Week 15 – 26/11/09 Bangkok + Kathmandu

Week 15 – 26/11/09 Bangkok + Kathmandu

Upon arrival in Bangkok international airport, I must say I was impressed. Picked up bags and on a bus within the hour. The 45 minute journey into Khoa San district was nice but I noticed a yellow cloud hanging over the city, smog maybe.

Our hotel was situated in backpacker heartland. I have never seen so many backpackers in my life, but a really nice vibe about the place. Strange thing happened during check in. Our hotel did not accept credit cards even though we booked online using the credit card, hmmm? I went to draw out cash but none of my cards worked either, very strange. We paid and checked in, our room was quite nice considering the complaints that were being voiced at the front desk, that was, apart from the lingering smell of smoke in the room. It later turned out that my credit card details had been stolen and my current account had been blocked, most annoying.

We headed out shopping for medical supplies and trekking gear, leaving the a/c on full blast to remove the smell of smoke. First stop was Boots, spent about £50 on drugs then headed onto MBK and Siam shopping centres. We caught a tuk tuk to the shopping district, quickest way in Bangkok given the amount of traffic, but we were hit by a 25 tonne juggernaut. The tuk tuk driver was clearly shaken, but extremely annoyed the lorry driver didn’t stop to check the damage, so for the next 10 minutes we were party to a car chase around Bangkok. It was clear that the tuk tuk driver was in no position to pull in front of the lorry to make him stop so gave up. There was no real visible damage to the tuk tuk, so we paid and harried into the shopping centre. Managed to get some really good day packs for the trek, but decided to buy the rest of the gear in Kathmandu as Bangkok was expensive. Shopping is exhausting so we needed to re-fuel on donuts on a number of occasions. Took a tuk tuk back to the hotel, this time with no accidents, touch wood, salt over the left shoulder and so on.

Our second day in Bangkok was again further shopping. We had all legal drugs on the trekking list but could not get any Diamox. Diamox is a product used by trekking drug cheats which allows them to continue higher without acclimatising. It is not fool proof but can ease a severe headache without descending 300m.

Found a great café outside our hotel that sold mashed potatoes, so we had breakfast lunch and dinner there, for once, good English food was a blessing in disguise. I had lost a considerable amount of weight over the past 3 months, down to 81kg at the last weigh-in, so really needed to eat some good old fashioned fat before the trek.

The final morning, we took the first bus out of the city destined for Kathmandu via the airport. Our Thai Airways flight was exceptional. The plane was huge and almost brand new, the saffron veg curry was delightful and we both felt really safe.

Arriving at Kathmandu airport gave me flash backs to Mumbai airport in India, absolute chaos! Luckily, we had pre-booked a room at the legendary Kathmandu Guest House, so was greeted by a Shapiro who whisked us away from the pleas of rogue taxi drivers offering you best price, my cousin owns a hotel, and I am a trekking guide. Upon arriving at the KMGH, we were very disappointed to find no rooms available. The poor excuse was that 6 of the guests had food poisoning and that they needed to stay another day to recover, which I didn’t believe for one minute. The hotel tried to put us in another place which was awful, so finally settled for the Kathmandu Resort Hotel.

The next two days were spent rushing around buying supplies, trekking gear and booking the trip itself. We finally agreed on a mid range price trekking company whom seemed to know about safety and acute mountain sickness. We were introduced to our guide Mochindra, whom was a real Sherpa which was satisfying.

Week 14 – 21/11/09 Vang Vieng + Vientiane

Week 14 – 21/11/09 Vang Vieng + Vientiane

For those of you that have never been to Laos, which I guess is most, Vang Vieng is a place where 18-25yr olds come to get wasted. Most restaurants offer a special menu for people that like opium in their burgers or mushrooms in their shakes, not to mention the ‘tubing’ experience along the river. The tubing experience is a collection of bars that are along the river from the drop off point all the way back to Vang Vieng for approx 3km. Most people get completely wasted in the first 3 bars and don’t even bother with the tubing and take a taxi back into town. Being 38 and almost 30 (yes, I know you are in denial) we decided that trekking and kayaking down the river seemed the best option.

Our trekking, caving and kayak trip with a strange German guy was really cool. The trekking was about 3 ½ hours and we had lunch beside a waterfall. We went through a water cave below a mountain before kayaking back to town. Our guide mentioned that we should consider signing up for our national Olympic teams since he has never seen a pair get back to town in record time like us. I acknowledged his encouraging remarks but mentioned that I trained as a navy seal whilst deep under cover as a secret agent in the late 80’s.

The following day we signed up for another trek. This time we were with an Italian couple whom spoke German and a Swiss girl. Really cool trek took about 6 hours and had a fantastic barbque lunch.

We went to the elephant cave on the way back. We had now completed our Everest Base Camp training, 2 treks, a cycle ride and a bit of kayaking, no problem.

The following day we took a local bus to Vientiane which took around 4 hours. Met a really interesting American school teacher on the bus who told us a bit of history of Laos and there devoted culture to Buddhism.

Vientiane had a French twist to it, but not much was left. The city was quite low level, buildings of max 6-7 stories were typical. The Chinese seem to be investing lots of cash in Laos, so they obviously want the rape the country of it’s natural resources, it may become another Tibet, but who knows. There are various glorious buildings scattered around the city which were built by the Chinese as gifts to the government. These buildings have little purpose and the money would have been more deserving in other areas. The city itself is quite boring, we did the ‘walking tour’ for about ten minutes before Mariana was bored, so I continued in Chevy Chase style to the death. We found out that one of the cards had been scammed in Vang Vieng so made a formal complaint to the main Laos Bank. It was if this happens on a regular basis every day since the guy that took my details seem to acknowledge that this is a problem that had been going on for some while, so it made us wonder whether the bank wa raking in so much cash it didn’t want to rectify the problem?

Mariana was quite upset that we were flying to Bangkok, but I resisted the alternative of a 12 hour bus journey and we made our way to the airport at 5.30am. We arrived to see just one small café open in the departure so I asked an official about eateries through customs. He assured me that the food hall was open on the other side so we went through in true Swedish fashion 2 ½ hours before our flight. What greeted us on the other side was one closed duty free shop and a toilet…..hmmmm. For those of you that know Mariana, especially in the morning there are two important points to note to keep the mood in check. 1. Must eat, 2. Need sleep. This particular morning, Mariana was really tired and I had just convinced her to go through customs to find no food available. What’s more, as it turned out our plane was a 60 seater propeller job, with no released safety records for Laos Air. Let me just say that she was not pleased. The duty free opened at 6.30am so I was about to buy an army pack of breakfast bars for a million pounds.

The flight was ok and we landing in Bangkok at 10am in the morning……

Week 13 – 13/11/09 Mekong River + Luang Prabang

Week 13 – 13/11/09 Mekong River + Luang Prabang

Entry into Laos was fairly straight forward via Huay Xai. All you needed was a passport photo, lots of US dollars and enough time to cross the border before 6pm

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Our guestouse at Huay Xai had clearly been reviewed by lonely planter during the 70’s. The décor was bad, it was damp and the place was overpriced. We also suddenly learned that the atms in Laos had a maximum withdrawal of £4.57 inclusive of bank charges. We managed to scrap enough KIP together to buy our boat ticket and pay for our hotel and food.

The boat trip along the Mekong from Huay Xai to Lang Prabang was a pleasure. We arrived on the boat before the Germans so quickly established the towel regime for the comfortable seats, real bonus. WE stopped overnight half way along river in a quiet little town called Pak Beng. Curry seemed to be a popular choice so we followed suit, many Indian nationals in Laos, not sure why. This place was amazing at night since the skies were so clear that most star signs were visible.

Finally ended up in Lang Prabang 2 days later what a picturesque town, Very French, very colonial….

We eventually stayed in Lang Prabang for 5 days in total since we needed a rest from the 3 days travelling and had many things to do. During our stay we hired mountain bikes and cycled 32km to Tat Kuang Si waterfalls, which was a complete shock to the system since we hadn’t done any real exercise for a while. Mariana had a hissing fit just before we arrived but soon calmed down after a feeding.

The waterfalls were spectacular and there was also a bear sanctuary down the hill, but sadly it was late in the afternoon and all were sleepy. It was agreed that cycling back to Lang Prabang was a stupid idea since it would be dark before we made it back, so we took a tuk tuk instead with the bikes tied to the roof.

The following day was a well deserved rest day before our next adventure, a hill tribe trek. We started early and headed out for about an hour in a van, our guide Kia took us on a 6 hour trek climbing about 600m in a straight climb which took there toll on the old man’s knees. The day was fantastic, the nature and scenery were really nice and I suppose (but only suppose) this gave us satisfaction for the $90 we paid for the trip. We had lunch in one of the villages Laos style, i.e with hands using banana leaves as plates.

The next day was again a rest day before heading off to our next destination, Vang Vieng.

Week 12 - 07/11/09 Chiang Mai

Week 12 – 07/11/09 Chiang Mai

We arrive at Chiang Mai early morning at a petrol stations of all places. The so called VIP death trap from Ayuthaya which we boarded actually on the motorway looked glamorous enough on the pictures in the hostel, but in reality it was an old bus with a flashy paint job and they had stuffed in as many recliner seats as physically possible. However, seeing as we didn’t sleep much on the bus to Bangkok and after a days non stop sight seeing in Ayuthaya, our bodies would eventually give in to leg cramp and pass out.

So, we are no standing in a petrol station on the outskirts of Chiang Mai wondering what the hell happens next. Then like clockwork a squadron of taxi vans sawngthaew turn up to take us into the centre. We arrived at a mysterious guesthouse and we asked for directions but the owners did not want to tell us anything and just offered us coffee. This is a common trick to try and get you to either stay in their guesthouse or enrol on a trekking trip. I cleared the wool from eyes and started heading for the street since I was not prepared to listen to that twaddle for one moment. Mariana was quite annoyed since I had absolutely no idea where I was going, which was true. However, I would rather find my own way rather than wait around for these tricksters to offer us a bargain. After 30 minutes and lots of tantrums we found our guesthouse. Perhaps a bit early at 7am but they were open for breakfast and we feasted like cannibals. After check in we went for a venture around Wat city, temples and Buddhist monks everywhere, I’m surprise Tesco doesn’t start selling cheap copies…

That night we decided to go budget after pigging out in Jeruselum Falafel restaurant, so hit the street markets for a few snacks. After our noodles I was still hungry so went for a touch of sushi, how stupid I was. Looking back, eating raw fish off a market stall is not the best travelling advice I would give. The next day I became very ill with stomach cramps, performed an exorcism in the bathroom and continued to wail in agony on the bed. Mariana decided to look up the local hospitals and mortuaries just in case I got a little worse. After about 5 hours of continuous moaning and complaining all the stomach bug had been evicted from my body.

The following day we went for our first meditation lesson with a local monk. He was really cool and you sensed that he knew something about you without ever meeting you before. We turned up late as ever, and they were in full hum by then, which was quite embarrassing to say the least. Even so, really worth it since I sleep so much better now.

The next few days were really lazy and we didn’t do much at all other than cycling around the city visiting Bhuddist Wats, hospitals and coffee bars. Chiang Mai is a great place to do absolutely nothing, we were champions at this.

Week 11 – 03/11/09 Khao Lak

Khao Lak was actually a nice quiet place along the coast a 2 hour bus journey from Phuket. The place still had tourist but not at all in the same way as previous destinations. We stayed in a place called Banana Bungalows and had a great time. Main reason for coming here was to dive at the Similan Islands. Again, because of the price for all dives we could only afford one day’s diving.

Similan Islands were beautiful with the turquoise water. Visibility was great even though the variety of fish we saw was not that great in the marine park. Best season for it is more from December to May. However it was great fun flowing with the current under the water. We hardly had to swim at all as were floating through the corals. Beautiful!! We finished our diving around 4pm and calculated that we had exceeded our safety limits on the 2nd and 3rd dives, so had minor decompression sickness. This was nothing compared to the journey back to shore. By this time the weather had turned and we headed off in the speed boat against 3-4 metre high waves, not pleasant. It took 3 hours to get back to shore as opposed to an hour on the way out. Everyone on the boat felt like performing an exorcism, but managed to keep it down, what an experience (that is why Graham is looking so happy on the picture)….

Khao Lak was one of the worst affected places by the tsunami (Graham’s comment: which is why Mariana felt compelled to go there, only joking. Mariana’s sister will be going there at end of November so we thought we would check it out seeing at is on the way and to see the Similan islands.). We went to see the 25 metres and 15 tonnes boat that was carried 2 km into the shore. It is unbelievable to imagine the waves being 10 metres high at the beach and 3 metres high inland. The force of the tsunami wiped out 100 of the 133 hotels at this resort, killing many men women and children. The thai people did not even know what a tsunami was before this event, but are now prepared for any unfortunate natural events. Mariana also took some precautions, but sleeping with a life jacket on and always wearing swimming goggles as opposed to sun glasses.

We took a VIP night bus from Khao Lak that was not that VIP according to us. We wanted a bus with a toilet but not the smell that came with it. Graham also started a silent fight with the German in front who wanted to take back his seat. He tried his best to point the air con at the Germans ( just to be annoying) and kick the seat with his knees the best he could;)

Week 10 – 29/10/09 Ko Phi Phi

Upon arrival in Phi Phi it felt like an amazing place!! The water was crystal clear and it felt like we had landed in paradise. We made our way to the hostel we booked and soon realised that the hostel was a real s-t hole. So, in order to make our stay a bit nicer we upgraded to another room and got cable TVJ and a toilet seat not covered in old dried in blood…Every morning they were showing horror movies (during prime time for children). It did suit us perfect to wake up to this instead of BBC news (as back in London).

Compared to 2007, the place had developed even more to a tourist destination with more buildings and boats. The only disappointing thing with this is all the rubbish scattered all over the place and the risk of being ripped off all the time. We joined a snorkelling trip we thought was going to be amazing. The company promised it to be a total of ten people in the boat, otherwise they would use two boats. On the day we quickly realised we were instead cramped in 16 people in the boat. When we confronted the tour operator about it he was really rude and said we did not have to go if we did not want to. Stupid as we were, we went anyway. It took ages for the boat to go anywhere and we ended up not having time to go to all places that we were promised. At times it even felt like the boat was going to tip over…The “monkey beach” we were taken to, was so full of rubbish it was a bit depressing. It felt disappointing the place was not looked after more.

Disregarding this we had a lovely time in Phi Phi. The diving we did was still amazing full with beautiful corals. Because of things being quite expensive we could not afford to dive as much as we wanted. We still have many beautiful pictures from our trip. Unfortunately most of them are censored from being displayed on the blog as Graham has refused to upgrade his 80’s speedos.

During the days we went swimming in the sea at Long Beach. Graham decided for the second time to step on a sea urchin. He had about 20 spikes sticking out of his foot and we had to do first aid on the beach trying to remove them. Things are better now but Graham has still not managed to get all of them out from his foot.

Second thing that happened to Graham was when he injured his lower back falling on his bum on the rocks along the beach. My storey is that he fell after I tried to give him a caring hug. His version soon developed into me trying to throw him of the rock face.. Anyway, he survived limping all the way home.

Week 9 - 26/10/09 Ko Lanata, Thailand

The journey from Hat Yai to Koh Lantha was a nightmare. We thought we could save some money making our own way to Koh Lanta instead of using the hostel’s travel company. We have since changed our opinion somewhat!! We left the hostel 7.30 in the morning to be able to catch a minibus to Trang 8am. In Trang we intended to change to another minibus in order to go to Koh Lanta. 45 minutes later the tuk tuk driver was still trying to find the main minibus station in Hat Yai, that was suppose to be 5 minutes drive from the hostel. One hour later we had ended up at a minibus station outside the city. We found a minibus to take us to Trang so that was good. Graham paid the tuk tuk driver three times as much as we were suppose to cause he felt sorry for the guy (and because he was fuming during the unwanted sightseeing of the whole city and could come across as somewhat aggressive…). Once in the minibus to Trang, the driver decided after half an hour to stop along the way and squeeze in another two people next to me and Graham. We did feel a bit targeted and Graham had another fit but tried to calm down to make sure we would not be thrown of the bus. Finally we arrived to Trang. Here we for some reason ended up on a big bus to Krabi. The ticket woman told us to get of at a crossroad in the middle of nowhere and pointed at a sign where it said Koh Lanta “ Take Minibus”. I did not really know what to think but eventually a minibus came and we managed to flag it down and get a lift to Koh Lanta. We saved no time in travelling doing it ourself, but we did save 90Baht, which is about £1.5. Yep, totally worth it…

Koh Lanta is a big island, we stayed in the south part of the island supposedly to be more scenic. We managed to barter down the price of the room. The bed was absolutely lovely and for the first time, in along time we slept really well. The beach was also nice disregarding the microscopic jellyfish that was stinging a bit:-D We soon realised that Thailand is much more expensive than the places we have been to previously. However, the Thai food is superb!

Week 8 - 19/10/09 Perhentian Islands

After two days of travelling and an awful night in a hostel in Kuala Terranganu, we finally ended up at the Perhentian Islands. I can easily say the travelling was worth while! What appeared in front of us was a beautiful island with crystal clear water, and hardly any people. We found a bungalow on the beach for £6 pound per night that was really cool. Because of low season hardly any people were there, however the people that were there were really cool and we made some new friends.

The island allowed us to dive, go snorkelling, kayaking etc. Because of the time span since we dived last time we decided to take a refresher. Really good move as we on the second dive had do a kind of emergency ascend, using the alternate air source due to Graham running low on air. We soon discovered that Graham was consuming more air than the rest of us on all of his dives, most likely because of his asthma. The snorkelling was absolutely amazing and almost outweighed the diving. We saw turtles, sharks, stingsrays, barracuda, squid, anemofish, parrotfish, triggerfish, pufferfish, scorpionfish, clownfish etc etc

Instead of three days we ended up staying in this place for a week. We probably would have stayed longer if it wasn’t for the restaurants and dive shops shutting down for the season.

After this we crossed the border to Thailand and headed to Hat Yai with a couple we meet on the Perhentian Islands. We had a really wicked time in this place even though the Rough Guide adviced not to stay in this place at all. In the middle of the night we saw a man walking his elephant among the streets. Odd place..