Turtle Island

I must say Kanchanaburi was a very nice place. The Bridge over the Kwae river (Kwai is actually a misspelling - it means water buffalo in Thai) isn't all that amazing to look at (though the setting is nice). But the history behind it is pretty cool. The museum beside the bridge is in fact a melange of all kinds of nonsense (almost worth the entrance for it's comic value), none of which is much about the bridge, the real museum is back in town and is actually one of the best laid out museums I've been in - and not too much in it to be overwhelming. Once you become aware of the huge loss of life involved in it's construction, a trip on the "death railway" itself is a must.


I hopped on a local bus out to hellfire pass, site of some of the hardest digging and something of an Aussie pilgrimage site (it was mostly Aussie POWs that worked/died on this bit). I managed to blag a lift with an intrepid tour back to Nam Tok, the (current) starting point of the Railway back, and was able to avail of some free guiding. There was only one bloke on the tour - a nice English guy, who seemed very relieved to have some male company for a change - by all accounts the girls were moaning all the time and doing his nut in. He was only on the trip cause he and his girlfriend split up just before there Phuket holiday, and she was taking the room for the two weeks! I told him he should have no problem finding a "shoulder" to cry on in Phi Phi, his next stop (he's leaving the tour).


The previous day I'd rented a bike and gone to Erawan falls with Dillon. The falls were in a really beautiful setting, without too many tourists, and some of the various levels (there are 7) made fantastic refreshing jungle swimming pools.
The trip back on the other hand was more of an endurance test - character building if you like, as we (I) drove almost the whole 2.5 hours back in the dark through torrential rain and lightning - our lights were barely able to distinguish the road from the trees. Cool. The rest of the time we spent hanging round/playing pool with English and Scottish Paul, Jayne from Canada and Ebony, an ivory Aussie girl.


So on to Ko Tao.
From Nam Tok and the Death Railway, I passed back through Kanchanaburi and onto Natham Phaton, quick stop to take a pic of the big Pagoda there, then onto a train for Chumpon. All 3rd class, and the better for it - I was the only Farang in the carriage. I had to move a little girl who had crashed out on my seat, and for the next 5 hours we had a great conversation despite her speaking no English and me having only a few dozen Thai words. Much of it went along the lines of "Nee a-rai" (what's this) and her pointing to something - I didn't think she could be taking anything in so fast, so I was pretty amazed 30 mins later when she pointed to her eyes, nose, ear, etc and said the English word. Kids just sponge up language when their young I guess.

After 4 hours kip in Chumpon it was up for the 7am ferry to Kao Tao, a long trip all and all, but worth it. So far I'm really liking the place, though it's really pretty expensive by Thai standards (the Diving is actually quite reasonable).
This morning I went to Chumpon pinacle, and it was a really excellent dive - best in a long time, with great visibility, cool rock formations, huge schools of fish and by far the most sharks I've ever seen on one dive - I lost count after 10. Top class. The second dive on white rock was pretty good but not in the same league.
So off now for some lunch and a siesta before torturing myself one last time in Choppers Aussie bar to watch the Irish try the impossible against the Argies.

P.S. Finally found a cheap internet place that doesn't electrocute you when you plug in your camera's USB cable.

Bridge over the river Kwai

For some reason a week passed before I managed to get out of Chiang Mai. It's not like I did an awful lot there - apart from an evening on a bouldering wall I can't really remember doing much of anything after my last blog post. Whatever. Anyway, I decided that it was about time I saw something of cultural or historical significance. A quick glance at the train line south showed Sukhothai and Ayutthaya, which both seemed to fit the bill.

I hopped the morning train out of Chiang Mai and after a brief change to the bus in Phitsanulok, home of the flying vegetables, I was in the ancient Thai capital.
Sukhothai definitely lived up to the hype. It's not even hyped up that much, so much of Thailand's tourism revolves around far baser needs that beautiful historical sites like this often get overlooked. For much of the morning touring the old site I had the place more or less to myself. Apart from the odd cow here and there. The ruins are spread out over a fair area but its all easy enough to visit yourself on a bike.


I met up with a French guy back in the new town in the evening, and between us we managed to convince a local Belgian bar owner to give us a shut in at his bar so we could watch the world cup game. Another heroic defeat by Ireland, but I suppose at least they tried this time. While in the area, I also popped up north via a very pink rented motorbike to Si Satchanalai, another lovely 13th century site, maybe not quite as manicured but even less visited and perhaps more atmospheric. Plus the locals there are very, er, friendly.


Not content with this cultural smörgåsbord, I headed further south to Ayutthaya, a 14th century city thats only a stones throw north of Bangkok, and therefore does get a few more coaches. Still the ruins there are also lovely, and approaching nightfall most of the buses are gone, though theres still a fair few elephants knocking about to add some colour to the occasion. I had met Elliot from California off the Train so we compared ruins and movie sequels over Leos and Singhas.


One more historical stop needed before Bangkok, this one a little less ancient. A few hours detour east by a couple of public buses brought me to Kanchanburi, and the location for the movie about the famous world war II building of the Burma railway, which included the famous bridge spanning the Kwai river. So far it seems like a really beautiful setting in the river, very nice and relaxing. My room is actually a floating pontoon on the river! Tomorrow I might actually go to see the bridge.

New Town

Joining up with the two Isralei guys from the Gibbon Experience, we managed to blag a minivan all to ourselves and left the border town of Chiang Kong - a nice enough place - and arrived into pretty cosmopolitan Chiang Mai, the norths major city. The towns definitely changed a bit since I was here before - right in the heart at Tha Pae gate is a big Starbucks and theres another branch of Seattle's evil empire in the middle of the night market, flanked by a Burger King, McDonalds and Subway. Shocking. I still really like the place though.
The guys were keen to visit the temple on the mountain at Doi Suthep so we rented a jeep for the day which was good fun - my first time driving a four wheeled vehicle in Asia. Having missed a close encounter with the Gibbons we took the chance to see some up close at a local "monkey school", one of a number of similar "attractions" sprouting up around town. It was nice to see the Gibbons (not sure why they were in a "monkey" school though..., but the rest of the show was all a bit sad really - monkeys peddling rickshaws around, etc.
I spent an hour on one of the new additions around the night market - a rock climbing wall called the peak, which was good fun though a bit overpriced. In Laos I had met Clare from Falkirk and agreed, after a few too many BeerLaos, to meet in Chiang Mai to do some rock climbing trips out to a local site called crazy horse. After my unimpressive attempts on the wall, I'm not so sure I want to embarrass myself further now.


After a couple of days replacing various lost items with new ones from the night market, and tasting Chiang Mais fine cooking, I rented a motorbike and headed off to Pai, The place in northern Thailand that everyone seems to be raving about.
The trip there was really cool - almost a constant series of (hairpin) bends which required Valentino Rossi like skill to negotiate. At one stage I stopped to put on a raincoat but was a bit careless in parking and the bike slipped off the road and down the side a few meters. Oops. As invariable seems to happen in South East Asia, within a minute a group of Army guys passed and, seeing my predicament, pulled in and hauled the bike up with me. It was fine apart from a bit of a funny rattling noise I chose to ignore (and to not mention after I returned it).


Pai itself is a nice little town, with a few cute restaurants and bars. Though to be honest, I think people seem to be over hyping it a bit - its not an amazing setting or anything, and there are far too many of a certain type of traveler there to make me want to stay too long. Still I had a good couple of days and nights - the first spent mostly with a nice bunch of Thais from Chiang Mai/Bangkok who showed me all the spots to go, including a couple of places which were pretty Farang free, and the second with some Belgian girls I met in Na's Kitchen, a really good local resturant.
One of the late night pool bars - Fubar served up a Tom Yum Gai at 3am that was quite possibly the tastiest food I have ever eaten. Definitely beats a spice burger and chips.


Other than eating and drinking Pai has all kinds of new age nonsense that I stayed mostly well away from, and some cute villages that make a diverting afternoon drive. On my way back to Chiang Mai it started chucking it down so I stopped off at one of the little spa pools, and very nice indeed it was too.
Last night I decided to torture myself and watch another of Ireland's dismal performances at the Rugby world cup. The only place I could find open at 2am with a Tv screen was a pretty dodgy spot called Spicys, where I was the only one in the place passing up viewing nubile young Thai girls in favor of overpaid overrated Irish men. You have to get your priorities right. OK then, I'm off for a Frappacino and a 6 inch spicy Italian.

Gibbon Endurance

I arrived in the little Laos town of Huay Xai after a really pleasant 2 days on the slow boat from Luang Prabang. The views were really nice and the boat pretty comfortable (well the first days one anyway - complete with padded reclining seats and even life jackets - whats that all about?) We stopped the first night in Pak Beng, a nice little village about halfway along the Mekong. I've really grown to like the chocolate coloured artery, though after seeing and smelling the dead cow on the way I'm glad that I resisted the urge to slurp Augustus Gloop like from the river.

For the last 3 days I've been deep in the Bokeo forest in north west Laos to undertake the Gibbon Experience. The experience starts with a bit of a marathon walk in taking anything from 5 to 9 hours - we managed to slog our way through in 5 pretty sweaty and tiring hours, at times almost knee deep in mud and always on the lookout for the dreaded leeches (I only got one but the little fcuker drank some amount of blood) Our group consisted of me, Gus and Dan from Israel and Luz from Holland, all really nice. Apart from me obviously. Arriving finally at the tree house and zipping into our new home via a flying fox was pretty cool, as was the cold water shower with views to die for.
With a bit of time to kill I decided to do some exploring on my own, having half listened to the guides fairly vague explanation of the route needed to get back on the zip lines. Almost 2 hours later and unable to find that magic route back anywhere, and in the growing darkness I managed to pull myself back up the 300 meter zip line in the wrong direction, as it was the only way I could get home. I thought after the walk I was exhausted, but after that session I found the real meaning of the word. But the euphoria of making it back and the decent dinner made up for the pain.

The next morning we awoke to the sounds of the gibbons calling and a few minutes later the somewhat tardy guides saying come quick now. So without time for camera or shoes we zipped off in pursuit of our prey. They sounded only meters away but as we tried to track them one of the lads fell flat on his backside and made a right racket to we didn't manage to see any. Still the views later from the platforms looking down at the partially mist cloaked forest were beautiful. Much of the rest of the day was spent resting and zipping around (I found that I had been only a 3 minute walk to an easy zip home the night before - doh!)

On our last day we awoke to more cool views and gibbon songs, but they were too distant to chase, so we began the long slog back to the road, finally arriving at a cute village with tons of kids making nice portrait subjects. A can of coke never tasted so good. Nor did the cold BeerLao that evening, and it was oh so nice to not eat rice for the first time in days. This morning I hopped on a little boat and 10 minutes later I had exited Laos and entered Thailand - must be the easiest fastest Asian border crossing ever. So off to Chang Mai later today and then figure out what I'm up to next.

Here comes the rain again

Having had a pretty dry wet season so far in Laos, the last few days have started to make up for it a bit. Right now Im hoping all the clothes that got soaked on the roof of the Sawngthaew (a sort of truck with two rows of seats, though I sat in an additional 3rd row of plastic chairs with my feet dangling out the back - best views that way) back from Nong Khiaw will be dry before I head off on the boat towards the Thai border. Apparently the previous day a woman had given birth on the same Sawngthaew run, so at least I missed getting my clothes covered in that:)

Nong Khiaw is as far as the road goes en route to the little town of Muang Ngoi Neua, where I've spent the last couple of days. The last hour is completed by boat, and the isolation means there are no cars or motorbikes of any kind, so its a really nice place to relax and watch the village life unfold. Again the scenery was excellent, both on the way and around the area.



Theres only sporadic electricity and the food kinda sucks, but still its all part of the experience. The girl running our guesthouse was a bit of a character, and took us to her local orchard to graze on all manner of tropical fruit, which required some climbing and waving of large bamboos. The nicest part was a day spent trecking to the little village of Ban Bo, which occupies a beautiful setting in paddy fields surrounded by karst mountains. And the odd satellite dish. Its occupied by a mix of Lao and hilltribe folk.


I went with Issy and Violene who I met on the boat, and we met a few other falang who were overnighting there, including one Basque guy who was going to spend a month there teaching english to the local kids. The walking was a bit tricky with all the mud and river crossings, but very enjoyable, though we had to keep the odd eye out for the local kid hunting for their dinner. On the way back I took a dip in a lovely pool beside a cave. Fabulous.
Back in Luang Prabang now for a days r&r before braving the two day boat trip up to Huay Xai and a date with the Gibbons of Bokeo reserve. They mentioned 5-9 hours walking in leeche infested forest to get to the treehouse where we stay. Should be interesting...

Costa Del Kao San

I had a great time in Vang Vieng, but after a few days there it was starting to get a bit like Spanish beach meets Bangkok traveller gheto, with a fair bit of Ballyfermot and Tel Aviv thrown in. Not all bad, but when the bar started playing "oh ah up the ra" I reckoned it was time to move on. I had intended to do another days tubing but it was chucking it down so I gave it a miss. So I hoped on the "VIP" bus up to Luang Prabang. The road trip was lovely, and although the thought of a bandit attach did cross my mind (this is the road where there has been some activity recently), its was far more likely the bus would come a cropper on all the torturous mountain hairpin bends. But the views were excellent most of the way and the trip passed really quickly.


The town itself is World Heritage listed and is full of lovely old buildings, some fine wats and nice surrounding countryside. And being at the confluence of two rivers, it gets some nice breezes to temper the heat of the day.
Mostly I've been just wandering about town, climbing the hill for nice views and visiting the odd temple.
I also spent a bit of time helping out a couple of kids at the guesthouse who were getting private tuition from a tutor there, which was really nice. The first day they really struggled to understand me, but by yesterday they had improved a lot - I guess a falang accent takes a bit of getting used to.


I met up again with Christian and the girls, and also with Mike and Emelia who I had played pool with a lot in Vang Viene.
The girls headed on the slow boat to Thailand today, so the rest of us spent the day at a really nice waterfall with a lovely swimming area. I even managed to hike to the top and peer over the torrent of water, which involved lots of carefully placed footsteps on slippery rocks. Laos safety isn't exactly first world:)

Its like your always stuck in second gear

I'm not sure how the whole thing started, but here in Vang Vieng its like some sort of Friends groundhog day. Almost all the resturants on the main street are constantly showing reruns of the fairly annoying (esp in the latter years) show and everyone seems to be watching them. Its all very strange. Especially when there are much better things to do. The scenery here is simply stunning, among the best I've seen in SE Asia, loads of limestone karsts, caves and pretty little villages. It looks a bit like what I expect Gullin to be like in China. Its a great place to zip around on motorbikes, the traffic is light so you can just cruise slowly checking out the scenery.


And then theres the fabled tubing, a bit of a Laos institution. Your taken upriver a few Ks and launch onto a fairly fast flowing river in a big rubber tube. But within seconds you arrive at the first "bar" where if your not inclined to approach, a kid swims out and helps you in. A beer Lao later and a few tricks performed on the trapeze wire (you get better with each bar) and your on to the next stop. I went with Karin and Caroline from Austria, Corrina from Switzerland and Christian, another Austrian, and we met a bunch of people on the way, expecially during the marathon volleyball session during which I sustained a badly bruised toe and a nice lump after a clash of heads. It was all tremondous fun. Finishing the trip floating down on the river under an almost full moon while being pleasantly sozzled was specially memorable, we had no idea where the end was until we heard splashing in the water and an army of kids descended on us to haul us out for tips.


I arrived here a few days ago having eventually completed all my Oz visa stuff in Vientiene. I had been there so long I recognised most people - the Ozzie girl researching the next edition of the footprints guide, the (very cute) Italian photographer doing an article on Mekong village life, the crazy Laos woman who sits at peoples table and grabs their beer when there not looking, the german guy who seemed to be doing an impersionation of the minisry of silly walks. And I'm sure people noticed the Irish guy running around with a stack of papers in a plastic compression bag going to medical clinics, hospitals, all kinds of ministerial offices, post offices, stationary shops, internet cafes and various embassies. It was an interesting 9 days or so.

Change of pace

I knew Laos would be a pretty easy going place, but after crossing the border from Vietnam it almost feels like another world. If they were any more laid back, they would be horizontal. I guess the old saying about Indochina might sum it up well - the Vietnamese plant the rice, the Khymers watch it grow and the Lao listen to it grow. It's taken a while to get used to walking around without being offered all kinds of things by everyone, especially tuk tuks.

Though now that I'm in the bustling metropolis of Vientiane, they are a little more commercial minded .. want tuk tuk? want ganja? want girl? want boy? But even here, the pace is really relaxed and it certainly doesn't feel like a capital city. Its a nice town to just wander around, with a number of nice Wats and buildings, and a pleasant riverfront area along the Mekong with more views of Thailand.
Since I've arrived in Laos, each town I've stayed has had views across to Thai towns, tempting me with the delicious food just out of reach as I dont have a multiple entry visa. Still, the Laos food is pretty good, not too dissimilar to Thai really. The other night I had a Papaya salad which was quite possibly the spiciest thing I have ever eaten.


After a fairly easy border crossing last week (just a minor bribe required, made smaller with a little good natured haggling) I arrived in the town of Savannakhet.
It's a really nice little place, with some nice colonial buildings and has the nicest of the riverside settings with a string of cool little eateries one after another where beer Lao and ice goes well with the little cook yourself seafood soups. It even had a nightclub, though it stuck to the government enforced 11:30 closing time, and a cute little dinosaur museum. But mostly it was walking around, talking to the locals and watching the kids play that passed the time. A nice intro to Laos.


Travel in Laos requires a bit more effort than the other south east Asian countries, overloaded public buses with all kinds of freight are the norm, and some of the food offered by the vendors is less then tempting - roast cricket anyone?
It actually doesn't taste as bad as it looks. Still, its a good idea to stock up on some nice rambutans for the journeys. And those little plastic seats in the aisles aren't too good on your bum after 5 hours or so. But its all part of the fun.



Next stop was Tha Khaek, nowhere near as charming in itself, but with lovely limestone karst scenery and pretty villages in the surrounding countryside. I hired a Motorbike with Andrea, an Italian guy who was on the bus down, and it was a challenge trying to find the various points of interest with a sketchy map and no English signs.


We eventually found 2 out of the 3 caves we were searching for, and they were both pretty cool, but the best fun was when we ran out of petrol and had to enlist the service of the village kids to rescue us.
Next day Andrea and I headed off to Vientiane, both nursing severe hangovers, and Andrea was non too plussed when he saw we would be on the tiny kids plastic chairs that are employed as extra seats on the local buses. Having taken our seats, we were then subjected to people clambering over us constantly which I found very amusing, but I could here Andrea cursing constantly in Italian. Lucky it was only a 6 hour trip.


Before leaving Vietnam I spent a day in the DMZ close to Dong Ha town visiting the Vinh Moc tunnels and a couple of the US fire sites from the war. It was pretty amazing to see the tunnels where people had lived for years (17 kids were born in them) often for days without seing daylight. Even the big B-52 shells didnt have much of an impact on the network of tunnels.

So still in Vientiane, will need to stay here a bit more in order to get my stuff together for the Oz visa as they are asking for medicals and police checks and all sorts of nonsense. Today all government stuff is closed, so checked out Vientiane's answer to the Arc De Triumph .
The weather has heated up a notch, but its still pretty pleasant so I cant complain too much. And theres always Beer Lao to cool off.

Turn left for Laos

Circumstances (heavy rain disrupting the train line, and limited time left on my Nam Visa) have convinced me to postpone my northern migratrion and instead I'm going to head east to Laos. So tomorrow it's off to the town of Dong Ha, which I'm intrigued to see after the review in The Book "Today, there is no conceivable reason to visit".
My last night in Hoi An was spent playing pool and trying not to drink whiskey shots with Charlie (quite an appropriate name for this locale) from Glasgow, who had been on my tour to My Son. We also had some fantastic Vietnamese food at Bale Well - theres no menu, they just keep bringing you loads of stuff which they make into something like spring rolls till you cant eat any more. Fantastic. Next day, I managed to make the afternoon bus up to Hue. It's another colonial city with much of the older parts preserved, but unlike Hoi An, where most of the buildings are occupied by functioning vendors, its more divided into the "real" town and the museum bit that you just visit. The two are seperated by the river, the Citadel and a moat. Much of the old Citadel walls remain, and although a lot of the town was flattened during the Tet offensive, Hue's designation as a world heritage site has meant the restoration of many of the buildings. It's nice to stroll around, but even better explored on a claped out bike, as this way you are pretty much pleasantly immune to the constant attention of Cyclo/Moto drivers, postcard sellers and tour vendors.

On the bus to Hue I met up with Simon and Frederic, two German guys who I had met before on the way to Dalat (we had met while observing an unfortunate Swiss guy's repeated fainting through severe diarahoe induced dehydration) and Jill from Canadia, and we hung around for much of the time in Hue, unified in our defense against the ubiquitous cyclo drivers. To escape the streets, we hired a local boat for a short trip on the somewhat inappropriately named perfume river - judging from the "crew" I'd say there pretty bored by the whole experience.

Reunification Express

Having had more than my fill of buses for a bit, I've arrived in Hoi An by the sweetly named Reunification Express train from Nha Trang. It was all very pleasant and comfortable, and although the scenery was pretty I slept much of the 9 hours. Probably cause I had ended up out too late once again in Nha Trang. While awake, I made my best attempts to commuicate with the Vietnamese family sharing my cabin, their english being only marginally better than what i could manage to utter using the back of the guidebook's phrases. From what I could make out, the conversation was mostly about if I was married or not, and if their daughter was pretty...
I actually had to backtrack a wee bit as the train arrived in Danang, so it was a motorbike taxi back the 30k or so, during which the driver spent most of the time trying to sell me a multi day tour. As consolation for not taking it, I allowed him to take me to his chosen hotel, which is actually really nice with a pool and lovely rooms.


Nha Trang hadnt been a bad spot, it's the main beach resort in Vietnam but it's not quite (yet anyway) the costa del sol, and in fact theres far more locals on the beach than westerners. Crossing the road here was also a bit more relaxed then Saigon, but still good fun. It's also Vietnam's main diving spot, and I spent a couple of days exploring the underwater scenery, which included one really spectacular swin through cave complete with scores of lovely fish. The dives were notable for the absence of any really big fish, the consequence of pretty heavy fishing by the locals, which still continues despite the areas status as a protected marine park.
Nha Trang also had a fair share of lively bars which keep going till dawn. Though the moto drivers are particularly funny with the prices they try to charge drunken tourists at this time of night/morning. Even the little old baguette ladies quadruple their daytime prices.


Before Nha Trang I visited the hill station of Dalat. It's a funny sort of place, with over the top kitsch statues and the like at every turn, and seems to attract far more Vietnamese than foreigners. Still the town and the area around is a nice enough place to spend a couple of days, not least because of the cool weather. I employed one of the local "easy riders" to show me around, and it was good enough fun, though a bit overpriced compared to others I've used - the curse of getting a really good write up in The Book.
I ended up renting my own motorbike to see some of the other sites.
One of the more weird attractions was a Gaudi like guesthouse called crazy house locally, which would make a cool spot to stay when it's properly open.


The old town of Hoi An is a really pretty spot, the one Asian town that really has retained it's colonial buildings, which are mostly beautifully resored. An amazing number are tailors, it seems that this is The spot in Asia to get your new suits. The much touted temples of My Son were a bit of a let down, but then again I guess after Angkor I'm a bit spoiled.


The river and beach area made for nice cruising on a rented bike.
Hoi An also boasts a number of nice little local bars, where you can drink the local draught beer for the pricely sum of 10p. Shame that I was almost the only one in there - I could see that everyone was milling into the bigger place next door - where you could get crappy draught fosters for 12 times the price. Oh but wait, that place is in The Book.