Well, we’re now in Vang Vieng.  It’s beautiful! A bit of a party town, but the kids have to party early in the day because everything closes by 11pm.

We spent the day checking out some caves – and then we went for a quick dip in a local swimming hole.  The water is cool, fresh from Chang Cave.

Richard is in the middle of typing up a blog, so there will be more tomorrow… or the next day.

Bye for now!

Well, we’re having a wonderful time in Laos.  The people are really friendly (talkative, but not always English speaking) and not just because they want to sell you something. And when you shake your head at a tuk tuk driver, they just say, “Thank you, have a nice day.”

The food is great, yeah, there’s cheese and bread and French wines, but there’s great pastries, pizzas, sandwiches, waffles and more.  You can also eat at Italian, Mexican and Russian restaurants (if you’re made of money).

Of course, if you’re cheap like us, there are still some not so great places to eat too.  We had a small lunch at the market food court yesterday.  The place was really old and unappealing, but that hasn’t stopped us before. We ordered before we saw the live cockroaches trapped under a drinking glass in the display cabinet. Not sure why they would display them… maybe to show they are making an effort?  Not to worry, there were plenty running around free in there too. Actually, the food was quite good. We aren’t sick today, so I’m sure it was ok.

The city is a great place to explore. It’s green and really big.  Our butts have toughened up and we ventured out on bikes again.  We visited some temples (some old, some new) and a few of the big landmarks. We’ve got some good pictures!

I think I got flipped off by a monk yesterday.  I’m not really sure what the gestures meant, but he had a scowl on his face that suggested he was really annoyed with me.  Women are not allowed to sit next to or touch monks.  I think it’s because they need to rid themselves of desire (I’m still learning the basics of Buddhism). Yesterday, in a narrow market aisle, I caught a glimpse of a monk trying to get my attention and then waving at me to get out of his way. I did. He stomped past me still making hand gestures (he sent one Richard’s way too).  It was really rude and I’m surprised that a monk would be so arrogant. For the most part, I’ve tried to keep my distance from monks out of naïve respect, but occasionally I end up close to them in crowded boats or busses.  They’ve never shown any anxiety over close proximity before. Oh well, there’s one in every bunch I suppose.

Today we’ve got some work to do. Not much really, but it’s tax time! Sorry to those who have yet to finish. We had my mom mail everything to our accountant and the extent of our job is printing, signing, scanning and e-mailing back forms. Then my mom will mail the cheques (thanks mom)! We also need to get new photos taken for Cambodian and Vietnamese visas (don’t want to be caught without them at the Cambodian border). The laundry is on the line drying.  Maybe today we’ll send a few postcards.  And then we need to figure out where we’re heading tomorrow.  There is a lot to see in Laos, but we need to decide what interests us most and then figure out how to get there.

 

Today we crossed into Laos.  Our border crossing was kind of interesting.  To cross into Laos was a multistep process that went something like this:

Take a tuk tuk to the border

Go through Thai customs

Buy a bus ticket to cross the bridge

Get a visa

Go through Lao customs

Find transportation to wherever you want to go

Sounds simple enough right?  And for the most part it was simple and any difficulty we had was entirely self inflicted.  We managed to get to the visa part with little difficulty (although Bryana was a bit miffed because we had to pay $1 to take a bus across the bridge, why couldn’t we have walked the 2km)?  For the visa, we first had to fill out the paperwork.  I always hate the visa paperwork.  One of the questions they invariably ask is, “What will your address be while in this or that country?”  There are several problems with this question.  First of all we’re going to be traipsing throughout the intended country so just one address is entirely insufficient.  The next problem is we don’t generally even know what our first address will be.  The place we’ll be staying is the cheapest one with the fewest cockroaches and we won’t know which one that is until we check under the bed and behind the toilet.  We’ve gotten good at making up the required information and sometimes even manage to stay where we say we’ll be staying. 

Real difficulty came about when we realized we needed pictures for our visa.  By the way, for some strange reason they charge Canadians US$ 42 rather than the US$ 35 that they charge everyone else.  This makes no sense to me.  I could see them charging the Americans more or even not letting them into the country.  Did you know that Laos holds the dubious distinction of being the most heavily bombed country in the world?  And of course we know who did the bombing…our friendly American buddies.  Back to the pictures.  Many countries require passport sized pictures when getting a visa.  No problem.  Before we left Canada, we spent a long night at a Walmart photo machine cranking out appropriate pictures for just such a situation.  However, do you think we could find our pictures when they were required of us?  Certainly not.  I searched my bags, Bryana searched her bags, I searched mine again, she searched hers again, she searched mine, I would have searched hers but that wouldn’t have gone over well by that point.  After about a half hour of searching through our bags, spreading our underwear out in front of strangers in a strange country where we don’t even know what time zone we’re in, we found no pictures.  We also figured we were in a slight predicament because we were in no man’s land; we weren’t in Thailand anymore and we weren’t in Laos.  We couldn’t return to Thailand because we weren’t returning from any other country and we couldn’t get into Laos because we couldn’t find our damn pictures!  Kind of sounds like one of those horrible sequels of Back to the Future, you can’t go back to the future because you changed something in the past and on and on.  Things couldn’t be that bad, all we had to do was find out where to get our pictures taken, surely we weren’t the only ones without pictures.  We looked around a bit but didn’t find anything.  We then asked the scary border guard guy and he said we really didn’t need them but they would charge us an extra dollar.  By that point I would have given him a hundred dollars and baked him a cake.  As it turned out, they didn’t even charge us the extra dollar.

Once through Lao customs, the last thing on our list was get to our destination which was the capital of Laos, Vientiane.   Normally we’d walk but apparently it was a 20km walk, a bit far without my hiking poles.  Of course there were a plethora of tuk tuk drivers to take us.  The first price we heard was 250B.  We didn’t really know what to do, we hadn’t done our homework and the whole picture thing had been a distraction.  Within the next minute or two of our indecisiveness, the price had gone down to 40B, and that was without any haggling!  Bryana asked them where the bus was and they informed us there wasn’t one.  Of course we noticed all of the locals were jumping onto a bus.  I went to ask where it was going and how much it was.  The broken english answer was Vientiane and 5B.  We weren’t ready to get on a strange bus just yet and the tuk tuk drivers were leaving us alone by that point so we had a moment to check our blessed Lonely Planet book.  According to the book there was indeed a bus, #14, which would take us into town.  We’d missed the first one, but the next bus that came was also the 14 which took us right into town and only cost us 5B each.

Just to make things more interesting here in Laos (as if a new language, new customs and driving on the other side of the road weren’t enough) they don’t use one currency here but rather three:  the Laos Kip, the Thai Baht and of course the almighty US dollar.  Most of the prices are quoted in the kip.  Everyone will accept the baht, which is what we have right now since we were just in Thailand.  The trouble is that you have to multiply by 272 to figure out what the price should be (or is that divide by 272?) and by the time you figure out what the price is and what your change should have been you’re already screwed.  To make matters worse there is apparently only one ATM in town.  In fact there is apparently only one ATM in the whole country (not sure I believe that one).  Also, it’s Sunday and the banks are only open from 7:00am – 8:00am on Sundays (again I’m not sure I believe that one).  Anyways, we managed to get some change in kip from some hopefully reliable places.  I’ve also got a piece of paper with all of the exchange rates and a pen so I can do some last minute calculating if necessary.

So far Laos is quite similar to Thailand with some notable exceptions:  There are no 7 Elevens here.  Thailand was full of them.  And I know when you go to a foreign country you shouldn’t be supporting huge multinational companies but the 7 Elevens were sort of an oasis, almost literally.  All of them were air conditioned and most of them sold slurpees.  As we would go exploring down the streets we could duck into a 7 Eleven to cool down and then grab a slurpee to maintain a level of coolness after leaving the store.  Anyways, Laos, no 7 Elevens and no big chain stores of any kind.  Something we were happy to find was the local wine only costs $0.50 (the same price as water).  It isn’t what I would call fine wine (I asked Bryana if she wanted to smell the screw cap but she declined).  The wine has very little alcohol and tastes more like fruit juice.  As far as other differences, the people seem to be a bit shyer and more reserved here.  In fact, we’ve been noticing that the further we move north, starting in Thailand, the more reserved the people get.  This suits me just fine.

That’s about it for now.  We spent an almost bug free evening on the other side of the Mekong River, that is to say the Laos side, eating dinner and having homemade ice cream.  Tomorrow we’ll be exploring the city.

 

Bryana’s comments: In my defense, the bridge I was thinking of walking across was NOT 2 km long.  Turns out, the customs offices were not right on the river, there is a bit of distance to cover before getting to the bridge and a fair bit after it as well.  So, I suppose it was about 2 km from Thai customs to Lao customs.  But, how was I supposed to know that? 

Also, Richard was the one who had our tin of passport photos.  I’m not saying he lost them and that it’s his fault (we’re both responsible for checking our hotel/guesthouse rooms when we check out), but I thought we should search his bag since that is where they’re supposed to be.  His pack also has a lot more compartments and zippers (places to hide things) and he has a tendency to lose items that are in plain sight.  I thought it wise to check my bag as well because I thought he might be sneaking some of our shared items into it (it seems to be getting heavier).

Finally, what Richard didn’t mention about Laos is that there is CHEESE! Real, honest to goodness cheese, not the processed slices that they melted on our pizza in Thailand.

You can get cheddar, mozzarella, edam, gouda… you name it. Oh, and baguettes to go with! Soooo yummy! You don’t realize how much you love something until you have to live without it for two months.

We’re now in Nong Khai…and what a relief after being in Bangkok.  Nong Khai is a lot of things that Bangkok isn’t:  quiet, peaceful, not full of tuk tuk drivers offering to take you everywhere and not full of ‘friendly’ strangers approaching you on the street, the kind that make your skin crawl.

Nong Khai is in the north eastern portion of Thailand, right on the border with Laos.  We almost skipped Nong Khai and went directly to Laos but we’re glad we didn’t.  We stumbled upon a nice little back packers guesthouse called the Mut Mee Guesthouse.  It’s directly on the mighty Maekong River.  This means that you can stare out at the river while eating breakfast and showering (this makes it sound like I eat breakfast in the shower but you get the idea).  The only thing wrong with the place are the mosquitoes and tonight the flying termites.  During the day it’s not bad but come evening and night it’s not so easy to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful evening.

We haven’t done very much here and not much interesting has happened (which suits me just fine).  The guesthouse has bicycles that you can rent for about a dollar a day…and that’s about all they’re worth; these are some of the worst bikes I’ve ever seen.  They’re so bad that the directions for rental include you taking a test drive to make sure your bike works.  And it’s not that you really get a bike in working condition, you just get one with the fewest things wrong with it!  I’m not sure where they get these bikes from but I am sure I’ve never seen bikes with drum brakes or bikes that use levers and rods for the brakes rather than cables.  Bryana’s chain was so dry that it would bind and double up on itself as she pedaled.  It needed oil but the slipperiest thing we had available (besides a looming tuk tuk driver) was mosquito repellant…it did the trick!

The first day of biking brought us to a place called the Salakeawkoo sculpture park.  It’s kind of like an overgrown miniature golf course (minus the golf and greens).  You walk around in a park like atmosphere amidst these giant cement statues of Buddhist and Hindu figures.  And I do mean giant, some are 25m tall (or as the literature says, as high as an 8 storey building).  I’m afraid I’m not really up on my Buddhism or Hinduism so I didn’t understand what much of it meant.  There was however one area that we had a map for which did help to explain the meaning.  It was a section that was arranged in a circle and called the Wheel of Life.  Basically, the Buddhists believe that you are reincarnated again and again (hence the circle) and when you achieve enlightenment you follow Buddha to Nirvana (and I sincerely apologize if my lack of knowledge offends any Buddhists out there).  Anyways, it was quite lovely, but the bizarre thing about the whole circle was how you entered it.  I guess it made sense, we all enter life the same way, so to enter this circle of life you walk through a giant… (give it some thought, you’ll figure it out).

We took another bicycle ride today, a bit more ambitious than our first.  Our goal was to see the bamboo cranes that are used for fishing.  The only problem was that the round trip was 40km.  Now 40km on a good bike (one with gears and without drum brakes that drag) isn’t too bad, but we weren’t that fortunate.  To make a long story short, our spirits were willing but our asses were weak.  Anyone who says you never forget how to ride a bike is mostly correct, but there are certain parts of your body that do forget.  We never made it to the bamboo cranes but we did see a lot of neat villages and villagers.  And for all of the people in Bangkok that left us somewhat disenchanted with Thailand, we met a lot of other people today that turned that around.  First of all, not one single person approached us for anything.  Everywhere we went we were greeted with smiling faces and kids saying hi.  When we stumbled upon some villagers sorting through a crop of tobacco, they were only too happy to let us take a picture.  And in all of the dark little stores and restaurants where we got food and drinks, once again the people couldn’t have been warmer. 

Tomorrow it’s on to Laos.

Well, we spent another day walking around Bangkok. The tuk tuk drivers hate it when you say you are going to walk, but it was a little cloudy and we thought we could use the exercise. We just wandered around, watched some break dancers, checked out the big malls, and walked around the kings residence (couldn’t see much past the moat and walls).  We also went to the zoo since it was really cheap. Not a great zoo except for the many types of local animals we’d never seen before (birds, monkeys and reptiles).  I really wish we’d skipped the Orangutan habitat. I don’t know the situation of the orangutan we saw, but even if he was a blind, toothless, diabetic with no chance of surviving in the wild, I bet he’d pick the wild over the zoo.  I think he could have used a hug (certain death for a human given his size).  Thankfully, the rest of the animals seemed content (like I would know the difference),

We tired of Bangkok rather quickly.  Not because there was nothing to do, but because it was loud and we were starting to reply to every little hello with:

"Canada. We’ve been here five days. We’re going north to Laos. We’ve already been to the tourist authority office. We’re walking, thank you! No tuk tuk! And yes - We Love Bangkok, your city is very beautiful.”

Our nerves were wearing thin. We also need to leave Thailand before the 28^th because that’s when our visas expire.  We can reenter Thailand two more times (which we will) but since we were too cheap to pay for better visas, we have to make a visa run and get new 30 day visas.  So we thought we’d head for the northern border and visit Laos for a couple of weeks.

We decided to splurge a little and take the train north from Bangkok to Nong Khai, the city on the MaeKong river, bordering Laos.  The train is slower than a bus, but you can move around a little and get some fresh air from time to time. It takes about 12 hours on the express train, which didn’t sound pleasant, so we looked into an overnight in a sleeper car. We thought a second class sleeper would be fantastic, they turn the benches into beds and pull curtains to give you a bit of privacy.  It’s twice the price, (certainly outside our budget) but we couldn’t bear the thought of freezing in a chair for 12 hours; people kicking our chair and creaming us with their handbags.  Second class beds were available, but just for fun, we inquired about a first class berth.  It’s a private cabin, not quite as nice as you’d get on a Canadian train, but you get a sink, temperature control and a lot more space. To our surprise, first class didn’t cost that much more than second class and they had cabins available. So we went for it!

We boarded the train at dusk and turned out the light in our cabin so we could see Bangkok as we rode through. The beds were comfy and the blankets were warm.  The best part is that we were in the last car, 12 cars from the noisy engine that kept waking me up on our last trip.  We fell asleep somewhere on the outskirts of Bangkok and woke up in a completely new place, well rested, and without kinks in our necks.

Now that we’re here, we don’t feel the least bit guilty about the cost.  It was, without a doubt, the best eighty bucks we ever spent!

 

 

So… Bangkok…

It’s fantastic. Huge, fascinating and friendly.

There is so much to see; you could visit a temple a day and never see them all in a year. In addition to temples, there are parks, forts, shopping malls and markets. And then there are palaces and royal barges. We also discovered parts of Bangkok that are beautiful but not on any map.

The people are very friendly. They know we’re tourists; we really don’t blend in at all (we’re huge for one thing). They love to practice their English; we were cornered by one guy in the grocery store who talked for a half an hour. He’s been to Canada once; he spent ten minutes telling us all about his love of maple syrup. He did give us plenty of travel advice - free of charge, much to our relief.

You see, there are a lot of “friendly” people here that love to chat: “Where you from?” “How long you here?” “Where you go next?” But for the most part, people are hoping to sell you something; flowers, food, tours, taxi rides. We’ve been rather firm about not accepting any gifts because they always cost you something, but today we were both trapped by a couple selling corn as bird feed.  The man grabbed my wrist and forced my hand open, then shoved three bags of corn into it. My resistance level was a little low at that point and I gave in rather quick.  I fed birds.  I heard Richard behind me saying, “No, no. I didn’t want any.  You put it into my hand.”

The woman replied, “You pay. Feed birds - is good luck.”

“But I didn’t want any. You made me take it.”

“One hundred fifty baht.”

“Ooooh, no.  Way too much. I didn’t want any.”

“How much you pay?”

“Nothing.  I didn’t want any.”

By then Rich had joined me. “Richard,” I said. “Just give her twenty.”

Richard pulled out a twenty, but the woman was not impressed. And she wanted me to pay too, of course. Rich gave her sixty altogether and we made a quick retreat.  She didn’t pursue us which confirms my thought that a couple of handfuls of corn is worth much less than 60 baht ($2 CAD).

We did have some good luck today. Everyone in this town has a pen handy and will gladly mark up your map and show you the best places to go. We found out, from more than one of the friendly locals, that today is Buddha Day. We’re told today is a great day for tourists as the government (Tourist Authority) pays tuk tuk drivers in the form of gas coupons to drive tourists around.  We were very skeptical at first, but for a mere 20 baht (65 cents Canadian), our tuk tuk driver drove us around for a couple of hours and waited while we visited a few places. He was an excellent driver – if you are trying to get somewhere fast, that is. He not only drove over the yellow line to get ahead of traffic, but we actually went all the way over into the curb lane of oncoming traffic on a couple of occasions. 

Our driver took us to the Lucky Buddha just before closing (just five minutes to spare). We’re told we are very lucky to have seen the Lucky Buddha; tourists are only allowed to visit once a year on Buddha Day. We were told he was 1200 years old and made of solid gold. I’m not sure he’s all that special though, he’s in a tiny room that has the look and feel of a storage closet and he doesn’t appear to be popular with the locals. He’s also not marked on our map.

During our tour, we were told by more than one person that we should visit the export center. It’s supposedly closed to tourists except for today (whatever). We didn’t have anything better planned so we went, or maybe we did, we’re not sure the driver took us to the right place. We did visit a suit shop where the owner explained that he could make us suits for a fraction of the price we’d pay in Canada. Richard replied with, “Oh, we know.” The shop owner wasn’t the least bit pushy about selling us suits and he actually did share some info on the export business and competition with the Chinese exporters. Not that we really cared, but no harm done.

We had to make one quick visit to a Tourist Authority (TAT) office – it’s basically a licensed tour agency – so that our tuk tuk driver could get his gas coupons. A guy chatted with us about our travel plans and gave us some info, but didn’t really try to sell us anything; he just gave us his card. We were only there five minutes.

We continued our tour with a few temples with various Buddha statues and when we’d had enough and it was time to pay our driver, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that he only expected the 20 baht that we’d agreed upon at the start. So we tipped him generously and said goodbye.

I was trying to get some real info on the Lucky Buddha and Buddha Day on the internet. I can’t find much information, only scam warnings. It’s seems that you can visit the Lucky Buddha whenever you want, not just once a year. The “scam” lures people to a jewelry store where they’re convinced to buy glass for the price of real gems. I’m not sure how the Lucky Buddha fits in; I guess it’s just an intermediate location where you are passed on to the next scam artist. We did talk to a guy at the temple (an employee), but we’re sure he never mentioned jewelry or anything.

I also think that Buddha Day is in May…

If there was a scam in the works, we never figured out what it was. I think our driver was on the level. So in that sense, we were lucky!

But we heard that Bangkok was full of scam artists and that we would have to be on guard at all times.  And - that you should never buy jewelry here unless you are an expert.  It turns out that the scam artists can be rather entertaining. We met a guy on the street that chatted us up and showed us the excellent jewelry he’d just bought for a very reasonable price.  He recommended we check out the store for ourselves. He pulled out a pen and snatched the map from Richard, who protested loudly, “No, we don’t want to go there.”

“You take a tuk tuk, it’s only twenty baht.”

“No tuk tuk, we’re not going.”

But the guy was already flagging down a tuk tuk. Richard continued his protest and I was no help because I couldn’t stop laughing. The guy was marking up our map and showing the tuk tuk driver where he should take us. Richard said, “You don’t need to show him because we aren’t going.”

I couldn’t help but notice the grin on the tuk tuk driver’s face, as if he understood some inside joke.

“No tuk tuk,” Rich repeated. “We aren’t going.”

Finally, the jewel expert surrendered our map with a big grin and said goodbye. To be honest, the thought of him being part of a huge gem scam never really crossed my mind until later; I just wasn’t interested in buying any jewelry.

But, to be fair, the scams are, at least indirectly, part of what make Bangkok so appealing to so many people.  Tourists come here to “indulge”. They come to enjoy a place where laws can be broken and rules can be bent. The signs say “We Don’t Check IDs”. But there are people who can sell you IDs if you want one.

We are currently in Bangkok.  It is definitely quite the place, but more about that later.  First, I’ll tell you about our journey here; it all started in Ranong, a quiet little town sort of nestled in the mountains.  Ranong isn’t big enough to have a McDonalds, but it has all of your basic amenities including pizza!  After being on the island of Koh Phanang, I was definitely ready to eat something other than chicken and rice.  Don’t get me wrong, I love chicken and rice and the chicken and rice on the island was some of the very best I’ve had.  However, 3 squares of chicken and rice for a week and something is going to give!  To go from Ranong to Bangkok we had the choice of taking a bus the whole way (9 hours) or taking a bus to Chumphon (alternate spelling of Chumporn which confused me for the longest time) and then taking a train to Bangkok.  The latter method would take longer and cost more but the majority of the time would be spent on the train, which is much nicer than the bus.  We went for the latter option.  Our bus left Ranong at 9:00am.  All of the helpful bus station cabbies informed us that we could take the big bus (2.5 hours) or we could take a mini-bus (1.5 hours) and the price would be the same…hmmm.  Whenever you hear a deal that sounds too good to be true, it is and someone is probably making a commission off of it; we chose the big bus.  The bus was air conditioned, it wasn’t too full, we didn’t make too many stops, what could go wrong?  In fact we were about a half hour from Chumphon when the bus pulled over on the side of the road.  No problem, picking someone up, dropping someone off, perhaps a quick washroom break; that’s what I was thinking until I noticed the engine flap on the bus was propped open and the bus guys were taking out a bunch of tools.  Ok, we had some sort of mechanical problem but it looked well under control.  Then they turned off the air conditioning; 35 ^oC, direct sun shining into a greenhouse like bus with 60 passengers, let’s just say it got hot really fast.  It didn’t take long before almost everyone got out of the bus (I say almost everyone because there’s always a couple of crazy locals wearing coats and sweaters that are completely oblivious to the heat).  We got drinks and were standing in the shade of the bus.  Did I mention the bus broke down in front of a gas station and a small store?  Anyways, the bus men were doing stuff in the engine compartment, they’re walking around with an engine part, they’ve got grease from they’re hands up to they’re elbows.  This went on for about half an hour.  The part never did go back in the engine and we ended up getting back on the bus as if nothing had happened.  I’m not sure what happened but I wonder if the guy who owned the store might have known the bus driver….hmmm? We did notice that the radio was off for the remainder of the trip (no more Thai country and western blaring through shot speakers). Maybe they were just trying to fix the radio? It ended up taking us 3 hours to go 123km.

We got into Chumphon, got dumped out on the side of the road, as usual, with no bus station in sight, once again nothing new here.  We didn’t have a map of Chumphon so that made navigation more challenging.  But we’re getting smart; instead of carrying around the heavy books with maps and directions and doing all that mental work, we just follow the people that look like they know where there going.  In this case, a couple of guys had a map and were going to the train station as well.  We followed them and in no time we saw the railway tracks (a good sign if you’re looking for a railway station) and were soon at the station.  We had been told and had read that you have to book your train tickets in advance because they’re generally sold out.  Of course we’ve also read that you can’t book in advance.  Apparently what happens is if you book a train ticket in advance from a tourist agent, someone actually goes to the station in person and purchases your ticket, and of course adds their commission.  At the station, we asked if there were any tickets available and there were.  To complicate matters however, there are three classes of ticket, various sub-classes and surcharges based on the distance you’re going and what time of day you’re riding.  I had spent about a half hour the night before on the train web site and never really figured it out.  Anyways, our choices were essentially 2^nd class seats or a 1^st class sleeper.  The 2^nd class seats were 490baht and the 1^st class sleeper was 1800baht (divide by 30 for Canadian).  Both of these tickets were on the night train which meant hanging out at really scary train stations in Chumphon, Bangkok or both in the night or really early morning.  We chose the 2^nd class, we are on a budget.  Of course we later decided we wanted to upgrade to 1^st (what the hell, how often to you get to have a sleeper compartment on a train for only $90).  Unfortunately they sold out while we contemplated.

All of our bus and train station adventure took place before noon.  Our train didn’t leave until 10:30pm which meant we had some time to kill.  It was blazing hot so the best place to go is the mall.  We found the mall; it was kind of small and boring.  And actually most of our hot afternoon in Chumphon was boring; we basically just ducked into air conditioned places which consisted mostly of 7-elevens and book stores.  There are only so many Slurpees and Squidy Burgers a person can enjoy.  And for some strange reason all of the book stores were air conditioned.  Unfortunately however all the books here are in Thai, go figure.  What’s really strange is that even though the books are in Thai, just about all of them have english titles.  This meant you’d read a really great title and pick up the book and be disappointed every time (unless there were pictures)!

Our train was about an hour late, which was good, because it meant instead of getting into the terrifying city of Bangkok at 5:40am we’d get in around 6:30am.  A city isn’t nearly as terrifying if the sun is up.  The train ride was good.  About the only complaint was that the air conditioning was too good (I know, how ironic).  Bryana woke up at about 3:00am shivering.  She had to dig out here touque and long sleeved shirt in addition to her fleece and blanket that she already had on.  Other than that, we slept remarkably well considering we were sitting the whole time.  We took our time finding a hotel, it’s hard to check into a place at 7:00am.  The hotels we looked at were quite unremarkable, a bit small and over our $7 price range, but we found one that isn’t too bad $9.  Time to explore Bangkok!

Well, we're back on the mainland.  We survived the motorcycle taxis today. We did suffer some injuries, but nothing serious. I was hit by a falling cashew or something during the off-road portion of our taxi ride. No significant bruising.  My driver also drove us into a bush once, but his body shielded me from the branches on impact. Unfortunately, Richard didn't make out as well. He made it all the way to town without incident and then burned his leg on the exhaust as he was getting off (just one reason that motorcycles and shorts don't mix). He's ok, though he pouted quite a bit and "joked" about being unable to travel in his condition. There's a bit of blistering, but we have a first aid kit, we should be able to prevent an infection. He says it doesn't hurt anymore. He seems ok otherwise, so he's probably not in shock. I'll wake him up a few times in the middle of the night to make sure he doesn't slip into a coma.

The most popular taxi in Thailand is the motorcycle taxi.  So far, we’ve always decided to walk instead of ride, mostly because we couldn’t imagine zipping along the lawless Thai streets with a heavy backpack and no helmet. People here do it all the time, but we’ve heard motorcycle accidents are one of the leading causes of death here - especially among tourists.  And it just doesn’t seem safe.  Thankfully, we’ve managed to avoid it… until now.

On Koh Phayam, there are no cars, no busses.  Not even much in the way of water taxis.  Just motorcycles.  But the island is big, and walking isn’t a very good option. It’s nearly 5km across the island to the beach where most of the chalets are.  Sure, it’s walk-able; but factor in our heavy packs and the 38 degree weather and you get a couple of canucks willing to give a motorcycle taxi a try.

It wasn’t as bad as either of us imagined.  First, there were paved roads much of the way (they are more like wide sidewalks), so the ride was quite smooth. Second, you don’t have to worry about your heavy pack; the driver will put it in front of the seat, between his legs and it seems to stay put.  The motorcycles are more like scooters that way, instead of a big engine with a gas tank on top, there is a gap between the seat and steering assembly where you can put a pack, a bag of fruit, or a kid… that sort of thing.

I will say, the driver I had was decent.  We drove through deep sand, over narrow bridges, between closely spaced trees and past some ugly dogs, but he never freaked out. He stayed calm and collected and wasn’t the least bit distracted by my screaming. Although, he did turn once or twice to make sure I was still behind him. Ok, honestly, I didn’t scream. I actually enjoyed the ride, but it was scary at times and I probably did gasp once or twice during the trip.

We still have to get back to the pier (we’re leaving today, so we’ll have to do it all over again. But, I’m looking forward to it this time. The trip here was fun and we never went all that fast.  Besides, I’m sure a motorcycle taxi on the island is safer than any vehicle on the mainland.

Well it’s another day in paradise.  It really is, for the most part.  The beach is 3km of uninterrupted sand.  It’s not super white but it’s a broad shallow beach with almost no one on it except for crabs, but they’re friendly.  We’re in our second beach bungalow.  We’ve already described what our first one was like.  Our new one is very similar to our first one, no ‘little’ critters yet, but we won’t be surprised when we find some, that’s just the way it is here, in paradise.  Our new place is much newer however, which is a good thing if you’re trying to avoid bugs (it doesn’t give them a chance to move in, or so our theory goes).  And our new place is much brighter.  It has 3 glass windows instead of 2 wood hatches as well as a sort of sky light in the bathroom; although there’s nothing more exciting than squatting in a dark bathroom wondering what’s in there with you (but you’re glad that you can’t see it).  Speaking of squatting, our new place has a western style toilet, I’m very happy about that.  Not that there’s anything wrong with the squatting toilets except that if you linger too long, your leg muscles stiffen up and it’s nearly impossible to stand up again, and the head rush is just awful. Also, our new place has a better bed, two lights, a garbage can and is nearly half the price.

Today Bryana went snorkeling.  I prefer reading my book on a shady part of the beach while she’s looking for fish.  Anyways, she had come back to shore and we were getting ready to head back when Bryana spotted a huge spider coming towards us.  Normally when Bryana sees a ‘huge’ spider, you have to take it with a grain of salt because she’s been known to exaggerate - about spiders, that is.  They aren’t her favorite creatures so she tends to emphasize their size, speed, ferocity or the size of their fangs, etc.  But let me tell you - not this time.  This spider was the largest spider I’ve ever seen in the wild.  It would have easily filled the palm of your hand, although I’m just estimating; no experiment took place.  The spider was slowly walking towards us and before we could fully contemplate our situation a wasp soared over and began to attack the spider.  The wasp was big, but nothing too remarkable.  Anyways, the two of them rolled around on the ground for a bit, and we were kind of watching speechlessly, wishing we had brought our camera.  It was kind of like watching an episode of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom except we were right there!  The fight didn’t last long and the wasp was victorious, somewhat to my surprise since the spider had the definite size advantage.  We then wondered what would happen next.  The wasp sort of bit the quivering spider but didn’t seem that interested in its prey.  It actually flew away for a moment.  It returned however and started to drag the spider.  It had a very hard time since the spider was many times its size.  Eventually the wasp began to drag the spider away.  The wasp even managed to walk along the side of a rock with the spider in tow sort of dangling beneath it; the spider looked kind of like a bizarre marionette with the wasp at the top controlling the spiders’ motion.  That was about all we watched, we were both ready to leave and the wasp took it to a dark corner between a couple of rocks.

We learned an important lesson today – Take your camera with you!

And… maybe roaches aren’t so bad…?

We’re actually staying in a grass hut! Well, the walls are made from weaved palm. The floors are wood, but the boards are just far enough apart to be problematic - I almost lost my comb this morning, but there are other little problems that find their way through the cracks at night.

We don’t mind the geckos, in fact, we like them. They’re cute, sometimes a little loud, but we don’t mind that too much. They are free to come and go as they please.  We prefer they don’t walk underfoot, but we’ve only had one near incident so far.

There are probably a few mosquitoes about at night, but we have a coil lit when we’re in there and a mosquito net does the trick.

Last night, as we carefully tucked in our mosquito net, the last thing on my mind was mosquitoes. We have a roach living in our bedpost! It’s a big, hollow bamboo rod and we’ve seen the little bugger way down inside.  We didn’t react too much at first but it took a while to agree on a method to deal with him.  We shoved a rag in the bamboo and covered the top with 4 layers of plastic bag.  We figure he’ll be down there a while.

We sat on the beach for a few hours and watched shooting stars. Rich wanted to go to bed but I figured we had lots of time before the lights went out. But the power went off early, 11pm instead of midnight, so we had to find our way back with our little LEDs. Not too bad until we opened our chalet door.  Richard stomped the first cockroach with his flip flop.  We can’t agree exactly what happened, Rich thinks he missed, but I’m sure he didn’t.  We know the roach ran away when he picked up his foot. Maybe flip flops are ineffective.

There was at least one more, but the both of us jumped into bed, tucked in the last corner of our roach net and went to sleep.

Remember how it was Richard’s birthday? Well, we’ve yet to celebrate.  I don’t think our roach hut counts.  The last place didn’t either, we think the mattress was a wood plank covered with a ‘thick’ sheet.

This island is really sweet (Koh Phayam) and the beach is nice.  We’d like to stay a little while… so we’re going to look at other “resorts” today.  Maybe we’ll find something a little… less occupied.

Today we’re in a town of about 20 000 people called Ranong (its right at the southern tip of Myanmar but in Thailand).  Getting here went alright, which is to say we’ve learned a few things about getting around and not screwing things up.  First of all; last night while still in Phuket (the place that we departed from) we walked to the bus station to find out where it was, how much busses cost and when they leave (all things we’ve had trouble with in the past).  Just before we got to the bus station, we got stopped at the ubiquitous ‘tour agency’.  Everyone here believes they’re a tourism guru and runs an ‘agency’.  I’m not exactly sure how they work.  I think each agency has contacts with various hotels and companies which they then try and push on you (while telling you everything else is bad).  I guess the tour agencies here are pretty much like the ones back home.  After being told a bus ticket would cost us about $20 CAD we stumbled around the corner and found the bus station where they cost $10.  Anyways, we now knew where the station was, what times the busses left and how much the tickets cost.

In the morning, we made the arduous, pack laden journey to the bus station.  It blows my mind how many people ask you where you’re going when you get to the station.  Everyone from taxi drivers to…I don’t know who else!  But it’s annoying.  I’m getting to the point where I want to tell them it’s none of their damn business.  When one guy asked where we were going, I told him “the ticket counter,” he laughed.  For the most part I think they’re sincerely trying to be helpful.  We’ve often asked them questions and have generally been pointed in the right direction.

We then bought our tickets and had some time to kill.  We sat right in front of our bus so we wouldn’t miss it (a lesson we haven’t learned the hard way but it just seems obvious).  While sitting there, eating Corn Flakes from the box (and yes, I can be bought if any other cereal company would like me to endorse their product) we were still being asked where we were going.  It seems pretty obvious to me, we’re sitting, surrounded by our luggage, in front of a bus, tickets in hand, where do you think we’re going?  I was starting to wonder if North American hand gestures work in Thailand.

It was finally time to board the bus.  I quickly ran to the bathroom since I had 6 hours of questionable toilets ahead.  Most of the bathrooms here you have to pay for.  That, of course, goes against my nature but it’s actually not so bad.  It generally only costs about $0.07 CAD (another lesson painfully learned, my first bathroom in Thailand I got swindled and had to pay 10 times that).  The people who collect the money clean the bathroom which usually translates into a reasonably clean facility.  Even so, I did pay for the service so I tried to squeeze out my monies worth.  Unfortunately we had recently left the hotel so I didn’t do that well.  There also wasn’t any toilet paper to stuff into my pockets so I had to try and get my $0.07 worth by washing my hands really well.

Once on the air conditioned bus, another lesson we’ve learned, it was time to sit down.  Since we had purchased a 1^st class ticket we had assigned seat numbers.  I was rather proud of having a 1^st class ticket although I have no idea how 2^nd class differs.  There of course were people already sitting in our seats.  Normally we wouldn’t have really cared; all of the seats were basically the same.  However, we learned our lesson on the Jungle Train when we got displaced from our seats because they, in fact, were someone else’s.  We nicely asked them to move but they didn’t.  There was that whole language barrier problem and after them not allegedly understanding what we were asking and us definitely not understanding their answer, we gave up and sat somewhere else.

When we left the bus terminal, A/C blasting in our faces, I was very happy that the bus was only half full (I’d say half empty but I like to believe I’m an optimist).  However this is a lesson I should have learned long ago:  Just because the bus isn’t full at the station doesn’t mean it won’t fill along the way, and oh, how it did.  We kept stopping and more and more people kept getting on.  But it was ok, it was a big bus and there was lots of room.  But we kept stopping and more people kept getting on.  I was thinking to myself that it was a 6 hour trip, they wouldn’t make people stand for that long, that would be inhumane.  But they kept getting on.  Soon the seats were full and they started filling the aisle.  And they kept coming.  To make a long story (and an even longer trip) short, I spent the next few hours with some guy practically sitting on my lap.  Apparently local etiquette permits one to borrow someone else’s arm rest if you don’t have a seat.  In Thailand, it’s not ok to lick your fingers or to touch a monk, but shoving your butt in someone’s face for a few hours is just fine!

Fortunately, the crowd started to thin out and the latter part of the trip was good (we watched Aliens dubbed in Thai).  Our arrival in Ranong kind of snuck up on me.  I generally like to have my stuff packed up and be ready to jump off the bus.  But before I knew it, we were told we were in Ranong and were in the blazing afternoon heat.  Despite there being a bus station in Ranong, our bus didn’t feel compelled to stop there.  It was on the other side of the road so rather than crossing over, they simply dump you off on the shoulder.  So there you are, trying to get all your stuff together, figure out where you are and trying not to get killed by the cars flying by.  But of course, the cabbies were there to help us “where you go?”  We didn’t say anything.  We packed our stuff up and consulted our Lonely Planet guide (I’m sure the cabbies must hate that book).  Our hotel was supposed to be right near the bus station.  When we told the cabbie that we were going to the Kiwi Hotel, he looked at us with distain and walked away.  I knew we must be close.  Bryana spotted the place first but before we could get across the highway the cabbie came back.  He tried to convince us that the Kiwi Hotel wasn’t very nice and that he could take us to better and cheaper places in town.  I asked him if he had stayed at the Kiwi Hotel but he didn’t really answer.  He just kept trying to tell us that it was a bad place to stay.  Much later, after walking around the town and looking at some of the other hotels available, he might have been right, but neither of us will ever know.

There is another blog by Bry added below!

There are a lot of cockroaches in south Asia.  We’re not the least bit surprised by their numbers, but we are continually astonished by their size and speed. If you manage to find one during the day, it may appear sluggish, but at night they can move faster than shadows.  Shadows, by the way, are just as scary as cockroaches themselves, because you simply don’t know. I watched Rich flick toiletries out of his bag with a fork until he found the shadow he was looking for. 

The cockroaches come in a variety of colors, patterns and sizes. Some would almost be lovely, if they weren’t roaches. We have seen some really large specimens here, certainly the largest I’ve seen alive in the wild. There are some even larger ones for sale at the market. I’m not sure how they are “prepared” for consumption. I do hope they are specially bred for consumption, not just captured from the cracks in the sidewalks late at night. We have seen many running around the streets and we’ve seen many dead ones – some poisoned, some stomped. A dying cockroach flips onto its back to greet the afterlife.  The stomped ones never get a chance.  Interestingly enough, the roaches for sale at the market are generally lying on their backs in the bowl.

As you know, garlic is great for warding off vampires.  Also excellent for keeping your friends and family at a distance.  I would not, however, try garlic as a roach repellant.  We wandered into one of the local markets on Koh Phi Phi and found a bin full of garlic completely infested with roaches.  They seem to love the stuff. I wondered how one would go about purchasing some of that garlic, but we didn’t wait around. We know for certain that we will not be buying any garlic or storing any in our room for the remainder of our trip, not that we would have done that without good reason anyhow.

Thankfully, most of our roach encounters have been outdoors (or at least not in our room).  We have discovered that the guesthouses with shared bathrooms are not only cheaper, but any roaches that exist in the guesthouse will probably be found in or near the bathrooms (because of the water). So when the taxi drivers say “Bah, that place no good! Only shared bathroom,” we can smile and say “Good enough for us.”

Just a quick note about Phi Phi Island (very little internet time available).

Beautiful bunch of islands, also the location where “The Beach” was filmed. It’s also very, very popular and way too crowded to enjoy for more than a couple of days. But as the pictures show, it’s really spectacular.

The town in Koh Phi Phi was devastated by the Tsunami, but it’s almost completely rebuilt now and what a crazy town it is.  In fact, the town was what we enjoyed most (since the beach was too busy).

Richard’s Note:  The locals pronounce Phi Phi as Pee Pee.  Funny enough.  This of course makes the local hospital called (phonetically) Pee Pee Hospital.  (Perhaps the Sun is getting to me!)

We’re now in Phuket for a couple of nights. We’re staying at the On On Hotel – an old Flop House about 80 years old. When we first walked in I found it to be a little eerie – but oddly familiar.  Turns out it’s the hotel where the opening of The Beach is filmed.  Room #38 (not our room) but really neat nonetheless.  I should mention; The Beach is a popular film around here.

Tomorrow is Richards Birthday, so we’re getting up early and looking for a hotel with Hot Water and Air Con! Then we’ll sit around all day and do nothing (which is what Rich wants to do). Richard also wants pizza and wants me to eat a cockroach from the market.  I doubt that will happen.

I woke up freezing this morning - well, chilly anyway. That doesn't happen often. I feel compelled to share this with you because it was actually 28 degrees in our room and if I think that's cold, I must finally be adjusting to the heat.

 

We missed the boat this morning, partly because we had no idea when or where to catch it. It's ok, we'll catch the 3pm from Krabi town and it's a little cheaper anyway - and it gives us a chance to upload a few new pics!

Today we visited a pharmacy in Krabi Town. We were met by a very nice Chinese fellow at the door.  He asked, “What would you like?”

“Do you have something for mosquito bites?” I asked.

“For you?”

“Yes,” I replied. He looked at my arm and rushed me over to the counter.

“How long you have this problem?” he asked.

I was a little confused, of course. The first thing that came to mind is all my life. But that didn’t make much sense. Then I thought, ever since the little buggers poked me? I probably should have mentioned that they were Malaysian mosquitoes. I couldn’t imagine what he was asking, so I just shrugged and said, “I get new bites every night.”

He asked me something else I didn’t understand and I asked him to repeat it. The second time I figured it out because of the scratching motion he made with his hand on his arm. “Do you have itch?”

I was speechless for a moment. I’d like to know if he is immune to mosquito bites, because he seemed really clueless.

Dumbfounded, I nodded. “Yes.”

“Here,” he said, pulling a small box from beneath the glass. “You put this on the spots, two times a day.”

“Ok, sounds good.”

Then he asked if I had allergies or was taking any medication.  I was impressed; he was really on the ball.  He also sold me some antihistamines, which I haven’t used because the cream seems to be working.

But he wasn’t done with me yet - he guided me over to some shelves on the wall and with a bit of a chuckle he said, “You should get this too, I think.”

Ah, of course! Mosquito repellant.

 

I just want to mention, I have been using repellant, but the only thing I could find before today was “natural and non-toxic” – It made me smell like a lemon. It works a bit, but you need to put more on every hour and the mosquitoes are really good at locating a clear spot of skin (finger tips, ears, eyelids). We’ve also been using our mosquito net and mosquito coils and we usually have a fan in our room. But between the open sewers and the complete lack of wind, it’s a losing battle. These guys are fast, they’re everywhere and you never feel them until it’s too late.  For some reason, the buggers don’t think Rich is as tasty.  I think however, the real problem is simply that I react badly to the mosquitoes here.

But now I’m a walking pharmacy and all is well!

We had a great day at Wat Tham Seua, otherwise known as the Tiger Cave Temple. It’s not far from Krabi Town, where we’re staying for the next couple of days. The Temple itself is quite nice, but the Tiger Cave is only one of several in the area. There is also a mountain towering above the temple where a huge Buddha has been built. So, of course, we felt compelled to go up there.

We realize now that we were sissies when we complained about the horrible, hot, sweaty climb to the Batu Caves in Malaysia. What we did today was much, much more difficult. It’s about 600m to the peak of the mountain, 1237 steps plus a bunch at the top to get to the peak. Some of the steps were huge, sometimes it felt like we were climbing a ladder it was so steep. And it was hot. We had the foresight to start our climb at 9AM, while it was still cool. Not that it was cool, but the Sun wasn’t quite as ferocious and it was less hot than 34 degrees (the daily high). Including more than a few rest stops and several photo ops with monkeys, it took about 45 minutes to get to the top. The view was absolutely stunning. It was worth the climb, but I really think they’d make a killing if they put in a cable car.

The caves were alright, some are lit up so you can explore a bit. Some of the stalactites and stalagmites are incredible and the caves are probably all named for an object which the formations resemble.

The food options in the area were terrible. We ate a scary lunch today… we’ll see…

My favorite part of the day was seeing the old trees in the area.  Hidden inside a circle of mountains there is a small valley full of some really old jungle.  In the center, there is a 1000 year old tree that fell over just a year and a half ago. I guess technically, you'd have to say it WAS a tree.

Enjoy the new pictures!