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Published: March 24th 2011
Howdy, well here we are flying some 35,000ft somewhere between Singapore and Bali, both excited at the prospect of visiting the tropical paradise that is Bali (and seeing Barrie's mum and Jeff!) and disappointed that Quantus charge AUS$12 for a meal - who charges for airplane meals? We hope they go bankrupt! Anyway, it is dark outside with slight turbulance and all is quiet in this little metal tube - time to write our blog.
We left you on the Mekong River sailing to the Thai Border, a wonderful and memorable trip. Once in the north of Thailand, we based ourselves in the city of Chiang Mai for a few days, which everyone seems to rate so highly ' the jewel of N.Thailand' - Lonely Planet , we just didn't see it! Ok the main city was surrounded by a moat and the internal alleyways bustled with guesthouses and travellers, which was quite quaint, oh and we got a room for £5! but other than that, we were happy to travel further north to the wonderful town of Pai.
The road from Chiang Mai to Pai is one of the windiest in the world, with 211 bends in 4hrs
of driving, it was all we could do to keep ourselves from falling on our fellow passengers laps in the mini bus - they drive so damned fast over here. Pai was wonderful, set in the mountains in the NE of Thailand, there was a real hippy vibe to the place, the prices were cheap, the people friendly and the town had an old world quality about it. It was the kind of place we'd learnt that we like to travel to! First off, our accomodation was perfect, set high above the town, Darling's Guest House had the best view in the town, a number of wooden bungalows lined the hillside, each with a hammock outside the front door on the verranda. The owner, (aptly named 'Darling' - think Black Adder) a lovely sweet Thai lady who calls EVERYONE 'darling', and her strange eccentric German husband were a joy, whom we spent a lot of time with, talking and getting some advice from about the local area and Thailand. We spent the first evening watching the big orange sun light up Pai below us, and then sink behind the mountains beyond.
Pai is also widely known as a safe
and easy place to hire motorcycles for the day due to it's lack of traffic and wonderful picturesque countriside. It was well set up for motorcycles and every traveller kind of did it.........so we thought we'd try it out for the first time! You don't need any form of licence in these wild and wooly places, you could probably turn up drunk with no legs and they'd let you have a go, it's so different over here than the west!
We had got together with two other lady travellers by now (one was soooooooo annoying we could have kicked her off her bike!) and they'd agreed to spend the day with us and try out the bikes. After queing up for the helmets, Barrie got the coolest looking one (think Maverick in Top Gun and you are half way there). Marieke, confident as ever on a movng vehicle, whether it has two or four wheels doesn't matter, got on the bike and whizzed off down the high street at top speed. Barrie did not. He couldn't get his balance on the damn thing and wobbled and weaved up the road convinced that he had to keep putting his feet
down to stop him falling with motorbike on top - much to local and tourist amusement. After a while, he gained confidence and within a few hours was leading the four strong charge. That day, we visited some waterfalls, hot thermal springs and a very secret whisky factory, only known to a handful of locals. The brewing took place in a hut behind an unassuming road side cafe. We snuck in under the guise of the owner who didn't speak any English. He allowed us to try some of the local whisky (strong stuff!) but we were not allowed to buy it. It was all very hush hush, as we found out they were avoiding the tax man, hence the lack of tourists knowing about the place! But by far the biggest highlight (in Barrie's day anyway!) was when we all turned up at a Pirhana lake nearing the end of the day. We'd both always wanted to try fishing so we parked the bikes and after some instruction from Toby (the owner of the lake) we cast our lines out into the lake. There where all sorts of fish out there including giant catfish, carp and pirhana, and after
around an hour of just a few fishy nibbles (mmmmm) Barrie thought he'd slowly wind his line in - and BANG a fish pulled hard on the line... he frantically wound, reeled and pulled the rod, (think Jaws 'we're gonna need a bigga boat') and there on the end of his line was a Pirhana, a fully grown one with teeth and all! - his proudest moment............however the highlight was actually the motorbikes, a great way to see a place, and get round in a quick and cheap way, we shall be using them again.
Due to time constraints we had to fly down from North Thailand to the Southern Thai Islands (saving us two days of bus travel) and we landed in Krabi Town. We only had eight days at these world famous beautiful locations. We had spent well over a month discussing, arguing, setting up meetings, conference calls to decide on only two Thai islands or southern beaches - we took it seriously and I don't think we made any mistakes. The first four days we had decided to go to the wonderful Railay Peninsular, part of the Krabi region, a place renouned for it's rock climbing
and limestone peaks.. It has two of the worlds ten best beaches, jungle, chalky white sand and clear azure seas, we were living the dream. The down side to this was that we had to share the beauty with 2 week vacation tourists with children - who weren't afraid to delve into their wallets and spend crazy money which therefore increased the the cost of living for us and other travellers alike. Accommodation, food and drink here was higher than anywhere we had been to in Thailand so far. For example a large bottle of beer in Vietnam was 50p, and here it was £3. Basic rooms were £12, but it cost us £5 in Chiang Mai. It annoyed us, but we had been warned.
A great few days were had. We hooked up with some American guys we met on the Long Boat around to Railey Bay (no road touches these hidden shores!), so we often drank in the evenings or breakfasted with Andy and Dan, two great knowledgable, interesting and VERY funny guys. One afternoon we both canoed out into the bay and explored the limestone peaks, and drifted into hidden caves under the magnificent stalagnites -
a really memorable experience. We spent a lot of time on the beach snorkelling, sunbathing and comparing tans (with anyone who'd listen), whilst watching in amusement as a group of wild monkey's periodically came out of the jungle to steal the Russian tourists food and drink. Some even put up a small fight for a corn on the cob. It was true island bliss (despite it not actually being an island), just not much to describe or write about - believe us it was a treat.
We decided NOT to go to our second island of choice, Koh Phi Phi, as lots of people had said it was even more expensive than Krabi and was swarming with tourists - a great shame as it is regarded as the most beautiful Thai island around here. We ditched Phi Phi (pronounced here 'Pee Pee') in favour of Koh Lanta, the less attractive, less curvy neighbour. Lanta had its positives though; a good backpacking scene, which was becoming more and more important to us (two week tourists can be a little tedious and they stick to themselves!) it was cheaper and much quieter. We loved Koh Lanta, with its restaurants on the
beach, fireshows performed by 8 year old children, lightning storms and great traveller social scene - we didn't stop partying every night! We were so glad we chose this island over Koh Phi Phi, however we have promised ourselves we will go there for a holiday one day. On Lanta, we hired motorcycles again and explored the island, going to secluded snorkling spots around the coast, we explored everywhere. On the last beach there was even a naked woman having a photoshoot within the rocks, we didn't know where to direct our eyes! If any of you lads buy a magazine with two snorkles in the background on one of the spreads, it is probably us!
Sadly we had to leave the Thai islands and hot foot it down to to Kuala Lumpur on an overnight bus, the worst ride of our lives - honestly! The 'luxury' VIP bus broke down for one hour initially, which wasn't too bad,as it was before midnight, quite funa and we were glad to be able to stretch our legs. Then the damn engine broke down on a bridge on the motorway...... we waited for 5 hours for a replacement, it was now
not so funny. The A/C wasn't on, and the stentch of B.O and bad breath soon engulfed the stail air within the hot bus. So we sat outside on the side of the motorway. Needless to say, we didn't sleep much that night, arriving in KL at 12:00, not at 06:00 as expected.
As a result, we only had half a day in KL. It rained. It was too hot. Barrie had a dodgey stomach and kept having to run off into five star hotels every hour or so. The highlight of the day was visiting the Petronas Towers - the second highest building in the world. The towers have a real organic feel to them, and its design seems to be based on the ancient temples of SE Asia (think Angkor Wat) It was great to see them and you almost see them everywhere in the city pearing down at us. KL was great, but with the time, Barrie's stomach, the heat and the rain, we didn't feel we gave this famous city enough time - next time maybe........
Finally, we took the best bus EVER down to Singapore. This could be up there with the most
exciting day of our journey so far - the bus was a real treat. We watched movies on our own personal screen, had free tea and coffee, a free meal, copious amounts of leg roomn, sat back on the most comfortable seats for 6 hours, and then (get this) our lovely Brother/ Brother in law Rod and the wonderful Anna treated us to one nights accommodation in a 5 star hotel in Singapore. We didn't leave the room from midday through to the next day, only to go to the gym or have a swim - it was pure luxury and a great way to finish the first leg of our journey in SE Asia.
We loved SE Asia, the food, the people (most of them), the weather, the ocean, mountains, jungles and cities, it has been so diverse. We now look forward to the next leg of our journey. Bali, Austrailia and New Zealand here we come.
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Albert
non-member comment
Finally
Hi guys, Glad to finally see another entry, you've been such prolific writers that I was almost getting a little worried about you. But the wait was worth it! Good stuff, enough to make us common folks even more jealous. Hope you're not meeting too many Dutch tourists, they can be quite obnoxious. Not that you need it, but to make you feel even better about where you are: on the third and fourth day of spring we had another almost feet of snow dumped upon us here in New Jersey. It finally makes me understand why the snow queen is the evil one. She is pretty though... Anyway, thank you two for sharing your adventures with us mortals, we really enjoy it. Safe travels the rest of the journey. Although, no risk no fun no glory, right? Ah well, as long as you take the risks, and not someone else for you. Cheers, Albert.