Catch-up Blog

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Hi everyone, i'm sorry to start on a somber note but, first and foremost, we have been in Laos for about a week now and we're both deeply saddened by the amount of unexploded landmines left after the Vietnam war. During the war, the USA conducted one of the largest sustained aerial bombardments in history, flying 580,344 missions over Laos and dropping 2 million tons of bombs. Around 30%!o(MISSING)f the bombs dropped on Laos remain undetenated leaving the country littered with unexploded ordinance (UXO). Barney and I have come up with a cunning (and hopefully humourous) plan to raise money for the British Mines Advisory Group who are working to clear mines in the area...

We want your ideas for photos, the more daring or rare the the better. Of course, the rarer or more obscure the picture, the more money you have to give to the cause. All photos will be posted on a special album on Facebook. So set the picture you want and the amount you're willing to donate and we'll try our best to get it, the best way to ask is on facebook or as a comment to the blog. GET INVOLVED! Its a great cause... Or just go to http://www.justgiving.com/mouse-and-bear to give money out of the kindness of your heart.

So, on with the blog... It's been so long since our last blog, it's hard to know where to start. I think we last left you leaving Kanchanaburi, (and for Andy, this blog is currently being written by Hannah unless otherwise informed!)so...

To Koh Tao and Beyond...

After one night in Bangkok we caught the train down to Chumphon (A port town on the East coast of the Thai peninsula) not knowing where we would stay or how we'd get to Koh Tao. We've learnt by now that turning up at a tourist destination in Thailand is never a problem as there's always an agent or two vying for your business wherever you are.

Considering the train was an express it crawled along preeety slowly, but as I was asleep most of the way only waking up to be given black-bean-filled treats (and I use the word 'treat' very loosely here) and rice-y chicken-y dishes, I had a great time!

Alighting from the train after 7 hours we were greeted (as predicted) by a whole world of travel agents trying to get us to go to their guest house and book our boat to Koh Tao through them. A friendly Thai lady shows us pictures of an ok-looking guesthouse to stay the night in Chumphon (as we had missed the last boat for the day) and we jump at the chance (especially as Barney was grumpy because he's too big for Thai trains!) We were herded sheep-dog-style into the back of her two-bench with half a dozen other farang she'd round up...to a guest house from hell.

To say the room was grim would have been to use the word grim inappropriately... open-roofed bathroom so mozzies attack you from all angles when you step inside (or should that be step outside), a board on the floor to sleep on (lucky we had sleeping bag liners or we seriously would have caught something!) and hissing cockroaches...enough said methinks.

We couldn't really complain when they were only charging us 200Baht a night though. The nice hawker lady also booked our taxi to the bus to the boat to Koh Tao, and our accomodation at Sairee Huts Resort which was luv-er-ley!

The next morning, we awoke at 5.30 to a crazy Thai man banging on the door, and after taxi and bus, we made it to the high speed Catamaran (last moan here, I promise, but it's important to get this one in for anyone about to get the Catamaran...just don't!). Everyone (not just me and Barney) was being sick on the boat, it was a horror story of epic preportions on 12ft waves... in between vomits it was really crazy to look up and see a whole boat of people heading for island paradise but regretting ever having left dry land. Especially when Barbie girl came over the ships' stereo... it was like some mental Mitchell and Webb sketch!

After 2 hours we realised that Koh Tao was worth the pain! Even if I did sound like Frank Butcher after burning my vocal chords off with bile (yum). It was absolutely beautiful and we pretty much lost 3 days lounging around on beaches and in bars, drinking Chang and eating delicious Thai food.

We rented an ATV and went bombing round the island finding beaches and coves and scrambling over bumpy bits. Barney let me do all the scrambling because I was lighter so it was easier for me to steer and stuff... much much fun!! Might get one when we get back...

The beaches were glorious in the evenings when the tides went out. It's all palm trees, fairy lights, barbequed fish and men performing fire poi, well, not always men, there was actually an 8-yr-old boy playing with diesel and fire too... he was surprisingly good though!!

We were sad to leave the island but after we'd had our R & R it was time to go trekking in Chaing Mai, and as i'm determined to learn to dive now, i'm sure we'll go back there on our way back down to Malaysia

Boat ride back was much smoother by the way... take the boat, NOT the catamaran!
Oh, and, signs we saw in Koh Tao include... "Beware of fake Monks", "Freshly squeezed love juice" and "Just Ming" Restaurant.

Chiang Mai and Trekking

If you've stuck with the blog till now, well done, you are a true friend, I know I can ramble on so I'll keep this one a bit more brief!

After an overnight bus to Bangkok and lots of Thai redbull (which made my eyes go funny!) we booked 2 seats on the VIP bus (a slightly-nicer than average bus) up to Chiang Mai - much more comfortable, even big enough for Barney with reclining seats and headrests... woo! To top it all off we had managed to haggle so it was cheaper than the Thai train!

Found an awesome guest house with hot water room (rare when you're on a budget!) and crashed out after so much travelling, the guest house has a great atmosphere and we spent a long time chatting to other travellers there, as well as wandering the streets of Chiang Mai which is much friendlier than Bangkok. We got ourselves on a 3 day trek with a hilltribe village visit, elephant riding and white-water rafting which was wicked! They also assured us that some of the money we paid for the trek goes to the village for solar panels etc... which was good to know as we were both keen to get on a sustainable trek.

Our group was small, just me and Barn with 3 Germans, Rebecca, Thomas and Gunnar. They were totally awesome to have around. Gunnar revealed that his girlfriend calls him 'Fleischberg' (or Meat Mountain) because he eats so much... as you can imagine, Barney has now claimed the title 'Fleischberg 2' (and we miss them VERY much! Laos is not the same without you guys if you're reading this... PROST!)

The first day we visited a hot spring where we boiled eggs in little baskets (in the spring obviously) and then ate them with Soy sauce as the Thai's do (actually really nice!). Then we had a four hour trek through the jungle to a Karen village which was really cool. They're just farmers who live really simple uncomplicated lives and they really welcomed us into their community with a sing-song round the fire, a hitting-a-plastic-bottle with-a-catapult contest (which, inevitably we lost and had to buy them beer!) and the village elder, a man named Dang, asked us to call him 'Lun Dang' which means Uncle Dang... they were awesome and we were all so tired from the trek we slept like babies.

Second day was a 5 hour (slightly hungover) trek to the 'Little hut in the forest', it was long and very tiring but soooo beautiful, we dumped our packs, had some dinner cooked by our excellent guide Noi then trekked for an hour and half to a remote waterfall which was stunning and we all (except Rebecca who'd been bitten to pieces by leeches... another story that I don't have time to embellish on unfortunately, suffice to say they were absolutely horrific! And as one of my brand new Thompson-bought trek shoes had inadvertently fallen off in the marketplace without me realising, Noi had bought me Thai-trek shoes which were basically plastic plimpsoles you wore at primary school, I had about 6 leeches trying to get through my socks as well at one point... but hey ho, we were in the jungle!) I think i've lost myself a bit here with that segway... yeah so.... waterfall... awesome!! We then returned to the hut along the valley which meant little wooden bridges made of bamboo and climbing a bit over rope bridges... one of the best parts of the trip for me so far. We saw a green mamba (we didn't realise it was at the time of course!) but survived to tell the tale, despite the fact Noi was poking it with a stick saying 'make good photo!'...as soon as Barney saw it curl into the i'm-going-to-strike-at-you-s-shape, we moved on quickly! Another day ended by stories round the fire and lots of beer chang (and for Noi, the local Moonshine!)

Day 3 of the trek (and well done if you're still with me here!) was the more 'touristy' day, we took an hour trek through the jungle to our pick up point (seeing a bright orange tarantula on the way!) then went elephant riding which was sooo good! Our 'Chung' (elephant in Thai) would take two steps then put it's trunk back for a banana, which you bought bunches of for 40 baht on the way round. If we didn't feed it, it would breathe on us (which wasn't exactly pretty!) then stay still until the Mahout (elephant trainers/drivers) told it to go on...stubborn, and hungry! They're such beautiful animals and understand the Mahouts perfectly, it was an amazing experience and Rebecca even rode right on her elephants neck at the end (i was pretty jealous I hadn't thought of it first to be honest!)

Next was white water rafting which to be honest wasn't exactly 'white water' rafting, rather just rafting which I LOVED (because between you and me, I can't really swim!) but the others were a bit disappointed I think.

More to come from adventures in Laos... Love to all!! B & H

(and the pics are all on Barney's facebook!)

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Comments

[Beef]

LOVE YOU
Green Mambas and bright orange tarantulas sound scary, but the elephants sound amazing I've (Beef) always wanted to do that! Elliot has also asked me to tell Barney that he will wish to be know as 'The Ulimate Fleischberg! ' I feel an eat off coming on! We hope you both continue to have an amazing time- Looking forward to your next interest BEEF AND FISH XX