From Cambodia to Thailand, the end of part one of Voyage 3.0

Resting, lost rings and more border crossings!

Our journey from Laos to Cambodia was just as arduous as the ones within Laos. There was a boat trip across the Mekong, a short bus ride to the border, a border crossing (not that scammy though given that we were going into Cambodia and have had past experience here with border scams), a long wait, another bus ride, another long wait and a final bus ride to Phnom Penh!

We visited Cambodia 9 years ago and ticked off the major sites then so this was a chance to visit a couple of new places on our way back to Thailand.

We left Phnom Penh almost as quickly as we arrived, lasting about 13 hours before we hopped on a bus to Kampot. Kampot is on an estuary and we took the opportunity to hire a Kayak and we had a very peaceful and beautiful kayak through some palm fronds. It was an highlight for us and felt so relaxing. We hardly saw anyone else and it was a good workout for the shoulders!

We took it very gently in Kampot and the only other activity we did was a sunset cruise along the Mekong. You get to see the sunset and also some fireflies in the trees. We enjoyed this so much we actually did it two nights in a row!

After Kampot we went to Koh Rong, an island off the Cambodia coast. We took a bus to the pier and the road was as bad as the ones in Laos – it was so rough for an hour it was impossible to read or do anything else! We had a long wait for our speedboat and I have to confess that my patience was running out.

Koh Rong had some nice beaches to chill on but the island itself felt a little grotty. There was rubbish everywhere (I know it’s a remote island but there has to be some better way to clear waste than letting it all pile up) as well as frequent power cuts. The power cuts made it impossible to go back to your accommodation during the day as it was too hot.

This is the only photo I took in Koh Rong

We only spent a week in Cambodia before heading back to Thailand. We woke on the morning of departure to a strong wind and with strong wind comes choppy seas! Our speedboat was flying through the waves and what goes up must apparently slam back into the waves with a force. I felt that I was getting whiplash from being thrown around so much, everyone was holding on for dear life and my stomach was getting churned up. I felt like kissing the ground when we safely made it to shore an hour later. We took a bus to the border and it stopped a couple of times for comfort breaks (with actual toilets – how novel!) but the driver wasn’t great at checking that everyone was back and drove off twice missing passengers! This is my worst nightmare and I was happy to see that everyone was looking out for each other to ensure we were all present. We had to change buses at the border before changing again at Trat for a Songthew. If you don’t know, a Songthew is a pick up truck with a couple of benches in the back, comfortable enough for a short journey, not ideal for a long 45 minute ride to the pier. There was a group of 6 of us heading to Koh Chang so we all stuck together and we were glad we did as we were abandoned at the pier! We asked about the next ferry and were fobbed off before the staff disappeared! One guy abandoned the rest of the group to buy his own ferry ticket but the rest of us were not having it so we protested to the ferry staff before they made a phone call and someone turned up with our tickets! It was a long journey but great to be back on a Thai island.

Koh Chang was very peaceful and restful, the beach was secluded and lovely and we enjoyed some gorgeous sunsets, our last beach sunsets in Asia! We’ve been used to seeing small geckos throughout Asia but here we had Tokay geckos outside our room and they are huge! They are about 30 centimetres long and we had a Mr and Mrs right outside our room.

We headed to Bangkok and for once a very uneventful journey – one bus the whole way, the only thing of note being how many times the driver stopped for fuel and to top up the tyres with air!

We had a brief overnight stop in Khao San Road again before heading to our favourite beach, Cha Am. We spent 2.5 weeks here chilling, hanging with Joey’s family over Christmas and New Year. It was a brilliant way to spend our last couple of weeks of this leg of travels. The days merged into one as we chilled on the beach, topping up tans and planning the next leg of our journey.

Nothing much happens in Cha Am, just the way we like it. Except for one day when it all happened!

We were enjoying a swim in the sea when we saw this horse with a young woman on galloping along the beach and being completely out of control! The poor horse had been spooked by a dog and was running all over the place, rearing up with the girl trying to hang on to him! She made it further down the beach before she tried to get off when the horse decided it had had enough and. just dumped her off into the sand. Luckily she wasn’t injured and landed in soft sand but as it looked scary from where we were I can imagine she must have been quite scared.

Then I took my wedding rings off (they are fake ones) to put some suncream on and somehow without noticing knocked them into the sand. I spent ages sat on the sand digging through trying to find them! I borrowed a rake from the people we hire our sunbeds from but had no luck. Then she suggested calling the ‘machine man’ who owns a metal detector to get him to come and look for them. He only charges if he finds them, so he turned up and managed to find them! I think I paid more for the metal detector man than the rings were worth but they are quite sentimental!

Then just when we thought things had settled down the wind really picked up and a little fishing boat broke free and was sailing down the beach front quite a distance on its own – almost like a ghost ship! Eventually a man started to drag it back up the beach before its owner came to rescue it. Cha Am is normally a very peaceful place so for these things to all happen within a couple of hours was quite exciting.

Cha Am has a forest park and we headed there one morning to see wild gibbons, they hang out in the trees there and it was fantastic to see them in the wild swinging from tree to tree.

We headed back to Bangkok for a final stop before flying back to the UK. This is not the end of our travels, just a little rest before we head to the other other side of the world. It will be a welcome opportunity to change our clothes and eat some cheese!

January 31, 2024 0

Not loving Laos!

Our first impressions of Laos from the two small towns on the Mekong had been very positive. And when we arrived into Luang Prabang, a UNESCO world heritage town famous for its temples, this continued. We arrived around 6pm and once checked in we headed straight back out to the night market. Unfortunately we arrived on a day when there were no food stalls! So we perused the craft stalls before finding food elsewhere.

The next day we set off on a walk round town heading to the Ethno museum, which had some interesting displays on the ethnic tribes of Laos and a chance to have a go at making a Taleo, which we really struggled with – it was hilarious trying to follow what seemed like simple instructions, but we kind of got there in the end!

We climbed a large hill which had an amazing view of the city, lots of Buddhas on the way up and also a Buddha footprint housed in a tiny shrine. In the same manner as the one in Sri Lanka we saw a few years ago, this was huge! I don’t know if Buddha was a giant but he sure had big feet!

Later on we visited Xiang Thong Wat which housed a huge funeral carriage as well as a beautiful reclining Buddha and a stunning glided depiction of village life.

The following day we rose early to witness the alms giving to the monks, this is a very famous activity to do in Luang Prabang and there is an option to join in if you wish, which a lot of Chinese tourists did do. Unfortunately this also meant that they were in the monks faces taking photos instead of quietly observing from a distance. It was a beautiful sight to witness all the saffron robed monks quietly walking the streets and I’m glad we made the effort to get up early to do so.

We then headed to the Royal Palace and we were then about 10 minutes after opening at 8am and just managed to get ahead of a very large tour group! The palace was very understated and almost just like a big house rather than the palace you might expect! There was a large collection of royal cars which was quite fun as they all dated from the 70s as well as a beautiful gold Buddha.

That afternoon we went and played some crazy golf which was in a British guy’s back garden! It was very random but he had built a course in his backyard. The course was pretty rickety with some of the holes almost unplayable due to the tree roots but it was good fun.

The following day we caught the bus to Phonsavan, home to the Plain of Jars. We’d booked the bus tickets through our hostel and the owner had sent us off with a warning about the bus and the condition of the roads and with a warning not to leave her a bad review because of the journey! With the phrase ‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you!’ ringing in our ears we were prepared mentally for a terrible journey. The journey itself? Well, it sort of set the scene for the rest of our travel days in Laos.

The bus was a minivan, which is quite standard, but in the aisles were beer crates, with half a cushion on – so people were clearly expected to sit on these for 7 hours and they were determined to cram in as many people as possible.

As soon as we left Luang Prabang the road condition deteriorated – the road became unsealed, meaning it was incredibly bumpy and very, very dusty! For most of the journey the plants along the roadside were grey as they were covered in the dust from the road. Then there were the potholes. You have never seen such large pot holes and so many of them! At times in the journey it felt like the road was still under construction and we had to stop once whilst they lay the road in front of us. Then there was the toilet situation. We stopped a few times for a bathroom break, only the bathroom was the side of the road! All the men lined up along the roadside and the few women on the bus scurried into the bushes to find some sort of privacy. Every journey took about twice as long as he should, partly due to the these conditions but also because every Laos driver seems incapable of driving for more than 30 minutes without stopping! They seem to act as DPD drivers, regularly stopping to pick up and drop off letters and parcels! Then there are the sellers who cram on at every opportunity to sell spatchcock chicken on a stick!

We’d originally planned to get a night bus to Vietiniane from Phonsavan but after about 30 minutes of pot holes I decided that perhaps doing this in the dark wasn’t the wisest decision!

We eventually arrived into Phonsavan a bit bruised and shaken but in one piece and we arranged with our host to do a tour to the Plain of Jars with his wife (the only female guide of the area) the next day.

The Plain of Jars are several sites made up of large stone jars, more or less completely intact. Laos is the world’s most heavily bombed country per capita and therefore the site was only cleared of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) in very recent times. It was declared a UNESCO site in 2019. No one is 100% certain of the purpose of the jars, but the main idea seems to be that they were used for burial purposes. There are also suggestions and myths that maybe they were used for wine storage- I like this idea and quite fancy a giant stone jar full of wine.

The sites themselves are a wonder, the first one is in the middle of nowhere and contains over 100 jars. Site 1 is the largest and most popular site, but even when we were there it wasn’t overly busy. We also visited sites 2 and 3 which both had beautiful settings. Site 2 was in a woods and to access site 3 you have to walk through rice paddies. It was a very peaceful and pleasant day. I’d wanted to visit the Plain of Jars ever since I read about them a few years ago and I am glad we made the effort despite the journey, it was a Laos highlight for sure.

We also visited the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) office to learn about how the UXO is being cleared. Every day new bombs are found and a visit here certainly made me more wary about where I put my foot when going for those bus bathroom breaks!

The next day we decided to try and make our way back to the Mekong, to Thakek. We had to catch a bus to Paksan and then hope for a connection from there. We caught the 6.30am bus and our host was saying that there was a chance we would miss the connecting bus. The first bus journey was long and arduous again but it wasn’t full so we were able to spread out a little. We waited about 15 minutes for the next bus so I think we’d been spun a line there! As we weren’t sure if we were going to make it that night we hadn’t book any accommodation. I asked a tuk tuk to take us to a hostel I’d read about it but upon arrival there was no room at the inn. Luckily he had a friend with a room and he called him – he was our hero as he even came to pick us up on his motorbike! I went first and when I arrived there was loud music blaring and I immediately thought I’d made a terrible mistake and booked us into a party hostel! I have to say though the owners were great and every night Nico (the guy with the bike) hosts a briefing for people who want to do to the Thakek loop. The loop sounds great with amazing scenery and caves and waterfalls, but honestly? Having done two long bus journeys there was no way we were getting back on those bumpy pot hole ridden roads!

So the next day we caught another bus and continued our town hop down the Mekong to Savannakhet. Again we didn’t book any accommodation but identified a couple of places online and headed there. It’s fun but frustrating when your first choice is full!

We didn’t do a lot in Savannakhet, we meandered the Mekong and watched the sunset and that was about it. The long, hard journeys were starting to take their toll with me and for the first time since we’ve been away, I was feeling burnt out. We were both lacking energy and the terrible roads meant that we weren’t keen to get back on them to go and explore further. Exploring new places is what energises and motivates us so we were stuck in a bit of a rut.

After a couple of nights rest here we headed to Pakse by bus. We got ditched at the side of the road outside of town and I couldn’t help but think that we’d be done over and scammed. I was starting to dislike Laos. Pakse was another place that had loads of interesting things to do outside of town but we just didn’t have the energy to do them.

Our last stop in Laos was 4000 islands, a mass of islands and sandbanks right in the middle of the Mekong. It was a relatively short bus ride followed by a short ride across the river to get to our accommodation. We chose to stay on the smaller island of Don Khon rather than the large party island of Don Det and Joey managed to find a lovely place with a swimming pool! We jumped straight into the pool after arriving and instantly felt revived! The following day we hired some bikes and cycled round the island and it was a beautiful day, possibly the best day we had in Laos! There was beautiful scenery and a great waterfall to visit. The evenings were spent watching the sunset and the local kids swimming in the Mekong. It was a very peaceful place. The next day we spent just chilling by the pool and we felt so much better after.

Overall we didn’t come away feeling like we loved Laos, and a lot of that was down to the travel between places. As I’ve said before though, it’s ok to not love everywhere that we visit. I hope as time goes on Laos is able to invest in its infrastructure and improve the roads. A lot of our journeys were so uncomfortable they were really draining and this took it out of us and hindered our enjoyment. Maybe if the infrastructure improves we’ll return and have a better experience.

January 9, 2024 0

Catching the slow boat from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang

The slow boat is an absolute rite of passage for any backpacker wishing to travel between the north of Thailand and Laos, and it’s something I’ve wanted to do since I first heard about it 9 years ago. There are a couple of starting points for your journey from Northern Thailand to Laos, Chiang Rai is extremely popular as it’s only a couple of hours from the Laos border, but we were starting from Chiang Mai.

Spoiler alert: the boat doesn’t actually start in Chiang Mai, but as I say this is a popular starting point for many backpackers.

We caught the Green Bus from Chiang Mai terminal 3 bus station, going to Chiang Khlong, the Thai border town. It left at 9.30am and we had booked it a few days ahead when we were in Chiang Rai from their bus station. It cost 311 baht each which is roughly £7.50. You can book this bus online for a higher price but we’re more ‘go in person to sort it’ people. Also, if you book online you have to wait until the day to be allocated seats.

The bus was full and the journey took roughly 7 hours and made a couple of short stops. Most of the bus emptied out at a town about an hour from the border and there were mainly backpackers left. It made a stop at the junction for the Friendship bridge outside of the town so we jumped out here and into waiting tuk tuks which took us swiftly to the border point for a fixed fee of 50 baht (£1.15) each. We quickly got our exit stamp, the border was very quiet as it was late in the day. We noticed a sign saying that we would have to pay 10 baht overtime fee as it was after 4pm, but in the end they didn’t charge us.

You walk through the Thai border and to a counter where a woman is selling bus tickets to the Laos border, over the other side of the Mekong river. This cost us 35 baht (80p) each, which included an ‘after hours’ fee. We had to wait for the bus to fill up, but this only took around 10 minutes or so. The bus ticket seller offered to exchange our remaining baht for Laos Kip but as we were returning to Thailand at a later date we didn’t opt for this. You can also pay for a lot of things in Laos in baht (particularly in the border town) so unless you have a lot of leftover baht I wouldn’t bother.

Once you arrive on the Laos side you need to go to a window to collect a set of forms, make sure you have a pen handy to complete these! You will need a passport photo and then hand your forms in to the window along with your passport and then wait by the next window! We had to pay 40 baht (90p) to get our stamp. It’s important to note that when they return your passport to keep the departure slip safe as you will need that when leaving Laos. We left via land border to Cambodia and those who didn’t have this slip had to pay $5.

There’s another window towards the exit where you pay for your visa – ours cost $40 each. Once you’ve done this you just need to grab a tuk tuk to the town of Huay Xai, it’s a short ride and tuk tuks are fixed at 200 baht (£4.05) a person. I’d read a few blogs about this part and I was worried it all sounded a bit complicated but it was incredible straightforward and took very little time.

We stayed at Little Hostel in Huay Xai as I’d read great reviews about the helpfulness of the owner and we weren’t let down. There’s only two 4 bed dorms here so it is (as the name suggests) a small hostel, but the owner sold us our tickets for the slow boat (430,000 Kip each – approx £16.70) for the next day (which included a pick up from the hostel) and also sorted us out with SIM cards. If you buy your tickets direct from the pier it will cost 400,000 Kip (about £15.30, we were happy to pay an extra £1.40 each to save the hassle of going to the pier). We were also able to order breakfast and a takeaway lunch for the boat. We dined next door at Bar How and whilst the food was good, the service was pretty slow!

We were picked up from the hostel the next day at 8.30am and were told the boat would leave at 9.30am. The hostel owner told us our seat numbers for that day but her parting advice for the following day was there were no seat numbers for the following day and to be there early to fight for your seat!

We arrived to the boat in good time and found our seats. The seats are made from old mini van seats and aren’t fixed to the ground so there is a little bit of fighting for leg space. The seats had pieces of paper on them representing numbers so you can do a little bit of switching of you don’t like your seat! We did switch ours slightly so we weren’t next to the doorway leading to the back of the boat. We were happy with our seats on the first day though – we were in the front of the boat about half away from the noise of the engine and on the outside so we had unrestricted views and we were facing into the gangway so we had a bit of leg room.

A selection is of the seats on the boat on the first day – note the plastic seats!

We eventually set sail around 10am and sailed for about 6 hours on the first day. The scenery was beautiful and it was nice to watch the world go by with nothing else to do. The boat was quite large and a bus load of backpackers from Chiang Rai arrived late so were left with the plastic stools and seats at the front of the boat in the blazing sun all day. They didn’t seem to mind though as they made their way through several cases of Lao beer and got louder and louder as the day went on! As we set off to start with on both days the breeze was a little chilly and people were pulling on hoodies to keep this at bay.

We arrived into Pakbeng around 4pm and Joe at some point had managed to climb into the luggage room at the back and reposition our bags at the top so we were able to make a quick getaway! If you can do this I recommend it! We were one of the very few that hadn’t booked accommodation in advance and therefore didn’t have a jeep waiting for us on arrival!

We enquired at a couple of places on our way up the hill but they were full and I started to panic that maybe I’d made a mistake. It wasn’t long before we were approached by someone from Thipphavanh Guesthouse asking if we needed a room. We looked at the room and took it – it wasn’t the most luxurious room we’ve ever stayed in and there wasn’t hot water but for 200,000 Kip (£7.70) we really couldn’t complain. We had dinner that night at Saibaidee restaurant which was definitely the go to place. It overlooked the Mekong and I can thoroughly recommend the buffalo and pumpkin curry! We ordered sandwiches from a place near the pier to pick up the next day.

The next day we got up and went for breakfast before heading down to the pier for around 7.45am. There were lots of slow boats around and we could see the one that we caught the day before. What we didn’t realise was that we wouldn’t be on the same boat so ask around when you arrive. When we realised we made sure we were quick to board and handed our luggage in. We found a semi decent seat (difficult as the boat was much smaller and we had to have a forward facing seat with less leg room). Those who didn’t arrive early were stuck right at the back, almost in the engine room and even a short stop at the toilet in that area was deafening!

The boat set off around 9am and the scenery again was incredible with lots of stops for local people to get on and off. It seemed that more people were getting on than off and after a while there were people standing and sitting in the aisles. It was so crowded it was hard to manoeuvre yourself to the toilet and it definitely felt a little unsafe at times as it was that crowded. Day two was much longer than day one and hard going, the seat felt more uncomfortable and the legroom was small. We were glad to finally disembark around 5pm. There is an office at the port where you queue up and buy a ticket into Luang Prabang which had a set fee of 40,000 Kip (£1.55) each. These drop you at the Night Market so make sure you know where you are staying from here! A lot of people who got on the boat from Chiang Rai didn’t have a Laos SIM cards yet so found themselves a little lost. We had local SIM cards so we were able to give directions in the tuk tuk to the centre but this isn’t something to rely on!

Overall I’m really glad that we did take the slow boat, it was a unique way to travel, but I’m not sure I would do it again! If you do take this journey I would recommend taking a hoodie for first thing and maybe a pillow to help increase comfort levels. There are snacks and beer available on board to buy but these are more expensive than on land so take snacks and lunch. The toilets were pretty clean to start but as the day went on they got a little dirty and were running out of toilet paper. The first day was definitely the worst for the toilets and I put that down to the amount of beer consumed on board!

January 3, 2024 0

Thai Trips

We took an overnight flight from Tokyo to Bangkok via Kuala Lumpur again, and landed around 9.30am so we headed straight to our usual haunt of Khao San Road. We never book ahead and just turn up, this meant we were able to check into a room straight away allowing us to take a short nap before we headed out. We planned two nights here and planned to do a couple of walks around Chinatown and the local area.

One of the places we visited was Wat Traimit Withayaram Worawihan, also known as the Temple of the Golden Buddha and is the world’s largest solid gold Buddha. It was once covered in plaster and no one knew it was solid gold until they went to move it and some of the plaster broke off. It was certainly a very impressive sight.

We had another two days booked in another hotel in Bangkok, this hotel had a jacuzzi bath on the balcony and was where we spent my birthday. We moved here by public bus and whilst we were waiting for the bus there was an almighty thunderstorm and an incredibly large clap of thunder and a flash of lightning happened right in front of us! It was pretty scary.

Following our treat we flew down to Phuket, we were on the descend when the pilot announced over the tannoy that there was ‘some weather’ in Phuket so we needed to hold over Krabi. I’m not a great flyer at the best of times (I hate take offs and turbulence in particular) and those words struck fear into me. I know ‘some weather’ is never good. It felt like we circled for ages and then when we did come into land we could see lightning out of the window and it got REALLY bumpy. I normally start to really freak out during moments like this, and I could feel Joey next to me flinch when there was more lightning, but this time I just went really really quiet and braced myself for a potential go around. Amazingly we landed first time and the guy the other side of me just said ‘finally’ when the wheels touched down. You could sense the relief in the whole plane and I was ready for a drink!

When we arrived at our hotel we dumped our bags and headed straight out. We were staying in the notorious Patong area, famous for its nightlife and girly bars. We wanted to get food at the night market but when we wandered through it, it was like being in a nightmare with all the vendors surrounding you and saying things like ‘I know you’re hungry’ ‘come and eat here’ and it stressed us out! We quickly escaped and I really likened it to a ghost train where everyone jumps out at you! We eventually found a quiet side street for some dinner and afterwards decided we definitely needed a drink so headed to the bar area. There were lots of girls dancing on bars wearing not a lot and lots of drink offers – it felt like Khao San Road on speed. Surprisingly we didn’t find it too seedy, no one seemed to be taking it too seriously and there were families with young children in the area. We spent the next day chilling on the beach before doing it all again.

We took a ferry the following day to Koh Phi Phi. There are two Phi Phis, big and small, you can only stay on big Phi Phi but little Phi Phi is famous for Maya Bay from the film The Beach. I don’t know if we had paid extra for a bouji boat but our ferry included a few brief photo stops around little Phi Phi including Maya Bay so we got to view it for free! I wasn’t terribly interested in visiting it separately as I knew it would be full of influencer types trying to get their IG shots so this was a bonus!

Our free sightseeing tour of little Phi Phi

Phi Phi is a party island but we were savvy enough to book accommodation far away from the parties! We had a good few days on a beautiful beach where you could snorkel off shore. Our accommodation wasn’t amazing and we shared our bathroom with two cockroaches, but in a sign of massive personal growth I didn’t freak out about them at all.

After Phi Phi we headed to Koh Lanta, a more laid back island close to Krabi. We had a pool here and it was right on the beach so perfect for relaxation. Unfortunately night one saw Joey spend most of it with his head in the toilet. I felt awful for him as it’s probably the sickest I have seen him. So whilst I was relaxing enjoying dinner and cocktails on the beach at sunset Joey was sleeping and restricted to the BRAT diet.

We had a mammoth travel day planned, our longest one yet, so Joey needed to recover. We were planning on travelling over 1300km overland without any overnight stops. We had to first get a bus to Krabi, which also involved a short car ferry, before waiting for another bus to Surat Thani. Surat Thani is the main jumping off point for the Gulf islands but this time we were continuing to head north. We’d booked an overnight sleeper train which is one of the ways to travel in Thailand. We were both on top bunks as we booked at short notice but we could at least poke our heads round to the other. We both slept really well thanks to the flat bed and the gentle slow rocking of the train. By a miracle our train arrived into Bang Sue station (I can’t help but have a giggle at some of the Thai names) on time- quite unusual for Thai trains! We caught a local bus to the bus station and went in hunt of our next transport. We were heading to the town of Sukothai, the ancient capital and a place full of ancient ruins. Now if you’re sat there thinking ‘didn’t you already go to the an ancient Thai capital full of ruins?’ Then you’d be correct – that was Ayutthaya!

We were lucky and there was a bus an hour after we arrived so we bought the tickets and headed to 7/11 for breakfast. We then headed off to get our bus, I could see the bus, it wasn’t far, I was excited, our mammoth travel day had one final leg left. The next thing I know I have caught my foot on some uneven ground and right now everything is happening in slow motion – I’m trying to save myself but the weight of my backpack is pulling me down. I can see my left knee twisting under me and I know when I hit the ground I’m going to hurt myself. I’m trying to untwist my knee but I can’t and as I hit the ground I am thinking to myself ‘oh god, that’s it, this is the end of travels now’. Joey has tried to save me but the weight of me, my backpack and his backpack pull him down as well. I sit on the ground for a few seconds and a woman rushes over to help me. I have to take my backpack off to try and get up and I really don’t know how I’m going to feel when I get up. I stand up and my legs hurt but I seem to be able to walk, I’m in shock and our bus is due to leave in about 10 minutes and my illogical thinking is to catch the bus at all costs! So I put my stiff upper lip on and hobble to the bus. As I approach the bus though I start to realise that perhaps I’m only hobbling because I think I should be rather than because I’m injured. I make it onto the bus and into our seat before bursting into tears. I’m still not sure if I’m injured and I’m definitely not sure 7 hours of sitting still is going to do me any good but by some miracle as the journey goes on I realise that I’m ok. Joey puts that down to the yoga we’ve been doing since the start of the year!

The next day I did wake up extremely stiff with some bruised ribs but all in all I considered myself very lucky. We caught a local bus to the ruins and took it very gently, just walking around the central zone. Sukothai is made up of five zones and you can cycle round them but we decided to walk the central zone as a gentle start as it’s the most compact zone. Wat Mahathat is the most famous sight in this zone and it’s the largest and most important temple in Sukothai. There are other temples in the zone which also demonstrate typical Sukothai style with lotus bud chedis. It was definitely worth the few hours we spent here wandering around.

The next day we headed back to the park this time hiring bikes with the intention of exploring the North Zone. The North zone is more spread out and there’s only two temples really worth seeing. The first is Wat Si Chum, this is another incredibly famous temple, as it holds a huge seated Buddha, the whole of which is hard to photograph. The Buddha has very large fingers which are very frequently photographed.

The next temple is Wat Phra Phai Luang. This is Khmer style and so resembles Angkor Wat, although there’s not a lot left! However these ruins were actually my favourite. They are so ruined that some of the plaster has crumbled away to reveal the bricks inside and you can clearly see how the Buddha is shaped from these bricks – I found it fascinating to see the process! There were a few other ruins on our way back to the main park, including this really funky one with lots of elephants around it.

I really enjoyed Sukothai, but was glad that we’d had a couple of months between here and Ayutthaya – it’s common to do them back to back and we definitely wouldn’t have enjoyed them as much.

The next day was a travel day and I was extremely relieved to wake up and my ribs not be hurting! I wasn’t sure I’d have been able to carry my backpack if they were!

We were heading to Chiang Rai and had booked a long but direct bus. Only we were told that our bus had broken down so we now had to get two buses! Still at least we made it.

Chiang Rai was a chance to slow things down a little. We visited the White Temple one day and the Black House the other, both utterly bizarre in their own ways. The White Temple was constructed around 1997 so isn’t as historical as some other Wats we’ve visited and from a distance it is quite stunning. Get a little closer though and things become a little strange. You must walk over a bridge to enter and as you approach the bridge you are met with lots of hands reaching up from the ground towards you apparently representing temptation. There’s also a section with paintings from the matrix and the twin towers from 9/11 but this was closed when we were there. It was very busy but worth a stop. We then visited the cave of art which was also a little bizarre but turned out to be our favourite thing.

The Black House is the work of Thai artist Thawan Duchanee and is housed in several buildings including one that very much resembles a black temple. The art pieces are utterly bizarre and range from cow horns to crocodile skins on tables to lots and lots of phallus! The main building housed several of his paintings and there was an option to use a QR code to view them through a filter which brought them alive. We really enjoyed this stop!

We headed onto Chiang Mai where Joey’s brother lives and where we were due to meet him and Joey’s parents who were flying over from the UK. We have spent a bit of time in Chiang Mai before so we allowed ourselves just one day to revisit some temples before relaxing with the family. It was a big birthday celebration for Dan, Joey’s brother, so lots of good food was consumed!

We always love going back to Thailand and it’s been amazing having these opportunities to explore more of the country and to allow for a bit of culture and a bit of relaxing time on the gorgeous beaches!

December 21, 2023 0

Gliding through the Gilis

Leaving Bali was just as chaotic as the rest of our trip there. Yes we were picked up on time but we got stuck in Bali’s ridiculous traffic and then hung around the port for about 90 minutes with no instructions until we were shepherded towards a series of boats. There were no instructions though, again we just had to wait and eventually we skuttled onto a boat in accordance to the colour sticker we’d all been issued.

The trouble with Indonesia, and Asia as a whole, is that everything takes longer than you’re told it will. I don’t mind that the speedboat takes 3 hours, but tell me it’s going to take 3 hours rather than saying it will take 2! A girl we sat next to on the boat had obviously been told the same thing as she kept getting phone calls from her driver demanding to know where she was!

We were heading to the Gili isles, a set of three main islands, made up of Gili Trawangan(known as the party island), Gili Meno (good for honeymooners) and Gili Air which fell somewhere in the middle. As I was in charge of the Indonesia leg I ummed and ahhed about where we should go and eventually settled for Gili Air, and it was worth it! It’s roughly 5 square kilometres in size and we walked a loop of the island in 90 minutes. It was a little bit of paradise after Bali. There isn’t a lot to do on the island aside from sunbathe and snorkel or dive. We’re not divers so we settled for snorkelling. I spent my whole childhood and early adulthood basically being terrified of water and whilst I’m still not the most confident swimmer this trip has slowly built up my confidence and my skills so I am very proud of the achievements that I made in actually being able to go and snorkel and swim quite far out of my depth away from the shoreline.

There are no motorised vehicles on Gili Air so walking, pushbike or horse and cart (not recommended due to potential ill treatment of the animals) are your only forms of transport. Thankfully it is a tiny island so you don’t need to worry about transportation. Interestingly there are also no dogs on any of the islands to prevent the population getting out of control. There are lots and lots of sweet cats though!

The coral was beautiful! Indonesia is part of the coral triangle and there were so many beautiful fishes of all sizes! It was stunning to see and we had a great time splashing about. Unfortunately the amount of coral means that inevitably dead coral washes up on the beaches which makes getting in and out the sea a challenge! You either have to wear water shoes or choose your path very carefully! I opted for shoes whilst Joey did the ‘try and avoid stepping on stuff’ thing before getting in and swimming as soon as he could!

We had a blissful few days in Gili Air, either hanging around our pool or snorkelling. The size of the island meant that we could watch sunrise from the beach next to us and then in the evening we could walk over to the other side and watch the sunset!

I hope you can gauge the size of the island from these shots

We were headed to Lombok from Gili Air and we booked a boat / bus transfer through our hotel. That was an experience! The boat was fine, it was a very old public boat and the journey itself was only 15 minutes, we were met off the boat and then walked to an office where we were kept waiting for 90 minutes for our bus. In that time the owner was shouting and swearing at various customers which certainly made for an interesting experience! The bus driver asked the name of our hotel and then proceeded to drive right past it!

Lombok was very different to Bali, we were back in Muslim territory so back to the early wake up calls! We stayed at Sengiggi which has definitely seen better days, however let’s not forget that this area was devastated by an earthquake in 2018 and then Covid hit. It had a nice beach with a calm sea and beautiful sunsets though. From one sunset point we were able to clearly see Mount Agung on Bali and it was gorgeous! Finally that dream sunset we were after!

Sunset with Mount Agung in the background

Unfortunately for me I was unable to really enjoy Lombok as much as we would have liked as Bali belly finally caught up with me so there was much resting time!

Indonesia itself was a really varied experience and we were able to experience so many beautiful unique things, such as finally seeing dolphins and climbing an active volcano. It’s a huge country and hard to pick a few things to do in the time the visa allows but I’m content with the choices we made and it gave us lots to talk about!

November 4, 2023 0

A brief introduction to Borneo

Our next travel day was taking us from Singapore to Kuching on the island of Borneo, in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. We arrived at Singapore airport with loads of time before our flight as we wanted to have a good look around. I’d been to the airport once before in 2009 and enjoyed the butterfly garden then and was keen for Joey to experience it as well.

We went straight to the Malaysia airlines desk to drop our bags and there wasn’t much of a queue but they were so slow. One desk was manned by someone who was giving out stroppy teenager vibes. There was a problem with her desk and she got out to go and speak to her manager and she did it in a manner that really resembled Kevin the Teenager from Harry Enfield.

We eventually made it to the front and were immediately asked for proof of onward travel which we didn’t have. As usual we only had a vague idea of where we going and when but had nothing solid booked. We explained that we were planning on catching a bus to the Indonesian side of the island and then intended to fly to Java but they wanted proof, so we had to quickly panic buy a bus ticket. We only had WiFi and Joey quickly found a site to book a ticket, only it was such a cumbersome site that it was only when we received the email we realised that we’d booked a ticket from Indonesia to Malaysia. Not what we needed! Now I stood over him whilst he was booking it so I know he put the right information in but somehow a glitch switched it! We tried again and eventually we got a ticket proving our exit. We managed to check in eventually and headed off to see the Jewel. We weren’t lucky enough to see the waterfall in action but it was certainly an impressive structure. We also made it to the sunflower garden but we didn’t want to venture to another terminal as we had less time than expected so we didn’t make it to the butterfly garden.

We arrived into Kuching on a Sunday afternoon and we had booked another apartment with kitchen, washing machine and a balcony overlooking the river and a beautiful pool. It was just what we needed as I was feeling the travel burn in Singapore, my feet were blistered from too much walking and I was exhausted. We had planned to do some cool stuff but we opted to choose things that we really interested in doing and spend some time resting.

The next day we got up to go to the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre. The centre was established in 1975 to care for orangutans which had previously been kept illegally as pets or had been orphaned and injured. Since then a number have been rehabilitated and released into the forest reserve and some have even had babies, the orangutans are classed as semi-wild and they spend the majority of the time in the forest but some do appear back at the forest twice daily for supplementary feeds. It was fruit season whilst we were there so the chances of seeing some was reduced, however we got lucky and were able to see two guys, an uncle and nephew and they were absolutely fantastic creatures to watch. We made our way to the feeding area and on our way the uncle was also making his way there swinging above our heads in the tree and I swear that was a sight that I will never forget. We spent 40 minutes watching these two guys interact with each other and feed the fruit that was left for them. They had coconuts which were whole and the uncle picked one up, took it and then bashed it to open it before giving it to his nephew. His nephew was pretty lazy – he kept pestering his uncle to get him more food! They were also given bananas and cartons of milk! Watching those guys get the cartons, open them and then pour them into their mouths (but mostly miss) was incredible. I had tears in my eye as it was so joyful to see these creatures. We also got to witness the little guy do his business! It was such a magical experience and chatting to the staff there you could really tell how much they loved the animals and the care they took of them. They talked with particular fondness of the oldest orangutans and how she’d been ill recently and you could tell they loved her so much. It was a shame that they felt that they had to justify the fact that we ‘only’ saw two – we felt lucky as it was fruit season and actually it was better because if they’d been loads we wouldn’t have known where to look.

We had a rest day the next day and then the following day we headed off to Bako national park, to get here you can catch a bus but we opted for a Grab to get us there. Grab is the Asian version of Uber and we have been using it for EVERYTHING in Borneo and subsequently Indonesia! Once you’re at the park entrance you then need to take a boat to the start of the trails. Another couple approached us to share a boat which helped to reduce the costs. There are various trails you can do and we picked one which would give us the best chance of seeing Proboscis monkeys. Spoiler alert: we saw no wildlife on the trail whatsoever! The trail was pretty nice, we were deep in the jungle complete with all the sounds of the insects. It was a hard climb up a hill to a viewpoint and then back down and my knees and thighs were dead! We hitched another trail onto this one which took us to a beach but I wasn’t keen on hanging around too long given all of the ‘beware of crocodiles’ signs. We walked back to the start of the trail and bumped into a ranger who showed us what we think was a flying lemur up a tree and he then led us to a viper in a tree! It was incredible to see it and you’d probably have missed it if you’d walked past and I was not keen on getting too close!

We took the boat back and then got a taxi back. We had a day exploring Kuching itself, Kucing in Malay/Indonesia means cat and they really milk it in the city – there are cat statues everywhere! There’s also a cat museum apparently and I’m gutted that I missed it.

We enjoyed our time in Kuching, the city was nice and there was lots to do on the doorstep, I would love to come back another time and explore more of Malaysian Borneo.

Our time on the island of Borneo wasn’t over though, we had a bus to Indonesia to catch! Our friends Wun and David had told us that the town of Pontianak had an equator monument and we were keen to visit. We have visited the Equator in South America so we wanted to do it in Asia too. Our bus ride was pretty good, it was on time and the seats were comfy, we’d got an E-visa online so the border crossing was pretty straightforward. We arrived into Pontianak in the middle of an almighty thunderstorm, it was torrential rain but everyone was still riding their scooters in flip flops just with ponchos on!

We got a taxi to our hotel and enjoyed a cocktail on the rooftop to toast our first night in Indonesia.

The rain gave way to a very pleasant sunset

The next morning we had a packed agenda, we got a Grab to the equator monument and had fun recreating some of our pictures from when we visited the one in Quito. We’re determined to visit the equator in Africa next! We wanted to head back but didn’t yet have a local SIM card to call a Grab so we asked the very helpful staff to help us only there were no Grabs to be had! We went to the office and he called a friend and then printed out a certificate for us to say that we’d visited the equator!

We made it back to the hotel, packed up our stuff and then called another Grab to take us to St Joseph’s cathedral. The cathedral was very modern and we enjoyed our visit. We met a very enthusiastic lady there who showed us around and then proceeded to give us a thousand warnings about walking back and to be careful of muggers on scooters who would slash our bags etc etc etc. she said it so many times that she put the absolute fear of god into us and we were really stressed as we headed off! We headed to a phone shop so we could get SIM cards and the process took so long. In Indonesia you have to register the SIM card and it took about 40 minutes. It was after 11.30am before we finished and we had a flight to catch at 1.50pm! I called a Grab but the app placed our location in a weird spot and we spent about 10 minutes trying to find our driver. Once we found him we asked him if he’d wait at our hotel and then take us to the airport which he was happy to do! We ran up to get our bags and quickly check out and we did make our flight but my goodness my stress levels were high!

As I say earlier Borneo was really enjoyable and we got to see some good wildlife and I am definitely adding it to my return list for a time when we don’t have a backpacker budget!

September 24, 2023 2

Orchids and temples galore, from Malaysia to Singapore!

Well I am very pleased to announce that this blog opens with a smooth, drama free border crossing! Yes we had to change buses twice (once more than expected) but it was a smooth journey. We were picked up from our hotel in Krabi and we met a guy on a bus who was staying at the same guesthouse as us in Penang so he negotiated a drop off at the guesthouse, so nothing to report here!

Our first stop in Malaysia was Penang, a UNESCO site, and we arrived on the first day of the hungry ghost festival, so as we were driving through the streets of Penang we saw people burning piles of paper money and leaving gifts of incense and piles of food on the side of the road. The Hungry Ghost festival occurs during the seventh lunar month and it is said that during this month the gates of hell are opened and ghosts will come out until the gates are closed on the 30th day of the month, so for the safety of ghosts and the living there is a Chinese tradition of worshipping the dead. So it is believed that offering ghosts sacrifices of burning paper money and food (to feed them as they are hungry) will stop the ghosts from causing mischief amongst the living. It was an interesting way to be welcomed into Malaysia!

Penang has a huge Chinese influence and as such has a huge abundance of Chinese temples which was fascinating for us to see as it was so different to anything that we have seen so far on this trip. Penang also has some very British style buildings from colonial times as well as very different quarters such as an Indian quarter – the smells and temples here took us right back to Southern India and I even found myself craving chai! We walked miles round the city exploring all of the different quarters, temples and hawker centres for dinner!

There are some interesting and unusual museums here, including the ‘cool ghost museum’ which we thought would be interesting to visit in light of the Hungry Ghost festival. This museum had displays of various ghosts and the stories behind them and why the tales were told – for example the water nymph story was told to stop children playing in dangerous waters. There was also the opportunity to dress up as some of the ghosts and take photos. There was also the cat art museum which was our favourite, there were thousands of examples of cat art, cat statues and paraphernalia all to be enjoyed whilst listening to various cat songs (such as Smelly Cat from Friends).

We had a day trip to Ken Lok Si temple, this was a beautiful, huge temple that looms down from a hill, it’s the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia and has a huge statue of the Goddess of Mercy, as well as a 7 floor pagoda that you can climb with a Buddha on each floor, these Buddhas differ as they are in Burmese, Chinese, and Thai styles! There’s a lovely tortoise pond here as well which we almost missed but was great to watch those guys climbing in and out and climbing over one another. We tried to get the funicular up Penang hill but the queue was over an hour so we quickly abandoned that idea!

To leave Penang we took the free ferry to Butterworth (back on the mainland) and just bought a ticket for the next bus to Kuala Lumpur. The buses in Malaysia were really nice and easy to just buy a ticket for on the day. The accommodation in KL was looking to be pretty expensive until we read a tip about booking serviced apartments so that’s what we did! We were able to book a really nice apartment with a small kitchen, washing machine and a balcony with a lovely city view including the Petronas towers. The building also had a pool, gym and a couple of small grocery stores so we were happy! You can’t beat a bit of home comfort, especially just after staying somewhere with a shared bathroom! We walked around the city, visiting Independence Square, Chinatown and a very large mosque. The following day we visited the botanic gardens and I was a little disappointed to discover that the orchid gardens were temporarily closed. Ever since I’d worked for the RHS I’d wanted to visit botanic gardens in Malaysia and Singapore and see the orchids.

The main problem with both Penang and KL was that neither were particularly pedestrian friendly. Penang didn’t really have pavements and crossing the road was basically a dash across the traffic, KL did have pavements and pedestrian crossings but most of the time we thought they were broken as they would take MINUTES to change to green, so half the time we would take our lives in our hands and just run across. I eventually got the hang of commanding the traffic to stop by holding my hand up and it seemed to work!

We left KL early to catch a bus to Malacca, another UNESCO world heritage town similar to Penang. This one had a Dutch quarter which I really liked, it was full of buildings all painted red. We also stayed in a guesthouse within a Chinese temple which was different. Again the town was full of Chinese temples which we are really enjoying seeing. I actually preferred Malacca to Penang as I found Penang to be a little grotty.

From Malacca we caught a bus down to Johor Bahru, a town which borders Singapore. The purpose of this was to just stay overnight to give us an early start to get to Singapore the next door. Again this border crossing was straightforward – you book a train in advance to Woodlands, get there 30 minutes in advance and then go through Malaysian immigration, wait for the train, board the train, get off 5 minutes later and then go through Singapore immigration! All very straightforward. Getting into Singapore city itself involved a bus and then a metro. By sheer coincidence our hostel was in the district of Maxwell so we had great fun getting off at Maxwell tube station and snapping pictures of the Maxwell’s at Maxwell.

We’d booked dorms as Singapore accommodation was frighteningly expensive, we booked 6 days ahead and budget options were limited! It was a toss up between dorms or a capsule hotel bed and we opted for the dorm option and I almost cried when I realised it was two thirds of our daily budget! Definitely our most expensive accommodation so far. It was an ok experience, there was free drinking water and coffee so we were happy enough! Again there seemed to be a bit of a lack of fresh air and my sensitive nose can’t cope with all these smelly men I seem to end up sharing with. I was pleased though to finally have a dorm room where I wasn’t the only girl!

We only had two days in Singapore so we needed to hit the sights hard. We started off with another visit to a Chinese temple, this one holding a relic of Buddha’s tooth. The tooth relic is held on the fourth floor and not many people actually make it up there so we almost had that floor to ourselves! There was also a cute little roof garden. We then went to another Hindu temple and similar to Penang it was very South Indian in style. We walked to the river and to the Merlion statue from which you can view the famous Marina Sands Bay hotel. There are lots of sculptures along the river as well such as these boys jumping in and these little cats.

It wouldn’t have been a trip to Singapore with having a Singapore Sling, we couldn’t afford Raffles but we managed to find somewhere with a happy hour. This was just up the road from our hostel and Joey now has a video of me with me saying my made up tongue twister of ‘Maxwell sipping a Singapore Sling in Maxwell Singapore’ for anyone who wants a giggle! That evening we visited the Bay of Gardens for their Supertree light show.

Maxwell sipping a Singapore Sling in Maxwell Singapore

The following day we were back at the Bay of Gardens for a walk around and we visited the flower dome, which also happened to have an Orchid extravaganza on so I finally managed to see orchids in Singapore! We then headed to the botanic gardens and to their orchid gardens! It was definitely worth the visit and I’m so happy to have finally seen these famous places.

From Singapore we were flying to Borneo and of course there’s a border crossing story to follow!

September 15, 2023 4

Thai beach breaks

The last blog left us in Bangkok where we’d booked a night bus to take us to the islands to start some beach time and our journey south towards Malaysia. Our bus was actually quite comfy and I got a bit of sleep for a change, but the trouble with Thai night buses is that they often stop around midnight for a meal which is included in your ticket price! I’m not sure why they think it’s a good idea to eat a meal at midnight but we joined in anyway! We arrived at the ferry port at just before 6am and our ferry wasn’t until 8.30am, so we had a few hours to kill. At least the toilets were clean and I felt comfortable cleaning my teeth in them, there were even free showers if you felt inclined. Our destination was Koh Phangan, famous for its full moon party, but this time we were heading to the north of the island to Bottle Beach. Joey had holidayed here a few years before he met me and he has always said he wanted to take me there so I was excited to go there. The ferry took 2.5 hours and then we had to take a taxi to another pier before finally taking a long tail boat to the beach. When you get a long tail boat you have to wade in the water to get into so I took my sandals off before getting in and they didn’t go back on until we left three days later! Bottle beach is very secluded with the main way of getting there being long tail boat, you can also get a very bumpy 4 wheel drive taxi there, or you can trek for a hard couple of kilometres through the jungle. Arriving by long tail boat was definitely the best way, Bottle Beach was beautiful, just what you imagine when you think of a Thai island, beautiful white sands and palm trees. There’s nothing there other than a few beach bungalows and their associated restaurants. It was a beautiful place to spend a few days relaxing. There were some fire shows in evening to amuse us.

We then caught the ferry to Koh Samui, which was very different, it was very busy and touristy with constant cries of ‘Hello! Massage?’ It felt that every time we walked down the street we were running the gauntlet of restaurant owners trying to lure us in. We hired a scooter one day and drove around the island visiting various beaches and seeing some temples. There are an interesting set of rocks called Grandfather and grandmother rocks, you can guess which one is grandfather rock! We managed to catch up with Giles, an old friend of Joey’s who now lives on the island and who we had spent a couple of weeks with on our first travels 9 years ago.

From Koh Samui we headed back to the mainland and down to Khanom. It seemed that the only way to get there from the ferry terminal was to get a very expensive taxi so we decided to walk to the main road and see if we could flag a bus down. We didn’t make it to the main road though as a very kind couple stopped and gave us a lift. We tried to give them some money but they were really reluctant to take it but eventually we left some in the car for them which we felt was fair as they went right out of their way to drop us at our guesthouse.

We were in Khanom for the sole reason of trying to see some pink dolphins which can be found in this area, but unfortunately the weather was not on our side and we didn’t even make it out on a trip! We’re seeing this as a sign that we need to go back. Nonetheless the guesthouse had a private beach and beautiful clear calm water.

We then headed to the west side of the country where it was rainy season, some days during rainy season are pretty dry and sunny, some days are wet all day and unfortunately we had hit a rainy patch. Upon arrival in Krabi it was pouring it down and there were no signs of it stopping so we decided to abandon our plans to head to the islands on that side and head to Malaysia. We decided to make the best of it though and go for a walk on the beach even though it was pouring down.

We had one more day in Krabi first though and there was a small break in the weather so I suggested that we head to Railey beach, famous for its limestone karsts. You can only get there by longtail boat, Joey commented that the sea looked a bit rough but I didn’t think anything of it. Within about three seconds of getting on the boat I was regretting my decision. The sea felt very choppy, rough and a little unsafe. I was ok though until a boy of about 6 or 7 started screaming and crying as he was so scared. I think we all felt like that and to be honest, if he hadn’t been crying I think I would have been the one screaming and crying! Instead I decided I had to step up and be really brave as me screaming and crying wasn’t going to help the situation so I tried my best to reassure him. I was very glad when we reached the beach!

Railey was ok but I don’t know if it was because it was rainy season but it felt a little grotty and run down. There were some nice beaches but they were very crowded – and this was a rainy day in low season! I’d hate to go in peak season.

We headed back to Krabi and I wasn’t looking forward to the journey back, I made sure I shoved a life jacket on this time and just prayed it would be over quickly! To be fair the journey back wasn’t as bad as the way there. We are looking forward to heading back to this area later in the year to explore more islands, but these three weeks felt like a holiday rather than travels and that was the recharge that we needed after some hard weeks in the Stans.

September 9, 2023 0

Thailand part 1 – rest and culture!

Much like the last blog, the border crossing / flight to Thailand wasn’t as smooth as it could have been! We had an early flight and an early start but I was awake about 3 hours before I needed to be with a bad stomach. This was not good for flying. So I reverted to the Imodium which I hate doing, I’m a fan of letting nature take its course, and while taking those tablets sorted one problem they left me feeling really queasy. We’d just taken off and hit some turbulence which added to the queasiness and I spent the whole of the first flight (3 hours) with my head in the sick bag dry heaving. Maybe it would have been better if I’d actually managed to be sick, instead of just threatening to. We had a very tight connection at Delhi airport made worse by our plane holding for 15 minutes and we thought it would be ok when our plane pulled in next to our Thai Airways plane, but no! We were sent through security again which was over the other side of the airport! We were picked up by a buggy driver who dropped us there but the security screening was the slowest we have ever experienced. It wasn’t a long queue just slow. When we eventually made it through we started sprinting through the airport as we had about 5 minutes until the gate was due to close and thankfully got picked up by an another buggy driver. That little sprint did not help me feel better and I was certain I really would be sick! Thankfully while we just about made it, we were not convinced that our luggage would! We’d experienced delayed luggage when we were in Thailand on holiday last year so we were more prepared for it this time. We didn’t know when it would arrive if it didn’t make the plane so we decided not book any accommodation for that night before we left Kazakhstan. We sailed through immigration in Bangkok airport with the immigration officer commenting on my place of birth (Yeovil) as he recognised the football team! We went to the luggage carousel more to play the game of waiting, when upon arrival I spotted my rucksack shortly followed by Joey’s! We couldn’t believe it. That meant that we had just had time to catch the last bus of the day to Cha-am, our favourite beach in Thailand, where we had 3 nights booked to stay from the following day! We turned up at our hotel around 10.15pm and asked to extend our booking, it was very straightforward.

As I say we had planned a few nights to rest after The Stans, and we had a great time doing so. It’s rainy season in Thailand at present but we didn’t experience too much rain, just a bit of cloud cover. We had a day doing chores, a day on the beach and then we caught a bus to Hua Hin, a bigger town down the coast with a shopping centre and a cinema so we could finally watch Barbie!

Fully recharged it was time to move on and get some Thai Culture. Cha-am has direct buses to Kanchanaburi in the west, famous for the Bridge over the River Kwai, so that seemed an easy option. We turned up at the bus stop but after the ticket seller made a quick phone call it turned out that the mini van was full! He wasn’t phased though, he bundled us into another mini van, told us to change somewhere but not to worry as the driver would take care of us. And he absolutely did take care of us! We have no idea what town it was we changed in but the driver told us to get out, pointed us to the next van and off we went! It was so easy. We stayed a little bit away from the main sights of Kanchanaburi but that meant we got to do lots of walking! We made the famous bridge our first port of call. It is very touristy around the site of the bridge with many souvenir stalls, drink sellers and even hawkers selling eels on the bridge. You can walk on the railway line across the bridge stopping for your Instagram pictures as you wish, there are a few trains a day so you need to watch out for those but there are places of safety you can wait on if one was to come whilst you were there. We walked the whole way across and were definitely in the minority for doing so! Over the other side is a lovely Buddhist temple which makes a good viewing platform. After seeing the bridge we visited the Death Railway museum, this was definitely worth a stop and it’s very sobering. It puts into perspective the numbers of men killed in the building of the bridge as well as the conditions in which they had to live and work.

In Kanchanaburi there is a Commonwealth War Graves cemetery which holds the graves of many of the men who perished during the construction of the railway. Very close to this is also a Buddhist cemetery; something which we have never come across before so was very interesting to see,

We spent the next day at Erawan falls, a seven tiered waterfall about a 90 minute bus ride away. The falls are in the middle of the jungle and you spend time hiking up steep paths to get to each of the tiers. You can stop and swim in the different tiers, we only went in the second tier and the seventh tier. In order to swim you have to rent a life jacket which I actually appreciated. The waters are full of flesh eating fish so you get your own free pedicure! The fish tickle your feet which takes a little getting used to, we didn’t really enjoy swimming in the pools though when the fish were eating our knees or arms! The seventh tier has a little cave behind the fall which you can swim in and around and back out which I really enjoyed but I wouldn’t recommend if you are claustrophobic

Kanchanaburi has a lively night market which we ate at every evening. It was fun to just go to different stalls and pick something different to try each night. I started off quite safe (pasta!) but got a little more adventurous as time went on.

After Kanchanaburi we went to Ayutthaya, which is 80km north of Bangkok and was the capital of Siam between 1350 and 1767, when it was razed by the Burmese. There are many, many ruined temples there to see so we borrowed a couple of bikes from our guesthouse and set off. Most temples are 50 baht (around £1.10) or you can buy a ticket for the 6 main sights for 220baht (about £4.90). We wanted the 6 temple ticket but upon reaching the first temple I realised that I hadn’t topped up our cash and we didn’t have enough money to buy a ticket! So off we cycled back to our guesthouse to get some from our stash!

One of the things that helps our relationship on the road and to keep us organised is for us to have ‘jobs’ in each country. So one of us will be in charge of the country, by which we mean planning and researching roughly where to go and the other one will be the ‘treasurer’ so dealing with our cash on a day to day basis. I’d been in charge throughout the Stans of planning the countries but for Thailand we didn’t really have anyone in charge! I definitely drove the ‘we should do some Thai culture and not just lie on a beach’ bit though!

Once we’d got our finances sorted we cycled back to our first temple, Wat Phra Sin Sanphet, famous for its three pagodas. This ended up being one of our favourite sights and hopefully the pictures will show you why. Next door to this is the Buddhist temple of Wihan Phra Mongkhon Bophit which has been heavily restored. Pictures inside show the before and after of the renovations and are worth a look, but what really wows is the huge Buddha inside. After this we cycled to Wat Phra Ram and then to Wat Phra Mahathat which is famous for the sandstone Buddha head in the tree roots. It’s impressive and you’ll easily find it by the massive groups of people gathered to take their pictures!

We decided enough was enough for that day and headed back to the guesthouse. Our guesthouse ran a free shuttle bus to the night market each evening so we caught that for a bit more market food. We didn’t think that the Ayutthaya night market was as good as the one in Kanchanaburi but we still found plenty to eat.

The next day we hopped back on the bikes early to visit Wat Chai Wattanaram, this is one of the busiest sites and we just managed to visit it before the first coach load arrived! We then went to Wat Tha Ka Rong which is really hard to describe, it’s a Buddhist temple but also like a seaside pier – there are weird animated skeletons around the place greeting you with a wai, as well as stalls and bizarrely, very large crows! We didn’t know what to make of it, but again it was definitely worth a visit.

We also saw the reclining Buddha, it’s almost as large as the one in Bangkok, but is no longer covered in gold, it’s probably more impressive it’s fully outside so you can really see the scale and detail.

Our final stop was Wat Ratchaburana where you can actually climb the prang, I popped my head inside but the smell of bat poo was pretty overwhelming so we quickly retreated!

We checked out of the guesthouse and headed to the train station, trains to Bangkok are pretty frequent, if somewhat late, but very, very cheap! We were heading to the Khao San Road area, an area famous for backpackers. It’s a street lined with stalls selling elephant pants, t shirts, cocktail buckets and scorpions on a stick! You either love it or hate it and we love it! We have noticed the change though from when I first visited 8 years ago. Then you had stalls selling old copies of lonely planets and fake driving licenses and dodgy dvds. Those stalls have gone, partly as part of a clean up by the government and partly I guess as time has moved on and the digital world has diminished the need for knock off copies of The Beach.

We had a fun but chilled evening, I went for a foot massage and Joey took some time to just sit and people watch. Obviously I had a couple of large cocktails and Joey some beers. The next day we had booked an overnight bus to the Gulf islands and so we had a day to kill, we headed to a strip of shopping centres on a local bus. In the past we would have taken a taxi there but now it’s easy to find information online about which local bus to catch so catch the bus we did. It was a nice way to spend the day – one of the shopping centres has showrooms for cars such as Bentley, Porsche and Land Rovers – imagine going to the Oracle shopping centre in Reading to pick out your car!

I’m glad that we had some time to explore some of the places in Thailand that I’d wanted to explore and to see some culture rather than just beaches although the beaches will follow!

August 29, 2023 0