Last post from the trip - Party, Paradise and Mountain Surfing!

Well after the tragic events of the 4,000 islands it was back to Bangkok then on to the island of Kho Pa-Ngan for a few days of R and R.

Bangkok was quite uneventful for a nice change! I decided that I would spend a little extra money and take the train down to the islands (rather than a bus) as you get a sleeper bed for a nights sleep (well as much sleep as you can get in the night anyway). From the train station there is a 30 min bus ride then a 4 hour boat ride to the island.

Upon arrival its then a 1 hour shared taxi ride ($3) to my new home for the next week, the beach of Thang Noi Pai Yai. The beach itself is very nice, about 500 meters long and about 20 meters wide during high tide, palm trees all the way along only broken up by the bungalows that line the entire shore (hey, what do you expect, its a holiday retreat)

After a night in the first place I found I moved to a REALLY nice bungalow about 50 meters from the beach for the rest of my stay.

Before i talk about the activities that I did while there i need to have a rant about the people working on the beach. I am sure that it much be difficult when working in a service industry and seeing lots of people on holiday when you are working BUT the people that worked in 99% of the places on the beach would have to be the MOST DEPRESSED people on the face of the planet. I did not see a single person who was serving at the restaurants actually smile at ANY point during the trip and god forbid you need something (like say a knife, or sauce), all you get is a nasty scowl and then the item thrown at you......I just don't get this in the land of smiles!

Ok, back to the activities. On day 1, when i arrived i just sat around, ate and swam....Day two i decided to hire a motorbike and take a little drive to the town of Hat Rin (where the famous Full Moon party happens, and the Mecca for the travelers as there are lots a guesthouses, restaurants, internet cafes and as you all know, nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd). Hiring a motor bike and traveling over a tropical island sounds like a fun relaxing day yes? WRONG!!! Tropical islands are basically made up of mountains with trees on them and some beaches so riding a motor bike involves driving UP and DOWN EXTREMELY sharp roads that are made of dirt! I am talking putting this bike in first gear and riding the front AND back breaks almost as hard as they will go to stop from flying down the hills at 400 km/h!!

Apart from the frequent "oh shit" moments the day on the beach at Hat Rin was very nice. On the way back it was getting dark and rained a lot so those hills were just SOOOO much fun. Lucky for me though i did get back JUST before a HUGE storm arrived so not so bad.

Day three was just a relaxing day as i walked over to the neighboring beach (about 20 mins walk away) for a day there relaxing in the sun.

Day four arrived and Adi and Olivia arrive for a few days on the beaches also. This was quite nice (if a bit of a shock to the body) as they were interested in relaxing on the beach during the day but were up for a BOOGY at night so the three of us turned what ever place we were in into a party bar!!!

Day 5 was upon me before i realised and it was full moon day!! For those not in the know about the full moon party it happens each month on or around the full moon. It was started as a birthday party about 8 years ago and very quickly grew into a party that attracts about 20,000 people from the island and surrounding islands. The party is held on the beach of Hat Rin, which is about 400 meters long and about 30 meters wide (remember there are 20,000 people here so its kinda busy). There are about 6-7 bars that put up large walls of speakers and blast out all types of music (Progressive, top 40, drum and base, trance).

We headed over to the full moon by boat about 10pm. There's an idea that sounds good, take a boat. Its a nice night for it!!! WRONG!! By the time we got there we were all SOAKED from the spray. But the spray did take a victim, my camera. R.I.P. it had treated me well! We partied into the night and morning, eating pizza and drinking "Buckets of Joy" (roughly, 1/3 of a bottle of whisky, coke and red bull in a small bucket - all for about $4) and managed to get to bed about 8am the next day.

Day 6 was recovery day on the beach and apart from Adi loosing here memory card for the digital camera for about 1 hour in the sand (imagine about 6 people, all really tired from the night before, in the sand at 2am, searching for about 1 hour when finally Adi locates it in an area that had already been searched about 40 times). I guess we were really tired after all!!

Day 7, Olivia heads out for a dive with the worlds worst dive instructor!! Now i don't know much about diving but i was told from a dive instructor that there are two very important rules to know. Rule one, never leave you dive partner. Rule two, when your air gets to 50 bar you head to the surface, no matter what you are doing. Somehow one of the people in the dive had their air get to 5 bar when they told the instructor so he heads up with them to the surface. Remember rule 1, the instructor was Olivia's partner and he just left her!!!! Very strange. Anyway Adi and i just chilled out that day and basically did nothing.....

Day 8 and its back to Bangkok with Olivia and Adi is off to Hat Rin for a few days before heading to Kho Tao for some diving......

4,000 islands and not a beach in site (almost)

Well after a fun trip to Champasak myself and Adi head off for the 4,000 islands and the island of Don Det (for those of you following the trip on the atlas, you know who you are) the 4,000 islands are right down south, right on the border with Cambodia.

Now if you remember back to my previous post you will know that the buses down that end of the world are in fact nothing more than 2 tonne trucks with a couple of rows of seats in them. We make it from the guest house, across the river and then up to the main road where we await for a bus southwards. About 20 mins in, the first vehicle comes past and lucky for us it a bus. REALLY unlucky for us is that it is already full. So full in fact that there are about 6 people hanging off the back, standing on a small platform that is used to transport various livestock, veggies, etc. But this being the country it is we manage to fit two people into the back of the truck (Adi and a French girl that traveled from the guest house with us) and me and another guy (the French girls father) jump on to the back and hand on for dear life!!! After about 2 hours of hanging on, and a face full of sun, rain and bugs, we arrive at our destination. Well, almost.

The bus drops us off at the town that is about a 10 min boat ride from the island of Don Det. While we are organising to get our tickets Adi notices a monkey and heads over to take a look. See Adi loves animals and pats almost anything that comes her way (LARGE spiders, dogs, cats, monkeys, bears etc....But HATES cockroaches, bizarre!!). This was one of those strange times where she decides NOT to pat the monkey but the monkey has other thoughts. He grabs at her water bottle (which she quite quickly hands over) and as a sign of affection for his new found friend who just gave him some water, the monkey bites Adi on the hand.

Now for anyone who has traveled outside Australia (for those of you luck enough to live in Australia) there is one thing you need to be worried about it an animal bites you, RABIES!!! If you get it, and don't get the injections, you will die. Lucky for Adi though the monkey gave her more of a love bite than anything else as it did not even break the skin. But just to be sure we sent about 45 SMS messages to Israel and Australia (thanks mum for checking out with the doctors in QLD) and they seemed to give the all clear. But we did seek out a "doctor"in town who, it seems, is qualified as he has a book on Medicine and that is about it. He was not worried either. And as luck would have it, we ran into a French guy who was training to be a doctor who also said there was nothing to worry about. And as Adi is still with us, i will assume that she is goind to be OK.

Ok, back to Don Det. We arrive and set out in search of accommodation. We find Ma and Pa's guesthouse and rent two bungalows, overlooking the river, under the cool shade of some very large trees. Each bungalow had a double bed, hammock and was very quiet and all for the wallet breaking cost of $1 a night.

Very quickly we run into the usual crew that we had been traveling with for most of the trip (Evan, Sietske, Marleen, Julie, Dianne etc etc, the list goes on and on) who were all chilling out on the island.

Day two starts with the decision to head off and visit the waterfall and the other main island (Don Kon) by bike. Myself and Adi join up with Sam and (Mental blank, get back to you - Adi, some help here) for the trip. Its a lovely trip that takes about an hour and give you a view of all the farms and guesthouses on the islands. We arrive at the MIGHTY Mekong rapids where a river that is one of the largest in the world (that sometimes is KM's wide) reduces to about 200 meters wide and drops about 10 meters within the space of about 200 meters.

Onward we head until we find the beach (pictures to come). From a distance it actually looks like a small sand beach. In fact its dirt but its very find while being quite course so resembles sand quite closely. We heed the sign that says that someone was killed there a few years ago while swimming so only head a few feet in and sit down in the water. There we also met Shirley (hello there.....)

Day three was a very weird day indeed. We head off to visit the fresh water Mekong dolphins. I certainly did not realise that there are dolphins that live thousands of KMs up the Mekong in the middle of a dirty brown colored river. 9 of us head out on bikes for the trip to the boats and even though we get lost and end up in the wrong spot, a couple of guys take us out to the dolphins. Its only about a 25 min trip and we are out in a part of the Mekong that is about a 1km wide and to our disappointment there are no dolphins (yet) so the boat drivers take us over to an island that is in fact Cambodia. We disembark and find that there local Cambodian police man comes down to see us.

Lucky for us we had already been told that the police man does not get upset, does not ask you to cross the border officially into Cambodia, no he old asks that you buy some beer off him!!! Beer, swimming and relaxing was had before the dolphins surface and we head out to visit them. You can not actually get very close but they are dolphins alright!!

Day four and Adi is off today with a few others back to Pakse to take a flight to Cambodia. Myself, Emmanuel, Sietske, Marleen and Shirley head out to the biggest rapids in Asia. It was kinda like the ones near where we were but i guess a little higher and probably a little more water going over it but nothing to get too excited about.

When we arrive back to Don Det we find out that our friend, James (Jamie) was killed in an accident at the water fall near the island. See http://jamie-james-joseph.blogspot.com/ if you have not already found on what happened there.

A couple of days later and its time for me to head back to Thailand and down to the islands for some much MUCH needed rest.....

Squeal like a pig boy

Ok, tis time to head down to the south of Laos (hence the title of the post)....

Most of the people i was traveling with at this point (hi guys) headed down to Pakse (the main town in the south) about 12 hours by bus away. I actually thought that a stop along the way might be nice so headed for a town about half way called Savankhet.

It was written up in the bible as a really nice little town on the banks of the mekong with crumbling French architecture that is a good example of a town that has not been upkept by the local government. And you know what, they were right. Nothing to see apart from about 2 building that were kind interesting....

The highlight without a doubt was the dinosaur museum. When you turn up the owner of the museum comes out to greet you and then takes you on a tour of the place, explaining every little bone in great detail. He even pulls a few of them out of the case and gives them to you so that you can feel what a 130 million year old bone feels like.....Quite interesting....

From Savanhket it was on to Pakse. I arrived at about 7pm and decided that i was going straight onto my destination the next morning. As luck would have it, i ran into Adi (whom i had been traveling with to Luang Probang, Mong Noi, Van Vien and Vientiene but had move to Pakse before me) so we headed together to the next destination, Champasak. The home of a temple ruin in the same style as the Angkor temples but a little older (about 1,400 years old, Vs 1,200 years old).

As with most journies, getting there is half the fun. And in the case, that was the truth. Once again we take one of the local transports (a 2 tone truck with bench seats in the back) with about 30 people crammed in as well ofcourse as fish, vegtables, pigs etc....

We arrive and end up staying with, without a doubt, the happiest man in SE Asia. Everytime you see him hes laughing and joking and ALWAYS smiling. Such a nice guy!!! In the early afternoon we grab some push bikes and head out to the temple (about an hours ride away). The temple itself is quite run down but still visable enough to imagine what it would have been like 1,400 years ago. Its set at the bottom of a mountain and sprawls up about 100 meters onto the side of the mountain allowing for some spectacular views from the top....

Adi and I stay around Champasak a little longer than planned as Adi was not feeling too well so a day of relaxing in the hammoks by the river was in order before the move to the 4,000 islands....

The Paris of asia

Now that i have (just) survived my rafting to Vientiene, its off to visit the capital.

Vientiene is known as the Paris of Asia for one very good reason. They have built something that from a distance looks very similar to the Arc de Triumph in paris (complete with the Champs des Elesse (or something of similar spelling) street leading up to it) . From closer up its actually quite asian in appearance with lots of buddha sculptures and little towers all over it.

Vietiene itself is a very relaxed city, probably the most relaxed capital city on the planet. Life goes by at a very slow pace and no one seems to want it to go any faster. There are ALOT of french colonial style buildings around which gives a clear indication of times past when the french wanted to control most of asia (See Laos and Vietnam history pages for a refresher course). The one thing that the french do leave behind when they leave is a wonderful french influence over the food which can't be all bad....

One of the nights we decided to head out to a Laos night club for a little boggie. After a short tuk-tuk ride we arrived at "The Kok". I am not sure of the significance of the places that i hang out in but with Knob Chow in Luang Probang and the Kok in the capital, i think i am starting to get a little worried. Anyway, after a very itimate moment with the bouncers as they check that you don't have any weapons on you we head in. Very strange environment though, the music is pumping (techno style, western, laos and thai music) but most of the people are sitting around drinking....Strange....

After a trip to the buddha park (about 40 mins out of town on a VERY local bus) which was quite interesting (photos to come) what was about it for my few days in the capital...

From there its down south.....

Its grade 3+ baby!!!

Ok, its finished with the north of Laos, now its time to head down to Vang Vien. For those of you that don't know this place i will give you a run down.

Unlike the majority of Laos which has not really been run over by the almighty tourist dollar (although they are well on their way), Vang Vien has embrassed the tourist dollar and taken it to the extreme.

Vang Vien is a small town about half way between Luang Probang (2nd largest town in Laos) and Vientiene (the capital). It is set on a lovely river with high mountains on the other bank. But scenery and location has nothing to do with the draw of this town, its the friends and the tubing!!!

See, there are atleast 5 places in Vang Vien (all withing about 20 seconds walk of each other) that do nothing other than serve food and show episodes of Friends, the US TV sitcom. Its very sureal to sit down, order a beer and then watch 7 episodes of friends in a row, whilst being in the middle of a 3rd world country!!! But there are people here who pretty much do that all day for a few days on end.

The only rest you get from friends, it to do Tubing down the river. This involves hiring an inner tube from a truck tyre, boarding a tuk-tuk for the 10 min drive up the river, then jumping in the river for the flot back down to the city. While i am sure this by itself would be alot of fun, its really the stops in the "Bars" along the way that turns the normally 45 min ride into an ALL day activity. And when i say "Bars" i mean it in a very loose sense.

When you want to stop at a bar, you simply indicate to the dude on the riverbank that you want to stop and he passes out a VERY long bamboo poll to catch you. You then get to the side of the river and the "bar" is a guy with an ice chest and some beer in it, that's about it for most of them. A couple have a little more entertainment (A huge swing at one of them where they pull you up about 30 feet into the air and let you go so that you can jump into the river from a great height).

After a couple of days of Friends and tubing it was decided that we would head to Vientiene via a day of Kayaking. Sounds like innocent fun? They wouldn't take us anywhere that was dangerous would they??????

We arrive at our kickoff point of the day of relaxation and smooth sailing down the Nam Sip river after about an hour in the back of a truck. The day starts out smoothly enough, some light hearted water fights, relaxation as we slowly cruise down the river......Then you hear it, the sound of water rushing REALLY quickly as we arrive at our first set of rapids (1st of 3).

I was in a double kayak with a guy from perth in the front and me at the back. Kayaks are unstable at the best of time and especially in grade 3+ rapids (for those of you that don't know, grade 3+ fits in on the rapid scale below :

Grade 1 - A baby could make more ripple in the water
Grade 2 - Hay this is fun, fast and a few small waves but i am glad i am in a raft and not on a kayak
Grade 3 - Wow, these waves look kinda big, 3 - 5 foot hight waves, hope i don't fall out of the raft. And REALLY glad i am not in a kayak
Grade 4 - SHITTTTTTT, these waves are crazy, you would have to be out of your mind to come down here in a kayak
Grade 5 - Hail mary, full of grace etc etc.......

So we were somewhere between grade 3 and 4 (which ofcourse they fail to tell us about at the start). The first set of rapids me and my partner actually get through without falling in....not an omen for things to come.

As we descend into the second set i am thinking, hey i realise that these are 5 - 6 feet tall waves and the water is rushing at about 30 kms per hour, but we made the first set so why not this one......Then as we get to the top of the first wave i think.....well its a nice day for a swim.

As the kayak tips over i push myself away (and down into the water as it turns out) to get myself away (now i am wearing a helmet and life jacket at this point). I notice that i go under the water but am not worried as i am wearing a life jacket. After about 3-4 seconds i open my eyes because i figured "i am wearing a lifejacket and surely i am at the top of the water now". When i opened my eyes all i saw was brown water, thats when a small amout of panic set in because after all "I am wearing a F^$%King lifejacket, surely that will bring me to the top fo the water". At this point i decide to swim for the top of the water as i have no idea how far under the water i am. According to my partner on the boat, i was under the water for a good 10 seconds. And while 10 seconds might not seem that much to you, try it right now (hold you nose and spot breathing for 10 seconds, then think that you are doing this while underwater in grade 3+ rapids running at about 30kph)......Its really a long LONG time.....

Lucky for me that was the last hairy experience i had for the day (although we did fall in a few more times but my head was well above water each time)......

From there it on to Vientiene, the capital of Laos.......

Oi Oi Oi Mong Noi

Ok, where were we. Luang Probang i believe. So i now decied, on the advise of fellow travellers that i am heading off to Nong Kiew and Mong Noi Nuea and yes, they are as remote as they sound.

Mong Noi, so everyone told me, is this wonderfully quite place about 3 hours by bus and then 1 hour by boat, north of Luang Probang. A girl i had been traveling with for the past few days, Adi from Isreal, decides to join me at the last minute for the trip.

We both head out to the bus station and board a 60 year old bus (or so it seems) for the 3 hour tour, the three hour tour....the weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed, if not for the courage of the fearless crew the minoue would be lost....No wait, wrong story...

Ok, so we board the bus with about 8 westerners, lots of locals, various goods for the villages along the way and two cardboard boxes full of baby ducks! After a rather uneventfull trip we arrive in Nong Kiew. we learn that we have about 1 hour 15mins before the boat departs to 6 of us head for some lunch. This is where we are introduced for the first time to the concept of "Laos Time". After we all order lunch we wait, and wait and wait.....It gets to the time of the boat departure and only one person has received anything at all. She quickly finishes and halls butt to the boat to see if we can get a later one. She comes back and tells us that they will wait 30 mins for us. After the full 30 further mins are up, only one more dish (mine actually) arrives....This is cooking Laos style.......

The 1 hour boat trip was rather nice with the secenery of the river changing between lush, overgrown moutains to quite barron mountains where logging had taken its toll. We arrive in Mong Noi and to my plesent surprise, it was just as nice at the other tourists had told me.

The riverfront was scattered with a number of guest houses, all with the same lodgings. A bamboo hut with hammok out the front and double bed inside, all for the princely sum of $1 a night. Not bad. The only draw back, electricity is only on for a few hours a night when the generators are running so cold beer is at a premium during this time.

After a day of relaxing and reading and tasting some of the local food (including pancakes with banana a chocolate with in actual fact resembles more of a cake with baked in banana and something resembleing chocolate) it was an early night for some sleep.

The next day a few of us decied to head out for the caves and village, a total of about 2 hours walk away. This was the start of a day i would rather forget. About 45 mins into the trip someone said to me, what is that on your leg? I look down and sure enough, i am the first one to get a leach. Lucky for me someone had brough a cigarrette lighter with them so the casualty was one leach and much leg hair!! A few minutes later, some question with the same result (more leg hair this time though).

After an hour of walking we come to this beautiful stream that is coming out of a cave below the ground. Photos and splashing around was had and we set off for the next cave. A few mintues later we arrive at the second cave and there 5 of us decide to explore. A small opening awaits (sliding on your stomach to get through) but then opens into a cave big enough to walk sometimes and crouch at others. After about 200 meters into the cave we decide to turn back, a japaniese guy takes the lead with me in second. I notice that he can stand up so i stand up too (later i realised that he is infact only about 5 foot 6, i am 6 foot 4).

When i stand up i hit my head hard enough to knock me back onto my butt. I put my hand to my head and sure enough blood! I put my head down a little and the ground is soon enough a little pool of blood. This is where the amazing people i was with sprung into action. The japanise guy Ryo (pronounced YO) sprung into action and produced a small towel for my head. After about 5 mins (and 50 questions asking if i was OK) we decied to make a move back for the cave entrance (remember now, we are 200 meters inside a cave, 1 hour walk from the nearest town). I think it was Julie who gave me her sarong to tie on the towel so that i could walk. We made it back to the entrance without a problem and then back to the stream where i could wash off the blood. Lucky for me the hit was not that hard and i was not suffering any concussion (I.e. i could see straight).

I told the rest of them to head off for the village (not the one we were staying at but the one we were heading for) but none of them would have any of that. They wanted to come back with me to the town to ensure that i was ok. Thanks guys!!!

Then the day turned bad for all of them. Each person had a leach on the way back (not just me this time) and apart from a massive rain storm, we got back without a problem. Then each of the people i was with got into their medical kit and we found everything we needed to patch my head up. Lucky again that it did not need stitches....

The following day was spent relaxing and resting my head before myself, Yo and Adi headed back for Nong Kiew. This was our first experience of a "real" Laos "bus". Most of the vehicles that move around Laos are not infact buses but really 3 ton trucks with two rows of beach seats in the back. They are very interesting modes of transport.

After another night back in Luang Probang it was time to head off to the "friends" town of Vang Vien!

Luang Prabang and the case of the killer bears

Hello all,

Me back again....Now, where were we? Thats right.....After the two days on the river boat we arrive at Luang Prabang, a rather large town (for Laos that is) in the north. The town is situated right on the river and is a lovely tree lined town with a mix of Laos and French influence (as the French did rule over Laos for about 60 years leading up to around 1960)....

We check into our hotel (not so bad but not that great either) grab a bite to eat and then head over to the Knob Chow (or Knob Choi, but our name for it is much better considering it is a gay bar) for some really nice and really cheap drinks then on to the local hangout for the westerners to catch up with the rest of the people from the boat for a few drinkies.....

Day 1 provides an opportiunity for us to head out to the much discussed water falls for the afternoon (not much happening in the morning after a night on the chow). We arrive and head off to the first stop, the bears. There is a quite large enclosure for some wild bears (about 4-5 feet high fully grown) that are being looked after following poachers attempts on them or their families. We were told that if you go into the concret building around the back that there is a little suprise, and sure enough, there it was. A 2 month old bear about the size of a puppy lab!!! Soooooo cute....Whats more, you can go into his area and play with him. One thing he loves is to chew something, so its either your finger (which he has a very strong bite) or part of your clothing or anything that gets in his way (hair, nose etc)......I opted for him biting my finger....

After some play time with the cut bear its off to the falls. And i must say that these are the most impressive falls i have seen anywhere (yes, i have not been to Canada or South American so you will have to bear with me). About every 50 meters up the cliff (and in the lower areas) there are the most amazingly colored pools that are SOOOO Inviting for a dip, which ofcourse you are alowd to do......But for me, it was off to the top.

I heard rhumours that there was an amazing pool right at the top of the waterfall (about 100 meters up) so off i climbed......When i finally saw the path down to the pool (you have to get above it to get down to it, you will just have to trust me on this one) i noticed a sign that said something like (DANGER, DEATH, do not go down here)....So after i managed to get to the pool (where there were a number of other people) i took the 2 meter jump into the refreshing, cool water.....Someone gestered for me to come over to the edge of the pool and take a look....when i swam over i looked down from the edge to the 100 or so foot drop to the pool below....Just amazing.....

After the swim and the climb down it was off to see the tiger.....This was the most beautiful animal i have ever seen, only about 1 year old (so not fully grown) the tiger was rescued when a cub from poachers and taken to the large enclosure here.....You could get within about 1 foot of him when he was being fed (behind a cage ofcourse) and i have some of the most amazing photos to show when i get back......

Its now the following day and a few of us head off to see the caves filled with buddha statues, intersting but not totallay awe inspiring....

That was about it for Luang Prabang as i now head north to much more remote lands....

On the road again......

This ends my updates for now......

Stay turned for future adventures which include

- Having my hand chewed by a bear (its only baby!!)
- $1 a night accomodation overlooking the river
- Splitting my head open 200 meters deep in a cave
- The most amazing waterfall complete with tigers and bears (wait, i have already mentioned the bear!!!)

How now brown Laos!

Ok, its off to Laos!

After a one night stop over in Chang Mai (back to the pool place for $6 a night, movie and some GOOD food). The trip up is not too bad, about 5 hours if memory serves me correctly, and we are at the border.

Now i always imagine a border between two countrys to be a scary place where lots of young men stand guard with really big machine guns, ready to plug full of holes anyone who dares to sign there immigration card the wrong way....

The reality is QUITE different. Leaving thailand involves passing your passport through a little window at a little shed near the river then boating a boat that is about 5 meters long and 1 meter wide for the slow trip over to the otherside of the river. Once there you throw your passport (and about $0.60 for "overtime pay") through the window and officially you are in Laos. No guards, no hassle.....quit anticlimatic ....

Now you have two choices for getting to Luang Probang from the boarder, a 5 hour bus trip (which in reality is actually a truck with two planks in the back for sitting on) or a two day scenic trip down the mighty Mekong river for about $20....I took the boat...

The most dissapointing part of the trip was not the magnificent scenery, not being hypnotised by the burbling of the brown water, it was not ever the opportunity to see how life on the Mekong unfolds.....Its the tourists on the boat.

I swear that 80% of the people in the boat were either sleeping or had their heads in a book (mostly the Lonely Planet) for most of the trip!!!! Now come on people, you are in a different country for a reason, i thought that reason was to see how life is different to your own....But i guess not!!! And the amont of people that complained how boring the trip was....Arrggg...i could scream....

Anyway, the trip requires a stop over in Pak Bang, a little riverside village about half way along the journey. This is where my run of cheap accommodation started. The village itself is about 1km long but most of the falang (White people) guest houses are located in the first 200 meters. A couple of us decided to head up a little further into town and found this wonderfull place with the most friendly family as the owers that I have met yet! I got my own double bed room, with fan and mozzie net for $2 a night!!! Not bad......

Day two, take it up to about 90% and add tons more complaining and you will get the picture.....

I just loved the trip, amazing scenery, life on the Mekong, animals....it was all there!!

Chilli, gimme chilli!!!!

Quick note......

If you are ever craving some western food in Chang Mai head to Mikes and order the chilli cheese burger!!!! Oh my god!!! 3 inch thick meat, 4 inches of chilli, lettuce, tomato, mayo, sauce, and onion rings!!! Actually, i am off now,......need some food!!!

Going for a song

After the rafting it was off to Mae Hong Song. A little town in the moutains north of thailand. Now this is going to be a short one as i really did not do that much other than sit around for a day, eat and walk up a BIG hill to the temple on top for, i must say, some great views....

As mentioned in a post a couple of blogs ago, i headed back to Pai for some movies and relaxing....

White water to a song

Picking back up my travels.....Tis now the 29th and i am in Laos. But this blog takes us all the way back to Pai and my white water rafting trip to Mae Hong Song.

I read that you can take the 65 KM trip from Pai to Mae Hong Song and that it takes about 2 days. Unfortunately the water level is really low at the moment so there was not any trips on the river, that was until two more people showed up and they decided to take us on the frist trip for the season (unfortunatly no discount for this but oh well).....

We head off from Pai in a 4X4 that the french guy that owns the rafting trip has. After a very heated argument with the ranger (in Thai unfortunately) we do some off roading (to avoid the ranger) and arrive at our launch spot. I quick safety demo and we are off. The trip is to take 2 days, cover 65KMs and 60 sets of rapids up to grade 4 (in the wet season, probably about grade 3+ for us).

The first few KMs are rather scenic passing water buffalo lazing around on the bank of the river, lots of birds and butterflys and some very relaxing sitting around and basically doing nothing. Then some of the fun begins, we hit our first grade 3 rapids. Now what i forgot to mention was that because it was the first trip of the season, we we carrying alot of supplys for the camp site we were staying at overnight. This means that we were a little lower in the water than usual...

The first (like most of the rest of the rapids) are hit at great speed and the frist thing we do it to hit some large rock and get stuck which results in alot of comical rocking of the boad backwards and forwards until we get free.....a rapid acceleration, big dip down and steap rapid and then (yet you guessed it) stuck on another rock.....

After about 6 hours rafting we arrive at our "lodgings" for the night. The company that ran the trip has setup there own little camp site on the banks of the river which is basically comprised of two small (ish) bamboo huts with a couple of tents inside one of them. We "shower" (i.e. get in the creek and wash off) then dinner. Really nice actually (chicken, pork and veggies with rice). After dinner we sit back and enjoy a laos coffee (made with the water from the same stream that we washed in) then off to bed when WAY to many bugs decide to look in on the strange white creatures than have arrived....

Day two was started by the sounds of the Loas jungle (did i mention that duriing the 65 KMS there are no civilisations of ANY kind, this is real off the beaten path stuff) and even by the sounds of some monkeys in the near by trees (although we did not see any)....

Day two went along much as the first for the remaining time except for one thing. About half way into day two the guide tells us to jump out of the boat and have a swim. Ofcourse he fails to mention the we are approaching a rapid and that he plans for us to go through the rapid in the water!!! It was actually really good fun....if a big bumpy.....

All in all a really great trip....

Read from the bottom

Hi all,

Just a reminder that if you have not read this blog before, its best to start from the bottom or you will be reading in the wrong direction....

And as always feel free to leave any comments..

Happiness is?

Its an interesting question, what is happiness? Happiness comes in many forms for many people and what makes one person happy might not make another happy....

Happiness might be something big like getting married, getting a promotion, moving to a new (or in some cases old) state to live or having a new child. Happiness might be something small like walking your dogs (Rest in peace Clive), a warm day, a bowl of yummy vanilla icecream, or a holiday OS.....

I really believe that happiness is where you find it.....A quote from a book i read recently. A traveler after spending 2 months touring around India was asked, what is happiness? .......He responded......

"What is happiness........................................a dry fart"

Have my PAI and eat it too

Me again, after a few days relaxing by the pool in Chang mai i decided it was time to head off into the mountains.....Pai was the destination, a short stop over (or so i thought) before a longer stop (or so i thought) in Mai Hong Song...

Pai, according to the bible (of the Lonely Planted to those of you not in the know) describes Pai as "It first apprears that there is not alot to see in Pai"....And maybe they are right but it is such a cool little realaxing town. There are many "long term" holiday makers in Pai (for example i was talking to the irish guy (seems that are all on holiday at the moment) who had been in Pai for 3 months and said that he was only going to stay till winter, not too long (winter starts here in November)) and i can certainly understand why.

There are not alot of tourists around Pai at this time of the year (more so than many other towns i guess but still very relaxed)...Pai has a very chilled out atmosphere with many of the places to eat turning themselves into mini movies houses, playing up to 4 movies a day.

Time in Pai is spent relaxing, drinking fruit shakes (ohhhh my the fruit shakes made with fresh tropical fruit and crushed ice, all for about 60 cents each), watching movies or having a mid afternoon snooze....I really could get use to this life style....

On my return from Mai Hong Song (see next posts) i hired a motorbike for the day (24 hours, $2.50) and cruised around the sournding areas. I covered about 100 KMS, went to hot springs, water falls, wats on the hill overlooking the city of Pai....and just basically enjoying the time out of the town and apart from twice in 5 seconds all but falling off the bike (damn down hill steep gravel roands) it was fantastic.....

Shortly after arriving in Pai i noticed that you can go on a two day (one night) rafting experience on the near by river.....65 KMs and 60 sets of rapids!!! Bring it on!!!!

Chang Mai Mai Mai.........Delila

Greeting from Chang Mai. After my couple of days in Sukothai (see previous post) i decieded to head up to Chang Mai.

I boarded the bus in Sukothai and found myself all alone in the back half of the bus....Bliss i thought.....Then it happened,about 5 mins after the bus started it stopped to pick up some people near Sukothai and to my "delight" 5 irish guys got on the bus and hot footed it straight to the back....

Actually it was not that bad, they were a good bunch of guys but after about 4 hours of them drinking whisky it was a little loud up the back with all the singing and dirty joke telling (and the irish guys were a little loud too)...

We arrived in Chang Mai to a saamlaw driver telling us that there was a place, a magical place, where we could get rooms for $3 AUD a night and the place had a clean pool to swim in. What the hell we all thought....and to our complete suprise, it was just that. I (mostly) clean room, two beds in each and $3 a person and there was a clean pool.....Sweet!!!

A couple of days was had in Chang Mai, i went to a cooking course to brush up on my Thai cooking skills (the course was not as good as the last one i did but still interesting and reminded my again that i really can cook good thai food!!!), i saw a movie (Mr and Mrs Jones, not bad, 6.5/10) and just basically hung around and took it easy.....

But enough ot taking it easy, its time for WHITE WATER RAFTING!!!!

Sukothai and why it doesn't

Having left my (lovely for the money, see previous post) hotel in Bangkok i headed for the bus station, not really sure of when the buses left for Sukothai. This was the start of my great run of luck with buses in Thailand.

After arriving at the bus station and taking about 10 mins to work out where i buy a ticket for my destination i found that the next bus for Sukothai left in 15 mins and was airconditioned! Sweet, one ticket, 2 donuts and a drink later and i was on my way to Sukothai....

Now what or where is a Sukothai i hear you ask (or is that the voices in my head again!!! out out i tell you)....Sukothai was one of the first capitals of thailand around 700 years ago (kinda makes the aussie white mans history of 200 years look a little small) and how holds around 45 sq kms of ruins (which are now a historical park).

Now many of you that have been to thailand before have probably been to Ayuthaya (the second capital of thailand and also a historic site with many ruins) and i have to tell you, Sukothai craps all over Ayuthaya with the ruins. I believe why Ayuthaya is so popular is that it is a short day trip from Bangkok so is easy to do but don't be fooled by SUKothai certainly does not.

To get there from the main town you need to either walk 12 kms or simply take a saamlaw (a ute with seats in the back that costs about 4 bht (12 cents) for the 12km trip. On arrival at the park it pays to get a bike for the day (60 cents) and head on in. I ended up visiting around 10 wats (temples to you and me) for the day including missing a turn off and riding about 7 kms in the wrong direction before realising and turning back (while that might not seem a big deal, try doing 14 kms for nothing on a day of 41 degrees and 90% humidity)....

In addition to Sukothai having much more interesting and elaborate wats than Ayuthaya it is also much less crowded as there are virtually no package tourist buses there so you have the place to youself for most of the day......

All in all, Sukothai did not live up to its name which i was VERY happy about!!

Don't always believe what you read.....

Hi all and welcome to the first entry of my Thailand and Laos weblog.

I start with the a quote from steven wright "I don't always stop at stop signs, after all you can't always believe what you read".

When looking for a hotel in Bangkok i searched around on many websites to find a good (and for that matter cheap) hotel in Bangkok, away from the Kho San Road area (don't even get me started about Kho San Road and i believe that all people that go there should be de-sexed on the spot and left for the dogs to chew over that night.....come on people, there is more to bangkok than Kho San road, but many of you will never know)....Ok, ok, so i did get a little started about Kho San road.....Lousy Beetnicks!!!

Ok, back to the hotel. I found this hotel call the Ambassador hotel in the area that i wanted to stay. The only thing stopping me was the less that favourable reviews it received from a few websites. Complaints about quality of rooms, less than friendly staff (which for thailand is an outrage quite frankly, the country is not called the land of a 1000 smiles for nothing), bad breakfast, too noisy etc etc....I just put this down to stuffy travelers who were thinking that for $35AUD a night they were going to get the ritz and so were dissapointed.

When i arrived i was very happy to see a smiling face at the checkin counter, and a very friendly checking was followed but a very nice room with all the things you would expect (Cable TV, nice bathroom, nice bed with clean sheets). So i was thinking to myself, maybe its the breakfast or the pool that is going to let me down so off to bed and lets see what happens in the morning...

I awoke to no noise at all (another reviewers complaint out the window) and headed down to breakfast. Once again a smiling person greeted me and i helped myself to a HUGE buffet of very nice food.....Well, that does it, i was thinking, it must be the pool.

After breakfast was cheerfully downed, i headed out to the pool. Before looking directly at the pool i had visions of a green, crusty pool with water that resembled more custard than water....but no, to my (now ever decreasing suprise) it was a lovely blue pool with nice clear water and deck chairs a plenty......

I guess this now leads me back to my first point, you can't always believe what you read.....So do you believe me?????