Advertisement
Published: February 12th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Bangkok
Result of not wearing proper dress to temple Its been such an action packed month that little time has been spent taking, let alone downloading pictures of my time in Thailand and Loas thus far. That being said, the pictures I am posting today were not taken by me but the friends that I have been travelling with throughout Thailand (I will add my own pictures as soon as I get the chance).
Coree and I began the month in Bangkok where we spent time shopping the dozens of markets, getting our first Thai massages, and killing time at night with Tiger beers and games of pool. We soon met up with four of my girlfriends from Burlington-Kim, Jess, Brianne, and Bridget- and headed down to the west coast of Thailand to island hop for a few weeks. We spent the first few nights in Koh Phi Phi with an unbelievable landscape of rock cliffs and picture perfect blue waters. The girls began to work on their tans while Coree and I spent the days perfecting the tans we already had. The most memorable part of Koh Phi Phi was our full day snorkeling tour. A boat took us to five different snorkeling areas, including the famous beach
from the movie The Beach. We snorkelled, tanned, and swam all day, arrving back to our beach hut exhuasted and red as tomatoes. After a few nights we took a ferry boat south the Koh Lanta, a beach that is extremely laid back and exactly what we were looking for. We spent our days down on the beach and partying at night at small bars along the water. We met a pair of Swedish brother, Olle and Viktor, who became our close friends and ended up travelling with us for the rest of our island tour. Koh Lanta hosted a Thai boxing championship while we were staying there and none of us were willing to miss it. The stadium was under a large tin roof and we sat on bleachers, drank beers, and watched boxers destroy eachother in the ring. It was an experience I probably would never have in Canada and even though it was a little graphic, I couldn't help but love it for what it was! Our next beach was Tonsai, which is actually on the mainland of Thailand. It's a beach for rockclimbers and is surrounded by massive rock cliffs that are unbelievable, even for chickens
To Koh Phi Phi
Tuk Tuk ride to tranfer buses, 4am! like myself who didn't face the climb personally. Our last stop was Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand. The first few days and nights were a ton of fun and we were staying at a great hotel with a shared balcony between our rooms where we could hang out and listen to Olle and Viktor play their guitars. Unfortunately, a day of motorbiking ended the fun for me. I was riding a bike that continuously stalled and while I have become quite a good driver, a gravel hill and a stalled bike just wasn't working for me and I fell. Ten stitches later in both my knee and foot, I was practically bedridden for the remainder of the days. Luckily, our island time was done and I was able to recover on our trip to Northern Thailand and into Loas. We may complain about health care in Canada, but Ive never been so thankful for our system as I was during the healing process. Infection and incorrect healing of simple stitches is rarely a problem in Canada but in Thailand it became not only a reality for me but it created a ton of anxiety after the accident. Thankfully,
two weeks later, I am finally healing up really well and am thankful just to be able to walk again without a limp!!!
We reached Loas about a week ago. It started with a two day boat ride down the Mekong river. We rented a private boat with a group from Finland and had an entire boat to ourselves to relax and enjoy the scenery. We then arrived in Luang Prabang which is a city protected by World Heritage and is absolutely beautiful. Our adventures varied from visiting monastaries to going to the local disco and partaking in a little bowling after the rest of the city shut down for the night. Coree and I also went on a two day hike into Northern Loas. We spent the entire first day hiking the mountains and visiting villages along the way. During the day, any villager over the age of six is out on the mountain working in the rice fields. It was quite surreal to enter a village in the middle of the day and find nothing but preschoolers (often caring babies on their backs) running around, playing, and taking care of eachother completely unsupervised. My feelings were a
mix between slight frustration (these children were all extremely dirty and every one of them suffered from a cold) and absolute amazement. I was in awe at how well the children got along and took care of eachother. These children were the happiest kids I'd ever come across and I have never experienced such a warm welcome before. At night we stayed in one of the villages, ate dinner with a family (although we declined their offer to have a bite of the rat and mole they were eating for dinner!). After dinner we drank rice wine with the adults and played cards amongst ourselves while the children watched with enthusiasm. The next day we said goodbye to the village, hiked a few hours to the nearby river, and kayaked ourselves home. I had never kayaked through rapids before and I had an absolute blast. I have another kayak trip planned for a few days from now, I just couldn't get enough!!!
So now I have arrived in Vang Vieng, the Loas Tubing Capital! It was colder today but tomorrow I plan on renting a tube and tubing down the river, stopping at make shift bars and rope swings
along the way, it should be a great time! Until next time...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.085s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 6; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0463s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb