Short and sweet this one... in Vang Vieng in Laos, which is a tourist town which to the eye is a cross between a bomb site and blackpool... in the town. Its saving grace is the river and the funky hilled background scenery. You can go tubing, kayaking etc... down the river and check out the local caves.
However, we ain't done any of that yet due to a bit of a session last night! (Those who's been here will know what I mean!) Still, at a quid a day for accomodation you can afford to waste a day. The 24 hour 'Friends' places here are hilarious though!
Oh for those in NZ, WE SOLD THE CAR!!! (Thank you Cynthia.x)
Monday, November 28, 2005
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Cruising along the river
...on a 2 day trip into Laos. Yup 2 7 hour days on the boat is enough to drive you insane. Hannah was right to suggest to avoid it, cause it's cramped (especially for a daddy long legs like me) and the scnery doesn't change much for 2 days.... i.e. brown river.... green hills. Still, met a couple of new friends on the boat though. Sounds really bad, but after seeing the amazing scenery in NZ, the river cruise is not that impressive. What is cool though is the architecture, the temples, the people etc.....
So we're in Lam Phra Bang (or something) in Laos now, which is very similar to Thailand, but the people are much friendlier and actually take 'no' for an answer! It's no cheaper than Thailand (in this area anyway), which we didn't expect, as the guidebooks implied it would be. Gonna check 'Pussy mountain' out today (AYE!) which has another temple on it.... then it's time for a bike hire to cycle out to the big ass waterfall (30km) which will be good, as we've done bugger all exercise since we left! ...and we have the running shoes with us too.
It's actually quite a bit cooler at the moment, which is good, as I'm sick of sweating like a 'white boy' and actually had to wear jeans and a long sleeved top for the boat trip... hardly exciting news I know! So more importantly, the local beer here is 'Beer Lao', which is only 5% and 55p a pint, which is a refreshingly lightweight change from the 6.5% 70p 'Beer Chang' which we were getting mullered on in Thailand!
Gonna be spending a few more days in Laos before we go back to Bankok to catch up with Maz and Amar for a 4 quid all you can eat Japanese Sushi/Sashimi/Teriyaki fest. Speaking of food, we're on for a 9 course feast tonight for a few quid too! It's amazing how tight (me... tight?..... surely not...) you get in these places, doing the old Del boy negotiations to save yourself 50p or so! BUT HEY, YOU HAVE TO! Otherwise these boys will be putting up the prices for the white boys even more, which we don't need. You can clearly see the difference in the price that the locals pay for things as opposed to the 'farrang' .... foreingers.
Seen a bit of footy on the telly here which is a result too! Did catch the England vs. Argentina game the other week too - 3-2 baby yeah! Was kinda weird watching it in the hotel; we booked a room with a TV that night as the bars closed at 1a.m. and it wasn't on till 3a.m.! Sure I managed to wake a few people in there when the boy wonder put his 2 headers in - altogether now... ING...GER.....LAND....!
Everywhere you go here people keep chickens, but no sign of any bird flu around at the mo. We've actually been monching away on the old poultry since we've been here with no worries (so far).... mozzie bites are more of an issue! 'Cause everyone and there dog here owns chickens, they have a rooster too. Contrary to childhood beliefs of cock-a-doodle-doing only at dawn each day, these noisy buggers go for it all day and night, in a constant challenge of male superiority with the other boys in the area.... Top tip for travellers - BUY SOME EARPLUGS!
Right, had the brekkie baguette and beer, so off to take some Japanese photo's and annoy 'tuk tuk' drivers by asking them if they'd like a 'tuk tuk' before they ask us!
Sa-wa-dee......
So we're in Lam Phra Bang (or something) in Laos now, which is very similar to Thailand, but the people are much friendlier and actually take 'no' for an answer! It's no cheaper than Thailand (in this area anyway), which we didn't expect, as the guidebooks implied it would be. Gonna check 'Pussy mountain' out today (AYE!) which has another temple on it.... then it's time for a bike hire to cycle out to the big ass waterfall (30km) which will be good, as we've done bugger all exercise since we left! ...and we have the running shoes with us too.
It's actually quite a bit cooler at the moment, which is good, as I'm sick of sweating like a 'white boy' and actually had to wear jeans and a long sleeved top for the boat trip... hardly exciting news I know! So more importantly, the local beer here is 'Beer Lao', which is only 5% and 55p a pint, which is a refreshingly lightweight change from the 6.5% 70p 'Beer Chang' which we were getting mullered on in Thailand!
Gonna be spending a few more days in Laos before we go back to Bankok to catch up with Maz and Amar for a 4 quid all you can eat Japanese Sushi/Sashimi/Teriyaki fest. Speaking of food, we're on for a 9 course feast tonight for a few quid too! It's amazing how tight (me... tight?..... surely not...) you get in these places, doing the old Del boy negotiations to save yourself 50p or so! BUT HEY, YOU HAVE TO! Otherwise these boys will be putting up the prices for the white boys even more, which we don't need. You can clearly see the difference in the price that the locals pay for things as opposed to the 'farrang' .... foreingers.
Seen a bit of footy on the telly here which is a result too! Did catch the England vs. Argentina game the other week too - 3-2 baby yeah! Was kinda weird watching it in the hotel; we booked a room with a TV that night as the bars closed at 1a.m. and it wasn't on till 3a.m.! Sure I managed to wake a few people in there when the boy wonder put his 2 headers in - altogether now... ING...GER.....LAND....!
Everywhere you go here people keep chickens, but no sign of any bird flu around at the mo. We've actually been monching away on the old poultry since we've been here with no worries (so far).... mozzie bites are more of an issue! 'Cause everyone and there dog here owns chickens, they have a rooster too. Contrary to childhood beliefs of cock-a-doodle-doing only at dawn each day, these noisy buggers go for it all day and night, in a constant challenge of male superiority with the other boys in the area.... Top tip for travellers - BUY SOME EARPLUGS!
Right, had the brekkie baguette and beer, so off to take some Japanese photo's and annoy 'tuk tuk' drivers by asking them if they'd like a 'tuk tuk' before they ask us!
Sa-wa-dee......
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Elephants, hill tribes and jungle food
Alright peeps. Just got back from the 3 day trek we talked about last time. There was 8 of us (2 POM's, 2 Kiwi's, 3 Ozzies and a Canadian), an awesome group, which really made the trip a success. Stayed in the bamboo huts up in the mountains, played footy with the kids, let off fireworks etc... good fun. The kiwi-couple had fire poi's with them (which ended up being nicked overnight at the second village... another story) so put on a show for the village too, which they'd never seen before and thouroughly enjoyed. Nice to give them something back, as it's kinda strange waltzing into their village and eyeing them 'zoo-like'.
The elephant ride was really cool, but you felt for the elephants as the thai guys threatened them with sticks or catapults in order to keep them moving. Amazing creatures that deserve respect, I got to ride on the head too!
The funniest part of the trip was the bamboo rafting on the river on the last day - 3 rafts on a river, with us in good spirits. We lasted about 2 minutes before we started splashing the other boats, then jumped on them pirate style to push before off. Eventually, we took apart the bindings so the rafts came apart. The tour guide at the end of the run was cracking up with us lot 'swimming' in to power the delapidated raft!
Going for a meal tonight with the guys from the trip - the food was nice on the trip, but I can't wait to get my teeth into a peppered steak!
Will try and upload a couple of photo's before I sign off!
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Chillin'in Chang Mai
Air conditioning...... what a wonderful thing. You certainly miss it when you don't have it, especially in 30-35c of heat!
Well, we've headed up North to Thailands 2nd biggest city, Chang mai - just in time for the Full Moon festival, which is a slightly different affair to the Full Moon Party that you hear about in Thailand. On the 16th November each year, the little ol'Thai folk have a mass street parade, light lots of candles on floating flower things to let go down the river, and release small hot air balloons, all with the intention of getting rid of the evil spirits and having a more prosperous following year..... good stuff! We've been in the thick of it for the last two nights now and the parades have been fantastic, with a displays of traditional dancing, fire eating, dressing up etc..... but the best thing in the parade was a full on boogie'ing donkey. I don't know how many years of torturous training it went through to get there, but it sure looked cool! We joined in on the flower lighting/balloon releaseing too, although our first attempt at sending up the balloon went tits up! We bought a cheap-ass one from a group of students, and when we lit the fuel it released a fireball of flame and some ominous black smoke. Everyone around took cover as we tried to keep hold of the damn thing until it filled with hot air and would take off, but the heat got too much too quick and we sort of launched it skywards with a hope that it would make it! However, the wind caught it and it sailed up into the nearest tree - panic time! I thought the damn thing was gonna set the tree alight and we'd be the bloody foreigners recking the joint, but luckily it escaped the clutches of the branches before going out and plopping back into the river to start it's sad journey downstream. We looked like proper muppets too, all a bit embarrasing and not a good way to clense the evil demons - the thais around us certainly had a good laugh! Oh well, we managed to release another last night with success, so there's hope for us yet!
Chang Mai is a few degrees cooler than Bankok and has less pollution, I much prefer it. There's less hassle on the streets and a much more chilled feel. We've had a couple of lazy days, which is great after all of the manic travelling. The bus up here was a 12 hour overnight affair, bloody awful... think we'll splash out on an air fair for the next long-haul trip!
We're off for the 3 day trekking trip tomorrow in the hills, which I think everyone who comes here does.... we're apparently doing the 'non-tourist' trip.... yeah right.... of course.... All the usual fun and games though, elephant riding, bamboo rafting etc.... you know the score.
After that it's a journey up to Laos, followed by the 2 day slow boat trip (Sorry Hannah, we booked it before your advice not too!) and eventually we'll head South.
Alright, enough waffle, gotta get this damn external CD writer working to get the photo's sorted out!
A BIG THANK-YOU to those that e-mailed me back after the last post... now let's see if I can get a couple of photo's onto this thing!
Oh yeah, we did a Thai cooking course the other day too, so be prepared to be impressed with some xmas red curry when I get back!
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Bankok Ladyboys!
Ok - we're still alive! Been a while since we last wrote with any news, but made it up from Sydney (which I thought was a great city) to Bankok, which I think is a CRAZY city! Cheap as chips, but busier than Hong Kong and the traffice is nuts - 12km in a taxi took 2 hours!
We stayed for 2 nights in a cheapy Backpackers joint around the corner from Kao Sang road, which is the main backpackers area in Bankok, and also convenient to go see the Grand Palace, temples etc... It was clean, but basic, and we spent the last 2 in a slightly upgraded guest house, which has a pool and HOT WATER! It's scorching hot and humid here - 32/33 and pretty damn sweaty. Confused the poor buggers at the airport when I turned up with my snowboard bag!
You get hassled about every 5 seconds here. Tuk tuk drivers are a pain in the ar$e, and the usual scams have been tried by everyone - but we've been advised of them by mates and our trusty guidebook, so so far (touch wood) we haven't been done!
The food is err.... good - if you venture off the main streets, where you get noodles and chicken, noodles and pork, or noodles and vegetables for about 50p. The 'American Style' breakfast I had one morning consisted of an egg boiled to extinction (no soldier dippig here!), two pathetic strips of bacon and a couple of slices of toast......... not good! What is good is the ice coffee (hmm......) and the spicy beef salads. Thinking I'm hardcore with the chillies, I went for the spicy salad and consequently got laughed at for about half an hour by Kat as she watched about 5 pints of sweat run down my face. 45 minutes, 2 glasses of water, a beer, an ice coffee and a large glass of milk later I had the damn thing polished off!
We've managed to catch up with both Maz and Amar since we've been here. Both are happy and well, and both are getting married to Thai birds next year! We also bumped into our friend from New Zealand randomly while at a bar - it's a small world!
Drinks are cheap - with a 6.5% 750ml Chang bear costing 40p in the 7-11, or 1 pound 10p in the pub. You can sit on the street with a 'bucket of strong coctail' for 3 quid, which did a great trick of getting us hammered the other night.
Kao san road bussles day and night and to be honest, we're now pretty sick of it! We went to MBK today, which is a 7-storey shopping mall, which has everything you can imagine at pretty cheap prices. Once we've done the travelling around and end up back here I can see a monster shopping trip on the cards!
In an hour or 2 we're leaving Bankok (wahoo!) to head up North to Chang Mai, where we've booked onto a few 'proper' tourist trips; the trekking, elephant riding, bamboo rafting etc.... It's actually the full-moon festival on the 17th, where they make a big thing of it up there and have boat racing, lots of candles on lotus flowers on the river...... and apparently isn't to be missed since we've timed the trip so well..... hmmm..... good salesman speak I'd say! - we'll see. We also booked on a Thai cooking course up there, so prepare to be amazed by our authentic green curry when we get back at xmas.
To be honest, I'm looking forward to getting up there to chill a little, without the hussle and bussle of here. We checked out the temples (very impressive and colourful) and have seen the ladyboys, the thai boxing etc... so Bankok for now is done and dusted.
After a week in Chang Mai, we'll be heading up into Laos for a 2 day boat trip. It's a requirement really, as we need to go out of the country to renew the visa on re-entry.... I'm really looking forward to heading down South after that to the islands - Phuket, Pipi Kao tao etc... I can see some scuba diving on the cards
Oh yeah - saw the England vs. Argentina game last night- GOOD SH!T.... the boy wonder did good - slightly odd listening to the Thai commentary though at 3 in the morning! We'd been up Pat Pong earlier with Amar and Maz, and Kat got to experience the famous lady-boys that I'd been fooled with last time I was here! Luckily, she was fooled too.... so I'm not that blind/naive after all...
Seems we also beat Oz and NZ at Rugby too - pity we left that perfomance till we left!
Ok - getting hot in here and we've gotta get moving.... send some news if you have some!
We stayed for 2 nights in a cheapy Backpackers joint around the corner from Kao Sang road, which is the main backpackers area in Bankok, and also convenient to go see the Grand Palace, temples etc... It was clean, but basic, and we spent the last 2 in a slightly upgraded guest house, which has a pool and HOT WATER! It's scorching hot and humid here - 32/33 and pretty damn sweaty. Confused the poor buggers at the airport when I turned up with my snowboard bag!
You get hassled about every 5 seconds here. Tuk tuk drivers are a pain in the ar$e, and the usual scams have been tried by everyone - but we've been advised of them by mates and our trusty guidebook, so so far (touch wood) we haven't been done!
The food is err.... good - if you venture off the main streets, where you get noodles and chicken, noodles and pork, or noodles and vegetables for about 50p. The 'American Style' breakfast I had one morning consisted of an egg boiled to extinction (no soldier dippig here!), two pathetic strips of bacon and a couple of slices of toast......... not good! What is good is the ice coffee (hmm......) and the spicy beef salads. Thinking I'm hardcore with the chillies, I went for the spicy salad and consequently got laughed at for about half an hour by Kat as she watched about 5 pints of sweat run down my face. 45 minutes, 2 glasses of water, a beer, an ice coffee and a large glass of milk later I had the damn thing polished off!
We've managed to catch up with both Maz and Amar since we've been here. Both are happy and well, and both are getting married to Thai birds next year! We also bumped into our friend from New Zealand randomly while at a bar - it's a small world!
Drinks are cheap - with a 6.5% 750ml Chang bear costing 40p in the 7-11, or 1 pound 10p in the pub. You can sit on the street with a 'bucket of strong coctail' for 3 quid, which did a great trick of getting us hammered the other night.
Kao san road bussles day and night and to be honest, we're now pretty sick of it! We went to MBK today, which is a 7-storey shopping mall, which has everything you can imagine at pretty cheap prices. Once we've done the travelling around and end up back here I can see a monster shopping trip on the cards!
In an hour or 2 we're leaving Bankok (wahoo!) to head up North to Chang Mai, where we've booked onto a few 'proper' tourist trips; the trekking, elephant riding, bamboo rafting etc.... It's actually the full-moon festival on the 17th, where they make a big thing of it up there and have boat racing, lots of candles on lotus flowers on the river...... and apparently isn't to be missed since we've timed the trip so well..... hmmm..... good salesman speak I'd say! - we'll see. We also booked on a Thai cooking course up there, so prepare to be amazed by our authentic green curry when we get back at xmas.
To be honest, I'm looking forward to getting up there to chill a little, without the hussle and bussle of here. We checked out the temples (very impressive and colourful) and have seen the ladyboys, the thai boxing etc... so Bankok for now is done and dusted.
After a week in Chang Mai, we'll be heading up into Laos for a 2 day boat trip. It's a requirement really, as we need to go out of the country to renew the visa on re-entry.... I'm really looking forward to heading down South after that to the islands - Phuket, Pipi Kao tao etc... I can see some scuba diving on the cards
Oh yeah - saw the England vs. Argentina game last night- GOOD SH!T.... the boy wonder did good - slightly odd listening to the Thai commentary though at 3 in the morning! We'd been up Pat Pong earlier with Amar and Maz, and Kat got to experience the famous lady-boys that I'd been fooled with last time I was here! Luckily, she was fooled too.... so I'm not that blind/naive after all...
Seems we also beat Oz and NZ at Rugby too - pity we left that perfomance till we left!
Ok - getting hot in here and we've gotta get moving.... send some news if you have some!
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Sydney - the Travelling begins!
Leaving Queenstown was a sad, sad day; not least because most of our mates turned up to a last day farewell lunch, but luckily we were in a true rush and left quickly before the blubbering got underway!
We caught up with Jero, Shanna and Tai in Christchhurch (who we used to live with before heading to Queenstown) which was cool, before flying up to Auckland the next morning. Luckily we saw Cynthia and Trev at Auckland airport, who'd just got back from their Asian mission (sans luggage - ha ha!) so got to say a proper good-bye to them too. We had to leave them the car, as some F'wit had said they'd buy it on the last night, but changed their mind in the morning - lesson learned - trust no-one!
SYDNEY ROCKS! It reminds me a lot of Hong Kong, but without the smog! There's loadsa shops, restaurants, bars etc.... but really nice beaches too (Manly, Bondi etc...). Bev and Chris came up from Camberra for the weekend too. It was great to see them, and of course we had a good old drinking sesh Friday and Saturday nights. Rach and Todd caught up with us Saturday too, so we all trundled around a few (too poncy) bars in the search of some real 'cheese', which we found about 2 a.m.!
We went over to the zoo yesterday, which is pretty cool, although being a roasting hot Sunday there were loadsa kids there.... GEEZUS... a flamethrower was needed to sort some of the screaming little bu$$ers out! The bird show was the highlight of the day and it looks like I got a few good photo's, so I'll try ad get them up on the blog at some stage.
Gutted my IPod's kicked the bucket after doing the latest (12-10-2005) update on the firmware - a warning for you 4th Gen 40gb ownders - don't do it! Was gonna store the photo's on that as I travel around, but looks like I'm gonna be paying over the odds at internet cafe's now!
Right, getting the 'get off the blody computer' line from Kat, so enough from me for now... more when we get to Thailand.
We caught up with Jero, Shanna and Tai in Christchhurch (who we used to live with before heading to Queenstown) which was cool, before flying up to Auckland the next morning. Luckily we saw Cynthia and Trev at Auckland airport, who'd just got back from their Asian mission (sans luggage - ha ha!) so got to say a proper good-bye to them too. We had to leave them the car, as some F'wit had said they'd buy it on the last night, but changed their mind in the morning - lesson learned - trust no-one!
SYDNEY ROCKS! It reminds me a lot of Hong Kong, but without the smog! There's loadsa shops, restaurants, bars etc.... but really nice beaches too (Manly, Bondi etc...). Bev and Chris came up from Camberra for the weekend too. It was great to see them, and of course we had a good old drinking sesh Friday and Saturday nights. Rach and Todd caught up with us Saturday too, so we all trundled around a few (too poncy) bars in the search of some real 'cheese', which we found about 2 a.m.!
We went over to the zoo yesterday, which is pretty cool, although being a roasting hot Sunday there were loadsa kids there.... GEEZUS... a flamethrower was needed to sort some of the screaming little bu$$ers out! The bird show was the highlight of the day and it looks like I got a few good photo's, so I'll try ad get them up on the blog at some stage.
Gutted my IPod's kicked the bucket after doing the latest (12-10-2005) update on the firmware - a warning for you 4th Gen 40gb ownders - don't do it! Was gonna store the photo's on that as I travel around, but looks like I'm gonna be paying over the odds at internet cafe's now!
Right, getting the 'get off the blody computer' line from Kat, so enough from me for now... more when we get to Thailand.
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