CHAING RAI
We crossed the border by land from Laos into Thailand which again, was trouble and security free. We got our visa's for Laos stamped to state they had been used and we walked through to Thai immigration where to our delight, we were issued with a 30 day free visa (previously only 15 days were issued unless prior visa application or landing in Thailand by air). As we were getting our passports checked, we watched the bus, which had our bags on, drive through the border crossing into Thailand with no security checks or anything of the sort; I wondered why that kind man had asked me to take that 'package' across for him!
Chiang Rai was a short stop over of two nights, en route to Chiang Mai. Not a big town but a town which has the worlds only white temple, or 'Wat'; named, Wat Rong Khun. Owned by an eccentric artist, he has decorated the inside with his modern paintings of Osama Bin Laden, Batman and Star Wars characters.
So we hopped on the local bus to see what it was all about...
To reach the white temple visitors have to walk on a bridge over reaching arms which symbolises desire.
Rosie wrote a prayer tag to add to the thousands hanging from above..
Another building we visited was called the Black House, owned by another eccentric artist named Thawan Duchanee. The grounds are full of strange shaped houses filled with crocodile skins, buffalo horns and even a skeleton of an elephant, amongst other weird and wonderful exhibits.
CHIANG MAI
So off on a palatial bus from what we are used to, for a tiny 3 hour drive to Chiang Mai where we had planned to and researched to be an elephant trainer for a day, or Mahout. Renowned for the numerous upon numerous temples, we explored just a few, one, named 'Wat Chedi Luang'; where parts of it dates back to 1441.
On one evening we decided to visit a 'Monk Chat' session, where for an hour and a half you can speak with a group of monks and ask questions about their religion and views about almost anything and they can reciprocate; a chance for them to practice their English and us to learn about Buddhism.
Following a very intense but interesting and insightful time, we were then told we had another hour and a half of meditation. Hungry and tired we 'eagerly' adopted the crossed-legged/painful position as instructed by our monk. He then started to chant and we were to listen and follow his instructions; 'In-tend-ing to mooovvveee...mooovvveee'. And so this continued for what seemed like ages, how Rosie and I didn't burst out laughing on a few occasions was beyond me; we were very respectful and professional as always.
We visited many beautiful temples whilst in Chaing Mai, here are a few...
After a day of temple hopping, we had a delicious fish dinner and Singha beer at a local restaurant, it was one of the best meals we'd had so far!
We then embarked on our mission of having and looking after an elephant each for a day, at a place called Patara. There are dozens of elephant 'tours' you can book with but Thailand is renowned for a lack of welfare for animals and more interested in making money; thus, the majority of these companies do not look after or mistreat the elephants, consequently the elephants have mental health problems and poor hygiene of their skin and nails etc which can lead to infection and ultimately death. We did some very thorough research and Patara was without doubt the best in the business with elephant welfare their paramount importance, which was confirmed on arrival and speaking with the owner. We completed a 'health check' of our elephants of their skin, nails and dung; yes, we had to squeeze the dung to check its moisture and break it up to check its content, a highlight for Rosie.
The elephants waiting patiently for us to finish our lunch...
We then rode them 'bareback' and riding elephants is a controversial issue but we were given the statistics; us riding on an elephant is 1-2% of their weight which is the equivalent of us having a small rucksack on our backs! So we rode them an hour to the river, they strolled in and we scrubbed and washed them; extremely magical.
The next day a windy and nauseous minibus drive to Pai in the very north of Thailand, almost bordering Myanmar.
PAI
Known as a relaxing and chilled place in Thailand, and it was, apart from the few adrenaline fuelled experiences on offer. Our first night we took a beautiful scenic walk to the local restaurant.
The restaurant was run by a lady and her husband and they sold the local delicacy...yum!
She was a fantastic cook and we enjoyed a meal by moon and candlelight - the result of the usual Asian powercuts!
The next day we booked onto a 2 day, 1 night white water rafting expedition and staying at a camp in the jungle for the night.
We both absolutely loved this experience, the weather was boiling hot both days, it was just the two of us and our 'Captain' in the boat and we didn't see any other boats or people for the whole two days, except the men who stay at the camp to cook etc; perfect!
We stopped for lunch, rice wrapped in banana leaves..
The scenery was breathtaking..
Our camp in the Jungle..
On our last day we stopped at a natural hot spring where we added to a stone pile, it's harder than it looks...
We had a little swim with the river snakes we spotted and then it was back to rafting...
Rosie managed to stay in the boat but to her delight, I got thrown out of the boat on one section of the rapids.
The following day we hired a bike and went exploring the area for the day which gave us the independence to visit anywhere and everywhere with no time constraints.
So we visited a waterfall,
A canyon,
And bridge built by the Japanese in WWII, amongst numerous stops for drinks, ice cream and coffee.
BANGKOK
To reach the capital, the cheapest option was to fly from Chiang Mai which was beneficial as to travel by bus took 11 hours but by plane, just 1.
Bangkok is the second most visited city in the world, although I can't reference this, I was reliably informed. Our itinerary whilst here was to visit a few of the main tourists sites, for example, the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew which was stunningly beautiful and we enjoyed a day walking around - despite the monsoons!
Wat Pho (the largest reclining Buddha in Thailand) was impressive and we watched as visitors gave money into prayer bowls...
The weekend market (Chatuchak) is the worlds largest with over 8,000 stalls and we spent a day there just wandering around.
Even the dogs got new shoes..
China town, which brought back good memories for us!
We also opted to visit a medical, forensic and parasite museum which in the Lonely Planet guide offers an alternative to temple visiting, is written as;
"This gory institution contains the various appendages and remnants of famous murders, including the bloodied t-shirt from a victim who was stabbed to death with a dildo".
Right up our street. Medically and scientifically it also had dozens of child corpses in formaldehyde that had died through birth defects, vital human organs that had perished through trauma such as a gun shot wound or medical condition such as lung cancer etc, alongside grown men who had been executed for their murderous past and then embalmed to be put on show. An extremely interesting and informative day, plus, surely it will cover some continual professional development to satisfy our career break policy...boss?
We met Rosie's friend, Suzanne and her partner, Josh for a few nights in a row which was great as we had met them in Cambodia and now here but the plus being they had been where we were going so we could interrogate their experiences and places they visited, to aid us. So travelling around the majority of Asia so far, we hadn't tried any weird and wonderful 'snacks' they have on offer but being with Suzanne and Josh gave us the courage we needed. Plus, Josh being American, I couldn't allow him to show me up! So, without further ado, Josh and I visited the nearest insect seller and chose our delicacies.
All four of us devoured, I say devoured but actually mean nibbled, on cockroaches, crickets, grubs and scorpions!
We had a great time with them and it was sad to finally part and go our separate ways.
Next, a bus and boat transport trip to Ko Tao.
Fisherman at the dock..
KO TAO
Renowned for its crystal clear waters where snorkelling and diving enthusiasts flock to for its natural and beautiful underworld. We are possibly 'old before our time', as we wanted to stay on the 'quiet' side of the island, on the quietest of beaches. We stayed on the east coast where on our arrival and exploration to the beach we bumped into our South African friends (Guthrie and Nat) who we met whilst on our two day boat travel in Laos and who we shared a tree house with at the Gibbon Experience; of all the hotels on all the islands in Thailand!! They informed us that we had booked a hotel with the best snorkelling on the island, and we became excited!
We had dinner with them on a couple of evenings, reminiscing and sat on the beach drinking Chang beer and watching the sun set, but the highlight was investigating 'bioluminescence'! I had heard and read that at night, you can enter the sea and when you splash or make movement, it glows green, or shoots green specs; like Leonardo does on the film, The Beach. So we four were sitting by candlelight on the beach drinking beer, again, and we volunteered Guthrie to go and see, he did and he beckoned us down where we were mesmerised and amazed at the magic that was happening. It wasn't as dramatic as the film as you can imagine, but it was still as amazing and magical.
We snorkelled everyday which was the best we had ever experienced; neon colour coral and fish to match. Fish of all varieties and sizes in just waist deep water minding their own business chomping the coral. To name but a few; parrot, clown, angel, blue spotted Ray's alongside dozens of others, it was fantastic.
AO KHANOM
We then wanted to get off the beaten 'backpacker track' so decided on a place called Ao Khanom. We caught a bus which was more like a large tuk tuk to get there.
Ao Khanom had an untouched and idyllic beach with only a handful of hotels along its 4km beachfront. We stayed in a bungalow that had only been open for five days, we were the third ever people to stay at 'Le Petit Saint Tropez' and yes, it was owned and run by the friendliest French couple Julien and Stéphanie who were completely welcoming and made us feel at home. The accommodation was second to none and we rated it as the best we had stayed in since we started our travels nearly six months ago! To compliment this was some of the best Western food we had eaten since leaving the UK! But to top it all off was the most idyllic and breathtaking beach with not a person in sight along the coast; it was as if we had discovered it as the view hadn't been touched for decades.
The only other guests staying at the hotel/bungalows was an English couple currently living in Bangkok, so we got chatting and ended up spending our entire time with them, Liam and Kayleigh were excellent company and we have vowed to keep in touch and meet again in the future.
A draw to this area of Thailand is the inhabitants: the pink Dolphins, a rare albino breed. We hired a boat, and captain one morning for a trip to try to catch a glimpse of this wonderful mammal.
We spent just a short time on the sea and to our delight a number of these dolphins came to eat and chase fish around us, very lucky.
We stopped off at 'Buddha Island' which had a small temple on the top...
Later that day we visited a fish foot spa, unlike the ones we've seen before in shopping centres, this was completely natural and the foot skin eating fish live in the river. After walking over a slightly dodgy looking bridge we dipped our feet into the water.
Rosie and Kayleigh were not keen on it at all, so it was left to Liam and I to provide food for the fish, they really loved my feet.
The next day Julien took the four of us to see a waterfall, it was a lovely walk through a forest of Palm trees to reach the water.
Unfortunately, the water level was low so we couldn't swim, but it was beautiful nonetheless.
A very large Millipede...
The rest of our time at Khanom was spent relaxing on the beach with Kayleigh and Liam and our new friend 'stinky Bill' named because we could smell him running up the beach, despite this he was a lovely fun dog and became the fifth member of our group. We had such a great few days, it was sad to say goodbye!
Walking with Stinky Bill...
KRABI
Just a stop over location for the night before travelling from the mainland to the islands, one recommendation; don't go! I'm talking about the town, not the province; it was like a run down concrete jungle that had nothing to offer. So we made a quick exit the following day to Ko Phi Phi.
KO PHI PHI
We opted to marvel at Ko Phi Phi's beauty out of a number of other islands and to visit the famous beach from the film; The Beach. After a short boat ride we arrived at Ko Phi Phi's harbour to beautifully clear water and colourful long tail boats.
We then caught a long tail boat 'taxi' to our beach at the other side of the island.
On arrival we jumped out of the boat into black, dirty sea water; not the tranquil turquoise colour we had grown to expect. Either way, we thought that it was due to the tide or something. We arrived at our place for the night and were less than impressed. Now let me add that during our travels to date we have stayed in some rough and undesirable places and we don't 'normally' mind. But in this occasion I think we were expecting something amazing including the beach and sea but it all ended up being the complete opposite. By this time it was dark and we were hungry so found a restaurant and contemplated our next move; we decided to cut our loses and move on the following day. We had come to the conclusion that to get the Ko Phi Phi we wanted, you would have to spend a considerable amount of money. Alongside this decision, we decided that the island as a whole had been ruined by tourism since the making of the film. To sum it up in one sentence, plagiarised from the Lonely Planet; "Ko Phi Phi's beauty is its own demise", we couldn't agree more!
KO LANTA
The place where this time, we were meeting my mum, Jo and step dad, Jeff. As we had changed our plans by a few days, we stayed in the north of the island on a beautiful and untouched beach before meeting up with mum and Jeff.
My mum had booked an incredible place in the south of the island which overlooked the beach and valley from a view up in the mountain.
This accommodation had its own kitchen and huge balcony etc so Rosie and I pre-loaded the fridge with beer, gin and tonic (most importantly) and food for breakfast. Mum and Jeff arrived early evening time and it was fantastic to see them both; it had been six months!
Not as action packed as when we met Rosie's parents as we were on a little island with not a great deal to do apart from relax, drink and relax some more. We did enrol onto another cooking class, our only in Thailand which was brilliant fun, mum and Jeff being there enjoying it with us made it all the more special.
Jeff hired a truck as when we parted ways, they were going to drive up through Thailand to Bangkok before flying home. This made it easy and very cheap, to travel and explore Ko Lanta which we did.
On a few occasions we stopped to look at the many monkeys on the road and watched them playing, they weren't particularly friendly monkeys, so we didn't get too close...
We found an amazing restaurant that had a decking area which reached over the sea where a swing was situated to gently enjoy the views of the sea and islands opposite.
We visited here a few times due to the incredible, fresh fish but on the following occasions we could no longer see the islands opposite due to the smoke, which had descended onto Ko Lanta from the illegal forest fires in Indonesia.The fires inhibited us going diving and snorkelling due to visibility, however we did not let this dampen our spirits! We visited the local markets to buy fresh produce, namely, vegetables, fish and prawns caught just a few hours earlier.
We cooked at our villa on a few occasions and it was some of the best food we have eaten since leaving the UK; we don't like to blow our own trumpet but, 'toot-toot'.
The week flew past with relaxing by the pool, eating, drinking, exploring other beaches and towns and enjoying each others company. The day came of parting ways; mum and Jeff dropped us off at Krabi airport where we flew to Kuala Lumpur and they continued their road trip to Chumphon. It was emotional as always but less than four months until we meet again!
Off to Malaysia!!
