I love Pai :-)

I ended up getting a lift back from Cave Lodge to Soppong by Sue, the person who owned Naga Bunglalows and I thought I was going to have to wait an hour or 2 for the bus - luckily though the bus was late and was there when I got there so I climbed on board and we set off to Pai a few minutes later.

I hadn't booked any accommodation for Pai in advance so began my first real hunt for somewhere to stay with all my worldly goods on my back and no real idea of where to head to first!  I was also a bit worried about being able to find somewhere as it was the Kings birthday in a couple of days time and Pai is a really popular destination for Thai tourists, and they often go away for a long weekend for the Kings Birthday.  Thankfully I think arrived just in time to be able to find one of the last places available.  However - the first place I found, I wish i took a photo of! Charlies House in the middle of town, the room had a bit of a prison cell feel looking really shabby and grimy, there were 2 twin beds but sunken in the middle, the sheets looked grimy and horrible and then I looked at the pillows underneath the cases and they were brown.  and I do mean brown, like a dark wood brown, not just slightly discoloured - it was gross!!!  There wasn't a proper window in there either and I just felt like all my stuff would get stolen if I wasn't careful.

I saw all of this when I inspected the room closer after I had paid them for it - although I have to say - it was only 150 baht a night!!  I decided that if there really was no where else available then I could stay there but I decided to go on the hunt for something else.  I went round a few different places and one of the first ones I went to was TTK who told me it was 400 baht a night I think (quite a lot more - but the difference was amazing!) I carried on looking but everyone else who had something wanted 1000 baht a night or more!  I ended up going back to TTK as it seemed to be the best option available with a nice big double bed with a GREAT mattress, really clean, a decent bathroom with hot water and it felt really safe and secure.  I think they normally charge about 600 or 700 baht a night so I did get a really good deal, but I told them I wanted it for 4 nights at least so maybe that was why.  So it was time to go back to Charlies House and get my stuff.  I picked it up and went to the reception to tell them I was leaving and had found somewhere else, and thought, hmmmm I may as well try my luck and ask for my money back - and they gave it to me! Although they weren't happy about it at all! I had only left my stuff in there for an hour though.  I have to say - its a good trick I have discovered to find somewhere decent to stay without having to carry all your stuff around, although not a very nice thing to do, but I ended up doing a similar thing in Luang Prabang when the place I booked didn't work out.

Anyway - back to Pai! That afternoon I just chilled out and updated the blog catching up on emails and that sort of thing.  I ended up chatting to the owner of the place who is Isreali and is a very interesting character to talk to as he is into conspiracy theory's like the moon landing, crop circles, UFO's etc etc, and he ended up making me copy some films he has made about crop circles on to my computer to watch!

I went out for dinner that evening and got handed a flyer for a drag show that was happening in one of the bars, and after I eat I went for a wonder and ended up seeing the bar where the show was due to start in just over an hour.  I decided to hang out there and wait for it as a lack of anything better to do - but it ended up being great!  The guys doing the show arrived and I ended up chatting to them and joining them as I was on my own and it was great fun!  They were over from Australia on a holiday basically but Stan the Man, the guy in drag is friends with an aussie who is living in Pai so thought he would do a show.  It turns out that Stan Munro (look him up!) is quite a famous impersonator and has worked with all sorts of people including Cilla Black!  So as well as Stan, there was Fritz the guy living there and his partner Anon - a Thai ladyboy who was all dressed up as a woman - and made an amazingly good woman!  Then there were another 2 friends of theirs as well.

      

The night was great fun, Stans show was great and they were a really interesting bunch of people to talk to.  From there we ended up going to Bebop a live music bar a bit outside of town and saw a guy called Mojo play - apparently hes a really famous Aussie blues singer - and it was great!  http://www.mojowebb.com/

The next day was the Kings birthday and we weren't sure what would be happening as its a major thing there and they aren't allowed (or not supposed to) sell alchohol.  I think its more stringently adhered to for the Thai's as all the Thai owned restaurants wouldn't serve booze, but apparently the Farang owned places probably would.  However as none of us were sure Fritz decided to have a party at his place.  (You can;t buy alchohol on the birthday but you can drink it if you have it!)

Before I went down there I managed to buy a bottle of wine to take with me, which was really strange as the Thai guy in the shop said yes he would sell it and then proceeded to tell me he wasn't allowed to, but was going to anyway!  I made my way down to Fritzs and the party was in full swing already.  There were all sorts of people there.  3 girls who were staying with him, Stan of course, another english couple who had been living out there learning Kung Fu for a few months, a Thai woman named Gaew and her husband, and numerous other people some of which came and went.  

 

 It was another very interesting evening and I found out a lot about Fritz - who's done some amazing things!  He used to present a show on TV in Oz about animals, have a zoo, was a pop singer, ran his own very large bars/club, and has written a book about a guy who's been wrongly imprisoned.  It got to about midnight and everyone decided that the bars would probably be able to sell booze again, so to head off to Bamboo bar, a cool bar on the outskirts of town again, all made of bamboo with great places to sit around loads of camp fires!  I ended up being chatted up by a crazy thai hippie (something I didn't pursue)!!!

I think I ended up getting back to my place at oooh about 4 or 5am!  The next few days consisted of not too much :-) I went to Lunla Bar and got chatty with a guy singing and playing guitar in there and we hung out a bit.  The 2 girls I met in Chiang Mai turned up in Pai so I hung out a bit with them.  Pai is quite a quiet place in the daytime so somehow I ended up having a bit of a crazy week there living mainly by night!  Still - it was fun to do it for a change! So after a week although I liked it there it was time to leave and head back to Chiang Mai where I wanted to do an elephant trek or at least some other kind of activity.

Chris (the guitar/singer) and the girls had headed to Chiang Mai the day before but weren't stopping too long.  The day I got there I got in touch with Chris and found out that the 2 girls had gotten food poisoning and dehydration and were in the hospital!  that evening I met up with Chris and we headed over to the hospital to visit them.  By that point they were feeling better as they had a lot of medicine so it was a chilled out evening, Chris and I left and went for a beer and then I headed off back to my hostel.

I decided to stay in a different place this time called Parami Guesthouse as I wanted to be a bit more central to town and this place had really good reviews on the net about how helpful they are etc.  I got a small room but it was ok as only me but my mattress was as hard as rock, and it didn't have proper windows either, just mesh.  The other issue was the road it was on was really really noisy all night so I didn't have the best of sleeps there.  I chatted to Roger the owner quite a bit whilst I was there and I mentioned the mattress and he said it wasn't a problem and would change it the next day for me - it didn't happen but I have a feel that was more because I got ill!

So my 2nd day back in Chiang Mai my task was to sort out where to go and how to get there between then and NYE in Ko Samui.  This is the worst part of travelling on your own as it can be so confusing trying to work it out, especially as it was quite late to book things so lots of flights and trains were full!  Anyway I was getting quite stressed out with it all but Roger in the guesthouse was really really helpful.  He had done a lot of travelling in the past so he was able to give me some advice and sort it all out.  Then I decided to book an elephant trip for the next day and leave Chiang Mai the day after to go to Laos.  That evening I went to a restaurant just up the road from the guesthouse and got a prawn pad thai then came back for an early night.  I got up early the next day for my elephant trip and ergh - i was ill - it was not fun! After the 3rd time I was sick I realised there was no way I was going to be able to go on my trip.  The staff at the hostel were great and offered me some kind of thai medicine to take for my tummy, but I ended up going to the hospital just so that I could get a note mainly for my travel insurance.  I didn't want to go to the private hospital the girls previously went to as I thought that they would probably just admit me and stick needles in me just to get money from the travel insurance.

The local hospital I went to was ok and they spoke english, I saw a doctor she gave me some drugs for the tummy cramps and some for the nausea which was actually much better than taking immodium.

I just went back to the hostel and collapsed back into bed for the day.  Thankfully I wasn't actually too sick again after that so I managed to eat a little toast and then go to bed.  Unfortunately it was so noisy again that night I didn't feel too well rested the next day so was still feeling a bit crap.  I had decided to take a flight to get to Luang Prabang and thank god I had as I managed that ok - the other option was travelling for 2 days by slow boat to get there!  Next stop - Laos.....wow I think you should be impressed - all I need to tell you about now is the last week :-)

Bangkok to Chiang Mai to Soppong

I had a very uneventful journey back from Ko Samet to Bangkok - all except for Taxi drivers once again trying to rip me off when I got off the bus...they all hang around the bus station ready to pounce and wanted to charge me an extortionate amount to get back to the Hostel.  After about 10 minutes trying 3 different people I gave up and decided to walk towards the street to hail a cab instead, a much better plan as although he wouldn't use his meter, he charged me a reasonable price. Lesson learnt - never get transport straight from outside your bus stop!

I turned up back at the same hostel - Niras Boutique - without a booking and luckily enough they had a bed available in the dorm and the girls were so nice moving around someone who was due in the room as I asked if I could have a bottom bunk (me trying to get on the top bunk would not be a pretty sight!)

That evening I ended up chatting to 2 guys in the hostel bar and although I was intending on staying in I ended up joining them for a drink on Khaosan Road, but not too late - only about 1am :-)  Interestingly enough they had both been pestered by ladyboys the night before and I told them that with a woman with them the "ladies" wouldn't come near them - low and behold I was right - but I couldn't help but think the guys were a bit disappointed!

The next day I had a flight booked to Chiang Mai - I suddenly thought that I didn't know which airport I was supposed to go to - there are 2 in Bangkok, the old one which is used mainly for domestic flights and the new one.  There was a guy on the desk that morning and unfortunately not as knowledgeable as the 2 girls as he was sure I had to go to the old airport (there was something in the back of my head that said I should have checked myself online but decided to go with him against my better judgement).  I caught a taxi and of course I turned up at the airport and was at the wrong one! Thankfully I had allowed plenty of time to get there so jumped in another cab and headed over the right airport!  Arrived in time to check in, grab a burger, go to the loo and get on the plane :-)

Chiang Mai was a bit of a welcome relief as you get there and its a really small airport and quiet outside.  I booked a place just outside the city centre at a place called A9 Place.  I was bliss - really quiet, really nice rooms with a lovely big comfy bed and a decent hot shower - just what I needed after cold showers and a hard bed on the island.  That evening i just stayed in at the place chilling out and had dinner and I ended up talked to 2 girls from the Netherlands and had a nice early night, i needed to recover after my excesses!

The previous afternoon I was asking the people in the guesthouse how to get to Soppong as my plan was not to stay in Chiang Mai for very long, and I asked about a driver to get me there instead of buses (I decided against the £60 cost for this though!).  Anyway the next morning the brother of the owner came up to me whilst i was having breakfast to say that the next day he was going north as well and he could give me a lift part of the way (although it was only about 30 minutes outside of Chiang Mai!) Then he said he was heading to a national park area to build some bungalows, it was a really pretty area and if I wanted to I could go and join him there!  I think it was a genuine offer to just do something different and go somewhere nice, but I have to say I wasn't quite adventurous enough to take him up on his offer.  He did however give me a lift into central Chiang Mai as he was going there as well.

I had a good walk around that day and saw some nice temples but thats all there is to say really about the centre of town.  Its not that an attractive place and apart from the temples in the town there wasn't much to do from what I could see.

I investigated my options for getting to Soppong and it seemed like there were no private mini buses going all the way there and I had to get to Pai and then get a bus from there.  It wasn't very clear at the time what I needed to do but I was sure all would become apparent.

The next day I was picked up from the guesthouse and taken to the minibus, and the 3 hour journey to Pai was pretty uneventful apart from some beautiful scenery along the very bendy road - i think there's something like over 700 bends in the 80 mile journey!  From Pai I found that the only way to get to Soppong was by local bus :-)  A very interesting experience!!!  Thankfully there were 2 other western woman at the bus station also getting on which gave me a bit of reassurance.  The bus finally arrived and we piled on to an already full bus. 2 of us got seats but one of the women had to sit in the stair well of the bus entrance!

I actually took this photo before the bus got completely full - it was even more packed than this with people standing in the aisles.  there was definitely no room to relax and read and the roads were so bendy on the way to Soppong I had to hang on to the seat in front so I didn't fall off of it.  However, if i thought the views were beautiful from Chiang Mai to Pai, it was even more amazing on the way to Soppong.  We arrived an hour and a half later so it wasn't too much of a horrendous journey which made it a great experience! At Soppong I then had to find out how to get to the lodge another 8km away!  I was trying to get to Cave Lodge, somewhere I had read about on the internet and just sounded like the most amazing place.

I asked at the stall outside where the bus stopped about a taxi and they went and got a man who came with a truck to take me up there.  I arrived and I was in heaven.  Its in the middle of nowhere with a little village at the top of the road but not much else around.  The lodge is really basic and rustic but so beautiful in the most amazing setting.  There are cattle all around and apart from some birds tweeting, the only noises come from the bells around the cattles necks.  Lovely!  That evening I went for a bit of a walk with one of the girls who had been staying there for a few days down to the river and along the bank near to where the entrance of the cave Tham Lod is.  The whole place was totally relaxing and quiet.

Later that night I got chatting to an older english woman who was staying there and she was asking me about what I had been up to so far and I said about just coming from Ko Samet......she asked what I thought about it and where I stayed.  I told her Naga Bungalows and low and behold - she was the owner!!!!!!  It was a very strange coincidence.  I mean its not unusual to bump into the same people along your travels but i did think it was unusual to bump into the owner of where you have just stayed!  She was so entertaining to talk to with lots of interesting stories.  But talking of bumping into people - as I'm writing this sitting in Vang Vieng in Laos I just bumped into another guy who was staying in Cave Lodge at the same time as me!

I was really disappointed however as I found out that the owner of the Lodge John wasn't there at the moment as he had just gone back to Oz for a holiday - but would be back in just over a weeks time - it was such a shame as he seemed like such an interesting guy and one who I really wanted to talk to.

Still, the next day I decided to go for a walk and explore a little bit:

    

When I got back some more people had turned up at the lodge that I got chatting to all from England so I finally had some people to do stuff with as i wanted to go to Tham Lod to see the birds and the bats enter and exit the cave.  Its an amazing spectacle that happens at dusk where thousands of swifts fly into the cave to nest for the night and then thousands of bats fly out of the cave.  We headed down there and explored some of the caves a bit with a guide and then rafted out to the exit of the cave to view this.  It really was an amazing experience and you can't really see it from the photos here.

   

From there we had to head back to the lodge in the pitch black just using our torches.  In the end I decided to leave the next day just spending 2 nights there.  As much as I wanted to be a real adventure traveller, I realised being this far out was a little bit out of my comfort zone, however I was pleased I went.  I decided to get the bus back to Pai the next day....next stop....a week of over indulgence and lots of good live music!

Ko Samet - Paradise, white powder sand, clear blue water....nothing more to be said!

So after my night out with the Irish girls I was feeling a little tired the next day so didn't get up quite as early as I had planned (of course!).  The girls in the Hostel were brilliant at helping me to work out how to get to Ko Samet - a mine of information!  I took a taxi further into Bangkok where there are all these private minibuses waiting for passengers, there's no set times, once they are full, they leave!  Luckily I got there and they had sold most of the seats, plus my backpack took up one of the seats so I didn't have to wait too long for it to leave.

The journey down to Ban Phe took about 3 hours where I then had to find the ferry to take across - i'm sure I got ripped off, but only by about £1 so not really the end of the world!  Where the bus dropped me off there were places selling tickets for the boats but I wasn't sure if it was the official place or not, its hard to tell. The guidebook said its 50baht a ticket to get across on the public ferry but this woman told me it was 100baht, and she was also trying to sell me on getting a speedboat instead...hmmmm....anyway - I decided to go with the 100baht a ticket as I couldn't see any other options about and then she told me I had to buy a return.......very hmmmmmmm..  I'm pretty sure I did get ripped off a bit because I then had to get into the back of this trailer type thing attached to a motorbike where they took me up the road to the right pier for the ferry.  It was a relatively small boat and I had to wait about 30 minutes for it to leave and I was watching them load it up with all the stuff they deliver to the island - all the beers, water, food bits etc.  Then we were off - I was so excited to see where I was going to end up!

The crossing took 40 minutes and at the other end you pile off (whilst attempting to not fall into the water or drop your pack in the water trying to get onto the pier at the other side) and these tuk tuk drivers pile you into trucks to deliver you to your guesthouse.  I had read about one on the internet called Naga Bungalows that sounded ok, basic, but in the middle of things (of what things there were on the island!) so I asked to be taken there.  On arrival it is a bit shabby around the edges and not pristine, but in a backpacker beach way.  I went to see the Bungalow and it was really really basic - just a bed on a raised platform with a mosquito net (with obligatory holes) and a fan in the corner - definitely a change from what i was used to but it would be dark in 30 minutes so I thought, it will do for now.  Also I was secretly very excited (not so secret now!) as I felt like it was something straight out of The Beach so really felt like I was in Thailand!

  

I dumped my bags and headed down to the lounge area which is just a big open area with surprisingly uncomfortable benches and chairs. They show 2 movies each evening down there so its a nice way to spend the early part of the evening especially when you are on your own.  I chatted a bit with some people in there and then at 9pm when the movies finished nearly everyone disappeared but I ended up chatting to another guy who was sitting finishing his beer called Chris.

Anyway he was heading off to another bar around the corner so I joined him as it wasn't quite my bed time yet!  Well you know me - the late nights are always the impromptu ones!  We had one drink and then another, and then of course another.....this was also another proper introduction to Thailand as the bar had all the girls working in it to provide "company" for men....very interesting to see....and then when they finish the music for the last song the girls all get up to mime a song in front of the band....they say its like Coyote Ugly - but the girls look a lot less happy!  Anyway the music finishes but the bar stays open and we ended up chatting to this Thai bloke and another guy from Jersey....It was a very bizarre experience because the Thai guy insisted he had never spent more than a couple of weeks in the UK in Brighton but spoke english like a cockney!  They were absolutely wasted so very very funny!  Turned out though that he had a bar up the road as well and we managed to talk him into giving us a free drink the next night if we went along!

The next morning feeling very bleary eyed it was time to explore the beaches - wow what beaches!!!  I really did feel like i had woken up in paradise.
This is the beach where I went to - it was right outside the guesthouse.  I walked quite a bit further up the coast line and this was definitely the best one that I saw...amazing, not crowded and just beautiful water.  The Island was just so nice and quiet as there's not really any cars on it, quite a few mopeds but not enough to drive you really crazy and the roads aren't proper roads, just dirt tracks.  I did decide to check out another place to stay that I read about - Jed's Bungalows, and they looked ok - air con, tv, fridge etc - but they were 150 baht more a night, and by that point I couldn't be bothered to move.  The following evening I met up with Chris again and we headed to the Sunlight bar which was the one the Thai guy owned that we met, it was pretty quiet in there so we only stayed for a couple and then stopped off for a couple more at the other bar on the way back to the bungalows where I bid him farewell as he was off to Pattaya the next day.  

Trying to think back now its a bit hard to remember what happened when but I think the next night I just had a quiet evening dinner on the beach watching the sun set and then a fireshow and an early night to recover from 3 nights out in a row.  

The last night I ended up back at the Sunlight bar but it was really really busy and I ended up meeting and chatting to loads of random people - none of who I remember the name of (mother don't have that disappointed look as you read this! - its not alchohol - its just that I met so many people)!  The nice thing about that Island was that it wasn't one of the typical islands that most people go to so the westerners I did meet were really interesting.  Anyway - that was a bit of a heavy night as I ended up staying up till morning and saw a beautiful sunrise.  Needless to say I didn't make it off the Island the next day and spent it in bed recovering from the excesses.  Finally it was back to Bangkok for a couple of nights to work out the next step.....

The Land of Smiles - Bangkok

So I've finally arrived in Thailand.  I've only been here just over 2 weeks so far and already I've seen its a place of many different ways of life and can be many things to many people.

Of course, like most visitors to Thailand I arrived in Bangkok.  Deliberating over to get a taxi or a bus into town I decided on the taxi.  Of course, even though I had the address written in Thai - the driver still didn't have a clue where the hostel was, so out came the phone and he rang them up.  Ive since realised that its because Thai's like other countries don't use addresses the way that we do.  To us, the road name and building number would be enough, but for them they have to have the address described as the old house between this restuarant, and that shop etc - basically it means I have no hope so its essential to have the phone number of your hostel if I ever want to get a taxi or tuk tuk back.

My dorm in bangkok was great - I stayed at the Niras Bangkok boutique hostel - it was lovely.  Very cute coffee shop style downstairs, with a little lounge area at the back.  It was all decorated with a dark wood in really good condition and everything was just really nice.  I saw a peak into one of the private rooms and they looked really nice and full of character.  The great thing about this hostel though is that the dorms are only 4 people, and the beds are quite big and REALLY comfy! What more could I ask for? Oh the showers were clean AND had hot water - i mean you are really talking here :-)  There were two amazing thai girls who worked on reception most of the time - May and Venus - both really really nice, always smiling and really helpful on tips of what to see and how to get to places.  So my first night in bangkok I just stayed in the hostel as it was already dark out, the next day however I got up to explore and May gave me this huge list of places that i had to see! Far too many especially as walking around Bangkok is really confusing, none of the maps make sense with the road names and its so easy to get lost.  However, I did manage to find the Grand Palace and Wat Pho - eventually!!!

When I arrived in Bangkok I think I was a bit too nicey nice as people come up to you on the street like they do in India and you think they are just being nice - but no, of course, they want you to go somewhere with them too!  The first guy I came across told me he was a teacher in the school "over the road" and was chatting to me and then when I wouldn't go to the place he was telling me about he basically swore at me a few times and walked off!!  NICE!!!  Then as I was walking around another guy came up and started talking to me but he was wearing a Tourist Police t-shirt - i had heard about the tourist police and they were specially trained to help tourists etc so thought, oh ok, he's ok, but no, he soon tried to get me to go in a tuk tuk so I walked off!  THEN another guy came up to me, by this time I was wise to it and thought nahhhhh, but sometimes you have to sort of acknowledge them and then walk off, anyway - it was near the grand palace after I had just been and he started to tell me he was secret police for the grand palace and had just finished work and he flashed me this stupid looking ID thing.  I've no idea if he was genuine or not as by that time i'd had enough and walked off.

Back to the Grand Palace - when I eventually found it!!!  It was pretty good.  I'd been told that you have to cover up completely really to go in, no open shoes, no shorts, covered shoulders etc, so I wore my long trousers and trainers and cause it was hot i wore a vest top but took a scarf with me to wrap round me whilst I was inside, as I go to go in the guard stops me and wont let me in - my scarf wouldn't do which was a bit stupid as it covered me up - but i had to go back and borrow a shirt from the office (nearly everyone visiting had to do a smilar thing).

So what can I tell you about it? Its got some beautiful buildings, a replica of Angkor Wat, I saw some kind of ceremonial thing with what looked like a bit of a changing of the guards, and thats about it.  A very nice place to walk around and worth visiting.

 

So after the grand palace I attempted to find my way to Wat Pho which is just behind it, not far at all and you are supposed to be able to get a foot massage from the Monks there.  You would have thought it was simple to find, but no, it probably took me a good hour to find my way there, there was some enjoyable things to see along the way like the odd markets that they have just lining the streets there.  Some of the stuff looks like it is literally jumble, all sorts of odds and sods that they have found from people throwing it away.  Then I also saw this cool stuff - people making leather goods to order, a monk shopping, oh and porn for sale which I thought was just too funny so had to take a picture!  Whoops - I also nearly forgot about the humongous knives that I saw for sale in the street!

   

I eventually found my way to Wat Pho and saw Monks teaching the kids in the school in there, and also the giant lying down buddah.  Next on my agenda was to see Khao San Road - it had to be done! I knew it wasn't far from the Wat but I had gotton so lost already I couldn't cope with it anymore so thought, ok i'll get a tuk tuk or taxi.  What a mistake! They all try to rip you off and charge way to much and won't use their meters :-( It wasn't fun, I went through about 5 taxis, in the end I found one guy and he wouldn't use his meter but we settled on 70baht I think to take me so not too much.

I have to say that Khao San Road in the day time isn't much to speak of, its ok, but its just a road full of shops and stalls but nothing that different - its a bit of a disapointment when you are expecting something crazy like out of the film The Beach.  Anyway - it was cool to see it and I wondered if it was different at night - and of course, when I went back the following evening it was very different and nearly as mad as I thought it would be.

Then trying to get back to my hostel was a mission - when I tell you that trying to read the maps are impossible - they really are!  I thought I was at one end of Khao San Road but really I was at the other but trying to orientate yourself with the map just isn't happening.  I found my way back to the hostel walking, but again I have no idea how!  That wasn't a fun evening as I just felt so lost!

But of course, make it back I did!  Now I can't remember if it was that night, or the night after - but I basically ended up meeting two Irish Girls - Dee and Fiona who were staying in the hostel, great girls and it was so good to meet some people to have a natter to and have some fun.  We ended up going out for dinner and then a few impromptu drinks afterwards on the Khao San Road - seeing it that night was definately different.

  

I think I finally stumbled to bed about 2am with my plan the next day to head out of Bangkok.I think it was driving me crazier as I was fed up of being in bit noisy cities and couldn't wait to get out.  I posted a message on Lonley Planet for some tips on an Island or something similar not too far from Bangkok that I could go to....Ko Samet was a popular suggestion and i'm so pleased I took them up on it!

The Yaghtze River and 3 gorges dam and Yangshuo

We arrived in Chongqing quite late so made our way to our boat for our River Cruise, dumped our bags then headed out for dinner…..in an enormous restaurant that looked like it would seat about 200 people but we were the only ones there.  It was very odd!

So we were on the Yaghtze River Princess for the next 3 nights.  The cabins were quite cute, plenty of space and we all had windows looking out on to the river. The boat was bigger than I expected as I think it takes 100 people.  All our meals were included and that was quite an experience in itself. Breakfast and Lunch were buffets and dinner was table service.  Well those Chinese LOVE their food – just before the meal service was announced they would all be down there lining up outside the door and then all hell broke loose.  You had to get your elbows at the ready if you wanted to get your pick of stuff, and although it was open for an hour, if you weren’t there in the first 15 minutes you probably missed out on stuff.  It was kind of hilarious and kind of annoying all at the same time. 

The first day we had some Chinese calligraphy demonstrated to us.  Then we hit the gorges.  They were a great sight, however because the river had been flooded to create the dam I think they were a lot less spectacular than they used to be.  Basically there was some flooding of the towns along the Yagthze River and so the Chinese Government said that to “protect and prevent” the loss of life they would create the Dam which would raise the water levels in parts but also meant that over 1 million people lost their homes and their lands and were relocated to other parts of the area or further up the banks.  Its hard to get any Chinese persons viewpoint on it other than it was a good thing – they never seem to disagree with what the government does.  You could see the difference in the water levels when we eventually passed through the dam and it was amazing how much the river had been flooded.  I have to say that apart from saying it was great to see the gorges and they were quite spectacular the river cruise was very relaxing as we didn’t do too much. 

Later that day though we took a trip off the boat to Fengdu where there is this temple.  In honesty this was more funny than anything else.  Our local guide was rubbish and we could hardly understand him and the whole place looked completely touristy.  There were some hilarious statues though and a very funny collection of torture statues.

     

The next day was much better as the weather cleared up (most of the time in China it has been really foggy, murky and cold, not to mention the pollution (but being on the river we were away from all that). At first I didn’t think the weather was that great but then the clouds broke and out came the sun.  It was still freezing cold though on the boat as we were moving so lots of wind.  We had to disembark our big boat and get on to a ferry to visit the Lesser Three Gorges which was really beautiful.

    

That night we continued on to the dam.  To give you an idea of the difference in water levels we had to go down through 5 locks to get through it and it took about 4 hours.  

The last day on the boat we were up early to go and see the dam.  Erm what can I say about it – well we got another rubbish local guide who we could hardly understand.  However I did get to see the dam from another viewpoint. 

  

That day was FREEZING though. They forecast snow but it didn’t come during the day. The boat went a bit further down river and we drove after that to Yichang. We had a short walk around town, got a gourmet lunch from Pizza Hut, got our supplies for our 24 hour travelling and then I went back and hibernated in our hotel as it was soooo freezing outside and they had free internet access in the room :-)

So the next 24 hours are travelling – up at 6am and we ended up having to leave at 7am as the snow was definitely forecast for the next day and Olive was worried that with the snow they would close the highways. It was a good plan as we got on the road and it was fine……then the snow started coming down heavily.  The driver got notices on his gps that the highways were gradually closing behind us as the conditions got worse and we saw 2 really bad accidents along the way on the other side of the road.  I was just slightly worried we were going to crash as well – but thankfully we were fine (or you wouldn’t be reading this!).  On the road for 4 and a half hours and then we got to Wuhan train station for our next sleeper train.  We had about 3 hours to kill and then boarded our sleeper about 3pm for our 14 hour journey to Guilin – due in at 5am, which needless to say was of course late :-) But not by too much.  We found the public bus, and I think it would have been more of an experience if we weren't all so tired!    

Anyway the journey was well worth it as Yangshuo was my favourite place by far.  Very quiet, in the countryside, pretty, just what I needed - apart from it being freezing cold!!  Our Hotel, Lisa's Mountain View Lodge, we were not impressed with.  We had breakfast there although I have no idea why as the breakfast room had no glass in the windows so it was freezing cold and they were crap bringing out the orders. I think we were all too tired to bother saying anything though.  However, things did improve as the town is beautiful. As i've been posting this online in Thailand I've realised I didn't actually finish writing about China and the end of the trip so now I am trying to remember - however I have the main things it just might vary the order of things!!  We took a trip on the river that I can't remember the name of (oops!) on bamboo rafts (well they were supposed to be bamboo but they were large tubes of plastic!)  It was really beautfiul - however it was FREEZING cold again so I think it marred my enjoyment slightly. 

 The next day was a free day and we could take a kung fu or tai chi lesson - or a cooking class! Guess which one I opted for :-) It was great fun though and there was another 4 people from our group who wanted to do it, Maria, Martin, Rehka and Suzanne. We had to tell them what we wanted to cook so decided on sweet and sour, sizzling beef and dumplings, next was a trip to the market to buy the ingredients.  The teacher actually did all the buying etc so we didn't have to do that but we did go round the market, the most interesting bit was the meat section as of course, all the animals are there, alive as well as dead.

There was of course the weird and wonderful fish that had been cut up but their nerves were still working so they flipped about and you had birds that had been plucked and sliced open just displayed waiting to be bought.  There were cages and cages full of live chickens and ducks and rabbits as well - all of which I could handle. However one thing that will stick with me forever is seeing dogs available.  It was horrible.  They have them alive in a cage behind a stall, all jammed in, then I saw it in the different stages, one dead lying on the floor, then the next stage hung up and skinned but whole and then the next bit cut up in to bits.  And I managed to get all that in 5 seconds as I couldn't even look at it properly.  I don't know why but it just doesn't seem right to eat dog, and for whatever reason I could handle seeing the chickens and rabbits being treated the same way, I couldn't handle it with dog.  So, moving on from that not very nice experience, we went off to become chinese chefs!

   

 

So first up was our dumplings, using this really fine pastry that they already bought for us, but they were quite easy to make, its just fiddly getting them to look nice putting them together!

Then our sizzling beef, and then of course the sweet and sour pork! So what can I tell you about the cooking without going through the whole method which i'm sure you don't want to read! It was great being shown how to do it and when I had to deep fry the pork i managed to drip hot oil on our teacher - whoops!

     

So we had the afternoon free after our lovely cooking and went off to do some final looking around the shops.  That evening we had our final sleeper train quite late into Shenzhan.  By this point i'm an old hand at the sleeper trains so it wasn't too bad, got into Shenzhan early for a change!  Then as we are in China we have to depart the train and then cross the border into Hong Kong by foot! Eventually we get through, then have to do another metro train to get to Kowloon to our hotel.  I have to say it was a nice finish to our trip as if you compare my Hostel in Hong Kong to the Hotel we were staying in you couldn't get much more of a difference!  We got there quite late in the day so all headed off for a farewell lunch together.  I had plans for hong kong - unfortunately a pair of my trousers ripped halfway through China and although I got them repaired, they tore again, and I realised I just didn't have enough clothes still, so I had to trek off to Marks and spencers again to get myself well prepared for the rest of my trips! Strangely enough Suzanne on my tour was catching the same flight as me the next day to Singapore (although I was only stopping for an hour!) so we went to the airport together the next day.........next up Thailand :-)