Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Kanchanaburi - Bridge over the River Kwai

OMYGOD the place I'm staying at is wonderful!!
Its for 150 baht as previously mentioned and Im staying at the Jolly Frog Hotel in a double room floating bungalow on the river Kwai!!
Thank You Michael for the great recommendation.

Anyone (at home) who knows me well will know that I love the water and a home on the water is my idea of bliss. There's a huge lawn and you can also swim in the river. I got here just 5 mins ago and I'm so happy I just had to tell someone hehe! Jumpy where are you!! You would have loved this place I even spotted the tiniest of kittens running around (Joanna just loves animals and if one crossed our paths you'd fast learn that a unscheduled stop would be in order)


My Raft Home

The bus took longer than expected 3 instead of 2hrs but cost just 85Baht... !! Once in town I did what I have always wanted to do... try out a motorcycle taxi with backpack on, day pack in one hand and other little day bag in the other. Ipod on with Habibi playing (Budha Bar's Khaled something) Wrong continent I know, but Morrocan music worked just fine for the experience!! I managed the ride with no problems, thought better to try it out here in a quiet town rather than on the scary Bangkok streets.

Right, Im off to get watered and fed, haven't eaten since my breakfast of muesli, fruit and yogurt and I need to watch the sunset from my porch. Photos on the way. I have booked this place for three nights... leaving on the 3rd. :))

Ciao for now T x


Sundowners Deck




You only get One Shot at it




Good Morning from Khao San Road! I finally made it to the land of the backpacker, of course we met billions of them on the road but this is the starting point and for some the finishing line so it feels that much more intense. It's good to be here.

Of course we walked out of our hotel, having just checked in, and wham bam we bump into our friend Micheal whom we met in Ko Phi Phi. Since then I have met at least another 4 people who we got to know in either Phi Phi or Khao Lak and seen loads of other familiar faces, one even from London!!! Michael is also heading up north so I'll probably see him again there. You see Mum, Dad, never really alone.


What a colourful place this is and what colourful characters, people watching at its best. We flew back to Bangkok yesterday afternoon. Flights here are incredibly cheap (23STG inc. taxes) Im here to pick up my visas for Laos and Vietnam and Joanna aka 'Jumpy' is here to catch the bus to Hua Hin where she will continue in her mission to save all animals big or small. (another conservation project)


Tis a strange day I say with a smile on my face, I'm sad of course to say Good Bye to my travel buddy with whom I've had the best fun ever but I am also very excited to move on to the next stage! My passport has been handed in, I'll get it back on the 6th March. Right now I am killing time until 2pm which is when I pick up my laundry and after that I will head off to the Southern Bus station to catch the bus to Kanchanaburi which is home to the River Kwai Valleys. (Bridge over the River Kwai / World War two museums etc) I will stay there a couple of days and then make my way to Ayutthaya a former capital of Thailand. Founded in 1685 it quickly became the booming hub that attracted foreign traders and supported a population (back in 1685) of 1 million (!!) There are lots of temples which I will of course visit. Actually its up river from here maybe I should look into taking a boat there instead of a bus... ? Anyway guess how much accommodation is there... I've booked a double room as they didn't have any singles left and guess how much for...!!! 150 Baht =2.14 STG hehe I love this country and the further north I go the cheaper they say it becomes.


After Ayutthaya I will head on to Chang Mai and then onto Pai and then on the 13th March I'll head to Chang Khong (North East) to cross over to Houayxai in Laos where I plan to do the Waterfall Gibbon Experience - Tree Houses and cables to navigate (fly through) the canopies. There will be trekking (3hrs /day) waterfalls to swim at and loads of canopy gliding (harnessed up in the air) Check out the picture (not mine) and of course we will be coming face to face with the animals up there, namely Gibbon Monkeys they're funny and cute at the same time.





http://gibbonx.org/gibbon_rehabilitation.php



BTW a while back, the day before I got to the Turtle reserve, my UK mobile died on me so I lost all numbers etc and I had to buy a cheap Thai Nokia. (Aloisia it happened the day before I planned to downlaod all the cool December beach shots in Malta of us all, really beleive me I'm not just saying that - I was so annoyed. Any how I have the memeory stick so I should be able to eventually get to those shots. I just need to find an adapter for the tiniwini ericsson memory stick thought I packed it but apparently not. Any how rest assured that you'll be the first to have copies.)
Otherwise everyone, my number is +66 837827860 and if you send a text I will eventually build up my phone book again. Apologies. (pls remember to sign off if you do) continuing on the subject of texts and back to Aloisia, Al, I never did get the text you mentioned on my UK sim card, maybe it didnt work because I dont check that phone very often. Sorry. Maybe try again on my Thai no.

The joke of the day: I've just posted my wonderful heels home :)) I had a brutal shoe moment this week as I had to face up to the 5 pairs I had accumulated over the last 3 weeks (trekking shoes, 3 pairs of flip flops and the heels) so now Im down to 2: the trekking shoes and one pair of flops. I have become an ok dancer in flip flops (shush Jumpy!!;) so its all coming along and I've noticed that the dear old flip flop is a backpacker's best friend hehe its happening Im becoming a backpacker...

OK y'all that's it for now but they'll be more very soon. Gotto get that camera out for some more Bangkok shots before I leave.
ps: its a month today.... Next blog The 1st review.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Southern Andaman Coast

I'm sitting here in Ko Phi Phi two hours away from our departure by boat back to the mainland. This place, well it's very similar to how Hell is described in jokes - you know the weekend in hell with all the parties.. well its just like that and needless to say I'm pretty happy to be getting out of here.

We've had a lot of fun though, I've dived and we have partied like it was 1999. Now its time to get back to the trip as it should be - nice, healthy fun and hopefully a successful attempt at giving up smoking.

We left Ko Surin and got back to the mainland were M (tour op) offered us a free ride in the back of a pick up truck that was heading to our next destination Khao Lak. We gladly accepted. 1 hr in the back, wind in our hair, Ipods on - I was listening to Man Chau - Clandestino I thought it suited the mood to the T. We got to Khao Lak and headed immediately to a plush hotel that was recommended to us by an Austrian woman we had met on Ko Surin. The Nang Thong Hotel was just amazing!! We have photos of all of this which I will post at the next stop. It had a proper bathroom, mini bar, walk in shower, bath, western toilet, tv, aircon, pool, comfy real beds!! gardens etc etc The first night there (we were only supposed to spend one night there but we ended up staying for three) I couldn't help but wonder what had happened in that room during the Tsunami. The hotel is 17yrs old. Khao Lak was the worst hit area in Thailand. You could see that the refurb had just been completed and the snagging still ongoing. ummm not a nice thought.

We headed off to Ko Similan on Valentine's Day. We got another 'Fast Boat' (BTW its was 4 x 250 outboard engines... Hey I am a girl :) The Similan Islands, voted in the top 10 dive sites worldwide, is a group of 11 islands. We were booked top stay on no.4 the usual tourist and National Park stop however when we got onto the Fast Boat we realised that we were stuck on a day trip with 30 other yukky tourists. They were going to do a tour of most of the islands and get to no.4 at 3pm so Joanna and I decided to get off on stop two, island 8 and boy was that a good choice.

Immediately on arrival we walked up to the office to book a tent and I explained to the guy that we wanted a tent when this deep, incredibly sexy, Spanish voice said: He doesn't speak English. I looked to my right and there standing quite still, was Adonis. We both did a very subtle 'double take' (the 'wow - who are you' one) and I knew we were going to love this island. He was in fact Italian and he was there with his travel buddy Itor a Spaniard. Itor (I called him Timor) from Barcelona lived in Scotland and spoke English with a deep Scottish accent ....very confusing! Joanna, Itor, Claudio and myself together with the other natives (c.4other Europeans living there) spent 5 days of bliss on our island. We rented longboats to snorkel the coral reefs, we spent days on deserted beach with picnic lunches and a boat taxi rides home whislt the Medicine Man (Claudio) hiked home through the jungle. I saw my first shark whilst snorkeling a black tip reef shark, saw 5 manta Rays, 5 metres in diameter. It was just amazing, and innocent too. We made some really good friends there and I may travel with Claudio in South America next year. We will see.

We left Ko Similan with sad hearts and headed back to Khao Lak on the 18th and spent one more night there this time at the 'Holiday Inn' - umm yep not quite, the bungalow was a little nicer then the HI we know but although quite basic :) That night Joanna and I bought a bottle of lovely Sancerre at the supermarket to take out to dinner. The resto was very happy to allow us to do so. We had had a really bad experience of local wine at a resto in Khao Lak (PooLak) prior to going to Ko Similan. Boy it was nice to have a glass of wine with dinner. I simply cannot describe the excitement but two other Euro women sitting on the next table were infected too and ran off to copy our idea and buy some wine of their own.

We took a bus down to Khokkloi north of Phuket (1hr) and then caught another to Krabi (2hrs). In Krabi we stayed on the beach at Ao Nang in a nameless hotel. The town was full (Chinese New Year) the accommodation difficult to come by and very expensive. We soon found our feet getting to know the restos and bars. Luna Bar was a favourite were we saw our first of many fire shows. We also met some Swedes there, Ben and Frank who were very funny.

We left Ao Nang on the 22nd to come to Ko Phi Phi and we have spent 4 nights here. Joanna and I will be going our separate ways tomorrow :( sniff its been fun but Im nervously excited and cannot wait to go it alone for a little while. It'll be my first day alone since arriving in this country.... Somehow I don't think it'll be for long.

Take care you all - miss you loads

Will update with pics and on Phi Phi soon.
T xx

Monday, February 19, 2007

Ko Surin

9th - 11th Feb

Sabai Sabai (La Vie est Belle)

We took the Fast boat to Mo Ko Surin from Khura Buri. Leaving at 8am we arrived just after 9am. The fast boat is basically a small powerboat powered by 4 70HP outboard engines and the drivers are pretty skilled. We have taken fast boats 4 times now and each time it feels like you're on the set of a James Bond film (well if you are mentally able to block out the German tourists hehe) Marc, there are lot of Swedes here too, t'was a good idea to teach me some Swedish, mind you I haven't used it yet, I wonder why!

We thought we would spend just the one night on Ko Surin, that is, until we approached the islands. Once there, we were mesmerized. Ko Surin, a National Park in the form of two islands (Ko Surin Noa and Ko Surin Tai) about 65k west of Khura Buri in the Andaman Sea are stunning. Snorkeling on these islands is just amazing. Coral and Fish everywhere. You can either rent a Long Boat for the day (1200 baht) or pay 70 Baht (STG 1) to join a group of snorkelers (with c.5 others) and have a long boat take you to all the best sites. The latter is what we opted for... 'Best ever' pound spent so far.

We camped on a beach on the Ko Surin Noa and woke up to this view every morning.

Ao Mai Nga beach at low tide


We shared the island with pig tailed macaques, ants (lots of them), bats and blue egrets and the seas with reef sharks, clown fish (Nemo lives 'ere), coral, turtles and just lots of fish.

We met a couple of nice people on the island including, Kelly an English girl frm Hemel Hempstead who was holidaying with her parents. She used to be an Editor of Hello Magazine in Bangkok that is until the Tsunami. She then headed down south to volunteer and has basically stayed. I will talk about the Tsunami stories we've heard one day soon, there is still a lot of volunteering going on, mostly centering around home stays in villages and setting up sustainable eco tourism.

Back on Ko Surin Noa we explored the island through the nature trails taking pit stop swims at the pretty little beaches we found along the way and hitched back to camp in long boats. It was so beautiful and so tranquil. Em, I am so totally horizontal now, its just wonderful.

Hitching on Long Boats

If you ever get the chance to meet the Chao Ley in South East Asia, do it. They are Sea Gipsies. Leaving off the nature, deep sea free diving for pearls and sea shells which are then sold. They are animalists and therefore recognised the warning signs of the Tsunami and immediately headed up into the hills, none of the Moken (the particular Chao Ley tribe in Surin) were killed by the Tsunami.

The name Chao Ley means 'People of the Sea' unfortunately they are now forced more and more to stick to one permanent village. This is due to the lack of under developed and uninhabited islands to travel to. Post Tsunami the Moken on Ko Surin were taken to mainland shelters for assistance and whilst there not only were the different villages grouped together which alone caused many rifts and untold problems but a couple of missionaries actually bribed some of them to switch to Christianity in exchange for help.... they say that time is running out for the Moken and if you visit their village sadly you feel it. There is a village on Ko Surin Tai which we visited.

The approach to the Moken Village


The Moken (Smoken:) post Tsunami were introduced to a lot of western products and they are not used to western trash. There was a growing mound of rubbish on the forest line behind their huts on stilts. Mind you neither are the Thai used to modern trash and they do chuck stuff everywhere too.


Typical Moken House
Shower time
Kid's got the right idea
Keep smiling

Laundry Day
Little Charmer

Moken Mum


That piece of polystyrene was his body board
Jenny thanks so much for your sweet message, wish you could be here. Miss you all and don't forget the offer still stands for those who are willing and able feel free to meet up somewhere along the way. Joanna and I are having so much fun, we've got another week of traveling together before we go our separate ways and so far every day has been better than the one before. When you don't hear from me it is because we have ventured out to National Park Islands that are so remote they don't have internet access or mobile reception.
We have done so much, it makes its very hard to update this blog on time but Im hoping to catch up soon. ;)
Keep your emails coming - I hope you don't mind but I'll have to use the blog to answer back as time constraints don't allow for both email and blog communication.
Gos where on the Andaman coast were you based?
Ciao for now x

Monday, February 12, 2007

Welcome Home .....(!!??!!)

So we said our Goodbyes and we were taken to the bus station by Dom, Melanie, Ingrid, Sunle and Dr Tao. It was nice to have a full send off but very sad to say Good Bye. We really enjoyed Dom & Melanie's company along with Ingrid and Sunle. And so it was off to Khuraburi.

We got there real quick and we jumped off the bus (well in Joanna's case, she fell off the bus - we laughed but it could have led to an unhappy ending and a super short trip) and there we were in a manky dusty old town that goes by the name of Khuraburi! :)

As soon as we were off the bus M (that's her name, well nickname, Thais all have nicknames here which makes it easier for us Pharangs - foreigners) was there telling us all about her bungalows that we could check into. Like the green backpackers we were, we said ok lets take a look and ended up saying yes before looking at the competition. Apart from the Deet Slick on the floor that night to stop the stream of ants ...it was ok. :) So all checked in and ready to go we booked a taxi (pick up truck) to the beach 5 k away and went for a walk and what did we find?




We walked along the beach, heading north and in the general direction of back to our friends at the WARF project when we happened upon this beach. We were told that there was a village a couple of beaches down but we didn't expect 'The Beach'!!!


OMYGOD.... we walked along this beach and I thought it was strange that the 'villagers' lived in tents. We stumbled across the Rainbow group... apparently. Walking along the beach we were being stalked by this white guy who was walking inside of the treeline. He came out to greet us, he was Swiss, wearing Y Fronts (!!!) and his hair up in something that resembled a turban.... they we the left over group of 800 Full Moon hippies that gathered there for the 'Rainbow Festival' They lived in tents and in tree houses and were a community much like that in the film The Beach....


It was hilarious, we were invited in to the 'Kitchen' for Pineapple tea, which I had one sip of and they all approached with happy smiles arms outstretched saying 'Welcome Home'. All we could see was a lot of hair approaching, like a lot of underarm hair, and we some how both avoided those hugs which were acoming!! hehehe OMYGOD it was surreal.



Some were naked and there were at least three kids running around (also naked, of course) We joked that we were not coming home but more like Tourists that needed visas, they seemed to like the joke and offered us a stay (should we so wish) on our return from Ko Surin the island opposite (60km opposite) of course we are now in Khao Lak another 70k further south haha phew.....

Yep

School Visit - Turtle Education



Fastest Thais I've seen were 4yrs old :)

One afternoon we had the pleasure of accompanying Dom to a local School where the team visit on occasion to talk to the kids about the importance of turtle conservation or more to the point re-generation. Dom treated us to a lovely lunch and then we headed off to the school. The kids were really cute.


Boys deep in conversation



Cute smiley girl!

It was a real pity, by leaving early, Joanna and I missed the school day planned by the WARF team. It was something I would have liked to have done. Infact Dom wrote a sweet song for Thai kids to sing. He had a recording of it. It was all about the importance of turtle conservation. Had I had a copy I would post it on this blog!

Baan Talae Nork - Wildlife Animal Rescue Foundation Thailand


The Team: Sandy (Chinese name 'Sunle' - pronounced Sun Lorh), Joanna, Tash, Melanie, Dr Tao and Dom (Ingrid is AWOL on this one - pity)

Hello there
Turtle conservation, with no turtles, can still be fun :) As long as you're surrounded by a great bunch of fun people.

Not only did Sunle teach us Tai Chi on the beach but we also picked up some useful Chinese swearwords. Oh boy did we laugh on that beach!
I'm afraid I'm going to have to be fast with this posting; a) the German tourists are becoming scary as I was on here for ages filing my pics and b) it's been so long since my last post ...so much has happened, so much to say!!

Our typical evening/night of work at WARF was as follows in the picture story below:


First of all, transportation of humans in this country usually takes place: on Mopeds with attached side cages in which up to 5 (or more likely 20 Thais) can be accommodated, or in the back of a pick-up truck is another favourite, on a local bus and if you're really lucky, in a car (so far I've only had the car treatment when hanging out with Maureen !! :) The pic above is the team heading off at 5pm or 6pm to the beach.

Channel Crossing

The upgrade :)

We usually crossed the channel (leading to the mangroves behind the beach) at low tide but sadly we had an incident when poor old Sanle got hurt. We were walking back one morning when Sandy screamed 'Something Bite me!' - 'I'm Blind' (well we understood I'm blind but he had said he was bleeding. So poor chap was rescued by a cute fisherman on a motorcycle and we were subsequently upgraded to being taken across the channels by way of Longboat driven by no other than smiley Bundi himself (the guy in the pic of the pick up truck above)


You've got to imagine this huge beach that goes on for hundreds of kilometres at least 50 of which are totally void of any development whatsoever. It's beautiful out there, just stunning and so quiet. We used to sit there and watch the stars - we'd see a thousand (a little exaggeration) shooting stars. It was bliss.



En route to camp - Tash and Ingrid (my 'flat mate' at the project)

Sunset Fun

Once we got to our usual camp area we'd set up the tents (basically mosquito nets with a roof) we'd have a swim and then dinner on the beach. On our last night weird things happened. We were eating away when 3 hawks began to circle us, we laughed them off and told them we weren't dead yet, then we were attacked by a swarm of flying ants and when we moved closer to the shoreline a load of big craps circled us and kept encrouching. It was wierd. Sunle was at the base and not on the beach because of the injury he got in the morning and we thought of him. We always heard him call out from his tent: ' I smell danger, there are animals all around me' :))) So was this the kind of treatment he got every night? We don't know, hehehe, oh boy we missed him so and still do. He was so funny.

Another thing that happened on that last night was - for some reason - out in the wilderness at the back of the mangroves miles away from the village and at the foot of a mountain & deep in the forest, there was this constant glow of light. Well on the last night, we stayed up till 2am (Melanie and I had our scheduled 2hr walk then) It was after the ghost stories and the stories about the time when the beach patrol was shut down so that the military could patrol the beach looking for Burmese boat people (!!!!) the glow of light disappeared for 5 mins and then reappeared. Joanna noticed it. The next morning we were told it must be a shrimp farm but I've seen loads of them here and I tell you, none of them had lights. What could it be? Maybe a Marijuana farm? hehe oh Boy! (I wouldn't be surprised due to the next blog I'm going to post!!)

Anyway, we (Joanna & I) left the WARF project last Thursday 8th(?). We decided we were going to travel together and the theme: Island Hopping. Hey, there were no turtles and after that night on the beach, well, we were all a little jumpy. So we said our Good Byes, which was sad, and headed off for Kura Buri which is where you need to go if you are heading to the Ko Surin islands.

Mornings on the beach:

Sunrise

The ill-fated morning 1 channel prior to Sunle's injury

The 'Something Bite me' moment

The OMYGOD thank goodness there's no mirror moment! ;)

Sunday, February 04, 2007

So Basic and I Love it!!


Send a kid to boarding school and they'll be able to live anywhere ...!!

That's our hut and I love it! I share it with Ingrid who's from Holland. She's a cool roomie.

The bathroom is pretty basic. When I first saw it - I was pretty impressed, I thought we had a plunge pool in there! Only unfortunately it's not supposed to be a plunge pool, there's no draining plug. One's supposed to just stand in the bathroom and pour the (cold) water over yourself... it feels pretty good so far and the plus side is that you can have a shower whilst looking in the mirror!

Otherwise back in the hut, there are two mattresses on the floor and 2 huge mosquito nets that create pretty cool sleeping cocoons - it's quite comfy. Now I can really say that Im backpacking! I've started to use my travel pillow, my satin sleeping liner, my bedbug liner (don't seem to be any but I wanted the authentic backbacker look :) and my head torch.

We're at the Wildlife Animal Rescue centre, 80 k south of Ranong and opposite the shores of Myanmar (Burma)

I arrived yesterday with Joanna & Kersty. We took the bus from Phuket to Baan Talae Nork (it took 4hrs hours instead of the usual 3) Joanna is an American and Kersty a Welsh girl who now lives in Oz. It was so funny we were picked up from the village bus stop and taken to the project by way of local transportation - sitting on the back of a pick up truck ;) The other thing about transport here is the amazing amount of people that can fit onto one moped / motorcycle... I've seen as many as 5 so far...!

When it comes to the turtle work, it's a pretty cool schedule, we leave base camp at 5pm and head out to the beach. We set up camp there, have a swim, eat dinner on the beach and then chat until we start to fall asleep. In pairs of two we each have a scheduled walk (4miles) at some point around high tide (2hrs before, during and 2 hrs after) The moon is almost still full so you don't need torches out there. Last night 3 of us couldn't sleep so in between our walks we got Sandy (male) our resident Chinese Volunteer to teach us Tai Chi!!! It was so surreal, Tai Chi on the beach in the middle of the night!

So far though the area has been really badly effected by locals poaching the nests and can you believe it they haven't seen any turtles at all this season but never mind it's great fun, a good social group and who can complain when you're sitting on a beach in Thailand!! :) Plus we're going to get so fit!!

OK that all for now folks as I don't want to hog the computer! Im sure there are lots of funny things I've experienced but cannot remember at the mo as we've just got back and had breakfast (yummy pancakes) and I'm tired. Time for a shower.

Oh BTW the photo shoot...!! Arghh, unfortunately that was Groundhog Day!! Well for a start... we missed the early morning flight to Phuket and finally got there at 15.30 which meant that by the time we got to the location ready to go it was exactly this time:
.... yes, not quite the best time of day to start a shoot!!!


'World's shortest photo shoot'






Thursday, February 01, 2007

Backpacking... a skill not yet acquired!


OK so I've been in Thailand for 4 days and one evening now, I've been out practically every night and every place that I am taken to, is more beautiful and more swanky then the previous.

Bangkok is a city where you will never tire of going out. The only minor problem is, that I opted out of (not by choice but by law of backpack) packing heels. I went out the other night to a very cool club and for the first time in my life I was wearing flat shoes out - smart black flip flops no less!! It was horrible - how could I dance in flip flops? :) So what did I do? I got up the next morning and I thought well that's enough stretching of my Achilles tendons and I went ahead and bought the swankiest pair of heels hehehe now the problem is ...how oh how are they going to fit into my already full backpack. Also this is my last day 'In the city!!!! - but surely they'll be parties on the beach, heels required? One's gotto laugh! ....and here they are:





Our departure to the beach has been delayed till tomorrow. We are now flying to Phuket. The photo shoot is also tomorrow and this will include the very beautiful and glamorous Maureen and a couple of other models and a local celebrity (singer/actress). So all very exciting.
Next on the agenda is to head off to Baan Talae Nork nr Ranong and opposite Myanmar (Burma) to work on a marine conservation project with Turtles for two weeks. I am set to leave Phuket on Saturday morning and this is place is remote so they have one satellite internet set up for 20 people!! So I may not be on line too often :)


A Big Thank You for all the emails I've received. Pls also feel free to use this blog to post comments. Catch u l8r