George’s Adventure

Wednesday 14th February 2007 (20th – 21st December 2006)

I had a look in the diary that I wrote by pen while I was away.  On the 21st December my opening line is, “Ok, so I’m still in Japan.”  Yep I’m afraid you know, I do like to keep things exciting but it hadn’t been on my agenda to confuse even myself and return a day later than expected.  All will be revealed below:

On the 19th Janine and I headed over to Hino O where there were loads of young people milling around.  Its a city that is vibrant with colourful flashing lights and people.  I mean there are people everywhere.  We had dinner there, pointing again at delicious looking food in pictures, and then went to Asakusa to find a love hotel.

Now, I must explain what a love hotel is.  In Tokyo there are loads of young people who live with their parents who have boyfriends/girlfriends.  As it has become so popular for young people to remain at home with thier parents to maximise what thier money can do for them, love hotels have been set up where you can get a room by the hour or for consecutive nights and you dont even need to see or speak to a person to do this.  Some love hotels are easy to spot, bright neon lights speak volumes, but others are more sedated and you wouldnt even know it was a hotel you are peeking into aside from the board outside displaying the rates.  It is actaully cheaper to stay in a love hotel than a regular hotel.  Janine and I thought – why not. 

We found this flashing and changing colour building and eventually plucked up the courage to enter.  It feels a bit like entering Anne Summers for the first time or a sex shop or something.  I mean you know there is nothing wrong with it, it just feels a bit odd.  Inside there was noone there.  At the side of the downstairs area were pictures (pictures – these were now my friends in Japan) lit up of the rooms available, with the prices below.  Janine found the one that was the cheapest and touched the picture.  Before we knew it a ticket had been released with a number on it.  We are both now standing in this love hotel completely clueless.  We wander around and suddenly a door opens, a lift.  We get in and are transported (i use that word because it is out of this world) to our room.  The room door is open, we have no key) and as we enter you can hear music playing.  There is a machine to your left, a door to your right and in front.  I press some sort of button on the machine as it is shouting at me and a card drops out of the machine.  I leave it there.  I enter the door in front of me and the room is unbelievable.  So much so that I probably wont do it justice.

The room has a hair dryer, straightners, all sorts of body lotions, shampoos, conditioners, body wash, towels galore, dressing gowns, slippers, soaps etc.  It has a wide screen TV with a DVD player and about a million channels.  You could stay up watching japanese porn all night if you wanted to.  You could stay up all night watching movies all night – you can choose from a massive collection.  There are two fridges, there is a playstation and two controllers, a phone, you can buy stuff out of the minibar which doesnt just contain drinks and snacks but condoms and vibrators too.  It’s mad.  The toilet is one just like the one I experienced in the Sony Centre which I wrote about previously.  Totally unbelievable.  When I got into bed I noticed that there were various controls attached to it.  This was weird so I pressed  a few.  Well, the bed started moving this way and that…I’m not joking it was hillarious.  The bed even vibrated at different strengths and speeds.  We had a radio, alarmclock and music player and it took us ages to figure out the lights.  Once we had got most of them off we noticed that glowing all around the room were figures of the karma sutra – oh my oh my!!!!  There is more but im sure it already sounds like ive made it up so i’ll stop.

After spending the night in this strange room we got up.  I was first up and ready to go get on that train to the airport.  I went to pay for our room via the machine but it wouldnt accept my credit card.  I had no cash on me as I had had my bank card stolen in Thailand.  After a little hassel and realising that it wouldnt accept any cards, Japan is so hi-tech it doesnt appreciate an international credit card, Janine had to rush out and get some cash.  I waited and waited and waited.  At 9.00am I was a little concerned as our flight was at midday.

About ten minutes later she arrives with the cash, we pay the machine and leave.  Janine had found two different cash points but they wouldnt accept her card.  She ended up having to go to the post office but had to wait until they opened at 9.00am to do this.  We got to the station, eventually found our lockers with our bags in and retrieved our stuff.  This took longer than expected as the station is huge.  Loaded with all our bags we tried to get to the correct part of the station to catch the train to the airport.  That is easier said than done.  Directions to places in Tokyo are few and far between and, probably quite rightly, there are hardly any signs in English.  We hadnt a clue where we were going.  Once we had found the right place I asked the ticket man if I could pay by card for the tickets to the airport.  No.  I look to Janine to start doling out the cash but she said she only got enough out for the room.  She has to run back to the post office where there is by now a queue.  Loving Japan at this point.  Im left getting more and more stressed.  She reappears, we pay for our tickets, we jump on a train and then jump off the train, change train (of course there is no direct train – that would be asking too much) and when we get to the train station, the officials there want to look inside my rucksack and it’s at this point im looking up to the heavens and wondering if there really is a God and if there is what is he doing?  We run like mad to the virgin check in desk but it has closed.

Despite checking in online, turning up fifteen minutes before the flight is due to take off is not acceptable.  Fair enough.  They book us on the next flight.  Same time the next day.  We sit down.  I catch my breath and moan a bit.  We wait.  I want to phone my parents but it’s too early in the morning and they will be asleep.  I phone them just before 6am their time and burst into tears.  I have no idea why.  I think i had just prepared myself to come home and with all the stress of rushing about it had all go too much and when I cried, I cried.  I don’t cry very much really, but I was bawling.  I had to go to the toilet.  What made matters worse was that I ran out of money half way through and had to get some more money to ring back – pathetic.   After about half an hour I was fine.

That day consisted of reading, sitting, waiting, reading, wandering around the airport and then figuring out that we couldnt sleep in the airport because it shuts at midnight and they would turf us out – greeeeeeeeeeeeeat!  Just loving Japan!  We ended up getting a shuttle to a nearby hotel and staying there for the night.  We rounded off Tokyo with some sake in the downstairs bar.  Warm and yuk – it does grow on you after about one or two glasses. 

I did return home eventually.  It’s good to be back! 

Wednesday 14th February 2007 (18th –  19th December 2006)

On Monday 18th December we got up early and went to the famous Tokyo fish market.  This was so amazing and it feel funny to be describing how amazing a fish market is but i have never seen so much fish in one place or see so many different types of fish.  No wonder there is an overfishing problem.  Unfortunately we got there a little too late to see the wholesale aspect of the fish market, but dont fear we solved that by getting up and going the next day. 

We then went to Ginza which is where all the designer shops are such as Chanel (or channel as i like to pronounce it) and Gucci etc.  We strolled around these parts wishing we had lots of money and looking at all the women with bags on the ends of their arms.  We walked down one side road and I bought some chopsticks (well, if you’re in Japan???) and we also went to the Sony Centre which is a big building and is recommended as somewhere to PLAY.  Yippy my favourite!  You can look at all sorts of Sony products from TVs and cameras to musical equipment.  I even played with the new Sony MP3 players which at the time were not out here in England.  I got to listen to Oasis’ ‘Lyla’ about a million times to test them out.  This place also has the best toilets. 

The toilet lid lifts up when you enter the toilet and the seat is heated.  there are various buttons on the arm of the toilet which you can press to do all sorts of things like spraying at different volumes and different places, which i wont go into.  You can also dry yourself as warm air is blown up from the toilet.  You can adjust the temperature if you like.  The toilet plays music when you enter it and if you want to you can press a button which plays a soundtrack of the toilet flushing to mask whatever noises you are making in this toilet.  I mean you could be in this toilet for hours just pressing buttons its ridiculous!

We had lunch at a sushi bar.  Plates of different colours go round on a belt and you choose which dishes you would like.  You just take them from the belt and at the end the workers count up what dishes you have had at what price.  You get as much green tea as you would like and soy sauce.  We really enjoyed our sushi experience even if we were tricked a bit.  At one point the man making fresh sushi in front of us said we should try “these” and handed us two pieces of sushi.  As we were munching away he just said “horse”.  Janine’s face dropped so much i nearly burst out laughing.  “Very nice”, I said, chewing away and tryng to swallow it down quickly.  He did it again about ten minutes later and we muched away and Janine asked me what it was.  My reply was, “I don’t know.  Don’t ask, just eat is quickly”.  I didnt want to know what i was eating this time.

After Ginza we went to Ueno where we meandered through the beautiful park.  We stumbled upon a temple called Hie-Jinia which dates back to 1659 and it right there in the middle of the park.  There is a little walk to the shrine there which has red poles leading the way like a tunnel.  When we got to the shrine I put 100yen in a machine and it gave me a slip of paper.  I handed it to a lady and she gave me an English translation.  My fortune was good.  That was good enough for me.  It said other stuff but I won’t bore you with it. 

Tuesday 19th December and we got up early to go and see the fish market again.  It is called Tsukiji market and it is a large fish and produce market.  We saw all these things we had missed the previous day, all this fish being sold and being slapped about.  We then returned to our hotel room, packed a day and overnight bag, packed our rucksacks and checked out of the hotel.  We went to Asakusa station where we put our big rucksacks in lockers in the station.  We then went for a coffee.  Over my coffee I thought about this country I was in.

The previous day we had travelled in women only carriages on the train/subway system.  The carriages get so cramped that alot of the women complain about being groped and there is nothing they can do – noone can move (apart from the wandering hands obviously).  People in Japan are always smartly dressed, didnt I stand out.  Even the homeless don’t look that shabby and they line all their shoes and things up and then sleep.  So bizarre. 

After our coffee we headed to Ueno Park again and went to the Tokyo National Museum.  There are lots of artwork adn artefacts on Japan and it is very interesting.  I remember looking at murals and wanted to be able to translate the words.

Then off to the Tokyo International Forum building where we checked our emails for free for half an hour.  Anything free here is a bonus.  It is expensive but probably compared to London not that bad.  I think it was made worse for us because we had just come from Thailand and so everything seemed expensive.  I checked us in online – although looking back now that seemed pointless….you’ll get the jist in the next installment.

It hadn’t really hit at this point that I was leaving.  Not actaully leaving Japan but leaving my travelling behind.  It felt like we were just about to step on a plane and leave a country but then arrive somewhere else to explore.  It felt weird, cold and a bit sad.  

Wednesday 14th February 2007 (15th – 17th December 2006)

On the day after my birthday Janine and I didnt leave the hotel.  Obviously we were feeling a little worse for wear but sitting by the pool in the sunshine is’nt that bad you know.  I chucked out lots of my clothes so that when we went to Japan my rucksack would be a little lighter.  On Saturday 16th December we checked out, left our bags with the porter and headed out to the weekend markets where we bought loads of stuff.  Both being aware that we would be back for Christmas and with no money we thought we could buy a few things at the market.  After collecting our bags and getting a taxi to the airport we arrived in Japan on Sunday 17th December at 7.00am. 

From Narita (Tokyo) airport we took the subway to Minowa and walked the rest of the way to our hotel.  The noticeable change from Thailand to Japan was the weather.  It was cold cold cold.  People have coats and jackets on.  I am freezing to death in about six layers of clothing and all because I had my fleece, gloves and hat stolen in New Zealand.  I didnt see the point of buying a new coat for only a week in Japan so I suffered in silence (i am sure Janne would object to that last statement as I probably did moan about the cold alot). 

You have to take your shoes off before you enter your room at the hotel and we had to step up into the room.  The hotel was so so small and rather strange.  It was recommended in the guide book Janine had as it was a modern version of a tradidtional Japanese style place to stay.  The room was literally just a room.  Very small with a futon double bed.  They gave us two duvets so we wouldnt be fighting over the covers in the evening and despite such a lack of room it had a TV and DVD player.  We were extrememly tired from the flight so we both had a nap pretty much straight away.

When we awoke we went out to find some Harajuku girls and boys.  It was great to see them all dressed up.  I mean i’ve seen people dressed up in Camden town, I even used to dress a bit ‘funny’ (as my Dad would describe it) when i was younger but in Harajuku the kids dress up in clothes that are a type of mix between uniforms (like nurses etc) and goths.  Very entertaining.  They love just posing there and chatting in groups.  We bought a crepe each which had the most amazing fillings.  Ive never seen them in England but this crepe was delicious.  We bought them off a stall on the side of the street and we had read in our guidebook that it is rude in Japan to eat walking along the street so we just watched the locals and did what they did.  They seem to hide in a corner, face away from the main hub of people and eat.  Very bizarre.

This is probably why Tokyo has what I believe must be the cleanest place EVER.  Noone is seen eating, dropping litter or doing anything weird in public.  It is even considered rude to blow your nose in public (cue me needing to blow my nose all the time of course).  The subways and trains are spotless.  Its almost too clinical.  People walk around with masks over their faces, presumably because they dont want to pick up germs and things.  A totally undescribably city where the people are full of surprises.  Hardly anyone will talk to you and Janine and I felt like we were, at times, the only tourists in Tokyo.  It is unbelievable that the road markings and map directions are impossible to follow and it is very difficult to withdrawl money from an ATM without hassels when I always thought Japan was a very modern and technologically advanced city.

Before dinner we went up one of the government buildings in Tokyo to catch a great view of the city.  The view was a mass of black and twinkling lights.  Very bizarre and wonderful to look at.  Dinner that night was interesting.  Everything is written in Japanese.  Pointing at pictures seemed to be the best way to deal with things. 

Wednesday 14th February 2007 (13th & 14th December 2006)

A day before my birthday, Janine and I checked out of the guesthouse we were staying in and made the short walk to my birthday present.  My parents had bought me a couple of nights in The Landmark hotel in Bangkok for my birthday pressie.  After beating off men trying to help us with our rucksacks, even though you cant actaully help anyone who is wearing a rucksack, we made it accross the bridge to the hotel where a man took our bags before we even reached the doors to the hotel.  The doorman had white gloves on, a hat and a great smile.  We were in room 2612, Christmas day to me, on the 26th floor.  Our room had twin beds, air conditioning, a TV and one thing that i loved, curtains that block out all the light – i mean i dont even get that at home.  It was so amazing to be in a quiet place after all the hustle and bustle.  Pure pampering really.  We have a bath!!!  I havent had a bath the whole time i have been travelling, only showers.  I dont even really have baths at home but when you dont have the option you dream of it.  We, of course, had a mini bar and a safe and all sorts of things.  We loved our room.  We got changed, unpacked our rucksacks and i found that a tube of deep heat i had been unknowingly carrying around since New Zealand had burst in the back of my rucksack.  All the white cream had gone hard and stank.  Rucksacks have the strangest compartments which is why I hadnt noticed it before.  I wore the slippers they provided and the dressing gown.  So simple, so silly.  By the time we had sorted ourselves out and watched a bit of James Bond on the TV we were ready to go down to the business lounge of our free cocktails and canapes.  We get this each night between 5.30pm and 7.30pm.  Well by the end of it we are well on the way to cocktail heaven and i’ve eaten so much we dont need to have dinner.  The canapes are like small portions of dinner and they even have dessert canapes just to round off the evening.  The canapes change every evening too so we dont get bored.  This is where I fall in love with Mai Thai cocktails. 

On the night before my birthday, after the cocktails and canapes, we head out on the skytrain (BTS) to PatPong.  This is the renowned streets for girlie/pingpong shows…you can use your imagination as to what that means.  PatPong market is small but one of the best for things like CDs and DVDs.  We walked around the two streets and I bought some music.  We headed to Radio City which is a bar and got a table where the girls and boys serve you drinks to your table.  We watched a Thai Elvis and a Thai Tom Jones perform which was really funny.  There is a live band that performs with Elvis and Tom and they are great performers, very entertaining to watch.  After the entertainment had finished another live band came on who were excellent.  They sang covers and were great .  At one point Janine and I decided to take part in one of the songs.  Janine played the bongos and I hit the cowbell – what a combination!!!  I can pretty much be sure that around the time I was hitting the cowbells it became my birthday.  Since I dont actually know what time I was born i just do a midnight thing so yet im hitting a cowbell at 25.  After our little rendition we met some guys from England who were working in Thailand and we headed off to another bar with them.  We didnt stay out much longer and headed back to our posh hotel. 

As I got into bed last night it was like stepping into a little snippet of luxury.  I felt like my bed was a big marshmallow and I was in it.  Wonderful…I drifted off to sleep so peacefully.

14th December 2006 hits and I’m 25.  I wake up to a bedroom full of multicoloured balloon, a cake with a number 2 candle in it (Janine couldn’t get a number 5 to go with it), pressies and even the bathroom is filled with balloons, including the bath and shower.  Janine had somehow managed to trick me into thinking she was going to sleep but then stayed up overnight to blow up balloons and stuff – mad!  I have to admit that I temporarily hold off from getting too excited about this as I’m feeling a bit under the weather and have to be sick down the toilet – nice!  First day as a 25 year old and i’m throwing up.  Just about prooves my adult status really.  I’m really not feeling too good, getting hot and then cold within minutes and the pain in my stomache is unbearable.  I am sick again and I can hear someone ringing our doorbell (yes our room has a doorbell – crazy!) so I’m thinking, that’s ok, Janine will get it – but no, the next thing i know I have my head halfway down the toilet bowl and an unknown woman coming into the bathroom.  She notices me, apologises and says she’ll come back.  I wouldnt come back if I was her.  I’m sick again and then I feel fine.  I brush my teeth about three times because I can’t seem to get that taste out of my mouth – NICE!  Once I’m feeling vaguly human I return to our room and Janine is still sound asleep – having missed the excitement of my morning activities I wake her up and tell her all about it – I dance with my balloons.

Breakfast is included with our room and we can have anything.  They will cook stuff right in front of you and you couldnt complain about something not being there.  You could practically have dinner for breakfast if you really wanted to.    We returned to our room and the dreaded bathroom woman returns, she asks if I am ok and i nod and we leave the room.  We head out to a nearby massage place.  We both had a head, neck and shoulder massage which was so so good.  My neck felt great afterwards.  I also had my first ever manicure and pedicure.  I bit my nails but as we had been travelling I had grown them for the first time ever so I thought I could treat myself on my 25th to a manicure for them. 

We then took the skytain to Siam and went into Pizza Hut for a birthday pizza.  I know its not Thai but we’ve been in Thailand for over a month and rice and noodles are lovely but its my birthday and i want grease and carbs!!  After lunch we go to MBK, the massive shopping centre in Bangkok and I go and get my hair done.  All the pampering today!!  It’s dirt cheap to get your hair done here – i have colour put through my hair, the first time I have ever dyed my hair – very exciting.  At the end of it – I love it!  I actually love my hair for the first time.  We get back to the hotel, go for cocktails and canapes, dress up and go to the ‘Mambo Cabaret’.  This runs for about an hour and consists of girls and probably mainly boys dressing up as girls and miming to famous songs.  Lip syncing is hillarious and they dance too.  They do this to songs like Gwen Stefani’s ‘What you waiting for?’.  Funny as.  They are really glam though.  After the show Janine had a picture taken with one of them – I managed to avoid this – there is something a bit creepy about it.  We dived into a pub on the corner after this and the wonderful staff and manager there decided to play a little trick on us, saying that we had to pay a bill for some drinks we had had – even though we hadnt had any…anyway, it turned out to be a joke (they thought it was hillarious!).  We got free drinks, cocktails, shots and champagne all evening.  What a birthday!

Wednesday 13th December 2006

Koh Tao is a beautiful island. We didnt explore very much of it but even the commercial parts are still fairly unspoilt and you can definitely relax here. We stayed on Sairee Beach. This is a lovely beach where you can sit in the evening having a drink and watch the sunset. Absolutely amazing to watch the sky turn all different shades of pinks. The only down side of the beach here is that mid morning the tide starts to come in and so you dont get much of a beach in which to sunbathe on. The local Thai occupents also havent really got on to the idea that they need to provide lots of sunbeds either so it is a case of trying to find a dry spot that is not so crowded you are actually lying on top of someone.

For us this wasnt so much of a big deal because we went diving. We did two dives around Koh Tao, one at Green Rock, where our dive master who took us out started getting attacked by triggerfish and he had a complete freak in the water. Quite funny now but he was really scared. He said that here is the only place that Triggerfish actually attack you. Funny really. We did see lots of other fish although i do need to work on my buoyancy. I basically couldnt keep down underwater on the second dive. Not great when you are trying to dive.

We left Koh Tao and are now back in Bangkok. Yesturday we went to Kanchanaburi. This is where we visited the Tiger Temple and The Bridge Over The River Kwae. Very interesting and a great day, although we did do a lot of travelling and on our own steam too. We caught a local bus to Kanchanaburi and then another to The Tiger Temple. The bus dropped us off outside so we began walking. Suddenly a mini bus turns into the road and stops and tells us to get in as it is too far to walk. We get a free lift to the temple. Pretty cool. It was a pretty long way. The temple is famous because the monks there look after all sorts of wild animals that visit the temple including tigers. You can go and stroke the tigers and have pictures with them. There are animals everywhere. Now, im not the greatest animal lover and mixing with big horses, cows, Asian bears, pigs, peacocks and chickens all in one go is a bit overwhelming. Different though.

We then left and began walking to the main road when a mini bus pulls up and says we shouldnt be walking, “two girls on our own its dangerous”. How it is dangerous outside a temple i have no idea but we got a lift to the bridge anyway which was pretty handy as the local buses come every half an hour to an hour. The driver was Thai and he was driving three guys from Singapore. One guy from Singapore said it was like “a chicken talking to a duck” when they communicate. So funny. We hopped out at the bridge, thanked them and walked accross the bridge that is still in operation. The bridge wasnt as big as i thought it would be but it is still impressive. The bridge was build when the Japanese occupied Thailand. They used POW to build it and many many died building it. The bridge still links Thailand with Burma today.

Tomorrow is my birthday!!! Yay!! I will be hitting a quarter of a century. I cant quite believe it myself. I am very excited.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that i have a monk pen pal! Very bizarre but when we were in Laos we got chatting to some monks and we exchanged emails and one of them is emailing me to practice his English – how cool is that??!!

Friday 8th December 2006

Oh how the island of Koh Pha-Ngan is absolutely crazy. There is something just not quite right about it. After Laos we flew back to Bangkok and spent the night there. From the airport we got in a metered taxi to the Ko San Road. This is now the third time we have gone a different route to the famous road. We had a few things to say to the taxi driver who was obviously after a cheeky baht or two more. As it was after midnight by the time we got in the cab, I had left my glasses on the plane and had to wait for the cleaners to find them and bring them back to me (when will i remember myself and my head?), we were not best pleased that it took him over an hour to reach our destination. “Not funny”, I told him. He laughed.

In the evening we got picked up by a guy who was over an hour late. We were beginning to get a bit aggitated by this point. We also thought we were getting a transfer and not a man who was walking us to a shop about 20 minutes walk down the road. When we have rucksacks the weight of ours it is no joke. Anyway, we were soon on the way to Chumporn ferry terminal on a 7 and a half double decker coach ride with so much air con i felt like a block of ice by the time we got to the ferry terminal. At 5 in the morning we reach Chumporn and eventually get on the ferry to take us to Koh Pha-Ngan. When we reach our destination we are greeted with the usual haggling for taxis and all sorts. A couple of people had told us that our guesthouse was only a few minutes up the road so we thought we would be clever and walk. Over an hour later, drenched in sweat and on the beach with no guesthouse in sight we rock up at a place that tells us our guesthouse is 9 doors down. Greeeeaaat!! Eventually we met a Thai girl who gave us a lift on her motorcycle to our guesthouse.

Our room was fairly small, cold water shower with two ants nests, about three lizards (i named the big one Lizzy), 2 moths and countless mosquitos that i tried to get rid of with my water bottle. There was no room to put any of our stuff and the lights at one point decided to do a disco on us, flicking on or off. That was, of course, when we had power. Apart from that, all was good. We spent some time on the beach by our guesthouse. It was a lovely beach, really long and sandy and the guesthouse had put up hammocks to just chill out on and watch the sun go down on. Paradise.

On our second night on the island we decided to check out Haad Rin, which is where the full moon party is held every month. We watched games being played on the beach like musical chairs and people trying to stamp balloons out and other funny things, whilst enjoying a ‘bucket’. This is alcohol mixed with a kind of red bull and other soft drink like Pepsi or Sprite. It was all going so well, we were having a great time. We danced for a while and then decided to go and sit on the beach. It is at this point that i must have had my bag stolen from me. It may have been cut but I am not sure. The main things in it were my camera and wallet. I am gutted about my camera. It gave me a pretty sobering affect as you can imagine but Janine was still on a 10 minute delay i think and I had to help her walk to a phone place where i could make an inernational call home. Whilst getting engaged tones, my parents are never on the phone after 9 at night??? What was going on??, Janine was throwing up on the pavement. I had to rush back and forth between the lady dialling my home number and Janine. In the end it all got a bit too much for me hearing the engaged tone every two seconds and i burst into tears. The woman just kept on re-dialling. Eventually I thought i would try a payphone myself so i went to find one. On the way a lovely girl gave me her calling card to use and i love her forever. On the second attempt i got through. I returned her card and got Janine and myself home in a taxi. When we got to our room i realised that we had no key. The key was in my bag so i went to reception but it was shut up. On the second attempt, after rapping on the door and noone answering, I had a look around the place and picked up a bunch of keys just lying on the reception table. I just picked a ramdon key and it unopened the door. Very safety conscious this place!!!!

The next day i had to go to the police station and phone various people. It is hopefully getting sorted now. Nightmare.

The next days were filled with rain. After such lovely sunny weather, the rain just suddenly came out of nowhere it was mad. It would downpour, like flash flooding weather, and then the electricity would cut out at about 6pm and it would stop raining and then the lights would come back on at about 9pm and then the rain would start again. On the day of the full moon party it rained all day and we were wondering if it would be a good idea to go. By the evening though it had cleared up and we went. I was paranoid about my bag all night but i still managed to have a good time. There were so many people on the beach. People with illuminous paint all over them, girls and boys, naked people, crazy people. They have a sleeping area at one end of the beach. We heard one story that some guys took some mushrooms and thought that they were seeing an elf so they locked it in their apartment’s bathroom. When they woke up the next boy they had a little Thai boy in there. The party was fun though and we danced all night and into the morning watching the sunrise and the sea come right up to the bars.

Today we took a ferry boat and went to Koh Tao. This is a much smaller island and used to be called ‘Turtle Island’ as they had lots of turtles here once. It is busy but not manic like Koh Pha-Ngan which i like. It is also good for diving here so we will hopefully do a dive tomorrow. I am glad to be off Koh Pha-Ngan. It has a bad affect.

Thursday 30th November 2006

Tuesday night’s dinner consisted of us sitting by the riverside at plastic chairs and tables with little mock candles (these were candles in a cut out plastic bottle), and eating chicken laap. This is lettuce, mint, steamed mango leaves and other fresh herbs with minced chicken. I ate this with sticky rice. The traditional way to eat this is by picking up the sticky rice with your hand, rolling the dollop into a ball and pressing down on it, then scooping up the mince with your sticky rice and eating with your hand. No cutlery involved. The lady cooks the dish on a mobile cart and you can watch her do this if you want.

Yesturday we went on a Monument to Mekong walking tour. We caught a tuk tuk to the Pataxai. We climbed up this concrete building to get a good view of the city. This monument looks like the Arc de Triumphe from afar but it does have Lao style features and has 4 arches instead of just 2. The official Laos name for it is translated as ‘arch’ and ‘door or gate’ of Triumph. When you climb up you first reach a platform which allows you to see into the archway. The next two floors are filled with souvenirs and then the last two platforms enable you to see a great view of Vientiane.

Next, we walked to Talat Sao. This is Vientiane’s biggest market, selling textiles, TVs, fridges, watches, all sorts of goods. They also sell pirates Thai pop CDs and DVDs. I even spotted a DVD of Casino Royale -surely this is too early!! Towards the south eastern part of the market you can watch people cutting and blow torching jewellry in work stations in a long line. This is fascinating to watch.

After the market we headed to That Dam. One of Vientiane’s oldest Buddist stupas, known as the ‘Black Stupa’. Local legend says that it was once coated in a layer of gold – it is hardly even black now – you can see the red brick coming through. Next, it was off for some food. We headed down a side street for some ‘khao jii paa-te’. This is french bagette stuffed with Lao style pate and vegetables and salads and dressing. It was yummy. The lady makes the baguettes up in a glass cabinet in front of you. The baguette was still warm as i ate it.

Suitably rested, off to Wat Si Saket. On the way we saw the Presidential Palace. A big white chataux, which even though it is now only used for ceremonial occassions, you cannot enter. Wat Si Saket is special because it has many buddah’s in it. The interior walls of the cloister are filled with little holes in the walls containing buddahs. There are over 2000 silver and ceramic buddah images and over 300 seated and standing buddahs here. There are alos many Lao style buddahs here which do look different to the Thai buddahs. Many of the Lao buddahs have their eyes shut and they seem to look a bit friendlier. There is also a cupboard here which you can peer into containing lots of damaged buddahs. The man at the temple said that they were going to restore the murals which have eroded in many parts, next year.

The next temple we went to was Haw Pha Kaew. This temple was built for royalty in the 16th century but it is now a museum for religious objects. It is here that you can see different buddah poses:

‘Calling for Rain’ = Standing with hands at sides
‘Offering Protection’ = Palms stretched out in front
‘Contemplating the Tree of Enlightenment’ = Hands crossed at the wrists

We walked from here to the brick-paved promenade where we sat on a two seater swing and bought drinks from an outdoor drink vendour. I chose a pepsi, which come in glass bottles here (the ones we used to get back at home before they changed to plastic ones), which the lady poured into a small plastic bag. You can then choose to have ice or not and she pops in a straw. Pretty cool swinging with a bag of pepsi.

On the way back we walked through Wat Mixay, a yellow temple which has gates flanked by two friendly looking guardians. At Wat Ong Teu Mahawihan we saw the 16th century bronze buddah. This is one of the most important temples in Laos as the Deputy Patriarch of the Lao Monastic order has his offical residence here. There is also a Buddist Institute, a school for monks, here who come from all over the country to study the Buddah’s teachings. Accross the road is Wat Hai Sok, a temple which has a 9 tiered roof. While we were wandering around two novice monks approached us and we made friends with them and swapped email addresses – pretty funny. The last temple of the day was Wat In Paeng.

Today we fly back to Thailand.

Tuesday 28th November 2006

We arrived in Vang Vieng on 24/11. We spent our time there visiting a cave called Tham Jang (Tham Chang). This cave was used as a bunker in defence against the Chinese in the early 19th century. You walk up quite a few steps and get to go into the caves. At one point there is a platform outside where you can get a good view of the town. Very picturesque. After we had visited the cave we went swimming with the locals in the spring at the foot of the cave. Very refreshing.
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The highlight of Vang Vieng for me was tubing. No it wasn’t the TV bars – by this i mean that there are a string of bars in this place that have the TV blaring and generally it is either ‘Friends’ or ‘The Simpsons’ or a film. These bars are filled as well with travellers just loving getting their fix of TV – obviously been deprived of it for too long. There are also bars here that do ‘special’ or ‘space’ or ‘happy’ shakes. These I will leave to your imagination but you can apparently get a good mushroom pizza here and there too. Anyway, back to tubing…..this involves floating down the Nam Song River in an inflatable rubber ring making obviously compulsory stops along the way at various bars for some Beer Laos. Yummy stuff. We spent the whole day doing this, as well as me doing a swing from one of the platforms smack into the river, that was refreshing! In the bright sunshine it was great and met loads of people. We went two days running we loved it so much.

This morning we caught a local bus into Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. You can book VIP buses and all sorts of air con and fan jobs but oh no, me and the Janine girl, we opt for the hardcore traveller stylee. With the locals, ‘normal bus’ they call it. Luggage gets strapped on to the top of the bus, which has holes in it by the way. The bus is rammed with people by about a third of the way into the journey. It takes 4 hours from Vang Vieng. No need for air con, most of the windows didnt exist so kept up a freezing cold chilly breeze at 6 in the morning. That wakes you up. Bring on Vientiane.

Friday 24th November 2006

On our last day in Chiang Mai we did stuff like buy postcards, go on the internet and of course, went to a yoga class.  It was the best one i’ve ever been to.  I felt so good afterwards.  As we were feeling so good we rewarded ourselves by going to a restuarant called Huen Phen which serves some of the best northern thai food in Chiang Mai, and its dirt cheap.  Who could resist!!

The next day 21/11, our adventure into Laos began and boy was it a long hard slog.  We were supposed to be picked up from our guesthouse at 10am but hey we are on Thai time (not Fiji time this time around) and at quarter to 1 a little man popped his head around the corner and shouted Laos.  Horrah!  Janine and I had front seats, great for the view but a bit scary when the driver is doing stupid miles an hour whilst overtaking, going round bends, opening packets of peanuts, on his mobile phone and we didnt have any seatbelts to wear.  Janine didnt worry – she fell asleep. I desperately needed the toilet.  After what was literally 3/4 hours we stopped for a break at a nut place – very weird.  We were driven from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong which is near the Laos border.  The journey to Chiang Khong was hot and sweaty.  We stayed in Chiang Khong that night.  The next day 22/11 it was up early and away to catch a ferry.  We were taken with all our luggage on the back of a ute to the ferry port and then we had to take our passports to passport control.  At this point i had already got my visa into Laos stamped in my passport but the guy wants us to pay 5 baht for the priviledge of seeing this.  Great!  Once we had reached the other side at Huay Xai we had to fill out arrival and departure cards for Laos and show our  passports which they stamp.  It is then up a hill to a tuk tuk which takes you to the slow boat.  Now when Ie say slow boat i mean slow!!  As in it leaves at least an hour late to start with.  Then it makes frequent stops where you are unable to get off but all sorts of villagers want to sell you things from bananas to live frogs.  At one point a man boarded the boat with a monkey on his shoulder.  There were not enough seats for the amount of people so chairs are set up in the aisles and people are lying on top of everyones luggage.  The slow boat left at 12pm and arrived at Pak Beng at 6pm.  On arrival you have to carry your rucksack and all luggage out of the boat, accross some fat logs, then walk a plank accoss the river and then as if that is not enough, walk up a steep sand bank.  Talk about exhausted.

The next morning it is back on the slow boat.  Janine and I thought we would be clever and get to the boat early so we could get better seats.  The seats are wooden and sooo painful on the bottom after about 2 minutes of sitting.  However, everyone else had the same idea and to our dismay they had changed the boat to a smaller one.  Luckily we got a 2 seater again and just thanked our lucky stars for that.  From Pak Beng to Luang Prabang, 8am we were on the boat, 10am the slow boat left, and  at 6pm we arrived in Luang Prabang.  We spent one night in Luang Prabang.  We went to the night market there where they sell local handicraft things.  The ladies that sell the clothes and goods actually make the delights themselves.  So beautiful.    We also got up early this morning and watched the monks at 6am leave their temples, wats, and walk about the town collecting offerings from the villagers.  Very interesting and fascinating to watch.

At 8.30am we were on a local bus from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng. We arrived here at about 3.15pm.  We made one stop on the way.  The bus had no air con or fans and was filled with locals and a baby crying.  The music playing got quite monotomos but it was a great experience and the scenery is breathtaking.  You can see locals ploughing their fields by hand and the hills are unbelievable.

Monday 20th November 2006

Our last day in Bangkok on Thursday 17/11 was pretty funny.  Janine has no malaria tablets for Laos but you can buy them pretty easily over the counter in chemists in Thailand.  Of course the ones Janine wanted are not sold in the local chemists but apparently in a hospital right accross the other side of town in a hospital for tropical diseases (nice!!  I did look at everyone in there a bit funny).  Anyway to cut a long story short they dont sell malarone in Thailand and the doctor actually told Janine she didnt need to take anything for Laos.  After much umming and arrhhing, im on my 5th or 6th beer at this point when Janine finally decides she will not take any malaria tablets.  That evening however, in my beer intoxicated state we make our way to the train station and board a sleeper train to Chiang Mai which arrives at 1pm the next day.  The sleepers were great.  We were in a second class sleeper with a fan and about a million other people but I really got used to it after a while.  The ‘trolley’ as i like to call it consisted of people walking up and down the aisles carrying juice and foods.  Great!

When we arrived at the station we took a tuk tuk to our guesthouse, checked in, and went out for some food and walked to Wat Phra Singh.  This is a temple that houses the ‘Lion’ buddah.  The grounds are just as impressive as the buddah itself as the ‘wihaan’ is well known for its mural paintings which are faded in parts but beautiful.  In the grounds there are trees with captions on them which i loved and whilst I was wandering around by myself a novice monk came up to me and asked me if I could spare some time to talk with him and two friends to improve their English.  Of course, I obliged, chatting away.  When Janine wandered around I don’t think she could believe her eyes.  Haha!  That evening we wandered to the famous Chiang Mai Night Bazaar.  Again, a marked where you can buy practically everything. 

The thing about Chiang Mai is not only its cooler temperature compared to Bangkok but it doesnt have that dark edge to it that Bangkok has.  Bangkok is very business and money orientated and you are constantly fighting against tuk tuk drivers and women who want to sell you wooden croaking frogs or men who want to sell you suits (do i look like i need a suit?).  Chiang Mai is less frantic and you do not get hassled as much (those women with the frogs still walk about – i think im going to have nightmares about them).

On Saturday we had an early start as we had enrolled in the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School.  This was the first cookery school to open in Chiang Mai in 1993 and it is owned by Sompon Nabnian, who is one of Thailand’s international TV chefs.  The da was wonderful.  Now, I know it might be hard to picutre me in a kitchen with an apron on and not burn anything – but I really enjoyed it.  The day was relaxed but informative.  I cooked chicken in coconut milk soup, fried big noodles with thick sauce, followed by  red curry with fish and fried mixed mushrooms with baby corn.  After all that I made a papaya salad and sticky rice AND my favourite favourite……steamed banana cake. Yummy.

After our little day of cookery we decided to hit the town and ended up meeting a group of other travellers, some Swedish and some English who we spent the night chatting and drinking with.  We had so much fun.  I ended up with a flower necklass, bracelet and rose by the end of the evening.  So much fun.

Yesturday we did a day trip to the Elephant Training Centre Chiang Dao.  Our first stop of the day was to the elephant dung centre where they show you how they recycle elephant dung.  Very interesting.  Next, onto the actual elephant camp where we saw them bathing and where they put on a show, carrying logs, hoisting flags, painting pictures, playing football and even dancing to music.  We got to ride an elephant, I had forgotton just how uncomfortable this is, go bamboo rafting down the river, and ride an ox cart – very bizzarre.  The lady kept prodding them with a stick, despite the fact that there is only one way to go. I thoroughly enjoyed the day and we finished off the evening by visiting the Sunday night market near our guesthouse.