Almost A World Tour!

We took the sleeper train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok - a cool 14 hours. I'd heard alot about how amazing Thai trains were supposed to be so I was a tad disappointed when it turned out to be abit of a shit-heap really, maybe it was my own fault for getting too excited about something as basic as a train journey (how things have changed...)

Bangkok was exactly the same as last year - smelly, smoggy, sweaty & seedy but we were using it purely as an over-nighter before we hit Koh Samui. We did a spot of shopping and then tracked down a really good bar we had visited last year which plays live music. We ended up partying with a load of Israelis's til the early hours - a good night.

The next morning we started our journey to Koh Samui (complete with thick heads). In the interests of saving 500 Bht (7 whole quid) we had fashioned probably the most complicated and long-winded journey known to man. Rather than taking an hours direct flight we opted for a triathlon of transport. So, 6 hours later after a 50 min flight to Surat Thani, a 2 hour bus ride and then a 90 min ferry we arrived in Samui and promptly re-invested our so preciously saved 500 Bht in Singha beers and Pad Thai.

The following few days in Samui were either relaxing or lazy depending on how you look at it - up by mid-day, abit of food, chilling on the beach, abit more food, beers then bed. We were staying in a great guesthouse and were sort of adopted by the guys who run the bar so we spent the evenings chilling with them. Some of our best nights have been spent with the locals, they are far more interesting to talk to and have an awesome sense of humour. We did manage to go and watch some Muay Thai one evening at Samui's new posh stadium. We were lucky enough to see some decent Championship fights with three of the six flights resulting in knockouts so its fair to say we got our moneys-worth of bloodshed.

Next stop was Koh Phangan, the island itself is about half the size of Samui and about 10 years behind interms of being wrecked by westernisation. We had arranged to meet Rob & Kristy our Canadian friends we travelled through Vietnam with so we had three good days catching up with them before they headed back to Vancouver. The nightlife in Koh Phangan is based largely around bars on the beach, they all put mats and little tables out at night so you can drink on the sand. Some of them have massive TV screens and show movies so it is like going to the cinema at home apart from it is free and your lying under the stars drinking a Singha beer.

The coolest thing in my opinion though are the fire dancers. These guys are so talented and they basically dance on the shore with either two chains or a long stick which has been dipped in oil and then lit so at night you can just see these mad flames and they do loads of different tricks. At one bar they have a dancer at each end of the matted area where everyone sits drinking and one guy will throw his flaming stick or chain over the crowd so all you can see is a flying ball of fire above your head, his mate will somehow catch it (I have no idea how as it really dark) and do some crazy tricks then throw it back. I'm wondering if there is a demand for this sort of carry on in Clapham...

Koh Phangan hosts a monthly Full Moon Party which is probably one of the craziest nights we have had whilst travelling. We were lucky enough to get accommodation on Koh Phangan but many people don't so as the evening is warming up there is a constant stream of speedboats pulling up on the beach to drop people off from neighbouring islands. By about 11pm the main beach is absolutely rammed with up to 8,000 people all covered in fluorescent paint dancing and drinking to banging music. There is such a good atmosphere and luckily there was hardly any cloud cover so you could see the moon really clearly, it looked really impressive reflecting off the water. The party usually lasts until about 9am and then there is an after-party on the other side of the island. We had been partying pretty hard on the build up to Full Moon so I threw in the towel at 6am..... what a lightweight!

Our next stop - Penang (Malaysia)

Our first stop in Thailand was Chiang Rai but it's fair to say it was relatively short-lived - 18 hours to be exact. We arrived, had a wander round but there was just nothing to do and Chiang Rai itself lacked any sort of appeal after laidback Laos. Maybe we just needed abit of time to adapt to a faster pace of life again.

The following morning we made the four hour bus journey to Chiang Mai. I was certainly abit taken aback initially by how westernised it was - McDonalds, Subway, Pizza Hut, Starbucks and Baskin Robbins. I suppose this was mainly because when I was reading up on the area it focuses very much on the fact that it has 300 Wats so I had imagined it being alot less "neon" but then you remember this is Thailand. We mulled over what to do the rest of the day whilst devouring a Big Mac (well it has been 8 weeks of rice and noodles)

It just so happened that it was the final day of the Lanna celebration of the refurbishment of the largest temple in Chiang Mai. This was one big party, there were Monks attending from all over Thailand, traditional dancing & music and alot of fireworks. It was a real experience to attend such an event and witness how these people celebrate something that is so important to them.

Trekking is very big business in Chiang Mai so we signed ourselves up for a 2 day, 1 night affair starting the following day. We were greeted the next morning in the guesthouse reception by quite possibly the most hyperactive and smiley Thai guy ever. Mr T was his name and there was no way this Trek was going to be dull with him at the held.

It took quite a while to pick up all the other trekkers from their guesthouses, it appears Mr T wasn't so familiar with the urban jungle. Eventually, after a few laps of Chiang Mai all 12 of us were on the road. It was a good mix of people, some lads from America, a few Canadians and the rest were Europeans, not to mention the 3 Dutch stunners who thought quite rightly, it was perfectly acceptable to trek in hot pants.

We had a four hour trek that day, the going wasn't too bad but it was really hot so we were all slightly relieved when we reached the village we were staying in that night. When we booked the Trek the overnight stay was pitched to us a "Tribal Village" but to be honest we had found Chiang Rai alot more tribal. This was abit disappointing as I was really up for mingling with some authentic hill tribe types. We had a walk round all the same and took lots of photo's of the huts like you do.

That evening we all sat down to eat and then the evenings entertainment cranked up a gear courtesy of Mr T being the wrong side of a few Chang beers. It seems the guy had an endless array of magic tricks and riddles he was only too willing to share (if he could stop pissing himself laughing long enough to perform them). Check this one out for size - "What has roads but no cars? Rivers but no water? and Cities but no people?" He kept us guessing for a good 10 mins - it's a map apparently - pure genius!

After a pretty much sleepless night due to the fact that I managed to pick the only bit of floor space directly below a hole in the roof and it pissed down all night we were up at 7am for day two. We trekked for a further 3 hours to look at another waterfall. I did a spectacular fall on a slippery rock and almost got washed away, I'm really not having a good relationship with water at the moment.

They had laid on activities for the afternoon, first up was an hour of elephant trekking. Mark and myself were assigned what had to be smallest elephant in the world (how Mr T laughed - alot) which just followed the other normal sized elephants smelling thier bottoms. Then it was time for whitewater rafting which was really good fun, amazingly, against all odds I managed to stay in the boat. But they had saved the best till last, bamboo rafting. We didn't have as much luck with this one. The guide seemed think a raft made from bamboo could hold the weight of 7 men so we all climbed aboard and promptly sunk about 4 inches underwater. The guide then steered us straight into a concrete bridge forcing us all to abandon ship and we spend the next 15 mins helping the poor guy rescue his livelihood from the bottom of the river.

Next on the agenda was an authentic Thai cookery course. We were taken to the food market early in the morning to buy all our fresh ingredients and then it was to the kitchen to cook. To be honest it was a really good laugh, the group was made up of Brits, Americans and Canadians all our age so we all got on really well. I made Thai green curry, sweet & sour pork with veggies & Pad Thai in the morning then we broke for lunch and ate our dishes. In the afternoon I made spicy beef salad, chicken & rice soup and mangoes with sticky rice. I was really impressed with how damn good they all tasted - I evidently inherited my mothers culinary skills. I will be laying on a Thai banquet to celebrate my return to the UK so look forward to that one guys....

Our next stop - Koh Pha Ngan via Bangkok

As we were both in Bangkok this time last year we decided to get straight on the road towards Loas and see something new. We booked a domestic flight from Bangkok to Ubon Ratchathani which is pretty much as close to the Thai / Loas boarder you can get by air.

We treated ourselves to a new nice hotel in Ubon for our first night, figured there would be plenty of time for slumming it when the money runs out! (it is only 7 quid - we're not talking the Hilton here)

We soon discovered Ubon Ratchathani was a pretty quite place well off the travellers route went we headed out for a few beers and some food, we were the only non-thai people. In fact it took them a good 10 mins and 4 people to find menu we could understand. It all came good in the end.

Had a pretty early night as we were knackered from all the flying, ready to tackle a boarder crossing in the morning.