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| Thailand | Our last big destination, with elephant riding, bamboo rafting and numerous amounts of Wat's (temples) sure left us with some great new memories.
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 | Reclining Buddha in Ayutthaya
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Our arrival to Thailand was not the best in the world. We took this impossibly long and bumpy road from Siem Reap to Bangkok... Huge holes on the ground for most of the way! It took a whole day for 500km. The classic rip off by letting bus guests wait several times and change busses 3 times. The best way to travel there aparently would be to share a taxi. At least so we heard.
We stayed the night in Bangkok and took the first bus to go to the beach on the island of Koh Chang on the east coast. The direct bus from Bangkok to Trat goes from the Eastern Bus Terminal (Ekamai). Its definitely worth checking the different bus companies, because some VIP buses are different from other VIPs. In Trat the first best thing to do is to block the touts for the overcrowded songthaew to the ferry. Better charter your own for the same price. We had a pleasant empty ride to Laem Ngop. There are 3 different ferries going to the island. Naturally we chose the advertised, and by that overpriced and full one...next time we know better. The other ferries are used by the locals too and probably its possible to have some nontouristic chat with them. | |  | reflections at the coast
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On Koh Chang we came to get some peace and quiet, sadly parts of the island are invaded by those elderly male tourists and we had to do a little research before we finally found our peaceful heaven. The best is to go to the island early and have a look at your favourite places and check with your own eyes and ears - quite many seem to be under construction or there is a new "resort" built next to them. We arrived too late to check and stayed in Siam Bay Resort for a night. Sadly not to recommend since its owner family isnt the most supportive and the value of accomodation not good. So we hired a scooter and drove around until we found the peaceful, welcoming and affordable place we imagined.Its on the southern side but I cant really tell the name, since its better to keep it that way... There we sunbaked the next days and shared our bungalow with a family of mice and some mosquitoes! Besides these guests the place was the best destination. Daniel went diving again, I decided for snorkling and had some great time and amazing underwater sights! Its only busy on and under water during weekends, when the thais come for short trips from bangkok. So a bit of planning was necessary to avoid sharing the coral sights with about 50 thais in bright orange life jackets. After a week it was time to go for some culture again: To give a picture of the ferry and some parts of the island by that: On board of the boat on the way back were about 30 tourists, mostly couples. Half of these couples (white old male, thai very young female) couldnt even communicate between eachother. The whole normality of sex tourism still came as quite a shock to us and Koh Chang seems to be perverts holiday destination. | |  | coconut soup!
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After our visit to the island we headed straight through Bangkok with the 10-hour night bus (VIP) to Northern-Thailand and to Chiang Mai. It is a lovely city, a bit touristy, but more the "trekkers" than the party goers, I suppose (even if we had a strange trekking experience later on...).In Chiang Mai you can easily see the religious influence Thailand has, It has around 200 Wat's or temples in the city! One in every corner!
We booked ourselves to a thai-food cooking class and spent one day making 6 different thai, veggie foods. They have excellent, very differently made foods in here that mostly contain spices like lemongrass, galangar, chili and garlic,And they use lots of coconut milk. Yum! Now we can try some of that at home too, just have to find those right spices. | |  | Our Trekking Guides juggling tourist cameras...
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Next in our busy list was a tree day trekking trip, organised by our "lovely" Chiang Mai Garden Guesthouse(with a manic owner)to the hilly northern regions. The chinese host is incredibly persisting in pushing you to go hill trekking. The toughest sales person weve ever met. She pulls out tons of guestbooks, where pages are missing. The best survival techique is to avoid the place completely or you will be altered. Resistance is futile as we discovered :)
We already realised that our trip would not be painless, when we saw the other participants to our trip. There was a big group of young guys, with beer, waiting in the table, making jokes. Well, we packed our stuff to the car (to the roof) and stuffed ourselves inside this van. It was a pickup truck, just covered a bit from sides and we had to fit about 9-10(?) people inside. I don't think it was ment to be used that way. I escaped the jokes to the front where I was sitting with our tour guide, and our strange driver. Daniel enjoyed the talking part :) | |  | Trekking around Chiang Mai
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First we had a little stop in a town, where we saw a markethall and the guys bought more beer and alcohol. Next step was a trek up to see a waterfall and then food!
Then another 2 1/2 hours walking in a forestpath and we were in our first overnight stay, in Karen village. It was a small village, with few pigs and dogs, but we didn't really see much of it. Others started to socialize with each other right away, mostly by drinking even more beer. You could tell many of them were British ;)
Me and Daniel went to sit by the fire that the villagers made for us later that evening, and tasted some great sticky rice that was cooked inside a bamboo stick. I shared mine with one lovely dog too :) And Daniel tasted some local tobacco from our host. I enjoyed that interaction so much more than the drinking in our table.
Next day was time for another 2 1/2 hour walk to the elephant camp where we had lunch and saw these huge creatures bathing in a river. After, was our time to ride! It was amazing to sit on top of these big animals. Felt very high up! :) We trekked for 1 hour and arrived to our next overnight stay place, Akha village. And after another "great" night of drinking, we only had next day's bamboo river rafting ahead of us. That went pretty painlessly and we headed back to Chiang Mai, visiting a Butterfly and Orchid farm on our way. | |  | Some of the snacks in Chiang Mai
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After our trip what we needed was some relaxation, city sightseeing and of course shopping :) We had amazing (!)three hour massage in Let's Relax- spa, where our feet got nice one hour foot reflexology session and then we got two more hours for the whole body!! This traditional thai massage was very hard at times, but definitely got rid of all our tensions and did really good for the feet too.
Next days we wandered around this city, checking some of the Buddhist temples and the real life of the city. We went into the markets, where they sell pretty much everything, from food and flowers to clothes. Some of the "interesting" finds were of course different types of snacks they have in here, like for example cockroaches, worms and other bugs. Yum! :p We didn't dare to try...
Chiang Mai is great for getting some original hill tribe items, like bags or clothes, so we went to the night market to look for a bag for me. Unfortunately I lost the place I had seen That Bag earlier... There are so many stalls and shops selling everything tourist might need!Well, there is still Bangkok to find some more stuff! | |  | Buddha's head framed by a tree in Ayutthaya
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Updated 14.04.04 Written by Riikka 62500 reads |
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What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do - especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.
-- William Least Heat Moon |
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