My friend Gemma's newborn baby, Thomas, has a jumper on the way as soon as I can find a post office. I also crocheted a dress that was intended for the baby daughter of some good friends of ours, but I figured by the time it arrived home it would be too small (sorry Andy & Leanne, the thought was there!). In the end I gave it to a lovely family running the small restaurant next door. They were made up and I have to say the little girl looked super cute.

Cutey cute cute!!!

I also taught our new friend Flo how to knit, & after just one go he was better than me!  

Flo and his knitted phone case

We've spent the last couple of days at the waterfalls of Tat Lo, swimming in the river and walking through the forest.  A few elephants (that we think had been retired from the logging industry) were living near by & it was amazing to see them being washed in the river & one of John's favourite things of our trip so far.

Elephants having a bath

Over the next couple of weeks we are gradually heading up north, & then back into Thailand to meet our friend Natalie who's coming over to visit us on holiday. Yay!!! I'm so excited, and am currently trying to compile a list of everything I'm missing from home that I can get her to stuff in her suitcase.

I'm currently sat by the Mekong River in Laos, but that is an awesome tale for next issue.  So-  what what what...

After the islands of Thailand, I was looking forward to getting back to the 'real world' of the mainland, seeking less touristy, more Thai areas.  We'd loved Bangkok, so headed north to spend a few days exploring there.  We had some errands to run-  Laura needed some knitting supplies, something about double ended and circular needles.  Hopefully this will lead to some knitted socks for me next time it is cold enough to warrant wearing any.  I'd wanted to find a water heating element thing so we could make tea & coffee & noodles.  Didn't find one though- seems like health and safety regs might have knocked them on the head, even in Thailand?  Can't get them in England either apparently.   We do have one now though...this blog post is exciting isn't it?? No wonder you're still reading.  Enough! Lets try and knock it up a notch.

Thailand / Dukes of Hazard Taxi. Overload for maximum profit!

So, back into the commercial consumer crazy high street market street stall absolute FRENZY that is Bangkok.  There are markets for everything.  Morning markets, afternoon markets, night markets, right through the night (we were on our way home  at 2am and a band was playing- Eagles covers, naturally, just on a road side), floating markets, fish markets, phone markets,  Chatuchack / JJ market with 9000 stalls...

But what is most interesting about this is the 2 ends of the spectrum being right next to each other. Next to the 'back alley' food markets, with grinning pigs heads being butchered for scooter riding punters (engine running), wriggling eels in buckets and countless items I can't even recognise, stands these new super mall's with so many floors, floor plan maps, help desks, air conditioning with expensive designer clothes and electronics that cost mega bucks.  Pretty much one whole floor of the MBK mall is dedicated to mobile phones and accessories.  The sky train smoothly whisks you right inside without even having to weather the heat of the day.  Its crazy.  No water heating elements though...

Infamous Khao-San Road

China town felt like a whole other dimension.  The closest we've been to actually being in China, so far.   This is where you can buy yourself a whole shop's worth of giant cuddly toys, clothes pegs, pans, plastic screw drivers, flip flops, clothes, children's toys, egg whisks, coat hangers - anything and absolutely everything that must come out of Chinese factories in the relentless billions every day.   Its quite an eye opener.

Back in Rishikesh, India, I'd slipped over on a wet marble floor, cracked my elbow, saw stars and was very nearly immediately sick in the street, then spent 2 days in bed- Laura told me it was because my shoes were rubbish and were worn out.  I have some new shoes from china town now, a knock off pair of posh variety Crocs.  They are quite cool.

The man assured me they were definitely not genuine, in a nice turn of honesty.

We met up with Alice and Nat, a couple living in Bangkok, through a mutual friend we had met in Ooty, India.  It was great to be shown around by them, and both were very kind, hospitable and generous to us.  Thanks guys!  They put us up for a few nights, and again we made a vow to open up our house (whenever we have one) to guests and travellers more often.

After 5 or so days in Bangkok, we headed west to Kanchanaburi, on the river Kwai, for a bit of quiet.  A Lot of quiet, as it turned out.  We had a cool bamboo hut right on the river side, about 1km south of the infamous 'Bridge over the River Kwai'.    True to our recent spirits, we generally did a lot of lounging and can't really account for the days we spent there.  I did explore the characterful museum (JEATH), as am very interested in such WW11 things, although filtering information out of the awful rambling translations, weird signs, and dubious messages was hard work, and gave me a sore neck. Still, there were some great photos and displays (even if the glass cabinets were so filthy it was hard to see through them). It made our walk across the bridge the day before seem a lot more significant.  Laura stayed home to, err guard the hut I guess and catch up on some krazy knitting skills.

The bridge, showing the different middle section that was destroyed 

The Bangkok river ferries and taxis are a nice and fast way to get around

Back to Bangkok on the bus, a tasty quick meal and few beers with Alice and Nat by the train station, and we jumped onto the overnight sleeper train to the Eastern border town of Ubon Ratchathani,  where we crossed into Laos, and into the town of Pakse.

Thailand has been really interesting. Plenty of posh air conditioned gleaming cars roll around (does everyone polish their new alloy wheels every day???), but also you'll see as many wooden street carts and old school one man barber shop stools or noodle stands. Coming from India though, it was like stepping forward 20 years in time, but a lot of what made India exciting and surprising is a bit harder to find here.  I should also say that the people in Thailand (anyone you meet seemingly) are the happiest, most helpful, patient and generally best natured people I think we've ever met.

As I said at the start, we're in Laos now, with 2,000,000 Laos KIP in our pockets and where Laura will pick up the next post....

 Sawatdee!!

John.



 

A Thai New Year

Happy new year! We hope you had a good one wherever you were :-) Our first post of 2012, we better make it a good one...unfortunately you have to put up with my ramblings again as John's having a small dose of 'writers block'.

Over the past couple of weeks we've gradually headed up the west coast of Thailand, stopping off at various islands and beaches along the way. I'd like to say we've been super busy filling our days with endless action, but no, we've pretty much done nothing the whole time. It's been absolute bliss though, & has felt like a real 'holiday' if you know what I mean.

Christmas day was spent on Koh Lanta, where we tried to make things festive by making a stocking out of an old pair of trousers & swapping a few gifts.  John peaked in the Christmas shopping department by getting me a fake student card complete with photograph from Bangkok, genius!  It didn't quite feel like Christmas what with swimming in the sea & eating mangoes on the beach, but that said we had a great day & spent most of it zipping about the island on 2 wheels.

Our last moment's in Koh Lanta weren't so great though, and as we were waiting for a taxi to the pier, a 4x4 pick-up truck with a bunch of people & their luggage in the back ran over John's rucksack....a loud bang saw the colour run out of John's face as he envisioned his mangled computer underneath. Fortunately it was just his plastic soap box, a tin of sardines (that he still managed to eat) and the contents of his washbag that were sacrificed under the heavy load, thank goodness.

After a few rest days on Koh Lanta, we headed up the coast & treated ourselves to a day's snorkelling in the stunning Similan Islands National Park. I've been snorkelling a few times before but never tried diving, so when the opportunity came up to do a beginners dive without needing the relevant PADI qualification I jumped at the chance. It was great to try but lets just say I didn't exactly take to it like a duck to water.  I spent the afternoon snorkelling instead though which was great fun & the boat we were on was lovely, with an endless supply of food that kept John happy for the day. Unfortunately both of us were temporarily overcome with sea sickness, me on the boat & John as he bobbed along on the waters surface in his mask & fins. Luckily it went unnoticed by the group he was snorkelling with. Apparently snorkelling is much harder for people with facial hair & he had to stop every couple of minutes to empty out the water that his moustache had gradually allowed into his face mask.

Our next stop was the beautiful Koh Phayam, a small island off the west coast of Thailand with just a handful of resorts and restaurants. We've been here ever since & it really feels like the ideal island retreat. Our bamboo bungalow is a stone's throw from the white sandy beach and clear blue sea.

New Years Eve was spent on the beach with fireworks, bonfires and dancing until the early hours. A great way to see in what promises to be a great year.

Next stop Bangkok, where word on the street is that there are a couple of knitting shops and a knitting cafe!  YES!!!x