Sunday, 30 January 2011
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
Some dust speckled pictures
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| Kata Beach, Phuket |
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| On the longtail to Ao To Ko Bay |
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| The Taxis |
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| Beautiful Bud and Norm just before Bud has his Penknife confiscated for being offside |
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| Ton Sai Pier from the dive boat |
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| "The Beach' Beach - Ko Phi Phi Leh |
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| Phi Phi Don from the viewpoint |
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| Home from Home |
15th - 26th Jan - Laos to Thailand
15th + 16th Jan - Luang Prabang, Laos
Finished of Laos in Luang Prabang. Took a 2 hour boat trip up the Mekong to see the Pak Ou Caves - essentially a resting place for all the old Buddha statues from the surrounding area. On the way back we popped into Whiskey Village - a Hmong tribal village where their main source of income was selling rice whiskey with snakes and scorpions in the bottle.
Prior to this trip we were considering a 2 day trip up the Mekong to get to Thailand, after 20 minutes on the boat freezing various bits off and being deafened by the V8 car engine we decided to fly.
Trip to the waterfalls near LP in the afternoon to watch some south Koreans swimming in the lake with rubber rings and arm bands on.
16th Flight to Chiang Mai, Thailand
Second largest city in Thailand but fairly non eventful.
Got a cooking class cracked on the second evening - great fun and now armed with the culinary skills to make a mean Phad Thai, Green & Red curry and a fantastic sticky rice pudding.
18th Jan - Bus to Chiang Rai
4 hour bus ride with a stop off at the White Temple (see earlier Photos). This is an ongoing project by some famous Thai architect to represent hell, judgement and heaven in a comic book/classical Thai architectural mix, definitely one of the craziest buildings on the planet.
Got to the city in time to hit the night market, which was a lovely surprise, it HONESTLY wasn't the same as every other market in Thailand or Asia for that matter.
Food market was however, very good and we had a full 3 course meal for a massive $1.50.
Hill tribe Museum - Good intro to the tribes of the area including the long Neck Karen people and their neck bangles.
19th Mae Sai, Golden Triangle
Tour of the area known as the Golden Triangle. This is the border interconnections of Burma, Laos and Thailand where most of the worlds Opium Poppy harvest used to come from.
Hall of Opium - interesting museum about history of Opium and the Golden Triangle. definitely worth the visit if you're in the area - the CIA have a lot to answer for!
Gave immigration our passports for a couple of hours and took a quick trip over the border to Burma to look around the local market and town. Unsurprisingly this was exactly the same as all the other markets again but this one had decent Cath Kidson fakes.
20th Flight down to Phuket.
Decided we had enough of N Thailand and sacked off hiking with the hill tribes as they all have satellite tv and try and sell you local(made in China) handicrafts so took a budget flight down to Phuket.
Due to time of arrival was forced to stay 2 nights in Kata Beach. This was on a par with Sihnoukville and was the second armpit of SE Asia.
21st Phuket
Escaped the pikeys, paedos and pensioners by hiring a moped. Although the majority of the island is horrendously over developed there are a few quiet places left and we managed to find the aptly named 'Secret Cove' for a spot of lunch.
22 - 26th Jan - Phi Phi Island
Took the ferry full of the above 3 P's and made our way over to Phi Phi.
We had pre booked a quiet little bungalow in Ao To Ko Bay and took a long tail boat out of the main pier (Ton Sai) to our residence for the next 4 nights.
Great location, fantastic staff and far from the circus freak show that is Ton Sai.
Days kayaking around the neighbouring bays with an hours search and rescue mission of my sunglasses.
A days diving off Phi Phi Leh (filming location for 'The Beach'). 2 good dives, plenty of coral and loads of turtles which made Sally very happy.
Had the pleasure of meeting some top Canadian guys, 2 couples and their chaperone, "Beautiful Bud Bellefontaine". I don't know how many times we heard "did you know Singha is Lion for Beer?' but it was still funny by the time they departed in speed boat of disastrous hangovers!
Left on the ferry back to Phuket and headed straight to our earlier discovery, the Secret Cove. So far its us, a Golden Retriever, 2 puppies and a few palm trees.....
Finished of Laos in Luang Prabang. Took a 2 hour boat trip up the Mekong to see the Pak Ou Caves - essentially a resting place for all the old Buddha statues from the surrounding area. On the way back we popped into Whiskey Village - a Hmong tribal village where their main source of income was selling rice whiskey with snakes and scorpions in the bottle.
Prior to this trip we were considering a 2 day trip up the Mekong to get to Thailand, after 20 minutes on the boat freezing various bits off and being deafened by the V8 car engine we decided to fly.
Trip to the waterfalls near LP in the afternoon to watch some south Koreans swimming in the lake with rubber rings and arm bands on.
16th Flight to Chiang Mai, Thailand
Second largest city in Thailand but fairly non eventful.
Got a cooking class cracked on the second evening - great fun and now armed with the culinary skills to make a mean Phad Thai, Green & Red curry and a fantastic sticky rice pudding.
18th Jan - Bus to Chiang Rai
4 hour bus ride with a stop off at the White Temple (see earlier Photos). This is an ongoing project by some famous Thai architect to represent hell, judgement and heaven in a comic book/classical Thai architectural mix, definitely one of the craziest buildings on the planet.
Got to the city in time to hit the night market, which was a lovely surprise, it HONESTLY wasn't the same as every other market in Thailand or Asia for that matter.
Food market was however, very good and we had a full 3 course meal for a massive $1.50.
Hill tribe Museum - Good intro to the tribes of the area including the long Neck Karen people and their neck bangles.
19th Mae Sai, Golden Triangle
Tour of the area known as the Golden Triangle. This is the border interconnections of Burma, Laos and Thailand where most of the worlds Opium Poppy harvest used to come from.
Hall of Opium - interesting museum about history of Opium and the Golden Triangle. definitely worth the visit if you're in the area - the CIA have a lot to answer for!
Gave immigration our passports for a couple of hours and took a quick trip over the border to Burma to look around the local market and town. Unsurprisingly this was exactly the same as all the other markets again but this one had decent Cath Kidson fakes.
20th Flight down to Phuket.
Decided we had enough of N Thailand and sacked off hiking with the hill tribes as they all have satellite tv and try and sell you local(made in China) handicrafts so took a budget flight down to Phuket.
Due to time of arrival was forced to stay 2 nights in Kata Beach. This was on a par with Sihnoukville and was the second armpit of SE Asia.
21st Phuket
Escaped the pikeys, paedos and pensioners by hiring a moped. Although the majority of the island is horrendously over developed there are a few quiet places left and we managed to find the aptly named 'Secret Cove' for a spot of lunch.
22 - 26th Jan - Phi Phi Island
Took the ferry full of the above 3 P's and made our way over to Phi Phi.
We had pre booked a quiet little bungalow in Ao To Ko Bay and took a long tail boat out of the main pier (Ton Sai) to our residence for the next 4 nights.
Great location, fantastic staff and far from the circus freak show that is Ton Sai.
Days kayaking around the neighbouring bays with an hours search and rescue mission of my sunglasses.
A days diving off Phi Phi Leh (filming location for 'The Beach'). 2 good dives, plenty of coral and loads of turtles which made Sally very happy.
Had the pleasure of meeting some top Canadian guys, 2 couples and their chaperone, "Beautiful Bud Bellefontaine". I don't know how many times we heard "did you know Singha is Lion for Beer?' but it was still funny by the time they departed in speed boat of disastrous hangovers!
Left on the ferry back to Phuket and headed straight to our earlier discovery, the Secret Cove. So far its us, a Golden Retriever, 2 puppies and a few palm trees.....
Friday, 21 January 2011
Phuket
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| Yes..this is a picture of a middle aged couple with tattoos of their cat on their arms. Phuket - a picture paints a thousand words |
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
Northern Thailand - Temples and The Golden Triangle
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| Chiang Mai |
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| Elephant Stupa C.M |
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| White Temple |
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| The Devil who decides if you can come into the temple or not |
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| Temple Traffic Cones?? |
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| One of many gold leaf adorned Buddhas |
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| Top of Thailand |
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| Burma, Thailand and Lao |
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| Getting into Burma |
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Sunday, 16 January 2011
Lao - Luang Prabang
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| Road side services - BBQ'd rat |
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| Wat |
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| Buddha |
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| Tree of life |
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| Rice cakes |
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| Very civilised |
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| More Buddhas |
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| ? |
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| Pak Ou Cave - Old Buddha Statue storage cave |
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| 2 hour Mekong trip that confirmed we wouldn't take a 2 day trip to Thailand on the river |
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| Bear rescue centre |
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| Waterfalls and a non green t shirt |
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| Waterfalls |
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| Rescued Sun Bear chilling |
Friday, 14 January 2011
Cambodia to Lao
31 December 2010
Koh Rong Saloem
Ditched the arm pit of SE Asia (Sihnaoukville) and took a two hour boat journey out to Koh Rong Saloem,
Saw the New Year in on a tropical island with a night dive, a few 6 cent beers and some Cambodian fishermen - Magic.
1 January 2011 - great start to the new year with some more diving and a bit of snorkelling off a deserted beach
2 Jan
left Koh Rong Saloem after a days diving and took the boat back to the mainland to catch the night bus Phnom Penh
3 Jan
Arrived in the Cambodian Capital city at just after midnight. Welcomed to the city with a full on death match between 2 tuk tuk drivers competing for our fare to get to the hostel.
Hovel of a hostel with a room covered in police notices on the illegality of child prostitution.
Phnoem Penh turned out to be a great city, again huge French influences with fantastic restaurants, bars and cafes.
Genocide museum and S21 Detention Centre - Horrifying and beyond words - read about it
Royal Palaces - Very good of the Cambodian people to build a nice house for a guy who sided with the Khmer Rouge..
Met up with our new buddy Radick the beer breathing Czech and treated ourselves to the best steak for 3 months!
4 Jan
6 hour Bus to Siem Reap the city base for the Angkor Temples.
5-7 Jan Siem Reap
Angkor Temples - 2 days of Wat watching. Massive area covered with temples (Wats) and lots of South Korean tourists.
Met up again with Radick on the 2nd night and discovered a bar that served pitchers of beer...Day 3 was not a good one! Luckily Sally was kind enough to book us into a cooking course for the afternoon, how my fingers survived hungover chili chopping i'm not sure.
8 Jan
Siem Reap to Lao
Up at 0430, 1 tuk tuk, 4 buses, 1 border, 1 boat and some walking and we made it to Don Det Island 15 hours later.
9 -11 Jan
Don Det - an island within the Mekong in the far south of Lao. Probably the most laid back place i've ever been. No roads, hardly any people and a serious amount of lying in hammocks.
Took a kayaking trip on the second day to a few of the other islands and back over to Cambodia where we were lucky enough to see the rare fresh water Irrawady Dolphins looking about as chilled out as the locals.
The third day on the island required something other than lying in a hammock so we took some truck inner tubes and floated down the Mekong, all very pleasant until Sal saw a snake (minding his own business) and that was the end of that.
12 Jan
Boat and bus to Pakse the old French capital of southern Lao. Not much to report here other than Lao is turning out to be the most expensive country so far.
13 Jan
Decided to forgo the 24 hour bus journey to Luang Prabang and took a flight instead.
Got to the city after dark and checked into a guest house we found on line. I've stayed in some pretty awful places but this was on another level - self immolation seemed preferable at about 4 am but Sally talked me out of it.
14 Jan - Luang Prabang
Very French, very cool, lots of monks (acting French and Cool) - Type of place you would find in a Chelsea Travel Agent (sorry Global experience assistant) under the Asian Chic brochure.
Sally loves it....
Koh Rong Saloem
Ditched the arm pit of SE Asia (Sihnaoukville) and took a two hour boat journey out to Koh Rong Saloem,
Saw the New Year in on a tropical island with a night dive, a few 6 cent beers and some Cambodian fishermen - Magic.
1 January 2011 - great start to the new year with some more diving and a bit of snorkelling off a deserted beach
2 Jan
left Koh Rong Saloem after a days diving and took the boat back to the mainland to catch the night bus Phnom Penh
3 Jan
Arrived in the Cambodian Capital city at just after midnight. Welcomed to the city with a full on death match between 2 tuk tuk drivers competing for our fare to get to the hostel.
Hovel of a hostel with a room covered in police notices on the illegality of child prostitution.
Phnoem Penh turned out to be a great city, again huge French influences with fantastic restaurants, bars and cafes.
Genocide museum and S21 Detention Centre - Horrifying and beyond words - read about it
Royal Palaces - Very good of the Cambodian people to build a nice house for a guy who sided with the Khmer Rouge..
Met up with our new buddy Radick the beer breathing Czech and treated ourselves to the best steak for 3 months!
4 Jan
6 hour Bus to Siem Reap the city base for the Angkor Temples.
5-7 Jan Siem Reap
Angkor Temples - 2 days of Wat watching. Massive area covered with temples (Wats) and lots of South Korean tourists.
Met up again with Radick on the 2nd night and discovered a bar that served pitchers of beer...Day 3 was not a good one! Luckily Sally was kind enough to book us into a cooking course for the afternoon, how my fingers survived hungover chili chopping i'm not sure.
8 Jan
Siem Reap to Lao
Up at 0430, 1 tuk tuk, 4 buses, 1 border, 1 boat and some walking and we made it to Don Det Island 15 hours later.
9 -11 Jan
Don Det - an island within the Mekong in the far south of Lao. Probably the most laid back place i've ever been. No roads, hardly any people and a serious amount of lying in hammocks.
Took a kayaking trip on the second day to a few of the other islands and back over to Cambodia where we were lucky enough to see the rare fresh water Irrawady Dolphins looking about as chilled out as the locals.
The third day on the island required something other than lying in a hammock so we took some truck inner tubes and floated down the Mekong, all very pleasant until Sal saw a snake (minding his own business) and that was the end of that.
12 Jan
Boat and bus to Pakse the old French capital of southern Lao. Not much to report here other than Lao is turning out to be the most expensive country so far.
13 Jan
Decided to forgo the 24 hour bus journey to Luang Prabang and took a flight instead.
Got to the city after dark and checked into a guest house we found on line. I've stayed in some pretty awful places but this was on another level - self immolation seemed preferable at about 4 am but Sally talked me out of it.
14 Jan - Luang Prabang
Very French, very cool, lots of monks (acting French and Cool) - Type of place you would find in a Chelsea Travel Agent (sorry Global experience assistant) under the Asian Chic brochure.
Sally loves it....
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
Lao - Don Det
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| Local school bus |
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| Kayaking on the Mekong |
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| BBQ |
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| Sun set on Don Det |
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| Evening fishing |
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| BBQ Frogs |
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| Pink pedal power |
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| we didn't |
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| rush hour on Don Det |
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| Busier than usual rush hour |
Thursday, 6 January 2011
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