Thailand
Well hulloo again. Apologies in advance for anyone who's actually enjoyed my healthy smidgens of cynicism so far, because nothing's gone wrong at all in Thailand, even the (persistent) rain is warm. Admittedly that should now be like a red rag to the bull of fate, but we've only got a few more days to go so head down and fingers x'd..........
First a quick welcome to our new travel buddies (well I guess quite a few of you will be back home by now, boooo) - you don't have to read the whole lot, but I know some of you wanted some of our pics, so there's a link to them at the bottom. Also let us know if you've got any of us that we can steal in return...
Anyway, to sum up in as interesting manner as I can; We've had a brief dabble in Bangkok, mostly consisting of Rum (or at least that's what it's called on the bottle), weird food (The Thais have a most annoying habit of making things that look savoury but taste sweet) and cheap T-Shirts - not really enough to keep us there for a long time, but just enough fun that we want to do it again before we fly out :)
First stop was South to Trang (I could at this point make some comments about the train journey - but why spoil the mood?) for a quick tour of the beaches on the Andaman coast, newly recovered from the Tsunami. You can get an idea of how devastating it must have been just because it is really so flat for several miles inland from the coast. But now the only evidence that anything happened are the shiny evacuation route signs that have sprouted up every 100m along the roads (that will probably have rusted to nothing before another 'big one' hits), and that every building is brand spanking new. Certainly there's no fishing boats in trees, which I'd kind of expected even though it's a couple of years ago now. Our plan had been to climb some of the impressive limestone on offer, but due to a chance encounter with a couple in our hotel, we were quickly talked in to heading to the Eastern islands to have a go at diving instead.
More than fortunately this was a top idea by any stretch of the imagination - actually probably the best experience so far! (here I could make some comments about the boat journey - but I'm doing so well with my positive outlook)
I really don't want to harp on about the beautiful sun drenched beaches, the crystal clear waters, the gorgeous food, the late night partying, the great people, the idyllic lifestyle, the alien feeling that you get visiting the underwater world, the diversity and beauty of aquatic life, the psychedelic sunsets or the traditional huts nestling in the jungle overlooking the sea, for fear of making you jealous. Check out the photos if you really want more because by dive number 5 we'd swam with a whale shark (a feat not achieved in 7 years and 700+ dives by our instructor, heh, heh, heh) and had the good fortune of it being the day that we hired the underwater camera. Pictures really do speak a 1000 words, especially underwater where it's very hard to talk anyway......
Now you can all stop being jealous cos on our last day it started tipping it down with rain, and for the most part it hasn't stopped since. Everything I tell you from now on, no matter how good it sounds, has been performed in the wet (like some kind of ironic echo of the diving...).
Ayuthaya was next port of call - basically the ancient capital of Thailand and absolutely rammed full of ruined palaces, temples and other assorted brickwork. Really nice to stroll around especially as the local animal population exceeds anything I've seen in a zoo. Megapedes (like millipedes but about 6inches long), turtles, snakes, chameleons, possibly an otter, and best of all an 8 foot crocodile calmly walking across the path 3 meters in front of us in the city park. Eek.
Next up was Chiang Mai (no horror train stories at all for this one, apart from being talked into paying too much for a beer) - alleged cultural capital of the North. Well it's got a particularly brilliant market and arts/crafts centre (annoying cos we wanted to buy EVERYTHING, but equally didn't want to carry it round the world for the next few months) but otherwise is a bit full of trendy coffeshops. Out of town is a hilltop Buddhist sanctuary of calm - really nice even with Temple fatigue setting in - and Chaing Mai zoo where the torrents of water falling from the sky came to our aid as we had the place all to ourselves. And we fed some hippos who are cute in a big fat wallowy sort of way,but have horrible mouths and bad breath.
And now on to Pai. It's impossible not to love Pai (and just as I was doing so well overcoming my addiction to Pie. And Pi for that matter). We're here now. We don't want to leave.
The place is a bit of a contradiction; On the one hand it's clearly a travellers enclave (defined as a collection of pale faces sporting a range of minor injuries obtained most normally via beer or mopeds and in the case of the more serious ones; both) but on the other hand it's far out in the sticks, surrounded by jungle and misty mountains, with fewer tourist traps and run of the mill excursions.
We've made a sterling effort to do both sides. We've done a 3 day walking trek with our village guide Mr Chart (aka Mr Bamboo - able to make any nameable utensil or tool from the multi faceted plant and, just for Steve, houses too), where we survived on a diet of freshly poached frog, rat-on-a-stick and squirrel soup. Mmmmm. We've cycled to (almost) natural hot springs and a canyon where the walls are made of sand (a geological feat that defies understanding - the only thing I can think of that would erode away faster than sand is ice cream, and I don't remember that being one of the main rock types formed in the broiling centre of our planet).
And of course we celebrated Ritz's big three-oh birthday with rum, cake, rum and a motley gang of English, Finnish, Canadian, American and Israeli wanderers.
OK, despite having said that we really do have to go now - bus ticket booked for 1.30 - but on the upside we're off to Oz (yay!!!) and I think we might just be able to find space for something small from the market in Chaing Mai as we pass through.........
An ever growing repository of pics are still here http://fuzzweed.googlepages.com/mylifeinpictures - Goa and Koh Tao friends may have to do a fair bit of searching if you just want to cherry pick the ones that you feature in, sorry :)
First a quick welcome to our new travel buddies (well I guess quite a few of you will be back home by now, boooo) - you don't have to read the whole lot, but I know some of you wanted some of our pics, so there's a link to them at the bottom. Also let us know if you've got any of us that we can steal in return...
Anyway, to sum up in as interesting manner as I can; We've had a brief dabble in Bangkok, mostly consisting of Rum (or at least that's what it's called on the bottle), weird food (The Thais have a most annoying habit of making things that look savoury but taste sweet) and cheap T-Shirts - not really enough to keep us there for a long time, but just enough fun that we want to do it again before we fly out :)
First stop was South to Trang (I could at this point make some comments about the train journey - but why spoil the mood?) for a quick tour of the beaches on the Andaman coast, newly recovered from the Tsunami. You can get an idea of how devastating it must have been just because it is really so flat for several miles inland from the coast. But now the only evidence that anything happened are the shiny evacuation route signs that have sprouted up every 100m along the roads (that will probably have rusted to nothing before another 'big one' hits), and that every building is brand spanking new. Certainly there's no fishing boats in trees, which I'd kind of expected even though it's a couple of years ago now. Our plan had been to climb some of the impressive limestone on offer, but due to a chance encounter with a couple in our hotel, we were quickly talked in to heading to the Eastern islands to have a go at diving instead.
More than fortunately this was a top idea by any stretch of the imagination - actually probably the best experience so far! (here I could make some comments about the boat journey - but I'm doing so well with my positive outlook)
I really don't want to harp on about the beautiful sun drenched beaches, the crystal clear waters, the gorgeous food, the late night partying, the great people, the idyllic lifestyle, the alien feeling that you get visiting the underwater world, the diversity and beauty of aquatic life, the psychedelic sunsets or the traditional huts nestling in the jungle overlooking the sea, for fear of making you jealous. Check out the photos if you really want more because by dive number 5 we'd swam with a whale shark (a feat not achieved in 7 years and 700+ dives by our instructor, heh, heh, heh) and had the good fortune of it being the day that we hired the underwater camera. Pictures really do speak a 1000 words, especially underwater where it's very hard to talk anyway......
Now you can all stop being jealous cos on our last day it started tipping it down with rain, and for the most part it hasn't stopped since. Everything I tell you from now on, no matter how good it sounds, has been performed in the wet (like some kind of ironic echo of the diving...).
Ayuthaya was next port of call - basically the ancient capital of Thailand and absolutely rammed full of ruined palaces, temples and other assorted brickwork. Really nice to stroll around especially as the local animal population exceeds anything I've seen in a zoo. Megapedes (like millipedes but about 6inches long), turtles, snakes, chameleons, possibly an otter, and best of all an 8 foot crocodile calmly walking across the path 3 meters in front of us in the city park. Eek.
Next up was Chiang Mai (no horror train stories at all for this one, apart from being talked into paying too much for a beer) - alleged cultural capital of the North. Well it's got a particularly brilliant market and arts/crafts centre (annoying cos we wanted to buy EVERYTHING, but equally didn't want to carry it round the world for the next few months) but otherwise is a bit full of trendy coffeshops. Out of town is a hilltop Buddhist sanctuary of calm - really nice even with Temple fatigue setting in - and Chaing Mai zoo where the torrents of water falling from the sky came to our aid as we had the place all to ourselves. And we fed some hippos who are cute in a big fat wallowy sort of way,but have horrible mouths and bad breath.
And now on to Pai. It's impossible not to love Pai (and just as I was doing so well overcoming my addiction to Pie. And Pi for that matter). We're here now. We don't want to leave.
The place is a bit of a contradiction; On the one hand it's clearly a travellers enclave (defined as a collection of pale faces sporting a range of minor injuries obtained most normally via beer or mopeds and in the case of the more serious ones; both) but on the other hand it's far out in the sticks, surrounded by jungle and misty mountains, with fewer tourist traps and run of the mill excursions.
We've made a sterling effort to do both sides. We've done a 3 day walking trek with our village guide Mr Chart (aka Mr Bamboo - able to make any nameable utensil or tool from the multi faceted plant and, just for Steve, houses too), where we survived on a diet of freshly poached frog, rat-on-a-stick and squirrel soup. Mmmmm. We've cycled to (almost) natural hot springs and a canyon where the walls are made of sand (a geological feat that defies understanding - the only thing I can think of that would erode away faster than sand is ice cream, and I don't remember that being one of the main rock types formed in the broiling centre of our planet).
And of course we celebrated Ritz's big three-oh birthday with rum, cake, rum and a motley gang of English, Finnish, Canadian, American and Israeli wanderers.
OK, despite having said that we really do have to go now - bus ticket booked for 1.30 - but on the upside we're off to Oz (yay!!!) and I think we might just be able to find space for something small from the market in Chaing Mai as we pass through.........
An ever growing repository of pics are still here http://fuzzweed.googlepages.com/mylifeinpictures - Goa and Koh Tao friends may have to do a fair bit of searching if you just want to cherry pick the ones that you feature in, sorry :)
posted by fuzzweed at 7:55 PM
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