Jon_H
Jon Huskisson Joined: March 9th 2006
Logged in: February 14th 2007
Logged in: February 14th 2007
Travel Blog Posts
Just a note to let you all know that since I have been back home I have added some photos onto all my blogs from the last 5 months so if any of you are interested (or for those of you who find reading a bit too much of an effort) you can go back through them and see what it was I was waffling on about. And if any of you are gluttons for punishment there are plenty more where they came from!... read more
The sleeper train to my final destination - Bangkok - was excellent and a far better way to travel than overnight buses. I checked into my "usual" guesthouse and walked around the streets of Banglamphu which I'm bizzarly familiar with considering that it is thousands of miles from home. I've been in and out of Bangkok so many times this trip that it feels extremely comfortable and (worryingly) normal! My final three days were spent generally soaking up the last bit of the atmosphere and making the most of the fantastic food and cheap beer. I did also make the most of the Khao Sanh market and the MBK centre for some shopping, and I dumped all the clothes that I have been wearing for the last 5 months and replaced them with nice new ones. ... read more
Giant panda
Getting back into Chiang Mai felt like a breath of fresh air after the bad experience of Mae Hong Son and I immediately felt much happier. I spent a day doing some further wondering around the old part of the city and visiting a few more of Chiang Mai's impressive wats as well as indulging in the fantastic food available in the city. Along the way I bumped into a girl who I had met on the bus from Pakse to Champasak and who I had then moved on to Don Det with, so I spent a pleasant evening catching up on what she had been upto in the two weeks since we parted ways. I then attempted to go to Chiang Rai for a couple of days. I got as far as the bus station. ... read more
Reflection
Mae Hong Son was a mistake. It was the only place on the whole of my trip that I really just didn't take to. The arrival at the bus station and the subsequent walk through the town wasn't very inspiring but when I checked into a good, cheap guesthouse next to a pleasant looking lake with a good view of Mae Hong Son's main wat, things started looking up. Further exploration of the town revealed that it was all pretty much as dull and dirty as I initially feared, and that the town's inhabitants were really not very friendly. I just didn't feel very welcome. The only real reason for visiting Mae Hong Son is a controversial one - to visit the nearby Karen tribes originally from Bhurma and commonly referred to as the "long neck ... read more
Fire dancer
After spending a day in Chiang Mai recovering from the exertions of the three day trek I headed 4 hours North West to Pai, one of the coolest places I have visited. Pai is a tiny town surrounded by the obligatory picturesque mist covered mountains to which I have become somewhat used to. There is nothing much which is an obvious draw to the town, however it has become a sort of hippy/traveller hangout - the sort of place where people intend to visit for 2 days and end up staying for months. The town is made up predominantly of cafes and restaurants all of which have a very relaxed atmosphere, and many of which have a variety of live music in the evening. There isn't much to do other than reading a book in a ... read more
Wat
I bet you didn't expect this to be my next port of call, because I certainly didn't. After setting off from Don Det at 8am I took a boat to the shore, a local bus (complete with live chickens and a bag of live frogs) to Pakse, and a VIP bus to Ubon Ratchathani in Thailand where I arrived around 17.30. I took advantage of being at the bus station to enquire about times and prices of buses to Chiang Mai for the next day. A combination of sleep deprivation and not really being all too excited about Ubon saw me make the questionable decision to get on the 17 hour long bus to Chiang Mai at 18.00. Luckily the bus was like no other I've ever seen - achres of legroom, drinks and snacks provided ... read more
Mr Goo blowing bubbles
Chiang Mai is the number one spot in Thailand (and possible SE Asia) for trekking into the mountains and so I joined the masses. Some of my intended group cancelled at the last minute so it ended up being just me and a group of 4 German girls who set out on the 3 day hike. We were supposed to be heading North of Chiang Mai but some heavy rain in the mountains has caused flooding and so the plan changed at the last moment and we headed South. This turned out to be really luck because as we stopped at a market on the way to pick up supplies I randomly bumped into Neil and Sarah (friends from Uni for those of you who don't know them) who are in Thailand for a month during ... read more
Sunset
Si Phan Don aka 4000 Islands is a beautiful part of the Mekong River where it spreads out to reveal numerous islands (the actual number varies depending on the height of the water). Getting there was a bit of a pain as there are no direct buses from Champasak so I had to wait at the side of the road for over an hour before being able to hail down a bus going there from Pakse. It goes without saying that the bus was packed with the locals and their luggage which included live chickens and a pig in a sack who wasn't very happy when he woke up half way through the journey. The first view of Si Phan Don was just after sunset from the boat taking us to Don Det - one of ... read more
Buddha image in ruins
Champasak is only a 90 minute bus ride South of Pakse. However, the journey was elongated by the driver insisting on waiting 3 hours until he deicided that the bus was full enough to warrant him removing himself from the nearby noodle stand. Champasak is a quiet and pretty one street town (literally). That one street is actually more of a dirt track but it is bounded by the river on one side and the mountains on the other making it very picturesque. The locals are extremely friendly and all seemed highly amused by my presence, as few people seem to stay for more than the time necessary to visit Wat Phu as part of an organised tour. Wat Phu is the only real reason to visit Champasak. It's an important pre-Ankor era temple thought to ... read more
Children smoking at animist minority village
A surprisingly comfortable overight journey (made bearable by copious snacking) saw me arrive in Pakse - the transport hub of the South. As you may well guess, anywhere that is defined as a transport hub doesn't really have that much going for it and Pakse is no exception. It's a town with a strange, deserted atmosphere. The roads are wide and in good condition but theres no traffic and the market is fairly new three-storey building which is only half full of shops. It's almost as if they expected a big boom in trade or tourism which never quite happened. I decided, however, that it was worth hanging round for a couple of nights for the sake of visiting the Bolaven Plateau. The plateau is an area of high ground (duh) to the West of Pakse ... read more
