Lop Buri - Chiang Mai

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Lop Buri - Chiang Mai

So on Thursday (23rd July) we left Ayutthya and got an hour long train to Lop Buri, its described in the guide book as being a good place to have a half day stop over before getting the night train to Chiang Mai (12 hours). We met up with Steve and Sarah who had booked to be on the same night train as us. We all started to walk around to see the temples and ruins of the town but it was so hot and we were so templed out from the previous day at Ayutthya that we decided to try and find somewhere to eat and chill out at. However, Lop Buri has no restaurants, cafes or bars, it was just full of local shops and market!! At a loss of how to entertain ourselves for 9 hours before our train left we decided in desperation to buy an iced coffee and a doughnut at 'Mister Doughnut'. We sat there for a couple of hours and then had a mooch around the big TESCO LOTUS there. After amusing ourselves buying snacks for the journey we realised we still had a couple of hours to go until we could realistically sit at the station to wait for our train, so ashamedly but quite amusingluy, we ended up in the KFC next to the Mister Doughnut from earlier (even the staff from Mister Doughnut found this funny when they saw us trying to drag out our chips and cokes for as long as possible). 9 o'clock we gave up and went to the train station and only had to wait until about 10pm before our train pulled up.

The sleeper train - well I was quite impressed with it to be honest, it was clean and quiet and the guard on our carriage was really friendly. We had 2nd class tickets so our bunks lined the whole carriage. As people had been on the train for most probably a couple of hours from BKK the beds were already made up. The seats turned into quite a cosy and pleasant bottom bunk (Rach's) and the my bunk, the top bunk, pulled down from the ceiling. Even though nearly everyone else in our carriage had retired to bed, Rach and I decided to stay up until about 1am playing UNO (the best thing to come out of our trip to Lop Buri)! I reckon that I had about 4/5 hours sleep which was a lot more than I was expecting. The difficulty sleeping arose from the rocking of the train and the fact that the lights weren't turned off which were right next to the top bunk (obviously for safety reasons which I am ultimately happy for) but all in all I was really chuffed with the train.

We arrived in Chiang Mai just before 10am and made our way to our guesthouse. Once checked in we had a walk around Chiang Mai, got some nice lunch and went on the internet to research our flight to Vietnam from Laos (otherwise the journey from Vientienne - Hanoi could take 24-30 odd hours on a bus - no thanks!)

The next day we started our 2 day - 1 night trek to the 'Jungle', south-west of Chiang Mai. The group consisted of our Thai leader 'Dang'. Rach and I and about 8 other girls. We started by going elephant trekking (Rach and I are getting pros at this) and then a 3 hour trek to where we were staying. The trek was a bit difficult as it was really upheal through rice paddy terraces and steep hillside but alas we made it! Our accomodation was really basic, a bamboo hut by the river in the middle of the forest. We were cooked some food and sat around until about 10pm chatting around the campfire. We all decided, apart from this Danish couple, to turn in for the night, trying to make the best of our shockingly musty bed spreads and holey mosquito nets (a cockroach ran out from mine and Rach's part - blurgh!). Eventually I fell asleep and only woke up a few times with what I like to call 'camping hip', i.e. hip pain from sleeping on hard surfaces!

The next day, our group split into two, those who were doing another night and then Rach, Rhiannon (sp?) and Ffion who were only treking for 2 days. We took an easier walk back as it was raining and we didn't want to be slipping over the whole time. We saw some amazing scenery across the mountains and we all had a really nice relaxed chat as we made our way back to the village. Only problem was that our guides friend who took us for the 2nd day was obsessed with trying to get us to look at this tarantula that he had caught (which he was planning to eat later, he had cut off its fangs when he found it earlier), we were all typical girls and squealed whenever it was near! After lunch we were then driven to where we were to do bamboo rafting - which was so much fun! All four of us plus a thai boy were put on this raft which consisted of about 6 big bamboo poles tied together. The thai guy 'punted' from the front and Rach was in charge of punting frmo the back. As we made our way down the river the thai guy was trying to splash us and other rafts and was messing around with this most probably 8 year old thai boy who was navigating another raft. All was well until Rach got her bamboo stick stuck and then the thai guy jumped in to get it, however as he jumped in he rocked the boat sending Rach into the river and the rest of us clinging on! Rach got back on completely soaked and laughing her head off whilst the thai guy swam back clasping on to the lost bamboo stick.

After bamboo rafting we were driven back to the guesthouse and we took a much needed shower and hair wash. This was Sunday evening and so Rach and I decided to check out the 'Sunday Walking Market' of Chiang Mai. Wow, it was brilliant, it had such a nice atmosphere and vibe, it was not only full of lovely things to look at and buy but was also full of locals. It made such a change from the usual markets that were completely aimed at tourists and full of people hassling you to buy tat. The whole time we were walking I just kept thinking about how much mum and zo would have loved it there. Rach and I actually gave in and bought ourselves things (because, whatever we buy we have to carry for another 5 weeks or so). Both Rach and I got these light cotton skirts that pack away into nothing (Rach is sporting it today and it looks rather fab), Rach got a necklace that's made out of a silk thai sewn over beads (sounds strange but is really nice!), she also bought some fisherman short trousers (wide leg cotton trousers that you sort of tie around yourself), tiger balm and the first DEET bug repellent we've seen! I bought obviously the skirt (90 baht, maybe 1.70), a couple of racer back tops (50p each) style cotton tops and then this gorgeous silver beaded taupe string bracelet. We also stopped for our best meal yet, we splashed out at shared some thai fish cakes (they were amazing), I had a really really nice mixed fruit smoothie and prawns in a spicy coconut sauce. The whole evening was really enjoyable and probably one of my favourite times yet as the atmosphere was so pleasant and the food was brilliant.

However, at 4am in the morning I was woken up by Rachel saying that she's not very well and had swine flu and that the fan was going to spread it around and infect me. O dear! Rach had a fever and was a bit dilirious! (sp)
I got up and made her take some paracetomol and dampened a flannel and my towel for her head and chest. After some random reading allowed on my part of our guide book Rach managed to sleep but when I woke up at 8am she was absolutely out of it and still feeling feverish. After some more paracetomol I went downstairs and cancelled our cookery class for that day. Monday, therefore, pretty much consisted of all day sleeping on Rach's part and sitting around watching Thai soaps and cheesy american movies on HBO for me. I did manage to venture to the 7/11 and Tesco express further in town to get us some processed chesse slices and brown sliced bread as a makeshift lunch for the both of us. I woke Rach up so she could eat something and have some more tablets then went downstairs to leave her to sleep some more whilst i watched the corniest of american films 'stealing home'. The thai people at the guesthouse were really nice and put it on an english channel for me and were always asking about how Rach was. At about 6ish Rach felt well enough to come downstairs and we confirmed that hopefully we should be ok to do the cookery course on Tuesday. We then went out with Rhiannon and Ffion to meet up with the other girls that were up on Trek with in town who were doing one more night than us. We ended up in the 'Red Lion' English style bar and had some not so good food but we had a good catch up and chat. Rach started to feel rough once all the food came up so we ate what we could and then decided to get some water from 7/11 and head back - however Rach came over all faint and then threw up, I feel we have bonded on a closer level since some of her sick landed on my foot!! Rach actually felt a lot better after throwing up so we headed back for some UNO in our room and then we managed to get to sleep by 12pm.

So finally, after this mammoth of a blog we reach today. The Cookery Class! I am so pleased we were able to do it, it was such a good experience and was so chilled out and relaxed. We were taken to a local market just north of Chiang Mai and were introduced to some thai ingredients such as the different basils (holy, sweet and lemon), pickled crab, shrimp paste (differing in age, wow the one that was a year old stank so much), different aubergines, chillies, mushrooms etc. etc.. They bought our food we needed and then drove us to this little house that had lots of gas stoves and tables and a low table with pyramid cushions for us to sit at whilst we ate our food we were to cook. So my menu...

1) Breakfast - Egg and Pumpkin Stirfry - this was amazing, its my favourite definitely, we ate it when we were on trek also and this version tasted just as good!

2) Thai fish cakes - amazing! they were so good - definitely going to recreate this at home as long as i can find kaffir lime leaves!

3) Papaya salad - wasn't so keen on this

4) Red curry, with tofu - yum!

5) Yellow curry stirfry - wow this was definitely an experience - you must look at Rach's pictures of this as we only used her camera to take the photos. We had to heat the oil up in the wok until it was smoking and then when it was really hot we chucked in the onions with some water and the water and oil made absolutely huge flames! it was proper scary but quite exciting!!!

6) Mango and Sticky Rice - now know how to make cocunut sticky rice - tasty!!

We were given a recipe book with details on all of the dishes that were on offer and how to make the curry pastes - really really glad we did today as I think its something I will remember for a long time and I will definitely use the recipe book!
The thai man and lady who ran the cooking school were a good laugh and were always cracking dead pan jokes in English - Rach and I just can't get over how we're meeting so many people who are fab at joking around in their non-native language!

So this brings us up to date, finally, to Rach and I chilling out in yet another gaming internet cafe.

We have just to go to the 7/11 to get provisions for our journey tomorrow to the border by minibus. We then stay overnight at the border, which we cross in the morning by foot i think then to get onto the slow boat for a day travelling down the Mekong River in Laos, then a night stop over in a guest house in a village, then another day on the slow boat and then we'll be in Louang Prabang! We've heard really good things about Louang Prabang so we're really excited about going there - think we're really excited also to get moving again and see somewhere new as we've been based at Chiang Mai for 5 days now. We've booked our flights from Vientienne (Laos) to Hanoi (Vietnam) for the 6th Aug (Friday) and are going to book our first couple nights of accomodation in Hanoi as well, we've found one thats highly rated on the net and in the guidebook. We're hoping that they will pick us up from the Airport as well as it seemed to hint that they might on the internet.

I'm having some trouble uploading photos to snapfish at the moment, but will hopefully try a bit later.

Missing you all lots,

Please keep in contact with even mundane things about home as its just really nice to hear from people.

Lots of Love

Kate xxx

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