alanbaynes101

Vietnam

2006-12-27T22:11:00.000-08:00

Hoan Kim Lake in the heart of the Old Quarter of Hanoi

We arrived in the tiny Vientaine International Airport in plenty of time and before long we were winging our way to Vietnam's capital, Hanoi. We had barely taken off before we seemed to be making our way back down, and I decided to whip out the trusty Lonely Planet and see if we could rustle up somewhere to stay.

We settled on a place which sounded good and, after collecting our bags and changing a small amount of money we hopped into a waiting taxi and sped off. I had read about scams which go on in Hanoi and more particularily Ho Chi Minh City whereby the taxi driver will take you to another hotel which pays him commision and tell you the place you are after is dirty, closed down or any other nosense they can come up with to get you go elsewhere. So when we pulled up to a hotel we didn't want to go to I wasn't surprised. I didn't think our driver even listened to us telling him the name of the place we were after. The proprietor of the place we didn't want to go to came out and opened my door. I told him the name of where we were really trying to go and he said "this is it". I pointed to the name above the door of his establishment and said we were looking for a different place. He told me not to worry, the name above his door was "just a nickname". Good one. I closed the door and we drove off into the sunset.

Hoan Kim Lake as seen from the restaurant we ate in.

After one more stop at a commission paying place we got it straight with the driver that we wanted to go to a specific address so he took us there directly. We hopped out and slung our bags on our backs and marched down the filthy alley which (we hopped) had a beautiful guesthouse at the end of it. We all felt a little nervous I think, given that it was after 8 and was dark, and Hanoi's a pretty hectic place. We headed down the alley and came to the place we were looking for, but it was closed down for refurbishments. Fantastic! Thankfully there were a few other places nearby and we checked out one of them but it was full. The owner knew another place and she rang them and we all marched off with our bags on our backs. When we arrived we discovered that she had forgot to ask if there were rooms available when she rang (I don't know what she actually asked) so we had to traipse all the way back over to her place because she assured us she knew another hotel. Off we went and this time Steven and I waited with the bags while Donna and Sheena checked out the standards of the next place. We waited, exhausted for what seemed like ages, both hoping the place would be acceptable. We were both relieved to learn that the girls had given it the all clear, so we set off again with our 20 KG bags on our back. Unfortunately that place wasd only available for one night, but guess what?...they knew someone else too. And so the Paradise Hotel became our home for our first night in Vietnam.

Next morning we arose relatively early and made our way to the Sunrise Hotel and negotiated them down to a not too steep price of US$11 per double room per night (the Paradise had been $17). We were trying to be proactive in Vietnam, knowing we only had twenty days there so the next day's plan involved a trip to the train station. First we checked the prices with a few agencies in Hanoi Old Quarter (where we were staying) and they were more expensive then what we were quoted in the Lonely Planet so thinking we could get ourselves a bargain and trying to be independant we made our way to the train station. It turned out to be somewhat confusing. The ticket prices were around the same as the agency had quoted and we were also being told that we couldn't buy "soft sleeper" bad only the far more uncomfortable "hard sleeper". The staff there also were obviously not used to dealing with English speakers.

After our failed attempt to get tickets for ourselves we took some time out to walk alongside Hoan Kiem Lake around which the Old Quarter is located. We relaxed with a can of 7Up on a bench beside the lake and then crossed the Huc Bridge onto a small island on the lake to view the Ngoc Son (Jade Mountain) Temple. The temple was nothing too spectacular but there were a few pairs of old men playing Chinese Chess which was interesting to see. I was tempted to challenge one of them but being that I'm not too sure of the rules of Chinese Chess I decided against it. They wouldn't have stood a chance against me anyway.

Hoan Kiem Lake after night had fallen.

After this we crossed the road and walked up the street a little to the Municipal Water Puppet Theatre. Water Puppetry is an ancient artform originating in Northern Vietnam and it was very entertaining indeed. There were a number of different vignettes including a boy returning from university and the ensuing celebration, the battle between a fisherman and his prey, a farmer fighting against a cat who was destroying his crops and some sort of fire breathing dragons doing a funky dance (they really were fire breathing, which was quite a cool effect).The puppet masters were very skilful; they use long poles to control the puppets from behind a curtain and the water (which forms the stage) is murky so as to hide the workings. Apparently the puppet masters used to suffer many ill effects from being immersed in water all day so they now wear thigh high waders. The music is also an important part of the performance and is played live by musicians to the side of the stage. It was a high point of the performance for me although the level was a little ear piercing at times.

After the Water Puppet show we went to a nearby restaurant which had a great view of Hoan Kiem Lake. There was also a football match between Vietnam and I forget who on the TV. Vietnam scored about three goals in the first half which was enjoyable to see. Unfortunately the atmosphere wasn't exactly electric as most of the clientel seemed to be Americans who didn't give a shit if their host nation were involved in a momentous sporting occasion. We had a meal there and then headed back to the hotel on a cyclo (pronounced by the locals as siclo. A cyclo is another name for a rickshaw with the seat in front of the bike).

Traffic in Hanoi is a little crazy.

Next morning we got up and proceeded to a travel agency and booked our train tickets to Hue for Saturday the 28^th of October. We also booked a trip to Halong Bay for the 27^th which we would be arriving back from a few hours before our train journey. Afterwards we went out on the street and negotiated with a pair of cyclo drivers for a trip to the Museum of Vietnamese History. The cyclos in Hanoi can carry up to two passsengers (at a bit of a squeeze) so we got two drivers to team up and chaffeur the four of us to our destination.

Me and Sheena in Our Cyclo.

When we did arrive at our destination (after a couple of near death experiences) our driver insisted he would wait for us and we could pay him later. We then discovered that the Museum of Vietnamese History was closed for lunch. We would have known that had we checked the Lonely Planet, but having neglected to do our research we were left feeling a little silly. Thankfully our cyclo driver came to the rescue, letting us know that he would be willing to take us to the Temple of Literature and then back to the Museum of Vietnamese History (for an extra payment, of course). We spent a few moments negotiating what the final payment would be, and settled on a mere 100,000 Dong (five euros) for each cyclo. So we set off on another death defying journey across town and arrived safely at the Temple of Literature. This temple was founded in 1070 and dedictated to Confucius and included some fine examples of ancient Vietnamese architecture. It was built to honour the scholars and men of literary achievment. In 1076 Vietnam's first university was founded there. (I didn't learn this information off by heart, I have the Lonely Planet sitting beside me).

Some of the grounds of the Temple of Literature.

For some reason tortoises are somewhat respected in Vietnamese culture and the names of the people who received doctorates at the university were recorded on stones atop the tortoises pictures here.

After the Temple of Literature we met up with our drivers again and the took us back over to the history museum. It was a little dull, dealing with ancient histroy and featuring a lot of ancient tools and jewelery etc. which had been excavated from various sites around Vietnam. We unfortunately had no time for the Museum of Vietnamese Revolution which would have held more interest I believe.We then took our cyclo back to the edge of Hoan Kiem Lake and whipped out our money to pay our drivers. As it turned out there had been an apparent miscommunication and our driver began demanding an extra 20,000 dong on top of the 100,000 we had already arranged. We had agreed on 20,000 for the initial trip to the history museum and it turned out we had not been clear enough in that the 100,000 was for the whole trip. We had made this quite clear by means of a pen and a map but he was chancing his arm anyway. We kept repeated ourselves reminding him of how I had pointed out on the map the journey which we would be paying 100,000 for and when he became aware that he'd only be getting what we'd agreed on he said “okay 10,000, very cheap”. We high tailed it out of there leaving him rather annoyed.

High jinks at the circus.

Later that evening we went to the circus which was very entertaining. It had a story running throughout involving some sort of emperor with a big long beard and moustache and some sort of bad guys who were dressed as lizards, turtles and a whole host of other animal costumes. We didn't understand all of the story, being that it was in Vietnamese, but we were able to follow the gist of it. As part of the story there was the usual athletic displays of gymnastic ability along with elephants, dogs, goats and other animals performing tricks. It was an enjoyable night although, perhaps like all circuses some of it seemed a little cruel (such as the aligator wrestling, which involved one of the guys lifting the aligator out of the water and holding him out for us all to see).

This was the head of the bad guys with some of his cronies in the background.

The next day was Friday the 27^th of October and we were up before 7 so we could have breakfast in time for our 8 AM minibus to Halong Bay. Halong Bay is about three hours north of Hanoi and the journey was relatively comfortable. We arrived about 11:30 having taken a short break around the half way mark and waited in the harbour while our guide arranged our boat. We didn't have to wait long and soon we were boarding via a narrow wooden plank. Two of the deckhands held a bamboo pole at either end of the plank to use as a bannister. Our guide turned out to be a bit of a plonker. He wasn't the worst guy I suppose, I just thought he seemed a bit bad tempered and he got annoyed when I asked him to run through our itinerary becaused he'd already said it. I just wanted to clarify something and he said “I have already explained it clearly”. We were also a little annoyed because we wanted access to our cabins straight away (we were going to be sleeping on the boat) but for some reason we couldn't leave our bags into them until after our lunch. Lunch wasn't for a few hours so we entertained ourselves by relaxing on the upper deck of the boat. The views were amazing. Halong Bay is a very popular spot on the tourist trail and we counted at least forty other boats over the weekend.

Our boat was similar to this one.

All the boats in the background to the left would have had about 12 tourists on board. Quite a prosperous tourism industry has grown up around Halong Bay.

Our first stop was at a large network of caves. The were quite cool although at one stage I knocked on a large boulder and got the distinct impression it was made of plastic. Some of the rock formations looked like dragons and our guide pointed out another set which looked like an old married couple. It is said by Vietnamese people that Halong Bay was formed when a dragon used the route as an escape into the sea. The mountains and valleys were formed by his tail and body in their hurry.

This was the view from where we exited the caves.

Our lunch consisted of seafood, rice and vegetables. Not my favourite as you will know but I do enjoy seafood in batter or breadcrumbs and fortunately this is the way it is usually served in Southeast Asia. After our lunch we were finally able to enter our cabins and I was very impressed. We had stayed in hotels with shabbier rooms than these. Of course that's not saying a whole lot, but the seemed quite comfotable, with an ensuite and small lamp and a window opening out onto the gangway. We had no electricity at that time so we had to quickly get changed to get into our clothes for kayaking.

This was another great moment when our guide annoyed me. He kept telling us to hurry up, when it was his own fault for not letting us into our rooms earlier that we took an extra couple of minutes to get ready. Sheena was a little annoyed because she wanted to go swimming which is what the others on our tour were doing while we kayaked. The itinerary we had seen in the tour office had said we would be going swimming but as it turned out we wouldn't have the chance. Anyway we grabbed our lifejackets and proceeded to where our kayaks were. We guided our boats across the huge bay, alongside the mountains raising up out of the sea and trying to avoid the paths of the large boats like ours which were criss-crossing the bay. I quite enjoyed it although Sheena hated it (she remebers it more favourably now, at the time she was annoyed about not being getting the chance to swim and also as kayaks cause her to get a sore back). It was a good feeling to be among those large boats and massive mountains on a tiny insignificant kayak. The scenery was great too.

After about 90 minutes on the water we returned to where we'd got on and climbed out, trying our best not to fall back in. Surviving unscathed we waited for the others to return. There was a small fishing community there with a few different enclosures built into the floating platforms, each filled with a different breed of fish. Soon our boat returned and we got back on board, going to our cabins for a quick shower and then back to the dining room to wait for our dinner. Dinner was similar to lunch, only this time there was some battered squid, which was delicious, if a little rubbery.

Soon everyone started going to bed, starting with the crew and followed swiftly by other members of our group in drips and drabs. It was about half nine! We had all being expecting a bit of a booze up and a bit of fun, but it wasn't meant to be. We had a comfortable nights sleep, rocking gently in the middle of the bay, surrounded by hundreds of snoring tourists on many more boats.

A lonely place to live!

Dinner time!

Next morning we were up bright and early. Awoken by the boat's engines bursting to life at exactly 7AM. We got dressed and went up for breakfast, which was eggs and toast. After breakfast we went to the upper deck of the boat, enjoying the morning views and settling down for some reading (I was reading John Pilger's A Secret Country). It took a good few hours to return to Halong City, and we then waited a short while for a minibus, which took us to another reteraunt where we were treated to another seafood dinner. Battered squid and french fries! Yummy! Then we set off again on our minibus for Hanoi. The return journey was a little less comfortable than the way up, but we all survived in one piece.

That evening we clambered aboard our train for Hue. Setting off at 7 PM. There was another bunch of backpackers further up the carraige from us, among them an Irish girl named Anne-Marie from Tipperary. She was good craic. They turned out to be travelling in a big group of around eight which they had all booked seperately. Some sort of group tour with flights and some activities included in the price and some things were extra. Seemed like a bit of a crap way to travel as everything they did and everywhere they went was already predetermined.

Hey! It's me! On board the train.

Hue

Sunday 29^th of October and we arrived into Hue train station at around 8:30 A.M. The night before on board the train we had put our names down with a guy who worked for a guesthouse in Hue. He said we could get a free pick up from the train station to his guesthouse and would be under no obligation to stay there if we didn't like it. We had heard stories in other places where you got a “free pick up” but then had to pay if you decided the place was too covered in cockroaches for your liking so we were a little sceptical. We told him as much but he was quite insistant and wrote “no obligation” and “air conditioning”, “TV”, “$10” and a couple of other things on the leaflet he had, and said to show it to reception. We figured it was worth the free pickup and the place would do for one night if we didn't lke it.

So as it turned out we got the VIP treatment upon arrival, having a man waiting with a placard with my name on it outside the station. I gave him a big friendly wave and we helped him and his friend load up the back of their minibus. Soon we were on our way to the Thai Binh II Hotel (the chap on the train the night before also worked for Thai Binh No. 1).

This bridge crosses the Perfume River. Only bicycles, motorbikes and pedestrians were allowed on this bridge, there was one for cars further down the river.

After settling into the room we took a walk around Hue, looking for somewhere to eat. We relied on the trusty old Lonely Planet as usual and it led us across the bridge pictured above to the Lac Thanh Restaurant run by the very nice Mr. Lac. Mr. Lac is a deaf mute who is quite deaf but not quite mute, as he can make some sounds. First we had lunch (I think I had french fries and battered prawns), and then Mr. Lac came up to have a chat with us. Through a combination of gestures and pictures he encouraged us to take him on the following day as our tour guide. He started by showing us a map, and pointing to the different pagodas and tombs and either giving them the thumbs up, or the thumbs down. He also drew quick sketches of one or two of them to demonstrate that there were perhaps too many people at one, or the structure was too small and not particularily impressive. He also mimed driving a motorbike and put a big fake grim on his face accompanied by an enthusiastic thumbs up. The gist of the conversation was; you can do an organised tour which costs $8 or $10 and you get a minibus with many other people and also takes you to all the sites, some of which aren't as good as others, or....you can do it Mr. Lac style, for $7 whereby we each get a mototaxi and whizz around to all the best places. He drew a picture of four people on motorbikes and the sun shining down on them and we all agreed. He would pick us up from the Thai Binh II the next morning at 8:30 AM (He initially said 8, we counter-offered (being lazy backpackers) and he suggested a compromise of half 8). After bidding our adieus to Mr. Lac and his wonderful (if slightly greasy) food we headed for the world famous Hue Citadel (which Mr. Lac had provided directions to).

On the way to the citadel we passed a number of tanks and anti aircraft guns behind some walls. This is one of the tanks. The sign in front of it reads: “M48 Tank with the artillery of the US equipped to puppet soldiers for raiding and killing the people. In the spring 1975 campaign, captured by the liberation army at Phu Bai of 25^th March 1975”.

This huge flag lies directly across from the entrance to the citadel. The flag tower is 37 metres tall and is the tallest in Vietnam.

The entrance to the citadel.

Six headers are better than three.

This dragon was almost as stylish as me.

The Citadel was constructed around 1804. During the Tet offensive of 1968 Hue was the site of some of the bloodiest battles and the Citadel bore the brunt of a lot of attacks.

Next morning we were up bright and early for Mr. Lac's Motorbike tour. We were sitting outside the hotel waiting when at about 8:45 four motorbikes pulled up. Sheena had the honour of being Mr. Lac's passenger. We pulled off with a squeal of brakes leaving a cloud of dust behind us. First stop on the journey was Thanh Toan Bridge. The trip was a little nerve racking but we all survived in one piece. It was interesting that a deaf man could drive successfully considering that the horn is a vital tool for communication on Vietnamese roads.

Thanh Toan Bridge.

The first tomb we went to.

We stopped on the side of a big hill here. I presume this was the Perfume River also but I could be wrong.

We pulled up here on the side of this bridge to let Sheena and Mr. Lac catch up. The had stopped to take a quick look at one of the pagodas which wasn't worth going up to but was worth passing by. Apparently.

There's Mr. Lac himself on the red bike with Miss Sheena behind him.

Mr. Lac's brother and Sheena.

Laos

2006-10-16T08:13:00.000-07:00

This is a view of some of the crowd enjoying a boat race on the Mekong river.

Laos, beautiful Laos. We left Bangkok for Laos on Saturday the 7th of October. We took an overnight train to Nong Khai in the northeast of Thailand, and then took a tuk tuk directly to the Friendship Bridge which links Thailand with Laos. We paid $36 for our visas (Irish people pay $35 instead of the usual $30 and a $1 overtime fee because it was a Sunday). We then, after some hassle, arranged a tuk tuk to the capital Vientaine which is around 25 kilometres from the border.

The guesthouse we had intended on going to was full so the driver took us elsewhere, where the charge was 600 baht/night. It turned out to be full of mosquitos but would do for one night. That day we got lunch in said guesthouse. We all chose the chicken burger with chips and pepsi combo which seemed quite cheap and it turned out to be about 9 or 10 chips with a pretty measly amount of meat on the burger. Needless to say we didn't eat there again. At the time there was a boat racing festival going on so we were both lucky to see it and unlucky because a lot of the guesthouses were fully booked. We ended up booking somewhere for the following night in "the Author's choice" in the lonely planet. It's called the Vayakorn guesthouse and was very nice indeed. A double room cost $18.

There was a great atmosphere in the town that night, we walked down to the river and got to see a couple of races. There were hundereds of people along the banks of the Mekong and I guess a lot of them were culchies, or the Laos equivalent because the were having a great time staring at us. We just stared right back and then took a stroll around through the amusements that were set up. There were lots of fairground style games, throwing tennis balls into holes to win a prize and bursting balloons with darts etc., and also a couple of live music performances. I also had my first taste of Beer Lao and it was very tasty.

This is Pha That Luang, the most holy Buddist site in Laos

I forget the name of this stupa but the tuk tuk driver obscured my view of it, but I like the picture anyway

The following morning when we got up to change guesthouse we discovered that it was raining very heavily. We were going to get a tuk tuk but decided to walk seen as we were already soaked by the time we found any drivers, and he was also asking for too much money. When we got to the street which our guesthouse was on we discovered that the road was flooded, impressively so. we waded through up to our ankles and continued on to the guesthouse. I was wearing my runners and the didn't dry our properly so I didn't wear them for the next three weeks or so when I finally got them cleaned in Hue. They smelled pretty bad of mold.

The following day, the 10th of October we decided to do the walking tour Lonely Planet set out for Vientaine. Only we decided to do it on bikes! We rented bikes for 10,000 Kip ($1) and set off, first making our way to the Patuxay. It's basically a rip off version of L'Arc du Triomphe in Paris but is quite cool nontheless. There is a plaque on the wall which is quite hilarious. The text reads: "At the northeastern end of the LaneXang Ave. arises a huge structure resembling the Arc de Triomphe. It is the Patuxay or victory gate of Vientaine, built in 1962 (Buddist Era 2505), but never complete due to the country's turbulent history. From a closer distance, it appears even less impressive, like a monster of concrete. Nowadays this placeis used as leisure ground for the people of Vientaine and the seventh floor on top of the building serves as excellent view point over the city".

After Pataxuy we cycled to Talat Sao market and had a wander around. They were selling everything from Chinese violins to massive speakers, and from chopsticks to mobile phones. Me and Sheena went halves on a dodgy converter that doesn't work properly so that we could charge more than one thing at a time.

We didn't adhere to strictly to the walking tour itinery after that, we followed the route but didn't necessarily stop at each of the sites along the way. It was a good way to get a taste of the city though and we all enjoyed it. It's easy to cycle around because it is closer to Athlone Town in scale than to the sprawling metropolis of Bangkok for example.

The Monster of Concrete, Patuxay

Rockin' the free world on our bikes!

The next day we went to see Pha That Luang. We cycled up there too, which included a hill. That was tough going in the midday heat, let me tell you. Sheena's chain decided to fall off halfway across a junction, going uphill which was an exciting moment, but she made it through thankfully. Pha That Luang was cool, it was nice and quiet. When we arrived it was closed for the midday siesta, but there are monastry's surrounding it, so we had a look around them. We also enjoyed a nice refreshing drink under a nice lady's umbrella there. As we were cycling away from the grounds we noticed another stupa to our right. We cycled towards it and I began to realise that it was a military installation of some discription. Donna was taking a picture of the large flag which was flying, and I was just saying that she probably shouldn't take any pictures, when an armed man sped up on a motorbike and said "That way please!" We scurried away with our tails between our legs.

The next day we went to the national museum in Vientaine. It was excellent, with the downstairs exhibits dealing with the stone age and dinosaurs, the bronze age etc. while upstairs there were exhibits relating to the tribal minorities populating Laos and also a lot of detail on the French and American occupations and subsequent revolution. That day we also booked our bus tickets to Vang Vieng for the next day.

Vang Vieng

Our bus dropped us at Thavisouk guesthouse (as buses tend to do. I guess it keeps the fares cheap for us given that some guesthouses are willing to pay commision) which was actually quite nice, so we booked into the more expensive riverside rooms, at $12 a piece. We should have gotten the cheaper $10 rooms which were about forty feet further back from the water, because we never actually sat back and appreciated the view. Instead we sat back and appreciated the view from the restauant attachted to the guesthouse and got drunk.

Next morning, nursing a slight hangover, we made our way to find a different guesthouse, eventually settling on the Babylon Bar ($4.50 between two of us). We spent the rest of the day chilling out quite a bit, watching "The Killing Fields" in the downstairs restaurant of the Babylon Bar.

This is the view from our guesthouse's restaurant

Vang Vieng is famous for its caves (apparently) so we took a day trip to some popular ones not far from the two of Vang Vieng itself. We began by wrangling a tuk tuk for the day at 100,000 Kip ($10) between the four of us. Our driver had a negotiator (i.e. friend who spoke better English than he) sitting in the back of the vehicle with him and another friend, so I countered his first offer of $20 with an offer of $5 with a big smile on my face. That wouldn't do at all, they said so we settled on $10 (the going rate). Then the negotiator tried to pressure us into getting back to Vang Vieng earlier (so that his friend would be able to procur more business, I guess) by asking how long we would be spending in the caves. "Two weeks" I said. How we laughed. Ten dollars is the going rate for hire for a full day, so we just speculated about maybe taking around four hours with no intention of keeping an eye on time and then headed off.

Fisherman style (from the Thavisouk guesthouse)

The first cave we went to is called Elephant cave and is, basically, a load of crap. It cost 3000 Kip (0.25 Euros) to get in and there's pretty much nothing to see. It's only a few metres deep and all that's in there is a statue of Buddah and some rocks carved into the shapes of animals such as elephant and snakes. We were a little disappointed and left after a couple of minutes. 3000 Kip seems like a lot more when you're in Laos and when I wrote down the 0.25 euros just now it made me realise how little the entrance fee actually was. Still, I wouldn't recommend Elephant cave to anyone as you could just peer in from the entrance and see all there was to see in there.

Sheena with her 3000 Kip ticket

We started to follow the sign posts for the next set of caves and a Laos man was following us carrying a torch. We knew we'd have to end up forking out a guide fee so we tried to get rid of him in the most polite way possible. I still felt rude though because of the way he reacted. Still, if you don't want to pay for a guide you just have to tell them up front because they don't mention any sort of fee until you're finished with their services.

After we got rid of him we were followed by three other kids (two of whom had been the ticket sellers for the Elephant cave). For some reason which I now regret we didn't get rid of them and they followed us all the way to the next cave. The next cave was quite cool, after waiting around for about twenty minutes we got into our swimming gear and hopped onto the inner tube from a tractor tire and then floated along the river into the cave where there was a rope we could pull ourselves along on. We spent about ten minutes floating through the cave which was quite cold. One of the kids who had followed us came inside as our guide so I understood we they followed us then. Afterwards we saw the man who we had given our entrance fee of 10,000 Kip to give the kid some money. We hung around outside the cave for a while splashing around in the pool outside and then rying off in the sun, and I also took some pictures. The kids kept whistling at us, and gesturing for us to leave. We pretty much ignored them, because we had decided that we'd seen enough caves for that day.

We told the kids to skidaddle but they wouldn't and started following us as we made our way back to where our driver was waiting. I guess they got impatient for their tip because they started making demands for money. I was walking last with the three kids behind me and they started tapping me on the shoulder and making loud fake throat-clearing noises. We were getting pretty pissed off but eventually gave them 10,000 Kip. I didn't mind giving it, it just bothered me the way they expected the money even though we didn't ask for their services and tried to make it clear that we didn't want any guides. at least the little kid who came into the tubing cave with us actually did something for his "guide fee".

After that frustrating episode we made our way back to a restaurant by the river which we crossed to see the caves. We got a drink and relaxed for a few moments in the picturesque settings. It was very beautiful, despite the table being covered in ants.

This is a view of the restaurant where we relaxed after our hectic day of wandering around looking at caves

We then got our ferryman to drop us back across the river and paid him our fee (10,000 kip each for a return crossing. Our driver crossed with us but he didn't have to pay), and then hopped into the tuk tuk. Our driver ran over a chicken on the way home.

This is a view of the mountains surrounding Vang Vieng

The day after the caves we high tailed it out of Vang Vieng on a six hour bus journey to Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang

Here are some suckers flying into Luang Prabang. I bet they were jealous when they realised they could have been stuck on a bus with me for six hours.

We arrived in Luang Prabang at around 5 o'clock and , after taking a tuk tuk into town, we began searching for a guesthouse. We eventually settled on a aplce called the Sackarinh which was clean and seemed freidnly, although the rooms smelled of damp a little. They had a TV and bottled water provided every day so they weren't too bad. At $12 between two there can't be much to complain about anyway.

That evening Steven was feeling a little under the weather from our long journey and Myself, Sheena and Donna went to a travel agency to try and sort out flights to Vietnam. We booked some for the 24th of October from Vientaine to Hanoi.

The following day (the 17th of October) we rented bikes for the day and cycled our way around the town. We started out following the recommended Lonely Planet Walking tour but ended up just doing our own thing. At one stage, as we were stopped to gather our bearings a man driving a pick up truck carrying some sheets of corrugated iron took a corner a little fast, and off fell his entire load. Three of us helped him load back up his trucks and he seemed very grateful. We went back through the centre of the town and headed for a wooden bridge which got a mention in the Lonely Planet. It was quite picturesque and a bit of fun cycling across it, feeling like a Laotian commuter. We then cycled out a road leading to the airport where there was a bus station with a market outside and there we took the oppurtunity to stock up on more water. All this cycling was thirsty work. We then made our way back towards our guesthouse and enjoyed a slap up meal at a nearby restaurant. Afterwards we booked a trip to the Pak Ou caves the next day, which also included a boat trip along the Mekong and stops at a couple of villages along the way.

Boatman on the Mekong in Luang Prabang

Next day we were up pretty early for our boat trip and got a take away breakfast of a baguette with chicken or tuna as a filling. The boat trip was quite cool, although it took ages and the novelty wore off after a while.

This is a view of the Mekong as we made our way to Pak Ou Caves

Eventually we reached the Pak Ou caves and had to climb across another tourist-laden boat to make our up to them. There was a stone staircase up to one caves on the right first, which had several small staues of the Buddha and some larger ones also. There was also a nice view across the Mekong from the entrance. Then you could make your way up several more steps (which resulted in much perspiring) to another caves which was in near-total darkness. This was also filled with Buddha relics.

Big pile of Buddha statues in Pak Ou caves (first cave).

After this we head back to the boat and made our way back to Luang Prabang, stopping off at two vilages along the way. The first was a paper making village and the second made textiles. It was quite interesting seeing parts of the two industries in action, but the stops were more so that we'd buy stuff than so we could see actual demonstartions of the processes involved. The villages still made nice scenic stops along the way.

We had booked a trip to a waterfall for that afternoon but we arranged with our tours agency to transfer to the following day, because we were tired and hungry and had nothing arranged for the following day anyway.

That evening we went to see a traditional dance show in a building on the grounds of the museum in Luang Prabang. It was interesting to see, the traditional dance is very similar to that of Cambodia and Thailand, and was based on episodes from the Ramayana which is an epic tale relating to Hinduism somehow. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana

After the show we ate in the Luang Prabang bakery which had lovely food but we all ended up ordering too much.

Our trip to the waterfall was booked for the afternoon so me and Sheena got up early and went to the museum in Luang Prabang. It was quite an excellent although small museum and we enjoyed looking through it.

Krung Si waterfall

In the afternoon we went by minibus to the waterfall which was named Krung Si. It took about an hour to drive there and when we arrived we changed into our swimming gear and hopped into the very cold water for a quick dip. Before long a big group of young buddhist monks came along and were doing acrobatic flips off the waterfall into the plunge pool where we were swimming about 8 feet below. There was also a high branch reaching over the water which had a series of steps to help people climb up so they could dive (or bellyflop) into the pool.

R. Kelly eat your heart out

The water was nice and refreshing but before long I hopped out and decided to explore further upstream. There were many more waterfalls and plungepools further up the river, and some great photo opportunities. It was very scenic.

That evening Sheena felt quite ill and was very sick with vomitting diarrhea so we were unable to travel the next day. We were supposed to be going back to Vang Vieng. We had booked our tickets in advance (and paid) so I wasn't sure if we'd be able to change days or get our money back but the tour agent was very nice about it and it was no problem to change to the following day. I didn't even have to give an explanation that Sheena was sick he just said "sure".

Next morning Sheena was still feeling lousy but was more up to travelling so off we went. The bug she had must have been passed around as Donna vomitted on the bus and I felt a little nauseous also. It wasn't a particularly fun journey. I also felt nauseous that night and the next morning I vomitted too and felt terrible all day. We had intended going tubing in Vang Vieng (tubing is where you hop into a tractor tire inner tube and float down the river) but we didn't have time due to everyone (except for lucky Steven) being under the weather.

I was feeling much improved by the next morning and we got a minibus back to Vientaine. It was our last night in Laos and we celebrated by taking our Lariam tablets and eating in a lovely resteraunt called La Terrasse.

Next morning we made our way to the very small Vientaine International Airport and said goodbye to Laos. It was the 24th of October and we were going to Hanoi.

Cambodia

2006-10-03T23:08:00.000-07:00

Angkor Wat itself

We left for Siem Reap on Monday the 25th of September. We took a taxi to Mo Chit bus terminal, we got there at about 08:20 and there was a bus at 08:30 which we decided to take, even though we'd been planning to get the 9 or half 9 one, we decided to get on the road as soon as possible. After 4 hours on very uncomfortable seats, we arrived in Aranya Prathet. We took a tuk tuk from the bus station to near the border for 80 baht and then had to walk through a massive market selling clothes and the like. I was feeling pretty suspicious because I expected people to be trying to get us to pay extra for our Cambodian visas, but we got surprisingly little hassle. We walked to a resteraunt where we went to the toilet and then headed across the border.

First we had to go through emigration on the Thai side, and then we applied for our visas at an office on the Cambodian side. You can pay in US dollars ($20) or Thai Baht (B1000). You get $1 for every 37 or so baht, so dollars are obviously better value. When I handed my passport in, one of the guys taking the passports told me to pay in baht because it would be quicker. Another fella told the girls they could pay an extra 100 baht for faster service. We ignored both these bozos and waited ten minutes and then got our passports back.

Then we got a free shuttle bus to Cambodian immigration and queued for ages with our heavy bags on our backs. Then stamped our passports and visas about 13 times and let us through to Poipet. We waited for about 15 minutes for a shuttle bus to the bus station where, we were told, we could get all sorts of transport on to Siem Reap. When we got there there was either a bus for $10 per person, or a taxi which was $15 per person. We opted for the taxi and bargained them down to $50 for the whole thing.

The road to Siem Reap was crazy. It's full of potholes, massive potholes and after four hours we all had sore heads and were starving, having not eaten in over 12 hours. Our taxi driver took us to a guesthouse he had advertised on the bonnet of his car. He said if we didn't like it he'd take us somewhere else, so we had a look and it was nice. We got one room between the four of us for $11 per night (I should mention that they use US Dollars in Cambodia, and also Cambodian Riel. There is about 4000 Riel to the dollar although it fluctuates a lot. It felt strange using American currency, and I'd rather try to support the Cambodian economy a bit more, but the people prefer dealing with dollars).

Water feature in Angkor.

We decided to spend the next day around Siem Reap to see what to town had to offer. There's not a whole lot there, it just seems to exist on the back of Angkor Wat. We went to an Irish pub, Molly Malone's and had dinner, and had a look in a market, and then we went back to the guesthouse to see the sunset in Angkor Wat. Tickets to Angkor Wat are $20 for a one day pass, $40 for three days and $60 for a week.

We were going to spend three days and if you bought your ticket after 5pm you could get in free that evening. Our driver was charging us $20 a day and for the sunset visit we paid $8 (everything seems expensive when it is put in dollar terms and Angkor Wat itself is very expensive). Unfortunately for the sunset it was very cloudy so we didn't get to see it.

This temple is the most popular spot for watching the sunset.

The next three days were interesting. We saw a lot of the temples around Angkor although they did all start looking the same at times. There are also a huge amount of people trying to sell you stuff there outside every temple - from cold drinks and whiskey to postcards and books - and they get really persistent, but it is cool in general.

The (extremely steep and narrow) steps leading up to Angkor Wat, the largest religious building in the world.

On the third day we saw only two temples (which were quite far away from the main attractions) and then we went to the floating village.

This is the view from our drivers house.

We had to pay $8 each to rent the boat, but it was really cool. The village is on Tonle Sap Lake and the houses are all built on stilts above the water. In the dry season the villagers move to a different village as there isn't as much water there. The Lake is connected to the Mekong river (which rises in China and flows through Laos, along the Thai border, through Cambodia and into the sea in Vietnam) by the Tonle Sap river.

Half built house on the way to the floating village

We also took a spin around town on this smaller, man powered boat. That's our car driver steering. They had an alligator farm in the village too, there was a cage with about a dozen alligators in there which are kept for their skins.

Adrift in the middle of Tonle Sap Lake
The Tonle Sap river is interesting because in the dry season it changes the direction it flows - in the wet season the Mekong's level rises and the water flows down the Tonle Sap into the lake, then, in the dry season, as the level of the Mekong drops, the Tonle Sap river changes direction and flows back into the Mekong. It turned out that our driver for the four days was from the floating village and we stopped in his mother's house for lunch and a can of Crown Beer. Sheena thought we were going to have to pay, but they never asked us for money. Afterwards we took the boat out to the massive Tonle Sap Lake, it felt like we were out at sea, rocking around in that tiny boat. It was strange to know that in a couple of months the water level would have dropped dramatically and where we were would be dry land.

This little kid was roaming the streets of Siem Reap. We got free popcorn with drinks in the bar where were drinking so we let him finish off one of the plates and Sheena gave him some of her 7Up. He was a really cute kid and he was so happy to spend time with us.

2006-09-24T06:38:00.000-07:00

So I'm finally up to date with the blog. I've been behind since we left Bangkok the first time. This time I'll try and keep on top of things. For this evening i'll sign off with a picture of Sheena with two of her friends.

2006-09-24T06:09:00.000-07:00

A Monkey enjoys the view from Nahargarh fort Jaipur, India.

So we got back to Bangkok on the 14th and applied for our Vietnamese visa the same day. We were told our visa would be ready on the Tuesday evening and made plans to get the train to Aranya Prathet in Thailand and cross the border into Poipet in Cambodia. We just took it easy and didn't do much for a couple of days, going to the cinema and seeing "Nacho Libre" and "Click" (the first being funny and the second being shit), and then collected our visas on the Tuesday as planned. That night, shock horror, there was a military coup in Thailand.

It really was a bit of a shock. Sheena's friend Laura, who we had met in Bangkok that day, texted her that night from Samet Island, 3 hours from Bangkok, asking if she was okay as she had been watching CNN. We switched over from some crap film and saw some tanks driven by Thai guys and the headline "military coup in Bangkok?" The news from CNN wasn't exactly concrete. We just knew that there were definitely tanks on the streets and that all the Thai stations were showing the same thing; an image of the royal emblem and playing military style songs. Me and Sheena went up to let Donna and Steven know the good news and then we settled down for a night of unsure sleep.

Herons in Keoladeo Ghana National Park, Rajasthan Province, India.

I was confident enough of a peaceful coup, I knew that the prime minister, Taksin Shinawatra wasn't well-liked and I found it hard to imagine easy going Thai people rioting or staging a counter-coup. Possibly a little naive, and my Thai history was a little off. I mistakenly believed Thailand had been a democracy since the 30s, while it had actually been a constitutional monarchy since the 30s. Turns out there have been around 17 military coups since the end of World War II. I'm reading the history of Thailand at the moment but I'm only up to the start of the 19th century, so I'm a little behind.

Sheena and some guy who asked her for a tip for his stupid pose in the City Palace, Jaipur, India.

Anyway we kept a low profile for a few day and now the coup seems to be settled down a little. We are leaving tomorrow morning for Aranya Prathet. We did a little research and have decided to give Phnom Penh a miss for now and are going to Siem Reap, then back to Thailand and then up to Nong Khai to cross the border into Laos. The Cambodia-Laos border crossing doesn't sound the safest or most convienient route, and it seems we would have to pay a small payment for "overtime" on both sides of the border. The road from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh is also a little dodgy apparently, as is Phnom Penh itself.

2006-09-24T05:28:00.000-07:00

Taj Mahal, obviously.

I was taking a picture and an Indian guy came up to me and said, "get down", i.e. to take the picture from a lower angle. I did and it was a better picture. Then he told me to follow him and I did, and he said to take this picture.

He was then trying to get me to follow him more, but I didn't want to stray to far from the others so I walked off, and started looking in my pocket for my other camera. He follow me over and thought I was looking in my pocket for a tip for him. It was kind of funny, I was going to take the pictures he advised anyway, I didn't think he was that much of an expert. I didn't give him a tip.

This is Humayun's tomb. We got a guide for this sight. Well, a guy came up to us and started telling us loads of shit. I didn't listen to him much because him and the others were going on ahead of me while I stayed back taking pictures. At the end he sort of demanded money off us for the "guide fee". He started saying 50 rupees each but we only gve him 10 each. Might sound scabby, and I guess it is. Only joking, just don't really like giving tips for stuff you didn't want in the first place. If he had discussed it with us in advance we would have been more willing to give, or at least think about it, I think.

Anyway, you can probably see the similarity in architecture of the two pieces, the were both impressive in the sunset. Humayun's Tomb was cool because there were very few people there, whereas the Taj Mahal was absolutely packed.

We also had to queue for about 20 minutes into the Taj, they take their security pretty seriously in India. There were a huge amounts of touts outside it and they just don't give in. I ended up losing my cool with one of them, I said to him, "did you hear what I said? I said 'no'". He took it pretty bad and said, "it's not your fault, it's my fault because I have to do this stupid job". I did feel kind of bad, but I don't think I should have to say no so many times to one guy.

2006-09-23T08:40:00.000-07:00

Pigeons running riot in the Red Fort, Delhi.

Guys praying at the spot where Gandhi was cremated.

This is Jama Masjid, Delhi, the largest mosque in India. You had to go in in your bare feet and the ground was scorching hot. There were matts in paths around the mosque, but to get this photo I had to go off the matt onto the stone and I burnt my feet. I hope it was worth it.

This is a squirrel in the grounds of the Red Fort. Hope you like it, Emma.

We spent ten days in India.

We spent the first two days seeing different sights in Delhi. The first day we saw the Red Fort, Jama Masjid, Rajghat (where Gandhi was cremated), the National Museum and Humayun's Tomb, which is a picturesque building housing the tomb of Humayum (naturally enough) and it was built by the same chap as built the Taj Mahal. I forget his name but your on the internet so you can look it up. The second day we went to the Lotus Temple, which is a prayer room for all faiths, and the Akshardham Monument which is a monument to some religious guy. There were sculptures of elephants all around the base of the monument signifying elephants and nature, elephants and man and elephants and the divine. There were stories from ancient Indian folklore to go along with some of the sculptures. It's a pretty cool building and afterwards me and Steven spoke to a young American monk about our thoughts on the place. Wק רקאורמקג איקרק איק כםךךם'ןמע 'קקל אם דקק ש פרקאאט ןצפרקדדןהק Mודןבשך F. םומאשןמ דים'ץ Whoopsת איקרק,ד דםצק יקנרק'

Whoops, there's some Hebrew. We returned to Akshardham the following week to see a pretty impressive musical fountain show which depicted the beginning of the world according to Hinduism. Unfortunately we went on the night it was narrated in Hindi (it's in English on alternate nights), but it was still visually stunning and the music was cool.

On the third day we drove for five hours to see the Taj Mahal. It was cool to see and very photogenic, but at the end of the day it's just a big building.

That night we stayed in Agra, where the Taj Mahal is, and the following day we went to Keoladeo national park which is a bird sanctuary. This was great and I got some cool photos.

We then drove on to Jaipur and got a hotel for the night. The next day we saw some of the sights of Jaipur, the City Palace, Hawa Mahal (which means temple of winds) and Nahargarh, a fort with a great view of Jaipur.

Hawa Mahal was a place where women could come and view different parts of the city at a
time when they were expected to stay out of sight at certain times.

The next day we went to Jantar Mantar which is an observatory which boasts the largest sundial in the world, which is accurate to two seconds. We got a guide and he showed us how to calculate the time, and then would say the time, we looked at our watches and lo and behold, it was right.

The last couple of days we didn't do much, just a bit of shopping and relaxation. It was my birthday on the Tuesday and we were in Pizza Hut and the staff all sang an embarrassing song about celebrating with pizza, or something. The also made me stand up and announce my name and that it was my birthday.

We were all glad to fly out of India on the 14th of September.

2006-09-19T22:59:00.000-07:00

Bye!

The four of us, tired and sweaty.

Part of the waterfall we stopped at on the second day.

Chiang Rai

2006-09-15T01:31:00.000-07:00

For the next few day in Chiang Mai we didn't do much except collect our Indian visas. Then on the 28th of August we took a trip to Chiang Rai. It took about three and a half hours from Chiang Mai and when we got there we were greeted by about ten guesthouse guys, each trying to get us to go to their guesthouse. They were all very insistent, but we decided to ignore the salesmen and asked a songthaew driver to bring us to a guesthouse we looked up in my lonely planet. It turned out to be a bit of a dump and we headed for a different one which we had been recommended at the bus station by one of those guys. There they had no air-conditioned rooms so we headed for a third place, the White House. We loved the name so much that we decided to stay. It was decent enough and clean and it cost 500 baht a night.

After eating and showering we decided to head for the night market and first stop off at the Hilltribe Museum. Unfortunately the Hilltribe Museum was closing about 20 minutes after we got there so we decided to wait until the next day so we wouldn't have to rush. Across the street from the museum there were basketball courts and loads of Thai teenagers seemed to be warming up for a game. Sheena has uploaded a few of my pictures on her blog. We didn't get to see them playing any actual games but it was cool to see. Then we walked the rest of the way to the night bazaar. It was cool there, same auld shite as any other night market on sale, but they are usually interesting to walk around. This one also had a big food section where you could get french fries, spring rolls, shrimp rolls, chicken drumsticks, squid and a just about anything else. There were loads of seats and a stage with acoustic guitarists singing songs in English and Thai.

The next day we went back to the Hilltribe Museum, which was interesting, but there was an awful lot of writing, particularly on the history of opium, it would be better in the form of a leaflet than having to read it all on a wall. At the tourist office in the hilltribe museum we booked a driver to take us on a trip to hot springs which were outside Chiang Rai. First we had lunch in the restaurant downstairs called Cabbages and Condoms which aims to make condoms as easy to find as cabbages, apparently. I had beautiful shrimp spring rolls there.

http://www.pda.or.th/eng/

The Population and Community Development Association runs the Hilltribe Museum and Cabbages and Condoms and runs other programmes to aid rural Thai communities.

The Hot Springs were not very exciting. There are a few different spas around, which we didn't realise and we got there at first and just saw a big swimming pool with no one in it. It cost 20 baht to take a dip, so in we hopped. It was quite strange being in there. The water felt denser than ordinary water and if you rubbed your legs or arms they felt very soft and silky. It was also very hot (I think about 26 or 27 degrees, we can't remember exactly). It made us feel a little sick also, like it was taking your energy away, but we sat out a bit and felt okay. After we left that spa we drove to another hot spring area, which was really scenic. We didn't get into the hot springs there but the views were great so we just looked around for awhile.

The follwing day we were going back to Chiang Mai so we arranged a trip around the Golden Triangle, informing our driver that we had to be back by four in order to get our bus. This trip was great.

We started by heading to Chiang Saen where we looked at a few temple. Then we went to the Golden Triangle itself. This is where the borders of Myanmar (Burma), Laos and Thailand intersect. First we stopped and just enjoyed the view, which was great, then we took a boat trip on the Mekong river which forms the border. First we drove towards Burma where there is a very large casino, then we went back towards Laos and stopped on an Island which is part of Laos, there there is a market set up to cater to tourists like us, and you pay 20 baht and can shop to your hearts' content. I didn't buy anything, but there were alcoholic drinks with snakes and gekkos inside the bottles. They looked tempting but I managed to resist the temptation.

Then we drove to the opium museum nearby which details the history of opium production and has many old opium pipes and other artifacts such as weighing scales and weights used for measurements of opium. After this we drove to Mae Nam (I think) and had lunch. The border crossing with Myanmar is in this town and there were a lot of police checkpoint on the road to there. After this we went back to our hotel and collected our bags, before getting a lift back to the bus station.

The next day was Sheenas birthday and it plummetted rain all day long. We had intended going quadding or something but the rain was a deterrent and we ended up just posting our photo albums home and relaxing in the hotel. Then we went to a big fancy hotel for Sheena's birthday meal. It was good fun.

The following day we went for dinner with Noo, the travel agent who had booked all our activities in Chiang Mai. She was very nice to us and very friendly so we decided to take her out for dinner, and we also bought her a photo frame with a picture of us with her which we had taken a day or two beforehand.

On the Saturday we stayed in the hotel where we'd had dinner for Sheena as it was our last night before India so we wanted to splash out.

The Trek

2006-09-15T00:53:00.000-07:00

Our trek was good fun, but did not live up to the high standards set by last year.

We were trekking with four Canadian boys, who seemed about 18-21, two English guys in there early 20s and a Dutch man named Robert, with the four of us there were 11 altogether. Our guides name was Bon.

We left our hotel at about 09:15 and headed up to our tourist office in a songthaew with a few bits and pieces to leave in their storage area and then headed towards the market to get supplies for the three days. At the market I met our guide from last year, who we had emailed earlier. We had been hoping to get him to be our guide again, but he told me he didn't have time to email me back. I only got to say hello to him and shake his hand because his songthaew of trekkers was driving off just as he saw me. It was cool to see Dyo anyway and its a pity we didn't get him to be our guide.

The first day was the toughest, with a long uphill slog. We took a lot of breaks though and I found the second day last year a lot tougher. Sheena found it tougher this year though. It took about four hours to reach the top. For the last 40 minutes or so we were trekking with a couple of other groups because they caught up with us. We reached the village eventually anyway and everywhere was coated in a thick fog. It kind of spoiled the view, but was also quite scenic in its own way. It was very damp up there with the fog and everything, so I knew there was no chance of my sweat soaked clothes being dried out for the morning. All 11 of us stayed in a big room together. There were no mosquito nets, which surprised and annoyed me and Sheena as there had been last year.

There were horrible tribal kids running around our room and battering each other with two plastic baseball bats the Canadians had bought. They were cheeky little feckers and stole some sweets from one of the Canadians bags also. Thankfully the disappeared somewhere after a while. There was also a deaf and dumb man there, named Bye, who lived in the home we were staying in. When I first came out of the room after changing clothes he was swinging around a baseball bat and making noises. I didn't realise he couldn't talk at first and thought he was just unable to speak English, but it became obvious soon enough. At first I din't like him because he was being kind of rude, gesturing that Sheena was fat and one of the English guys, James, was smelly. I didn't like the first village much at all, with the rude cheeky kids and a woman trying to sell Sheena stuff who just wouldn't take no for an answer. The food was also not nice, we got a chicken stew, but there were big bones in the chicken. The four of us were unable to drink because we take our malaria tablets on Monday nights, which was a bit annoying, but we had a bit of a laugh that night anyway.

The next morning we had time to look around the village a bit, and I took some decent photos. In another part of the village from where we were staying, I was photographing a wild piglet and a kid, who was playing nearby, came over and stuck out his hand and said something. At first I thought he said "tabla" which is the Karen word for thank you, but he repeated himself and he was actually saying "ten baht". The cheeky fecker was demanding money off me. It pissed me off a lot and I told him there was no way I was giving him money (knowing he wouldn't understand me anyway) and walked off. Sheena told me later that when she was walking back past the same kids one of the girls had tried, unsuccessfully to spit on her. That village was horrible.

We set off at around 11 and the deaf and dumb chap, Bye, was coming with us. He was good fun, it was enjoyable trying to communicate with him and just having a laugh with him. When we first met him he would point to himself and flex his muscles, and then point at someone else and shake his head. So sometimes I would point at him and then give him the thumbs down, and the thumbs up to myself. You probably had to be there.

The second day was not as strenuous as the first but I sweated my head off anyway. We stopped half way through at a massive waterfall which we took a brief dip in. The current was incredibly powerful and it was very rejuvenating. For lunch we had some sort of noodles which were very tasty.

That night we didn't stay in a village, we were staying in a river camp. There were mosquito nets there and I skilfully choose the only bed which didn't have a net over it. It turned out that it didn't really matter. Our guide told us that the next day there was no trekking at all because we were just walking as far as the start of the white water rafting. So that night we got really drunk. It was great craic and we had a bit of a sing song with our guide and another guide who was with a different group.

The next day we did the white water rafting which was fantastic and bamboo rafting which was nice and relaxing. Last year I had had to steer the raft, which was not relaxing at all, so it was nice to be able to just sit there and enjoy the view. That was the end of our trek. We spent the next day just relaxing in the hotel.

2006-09-01T01:19:00.000-07:00

Long Neck Karen woman weaving.

Lahu man demonstrating his hunting skills. The Thai word for Lahu, musser, means hunter. In the background is our guide for the day, Jack.

Red Karen woman who was weaving while smoking her pipe.

2006-09-01T01:03:00.000-07:00

The following day we applied for our visas in the Indian consulate and were told to come back the Friday week. The day after that we went to the cinema to see You, Me and Dupree, which was pretty funny. There were loads of camera shops in the shopping centre and I was thinking about buying the 18-200mm Nikon VR lens, but decided to wait and see if I could sell my 18-200mm Sigma one first. The next day we went on a one day tour and I met a chap from Singapore who told me Singapore was a lot cheaper for camera stuff so I'm going to wait until then and blow all my money.

The one day tour was a trip to an eco-tourism village, where there are various hill tribes living together in one village so that people can learn abour their culture. There were four tribes there in total; Lahu, Red Karen, Long Neck Karen, and Akha. The long neck Karens looked really strange, and we learned that they don't actually have long necks, it is their shoulders which have become more slender, and the brass rings sit down on their shoulders. They start wearing the rings at 5 and can choose to stop wearing them when they are 22 or something. I don't really remember exactly but you can look it all up on the 'net I'm sure.

The trip also started with a visit to the Orchid farm and Butterfly farm which were both okay too.

After the eco-tourism village we went to a "real" village. The guide said it was a real village but it was only real in the sense that there were people living there, it was still kind of commercial, when we got out of the minibus we were surrounded by akha women trying to sell us crap. It was grand anyway.

The next day Sheena and Donna went on a cooking course and I wandered around Chiang Mai a little bit looking for laces for my boots. It took me ages but I got them eventually. (My boot laces had dissapeared in mysterious circumstances back in Bangkok).

Then on Monday the 21st of August we started our three day trek in the mountains. I was really looking forward to it after the great time we'd had last year.

2006-09-01T00:47:00.000-07:00

The trip to the floating market and all was on the ninth of August. We spent the next couple of days in Bangkok, including a trip to Chinatown, and on the 13th we got the train to Chiang Mai, arriving on the 14th. We also bought our one way tickets to Delhi, India on the 13th and we got our Indian visas in Chiang Mai. First we tried going on the 15th, but that was Indian independence day and after paying for a taxi we arrived at the consulate only to see a sign saying closed on the 15th and 16th. I had read in the Bangkok post the day before that it was an Indian national holiday but I hadn't had the cop on to realise that it would mean the consulate was closed.

So the next day was Donna's birthday and we decided to do the bungy jump. We were all very nervous and at first I wasn't going to do it but I decided at breakfast that I might as well.

On the journey there we were all really quiet and our driver was doing all the talking, trying to encourage us and telling us he had never done it because he always chickened out at the last minute.

We got there and they convinced us to pay an extra 100baht for a roll of film which would give us nine photos each. Stephen went first and made it much more difficult for the rest of us because it took him ages to work up the courage to do it. He kept leaning out but stayed holding on and every time he leaned out we all thought he was going to go. Donna went next and also took a while to work up the courage but she was a bit braver than Stephen. Then Sheena went and we were all very worried for her. I thought she was going to back out and I knew she would have regretted it a lot and we were all shouting up to her and trying to encourage her. She told us to shut up. I really though she was going to go back down and then next thing she was jumping. I missed taking a picture of her because I was waiting too long and it was lashing rain down on my camera. Then it was my turn and I jumped off straight away, just because I'm an all round legend. It was a great buzz, but I was really uncomfortable hanging upside down while I was lowered, it was a strange sensation, and I also felt my head filling up with blood. Then we waited for another girl, who had driven our there herself on a scooter, to make her jump because she was all alone and we wanted to offer some support.

It was a great experience and I'm glad we all did it.

That night we had dinner in a really expensive restaurant. It was so expensive that the four of us at a starter, soup and main course and a beer, soft drink and water for the equivilent of 70 euros between us all. That's under 18 euros each. Very cheap at home but it was the most we'd spent on food since we got here and more than we spend on an average day in total.

2006-09-01T00:32:00.000-07:00

Floating Market

Bridge over the River Kwai

Snake Show man catching a snake in his mouth. He caught two snakes, one around each arm and one in his mouth. I thinnk they were baby cobras he was catching. They were the young of some species of snake anyway.

Me and my new tiger friend.

2006-08-31T23:44:00.000-07:00

There was also an aquarium in the basement of the shopping centre which was pretty interesting.
Pictured are spider crabs.

Our day in the shopping district was pretty interesting because we got a chance to see Thai people in their day to day lives, instead of the ones that are always dealing with tourists on Khao Sarn Road.

The next thing we did was take a one day tour to the Floating Market, the Bridge over the River Kwai and the Tiger Temple. This also included a Snake Show which we had to pay extra for.

We left at about 7am and, with no time for breakfast, got in a minibus, which had to drive for about two hours. We were all wrecked tired but I didn't want to sleep because I would wake up all disorientated and I didn't think it was worth my while sleeping. If I had known how long it would take I would have slept. At one stage the driver jammed on the brakes and we all went forward in our seats, there was an aligator or really big lizard ponderously crossing the road in front of us.

When we finally got to the floating market we were offered a beautiful breakfast of sticky rice cakes wrapped in banana leaves. They were quite nice enough and I was starving so I had two. The floating market was kind of shit. I expected it to be though, because it said in my guide book that it had become very commercial. It was nice and relaxing at first, we were in a long boat sitting in pairs with two women at either end rowing, but when we reached the main stretch it wasn't so relaxing. There were dozens of boats filled with toiurists and all that was on sale was fruit and the same touristy crap you can buy on stalls on Khao Sarn Road. It was really busy and a really tight squeeze down the main waterway. I kept thinking the boat was going to capsize and all my camera gear would be destroyed.

So the floating market itself was a bit of a bust but it was nice and peaceful in the quiet parts.

After that we drove for a heil and then came to a Snake Show arena, which we had not been told about. It was an extra two hundred baht to see, which was annoying, but we paid it anyway because it sounded good.

First there was a few snakes in glass cages which you could walk around and look at, then we waited in the arena for the show to start. It was pretty cool, but a bit cruel in parts, they held open the snake's jaws and paraded it around to show the size of its teeth for example. They showed a cobra fighting with a mongoose aswell, which looked a bit unpleasant for the snake, and the mongoose must have been a bit annoyed thinking he was getting a feast and then having it snatched away from him. Sheena hated most or all of it because of the cruelty. I'll upload a picture of one of the guys catching a snake in his mouth in the next post.

Then we headed to the Bridge over the River Kwai which was a big bridge and not all that interesting really. It was quite scenic though. There was also a museum there which was 30 baht but none of the others wanted to go to it because they thought everything was included on the tour and we had already paid extra for the snake show. I should have gone anyway, but not to worry.

Then we drove to the highlight, which was the Tiger Temple. This is a Buddhist temple founded in the early nineties which also doubles up as an animal shelter. Their main attraction is obviously tigers, but there are also wild boar and dear on the grounds. They are apparently trying to raise money for building a tiger island on the grounds where the tigers will live in a more natural enviorment and be prepared for going back to the wild some day. There are around ten tigers there, and we got our photos taken with about five or six of them each.

It was a little nerve racking, you gave your camera to one of the staff and then another one of them led you around buyy the hand to each of the tigers, where you hunkered down beside them and stroked them. From time to time they were growling and rolling around and you could see some of them were getting frustrated, but it was cool being so close to tigers, and getting the full appreciaton of their size. I'll upload pictures from there too.

All in all it was a good day, but there was a bit too much driving around, but that couldn't be avoided really.

2006-08-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

After we were in Kaoh Sok National park we came back to Bangkok and I met up with Carlo and Egan for a couple of days. I didn't get to see them for long but we had a bit of craic. It reminded me of home seeing them again, and in a way it made me kind off homesick. They were having a totally different time then us, drinking their heads off every night, while we have barely been drinking at all, and they'd spent about three weeks of what our budget is in two days. After a couple of days they headed down to Koh Pah Nagn.

Last time we had been in Bangkok we spent almost all our time on Khao San Road (which is the main backpackers strip), so this time we tried to get out of there a bit. On the 7th of August we took a trip around Bangkok, taking some alternative modes of public transport, like the underground and the skytrain. We first got a taxi to Hualampong train station where I thought there was a skytrain stop, but I had read the map wrong and we were actually beside an underground stop. The taxi driver didn't mind though and still told us the skytrain was nearby (it wasn't). I realised my mistake anyway and we hopped on the underground and headed for a stop that had a nme similar to a stop on the skytrain route (the underground station did not show on the map where the service linked up with the Skytrain). The underground was, unsurprisingly, just like any other underground. On the actual metro train, we saw on the list of stops, the name of the stop which linked up with the Skytrain, so we got off one stop earlier than we'd paid for. It was a waste of 2 baht.

Then we were pretty excited waiting for the skytrain. I had images of a futuristic hovering train soaring at skyscraper level in the clouds high above Khao San Road. Then a DART pulled up and loads of commuters piled off onto the platform. We piled on and looked around at all the depressed commuting Thai people. It was pretty boring. It was like coming to Ireland and getting on the LUAS. There were some nice views though. Our ticket was one way but we used it as a return because we felt the Bangkok public transport authority owed us money after the crapness of the skytrain and headed back towards Siam Square, the main shopping district in Bangkok. First we went to Siam Centre, then headed for Mahboonkrong or MBK, a big shopping centre. The shops were a lot more expensive than I expected and a lot less cheap than the stalls of Khao Sarn, so I didn't buy any clothes or anything, but I was looking for a camera shop. Unfortunately we didn't find one because Steven had left the camcorder sitting on his chair in the pizza place we'd eaten in, so we all went running back there, hoping our camcorder was still there. Fortunately it was, and we decided to head for another shopping mall, called Siam Paragon. This was a very upmarket place, with Ferraris and Mini Coopers on display on one floor. On the top floor was a cinema and we saw a crap film, The Break Up, with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn.

2006-08-17T08:08:00.000-07:00

2006-08-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

This is Stephen, Sheena, Tawee and Donna.

2006-08-17T07:48:00.000-07:00

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhh

Update

2006-08-17T06:30:00.000-07:00

Okay, my last long post was from Surat Thani, and it's high time I gave a complete update, with pictures and all.

We were in Surat Thani intending to make a day trip to a place called Chiaya where there are a few temples and similar sights. We got the idea because it said in a couple of guide books that Surat Thani was mainly as interest for making day trips to Chiaya.

When we went to the bus station, as I said, we encountered lots of scammers. Weell, some of them might not have been scammers, but they were all trying to make money out of us.

First we approached a songthaew driver (a songthaew, which literally is translated as "two rows" or "two planks", is a pick up truck with two benches either side of the back and is used as a type of share taxi in many parts of Thailand) who tried to charge us 250 baht or so, which is more than we were willing to pay, and more than the guide book recommended, more importantly, we wanted to get a local bus, the same as Thai people would get if they wanted to go to Chiaya. So we tried to communicate with him and figure out where to get the bus from, and some helpful guy told us we needed to go to the other bus station which was just up the road (the guide book had told us to go to the station we were at). We headed that direction anyway...

...we got to the other station and three guys ran towards us asking "where you go?", "you want ticket?", "you need bus?" One guy (wearing an Irish jersey) was referring to a piece of paper with Thai writing on it, then speaking to us in English, he must have written the English phonetically in Thai, he asked us if we wanted to buy tickets, expecting us to hand over the money directly to him.

We ended up just getting too much hassle and decided to get out of there, we were getting paranoid that we would be mugged and robbed if we got on a bus. As we walked away, Sheena looked into a tourist office and saw some westeners in there and we decided to pop in and ask for some advice. We got chatting to the owner, a Danish man who we then told our further plans were to go to Kaoh Sok national park. He told us a friend of his had a guest house there, and his friend just happened to be in town, and that his friend would be willing to give us a free lift that night to the national park if we wanted to stay with him. We had already booked into our hotel for the night so weren't going to head there until the next day. Then his friend came back into the office and we shook hands and said hello. He seemed nice. It turned out that he had business in Surat Thani that night and wouldn't be going down until thew morning. We decided to give it a shot because the Danish guy told us we wouldn't have to pay for anything up front and we could pay when we arrived, so if we weren't satisfied, we could just leave. The guest house's owner was named Tawee and he asked us when we were going to get up, because we were on holiday so it was up to us to decide what time we wanted to get up. We arranged to meet him at the tourist office the next morning.

I was a little skeptical that things worked out so perfectly, but we weren't paying for anything so we took the risk anyway.

As it turned out Tawee was one of the nicest people we've met so far and our visit to Kaoh Sok has been one of the highlights of the trip to date.

Sheena's blog

2006-08-13T00:35:00.000-07:00

Sheena has set up a blog too. It's not as good as mine, but you can check it out at:

www.sheenafriel.blogspot.com

2006-07-31T07:25:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a couple of weeks because I'm a little lazy and didn't bother going onto the 'net. We left Bangkok anyway and headed for Koh Phangnan. It cost us 350 baht for our 10 hour bus journey and also included was the boat from Surat Thani to the island. On the boat (which took about 4 hours) we booked a bungalow with some dude named Manus who seemed kind of nice, but when we got there it turned out to be a dump.It was crawling with spiders, ants, cockroaches, etc. Had no hot water and so on. It was lso in a cap location and we would have to rent scooters to get anywhere. We left after one night and headed to Had Rin. We spent about five days there not doing very much. Going to the beach and stuff like that. It was fun and relaxing though.

Then we got the boat to Koh Samui which took about 45 minutes and cost 150 baht. We spent a lot of the time there going to the beach also, including renting jet skis, and we tried to paraglide but the guys kept telling us it was either too windy or not windy enough. We were staying in a place called the Apple Resteraunt next door to a muay thai (thai boxing) gym. Which had cheep food and the owners were very nice.

Now we are in Surat Thani which is not in the least touristy, it makes a nice change to experience a more realistic view of Thai life. Today we were at the bus station and encountered lots more scammers.

Sample images from first few days:

2006-07-12T04:28:00.000-07:00

1st picture is a stupid giant head symbolising something (probably). Then is Steven posing with the Thai flag and finally is a building inside the Grand Palace compound.

2006-07-12T04:23:00.000-07:00

This is my first post live from Bangkok, Thailand. We arrived here on Sunday and it is extremely humid and the heat can be quite uncomfortable. We haven't done much in the way of touristy stuff, but today we went to the Grand Palace.

It's quite difficult to get there because along the way you are constantly approached by Thais who try and get you to go somewhere else; on a tuk-tuk journey, a boat ride etc. There is also a chance of being approached by someone well dressed and with excellent English who attempts a real "soft sell" con job. Today we met one who told us about others con, but we knew he was conning us because he told us you needed to wear socks to the Grand Palace which is untrue.

Anyway, that'll do for a first post. I'll try uploading some photos now.