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Published: February 12th 2006
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Our arrival in Bangkok meant one thing to me….Pad Thai’s all round!!…I was in Thai food heaven, no more Indian curry and hello clean and calm Thailand! We made our way North to Chiang Mai where I persuaded LJ to do a cooking course to ensure an infinite supply of future pad Thaïs. We created a feast of fish cakes, green curry and pad Thai and left full and happy campers.
From there we crossed the border into Laos to do some serious banana smoothie tasting and began an epic 150km bus ride on some of the worst roads in the world. With no leg room and chickens all around us the 12 hour journey was enough to help us forget our concerns about Bird Flu! Luckily for us there were 7 other westerners on the bus which kept us sane when the bus broke down twice and whilst waiting hours whilst the road was built!
Next we formed our own BMX bandits and generally fooled around on bikes and then went trekking for 3 days in the mountains in beautiful jungle and we had the experience of spending time in traditional villages which was a bit like going
to the zoo! Our washing took place in the river and the boys made it a social affair but looked rather like monkeys!
After shivering in the north we headed south and went tubing down the Mekong river All you need is:
1. A person
2. The inside tube from a tractor tyre (long valve thing still on to poke your bum is a good optional extra)
3. The Mekong River although any will do really as long as it is very very very slow (perhaps not the Thames though!).
4. Put person into tube onto river and place beer Lao can into hand.
5. Stop at every riverside bar and ensure all rope swings are swung on whilst continuing to drinks lots more beer.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5.
From there we abandoned Laos roads and decided to kayak to Vientiane the capital and then flew to the delights of Vietnam which awaited us! It was only on the plane did we realise we were heading straight into the chaos of “Tet” the Chinese New Year celebrations. Maybe we wouldn’t be affected……
Hanoi was crazy with the 2 million motorbikes all deciding to carry
their large kumquat trees on the back of their bikes. We had arrived at possibly the worst time and with the crazy roads we even struggled to cross the streets! We were about to enter scam city. Firstly, our taxi driver took us to the wrong hotel, where the receptionist kept up the charade by showing us fake business cards, anyhow knowingly we agreed to stay, after all how bad could it be….? On their refusal to do our washing by the same evening and our refusal to do a boat tour of Halong Bay with them they swiftly went from nice to nasty and promptly threw us out on the street….Unbelievable! Still I gave them a piece of my mind and let them know exactly what I thought of them!!
We fled the city the next day and ended up in Halong Bay, where we met our partners in crime to be “Stewie and Mon” better known as the bloody Aussies. Quickly realised they were bonza especially when we found out the latest world news and Monica thought the name of the news reporter was Hamas Victory!!
Since we couldn’t shake the Aussies we celebrated Chinese New
Year together which consisted of being served a rather horrid rice and pork fat cake that we were given at least 5 times in the space of 24 hours!! We were also plied with lots of free Vietnamese wine, which we should have been paid to drink it was so foul! The locals cant take their drink and they all fell asleep at 9pm and to knock it all off someone set off the fireworks by mistake!! This happened to coincide with my karaoke performance of “Mr Postman” by The Carpenters, where I suddenly found myself completely alone. All a bit embarrassing and I ended up admitting defeat and dashing to watch the fireworks - so much for the “show must go on!!”
The pesky Aussies also followed us to a beach town called Mui ne which is apparently the “windiest place on earth” and a top place for any windsurfer or kite surfer to be! With that in mind we spent our days eating spring rolls, swimming in the pool and trying not to get sand blasted or sunburnt. Our resolve finally cracked and we booked a windsurfer for the morning, the results were spectacular with frequent flying
wipeouts but I duly battled my way to get the sail up for a whole minute!
Bidding farewell to the Aussies and also Vietnam we are heading up the Mekong to Cambodia and probably more bad roads and a lack of pad Thai! Next up I am doing a sailing course in Thailand, whilst LJ does some diving, a spot of beach time and then Bali. We hope you are all well keep emailing, we’ll blog soon!
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Russ
non-member comment
Sounds great! & familiar!
Keep the blogs coming, you seem to have done all the good stuff in SE Asia in the same order as me. You even went to Baan Thai cooking school in Chiang Mai!!! Have fun! Russ