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We arrived at Bangkok Airport at 4am in the morning, too late to use the metro system. We anticipated being ripped off by a dodgy taxi man outside the airport like I was 10 years previous. We found the taxi rank with no trouble and to our surprise found a touch screen which dispensed a ticket number, the taxi lane, taxi registration plate and driver name on it. This was the first of many surprises we found in the highly advanced city.
We stayed in Happy Hugs Hostel which was great and near the metro system (that we didn't use). The Staff were really helpful until Jodi tried to use the washing machine and got told off by the cleaner. Jodi got evil looks the rest of our stay. We were honestly told we could use it on arrival. We spent most of our time walking round the clean and friendly city. We found a beautiful park with joggers running and couples and friends enjoying themselves. There was a quaint flower garden with little statues of children everywhere. We looked for a shop to get a cool drink but found a street stall that served flavoured ice which looked refreshing.
It was actually strawberry syrup covered with condensed milk, creating a very Strange taste that we quickly disliked.
On another day we went exploring the sights. We got a local bus to the backpacker street of Ko San Road which is where I stayed 10 years ago. I remember it being very noisy, busy and full of tourists. This time it was very different. The Burger King I used a number of times was still there but everything else was new, clean and not as hectic as i remembered. It seems that Thailand has made major strides forward in the last number of years with huge investments in transport, tourism and living conditions. We continued to The Grand Palace which was amazing. There were so many temples, statues, paintings and artwork that it was so hard to take it all in. There was gold everywhere glistening in the sunlight. Next we headed to the lying Bhuda, we didn't go in as we got fed up paying to get into temples. We also required the exact change, which we didn't have. I did manage to get pretty close without paying and got a picture of Bhuda’s golden ankles. Afterwards we
headed towards the river and the Wat Arun temple which unfortunately was completely covered in scaffolding. We decide to not cross the river to it but admire it while we had lunch at a nearby restaurant.
After Bangkok we got the train to Ayutthaya which is one of Thailand’s ancient cities. It's actually on an island and requires a ferry from the train station to get to it. Unfortunately there were no sign posts to tell us this and we attempted to cross a traffic only bridge before deciding it was too dangerous and turned back towards the station. On St Patrick’s Day we rented bikes and had a lovely view of all the old ruins of Bhuda statues, temples and monuments. The highlight was a Bhuda head that had fallen to the ground and over the years it got tangled in a tree’s roots and righted itself within them. To my delight there was also a lying Bhuda here so I got an even better picture of his ankles. The bike ride did end up in a argument about which way to get back to the bike shop. Ultimately Jodi was right and I lost my patients a
few times with the rubbish map. We made up in a street café sharing a burger and chips with a couple of shots of baileys and quite a lot of gin and tonic. A local tried to serenade us with his guitar but his attempts at Bob Marley and Oasis were hilarious. He only knew a few of the words and pretended he knew the rest with random mouth sounds. His guitar skills were pretty good though.
We returned to the train and a local bus to travel to Sukhothai. This was another ancient town which we hadn't intended to visit but the sleeper train to Chang Mai was full and other plans were necessary.
Sukhothai was a nice town. We started our first proper day doing our usual bike ride to the bus stop. We hadn’t anticipated that the locals would be so enthusiastic to help us get the so called bus. One lady was frantically waving for us to cross the road and get on the waiting bus. We were in no rush and thought we would get the next one. We went to the shop for some drinks and found the bus and woman still waving
when we returned. We went over and she and another man helped us lock our bikes up and helped us onto bus which is actually an oversized pickup truck with a bench on each side. We presumed this lady worked for the bus company but when we got on she wandered over to a bench and sat down. She was really keen to help us with no real reason other than to be nice.
We walked round the old city of Sukhotai which is a world heritage site and thought it looked pretty much looked like the ruined city we had already seen. There were lots of temples, bhudas and islands to view. We popped into the café section of the park where we were approached by several café owners yelping at us to come into their establishment. We eventually did. Jodi ordered a lime juice and me an ice tea. I ended up with something that definitely wasn't tea. It's was a coconut milkshake which I wasn't very happy about, as I hate most forms of coconut. I protested so much that when I eventually tasted it and quite liked it I had to take back my previous disappointment.
Much to jodi's amusement.
From Sukhotai we got the bus to Chang Mai. This is such a energetic lively city with so much happening. We arrived on the weekend so had a great time exploring the night market and treating ourselves to a foot massage. I absolutely hate them but my protests made no difference to Jodi. I sat through 30 mins of my feet being poked and twisted and punched. It was so sore and I hated every moment. Next to me was Jodi who was giggling her little head off. She has such tickly feet she couldn't stop laughing. The man with her feet didn't know what to do.
We had a lovely stay at Diva 2 Guesthouse even though opting for the fan room instead of the air-con was a bit silly considering it was 30 degrees all night. We had a manual flush toilet which worked well. The hostel organised a moped for us and we headed for the hills north of Chang Mai to avoid the relentless heat. This was the first time I have ever rode a moped and it was so difficult. Especially turning which is apparently quite an important task. It
was even more difficult when Jodi got on too. None the less we persevered and finally got the hang of it. About 30 minutes into the journey we got stopped by the police. I had read that if you smile it will help. I smiled but the police man had shades and a surgical mask on hiding his expression. He asked for my licence which I handed over. He was looking for my international permit which I never applied for. He suggested a fine of £10, I was sure this wasn't legitimate and asked for a ticket. He refused and asked for the money again or be taken down the police station which apparently was 10km back in the opposite direction. This wasn't a great choice as I knew he was probably bluffing about the station but I didn't want to risk getting another ticket when I passed though the checkpoint again. So I dug in my wallet and I had only 1000baht notes which are worth about £20. The policeman didn't have any change (obviously) and he didn't want to take me to a cash machine either. So £20 bribe it was.
The rest of the bike ride was
really good. We stopped for lunch at a waterfall that had 10 different levels. We had a lovely cold refreshing swim and enjoyed the sunshine. The falls were full of families and friends enjoying themselves in the water. It was great to see. We then headed on, higher towards Samoeng. The air got fresher and easier to bear and the plantations became more and more extreme with rows upon rows of plants clinging to the side of the steep hills with pure luck. We stopped for coffee at a little café and decided to spend the night in the hills as our fan cooled room in Chang Mai was getting the better of us. We arrived at the resort which was massive but we were pretty much the only quests. We got a massive double bed with a fan and air-con. We even had a whole swimming pool and garden to ourselves. It was just what we needed to rest. The food was great and the drinks weren't bad either.
The next day we took off back to Chang Mai. We were half expecting to see the police welcome us back with another fine. But we got back with money
in our pockets and all limbs attached.
The next day we got the bus to Laos via the white temple at Chang Rai. This was really white. The best bit were the trees which had masks of various movie heroes such at Wolverine, smeegle and Batman hanging off their branches.
We crossed our first unassisted land border into Laos which went really smoothly. We though we would get ripped off but we got the correct change back from a 100$ bill. As soon as we crossed the border the roads were so dusty and everyone was tooting their horn for fun. They drive on the right in Laos but I'm not even sure as the locals drove on whatever side that was most convenient for them.
The next day was the start of our Gibbon Experience or Griffin Experience as Jodi was unwittingly calling it (that would be an experience). This started off sitting in the back of a pickup truck with 7 other people being thrown around for 2 hours. Our bums and arms were in agony when we arrived at the Forrest. We were so lucky the weather was cloudy and the temperature had dropped below
30degrees. We would have melted with all the hiking required to climb to the zip lines.
The zip lines were amazing. We zoomed from one side of a valley to the other with just a harness, rollers and a bit of rope. At times we were hundreds of meters from the Forrest floor. You had to put all thoughts of equipment failure out of your mind and concentrate on the great view. At times we had to lye really flat at we zipped to give us a greater chance of getting to the end. If not you had the embarrassing hand over hand crawl to get you to the finishing platform. Some times we would get to the end platform too fast and need to use the make shift break that was a section of bicycle tyre riveted to the rollers. Jodi wasn't the best judge of her entry speed and crashed into the tree at the end a few times. The longest zip line was 500m long and was incredible!!
In the evenings we would get to our tree house which was insane. We were high above the surrounding trees and we could see for miles. We were given
snacks, tea, coffee and hot chocolate while we waited for dinner to be zipped in by the local people. We played card games in the evening and had great fun with the other travellers. The bathroom was on a lower floor. It had no walls; just a curtain for a door. It definitely was an experience showering and toileting high in the trees with wildlife everywhere. You didn't even care if anyone could see you.
The first morning we got up at 6am to try and spot some gibbons. We definitely heard them but they were very hard to spot. We did eventually see some in the very far off distance. They were black specks on a green background. They were hanging from trees and generally playing around.
The second day was much the same but with the addition of a swim in lake and waterfall. It was beautiful and so refreshing after all the walking to get there.
After the Gibbon/Griffin Experience we caught a 10 hour bus to Luang Prabang. This was a pretty French colonial town near a massive river. We had some lovely walks around the area and enjoyed the delightful street food. We shared
a barbecued fish and chicken breast. We tried a desert that looked like battered doughnuts.
This was our last stop in Laos before getting the 27hour bus to Hanoi that I would not recommend to anyone.
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Jayne
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Once again loved reading about your adventures. Never fails to amuse, worry and enthrall me !!! Love and miss you both ? take care. Can't wait to read the next one xxxx