Southeast Asia

Slept ok last night but there was a lot of noise so i had to dig out the ear plugs. Chaing Mai also seems freezing relative to Bangkok and after adjusting to the 30-35*c heat 25*c is damn cold.

Eva and I just missed the 10:30 bus to Pai which wasnt the end of the world to me but i think it pissed her off a bit. Had to wait for the 12:30 bus. When i bought my ticket i wondered why it was so cheap, only 68B for the very long and difficult 5 hour bus trip, but when i finally saw the bus i concluded that 68B was actually a rip-off. Turned out to be a public bus and every man and his dog wanted to get on. It was really a big minivan with 30 seats (although in Aus i think it would have about 20 seats since Thai people dont beieve in legroom) and yet we managed to fit at least 35 people in the bus. All the packs went on the roof, along with a few bicycles and a whole lot of wheat. The aisles were stuffed with more packs, boxes and bags of wheat. The seats were so small that 2 people barely fit and we were spilling out into the aisles.

Now, you might be inclined to think that this bus was full, never the case in Thailand. We stopped numerous times along the way and jammed additional people and all their crap into the bus, people were standing and sitting amongst the boxes in the aisles, and others were hanging off the side of the bus near the steps. We looked like one of those cartoon buses ready to explode.

Everyone says that Thailand is a beautiful country, but until today i thought a lot of people said it because they couldnt come up with anything else to say, but as we drove through the small villages and the mountains i saw just how gorgeous Thailand really is. The roads were extremely steeping and winding and it was lucky that the bus was packed solid because else i may have moved in my seat. Stopped for a 10 minute break after about 3 hours which was only about 2 hours and 59 mins later than everyone needed. Whole bus trip ended up taking 4.5 hours. i felt really sorry for the 10 or so people standing all that time around all the bends, although sitting wasnt really much further from hell. Took a while to learn to move again after we arrived.

Went straight to the guesthouse here dee was staying but they had no rooms left. Not really a problem sionce Dee had a spare bed in her room and i could stay with her, but of course she wasnt there. Dumped my pack and went to use the internet and walk around the town for a few hours. Ran intop a guy from the bus trip and we decided to go looking for a bar. Finally found Dee at about 8:00 and all 3 of us went out drinking.

Hit up a few different bars, first mobile bar, which was literally mobile. it was a cart full of alcohol that trhe owner set up whereever she felt like. Had a couple of very potent cocktails then moved onto Bebop bar with live music for numerous vodka red bulls. Met heaps of new people and when bebops closed at 1:00 we headed to bamboo bar, which was a bamboo shack built out over the water for Pad Thai and more vodka red bulls.

Poured ourselves into bed around 5:00am and promptly passed out.

Sorry i cant be at home, but happy birthday. I love you. xoxo

Since my 250B a night did not buy hot water I had a very quick shower this morning. Breakfast at the guesthouse was wonderful I had a pancake about an inch thick with ‘honey flavoured syrup’. Got an email from Dee, who’s in Pai and she said its gorgeous, so I’m going to move onto Chaing Mai tonight and Pai the following day. Ill do it in 2 section so that I can break up the 11 hour bus ride.

Went out at 9:00 to the Sukhothai historical park. The first place I stopped was the museum which was great for the first 3 minutes until I realized it was school excursion day and there were about 200 school kids from about 4 or 5 different schools all with their little excursion day booklets to fill in before school the next day. Unfortunately for me on the back of the booklet was a ‘talk to a foreigner’ section where they had to attain information such as name, country, occupation, favourite place in Thailand and a signature. Of course the first I knew about it was when I got corner by a swarm of 10 12 year old school children all holding out the booklets and pens for me to complete the information. The biggest mistake of all was filling in the first one, because then word spread that there was a girl in the museum in a pink top who’ll fill in that section for you and the swarm of kids got bigger and bigger. It took 30 minutes before I could move from the spot. After that, some of them had obviously gone back and told their friends and smaller groups came searching for me to have their booklets completed. They were all very gorgeous children though and very polite.

What is unbelievable here is how every second person tells you ‘you are beautiful’ and then they either start talking about my eyes or pointing or want to touch my hair?! I’ve had the same thing from a very random mix of people. Bought my first souvenir at the museum, a little wooden bookmark with an elephant on it for 25B.

After the museum I rented a bike from one of the 20 bike rental shops along the road. The park where the ruins are is beautiful and I had such a nice time riding around all the gardens and to the different ruins.

Ran into more school kids and filled out more forms, they also wanted to take photos with me for some reason so now there are a lot of photos of me and various school children floating all around Sukhothai. Despite the beauty of the ruins I found them all very similar and only saw 5 out of the 20 or so old temples in the park, some were very impressive with large moats and grand symmetrical buildings.

At 1:00 I returned my bike and caught the Sawngthaew (small pick up with a row of benches down either side in the back) back to the city so that I could get the 1:40 bus to Chaing Mai. However, my driver also worked a double life as a silk trader and we took numerous back streets delivering rolls of Thai silk to 7 houses. At 1:40 I was still on the same little truck even though the ride should have taken 10 minutes.

Finally made the bus station at 2:00 and bought a ticket for the 2:00 bus. Met a German girl called Sandra who had also missed the 1:40 bus. Found out Sandra is studying Business Admin, its nice to meet someone else doing business, many of the backpackers look at me as though I’m diseased when I tell them I study marketing and finance; they all take cultural studies or arts, majoring in language.

I had read that the bus trip takes about 6 hours. Obviously my bus driver had decided he didn’t need that long and was aiming for a record because we were traveling at a decent speed for most of the way and I was glad the road was flat and straight. Its not very often that your on the bus and yet overtaking every other vehicle on the road, and yet that is what we did. Made it to Chaing Mai in just over 5 hours, I think in Aus it would have been a 7 hour ride. This was the first time I’ve seen a lot of wide open spaces and green fields, also saw the first mountains I’ve seen here. It sounds weird but even with all the bus travel I’ve done I don’t think I’ve actually been up a half decent hill here, it’s just so flat.

Sandra and I shared a tuk tuk into the city but we had decided on different guesthouses and so we went out separate ways. I stayed at ‘your guesthouse’ and managed to grab their last bed which was a huge double bed in a private room with its own bathroom and hot water for 200B. it didn’t have a lot of charm, in fact on a charm scale of 1-10 I’d give it negative 2, and I don’t think the bathroom had been cleaned this decade, but it was great value.

At 8 I wasn’t particularly tired and all I’d eaten since breakfast was a bag of biscuits so I went in search of dinner. About 20m down the road was a restaurant with live music and an all you can eat BBQ for 115B (less than $4). You choose your meat and cook it yourself on the Barbie, and there were salads galore. It was so good to have real meat, I ate 3 pieces of steak (its ok mum, they were small). There were also veggies like broccoli, carrots and potatoes which I haven’t seen since I left home. I ate so much food.

Where there is steak, there are Aussies and I met a guy from Brisbane who had just come from China and a Spanish (Eva) girl who had spent the last 6 months in Aus. I had a great night, Eva is going to come to Pai with me tomorrow.

Didn’t sleep as badly as I expected last night on that slab of concrete the hotel dared to call a bed. Went out this morning to look for somewhere to eat breakfast and found a great café with an extensive breakfast menu. I had an amazing blueberry smoothie for 35B.

Back at the ‘hotel’ I met an Irish couple who were also heading to Sukhothai, we decided to walk to the bus stop to save some money, since none of us had a map we followed directions a Thai woman gave us. Of course the bus stop was much further than any of us expected and it turned out to be a good 40 minute walk. I collapsed in a heap at the bus stop because I had my big pack with me and it was easily 32*c.

Very few people in this town speak English; hence we could not attain from anyone which bus we were supposed to be catching. After watching 4 or 5 buses go by we began to wonder if we should be doing something differently. Not the case, because the next bus pulled up and a woman jumped out pointed to us, then to the bus and said “Sukhothai, Sukhothai, Sukhothai”. Where else would a group of foreigners be going other than where every other foreigner has gone in the past?

In Sukhothai I had no problems getting to J&J Guesthouse, which is gorgeous. I have my own bungalow with bathroom for 250B a night (cold water though). Since it was already 1:30 I made the decision to go to the old city tomorrow and have a lazy day walking around the town for a few hours. Stopped at a restaurant on the walk home for a drink, I ended up with a pineapple smoothie which was fresh pineapple juice blended with ice. Walked back to the same restaurant later that night for dinner where I had noodle soup with chicken and vegetables as well as 2 incredibly potent blue Hawaiian cocktails, at $2 each how could I resist???

Just a quick note to say that uni results are out and i didnt fail anything.

ECON335 75 D
ECON361 70 Cr
ECON360 63 P
MKTG304 78 D

I am so happy, i havent done that well since first semester first year. 😀 😀

Slept much better last night thanks to the 2 codral i popped before going to bed. Had a lovely breakfast at the guesthouse, the people here are wonderful. Checked out at “resepsion” at 10:00.

Caught a bus from the main station to Phitsanulok for 165B. Bus trip was quite good, i was not subjected to any Thai action movies or stand up comedy and i had 2 seats to myself. Unfortunately one of the children on the bus fournd it fascinating to play peek-a-boo with me. Was quite cute for the first minute and a half but by the 40 minute mark it was starting to wear thin and i could see it continuing for the entire 5 hour bus trip. i tried to communicate numerous times that the game was over, but he was having none of it and continued for the next 20 mintues depite getting no reaction from me. When he finally gave up he moved onto climbing under the seat infront and popping up at me all the while screeching with laughter.

Stopped for lunch at a bus pitt stop where i had a spicey green bean curry with an unidentified form of meat, fearing that it may have been domestic animal i ate only the beans and rice. The lady was very reluctant to serve it to me telling me numerous times that it was very spicey.

Arriving in Phitsanulok i got myself completely lost trying to get to the ‘within walking distace’ hotel. Lonely planet be damned, if they dont include a map im not going to try and walk anywhere. Having never been more than 30cm from a tuk tuk or taxi for the past week and a half it seemed impossible that i couldnt find one. A nice Thai man pulled over to offer me directions and he rang the place to find out where it was. He found it hilarious how far i was from my destination and ended up giving me a lift. i think his motives may have not been entirely honerable because he asked me to go out with him the next day. i thanked him, but told him i was leaving town.

i have decided that im not sticking to my bedget particularly well (if at all) so i began today. i set myself a limit of 900B ($30). Since i was trying to save money i checked into the london hotel, which, despite what the name implies, is not a hotel. instead it is a pile of crap with a few beds and shared bathrooms with squat toilets. Reminds me a lot of that apartment in the Blues Brothers, except his room was bigger. i guess i cant expect much for 100B a night ($3.30).

Met an Italian guy and a French guy also staying here and we went out for dinner. The restaurant did not have any english menus nor any english speaking staff so short of pointing to something on the menu and praying for something edible i managed to communicate through sign language that i wanted only rice and vegetables, no meat since that seemed like a safe option. Ended up with a plate of rice with a small pile of greens similar to bok choy but not as interesting and a shit load of garlic. Was about as exciting as cold porridge.

Walked across to the night bazaar. it was really gorgeous, the lights were beautiful and the stalls were selling much better things than i have found anywhere else. This is actually one of the most beautiful towns ive been to, its very relaxed and seems much cleaner than many of the others.

Came across a group of young guys breakdancing on the footpath who wanted to show off for me.

There are a lot of young people around here, it is a very big university town. There were also young guys playing soccer on the wide footpath and others skateboarding in the makeshift skate park with a jump and a rail set up.

Got back to the ‘hotel’ at 10:00 and discoved that the bed and pillow are both as hard as rocks. The good news is im under budget by 380B. Although i didnt spend much on transport today, no tuk tuks. Im going to spend more on accommodation tomorrow night.

Slept really badly last night thanks to this terrible cold. i think i was also a bit stressed about moving onto a town where i had no accommodation booked. Went out at 10 to cash travellers cheques, although i should have know that a 10 o’clock opening time was really somewhere between 10:30 and 11:00. When i did finally get them cashed i got a really good rate 41B per US$. Also managed to find Keflex under another name for $10 a box. Cant get over how easy it is to get prescription durgs here.

Caught a taxi to the bus station for 85B + 40B expressway toll. The northern bus station was huge, but i found the bus to Ayuthaya no problems. the ride took 1.5 hours and cost 55B. There was barely anyone on the bus and we only stopped about 15 times so i had 2 seats the myself the whole way. Today the drivers choice in TV was Thai Karoke videos which he played so loudly i couldnt even drown it out with my ipod.

Ayuthaya is the former capital of Thailand. It reigned for 417 years and due to its location at the convergence of 3 main rivers, an island is formed which makes the city not only extremely open to trade but also very difficult to attack. However persistent attacks by the Burmese were unable to be resisted and after 2 years of war the capital fell. The fighting lead to the devestation of the city as the Burmese looted the city’s architectural and religious treasures stealing the gold that covered the buddhas and decapitating any remaining buddha statues. it is the holy ruin that make the town such a big tourist attraction.

Arriving in the town i immediatley realised that Ayuthay held no appeal other than its ancient ruins and i decided to stay only 1 night before moving on. A tuk tuk driver at the bus stop dropped me at PU Guesthouse, which i chose from my lonely planet, and offered to take me around the temples that afternoon for 1000B. i managed to get the price down to 500B by saying i only wanted to see 5 temples (more than enough for me) which i chosen from my Tourist book / map. We set off to see the Wats at about 2:30. The wats here are much more how i imagined they would be in BKK with extensive grounds and grand architecture. Despite the fact that the Wats were in ruins it was easy to see how grand they would have been before the attacks. i found them much more interesting than the BKK Wats which are essentially just a gold room with a buddha in it.

i had a really wonderful afternoon wandering around all the holy ruins and my tuk tuk driver was worth every cent i paid for the information he gave me about the Burmese attacks on the former Thai capital. About 5:00 i started to get really hungry so my driver took me to a food vendor by the side of the road where i ate the best Pad Thai i had ever tasted. The woman only asked for 15B, which i thought was ridiculous, i gave her 30 and asked my driver to tell her it was delicious. I saw the final set of ruins just before the sun set, they were the most impressive of all. My driver dropped my back at the guesthous at 6:00 which was 3.5 hours for 500B. Still quite expensive, but it would have cost at least 200 to do it by myself and meant staying another night which i wasnt keen on, so it worked out well.

Went to bed feeling like shit, my cold is really bad.

Despite the fact that last Monday was a pubic holiday for the kings birthday, so too was today. This made it very difficult to get organised to move on to Ayuthaya since I couldn’t cash any travellers cheques. Spent the day walking around the city and the new shopping centre. I bought a new alarm clock (sorry mum, the other one broke) and a few items like tissues and soap because its easy to stock up in Bangkok. Had lunch in the new shopping centre at a really expensive restaurant, the food was good but it cost 450B.

Spent the evening doing laundry and packing up a bit. Wasn’t particularly hungry for dinner and didn’t want to spend the money, particularly after lunch, so I went without. Watched ‘Dodgeball’ with Derek, Dave and a Welsh girl.

I have a really bad cold, which I caught on the plane, but I managed to keep it at bay by taking the Keflex for my eye. The problem is now that I’ve stopped taking it; the cold has come on badly. I have noticed that it doesn’t take long to learn to talk in disjoined English. You start asking questions like “where boat go?”, “do metre?” and pointing to a map whilst saying “I go here”.

I’d also have to say that whoever created traffic lights that count down was not the sharpest tool in the shed. As the light reaches the final ten seconds before it turns green the swarm of drivers all squished at the front with about 20 bikes thrown into the mix all rev their engines and begin to inch forward into the moving traffic in order to be first off the mark. However, even worse than red lights that count down are green light that count down which encourage drives to put the pedal to the floor and screech around the intersection in order to make it through the lights in the last 1 or 2 seconds. There also seems to be a rule that if your not talking on a mobile whilst driving then your not multitasking. Also of note is the fact that lanes here are really more of a guideline and any vehicle can drive anywhere they want at any given time, provided nothing bigger comes along. This is all alright of course as long as you have the standard Buddhist alter on the dashboard.

Well tonight its goodbye to the chaotic heap that is Bangkok and hello to the former capital Ayuthaya. I’m going to miss Suk11. I have had such a good time here. Paid the bill which came to 2700B for 6 nights including air con and breakfast (approx $14 per night).

Alarm went at 6:30 this morning so that I could get ready eat breakfast and leave by 7:10. Got a taxi to the southern bus terminal on the other side of town for only 100B. Had no problems finding the correct bus to Kanchanaburi and I was on it by 8:00. Of course the bus didn’t leave until 8:40 and the next 40 minutes were spend with people walking up and down the aisles trying to sell lollies, drinks and magazines while being forced to watch a terribly bad Asian soap opera. My taxi driver had offered to drive me to Kanchanaburi for 2000B (US$60) but the bus only ended up costing 78B (US$2.5). It was clearly a public bus because we stopped at least 40 times on the 3 hr ride and at one stage it was so packed we made sardines look like they have legroom. I was surprised that in the whole 3 hr drive we never really left the city. The density of houses and shops decreased, but thee were never areas of wide open spaces or anything. Every minute or so the driver would honk the horn at the up coming bus stop to see if anyone wanted to flag him down, in doing so he would slow down just enough so he could stop if necessary but if no one was waiting he’d hit the pedal and we’d take off again, this made for a very bumpy and noisy ride.

Arriving at Kanchanaburi I went to the TAT office and got a map and directions to the tiger temple before visiting the bathroom. Today was my first experience with squat toilets, it could have been worse I suppose, it was really quite clean. The bus from Kanchanaburi to the tiger monastery was 25B, had no air con and was packed solid. The drive took over an hour and the bus driver beeped the horn at anyone walking along the road in the hope to pick up an extra fare. I was very impressed with myself for spotting the stop to get off and telling the other 8 tourists on the bus to get off. Maybe I’m not a completely incompetent traveler. The walk to the monastery was 2km. Entry to see the tigers was 300B, but I donated an additional 500B. The tigers were amazing and so beautiful; I couldn’t believe how docile they were. Was talking to a guy who worked at Florida zoo and he was shocked that people were allowed so close to such dangerous animals and yet there had never been a serious injury. I took heaps of photos.

Took the 2 km walk back to the road and was waiting for a bus when a couple I had been talking to at the monastery offered me a lift back to town. He was European but he lives in Thailand with his wife and they visit the monastery regularly to donate money. We spoke for quite a while about the Tiger Foundation and all the work they are putting into building the new enclosure. They dropped me off at the Kwai River Bridge. The bridge, which was a strategic part of the death railway to Burma and attacked and rebuilt during WWII, was swarming with tourists (ironically many of the Japanese). There were also young boys jumping off into the water. I walked the bridge and part of the railway and took a few photos.

Next I went to the Jeath War museum to get a bit more background info on the bridge. It was a good museum, however they were renovating and many things were poorly labeled. Grabbed a motorbike taxi back to the bus station which was heaps of fun.

The bus back to BKK was only 62B, had far less people and only took 2 hours. I was however subjected to watching the drivers choice in TV which happened to be Thai stand up comedy. Of all the things to watch in a foreign language stand up is the worst because you have no idea what’s going on, but all of a sudden its extremely funny and the old Thai man in the seat next to you is elbowing you as he laughs. The driver obviously loved it too because he kept taking his eyes off the road to watch it. Noticed driving into BKK that all the fairy lights were gone, pity because they added a lot of atmosphere to the city.

When I finally got back to the hostel at 9:00 I went and got dinner with Dave and Derek, then we all stayed up drinking until 2:30, met another Aussie girl traveling with her father, they had just come from India. When I finally went to bed I died of exhaustion.

PS: give me a break on the typing, this is an Asian keyboard and I’m trying to do it in the least possible time so as not to be charged a fortune in this very expensive internet café.
PPS: I have not worn high heels for a whole week. I don’t think I’ve done that since I was about 12.

I saw my first car crash today as I was walking to the skytrain. 2 4×4’s collided in the middle of the road, not quite head on. its no wonder really given that the middle lane between the traffic is treated as a ‘free for all, either direction, give way only to anything bigger’ lane. A big crown formed to check out the commotion and all the sales people left their little stalls to have a good look. It is slightly confidence inspiring that people were interested since it suggests a degree of rarity.

Took a combination of the skytrain and the river boats to get to the national museum, even though I had to go a long way out of the way. It’s always much cheaper than tuk tuk or taxi and I’m sick of fighting with tuk tuk drivers over the price. Museum was huge and I spent a long time wandering around reading about Ayuthaya and Sukhothai. They were particularly interesting since I will be visiting those places in the next week.

Just one of the 120,000 stary dogs in Bangkok, this one was quite happily asleep on the chairs at the docks.

On the skytrain home I decided to take a detour and check out the new shopping centre. I discovered today that it doesn’t matter which country I’m in, I will always be my mother daughter and putting me in a brand new hopping centre with designer fashions and telling me not to spend any money is like taking a child to a fun park and telling them they cant go on any rides or eat any junk food. The centre was amazing, beautifully designed and the shop line up was fabulous, D&G, Gucci, Pucci, Mulberry, Hermes, Prada. Chanel, Chloe, Cartier, Paul Smith, Versace, Armani, Ferregamo…etc. Majority of the shops weren’t open but hopefully by they will be by the time I come back through BKK. The department store in the middle of the centre was open though and they had so many gorgeous things. However, it was packed with people spending every cent they owned and the queues at the cashier were at least 10 people deep. People were wandering around with 10 or 15 bags.

I also got to see a few fashion shows for the new season because they held a parade in the centre and they had models standing around everywhere like mannequins holding handbags etc. Since it was the first day they remained open until 11pm, but I left at 9 after the shows and went home for dinner.