Travels

October 2018 - March 2024
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  • Day 2

    Arrival in Bangkok days 1-2/72

    October 29, 2018 in England ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C

    We arrived in Bangkok after an epic 19 hours of airports and planes. All the touching wood and crossing fingers had done the trick as we arrived on the right planes in the right place and our bags had even got there too! Looking spectacularly like Gap Yah teenagers, we bought SIMS for our phones and got changed into shorts in preparation for all 37 degrees of heat. Like opening the oven door, the air hit us as we walked out of the airport and we found a lovely Thai woman who drove us through rush hour Bangkok to our hostel (Lub D, Silom). We chatted and Izzi slept and stretched, and B520 and 1hr 40mins later we arrived. We dropped our bags at the hostel (with air conditioning and free iced water) and, after a quick haggle, got a tuktuk. We weaved through traffic like something out of the Italian Job, and got a water bus to see Bangkok.

    The smell, rush and racket of Bangkok has to be experienced and it was amazing to see how diverse the city is. The shanty town housing with a backdrop of skyscrapers; the noise of whistles, horns, engines. Taxi drivers and sales people selling anything and everything, you don't know which way to look. We wandered through markets and little shops, past Wat Arun (tomorrow's plan) and had a lemonade under some mist cool fans. We then hopped on a boat over the river to outside the Grand Palace (also tomorrow's plan).
    Remembering a great restaurant from April, we had Thai Green Curry (with blue rice) and Pad Thai (classic Thailand). It was amazing, and with a coke and water cost a total of B220, about £5.
    We then decided to go back to the hostel and make some plans for the week ahead and rest after all the sitting on planes and watching films. So, our tshirts drenched and hair plastered to our faces, we go uncomfortably close to locals on a boat bus back up the river and then walked a mile through backstreet Bangkok to the hostel.

    Tonight, the Patpong Night Market and some planning.
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  • Day 3

    Falling in love with Bangkok

    October 30, 2018 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    Today was incredible. Started by waking up at 11:30 (oops- jet lag might be real) and taking a few suggestions from a slightly grumpy bunk mate, headed to a food market where we seemed to be the only foreigners. Tom got rice and chicken which was incredibly delicious--and also incredibly spicy!

    We then walked to a local restaurant, which, despite being UK prices served amazing chicken and waffles. Very full and happy, we caught a boat bus to Wat Arun: a temple dedicated to the sun god with the most intricate decoration, which appeared to turn golden where the sun catches it.
    After spending a few hours wandering into temples and getting iced tea and coconut water in shade, we decided to get a short water bus to Wat Pho: the reclining Buddha. It is absolutely breathtaking!

    Wondering around the temples at Wat Pho and looking at what felt like all the 832 depictions of Buddha on this site, we walked into a temple where monks were chanting. This felt completely surreal and beautiful! We sat and listened to them for a while, and on the way out Tom met a puppy who LOVED him, and while trying to avoid getting attacked, managed to stand on and break a woman's sandal. We didn't understand what they were saying but she kindly declined the offer of his shoes, which was fair enough after a full day of Bangkok usage.

    We then got the boat back up the river, watching the glorious sunset, then headed to a food market and got rice, chicken, some questionable fish omelette, and mushrooms which were by far the best mushrooms I've ever eaten. The lady also gave us what seemed to be a bowl of cabbage and the water it was boiled in for free: not our favourite Thai delicasy so far.
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  • Day 4

    Day 4/72: Bangkok to Chiang Mai

    October 31, 2018 in Thailand ⋅ 🌬 25 °C

    A relaxed travel day today. We woke up in Bangkok, packed up our stuff and had a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast. We had that kind of time where there's not quite enough to do anything, but too much to warrant doing nothing, so we got an taxi to the airport early and had some spicy beef ramen noodles, a mango smoothie and watched the world go by. The flight was easy, and gave us each a free meal! After an hour and a half we arrived in Chaing Mai.

    We got quickly shepherded from the airport, into a taxi and were at the hostel in no time. Nice homely place, and the desk guy was very helpful and showed us around. We put our kit away and went for a wander. In many ways Chiang Mai is similar to Bangkok, the smell, noise, the traffic, tuk tuks, crazy mopeds, temples, stalls are all the same. However the environment is different. Overall, it's calmer, but things seem less separated. Where Bangkok is mental most of time, the tranquility of temples and gardens is astonishing. It always seems impossible that just beyond the wall of the temple gardens we were being bombarded with taxi and tuk tuk offers.
    Here, there are no skyscrapers and less busy roads, and much more green wildlife. People are chilling outside shops and just watch the world go by. However it's all closer together and you have 15 tuk tuks driving right up to the entrance of a temple which is an interesting contrast.

    We wandered around some stunning shrines and then down the main road to a Tailor. Tom, lacking a tux, wanted to get one made with a snazzy lining and it can be done very cheaply in Thailand. We had a chat with a shop owner who talked us through all the materials and prices (he loves his cashmere) and decided to possibly come back the next day to sleep on it. Then we wandered back taking in the sights, stopped at a 7/11 for some supplies and headed for a coffee shop to get some ideas for our stay. A rough plan has been made and we're going to do some hiking tomorrow!
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  • Day 5

    Day 5/72 - Hike up to Doi Suthep

    November 1, 2018 in Thailand ⋅ 🌙 15 °C

    Fantastic day today! The plan was set to follow a monk trail up to a temple at the top of one of the mountains surrounding Chaing Mai. After a decent night's sleep, we got up, donned our walking boots and headed to a bakery to stock up on food before our hike. A couple of croissants and pastries down the hatch and some bacon and pepper bread things in the bag, we hailed a red pick up truck style taxi and headed for the start point.

    We were dropped off at the bottom of the hill, on the shanty outskirts of Chaing Mai. We started our watches and headed up the hill. The first part of the hike was on steep roads past shacks and the Chaing Mai zoo, but soon lead to a single footpath that took us up the mountain. It was tough, steep walking but felt so good to be trekking through the jungle. The butterflies danced around as we ducked under vines with trails of huge ants criss crossing over us. The path itself was rocky and muddy, and Tom in particular was very pleased to have walking boots to give his glass ankles the support they deserved. The trees kept the heat in and we were soon drenched in sweat, but as well climbed the air cooled. After an hour or so we came across a small temple like area overlooking the city, here the river split into small waterfalls; it was a stunning little hideaway.

    We crossed one of the winding mountain roads and plunged back into the jungle on the other side, the path becoming more and more overgrown. The more we climbed, the steeper the path became and almost an hour later we shimmied over our last fallen tree and climbed up onto the road leading to Doi Suthep. We looked terrible but it was very gratifying to have 2 people trot down the steps to the temple saying, "wow have you walked all the way from Chiang Mai?! Like, through the jungle down there?!". The temple was looked after by monks who lived in the wooden houses teetering on the hillside. We wandered around the viewpoint and platform, taking in the views with fresh water and a magnum, whilst Izzi peered over the edge and fretted about the height. It was incredibly high. The aircraft taking off from Chaing Mai Airport began their turn below the level we were at. We took in the sights for a little while longer and then headed back down the hillside.

    At the bottom of the hill we spotted another red truck taxi at the end of the road we were dropped off on, and although we must have lost a good few years off our lives with the fumes that clouded the truck as it lurched through the city, it was great to know a shower was at the end of the journey. After we'd washed up, we went in search of food and almost immediately walked across a pizza place with great recommendations. Feeling a little cheeky for not solely eating rice and noodles for dinner, we had a delicious pizza with watermelon shakes (incredible.), and promised ourselves that we'd get thai food the next day. This turned out to be a very easy promise however, as we wandered through a night bazaar lined with all kinds of chefs, playing with fire and tossing an array of food and cutlery. The night bazaar was brill, and we had some quick frozen ice cream made with bananas and oreos right in front of our eyes. As we ate, entertainment filled the square and women dancing with umbrellas, scarily long finger nails and masked dancers put on a performance to the crowd. After this, a Thai band came on and sang a plethora of pop songs from the 00's. A reggae version of Adele's "Someone Like You" has never been so well received.
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  • Day 6

    Day 6/72: Chillin in Chiang Mai

    November 2, 2018 in Thailand ⋅ 🌙 22 °C

    Today was a reasonably chilled day. We started late- Tom had got up early and gone out to get pastries from a local bakery (bacon and cracked black pepper bread twists: game changing!).
    We meandered around Chiang Mai for a lot of the morning, wandering to the wall of the old city and diving across roads to avoid being hit by the ever erraticly driven mopeds: when a motorbike heads up onto the pavement towards you, you get out of its way. We looked at the Friday Flea Market and various other shops supporting one-of-a-kind tokens, then looked at the next 5 stalls which all had the same thing.

    We made our way to Wat Chedi Luang: a 15th century Buddhist Temple believed to protect the city, and marveled at the peacefulness and tranquility around the Buddha sat on a huge pile of bricks. (best described by seeing the photo of it...)

    We went and had rice and garlic chicken for lunch, with watermelon smoothies, and stopped for frozen yoghurt on the way back to the hostel for an afternoon of chilling (accidentally both took a 3 hour nap- so much for getting used to a different time zone).

    This evening we headed out to the Night Bazaar, an evening of watching traditional Thai dancers, eating Roti (what seemed to be pastry deep fried; delicious), a huge platter of sea food to be eaten with our hands wearing gloves, and ice cream frozen on a cooling plate right in front of our eyes. Then we sat back and listening to Country music and big band music while drinking Chang beers.
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  • Day 7

    Day 7/72 Water parkin

    November 3, 2018 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    We spent today at a water park just outside Chiang Mai. The weather was absolutely stunning- blue skies and 35 degrees so we needed some water to cool off in. Grand Canyon Water Park was a huge quarry that kept flooding, so they filled it with water and made a water park with huge cliff jumps, climbing walls over the water, trampolines 15ft in the air, inflatable obstacle courses and a small wake park. We ended up racing along the obstacles, falling in the water more often than not, while Thai lifeguards tiptoed around us putting everyone to shame.

    We splashed around until lunch, where we got chips and burgers from the cafe on site, then headed over to the wake park to get some wakeboarding in. A good few hours and a good few falls later we were exhausted, battered, bruised and thoroughly content, and the we headed out as the park was closing at 1800.

    Catching a taxi back into town, Tom decided to pretend to be in a music video and pose at the back of the taxi watching the sunset (pictured below).

    This evening we headed back to the night Bazaar for a night of eating pad Thai, steak and way too many roti, listening to bands play the didgeridoo(!) and make it sound really quite musical.
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  • Day 8

    Day 8/72: Day trip to Chaing Rai

    November 4, 2018 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    We woke up bright and early this morning to have a long day out to Chaing Rai and the Golden Triangle. We were downstairs at 0700 waiting for the transport and after forgetting shoes and passports, we hopped onto the minivan with 10 other people for the day. Our guide was called Moon and she was very informative and told us what the day would entail. We were to head up North, stopping at interesting points along the way until we reached the Golden triangle and then head all the way back to Chaing Mai.

    Stop 1: Chiang Rai hot water springs
    After a hour or so we came to a small village across the main road that was literally steaming. Here, hot water springs come through the earth into pools and spout up in great boiling fountains. Locals boil eggs in the hot pools so the air is pungent with the smell, however further up we escaped it. Up here, there were smaller less violent pools where you could sit and dip your feet. These were about the same temperature as when you run a bath too hot but after a few of dips of the toes can leave your foot in there.

    Stop 2: White Temple
    The white temple was a spectacle to behold. A huge, pure white and mirrored building, it's a modern take on Buddhism. Outside, you cross a walkway over "hell" and pass by two gate guardians, fiercely fighting off the demons from hell. You then cross over a long bridge and walk up the steps into the temple. Inside, the wall is painted from the entrance to the Buddha at back, as a scene moving from this world to the next. "This world" was almost depicted as hell, with weapons, scenes from wars, and terrorist figures amongst the many demons and dark drawings. Among these, cartoon characters and superheros are painted, showing that even with these fictitious hero's amongst us, nothing can save us from this horror world like the Buddha. Along the walls, the hell world flows into an idyllic garden with Thai people on boats sailing towards a huge Buddha. You can only move through the temple in one direction as to turn back is to go through hell again, so we came out the other side in awe of what was being built. The site is only 25 years into its 75 year construction but this main temple is fantastic.
    We then came across a beautiful huge golden building, almost as stunning as the white temple with mirrors and jewels shining in the sun. This was the toilet. This is another Buddhist lesson: on the outside you can be beautiful but on the inside you're still just a toilet.

    Stop 3: Blue Temple

    The blue temple was constructed by a monk who used to pray at the white temple, but didn't like the commute so decided to renovate the temple in his home town instead. He brought in the architects who designed the White Temple and the Black House (next) and the result was probably our favorite experience of the day. It was very blue, with huge open windows and doors where light could flow into the dark blue interior and shine off the gold inside. We also had some of the best and cheapest ice cream we've ever tasted. Fresh coconut icecream where a large tub cost 50p, the whole experience was great!

    Stop 4: The Black House
    This was an interesting one. The Black House is an area of land with lots of beautiful, black wooden buildings in the grounds. Owned by an old artist who passed away maybe 2 years ago, it's essentially his collection of things. The things he loved were wood and animal bones, skins and hair. It was very, very strange. The area was idyllic with grasses and trees, and dotted amongst them were huge black wooden buildings filled with complete crocodile skins, animal horns, tusks, skulls. Some buildings were dedicated to animals, a huge room filled with shells, sharks Jaws and fish skeletons. Or others with hundreds of chairs and beds made with wood, animals horns and skins. We didn't warm to the place, or the man: his two passions in life seemed to be dead animals, and phallic symbols. It was a complete contrast to any other temple like place we'd been to though, really worth doing.

    Stop 5: Long Neck Village
    Next stop was the long neck village, a small tribe of people where the women wear rings on their necks to 1) traditionally protect them from tigers and 2) make their necks seem longer, as the longer the neck the more beautiful they supposedly are. They start with rings at the age of 5 and add 3 every 3 years until they are around 45. It ends up being about 5-10kg on their shoulders, 24/7 for most of their lives. It was a strange feeling, going into this village and seeing their lifestyle. Lots of people were taking photos but we couldn't bring ourselves to take any as some of the other people on our tour made it felt like we were on a zoo field trip. We ended up talking to a girl and her baby sister who had a puppy and bought a scarf she had weaved. It was an incredibly peaceful village and an amazing experience, but having paid to go there and walking along the streets of their homes felt very intrusive.

    Stop 6:
    The final stop was the Golden Triangle. This is a section of river that separates Thailand, Laos and Myanmar. It is named the golden triangle because of the opium trade; 1kg of opium used to be traded for 1kg of gold. We hopped on a boat and they took us up and down the river, showing us an island that used to be a site for black market trade of opium. It was an area of no man's land so no laws applied and no one could be stopped for doing anything. We then pulled up in Laos, got off and explored the market. They showed us some whisky which apparently was a greeting drink, but floating in the glass jars were a snake, a turtle and a lizard. All very bizzare! It was great to go to Laos though as we can add another country to our list of places visited. After the golden triangle, we headed all the way back to Chiang Mai, the van driver hitting the apex of the mountain roads in the darkness with an air of "company van, let's have fun". All in all, a great day out!
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  • Day 9

    Day 9/72: Sticky Waterfall

    November 5, 2018 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Today we journeyed to Sticky Waterfall. Tom started the day with a hot run around the wall of old Chiang Mai Town, and then we got some breakfast at the hostel.

    We hired a taxi for the day (it cost ~1000 baht- £25) and drove an hour and a half out of Chiang Mai to get to 'Sticky Waterfall', which is exactly what it says on the tin. The rocks of the waterfall are made of weird minerals and so have a rough texture, which makes it very hard to slip on.

    Being able to scale up the side of a waterfall, with cool water flowing down the nearly vertical steps naturally made in the rock is an incredible feeling, although at times slightly nerve racking. Sitting in the warm rock pools that collected in the sun was a great way to relax. The waterfall is set in the heart of the jungle, and signs telling us to watch out for snakes everywhere we went made us slightly nervous. (Actually just Izzi, to quote Tom, 'ooh I'd like to see a cobra'.) Overall the waterfall was an absolutely unmissable stop on our tour of Chiang Mai- and shockingly few people seemed to be there.

    After an ice cream or 3 at the top of the waterfall we headed back with our taxi driver who had waited for us in the baking hot sunshine. Heading back into Chiang Mai for dinner, we had barbecued chicken wings and a northern Thai curry for dinner (not on the same plate).

    Tomorrow we head to Phuket, for the 3rd part of our Thai adventure.
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  • Day 10

    Day 10/72: Travel to Phuket

    November 6, 2018 in Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Another day of travel today. We got up early and went for a run around the Chaing Mai old city walls before it got too hot. Felt really nice to get up and do something so as not to waste a morning when we were flying at lunchtime. Came back and had some breakfast, packed up, checked out, and got a tuk tuk to the airport. Airport food was terrible but we ended up having fish and rice on the flight which wasn't bad at all, well done Bangkok Airways.
    When we arrived in Phuket it was a completely different climate. The air was heavy and humid and the skies a thundery grey. After collecting our bags it soon became evident that the chilled out atmosphere of Chiang Mai doesn't extend as far at the South. The airport staff were impatient as anything and it took the best part of 3 hours to make the what should be hour trip down to the hostel from the airport. Phuket, or at least Patong where we are staying for the night, is one of the heaviest areas for tourists in all of Thailand. Walking down the street, 95% of people aren't Thai; according to Izzi it has a similar vibe to Magaluf. The hostel is nice though, air conditioned and only got another guy in our room who's doing a diving course. We've packed our small bags for tomorrow and up early in the morning to get the minibus up to the National Park!!! Cannot wait!!!
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  • Day 11

    Day 11/72: Elephant Hills!!!

    November 7, 2018 in Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C

    So. Today we woke up early in Phuket, got a rushed breakfast from a cafe (although reeeally nice bacon omelette) and got picked up by a man and a minivan from outside our hostel at 7:45 sharp. We then drove the 3.5 hours to Khao Sok national park, where we reached Elephant Hills Jungle Lodges (which I booked for Tom's 21st birthday). Having been greeted with a welcome drink, we found our luxury tent (complete with bathroom, shower, electricity and WiFi, but completely open besides a Mosquito net to the jungle outside).

    At 12 o'clock the lunch gong sounded and we headed to get a lovely meal of rice, stir fries and fresh fruit. Then we headed over to the elephant camp. That was where we met the lovely elephants, and we spent the next few hours watching them swim, learning about them, washing them down with hoses and coconut hair scrubbing brushes, and preparing food for them and feeding them! (And also hoping you weren't too close when they decided to throw mud over themselves). It was an absolutely incredible experience; one that we will never ever forget.

    The elephants have one mahout each; the mahout is the man who looks after one elephant all his life. Since elephants live to be about 80-90 years old, they will grow old together. At elephant Hills you can watch the mahout follow the elephant around, and the elephants in turn follow the mahout when the mahout wants.

    These elephants live in the very best conditions possible: open fields to roam in, lots of swimming holes for them to swim in, and muddy pits for them to fling mud over themselves in. They use the mud on their skin as sun protection.

    While we were washing one of the elephants, we could only wash her for as long as she wanted to be washed for, they stand still for about 10-15 minutes and then start to walk away as they have learnt that this is long enough!

    The food for the elephants consisted of pineapples, bananas, grasses/leaves tied into bundles, sugarcane, and their vitamins which had to be hidden in a banana leaf parcel to get the elephants to eat it. The elephants then take the food straight out of your hands with their trunks, and start searching around for more when it's all gone! It was great to see because even if you gave one the vitamin parcel and a couple of bananas in the same trunkful, they'd eat the bananas and carefully drop the parcel on the floor!

    Interestingly (and if you don't want to learn more about elephants skip this paragraph), Asian elephants are much easier to train than African, and have been used in the logging industry for years. When Thailand put a ban on logging due to deforestation, it left many elephants unemployed, so Elephant Hills takes them in and have won many awards for their sustainable and humane approach to keeping elephants. African elephants have 4 toes on their front legs and 3 on their back legs, while Asian elephants have 5 at the front and 4 at the back. They also have a much more love heart shaped head. Elephants communicate to each other using sounds too low for humans to hear up to 70% of the time.

    We were both very sad to say goodbye to the elephants, however we walked 100m down a dirt track and all got into kayaks with a guide paddling us down the river while we sat and looked around the rainforest and the dramatic hills towered overhead. Our guide pointed out all kinds of wildlife- a sleeping (thankfully) mangrove snake, which our guide ensured us was only a little bit venomous, lots of big frogs, a tiny squirrel, and 3 white monkeys! (the monkeys are apparently quite rare to see and on our return to the camp this evening every other group was very jealous to know we had seen them).
    From the river we had an amazing view of the elephant hills of Khao Sok Park, thus named because they look slightly like the humped backs of elephants... The sounds of sicadas washed us down the river.

    This evening was filled with traditional Thai dances from the local schools in the area, a cooking demonstration on how to make Pad Thai (seemingly you should already know exactly what you're doing and put all the right ingredients in the wok in the right amounts at the right moments...) and a delicious buffet style dinner of rice, curries, stir fries, chicken wings (and tiramisu for dessert!!!).

    Right now, we are writing this blog post lying on the King sized bed, listening to the sounds of a tropical rainstorm on our tent, and the sounds of the river and the jungle outside, agreeing it was probably one of the best days ever, and hoping that no mosquitos manage to find their way in.
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