Archive for February, 2010


Well, continuing on from the last post…

We get to the beach and it is clear that they are not going to continue on by slow boat. Now they are trying to sell us 1000 baht per person tickets in speed boats to get to the next stop (Pak Bang.) No one goes for it, but again, huge amounts of time are wasted explaining we are not going to fall into their scam. They adapt, saying that they will take us to the spot where we will sleep in the sand for 500 baht (instead of walking) again, no one goes for it… well they try again, how about 100 baht and we just bring your bags? No dice from anyone. It seemed a few tried, but we all ended up in the same spot eventually.

Now it is dark, and our group of 80 to 120 people or so has been fairly split up as some had started walking to the sleep area, while others stayed behind to keep trying to figure out what exactly was happening. We started off as a group of 5, an picked up people as we wandered through the winding and weaving trails. Grass was taller than me on both sides and it was hard to keep sight of the person in front of you. Very quickly the remaining light from the sunset was gone and we were wandering in pitch black, always with some one in front, but never knowing who that was, or why they chose the paths they chose. We eventually found a village and some guy from there tried to lead us to the spot. Lots of confusion later we break over a bluff and we cannot even start to believe what is there…

Lights, bonfires, food stands, beer, people, people, and more people. Kids from the villages, music over huge speakers, it was a massive freaking party in the middle of the Mekong river. It was hard to wrap your brain around at first, we expected sleeping in the sand, maybe a small fire if we were lucky and could get some sort of dry wood from some where. Eventually we just became a part of it. Some tasty eats, my first (and last) “beer lao” and then playing with my camera to try and get some neat shots at night. These kids were quite fascinated by us, and especially excited to see themselves on my camera after taking a picture.

Eventually we settled in to sleep under Jen’s mosquito net in our sleeping bags.

Well although we had worked on getting a wake-up call, we didn’t get one. I downed my breakfast, and booked it to get some cheap water before leaving on the next part of our journey. We all loaded onto the second bus leaving for the border and we realized how easy it actually would have been to get our exit stamps ourselves… I guess technically this is the first time we were “duped” or “taken advantage of” as dumb tourists on our trip. ‘Oh well’ we say as we move on, at least it is only 180 baht, and we are on our way to Laos…

We ferry across the Mekong is some iffy little wooden boat and then it is into the flurry of people bunching up at the visa window praying to get their passports back. The system is: they take the passport and visa from people and groups, do their little approval process, and then show it to a window. If you are lucky enough to see yours before it disapears back into the pile, or if some english speaking guy is able to read and call out your name and you can pile yourself to the window in time, you get yours back (after you pay of course.)

We realized soon however, many people were paying for “friends” or “girlfriends” or whatever. You could, with 30 USD go to the Laos border, and essentially buy a passport from whatever nationality you want, and the border crew could care less who they hand it over to. Needless to say I had my butt right up at the window and didn’t move until all three of ours were accounted for.

Then it was to annother window for a little more approval, then a gate for more approval, then what looked like a popsicle stand to fill your name out on a list and to have one more chance to buy a rip-off pillow for the slow boat.

We eventually got a tuk-tuk (instead of a mini-bus like most others) and we were brought to where the slow boats depart. We were instantly kept separate from those there already, taken aside, and then given a talk “for our own saftey.” We were told already the river was low, but now were being told it was so low, that boats cannot make it and if we try, we MIGHT need to sleep in the sand, or under a bridge. Not sounding great, and after some “why wasn’t this mentioned at any point before” and some dodging and hiding behind lack of english language skills, we as a group decided we paid for the slow boat and we will stick with it, and not pay the extra 500 baht for a mini bus (which is what the saftey talk was trying to sell us.) A couple german girls were going to settle for the bus, but then after finding out that as the only two, they would need to pay for the whole thing themselves, they decided boat as well.

After a new guy came out and tried to sell us accomidation at Pak Beng (our expected over night village along the way.) We said “why would we” and he explained that it was a 100% that we would make it there. Too many alarm bells for us, we figure we will just get a room when we get there, as was the plan the whole time up to this point. Not everyone had that sense though. After being forced to wait 1.5 hours at this restaurant by the slow boats, they figure we have spent all we plan to there so they finally start loading us on the slow boat. After about 30 of us get on, some guy pops back out and starts telling everyone to not board. There was supposedly no more room, and if we don;t refuse they will just keep cramming more and more of us on until it was unsafe.

This delayed the process for a long time, I went on to check it out and we were able to get seats, so we all boarded and stayed on, but not everyone after us was so lucky. More and more people kept showing up and eventually a second boat was brought on. Ours was no doubt more crowded, but people got to drinking, and it really quickly became more like a fun party than being cramped on a small uncomfortable boat. Four or five hours later we arrive at a beach.

“This is not Pak Beng, this is a sandy beach.”

To be continued… there is an 11:30 curfew here in Luang Prabang (yes, we eventually made it) and I need to be travelling tomorrow… more entries to come :D

What is this? The rip-off store?

Well, I don’t remember if I had mentioned before, but the place we got the “tour”/trip to Laos was at our guest house. We checked a few places, felt good about a couple, but eventually settled on getting it from our guest house because it was such a nice place and the people were always so helpful. We got a really good feeling for sure from it…

So we wake up in the morning, they let us leave our bags at reception and we went off to have our breakfast at the hotel we stayed at previously (which is connected to the guesthouse by management and proximity.) It was really tastey as always. The bus shows up (kind of like one of those big vans you would expect a bunch of rich Chinese tourists to pile out of, and once again we are the first people on. As we pick up people we realize that they are from some pretty upscale places, so our expectaions of the planned guest house (from the tour) went up a fair bit. I mean the pictures looked nice, but the pictures ALWAYS look nice.

We had a nice little pitstop and got some food, a little bathroom break, and then it was back to the airconditioned minibus/van; back to enjoying the countryside until we eventually pulled up to the guest house. We roll in, and WOW, this place is like some garden of Eden or something. The buildings are gorgeous wood siding, hidden among the trees, the brick and greenery paths through the gardens were picturesque. The pool looked fantastic, there was a little waterfall included, warm showers, lounge chairs, the works. Then we start reading the signs, and the rip-offs begin. Pool, an extra 50 baht, towel annother 120, cusion for the boar 40 baht… etc etc etc. They tell us that the way the tour is set up they need to send our passports ahead for the exit stamp, even though we insisted we wanted to do it, they said it wasn’t possible, we needed to fork over 180 baht for it too, plus they wanted 3 pictures for the visa (we wanted a visa on arrival, which shouldnt need a picture for obvious reasons.) They wouldn’t budge, and we didnt want to get stuck on the wrong side of the river with the tour carrying on so eventually we gave in.

I drew the line at water. I wandered through town to find cheaper water (as I drink a lot of it) and I refused to buy one of their damned cusion (it’s almost like I have some dutch in me eh?) We (Amy and I) DID give in to the pool fee as it was so warm, and granted, it was enjoyable, but when it was time to use the warm showers after… I think I spent a good hour in there enjoying the hot water after.

After dinner (no one understand a buffet over here I suppose) and a movie, we went to sleep in our room under mosquito nets, leaving the door open to try and stay cool through the night.

Picture This…

Random pictures of Ayutthaya and some others thrown in… these are from Jen’s camera.

A couple pictures from the night market… only showing 1 of the many courts. Taken from a really neat place for drinks

Reclining Buddha in Ayutthaya

A few pictures from the trek… again from Jen





Lao Jer Gun Chiang Mai

Well it’s our last real day in Chiang Mai. We had a fairly hefty list of things to do before leaving. Firstly, having slept in a different spot every night, I wanted to keep that alive, so I wandered off in the morning to see if I could get into the guest house next to a hotel with a pool which we enjoyed before. We had been trying here for a long time and finally we were able to get a room. Roughly 10-12 bucks for all three of us in a nice room, access to a pool, en suite washroom, free water bottles in the room… crazy good deal.

After we moved over we got some breakfast and then it was off to get a scrape on Jen’s leg checked out (she got it on the trek.) A short tuk-tuk ride to the hospital and I think we had probably the best experience you can have in a foreign hospital. The waiting room had 4 seats, and that was all it needed. Jen was in getting checked out in a flash and after a shot and some antibiotics, all done right there, the total bill was only about 30 bucks. I don’t know how they do it over here.

We got our stuff figured out for Laos. We will be taking a bus ride to the border. Sleep for a night there, cross in the morning, take a river boat down (2 days) while spending the night at a village along the river. At that point we will be enjoying all Laos has to offer until Amy’s visa kicks in for Vietnam. There is some fun stuff to do along the river, and apparently some trekking like adventures to be had as well. My understanding is the road system is horrible in Laos, so train and water will be the way to move around when possible.

We got set up with books, and some US currency (apparently that is the smartest one to get for Laos) and now I am just making sure the ol’ blogeroo is in order before I enter the land of the unknown. Internet might not be so easy to come by. I might need to buy myself a note book to keep track of what happens and do another one of these blog assaults when I get back to civilization. After a dip in the pool it will probably be bed time… maybe a late night snack could get squeezed in there too :D

Lovely Daze

Well so far every night in Thailand (outside of Bangkok) we have stayed in a different place every night… tonight is no different. It is a really nice place, but our two rooms are separate buildings and we are without AC, and the mosquito nets, while very pretty, seem like an ominous threat alluding to some potential night time visitors.

Today was more like a recovery day from the trek. We all slept in till about 10, which really isn’t common for all of us (maybe some of us, but not all of us.) We had a nice big meal, I took a chance to eat a pizza while it was sill available… it was good, but it was not an “American pizza.” We hit the internet cafe, and did some research on how we were going to get to Laos at some travel agent places around our hostel.

Every sunday there is a massive street market in Chiang Mai. We walked around for hours on end, and we had barely made a dent by the time exhaustion set in and we had to head back to bed. I don’t think it would have been possible to simply walk around the whole thing which spread through court upon court, and block upon block, never mind actually looking at the stands.

On the way back we got a quick massage for 2 dollars and then hit the sack.

North Thailand Trek – Day 3

Final day of the trek was a fun one. It was a short, hour or so, walk to the rafting camp. Amy, Jen, Tej, Agnes, Juliet and myself were in one boat, and the Danes and the Australians in another. Our boat definitely kicked butt. The river was quite low, but the big rocks in the rapids added some fun when it could have been a little less exciting without them. We got stuck once or twice but nothing close to what happened with the other boat. After a bit of “shakey shakey shakey” we eventually got to where we switched over to the bamboo rafting. The river guide picked me to “captain sparrow” the boat at the front, and after a few screams, a somewhat sinking raft, and the advice “if it not sink it not fun!” we continued down the rest of the river. It was pretty relaxing and very “Thailand.”

After one last meal we got back into the truck and had a really not fun at all 1 and a half hour ride back to Chiang Mai. We had a nice little chat with Oaf before getting dropped off at our old hostel. We couldn’t get a room, but eventually found another after a bit of walking around.

A nice meal and a dip in a really cold pool, a bit of law and order on TV, and then off to sleep we go.

North Thailand Trek – Day 2

We woke up had eggs with toast and fruit. We had some time so we walked around the village. Granted there was a solar panel powering the store, and some hefty radio antennas by some of the huts, you felt that you were at an authentic (if slightly modernized) hill tribe village. There wasn’t anyone trying to sell you gaudy souvenirs, the water and pop didn’t really cost much more than it would from the 7-11 down in Chiang Mai. There was a school with about 12 kids in it, cattle roaming around, chickens everywhere (the roosters started at about 1:00am eugh!) pig pens, pigs not in pens, really neat stuff.

We got back and it was a much easier hike to the next village, much smaller, and essentially it was just to get out of the sun, buy some water, and maybe a bag of chips. We walked along a stream, through the jungle, and eventually to the first waterfall. It wasn’t huge and the water was freezing, but it was an opportunity to swim and become less sweaty. We had lunch and played with a cat for a while and then went on to the next waterfall. It was beautiful, sandy bottom, but not deep enough to swim. The water seemed warmer and it was great for the legs and feet to cool off. After this we walked off to the camp for the night. No roosters this time! It was right on the side of the creek, and we had a big bonfire. There were some huge chunks of wood and Tej and I had a mission to burn through them before going to sleep.

North Thailand Trek – Day 1

We woke up around 8:00 to give copies of our passport to the guide to take to the tourist police (so they knew who was where) then later around 9:00 were picked up to bring our bags to storage. We left around 10 so the guide could pick up the ingredients for our dinner at a market. Our tour consisted of 4 Danish girls: Louise, Lada, Sophie, Melaina; 2 Austrian girls: Agnes, Juliet; 2 Australians: Sam, Lisa; 1 U.K. guy: Tej and us 3 Canadians.

The first stop was the elephant park. We had some food first and then got up on the elephants. We were short one elephant sort, so myself and Tej ended up riding on the neck of the elephant where the guide usually goes. Amy and Jen were in the seat behind me… at least at the beginning. The seat started tilted to one side, Amy’s side, and it just kept going more and more. Eventually it was me jumping off the elephant to try and hold up the seat while Amy and Jen hung on up top. Eventually we got them back up onto the neck of the elephant and were able to reattach the the seat to the elephant and continue the tour. The rest of the trip on the elephant consisted of him sucking up saliva and spraying it on us as we walked through the jungle.

We then got to the first day of hiking. It was pretty hard the first day. Really steep, really hot, and really dry. For the most part the group stayed pretty close together, but for the end, the steepest part Tej and I decided to go off ahead a bit instead of waiting for everyone as we had been and as happens when two guys are off showing that neither of us are all that tired, we ended up hiking up a lot fast than either of us really wanted to.

Eventually we met up with the guides brother who took us to the village. By the way, the guide’s nickname is Oaf — pronounced “Off.” Anyways, we get up there, a really neat bamboo building with nice mosquito nets. Amy and I got a massage from the tribe, it was really nice after the day of hiking. I had 3 people working on me at once… fan-tastic!

Dinner was curry by candle light, followed by fruit. We played cards with Tej and Louise and Lada for a while and had a pretty early night (even after trying to stay up “late” aka like 9:00)

Jen and I hurried off in the morning to find a place to switch to while Amy was getting ready in the prison erm… “guest house” shower. We tried a place we had asked yesterday (900 baht.. no thanks) but today they had a room for 560. That’s 10 more than what we were paying Sarah for 2 rooms, but it fit all of us, two HUGE beds, two bathrooms, and A POOL! I ran back to get Amy before checkout time and when we got back it turned out that while one person said the room was 560, the one taking the money from Jen said 500… right on!

We had some breakfast at the restaurant downstairs and met an Irish girl… she had a bit of insight on what to look for in treks, but not much more than we already knew ourselves. She invited me to go horse back riding with her while Amy and Jen were cooking, but again around 1000 baht, massages wins over bumpy rides in the hot sun.

We set off from there with plans to meet up at 7:00 to eat up Amy and Jens 9 dishes of hard work. The three of us decided we needed to book a trek as time was just passing by and so after what seemed like ages we finally found an actual tour company instead of a reseller and went with them as we got a really good feeling (which was not what we expected after hearing all the horror stories of failed, not fun, not enough food, over touristic treks.)

Amy and Jen went off for their class, I read a book and picked up the laundry etc while I waited for them. We met up with Christina (the Irish girl) and her friend Leigh-Anne who had a bit of bad luck and was back in Chiang Mai after losing her bike off of a bus. The food was amazing. Probably my favorite spring rolls and pad thai yet, and the sticky rice with mango and deep fried ice cream were a great dessert.

We headed to get a drink and while we had THOUGHT the ladyboy bar-girl keeping all the old guys excited was going to be entertainment enough, we were just blown away when a dancing elephant showed up at the front of the bar. It was a young looking thing and while our logical side said “what a horrible life, cruising the streets with it’s owner, dancing for food” it was really hard not to enjoy the surrealistic experience. The elephant looked well taken care of as well which made it easier.

We went back to the new room and packed for tomorrows trek.

Chiang Mai

Not a lot happened our first day here. Just getting settled in, and slightly disappointed with our guest house choice. Sarah Guesthouse felt a little more like Sarah Prison Cell Block C, it was a concrete bunker with little light and a pathetic (yet clean) bathroom. Sarah also seemed disinterested in everything going on around her, so we chose to look for a new place for the next day. We didn’t have any real luck but thought we would try again in the next day.

Amy and Jen signed up for some Thai cooking classes, I decline, 1000 baht could be 10 massages and I know what my priorities are.

I’m writing this several days late, and I don’t remember much more, which probably means it was likely just food, laundry and other fun things.

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