Across the Mekong to the Land of a Million Elephants (not seen one yet!)

We left Chiang Rai a little disappointed; perhaps it was the heavy rain on the day of our arrival or the fact we felt like we slept above a night club or that there just wasn’t much to see...so we moved on quickly and a bus, tuk-tuk and then boat across the Mekong took us the Laos border!  With no hassle at all we were over the border with pretty Laos Visas in our passports and became millionaires when we withdraw some Laos Kip.

We decided to stay the night at the border town Huay Xai as it was really beautiful overlooking Thailand and the Mekong River.  We went to romantically watch the sunset over the river – but nature had other ideas and instead we watched a BIG storm float over from Thailand and torrential rain soon followed with thunder & lightening – our restaurant was more of a gazebo so we got wet even when we were under cover!  Chris saw an impressive fork of lightening strike the river too – really cool.

We quickly discovered three dietary requirements when in Laos. 

1.        BeerLao (Lao people are particularly proud of this one and for good reason – its a good brew!)

2.       Lao coffee – it gets mixed with the sweetest condensed milk, but surprisingly tastes pretty good.

3.       Sticky Rice – a little dull on its own, but mix in some coconut milk and mango and you have an amazing desert!

We next travelled to Luang Namtha.  We luckily met Pete & Katie on the bus (an English couple who’d been living in Vietnam for a year) they were also hoping to do a trek of some kind whilst we’d be near the national park.  So we joined forces to get a cheaper tour price and quickly recruited Carven (an Ozzie) who then found a crazy lone Chinese speaking traveller from Shanghai who also joined our pose.  We decided upon a 1 day trek / 1 day kayak trip.

The trek lacked animals, but had heaps of nature with the guide regularly stopping to let us taste local plants and fruits.  The climb was bloody steep!  And hot!  But the lunch was amazing.  They laid out a banana leaf table and logs to as chairs.  The fire was lit and they found a huge piece of bamboo that they’d use as a pan.  Beef, banana flower, water, fresh herbs and spring onions made a fantastic soup.  The guides unwrapped sticky rice and chilli sauce that they’d bought locally earlier in the day, bamboo was halved to make serving bowls and banana leaves made into spoons!  It was a gorgeous meal and so environmentally friendly, all the waste was natural and could be left to decompose in the forest and it felt a little like we were on Survivor or Shipwrecked!  The trek down was slippy, myself and Pete competed for most clumsy – think my falls totalled 5 by the time I reached the bottom!

Jungle Lunch

At the end of day one we stayed the night in a bamboo hut, washed in the river, learnt about ‘falangs’ – being the Lao word for foreigner – hence why we hear it so often!!  We drank very, very dirty Lao Lao (rice whiskey) and played Uno! 

The next day we floated down the very scenic Nam Tha River on inflatable 2 man kayaks.  Much tamer than our Nepal kayaks but a wonderful way to view the National Park.  Lush, think green rolling hills is the best way to describe Laos so far.  It was a good day, but it did end up giving Chris bad sunburn!

Nong Khiaw

We have just arrived in Nong Khiaw, it’s a little town surrounded with Limestone karsts and the river cutting through the town.  We have a little bamboo bungalow near the river.  Chris is currently lazing in our hammock and we’re watching the sun disappear in behind the karsts.  It’s very quiet and tranquil.  Like much of Laos so far, there are only a handful of tourists (or falangs!) about and it is very beautiful.  It’s Chris’ birthday tomorrow so we’re hoping to do some climbing, followed by chilling out with a Beer Lao or two...

Love K&C

Lots of Elephants and a Novel Use for Bamboo!

From Sukhothai we stopped off at Lampang for a night with the purpose of going to the Elephant Conservation Centre the next morning.  We really enjoyed wondering around Lampang and soaking up the relaxed atmosphere in our half-day there. We saw some impressive Wats which a helpful man came out of his house to point us in the right direction for, got some free coconut, poppy seed wafers from a street stall that we bought a drink from and had a fantastic meal at Aroy One Baht which does lots of small Thai dishes for dirt cheap prices!

We arrived at The Elephant Conservation Centre the next morning in time to see the Elephants bath time and we both received a kiss or two from one Elephant! It was just like having a hoover attached to your cheek! Once they are all scrubbed and clean the Elephants then put on a forty minute show which began with an Elephant raising a flag and ended with three of the Elephants painting! As part of the show they demonstrated the more traditional uses for trained Elephants in the logging trade and all the things they can do with logs which included carrying them using their tusks, building pyramids with them, pushing them about using their feet or trunks, balancing on them and dragging them behind them with the help of a harness. In 1989 the logging trade was banned in Thailand. As a result of this ban a lot of trained Elephants and their Mahouts (trainers) became jobless and this is why these Elephant rescue centres now exist to provide for the Elephants through tourism.

After enjoying the Elephant show we then waited over an hour on the highway to Chiang Mai for a bus to pick us up in the scorching mid-day heat. Upon looking up we saw a fairly rare occurrence called a Sun Dog which we initially thought was either:

A) The end of the World by giant asteroid

B) A huge gap in the O-Zone layer

C) A UFO

A Sun Dog

Luckily Google later proved it was none of those things but it is a phenomenon caused by sunlight hitting atmospheric ice crystals at the right angles which then creates bright spots of light in the sky. In this case it looks like a circular rainbow!

Upon reaching Chiang Mai and checking into our Guesthouse we were overwhelmed with the choice of jungle treks, hill tribe visits, white-water rafting trips and other activities on offer. We could have even fired a shotgun at a shooting range if we’d have wanted to! Eventually we decided upon a two day jungle trek which was recommended to us back on the Nepal Kayaking course by Andrew and Shereen who did a very similar three day version. The trek included a 40 minute Elephant ride, a night in a hill-tribe village, a ‘White-Water cruise’ and a bamboo raft ride down the river.

Trekking through the jungle was spectacular, although it got very, very wet! Trekking through sheets of rain in the open rainforest made me feel like I was in an episode of Lost! Our guides were great characters who made us all laugh and we were with a really fun group of people. The Elephant ride wasn’t as good as Nepal’s Elephant safari however it was still fun to go on a 20 minute circular route (extended to 40 minutes with long stops in the mid-day heat due to somebody complaining it wasn’t long enough before our trip). We were on the biggest Elephant who was so greedy! Four bananas, five bananas, six bananas all eaten in 30 seconds! His trunk just kept appearing and if we tried to space the bananas out he’d start snuffling other Elephants riders to get more! It was really funny to watch.

The overnight stay in a bamboo hut was lovely; drifting off to sleep with heavy rain drumming down on the thin roof was a great experience.

The next day we went on a downhill walk for about an hour from the village then went swimming in a waterfall and river. The waterfall was really powerful and did feel like you were getting hit by hail stones as but it was worth it to cool down! Another hour’s walk brought us to where we would be doing the white water rafting from.

After a brief safety talk we boarded our rafts and set off! It was a great introduction to white water rafting and was so much easier than Kayaking as the leader does most of the work by steering or so it seemed! I very nearly fell out at one point as the raft quite severely bent in the middle but both Kat and I managed to stay in for the whole trip. Unlike the group of Germans and there leader who were determined to go in the water as many times as possible much to the amusement of the rest of us! Once the river became a bit calmer we swapped to a bamboo raft that seemed to sink a few inches below the water with five of us on it! It was buoyant enough to get us down the rest of the river though where we then disembarked and had lunch before being driven back to our guesthouses. All in all it was a brilliant two days we had in the jungle.

The same evening that we returned to Chiang Mai we went to the Sunday Walking Street where they close a massive street in the middle of the Old City from 4pm till midnight and thousands of stalls get set up. We spent about four hours wondering around, buying bits here and there, trying food whenever we felt like it and watching the street performers! In the end we got driven off by extremely heavy rain but we had great fun there.

Yesterday both Kat and I got tattoos done in the traditional Thai way using bamboo instead of a machine. What this involves is a very thin piece of bamboo with cotton and wax holding the needles in place then the ink is gently tapped into the skin. It was a real experience! Kat’s took about 25 minutes and mine took around 2 hours. We’re both very pleased with the results!

Bamboo Tattoo

Today we’ve just arrived in Chiang Rai where it’s rained heavily so far. Tomorrow or the day after we should be heading over the border to Laos! We’ve certainly had a great time in Thailand so far and can’t wait to come back and see the south in just a few months!

Love Chris & Kat. xxx

Flying Bats & Monkey Business

Khao Yai National Park was beautiful.  Lush green landscapes with the clouds lower than the mountain tops.  Our safari day didn’t quite go as planned...it rained a LOT and sensibly the animals, including the elephants staying hiding in the shelter of the rainforest.  We did see gibbons, a huge Lizard, some rather large spiders, a snake and some pretty birds.  Our guide was brilliant, he got as excited as us when he found an animal or insect for us, he carried his own camera and a telescope to allow us to get some really close up photographs.  Sadly no elephants for us, but 2 beautiful waterfalls which had been used in the film ‘The Beach’.

Our second tour was rather more impressive.  We went to a Buddhist cave where bats live, got to see them up close and take some photos.  Also met a Tarantula and a Scorpion Spider which Chris bravely held!  Then off to the next cave where we waited patiently outside to see 2 million bats leave for feeding at exactly 6.20pm.  It looked amazing as the sea of bats emerged across the sunset – we stayed for over half an hour and they were still streaming out as we left.  On the way back to the hostel we stopped at a natural spring – not as warm as Chris made out, but it was still fun to have a swim in there after dark!

Our next stop, heading oop North was to Lopburi, a small temple town with a lot of monkeys!  And the monkeys create chaos!!  They are at the temple, stealing drink boxes from tourists, on near by cars taking them to pieces, stealing floppy discs and CDs out of trucks, swinging on telephone wires, jumping on peoples head (thankfully not mine – I was not a monkey fan!) – they are trouble!  The locals carry bamboo sticks and catapults to try and keep the monkeys in line.  But they also feel that the monkeys are a blessing as they bring so many tourists and therefore money to the town.  So every year they have a festival where they leave offerings of fruit and ice cream for the monkeys as a thank-you!

We are now in another historical temple town – Sukothai.  Lots of ruins and old temples/Buddhas  to see.  Its mid day so we’re taking a break from cycling as at 34degrees its hard work!  Thailand is not making us too attractive what with the constant sweating and the relentless mosquitoes!  The mossies seem to be immune to Deet / Citronella  / Lavender / Garlic / Room Plugs / Fans and Air Con!  We’re both carrying about 30 bites and hate the little buggers!  But the sweat and mosquitoes are the only negatives to Thailand so far.  Otherwise its great sights, friendly people, delicious food and easy travel – love it!

Love K&C xxx

The Land of Smiles

We’ve been in Thailand for 6 days now and it seems like a great place. Travelling is so easy here compared to China. A lot of people speak English, and if they don’t generally we’ve found you can get by with some smiling, gestures and some basic Thai phrases as everyone’s friendly.

Bangkok was a brilliant mix of really glitzy Wats, hot sweaty days walking around and fantastically tasty, cheap street food! We even went to the Cinema!  It’s nice to see how temples vary from country to country. Thailand’s are almost gaudy in their brightly coloured shininess but we’ve taken quite a liking to them. At the moment we’re in Ayutthaya, just North of Bangkok where the Wats, Prangs and Buddhas have not been restored but instead left to naturally fall down and deteriorate piece by piece. It’s quite a nice change and it’s all on such a small island that we hired bikes and cycled around.

When we first arrived the backpackers Mecca that is Khao San Road in Bangkok reminded us of a tourist resort in Spain but tightly compacted in two or three roads. Everyone was speaking English and trying to entice you to their bar with Thailand’s strongest cocktails, white faces surrounded us, hippies who were absent in China had returned, street stalls were selling fake branded goods, fake ID’s and Diplomas could be bought. In short it was quite relaxing to be somewhere so familiar, yet different!

The Grand Palace was a real highlight in Bangkok and I particularly enjoyed the Vimanmek Mansion Museum or the King’s old Palace which has 81 large open rooms that enjoy a lot of natural light - it’s also all made out of wood without a single nail! The ferries were our favourite mode of transport as you get to see the city from a different perspective, to cross the river to get to Wat Aran it cost us 6 pence each way! We also caught the ferry down to Chinatown where we saw a huge market selling everything you could imagine including fake Cath Kidston bags. The street food generally costs us around 60 pence per meal and if you get a beer that’s about £1.20 on top. Not quite as cheap as China’s 20p supermarket beer but it’s still good!

We took a day trip to Kanchanaburi on our last day in Bangkok and as part of our tour we went to the controversial Tiger Temple. We had read all sorts of horror stories from various websites about the Tigers being drugged and mistreated so we went with some trepidation and were even at one time considering not going as we thought it might be too sad. We glad to report that the tigers all seemed to be in good condition were particularly enjoying frolicking in the water to escape the heat. It was a rare and brilliant opportunity to be able to get so close to them and a real highlight of the trip so far!

 

We’re going to head to Khao Yai National Park tomorrow which is a tropical rainforest where hopefully we will get to see some wild Elephants!

Love Chris & Kat. xxx