So I missed a major 'cultural' experience from the last blog entry. My only justification is that I'm trying to wipe it from my memory. Whilst in Patong we decided to go and see a ping pong show - what proceeded can not really be described in words, and certainly not for parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents to read about! It involved ping pongs, razors, fish, a bird, flowers and darts and a balloon - I'll let you imagine the rest! All I can say is that I felt sick throughout the whole show and Lou got the giggles (a reoccurring pattern for the way we deal with different situations!) The show was one of those things that I'm glad we went to but would never ever again want to go back! Anyways on a funnier note (sort of for me, not Lou) I also forgot to update you on the clumsiness of Lou. Whilst at a toilet break on our way to Satun she slipped over, again, on her back - ah poor Lou I hear you say, will she ever learn? Apparently not as on her way back from the toilet she slipped again, in exactly the same place, much to the amusement of the local men! I'm still trying to come up with a way to stop her falling over - any suggestions are more than welcome.
Much love
Steph and Lou x x x
Saturday 13 November 2010
Friday 12 November 2010
Morninnnnng Thailand
So I am sitting in an Internet booth whilst the sun is shining outside, this is because I got over excited yesterday and may of over done it a tad yesterday. So I'm letting my body rest a little! Im going to pick up where Lou left off with Northern Thailand.
After our epic boat journey to get to the Thai border we were all relieved to cross easily back into Thailand. Our journey was broken up by a visit to a temple, by this time the whole group were a little templed out as we had seen alot in the past month. This one was different though, it was the white temple that is still being completed. From the outside the temple glistened and had goblin/devil masks hanging with signs saying no smoking/drinking. Inside the artist was working on the interior painting which was really interesting to look at. It showed the 'sins' of the world and how to reach enlightenment. Some of the sins shown were pictures of superheroes, clothes and shoes. It is interesting to see other religions take on right and wrong, though I don't really understand how converse trainers are bad - but each to their own I suppose!
We stopped off in the evening and had a quiet night as we were preparing for another journey to Chang Mi. The next morning after a few hours on another bus (I am never ever going to moan about the length of a journey ever again!) we arrived in Chang Mi. Now forgive me for being a little excited but the first stop was to Subway for a sandwich - much appreciated after days of rice and noodles. We didn't have long in Chang Mi, so we did what we do best - got pampered. My hair was looking very rugged after a month of neglect so I decided to get a wash and hair cut. Yes this seems quite normal, but having your hair cut by a lady who doesn't speak any English and communicate with hand signals was a little nerve wracking. Luckily it looks alright and for less than a fiver I can't really complain. Lou decided to have a massage as she was still in pain from her previous tumble in the shower. On a side note this is one thing new I have learnt about Lou so far - she falls over ALOT! Yes I knew she was clumsy, but seriously she should be wrapped in cotton wall!
Anyways in Chang Mi we said goodbye to Alex and Jennie, as they left the tour to explore a little more and so we were down to 6. That night we took another sleeper train to Bangkok. This train was a little different from the others with fold down beds and lights left on all night. Most the evening was spent on 'cockroach' watch - which basically consisted of us seeing a bug and getting Kerrie to whack it with her flip flop! After being made to go to bed at about 8ish I wasn't holding much hope for a good nights sleep, yet we all must of been tired as there wasn't a peep until the rather loud train conductor man walked up and down shouting 'mooorrrning' (Lou does an amazing impression!)
Well we were back in Bangkok the starting place of our adventure, we spent the rest of the day shopping, getting lost in tuk tuks and doing washing. We had a final meal as a group and then decided to hit Khao San road as it was Halloween and their was a street party. Getting into the spirit of things myself, lou, Lorna and Kerrie all got our face painted. I did have some vampire teeth (Becky gotta love a bit of twilight!) but couldn't seem to drink with them in so they were soon redundant in the bottom of my bag. The night was spent dancing and drinking into the wee hours - a great last night to the tour.
So now officially we were left to our own devices. We took a flight down to Krabi with Lorna and Emma, and decided to stay in Ao Nang as it had good links to other islands etc. When we arrived it was absolutely tipping it down which put a dampner on our spirits, this only got worse as we began to read reports of 'severe weather warnings' over most of Thailand. Being typical British we decided a little rain couldn't hurt so stayed put. We were rewarded with our stubbornness by the next couple of days being boiling hot, which resulted in lots of chillaxing on the beach and dipping into the sea. One particular evening whilst having dinner we spotted alot of lady boys going down a side street, so we decided to investigate... we found the street was full of bars and spent the evening playing crazy jenga and pool. Curiosity did not kill the cat then! We also bumped into some guys from St Albans, which was strange as we are thousands of miles from home yet we still bonded over having a drink in the Slug and Lettuce!
We took a day tour to Phi Phi island which was so beautiful with its clear water and white sanded beaches, again we had another moment of 'wow' as we bumped into Romi and her boyfriend who were also visiting Phi Phi! I suppose it is a small world after all. We reluctantly boarded the ferry to head back to Ao Nang, all wishing we stayed a little longer to explore Phi Phi some more. I suppose we will just have to come back to it one day :)
The next day we decided to head to Koh Lanta, another epic bus/ferry journey later we arrived on the rather odd island. Having no idea where to go we befriended a girl called Bea who was stranded from her friends. She took us to some beach huts which had only been open 5weeks. Compared to Ao Nang, Koh Lanta was so peaceful, we literally slept with the sea at our door which I loved. I think we have grown as travellers as both me and Lou spotted cockroaches in our 'bathroom' and didn't scream. Due to it being low season we were literally the only people there, with no activities so we decided to head somewhere a little more busy which led us to another bus journey but this time to Patong, Phuket.
We arrived quite late in patong and finally managed to find somewhere for all four of us to stay - it was a little dingy with no windows, but at least it was clean! Both Lou and myself couldn't sleep so we left Emma and Lorna to catch up on their beauty sleep and went exploring. We randomly bumped into the guys we met in Ao Nang who persuaded us to go back get showers and get dressed for a night out - no need to ask us twice! We then proceeded to spend the night in various bars including a rock metal one! We finally called it a night, but when leaving the club it was light outside - some how we managed to stay out dancing till 7am!! On a side note my mother seemed a little concerned that all we seem to do is go out dancing and drinking. I promise this is not the case, there is just more to say and take photos of when out rather than 'and we sat on the beach...again'
Anyways getting back to the update... Lorna and Emma decided that they wanted to head north after Phuket whilst myself and Lou wanted to go South, so we bid a sad farewell to our travel buddies with the promise of meeting up again in Malaysia. So this was it, after over a month of travelling we were actually on our own for the first time! We went down to Satun, not a place I would recommend visiting, but it did it's job as a rest place until we could catch a ferry out of there. Only having a couple days left on our visa we thought it would be best not to rush the rest of Thailand but to go to Malaysia with the intention of 'hopping' back over the border in a couple of days.
So Thailand has been amazing, with alot of relaxing on some of the worlds best beaches (do I sound like a travel guide - sorry!) but its onwards and downwards (geographically speaking) into Malaysia.
Much love to everyone at home, and those of you who are also on adventures!
Steph and Lou x x x
After our epic boat journey to get to the Thai border we were all relieved to cross easily back into Thailand. Our journey was broken up by a visit to a temple, by this time the whole group were a little templed out as we had seen alot in the past month. This one was different though, it was the white temple that is still being completed. From the outside the temple glistened and had goblin/devil masks hanging with signs saying no smoking/drinking. Inside the artist was working on the interior painting which was really interesting to look at. It showed the 'sins' of the world and how to reach enlightenment. Some of the sins shown were pictures of superheroes, clothes and shoes. It is interesting to see other religions take on right and wrong, though I don't really understand how converse trainers are bad - but each to their own I suppose!
We stopped off in the evening and had a quiet night as we were preparing for another journey to Chang Mi. The next morning after a few hours on another bus (I am never ever going to moan about the length of a journey ever again!) we arrived in Chang Mi. Now forgive me for being a little excited but the first stop was to Subway for a sandwich - much appreciated after days of rice and noodles. We didn't have long in Chang Mi, so we did what we do best - got pampered. My hair was looking very rugged after a month of neglect so I decided to get a wash and hair cut. Yes this seems quite normal, but having your hair cut by a lady who doesn't speak any English and communicate with hand signals was a little nerve wracking. Luckily it looks alright and for less than a fiver I can't really complain. Lou decided to have a massage as she was still in pain from her previous tumble in the shower. On a side note this is one thing new I have learnt about Lou so far - she falls over ALOT! Yes I knew she was clumsy, but seriously she should be wrapped in cotton wall!
Anyways in Chang Mi we said goodbye to Alex and Jennie, as they left the tour to explore a little more and so we were down to 6. That night we took another sleeper train to Bangkok. This train was a little different from the others with fold down beds and lights left on all night. Most the evening was spent on 'cockroach' watch - which basically consisted of us seeing a bug and getting Kerrie to whack it with her flip flop! After being made to go to bed at about 8ish I wasn't holding much hope for a good nights sleep, yet we all must of been tired as there wasn't a peep until the rather loud train conductor man walked up and down shouting 'mooorrrning' (Lou does an amazing impression!)
Well we were back in Bangkok the starting place of our adventure, we spent the rest of the day shopping, getting lost in tuk tuks and doing washing. We had a final meal as a group and then decided to hit Khao San road as it was Halloween and their was a street party. Getting into the spirit of things myself, lou, Lorna and Kerrie all got our face painted. I did have some vampire teeth (Becky gotta love a bit of twilight!) but couldn't seem to drink with them in so they were soon redundant in the bottom of my bag. The night was spent dancing and drinking into the wee hours - a great last night to the tour.
So now officially we were left to our own devices. We took a flight down to Krabi with Lorna and Emma, and decided to stay in Ao Nang as it had good links to other islands etc. When we arrived it was absolutely tipping it down which put a dampner on our spirits, this only got worse as we began to read reports of 'severe weather warnings' over most of Thailand. Being typical British we decided a little rain couldn't hurt so stayed put. We were rewarded with our stubbornness by the next couple of days being boiling hot, which resulted in lots of chillaxing on the beach and dipping into the sea. One particular evening whilst having dinner we spotted alot of lady boys going down a side street, so we decided to investigate... we found the street was full of bars and spent the evening playing crazy jenga and pool. Curiosity did not kill the cat then! We also bumped into some guys from St Albans, which was strange as we are thousands of miles from home yet we still bonded over having a drink in the Slug and Lettuce!
We took a day tour to Phi Phi island which was so beautiful with its clear water and white sanded beaches, again we had another moment of 'wow' as we bumped into Romi and her boyfriend who were also visiting Phi Phi! I suppose it is a small world after all. We reluctantly boarded the ferry to head back to Ao Nang, all wishing we stayed a little longer to explore Phi Phi some more. I suppose we will just have to come back to it one day :)
The next day we decided to head to Koh Lanta, another epic bus/ferry journey later we arrived on the rather odd island. Having no idea where to go we befriended a girl called Bea who was stranded from her friends. She took us to some beach huts which had only been open 5weeks. Compared to Ao Nang, Koh Lanta was so peaceful, we literally slept with the sea at our door which I loved. I think we have grown as travellers as both me and Lou spotted cockroaches in our 'bathroom' and didn't scream. Due to it being low season we were literally the only people there, with no activities so we decided to head somewhere a little more busy which led us to another bus journey but this time to Patong, Phuket.
We arrived quite late in patong and finally managed to find somewhere for all four of us to stay - it was a little dingy with no windows, but at least it was clean! Both Lou and myself couldn't sleep so we left Emma and Lorna to catch up on their beauty sleep and went exploring. We randomly bumped into the guys we met in Ao Nang who persuaded us to go back get showers and get dressed for a night out - no need to ask us twice! We then proceeded to spend the night in various bars including a rock metal one! We finally called it a night, but when leaving the club it was light outside - some how we managed to stay out dancing till 7am!! On a side note my mother seemed a little concerned that all we seem to do is go out dancing and drinking. I promise this is not the case, there is just more to say and take photos of when out rather than 'and we sat on the beach...again'
Anyways getting back to the update... Lorna and Emma decided that they wanted to head north after Phuket whilst myself and Lou wanted to go South, so we bid a sad farewell to our travel buddies with the promise of meeting up again in Malaysia. So this was it, after over a month of travelling we were actually on our own for the first time! We went down to Satun, not a place I would recommend visiting, but it did it's job as a rest place until we could catch a ferry out of there. Only having a couple days left on our visa we thought it would be best not to rush the rest of Thailand but to go to Malaysia with the intention of 'hopping' back over the border in a couple of days.
So Thailand has been amazing, with alot of relaxing on some of the worlds best beaches (do I sound like a travel guide - sorry!) but its onwards and downwards (geographically speaking) into Malaysia.
Much love to everyone at home, and those of you who are also on adventures!
Steph and Lou x x x
Thursday 11 November 2010
Bucket time!!!
From Hanoi it took us 11 hours to reach the Loas border by bus, it wasnt that bad as we slept for most of the journey lol! we stopped off at a really small village called Lac Sao. it was really stange as it only had one shop, one restaurant etc and was completly different to Hanoi. The restaurant was very strange and we were the only people in there, we ordered our food which was chicken with rice ( the usual) and that wasnt what we got, infact no one got what they ordered lol!!
The whole village was alittle scary and it seemed like we were in a horror film, what made it worse was the hotel only had one english channel and a horror film was on :(
The next day we left Lac Sao at 7am and travelled for 6hrs to Vientaine (the capital of Loas) it was completly different to Vietnam, no bibbing of horns or thousands of motorbikes, It was alot quieter. We attempted to hire some bycycles when we arrived there but found out they were pretty rubbish and had no brakes so decided against it lol! in the end we got a Tuk Tuk and expored the city, we stopped at the Patuxai monument and got a classic photo with us jumping off the fountain with the monument in the background :)
In the evening there were fireworks going off everywhere and floating lanterns filling the sky. it was amazing!! we realised it was due to the 'light festival' there were crowds of people everywhere lighting candles. it was so unexpected and very beautiful. We bought a floating candle, lit in and placed it on the mekong river with thousnads of others, it is seen as an offering to the gods and you will get good luck for the rest of the year. It was an amazing sight.
The next day we travelled to Vang Vieng (the home of tubing) we decided to go tubing as soon as we got there, the weather hadnt been that good so it didnt matter if it rained as we would be floating down the river in rubber rings anyway lol!! we signed a disclaimer which none of us knew what it meant and got a tuk tuk to the river with our rubber rings attached.
when we arrived there were bars complete with body spray, rope swings, slides, music and shots. Each bar we passed through out robes to help us in from the river, they also gave us shots of god knows what, all i know is that at the bottom of the bottle there were crickets and snakes errr!!!
As it got later obviously it got darker and we were still floating down the river, we managed to get out but a few people carried on down the river and lets just say Steph had to do a rescue mission in the dark, all those years of swimming paid off, although she did come back without any flip flops or shorts lol!!
As we had so much fun tubing we went again the next day, however i was alittle more careful this time as i slipped over in the shower right on my butt lol!! (has been an occuring thing on this trip) i decided not to do any of the jumps or swings but steph did. i was petrified for her but i knew she wanted to do it, everyone was cheering and encouraging her. we also managed to get to the end of the river before it got dark woohoo!!
After Vang Viend we headed to Luang Prabang, the bus journey was 7 hrs and it was the most uncomfortable journey so far, the roads were really windy and bumpy, not very good for 7 hrs lol!! we arrived at UNESCO heritage listed town and stayed in a guesthouse, it was so pieceful so we decided to hire bycyles to explore the local area, i loved the bikes :) we stopped off at a bar called utopia, it had a river view and you could lie down looking over it, it was so relaxing. in the vening me and steph ordered a bbq for dinner, this consisted of cooking the food ourselves at the table lol! was very strange cooking in the middle of the table whilst having a conversation with other people.we had buffalo which was lovely. after dinner we browsed the night market , the loas style of selling was much more enjoyable as they let u look and didnt hassle you.
in the morning we went to the Elephant village , a santuary for elephants. they previously worked in the logging industry and are very old. we went on a trek on the back of the elephants through rough terrain and a river it was incredable. on a few occasions i did think we may fall out lol! we also fed them bananas, they eat 250 kilos a day!! whilst feeding the elephant a banana it got confused with what was my hand and what was the banana and my hand nearly got eaten hehe!!
after spending time with the elephants we headed up the river on a small thin boat to the waterfalls, we swam in them but the water was freezing, i climbed up the watrefall and jumped in lol!!
the next 2 days we travelled up the mekong river passed Pak Beng to the loas/ Thailand border. on the way there we stopped off at a small village and saw how they live, it was so basic, living in little wooden huts. the children were so lovely and followed us back to the boat hehe!!
our adventure leads us to Northern Thailand, we will keep u updated :) x x x x
Lou and Steph x x x x x x x x
The whole village was alittle scary and it seemed like we were in a horror film, what made it worse was the hotel only had one english channel and a horror film was on :(
The next day we left Lac Sao at 7am and travelled for 6hrs to Vientaine (the capital of Loas) it was completly different to Vietnam, no bibbing of horns or thousands of motorbikes, It was alot quieter. We attempted to hire some bycycles when we arrived there but found out they were pretty rubbish and had no brakes so decided against it lol! in the end we got a Tuk Tuk and expored the city, we stopped at the Patuxai monument and got a classic photo with us jumping off the fountain with the monument in the background :)
In the evening there were fireworks going off everywhere and floating lanterns filling the sky. it was amazing!! we realised it was due to the 'light festival' there were crowds of people everywhere lighting candles. it was so unexpected and very beautiful. We bought a floating candle, lit in and placed it on the mekong river with thousnads of others, it is seen as an offering to the gods and you will get good luck for the rest of the year. It was an amazing sight.
The next day we travelled to Vang Vieng (the home of tubing) we decided to go tubing as soon as we got there, the weather hadnt been that good so it didnt matter if it rained as we would be floating down the river in rubber rings anyway lol!! we signed a disclaimer which none of us knew what it meant and got a tuk tuk to the river with our rubber rings attached.
when we arrived there were bars complete with body spray, rope swings, slides, music and shots. Each bar we passed through out robes to help us in from the river, they also gave us shots of god knows what, all i know is that at the bottom of the bottle there were crickets and snakes errr!!!
As it got later obviously it got darker and we were still floating down the river, we managed to get out but a few people carried on down the river and lets just say Steph had to do a rescue mission in the dark, all those years of swimming paid off, although she did come back without any flip flops or shorts lol!!
As we had so much fun tubing we went again the next day, however i was alittle more careful this time as i slipped over in the shower right on my butt lol!! (has been an occuring thing on this trip) i decided not to do any of the jumps or swings but steph did. i was petrified for her but i knew she wanted to do it, everyone was cheering and encouraging her. we also managed to get to the end of the river before it got dark woohoo!!
After Vang Viend we headed to Luang Prabang, the bus journey was 7 hrs and it was the most uncomfortable journey so far, the roads were really windy and bumpy, not very good for 7 hrs lol!! we arrived at UNESCO heritage listed town and stayed in a guesthouse, it was so pieceful so we decided to hire bycyles to explore the local area, i loved the bikes :) we stopped off at a bar called utopia, it had a river view and you could lie down looking over it, it was so relaxing. in the vening me and steph ordered a bbq for dinner, this consisted of cooking the food ourselves at the table lol! was very strange cooking in the middle of the table whilst having a conversation with other people.we had buffalo which was lovely. after dinner we browsed the night market , the loas style of selling was much more enjoyable as they let u look and didnt hassle you.
in the morning we went to the Elephant village , a santuary for elephants. they previously worked in the logging industry and are very old. we went on a trek on the back of the elephants through rough terrain and a river it was incredable. on a few occasions i did think we may fall out lol! we also fed them bananas, they eat 250 kilos a day!! whilst feeding the elephant a banana it got confused with what was my hand and what was the banana and my hand nearly got eaten hehe!!
after spending time with the elephants we headed up the river on a small thin boat to the waterfalls, we swam in them but the water was freezing, i climbed up the watrefall and jumped in lol!!
the next 2 days we travelled up the mekong river passed Pak Beng to the loas/ Thailand border. on the way there we stopped off at a small village and saw how they live, it was so basic, living in little wooden huts. the children were so lovely and followed us back to the boat hehe!!
our adventure leads us to Northern Thailand, we will keep u updated :) x x x x
Lou and Steph x x x x x x x x
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