i love pai!

We recovered from our trek then set off for Chang Doa, an hour and a half north of Chaing Mai. in complete contrast to the bustling, busy streets of happening Chaing Mai, Chang Dao is a little community embedded into a magnificent lime stone cliff where you can explore vast caves full of shrines and carved buddas. It was really beautiful and thanks to our guide I know know how to say mind your head in tai!

We rocked up as usual completely clueless with nowhere to stay and not a clue where to start, after discovering that all of the guest houses were full (a whole 3 of them) we settled for a really budget smashing luxury hut on a complex so mind blowingly beautiful we felt like we were on our honey moon. In fairness the room only cost 20 pounds but nonetheless, this was the most that we had spent. We decided to only stay for one night to justify it. We spent the evening snug round an open fire chatting to a couple on their holiday. I think they pittied us when we started talking about all our rough experiences and tight budgets so they insisted on buying us a bottle of wine. They were very sweet and we all sat round for what felt like forever but when we looked it was only like…. 12:00 everything calms down so early out in the middle of nowhere!

The next morning, we packed up, received our free bottled water, showergel, shampoo, sewing kit, detergent, shower cap, and little home made jammy dodgers and left luxury behind! We jumped on a bus which dropped us in a dodgy little town who odviously hadnt seen many tourists and was a mix of tai and hill tribe folk. We walked aimlessly down the dusty road and found some people who appeared top be waiting for a lift to Pai (our next destination) we set up camp and sat by the side of the road for a wile until a man in a mini bus came. I expected a bus so was supprised when all of the twons people hopped on, we soon found out why it was a mini van…… someboy told me that there were 1000 corners on the mountain route to Pai and I would say that this was accurate! I was litterally planing my escape route to be sick!

3 hours later we made it to Pai in one piece. It’s a great little place, really good, happy atmosphere, it has the coolest little bars dotted around, we met a couple who got us drinking Sansung and coke. We would basically walk into a bar, buy a bottle for 2 pound, get a bottle of coke and your away. We sat round the fire (again)  getting nicely toasted and drunk!!! We both woke up this morning with booming hang overs!

hill tribe treck

When we got to chaing mai, we found it very difficult to keep our money in our pockets! Everything is just spend spend! On the second day Dan did a cooking course which sounded great! And also means lots of lovely Thai curries for me when we start to cook for ourselves again!

We met two really nice people in our hostel called Claire and Ed who were doing a 3 day hill tribe trek the next day so we decided to tag along, we spent that evening getting to know them, shopping for supplies and eating pancakes of course! Claire and Ed had been traveling in India and Nepal and had done a 12 day trek to base camp on Everest, as you can imagine I was nervous about my abilities!

The next day we set off and picked up our fellow trekkers there was 11 of us. Me Dan, Claire, Ed, Emily, Jamie-Lee, Mat, Rodney, Jane, Justin, Anton and of course our legend of a tour guide......Woody! We all got along very well cramped into the back of a little taxi! We stopped at a market on the way to the jungle to get supplies and necessities like pretty fabric water containers! Some of us fell for it but me and Dan stayed strong and resisted the urge!

We arrived at an elephant camp at around mid day and enjoyed our first part of the trip, an hour long elephant ride across steep, muddy terrain. Then we went on on foot up the mountain which in all honesty was the hardest thing I have done! Everyone was so fit and fast and left me behind, I really thought that I would give up but Dan kept me going. When we got to the top everybody was really supportive and impressed when they found out about my hip!

We were going to be sleeping at the red Laho tribe village, Woody taught us to say “a boy jah” for hello and thank you, the tribe migrated from Burma and don’t have Thailand visas so don’t really belong anywhere. They used to survive by selling opium but the king came and cut down all their crops so the result to giving travelers massages and selling hand made trinkets. It seems like a nice way of life and the village is well made. Our hut was just to the side of the village and we could see the opposing black laho tribe across the other side of the mountain. A few of us went to see the sun set which was so beautiful (see the photos) while Woody cooked dinner by candle light. He is a great cook and kept us all well fed!

We spent the evening sat round the fire playing games and solving Woody’s endless magic tricks and puzzles. One of the tribe men joined us but didn’t say a word just sat there smoking opium with a big smile on his face!

The next day it was all down hill which was better then up hill but still challenging and everyone’s legs hurt by the end of it. We went to two beautiful waterfalls for a swim and met a cute little tribal girl who was fascinated by our digital cameras and sunglasses. It was a real reality check. On the last stretch it got really slippery and me, Anton and Woody fell in the river. We then trekked down to our camp which was looked after by two tribe women who didn’t speak a word the whole time but cooked us dinner, served us drinks and snacks and kept the fire going all night. We all sat round and go very drunk telling jokes, drinking games and listening to Rodney’s legendary stories. It was a really great night!

After, not much sleep we got up and set off for the rafting centre which was just down the valley a little way. We walked out of the dense jungle into an opening where there were cows grazing and the tallest trees I had ever seen! We spent about an hour white water rafting which was so much fun but not too hard going so we all decided to jump out and float for a bit. We got back in just in time for a real level 3 experience! After this the river settled and we were tolled to get onto bamboo rafts and float the rest of the way. We all we stood balancing on these 5 men rafts trying not to fall off and we got the most legendary photo of Dan, who had just fallen in pulling on the back of the boat so that it sank and we all fell down.!

That was the end of our trip but we are all staying in touch and some of us are even meeting up for New Years Eve….. Can’t wait!

bangkok a-go-go!

Penang wasn't really on the schedule, but we got stranded waiting for a train for a couple of nights, so headed out on the ferry to georgetown and landed on what was actually a pretty big island with a big smelly city to welcome us!

After swerving the rip-off taxi drivers, we walked into town to find some accomodation and got a right cushy spot in the middle of town for about 4 quid! it was a bit of a hovel, but it is just a place to sleep (with free fleas...). this was a first opportunity to sit and sink a couple of beers but at 3 quid a pop we had to go home pretty sober :(

the next day we took a bus across the island to the national park, where a guy we met on pangkor and penang said the the beach at the edge of the park was really good. we started on what was advertised as an easy walk about 3km, but they neglected to let us know you had to be like tarzan to swing across the cliffs and like spiderman to climb all the bloody steps!! after a sweaty hour and a half in the jungle, we finally landed at monkey beach, which was a really great little beach, but there were a few people there so we headed to the quiet end and had a swim in the very warm water!

we hadn't eaten a lot all day so we decided to go see what the guys were rustling up n the bbqs. but the robbing bastards wanted $30 per person!! and i mean US dollars.. they should be wearing a mask!! so we told them where to stick their tasty looking kebabs, and tried to get a boat back, but he wanted $20 for that!! robbing theiving malaysians. so getting really fed up and very hungry we trekked back through the jungle for 2 hours, and were about to pass out with dehydration when we got back to the entrance! luckily we stopped at the nearest roadside canteen and our faith in human kind was restored by a lovely lady who cooked us noodle soup and chatted to us for ages!

After all the fun of the day, we got back, showered up and went out for a decent meal and half a beer!

The next day we had a lazy start the headed to the train station to get the 24 hour train to Bangkok.. yeeaeaah! We got chatting to the family who were sat around us who told us loads about thailand, as they had a business on one of the small islands near bangkok, and also chatted to a dutch girl called inika, who was also going to the big city. the trains were sooo much more clean and comfortable that the indian ones.. and no scratty beggars pulling on your trousers for lose change!

we finally got to bangkok at 11 the next day, and it was really hot and humid. we wanted to steer clear of the tuk tuks as they get bad reviews from most people, but after failing to get anywhere near the right bus stop, we gave in and took a mental drive across town in the turbo powered shopping trolly!! then we saw the amazing koh san road...

it is like camden market, mixed with delhi, a bit of amsterdam red light district and then throw in every nationality from the world buying tshirts and 'ray bun' sunglasses! it's awesome!! our accomodation is right on the main strip but set back a bit, so we can sleep pretty well, and there is even a swimming pool on the top of the hotel! so we went for a quick dip (rude not too) before heading out into the throng for some retail therapy!! 3 tshirts and much money later, we walked to inikas hotel (which had spectacular views of the city), and had a well deserved beer with her, some great pad thai (fried noodles) and then got chatting to a couple from london, who had just arrived from england. we drank the night away in spectacular style, and promptly passed out.. well, i did, but roz was woken up when some pissed guy let him self in our room, cus he thought is was his!! think we forgot to lock the door on the way in...!

the next day we booked our christmas holiday (!!) in Koh tao, which is meant to be one of the worlds best diving locations, and also is very handy for getting to koh phan nga for the full moon party on new years eve! wooo! then a bit more shopping, and a long walk down to the mega malls of siam square (Gucci + prada + Lousi vitton = roz's paradise).

tomorrow we go to chiang mai, hill tribe treks and elephants... but that's another story for another day.. i'm off for a beer!

Palau pangkor paradise

After our lovely little stay in Malaka (a legend of a town!) we made our long journey to Palau Pangkor. It was only a 6 hour coach journey over night and if it was anything like the one to get from Singapore to Malaka, we would be laughing!!! 

The seats didn't massage, I could cope with that.... but it was colder then the north pole, to the point where if you fell asleep you might not wake up! And the bus driver played 3 rambo films consecutively... nightmare! What's worse was about 1 hour away from our destination our bus broke down and we waited 3 hours for another coach. It all worked out ok though in the end; the 3 hour delay meant that we arrived in Lumut at 6:00 am instead of 03:00 am which would have meant that would have to wait around for 4 hours for the ferry to open. 

We got on the ferry after enduring yet another dish of chicken fried rice at a little 24 hour cafe. I just cant get enough of the south east asian food! We were heading to our first island "paradise" and it was a beauty! Unfortunately it was a Saturday so it was pretty packed out with the local karaoke crowd.... playing long into the night and sounded like chalk on a blackboard! But our guest house was amazing!! Totally made up for the noise from the streets. Our room was a little wooden tent dotted between palms, the beds were matresses on the floor but still managed to be really comfy! There was a good communal area and you were free to cook your own food, and veg out in the hammocks watching satellite tv with all the other friendly people from around the world (mainly french). 

The beach was only a two min walk and on our 3rd day we hired a kayak and some snorkels and paddled out to a little remote island where there was lots of coral and even more fish. The visability wasn't great but all the same it was a real thrill until one fish bit me on the arm really hard and scared the life out of me! 

We left our little island today after a trek into the jungle to the waterfall, we are in Penang for 2 days then we get the train to Bangkok. Hurahhhhhh!

malaka

We arrived safely in Malaka at 04:00 pm, got settled into our second hostel (not as good as betal bug but never mind). Looking around me and Dan agreed that it looked like a little french village in china! How strange??? Again, all the streets are spotless, everything is illuminated at night as if in a museum or something, its nice to see how proud people are of their surroundings. It is so well manicured you are affraid to step in a way that might offend!

We did the norm, ate, drank, slept... nothing exciting. The next day we decided to do the sights in the proper tourist way! We jumped onto a trishaw covered in flowers and relaxed while Danu (our driver) pedalled us all round town. its a strange mix of ultra modern and very authentic buildings. Strange but good, it's a bit like being in a theme park I suppose. Not at all what I imagined but I am quite happy with this ultra sleak theme park! We ate at one of the traditional food halls in the evening which is a fraction of the price of a normal meal. It is basically an open air eatery with lots of park benches under a big Chinese roof, little shacks around the outside serve all sorts of weird and wonderful things from pigs arse holes and pigs organ porridge to sweet and sour chicken (well, I hope). they are great places to go and soak up some atmosphere!

After tomorrow I think we will be hitting the desert islands, starting with Palau P, P, er I can't remember the name right now but it looks amazin!!

Express ticket to malaka!

We set off for our bus to Malaysia at 08:30 to find that our bus left at 08:00 DARN!!! This meant that we had to lug our back packs around the centre of singapore at rush hour. Not pleasant! An hour and a half later we found the tourist bus station and parted with 20 pounds for a ticket to Malaka, a town over the river from singapore along the coast. When we got on the coach we realised why it was so expensive!! We had lounge seats that went all the way back into a bed! And the best thing it was a massaging seat!!! A week ago i did not dream that i would be indulging in such luxury! They started the movie and we layed back to relax until we got to the border crossing and had to get off :-(

I was unsure of the proceedure of crossing borders from a coach so i just followed the rest. The couple in front of us left all their stuff on the bus so we left our bags just taking our passports and proceeded to the desk....... After coming through the other side we were told that we had to swap buses so we jumped back on to get our day packs. Then we thought...... what about our back packs? When we got on the coach, we noticed that the baggage compartment had been emptied and the coach we were about to get onto was also empty. The other couple had thought the same so we all went scrambling to find someone who could tell us where are bags were??? our bus driver looked at us and said "did you not collect them? they are on the pavment in singapore...." ahhhhhhhh we had to rush back through (all 4 of us!) and luckily as a bus moved out of the way there were our bags, just left on the side of the pavments. We picked them up in a huff, shocked at what had just happened and i noticed that someone was laughing at us! The moral of the story is..... that if you dont know what you are doing, dont assume that other tourists do!

Singapore in a day or two

We had a nice early start in Singapore on our first morning. Our hostel offers free toast and coffee galore so we took full advantage of that! They even have smooth peanut butter for me and marmite for Dan!!! What a treat for the taste buds indeed!

We were told by our really helpful Chinese friend in the hostel called Tom, that there are 4 different races that make up Singapore; Chinese, Indian, Eurasians (a mix of europeans and asians) and Malay. They all live in different comunities and with different architecture, different religions and different ways of life. He set us up for our entire day of free touring! Anyone wanting to go to Singapore? stay at betal box youth hostel.... its great!

We set off to find the underground via the post office which is spectacular and kept us gasping! who needs a water fountain as big as a tennis court in a post office??? On our way to the metro, we got talking to a guy called Markus who was also staying at betal box (it's where all the cool kids go obviously!) he was off in the same direction as us and had been in singapore for 5 days already so we tagged along for the ride and the useful tips.

I have never been to new york but i imagine that it is like singapore city central..... oh my gosh the buildings are huge!!! and it is so clean!!! it's refreshing to be able to walk down the street and not get poked at by some blind homeless person or to look up at the architecture and not have to worry about walking into a cow! I do feel slightly out of place though. All the women are wearing top designer clothing and high heels, all the men are wearing levis jeans and clean shirts and then there is me and dan.........

we chose the more modest approach: My shoes were falling apart, (my feet are sore with blisters) we are both wearing allibaba pants that cost 1 pound each and scraggy tops stained by sweat and other questionable residue picked up on our travels, and this was our best attire!!! We cant afford to buy new clothes because all they sell is Gucci, Prada, Dior, or fire trap for the boys!

We went from station to station, sight to sight, played in some water fountains, it was great fun! We also saw the Christmas lights on orchard rd which are so spectacular but surreal because it is so hot, even in the evenings!

The next day we ventured out to the nature reserve only a short bus ride away but a million miles away from the hectic, cosmopolitain city! When we got there, there was a steep hill.... i mean...... lincoln steep hill x2!!! We were taking our time (I) huffing and puffing our way up when 2 around 50 year olds came running past us! Then more, Then more. there were loads of these superhuman fitness freaks not even there to see the ancient forests, the lizards, squirrels and best of all the wild monkeys! No, they were just keeping fit and hats off to them because i was so proud of myself for walking up let alone running up!!!! people are fit in singapore, thats the other thing, there is so much vibe about how fit you are and how healthy etc... its just not natural!

singapore!

We spent our last day in Mumbai. Its an amazing city and completely different to the rest of india which was probably a good thing because it prepared us for the contrast of going to singapore!!!! Its so clean and we havnt been approached by people wanting to sell us anything.... not once!!!! ahhh peacefull bliss.

Its still abit overwhelming but it seems like a really cool place. will wait and see what the next few days bring.

rainy, rain, rain and more rain!

We never got round to watching 'i am legend' it started raining at 03:00 pm on Tuesday and didn't stop for 2 days straight. Its wasn't the pathetic little droplets of rain that you get in england either! we watched the monsoon for ages just sat on our little porch watching the waves (biggest i have ever seen) cascade against the rocks! After a bit, our next door neighbors Jim and Johnny came back and we all decided to dash to the nearest place that sold food and beer and have a  night of drinking and cards.

Didnt get much sleep as we have a thin roof that echo's every drop of rain. I spent most of the night hoping that the flea market would still be open the next day........which it wasn't!!!!!!! our landlady said that it is the first time that the market was not on, (that she new of!) just our bloody luck!

As we walked around there were so many tourists with disappointed looks on their faces. We also saw that a huge palm tree had fallen down just outside from our home-stay! lucky escape from that one! There was so much devastation around all the beach bars and shops were demolished (not surprising since they were made from bamboo sticks and palm leaves!) and all the sun lounges were swept away. The beach was full of dead fish and rubbish. It was a crazy sight!

The weather has been brilliant since then and i even got sun burnt! oweeeee!

We are off to Mumbai today, should be there by 06:30 tomorrow then catch our plane on Sunday to go to Singapore! role on stage 2 of the trip ding ding.

Anjuna villa!

We have just spent the last couple of days hating panjim (the capital of goa) in a stinky, dirty, overpriced room in a gloomy, smelly city!

We have now arrived in Anjuna though which is lovely! We have found a place that is nearly half as much as we were paying last night (rs330) and it has a choice of 3 bedrooms, a entrance room, good bathroom and a porch!!! all for just me and dan! honestly, its a little gem! we looked at loads of different rooms all just your usual modest rooms, hard beds, shitty bathroom and we couldnt find anything like this for under rs400! then we stumbled upon our one and well...... i thought she was kidding! did i mention that we have a see view as well! so we happily paid rs1000 and this is where we will be until the long journey up to mumbai.

We have found a cool little bar which have a big screen and are playing i am legend tonight.... lucky us!!! havnt seen a good movie in so long!

we are both also ready and raring to get to the Wednesday Anjuna flea market tomorrow with all the rupees we have been saving!!!