Thailand: the first time.

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Our journey to Bangkok was expected to be smooth, however, we did hit a few bumps along the way but we cleared them with backpackers style. Firstly, we waited over an hour and a half for our first bus which when it finally turned up we wished we were waiting for the next one. Extremely grimy, broken air conditioning system and overall just an uncomfortable couple of hours. We pulled up in Poipet and believed we would be boarding a minibus with a guide to take us across the border. Upon enquiring about the location of our next bus we were disappointingly met with negative answers. A man told us 'not my company, take tuk-tuk'. Out of options we took the tuk tuk which was a little different again as it was like a side cart but looked like a cage......hard to explain. Anyhow it got us to the border where surprisingly we found no bus. We walked through the border control and were getting slightly concerned we would have to find another bus to take us to Bangkok when a man saw me holding the tickets and said 'you, you with me' and stuck red stickers on each of us. Confused but relieved we went with it and were thrilled when half an hour later a large, empty, AIR CONDITIONED bus arrived to take us to Bangkok. Roughly four hours later we arrived in Bangkok where we got a taxi straight to Kohsan Road to find accommodation for the night. We had a brief walk around the streets and markets before grabbing dinner and falling into bed.
The first and only day (this time) we had in Bangkok started with a tropical storm. Absolutely torrential rain all morning before it brightened up for a sunny afternoon. We decided to try and trade our Vietnam guidebook for a Thailand one and after a few heated discussions with several shopkeepers we got a pretty good deal. The day turned out to be a Thai holiday and we were approached by a tuk tuk driver who said he would take us to several sights around the city for 20baht (about 40p) if we agreed to stop at several places along the way where the driver could pick up petrol coupons supplied by the government. As we had no plan for the day we went for it and saw the 'Lucky Buddha', climbed a temple where we could view the city from above and a giant golden buddha; we have seen lots of buddhas now, they are becoming the new pagodas. We finished the day with a visit to Chinatown, this was rubbish never go! Then we explored the market on Kohsan Road and located the Stray office we had to be at at 6:45 the following morning.
We got to the Stray office with time to spare in the morning and met the group we would be travelling with for the next two days. A really friendly group of people from all different areas so it was fun to hear about where they have been and are going; particularly when you can pick up ideas for your own travels 😊
We took the train to Phitsanoluk before boarding a Sin tao to Sukhothai which is just a jazzed up toyota truck. Sukhothai was much quieter then we had anticipated, as the old capital of Thailand we had imagined it to be pretty busy but there was barely anyone there. We arrived pretty late so hired some bikes and had a brief tour of the temples there before enjoying beef noodle soup for dinner. A bit fed of up travelling so much things didn't change as we were to travel the entire next day as well. We left Sukothai at 10am and were expected to arrive in Chiang Mai at 8:30pm but again experienced a few complications along the way. Expecting a seven hour train journey from Phitsanoluk to Chiang Mai we were stopped after only an hour and half into the journey to be informed that there had been an accident on the track ahead of us so we must all disembark and continue our journey by bus; fortunately this all happened after we had eaten our free lunch! Bizarrely after a rather long wait for the buses to arrive we actually arrived in Chiang Mai ahead of schedule at 8pm; we really do not get Asian transport??!
The following day we started our 3 day trek, which bizarrely didn't involve any walking until after lunch! We visited a butterfly and Orchid farm, sat outside while others in our group visited the long neck tribe (it wasn't included in our package!) and went to a market. After lunch we started walking, at first it was fine, hot and slightly uphill but nothing too strenuous. This didn't last the whole way, our last hour was very steep! With the village in our sights we eventually made it to our homestay for the night. The views definitely made the climb worth it, they were incredible. That evening we spent with our group, after dinner we were treated to a traditional song and dance by the little children, it all started off very well but it just didn't stop! Finally they ended with a bit of Frairer Jacquer - we are not sure how traditional this song actually was!
On our second day we switched to a new group and trekked on again. The walking was much easier thankfully, we made our lunch stop at a beautiful waterfall where we went swimming which was lovely and refreshing after a hot and sweaty walk. After lunch we moved on again to another waterfall, we resisted swimming at this one but still enjoyed the view. Finally we made our final journey on to the elephant camp where we were to spend the night, picking lychees on the way we had quite a feast when we got there! The evening we spent with the group again, this one was far more entertaining as our guide got ridiculously drunk and amused us all. We escaped his company for a little while as we went to watch the fireflies on the other side of the camp. It was the perfect way to end the evening, as we watched them meander through the trees.
The third day we were glad to hear would involve no walking, it was especially appreciated as we woke up a little sore for the previous 2 days hard walking! We started with an elephant ride along the river and then looped back to the camp, we had a rather disobedient elephant who preferred to take his time eating and scratching his bottom. By the time we got back to the camp, everyone else had overtaken us. Next we went white water rafting which was so much fun! As we were sitting at the front of the raft, we were absolutely drenched by the end of it, but still smiling. Halfway down the river we swapped onto the rather more tame bamboo raft. Following the thrill of the white water rafting it wasn't quite as exciting but still enjoyable. Apart from the debris that floated around us, which included plenty of spiders which made Lizzie rather uncomfortable. Once at our pick up point we enjoyed a nice big bowl of Pad Thai before we were driven back to the hotel. The final hours of the afternoon we spent lazing by the pool, soaking up the sun. Having been told of Chiang Mai's night life we ventured out to see it for ourselves, as we didn't look at a map before leaving we ended up walking about for 2 hours completely and utterly confused as to where this night life could be! We did however find some amazing noodle soup, so not all was lost.
Still needing to recover from our 3 tiring days we spent a day by the pool, reading swimming and sunbathing. At 5pm we eventually left the hotel to go and find ourselves a traditional Thai massage - this is the life! For around 4 pounds we had an hour of pure heaven, having had all our kinks thoroughly stretched out we floated back to the hotel and collapsed in a heap just too relaxed to do anything else. Finally leaving our beds, we attempted to find the night life again, instead we found the Sunday Market which was brilliant just to mooch around doing some window shopping, We did manage to find one of Chiang Mai's famous bars but finding it empty we gave up on that idea and enjoyed the market instead.
Our last day in Chiang Mai started slowly as we moved into a different Guest House, as it was where the bus would collect us from the next day. In the afternoon we ventured out to hire ourselves a moped, the girl waved us off a little anxiously as straight away we zoomed off into the middle of the main road and then stopped dead! Getting the hang of it we made our way to the gas station, after finally figuring out where the petrol actually goes we attempted to pump up the tyres (she had told us we were to big for the little bike and it would need more air!). Feeling quite satisfied with our job we set off again only to discover that both tyres were flat, shamefacedly we rolled the moped back to the gas station against the traffic and asked for help. Sure that this time nothing could go wrong we once again joined the main road, as we turned in towards our guest house the front tyre went flat. Luckily the moped shop was just opposite so we exchanged the bike for a slightly bigger one with a lot more power, which we loved! Finally ready we made our way to the Tiger Kingdom where we met 3 tigers, Jennifer, Lucky and Sophia. We got to stroke and cuddle them and decided that the rumour that the tigers were probably a bit doped up is true. Nevertheless they were still responsive and active, they all appeared to have been treated very well. Strolling around the rest of the enclosures we saw some massive tigers as well as some teeny weeny little cubs, they were beautiful, we are now desperate for a pet tiger, who will join our pet panda. After riding back to Chiang Mai through rush hour traffic we returned the bike and treated ourselves to a burrito, this was a bit of a mistake as they were absolutely huge and neither of us could finish them! That night we actually made it into a bar - success at last!
The next day we rejoined the Stray bus which would take us to Chang Khong, the Laos border. On the way we visited the White Temple which at first glance is absolutely stunning but as you make your way over the bridge you notice the sea of creepy plastic hands reaching up into the sky. Then inside the temple there is a giant painting of a Buddha surrounded with little pictures of film characters, little alien things and political scenes. Overall we decided the artist was amazing but possibly had a slightly disturbed mind! The rest of the day was spent traveling, we spent the night preparing to cross the border into Laos the following morning, our fifth and final country together!

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