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Published: August 12th 2008
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The arrival of Neil (Carter) led to a couple of nights out in the re-nowed areas of Patpong and Soi-Cowboy in Bangkok. However, both mine and Carl's taste are very different to Neil's as the first bar he choose was a full on 'gay bar' with male couples sat outside having a couple... I quietly had to mention this to Neil and Carl as neither of them had noticed this in the first minute or so.... The second night was a bit safer as we met up with Neil's friends Harry (female) and Dave from his teaching days in Kenya.
We left the dizzy heights of Bangkok and got the train to Pitsanoluk and spent a day looking round the historical ruins of Sukhothai. It was here that we had our first heavy thunder & lightening shower as the rain came down hard and fast causing rapid flooding on the roads. Little did we know how much rain we would experience over the next 3 weeks... Put it this way we have become pretty good at rain dodging and having a 'Big Cola" break.
We headed directly west towards the Myanmar (Burmese) border and the hills started to climb
in front of us....steeply. The vegitation became very lush as we felt like we were surrounded by rain forest, with different squarks and tunes rising from the different creatures living within. We had to re-new our visas at the border that meant we went into Myanmar for a day. We knew there was going to be a big difference between Thailand and Myanmar as charity aid trucks kept passing us on the road and many of them were lined up at the border waiting to enter. We only spent a few hours there and that was enough, as there wasn't much to do and the standard of living was very different to those who lived across the river.
We left Mae Sot and headed north along the border and it became evident why we had seen so many charity vehicles as refugee camps appeared out of nowhere in the forests and suddenly you would have a large wooden town rising out of the mist. It was along this road we came across a KNU (Karen military major) who was telling us about the civil war inside of Burma and the ongoing struggle against the regime. It actually looked like
Sukhothai National Park 2
Elephants feature largely in Buddhist temples the Thai's were suppoting the KNU and he was very interesting to listen to. The other prominent thing about this route is that I will truely say I have never come across hills so steep, tough and relentless in my life, especially with the heat as it felt like there was no air as we climbed. The scary thing is that Carl said the hills further north are even tougher, but you would have to ask him, DC or Ray about that one...
We left the border and the hills as we headed towards Chiang Mai and Carl's favourite place in Thailand!!!! Not!!! As one girl said in an American accent "its a nice mix of the west meeting the east". As you can gather there are probably more westerners in Chiang Mai than Thai's. Carl does not cope very well when he is surrounded by them (backpackers- Carl's and Chris Ed's favourites, I think between them they could write a book about them.) This could answer the question on WHY Carl took Immodium instead of Ibuprofen and why I flushed a full bar of soap down the toilet... We did start to turn our brains off after a
few days of being there. Just like the average backpacker who rolls out of bed onto a bus to the next western hot spot.
Thankfully we soon left there and were back on the road into the rolling green countryside of the north, as the paddy fields with colourful farm workers and local buffalo caused traffic jams as they crossed the road. We then cut east and started to make our way towards Laos and the MeKong. We are now in full swing of eating rice, noodles and soups and the odd roti or steamed bread & green custard for supper. You can't get enough of the food, its mega.
We hit the MeKong and couldn't believe the size of it. "Was it this big 2 years ago?" myself and Carl exclaimed. Over the past 4 days of cycling along it, we have watched it rise and rise as more and more rain falls in China, Lao and here in Thailand. We have seen people trying to pump water out of there homes or they have had to flee their homes as you see the remains of a house/roof rising out of the river. We have been told
its an unusual amount of rain, but then we have been told it is an annual thing as well. Either way, you wouldn't want it to happen to you...
We have now reached the Thai/Lao border and are getting ready to head north into the mountains of Northern Laos and then into Northwest Vietnam via Dien Bien Phu. I think its going to be an interesting month as the route we are doing has only been open to tourist in the last year.
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Ulli + Jose
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back to normal life
Hi U 2!!! It's wonderful to be still able to participate travelling via your blog!!! Keep enjoying it, ja, ja?!!! But back to normality is actually very nice too! We loved to see all our friends and family again. And having money again is nice, too. jose does his best keeping up with his German homework - what a horrible language... oh well, oh well, sehr gut, ja!!! Take care and big hugs from a sunny and rainy German autumn, from yours Jose and Ulli