Hi everyone,
At last I get around to writing another update – would you believe that its over a month since the last one ? Time has absolutely flown by and so much has happened.
But before I begin thanks to all of you that sent me emails. It is really good to hear from the “real world” and to find out what’s going on with everyone so please keep them coming.
So where were we when I last wrote – Penang I think. Well let me tell you what happened next…..
Thailand
A short 10 hour bus ride from Penang takes you over the border to Thailand. What can I say as an overview ? In Malaysia you may not be able to speak the language but you can have a go at pronouncing words or guessing as to what they mean. In Thailand you don’t have a hope as they use a different script. Thailand is the only Buddhist state on earth and in almost every town you’ll find a ‘Wat’ which is a Buddhist
temple. You can have lots of pointless conversations like:
– “What’s that ?”
– “Wat”
– “That over there ?”
– “Wat”
– “The thing I’m pointing to that’s what ??”
– “Yes”
Totally confusing ? Another thing that Thailand is full of is Tuk Tuks. These are small passenger vehicles like a tricycle but with a noisy two-stroke engine – hence the name. Endless fun can be had trying to fit as many people as possible into one of these contraptions – we managed 6 !! But I jump ahead of myself.
Krabi
Our first stop in Thailand was a beautiful place called Krabi. It’s on the southern west coast and is famous for its limestone cliffs that rise abruptly out of the sea. The James Bond film “The man with the Golden Gun” was filmed in the area so if you imagine the island with the dwarf then you can picture Krabi – although
there’s not so many dwarfs now. Also, as some of you have noticed from the photos, I had my hair braided. Don’t laugh !! Actually it was really good. for a long time my hair has been too long to be short and too short to be long and braiding just solved the dilemma by making it neat and maintenance free.
That’s my excuse anyway and I’m sticking to it !! We spent some time on Railay beach before heading over to Ko Phi Phi (pronounced Pee Pee) for some sun, sand, sea and……snorkeling.
Ko Phi Phi
Phi Phi was the island that recently caused a stir with Leonardo di Caprio because his film crew dug up a beach or something. It is quite a beautiful place: palm trees, white sand, crystal clear warm water – you would have hated it !! If you look at the Photo gallery you’ll see a picture that I took from a viewpoint on Phi Phi and you’ll see how truly awful it was. It was also where I did my first diving of the trip which was quite nice. The highlight being a wreck dive called the King Cruiser and Anemone Reef. Phi Phi is a bit of a party island and we frequently found ourselves at the Reggae Bar bopping away to the song of the moment: “Funk Soul Brother” by Fat Boy Slim. After 5 days of absolute hell, diving, snorkeling, drinking, dancing and eating some of the best food you’ve ever tasted we went back to the main land and took a train to Bangkok…
Bangkok
Bangkok – the city of 1001 things to do with a ping pong ball !! Actually I quite like Bangkok. Lots of Wats (don’t start that again) but some of them are really quite beautiful – especially by the Grand Palace. As usual we spent a lot of time walking around and getting a feel for the place. In the evening we went to the Patpong area which is the touristy Red Light District. Interesting place !!
There’s a market in the street and its “You want to buy a watch ? Sarong ? T-shirt? F**k ?” – As if its the most normal thing in the world to be selling. We wanted to go for a drink there but in most of the bars the girls dancing on the tables heavily out numbered the punters (you could see from the street before you ask. Don’t give me a hard time). We ended up in one of the few non-sex related bars on the street called Radio City. It was full of people and the live band’s lead singer was dressed as Elvis and doing Elvis numbers. Really good ! For the second set he came back dressed as Tom Jones and did his songs.
Weird ? Its not unusual… . We had a great time. The toilets provided quite a surreal experience as well, as I’ll explain. Went to relieve myself – as you do, and while I’m standing there doing the business – as you do, the young male attendant comes up to me bowing and holding a hot flannel which he proceeds to put on my neck – as you generally don’t ! So I’m standing there not quite sure what’s going on and he proceeds to give me a neck and shoulder massage, and quite a good one too !!
Dilemma time – I’d finished the purpose of my visit to the little boys room but am actually quite enjoying the massage – do I:
a) Let him continue
b) Pack my lunch box and leave
c) Hit him
Well, I just packed everything away, coughed a little and proceeded to the sink to wash my hands. I left him happily bowing away and went back to my seat. That happened each time I had to go to the toilet. Manoj went to experience it – nothing happened !!! Strange world.
Chang Mai
After Bangkok it was a 13 hour train ride up to Chang Mai in the north of Thailand. Its funny. In Europe if someone suggested an 8 hour train ride I’d think that they were mad. Here you think “Thats good only 8 hours”. Your perspective changes somewhat. The trains are actually very cheap, clean and comfortable.
Chang Mai is a nice city which has a very relaxed feel to it – especially after the hustle and bustle of Bangkok. We were extremely lucky as we ended up in a hostel called Orchid House. The food in Thailand is probably the best that I’ve ever tasted, so on the first day we decided to do a Thai cooking course. We started in the local market being shown and buying the different ingredients and in the course of the day made 7 different dishes – all of which were quite edible. Thai food is for those cooks that don’t want 5 things going on at the same time – you just prepare everything and throw it together !
The main reason people go to Chang Mai is to do a Jungle Trek – we were no exception. Orchid House was run by a qualified guide who organised treks only for the guests. He had 14 years experience and his brother worked for the National Parks authority meaning that he could get permits to areas that no other treks went to. We wanted to avoid doing a touristy trek and invading someone’s village and gawking – with this trek we managed it !!
We were taken in the back of a pick up truck to our starting point. A small village about 1.5 hours to the SE of Chang Mai. We’d just got out of the truck and our guide explained that we had a 2 to 3 hour walk to our first destination and its started raining. No drizzle – we are talking torrential downpour !!! Within around 2 minutes we were soaked to the skin. That pretty much set the pattern for the trek. We seemed to spend most of our time wet. Even when it didn’t rain we ended up having to wade across deep rivers with our packs above our heads – so still ended up getting wet. But what fun !!!
There were 9 of us doing the trek and we were lucky to have a really good group of people who thought that the weather simply added to the adventure !! We trekked through thick forest, rode elephants, swam in waterfalls, rafted down river on flimsy bamboo rafts and stayed with the locals in the villages. They seemed genuinely pleased to see us and kept giving us their home-brewed rice wine !! We got back absolutely exhausted but feeling totally exhilarated !!
Going through my diary I’d like to quote an extract which may be amusing. It’s from the second night of the trek….
“Great achievement tonight – I’ve sussed out squat toilets !! No really !! I was tempted to try and contain myself for the 3 days of the trek but realised that this was a tad unrealistic. So it was off to the shed to use the squat toilet ! Now, I’m not sure what it is but I just don’t like squat toilets – call me a soft Caucasian if you like but there seems to be something odd in trying to have a dump, making sure that you aim correctly, keeping your trousers and pants out of the puddle of water (?) that invariably lurks just in front of them, and trying to keep your balance – all at the same time. It’s perverse !! I’m always too scared of not judging the angle right and shitting in my pants or just generally falling over ‘mid-flow’ – so to speak !! It’s just too stressful. But today, real progress was made. I think that it’s because I’m generally fitter now and can actually bend my legs correctly etc – hence getting the angle of drop correct etc. The balance is also better due to the low, more streamlined position – Sussed !!!! I still wouldn’t say that I like squat toilets but at least I’m not afraid of them any more !!”
Chang Mai is also good for live music. At the Riverside Cafe we heard some good bands and at the Bistro a Jimmy Hendrix type guitarist. Song for Chang Mai ? “Give it to me baby” by The Offspring
I spent nearly a week in Chang Mai and left Manoj and Anneli doing massage courses and headed back to Malaysia…
Take care,
Iain
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