jenron

Monday 23rd Not sad to check out of the 'Holiday Hotel'. We found a nice little cafe attached to a bakery on the walk to the bus station, so managed to have nice croissants with coffee. We clambered aboard the creaky but uncrowded bus for the first leg to Suphanburi It was a very slow bus and took what we assume was the back roads through lovely green paddy fields. I saw numerous varieties of birds. This part of the journey should have taken two and a half hours but took more like three and a quarter - in fact we became worried that we might have missed the destination but in fact it was as we suspected the terminus. Refreshed with an ice cream we boarded the second bus and got uneventfully to Kanchanaburi a ... read more

Sunday 22nd At the bus station early having got there by elderly tuk-tuk man, I left Jen and headed off for snacks. As I returned the loudspeakers burst into life with what I assumed to be the Thai national anthem. Everyone around me stopped and stood to attention - I then realised I was stood right by the man raising the flag - so I thought I'd best stand to attention too.. I got bak to Jen and asked her whether she had - she said by the time she realised what was going on it had finished - and some locals near her hadn't stood up anyway. We were heading fo a place called Lopburi. It does have a temple which some westerners visit because it is famous for its troupe of marauding monkeys but ... read more

Friday 20th We headed south to a workaday Thai town called Phitsanulok by express coach. I unfortunately left our detailed guidebook on the bus so we didn't even have a map of town. We found a reasonable guest house however (having rejected the first). I went out for a walk on my own and was immediately struck by the town. There is virtually no provision for western tourists here. I could find hardly a word written in non-Thai script. The streets are fascinating and the market is magnificent and I've not seen such a selection of food stalls since Bangkok. The heat in Phitsanulok is especially stifling - there is something about the humidity that means that you get sticky and uncomfortable after just a few minutes outside. The eveings brought little relief and the number ... read more

Wednesday 18th We boarded the pickup and sped on the back through the early morning cool into the town of Chang Rai with our rucksacks strapped to the roof. We clambered on the bus to Chang Mai. Hitting Chang Mai we realised it was a big town. (The billboards were the most enormous I've ever seen - (reminded me of the poem by Ogden Nash - I think it goes : 'I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree - In fact if billboards grow more tall, I doubt I'll see a tree at all'). Our first choice guest house was full but they suggested one around the corner which was comfy so we took it. The guesthouse area is quite quaint - narrow little side streets with little traffic and ... read more

Sunday 15th Cross border to Chang Rai/Hill tribe village We breakfasted in the strange atmosphere (engendered by the dotty sisters) of the BAP guesthouse. Service was a bit haphazard and I cringed as a German went up to complain that her breakfast hadn't arrived. Gesticulations and some jabbed sharp words in Lao resulted. Our breakfast actually arrived quite promptly prompting another Englishman to jokily ask why we were getting special treatment when he had apparently been appointed fancy man to one of the sisters. The only task we had before crossing the border was to dispose of our small amount excess Laos currency which we did by buying a couple of T-shirts. We headed down to the river and got stamped out by Laos emigration having to pay only the 'overtime' fee of 5000 kip each ... read more

Friday 13th Luang Nam Tha to Huay Xai We checked out and headed into the cool air of the early morning fog just after 7:15am. Our worries about finding a tuk-tuk at this hour were totally unfounded. One approached us immediately and asked the standard fare of 10,000 kip each so we clambered aboard and sped off with just the two of us as passengers. It was chilly during the 5km in the back of the small truck but we soon arrived at the fairly quiet bus station. The tuk-tuk man helpfully pointed out our bus and our rucksacks were immediately hauled onto the roof of the bus. The tickets were only 50,000 kip (£4.50) each for the four hour 180km trip. The bus was not in the first flush of youth I noticed that the ... read more

Tuesday 10th From Oudomxai to Luang Nam Tha We left the luxury of the Vivanh guesthouse soon after a daybreak. The owner had to unlock the gates to let us out. We strolled through thick morning mist to the bus station, stopping only to buy some bamboo tubes of sticky rice from a street peddlar. The bus station was already buzzing with activity and our intended bus was already quite full with many bags and lots of cargo already on the roof. I joined the scrum at the ticket office - it was every man and woman for himself. I had to push and shove as much as the locals ad put aside my normal English reserve. Luckily a fellow Englishman allowed me to ease into his place once he had bought his ticket. The girl ... read more

Monday 9th By bus to Oudomxai following the river valley where there had obviously been some landslips along the road the previous wet season. Oudomxai a very workaday town with an excellent undercover market. We found excellent accomodation. ... read more

Sunday 8th I headed to the boat office very early to see if there was a boat going up river to Muang Khiew. They told me to come back at 8:30am. Our fallback was to head back downriver although I'd prefer to go north Olivier is also heading north. We breakfasted at a lovely friendly restaurant that had only opened two days previously. The owner speaks excellent English and I found out that the visiting delegation were Thais from the tourism agency who are providing aid funds to help the locals develop tourism. There seems to be some consideration being given to not over developing ( as in Vang Vieng) but who knows how much of this is just lip service and that in a few years the simple guest houses will be replaced by flash ... read more

Friday 6th February We said goodbye to the lovely Sunrise Bungalows and headed down to the boat station.The ticket booth at the boat station was empty but eventually a sullen man sold me two tickets. He wrote tomorrow date on them but he didn't understand and when I pointed to the date on my watch he simply thought I was asking what time the boat went so I gave up. I had breakfast but Jen avoiding other than biscuits till we reach next destination which is a one hour trip up the Nam Ou river. Eventually we clambered aboard and as usual there was a ticket fiasco. They collected all the tickets but somehow there was one short so they gave them all out again and to my horror ours wasn't there (each had a name ... read more