Incredible India

We arrived in India at 10pm last night. We headed straight to Elements hostel in Chennai and had a great nights sleep. Chennai is a huge , busy city and we have just returned exhausted after a 4 hr expedition. The sights, sounds and smells have given us a sensory overload and we have retreated to the safety of our hostel to recharge our calmness batteries.

We haven't seen another white face all day and we had a slight incident when Garry took out his camera to take a photo of a holy cow and about 10 people crowded around us demanding that we take their photograph too!

The people are really friendly and helpful. We have been surprised at how laid back they are compared to the South East Asians (SEAs). They really seem to be interested in us and want to shake our hands and say 'hi', unlike the SEAs who were after our money all the time. The begging is much more intense here - woman and children grabbing your arm and leg every five minutes, but they are not aggressive.

Just off for a curry. Happy New Year!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas everyone!


It is very strange being in a non-christian country at this time of year. It is almost like the Saviour of the world never came. I guess it's not that obvious in Britain anymore either!

We will be spending the day on the beach and shall have our own celebration. We have decided to go to the Similian islands for Christmas Day. We will be snorkelling and relaxing on the beach and eating rice for Christmas dinner!

We are currently stopping in Khao Lak. It was completely devastated by the tsunami two years ago. Most of the fatalities in Thailand were from around here as the land is so flat. The resort we are staying at was open for 3 days before the waves hit. The family all survived. The dad swam with the 6 month old baby for 2 km! The wave was 10ft high when it hit. See website for more info: http://www.mrx.no/Khao-Lak.html

You can still see signs of damage - buidings have been left in ruin, lampposts are bent. There are warnings everywhere and maps showing escape routes - the nearest one to us here is 5 miles away. The

HAVE FUN!

Looking back...

10 of our most memorable experiences in South East Asia:

1. Kayaking in Halong Bay
2. Meeting Thang - a Vietnamese Christian in Hanoi
3. Being accosted by 50 Red Daowomen in Tam Coc, Vietnam
4. Easy Rider tour from Dalat to Mui Ne, Vietnam
5. Going to Dann Seng Water Park, Saigon
6. Cooking Course, Battambang, Cambodia
7. Fish nibbling legs at Erawan Water Falls, Thailand
8. Riding Elephants bareback in Thailand
9. White water rafting, Pai, Thailand
10. Tubing down the river in Vang Vieng, Laos

Top 8 memorable places:

Luang Prabang, Laos
Mui Ne, Vietnam
Halong Bay, Vietnam
Pai, Thailand
Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Koh Phi Phi, Thailand
Vang Vieng, Laos

You will never find a more wretched hive.....

Well we swore that we'd never come; but here we are in Phuket City. There are far too many Europeans walking around with not enough clothes on, tacky shops and higher prices. But what else would you expect?

Yesterday we ventured to Karon Beach, sat amongst the tourists and had a most enjoyable day. We are having a panic over what to do at Christmas. We were going over the the east coast, but the sea is rough and it is expensive to reach. We have decided to stay on the west coast, but everywhere is double or triple the price in the holidays. What to do????

Paved Paradise

We arrived on Ko Phi Phi at nine in the morning eagerly expecting paradise on earth. Five minutes later we were sure that we had got off on the wrong island as we had entered travellers hell. Touts, tourists, towerblocks and tantrums followed. By midday we still hadn't found any decent (and reasonably priced) accommodation and we had stopped speaking to each other!

Thankfully, the ever resourceful Garry phoned a place he had heard of and they came in a boat to collect us. http://www.ballofdirt.com/media/10654/168723/780347.html This is a link to the beach we were taken to. Immediately we relaxed, had a beer and started talking again. It seems that we might, after all, have found paradise.

We took several trips out to Maya Beach (where they filmed "The Beach") and to Bamboo Island. The snorkelling was amazing and the sea so perfect.

Koh Lanta

Ko Lanta is an island just 2 hrs from Krabi on the Andaman coast. We have booked into a luxury bungalow for 10 days with a stunning view of Ko Phi Phi. A time to relax, unpack the rucksacks and kick back. Do some swimming, snorkelling and eating. We have already been invited to some beach parties and tomorrow will hire a motorbike and explore.

Ko Lanta is so quiet. Yesterday we had a whole beach to ourselves. The sea is perfect and Garry has already been snorkelling. There are a lot of tsunami evactuation points along the beach, but there is no evidence of damage any more.

Koh Mook is an island just off Koh Lanta and we went on a day trip to see the Emerald cave (we had to swim thro a cave thro' to an enclosed beach).

We are having a visa crisis again. The big decision of the week is whether to make a visa run to Malaysia or Burma or just risk it and pay the overstay charge. More to follow....

More photos

We have put some more photos on previous pages.

Go back to ELEPHANT ISLAND.

Silence of the goat

The goat arrived on the back of a motorbike at 2pm. It screamed all the way to the kitchen and when we asked the manager of Ban Pako Eco-Lodge what was going on, he calmly said that they were going to sacrifice it to the gods/spirits.

Two hours later, the guests started to arrive and sure enough they slit its throat as an offering to the local gods and animist spirits. To be honest we were glad when it was killed as it was screaming blue murder for over an hour and disturbing out hammock time.

Of course we had to explain why we couldn't join in the celebrations and share in the goat BBQ. It will not be the screaming of the goat that we will need therapy for in the future, but the smell of sacrificed goat. It will stay with us for a long time!

Still, the rest of our time of Ban Pako was very relaxing and it is a great spot by the river. There is a herbal steam sauna and a natural spring pool. Everything is solar powered and the food is delicious. Apart from the sacrifice the only other downside was an abundance of wildlife. Which considering we were an hours drive deep in the jungle should not have been so surprising. However, when you are staying in a wooden bungalow with no walls, the jungle starts to encroach a little to uncomfortably! We had a huge huntsman spider sharing with us and various other bugs and mosies. Thank the Lord for mosquito nets.

The Lao people

Unlike Cambodia Laos seems to have progressed quite well economically. There are good businesses here and the people are striving to improve their lives. Of course there are some very poor people still, but the government seems to genuinely care for them.

The people are not as out going as the Vietnamese, but not as sullen as the Cambodians. Here area few of the people we have met:

A 'happy' town

One morning we awoke at 7am to a loud boom followed by a sudden tremor that rocked our whole bungalow. Five minutes later, it happened again this time followed by the sound of automatic gun fire. We looked out of the window, over the river to see people looking around warily. The boom and subsequent tremor was closer this time and the sound of gunfire worryingly loud.

Welcome to Vang Vieng! Apparently it wasn't a coup and Lao wasn't being invaded by an unknown enemy. The army were just practicing. An hour later all was calm. We rolled onto our hammocks, ordered a mulberry fruit shake and started the day again - the way all days should start.

Vang Vieng is party town. There is always something happening somewhere. Friends and the Simpsons are played constantly and you can get every type of food with a generous sprinkle of marijuana in/on it.

We have spent the past two days tubing down the river, stopping at the bars along the way. Today we have visited some caves and villages and had a BBQ by the river. We have made lots of friends here and had a great, fun time. Must get back to our hammocks and our Beer Laos...

If I hadn't seen such riches.....

Luang Prabang is a small town set between two converging rivers in the middle of the northern part of Laos. It has been selected as a UNESCO site which means that thy cannot build any further and that the town has received heavy investment. As a result it is the cleanest and most authentic 'colonial' town that we have seen in South East Asia. It even has pavements!!!!

We have had a week recuperating and resting. The town is small enough to walk around and has some great book shops and markets to browse through. It's a great place to kick back and dream away!

"Will Luang Prabang be the refuge of the last dreamers, the last lovers, the last troubadours?" --Marthe Bassene, 1909
(Not sure what a troubledour is, but we like the sound of it!!!)


This morning we had to catch ourselves. We were moaning at what a drag it was to have to decide where to eat breakfast every morning. At the moment, someone cooks for us, washes up, cleans our room, changes our sheets and washes our clothes and will even iron them if we ask. How spoilt are we?

We need a doctor!

There we were in Muang Sing, a village on the China border in the middle of no-where. The biggest festival of the Lao year was approaching and the tiny town was filling up fast. Garry very suddenly one evening, came down with severe pains, high fever and shivers. We were 10 hrs from any decent (and English speaking) medical treatment and he was getting worse. Where's a doctor when you need one?

It has taken us three days to travel down to Luang Prabang because Garry couldn't travel for very long each time. Today he has improved greatly thanks to some medication and has had a cup of tea to celebrate. We are both relieved to be in a civilized town. Actually Luang Prabang is one of the most civilized towns we have been to in South East Asia. More to follow on the town by the river....

Life as we know it

To take responsibility for one's life, one must figure out first what kind of life one is to live.

And one does not know what he wants, or what kind of life he wants to live, until he finds it.

The process involves exploration; it also involves leaving all that is familiar...

So says I.B. Sambot in his web journal entitled 'It's my life'.

Life in Lao is laid back and simple. The people are poor, but they seem content (although it's easy for Westerners to assume that people are happy to be poor). Many of them have no running water or toilet, but have a massive satellite dish so they don't miss the latest Thai soap opera!

Any foreign visitor is so spoilt out here. We can live in relative luxury for $30 a day. Usually our budget for Asia has been US$50 a day. I Vietnam we kept well in budget, Cambodia we went over budget and in Thailand we were about spot on. In Laos however we could live on $15/20 a day easily.

While pondering on this (and other things) one day, we examined the art of travelling and its application to real life. Here are a few of our musings:

1. The more you carry, the harder life becomes.
2. Pick your travelling companions wisely. It is easy to be led astray.
3. Listen to those travellers who have been there and done it, but check their wisdom with a guide book in order to find out if they are a crazy person.
4. Learn to appreciate the lie of the land. You can't always be on the mountain top.
5. Your best stories come from the tough times.

Howdy partner

Luang Namtha really should have some horses, a sheriff and a few cowboys roaming around. It has that Western, John Wayne feel to it. The roads are dusty and it is eirily quiet - like at any minute a gun fight could ensue. You wake up in the morning to the sounds of Old Macdonald's farm - cockrels, goats, dogs etc.

Apart from that - it is a lovely town set by the Nam Tha river, with some great cycling, trekking and rafting opportunities.


"The tree appeared out of nowhere as we paddled furiously down a grade 2 rapid in our white water kayak. Before we knew what was happening our kayak was on top of the tree and we were hanging on for dear life!

Thankfully the current wasn't too strong and the kayak freed itself and coasted into the calmer water. However as Sam looked to the back of the kayak to laugh at Garry, she saw an empty seat... Garry was still hanging onto the tree!"


All's well that ends well, and Garry swam back to the kayak and jumped on ready for the next set of rapids. We stopped at several minority villages by the river and had a Lao dinner on the banks of the Nam Tha. White water kayaking is much more of an adrenaline rush than the rafting, mainly because you haven't got an experienced guide steering. You are in control of where the kayak goes. Still, great fun!

"Sabai Dee" Laos

Our bus was leaving from the other side of the river in half an hour. Not only did we have to cross the river and find the bus station, but we had to get out of Thailand and pass through Laos immigration control.

We ran to the border crossing at Chang Khong only to find that we had outstayed our Thai visa by 1 day. "You will have to wait," said the ever helpful border control officer. "Great start!" We finally suceeded in escaping Thailand with a 1000 Thai Baht fine. A short boat ride later and we were greeted by a nice lady saying: "Welcome to Loas!" We flew thro' passport control and hopped on a pickup truck with a Dutch couple which took us to the main bus station.

We had made it! The bus was there and fully loaded. Our rucksacks were thrown on the roof, joining the five motorbikes and countless satellite dishes, televisions etc. We squeezed into our seats and the bus finally left an hour after it should have!

The journey to Luang Namtha was 9 hrs. The road was awful - no tarmac and so bumpy. One poor guy couldn't stop being sick. At one point we had to get off the bus for it to go up a hill. We picked up people on the way and when we thought they couldn't squeeze any more on - a man with a 3 ducks joined us! (See photo of the flat tyre).

We arrived in Luang Namtha exhausted in the early evening. We followed the Dutch couple to a clean and large hotel ($6 a night) and had shower, dinner and then bed.

Pai in the sky

Sitting in the back of the raft, I can see the wave coming as we carefully navigate a Grade 4 rapid on the Pai River. Garry, who is sitting in the front of the raft however, has momentarily averted his attention to a dancing bird on the shore. As the wave hits, he is thrown back, his legs slip out from beneath him and if it was not for Dutchman Dick, who was sitting next to him, we may have lost out right hand wing man. Dick couldn't even remember grabbing Garry's life vest and hauling him back in, but he was definitely the hero of the day.

We left on Tuesday with our Lahu (an ethnic minority group) guide Shadow for a 2 day trip into the jungle. We saw some small minority villages and visited a school, before making the trek through the jungle and along the river to our jungle camp. Shadow had to hack his way through the jungle with his machete - it was high adventure with treacherous cliff passes and several fast river crossings. (See photo left for idea of the path).

Our jungle camp was by the river, and Shadow cooked an amazing meal for us as we sipped Chang beers around the camp fire, before retiring for bed exhauted at 8pm! We didn't awake until 7am the next morning, just after our fellow adventurers Dick and Ann from the Netherlands awoke.

The morning started with the cheeky monkeys stealing Ann's waterproof camera and a mad chase ensued. We finally got the camera back - the monkeys had taken five shots, but broke the wind on button!

The rafting was awesome, with some really challenging water and stunning scenery. We stopped for lunch by some hot springs and the weather was glorious. Garry climbed up to the top of an 8 metre high rock and threw himself off the top into the river - very brave!

It was a great, fun, adventure filled trip. We all said we wished we could have kept going. The Pai River goes all the way thro' Burma and comes out near the Andamans!

Chillin' by the river

Pai is a small town in the north of Thailand. It has a real hippy feel to it and has lots of spas as well as a reputation for high drug use. This is evident by the amount of people we have seen either crashing their scooter or just falling of them. One girl had dropped hers and lacked the ability to pick it up!

We have a great bungalow in 'Pairadise'. It has a balcony that overlooks the river and valley. (see photo for view out of window.)The sun sets over the hills every night. I think they got the name of the resort spot on...

Yesterday we went for a 'spa day'. They had a huge natural spa pool and we opted for the 1 hour massage. Not a bad way to spend a day! Tomorrow we may go for some action and either do a trek or do some white water rafting.

A Jedi craves not these things

Chiang Mai is a busy little town. There are treks and tours to go on, but we wanted to wait until we reached the more remote town of Pai to do this. The scenery is once again stunning, and we hired a motorbike to go up to the hills. One day we got lost and ended up at a flower show. The people were really friendy, so we stopped!

Yesterday we went to the zoo and saw two pandas - very cute. What a life they live! Sitting all day, getting pampered and fed by attentive staff and being adored by the ever present public. And boy, do they know how to pose! (See picture).

The Thai's, even outside of the big cities are relatively well off. There are not as laid back as the Cambodians, but seem to have their work/life balance worked out pretty well. Family is really important here and there is a lot of 'down time'.

We are still enjoying our 'down time'. After 9 months of it, life has become pretty chilled out. In the words of Ferris Bueller:

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it."

Flashpackers

There is a new term in the travelling world. First we were confused and thought that it refered to backpackers who habitually strip naked. However...

According to the 'Telegraph' a "flashpacker" is a new breed of traveler, tech-savvy adventurers who carry a cell phone, digital camera, iPod, wearable electronics, clothes and a laptop, all snugly tucked away in their ergonomically correct, multi-function backpack.

Flashpackers are customarily men and women in their 20s and 30s with established careers, a desire for adventure and a bankroll to fund their sabbatical. Unlike their backpacking predecessors, the flashpacker opts for comfort and style, worrying less about saving money and more about saving time.

We have met many travellers who think nothing of spending just $3 a night on a scummy, little, dirty, bug infested room. These fall firmly in the 'backpacker' category. We on the other hand aspire to be flashpackers, but just can't quite afford it! Maybe we are something in between.

Any ideas what our category could be called? Answers on a postcard.

Elephant Island

We have decided to splash out and have some
R & R on an island on the South East Coast of Thailand. We hoped that Koh Chang would be a bit quieter than the south western islands and it was.

We stopped at a place called Paradise Palms - a bungalow right on the beach. The snorkelling was good and there was a great restaurant a 5 minute walkaway.

We had a motorbike and toured the whole island and went on an elephant trek through the rain forest. The sunsets were amazing and the beaches lovely.


After the trek we went for a swim with them and tried to wash their backs. Much scarier than you would think! We came out of the water on their backs and they took us back to the camp. So cool!

The river under the bridge

If we haven't had enough horror after the war history of Vietnam and and more recent genocide in Cambodia, we are now at the Bridge over the River Kwai where 16,000 POWs died in WWII! The town of Kanchamburi is a small place with few tourists. There are a few bus loads of tour groups doing the War Remembrance tour. There are many museums and 2 huge cemetries. The museums are quite moving, featuring first person stories from the time with photos.

We had a ride on a train over the River Kwai and along the death railway. One person died for every sleeper laid. The scenery was spectacular as the track followed the river through the Kwai Valley.

Erawan National Park contains a series of seven stunning waterfalls. We spent 4/5 hrs walking and swimming in the pools and sitting on the falls. The fish were too nibbly for Sam's liking - a fish massage is not as nice as it sounds!

The city don't know what the city is gettin'

Bangkok is a crazy, hectic place, full of tourists and girls in short skirts. It is a bit of a culture shock after Cambodia to have multi-screen cinemas, department stores and McDonalds, but we're enjoying it. Not a lot to do here really: sit around in bars all day, shop (Sam has 4 new T-shirts!), see some sights and watch the world go by.

It's not as seedy as we expected and I think the government has done a lot to clean up the sex tourist part of Thai travel. Lots of young girls with older men tho' and lots of adverts for mail order wives! In the words of Obi Wan Kenobi: 'You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villany!'.

Hello Thailand!

After an 11 hour journey by taxi, foot (across the border), tuk tuk, bus and another taxi, we arrived at the Thai Cozy House near the Khao San Road, Bangkok. Crossing the border was like entering Narnia for the first time (or maybe leaving it???).

In Cambodia the roads were basically a series of mud covered potholes. You could only travel at 30mph tops. Once across the border we hit a duel carraigeway! Haven't seen one of those for a while! Luxury... and they drive on the left.

Bangkok is huge, and busy! The Khao San Rd is mental. Our hotel is right in the thick of it. Great to have some life after the slowness of Battambang.

Goodbye Cambodia

Battambang is Cambodia's second largest town and at this time of year hardly has any tourists. There's not that much to do so the first day was spent learning how to cook some Khmer dishes. There were 6 of us in cooking class and we started the day by going to the local market to get all our ingredients, then spent the next 4 hrs cooking and eating our three recipes. Great fun!

The next day we went on a tour with Mo and his brother in law to see some of the countryside. Saw a cave where the Khmer Rouge killed 10,000 people by throwing them through the opening in the top. The bones were still at the bottom. We were walking by the remains of someone's son, someone's mother. These bones belonged to doctors, lawyers, teachers - anyone who had any sort of education was murdered. So sad.

We went to see a few Wats and went on a bamboo train - basically a bamboo board on the track. Mo took us back to meet his wife and 3 month old baby (see photo) - they were so poor. We took the family's photo and promised to send them a copy when we got home.

Battambang was a good stop to see some of the 'real' Cambodia, away from the tourist centers. Goodbye Cambodia!

Coup d'état

Well, we are near the Thai border hoping that is stays open long enough for us to travel through. It had been closed, but things seem to have calmed down now. We have been reading the Bangkok Post every day and there are pictures of tourists posing with the soldiers in front of the tanks and everything seems to be very calm. Our hotel owner who has lived out here for 10 years and writes the most popular website in south east asian (talesofasia.com) says that this is just the way that Thai's work out there problems.

No worries!

The dancing monk

Today we visited a Pagoda at the request of two young monks who we met at Angkor Wat. I don't know what you think of when you imagine how a monk lives, but this certainly wasn't what we were expecting. One monk showed us to his room - complete with pictures of Ronaldo and the English football team on his wall. The crazy frog theme was playing on his stereo and he asked Garry if he liked to dance. Thankfully his firm answer calmed the young monk down.

We talked about football and English lessons and about what it was like being a monk, and then the dancing monk said that he had to go out with his friends. Another, calmer monk took us to his room which was a lot bleaker. He had no mats on the floor and just slept on wooden slats. Nothing in his room but a kettle and books. He told us that he was very poor and the only way that he could afford an education was to go to the pagoda and be a monk. He told us about the 21 precepts that he had to learn and we told him about the 10 commandments.

He had just bought a book to do his studies in. He said it was very expensive for him, but he needed it. We asked how much it was and he said 5000 riel (just over a dollar). We said that we would give him the money for it. His name was Sam.

Angkor Wat?

Siem Reap is a funny little town with a river running through it and a big tourist area. We are about a 15 minute walk out of town down a muddy track, out of the way of the beggars and hawkers.

Our first experience of the Angkor Wat area was to go out to Banteay Srei - the woman's temple. Some great carvings in an intricate temple set amid the rice paddies. We spent an exhausting day touring round another 5 temples before collapsing back at the hotel with an Angkor beer.

The 2nd day was spent in Angkor Wat itself and Angkor Thom - both architecturally amazing. We somehow lost each other amongst the faces of the Buddha in Bayon temple and spent an hour wandering round the complex thinking that we may never get out! Thankfully we met up again before we died of exhaustion.

Day three was a little easier as we were exhausted from the previous days and it was pouring with rain. We both agreed that Ta Phrom was the most impressive temple. They have allowed some of the jungle to continue eating the stones away. It is also the temple where Angelina Jolie picked a flower in Tomb Raider and then fell through a hole into Pinewood Studios!!!

There is still a lot of restoration work being done on the temples and it is a constant battle with the surrounding jungle. It didn't help that the documents that French arhictects had been working on for 20 yrs or so were burnt by the Khmer Rouge. After 1979 they got back to find 10,000 pieces of rubble lying around and no plans to give them any clue of how they all fit together.

Phnom Pehn

The capital city of Cambodia is a mix of apparent affluence and desperate poverty. Our main reason for staying here so long was to soak up some of the recent history we have been reading about.


We stopped in a hotel by the river with views of the National Museum and Royal Palace. Our first outing was a cheery visit to the Killing Fields where thousands of Cambodians (and some foreigners) were slaughtered by the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979. All that is left now are skulls and bones. It was an eiree place and we did not linger.


Our pleasant tuk tuk driver then took us to the genocide museum for some more fun! The cells where the Khmer Rouge tortured its 'enemies' were still in the same condition as they were when the Vietnamese captured the city in 1979. Complete with torture racks, weapons and blood.... and a photo on the wall of a real life torture session just in case you haven't got the picture yet!!



We saw the French Embassy where the last of the foreigners baracaded themselves in after the KR emptied the city in 1975 and we searched for Don Cormack's church in the centre of the city (see http://www.omf.org.uk/content.asp?id=12768), but think it is a house now.


We visited an orphanage with 250 children -really, really sad as they were living in a hoval. There are some good parts to the city. The Central and Russian markets were a great place to shop and the lake and river front are pleasant places to walk or sit.