Category Archives: Uncategorized

At least I do post some pictures once in a while. Here are the highlights:

January 21-January 31: Various Islands in the Andaman Sea, Southern Thailand

From Ko Mook, the cheapest route to Ko Lanta was something called a “tour ferry” – which turned out to be a day-long snorkeling tour of the surrounding islands and reefs. It was an excellent way to check out which islands I wanted to come back to! I met Laura from Scotland on Ko Mook, and we traveled together throughout the islands, and laughed until our stomach muscles hurt on more than one occasion. I got to dive at Hin Daeng and Hin Muang, some of the best sites in the area, and saw a sea turtle!  We went to  Muai Thai match, and saw four-year-olds punch each other! (We also saw a guy from Sweden KO a guy from Thailand, he wasn’t very popular.) We did a day trip to Phi Phi island from Ko Lanta, and it was very depressing: mother nature is still there, being as splendid as can be, in the middle of human destruction and waste. The place smells like a latrine, it is strewn with garbage, and I was so glad we were only there for a day tour. I have since heard from other tourists if you get away from the main beach it is okay, though. The snorkeling WAS amazing, and I saw barracuda and giant pufferfish – both of which I’d only ever seen diving, not snorkeling.

Heading back down south from Ko Lanta, we somehow ended up ‘stranded’ on Ko Ngai at the pier where only one rather pricey accommodation offer existed; we managed to bargain them down to a reasonable price and bore our suffering at a swanky seaside resort with dignity, at the pool, cocktails in hand.

One of the islands was my favorite place on earth, ever. I say this with confidence: I will never find a place I love more.  There are colors that only exist in nature in this one place. Walking out through the impossibly clear, shallow waters about 100m from the beach, I found the most pristine reef I have seen, extending for kilometers in either direction along the beach. This is why I will refer to it only as Ko X: I can’t bear the thought of this paradise being destroyed, overrun, like Phi Phi.  It’s not an island that belongs on a blog. It still doesn’t even seem real.

Feb 1 – Feb 6: Cameron Highlands and Teman Negara

If I felt let down by the Cameron Highlands, it might not entirely be the Cameron Highlands’ fault. I had just left Ko X, and I wish I’d stayed at least one more day. Also, I didn’t know what to expect. I had read the guidebook blurbs, but what is a “hill station”? Something British, I suppose, since they apparently called it that. How cool is “refreshingly cool”?

I will list some characteristics of the Cameron Highlands. Where does this remind you of?

• Around 7-9 degrees Celsius
• Rainy and grey
• Lots of farmland, lots of corn
• Activities include: U-Pick Strawberries, having tea & scones, and visiting a butterfly garden

Yes, that’s right ladies and gentlemen! You can fly across the globe to the famous Cameron Highlands, OR you can take the short route and go to Brentwood Bay, BC! The corn AND the strawberries are better in BC, by the way. Harrumph.

Luckily Taman Negara National Park lived up to expectations much better. My expectations were: Jungle Jungle Jungle. We spent three days and two nights trekking through the oldest rain forest on earth: 130 million years old. There were leeches and we slept in a cave where we’d found lots of creepy crawly bugs and a giant toad and the next night we slept in a jungle hide to watch animals at a nearby salt lick and we visited two different Orang Asli villages, the indigenous nomadic people who hunt with blow darts made with poison from trees. It was COOL. And Jungly. Some people were disappointed that we didn’t see any big animals (there are tigers and elephants and tapirs in the park) but…I was completely satisfied with my Jungle experience.

Feb 6 – Feb 10: Kuala Lumpur

After all this time in the woods, I didn’t really feel like going to a big city, so I was surprised when I really, really liked “KL”. It is flashy and sexy with lots of money and clean, organized streets and public transportation options. It still retains lots of Asian flavor though, and there are great food options everywhere. The Aquarium in the famous Petronas twin towers was a highlight for me, with its moving walkway though a ‘living ocean’ full of sharks, rays and giant fish.

It just so happened that I was in KL for Thaipusam, a Hindu festival I had never heard of.  Other travelers had planned their entire trip around being in KL for this event. Devotees carry burdens called kavadi or pierce their skin with hooks or skewers during a pilgrimage from KL to the Batu caves about 15 km outside of town, in fulfillment of a vow. They are usually in a trance state, so they maintain they can’t feel any of the things they do to themselves – and also, they don’t bleed. There are 1.3 million people gathered at the caves. I went. I saw. There are no words.

I have some pictures and video posted. If you’re the kind of person who likes to see these things, click on the photo below!

My reaction to Thaipusam

For the record, I didn’t see anyone bleeding. The red color on some people’s tongues is betel nut juice, I think. – some kind of juice I saw people putting in their mouths.

I am now in Kota Kinabalu, setting out to hike Mount Kinabalu the day after tomorrow. Wish me luck!

It was getting dark, and I was getting worried. I’d booked the guesthouse I was trying to find ahead of time, thinking it would save trouble once I arrived on the tiny island of Ko Mook, about 45 minutes from the mainland. I hadn’t anticipated that the guesthouse would be a twenty minute walk from the beach. The trail I’d been pointed at had shrunk to a dirt track, and everyone I’d encountered so far had frowned when I mentioned Ko Mook Garden Resort. “Is far!” they’d said.

“About 20 minutes?” I’d asked, quoting the time I’d been given when I’d set out from the beach. Each one had nodded. Since I’d already been walking for 10 or 15 minutes in each case, this was not reassuring.

The path ended at a muddy beach half-covered in mangroves. Several fishing boats lay on the muddy tidal flats and a ramshackle fishing village lay strewn across the shore. No one seemed to be around, except a small boy, around ten, who was fixing a broken boat near what appeared to be another path leading along the beach. I walked up to him, startling him from his work.

“Sawadee Ka! Ko Mook Garden Resort?” I said, pointing at the path. He nodded yes. “Ko.. Mook..Garden?” I said again, to be sure. He nodded again. And so I set off on the new path.

In retrospect, the boy had nodded much like you would nod if an alien showed up in front of you and said, “Garble Schnarble Blat?”. So perhaps I did place a little to much faith in his answer.

After another grueling 10 minutes ( I still had my backpack and all my bags), I had doubts the path. There was a barbed-wire fence running along side me, and the ‘beach’ on the other side had turned into a dense mangrove swamp. When then trail turned into a bridge over said swamp, and then the bridge turned into a collection of driftwood haphazardly nailed together, I finally admitted that the probability that I was on the right road to a tourist resort was close to nil. But turning back was so DEPRESSING. It had been a LONG way since the only real fork in the road, where I’d chosen so unwisely.

From behind the dense brush on the other side of the barbed wire fence, I could hear noises – people noises. The sounds of motorbikes, and people laughing. How frustrating would it be if the resort was just across the fence? But I didn’t really want to deal with barbed wire, not with all my bags. Then I saw it – a faint path to the fence, and a place where the barbed wire had been bent down, so it was easy to step over it! There was even a path beyond the fence…if this was the right place, I would save oodles of time.

Once over the fence, I realized I was in the ‘swamp’ scene from the NeverEnding Story – the mangrove swamp was dark and spooky right at twilight, and I actually giggled with delight. My mood quickly faded as I stepped onto what I thought was the trail. To be fair, the mud did NOT look as sinky or goopy as it actually was, but in any case, navigating a muddy swamp, with my backpack on, arms loaded with bags, in flipflops, was ill-advised. My first step, I sunk in past my knee. I was two steps in when I realized that my flipflop was NOT going to come up with my foot. As my flipflops have become one of my most prized possessions on this trip, giving them up was NOT an option. I thought if I CAREFULLY put down one of my bags, it would perhaps be too light to sink into the muck…

The purse did only sink in about half-way, allowing me time to reach around and dig, shoulder-deep in muck, for the missing flipflop. I managed to get the other foot up and remove the second flipflop without the same drama. I floundered barefoot, mucky shoes and mucky purse in mucky hand, to the other side. Finally on solid ground again, I tried in vain to put my shoes back on, but they were so slippery that they were useless. The goop was thick and black and and not very pleasant-smelling at all. Still barefoot, I stumbled over tree roots towards the clearing I could spot through the trees, into the light.

I was standing in a garbage dump.

At this point I decided no matter HOW slippery, I had to use the flipflops, or risk cutting myself on something sharp or metal or gangrene-inducing.

The Thai people in the village reacted pretty much as you’d expect a group of Thai people to react to the sight of a white woman with a backpack on emerging from their trash heap covered head to toe in foul-smelling black sludge, teetering precariously on her slippery flipflops as if they were 4-inch heels.

It sounded pretty much like this:

“Something something something farang! Farang something something! HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH”

As much fun as it was being the butt of the joke in foreign language, I was VERY grateful when a Thai grandmother offered me a bucket of water to wash off with and sent her husband off to get his motorbike so he could bring me around to the Ko Mook Garden Resort. Which was miles away, in a completely different direction.

Like most things that are hard to get to and harder to find, Ko Mook and the resort here are worth the trouble, though and through. Somehow I have scored an upgrade from a bamboo bungalow to ‘real’ room (with walls and everything!) for the same price. The beaches here are, once again, gorgeous and pristine, with only a few resorts on each beach and ample white sand for suntanning, beach volleyball or relaxing with a drink at one of the beach bars – they almost look like he driftwood washed ashore in the shape of a bar. While Ko Lipe had more nightlife, and Ko Tarutao, where I camped last night, had none, Ko Mook feels just right if you want to get away from it all but still want to see a few people around occasionally.

I said I wouldn't swim to any more islands, but this islet off Ko Lipe was named "Ko PollyIfYouDontSwimHereYouAreATotalWuss"! Not a word of a lie...

PIRATE ALERT!

Pictures of camping at Ko Tarutao, an island that used to be a penal colony. It was chosen since the surrounding waters were full of sharks and crocodiles. During WWII the prisoners and guards revolted when supplies stopped making it to the island, and started pilfering passing cargo ships. Finding more than they’d ever dreamed aboard the ships, they became pirates, and the waters around Tarutao were soon the most feared in the Malacca Straights. Just to add to the piratey goodness, there is even a Crocodile Cave (unfortunately no longer inhabited by crocodiles – or pirates.)

Photos! Photos! Photos!

The last few weeks have been great fun, except the part where Jack had to head home, which was of course very sad. We had such a great time exploring Ko Chang and relaxing there on the various beaches, but a few days after New Years the weather turned somewhat sour and we decided to head back to Bangkok.

The few days I had left with Jack were spent exploring some parts of Bangkok that we hadn’t seen yet, visiting with some of Jack’s family that was in town to meet Taius, his cousin Dave’s brand new addition to the clan, and getting some chores done. Chores included shopping for a few presents for people back home, and finding out about my camera – which was quoted at $500 to fix!! Since the camera cost less than that originally, it’s been packaged up and sent home, and we’ll deal with it through the warranty. In the meantime, we managed to find a relatively cheap Sony digital camera that will do the job – and so PollyCam2 is up and running. (See photo link at the top of this post!)

Jack left on the 7th, and since new Thai immigration rules only give foreigners who arrive overland from neighboring countries 15 days in the country without a visa (instead of the usual 30 days), I had to be out of Thailand by January 10th. I found a flight to Malaysia and decided leaving on the same day as Jack would be less depressing than kicking around Bangkok by myself for a few days! So we headed to the airport and flew out within hours of each other.

I flew to Georgetown on Penang Island, one of the oldest British outposts in South East Asia, and a frequently-used immigration-office stop for foreigners renewing or getting visas to Thailand. I had my first unfortunate run-in with bed bugs at the first hostel I stayed at – I vainly tried to mummify myself in my sleep sack as they scurried around the room and onto my mattress! I probably wouldn’t have slept a wink anyway, but then for extra measure, a club a few doors down started up around midnight. Apparently there are clubs in Malaysia that play one song all night! And that song is called, “Firing a Gatling Gun Inside a Trash Can”! And these clubs do not close before 5am! I got at least 45 minutes of napping (the bedbugs clapped with glee and swarmed me as I slept, I’m sure) before the morning call to prayer, which was so loud I actually thought it was happening IN MY HEAD.

One very grumpy hostel-change later, I napped most of the day away blissfully while my Thai visa was being processed – you can apply in the morning and get you passport back that afternoon. For about $40 you can get a 60-day single-entry visa to Thailand; sure beats having to find a border crossing every 15 days while you are vacationing!

I wandered the streets of Georgetown and admired the old colonial buildings, many of which have been beautifully restored, and made it out to the New World Park to sample some Malaysian food, on a friend’s recommendation (thanks for the tip Megan!) I considered spending another day there, as there were enough old buildings and forts to explore, but the beaches of Langkawi were calling to me, so I headed off on ferry the next morning.

Pulau Langkawi is duty-free island in the very north-west of Malaysia, on the border with Thailand. Many Malaysians, as well as people from neighboring nations, vacation here as the beaches are beautiful and the tax-free prices keep the beer prices down. It was the first time on this trip that I have been able to afford wine so I had a glass each night! I was lucky to get the last dorm bed available at Gecko Guesthouse when I arrived. I had intended to stay two nights on Langkawi and ended up staying for five nights; it really is an excellent place. It helped that I met a great gang fun of people at the hostel! Since everyone is on vacation, a party mood prevails wherever you go. My first day there a group of people beside me at the beach asked if I’d like to join them; some of them were Malaysians from Kuala Lampur and we went out for dinner for some really excellent local food. The next day I did a boat tour of several of the surrounding islands and met three girls from Finland who are on vacation; we ended up meeting for drinks that night, and one drink turned into several as we danced in the sand at a Reggae beach bar under a full moon. The party then moved on to a local dance club, and time always flies for me when I’m dancing – next thing I knew, the place was closing and it was 3:30am. The next few days were spent leisurely either at the beach, or back at the Gecko, where the gang played cards, watched movies, or harassed some of the many kittens inhabiting the guesthouse with us. I did accomplish one goal I’ve had for this trip all along: I swam to a deserted island. An island about 800 – 1000m offshore of Cenang beach looked easily reachable, but I was glad when another tourist, a Dutch waterpolo player, volunteered to come swim it with me. Especially when we got about 300m away from the island and the currents seemed to keep us in the same spot for WAY too long! We did finally make it to the shore after nearly an hour. A couple met us on the beach – they’d taken a boat over to the island and volunteered a ride back. It seemed a much safer option – don’t worry mom, I’ve done it once now, so I won’t be attempting things like that again!

Life is Hard on Pulau Langkawi

The island in the left corner of the picture above is the one I swam to!

Langkawi does have more than just some beautiful beaches to offer; my last day there I rented a scooter and went to check out the cable car to the highest point on the island. Unfortunately it was closed due to high winds, so I went to check out a nearby waterfall. The steep climb up was a wakeup call – I’ve been lying on the beach for a while! The pools at the top and the bottom of the falls were worth it though – very reminiscent of the Sooke Potholes near Victoria.

I am now in Thailand; the one -hour speedboat trip from Pulau Langkawi to Koh Lipe this morning was a bit harrowing at times, as the winds have been quite strong. They haven’t seemed to have affected the clarity of the water though – we were all gasping with delight as the boat turned the corner into the harbour of Pattaya beach this morning, the largest beach on Koh Lipe. The water is the most unbelievable color, and you can see straight through to the bottom even when it’s 20 feet deep! As soon as I’d found a place to stay I rushed out to book a scuba diving trip for tomorrow. We’ll spend the day exploring Ko Tarutao National Park, a pristine underwater haven. I was going to stay two nights – already I’m predicting it will be more. My plans from here are to keep moving up the west coast, island-hopping my way to Ko Lanta and Ko Phi Phi, then crossing over to the eastern gulf for some diving in Ko Tao. There is a yoga and meditation center I would like to visit in Ko Pha Ngan, south of Ko Tao, and then I plan to spend a few days in Ko Samui if I can time it right with the infamous full moon party held on Ko Pha Ngang (I plan to take a boat over to the party from Ko Samui.) Then it will be back down to Malaysia, to check out Borneo and climb Kota Kinabalu before hopefully getting some diving in on the eastern coast of peninsular Malaysia (currently in the throes of monsoon season). Bali, Australia, South Pacific and New Zealand to follow…I can’t believe one third of the trip is over already!

Sunrise Beach, Koh Lipe

The music pumping from the speakers set up on the beach is slowly drawing the crowd out, now that the fire-dancing show has ended. The fireworks that have been going off sporadically over our heads in the night sky are complimented by the occasional roman candle – a dark muscled man with no shirt points his out over the ocean, and a slow stream of sparks shoots out the end, each one flaring before going out.

“Look, he looks like Harry Potter!” I giggle.

“Wow,” says Jack, smiling. “You’re drunk!”

He’s maybe half-right. Maybe just one more bucket of Malibu & pineapple juice before we head out to the dance floor…

Dancing on Lonely Beach

More photo updates:

• Ko Chang, Thailand: We spent Dec 27^th – January 4^th on the idyllic island of Ko Chang, which many people have told us is one of the nicest islands in Thailand. For for big resorts and all the conveniences of home, White Sand Beach is the most developed; for laid-back backpacker-style resorts of bamboo huts on the beach, Lonely Beach was the place to go. We also took motor scooters around the island to remote Long Beach for some swimming and snorkeling with almost no one else around; there is only one guesthouse, and power only runs in the evenings from 6pm to 11pm.

* Apologies for the very late updates; I have been writing them as I go but had some problems with internet connectivity in Siem Riep, and some problems with extreme laziness once we got to Ko Chang in Thailand.

We had a great Chrismas in Siem Riep, exploring the temples and dining on Cambodian BBQ for Christmas dinner, including crocodile and snake! Click on the picture above to view the photo albums online.

“MAC..DON…ALDS” I repeat, slowly, miming the familiar arches with my fingers.  Sunny, our tuk-tuk driver, is completely befuddled.  “It’s an American restaurant? Hamburgers?” I say hopefully. Sunny really wants to help us.  He offers to take us to a street that has American restaurants.  We finally admit to ourselves that this is probably as close as it gets.  After several loooooong days of bus travel, and a few days in remote, beautifully laid back  Si Phan Don (“Four Thousand Islands”) at the Laos/Cambodia border, we had hoped for some familiar comfort food.  Especially after we’d realized that there was no ATMs in Si Phan Don, and we hadn’t brought that much money with us -  leading to some tight budgeting and shared meals of whatever the cheapest thing on offer was – usually rice and vegetables.  Once we’d found some dinner and were reflecting on our day in Phnom Pehn, we agreed that the incredible part of the story wasn’t that there aren’t any Mickey D’s in the capitol city – it was that we had met someone that day, our friendly driver, who had never even HEARD of it before.

While the familiar comforts of home are not as readily available in Phnom Pehn as they are in Bangkok, the people here have an innocence and charm that is truly disarming.  This isn’t a comfortable city. It’s dirty and garbage-strewn in many parts, it feels dodgy almost everywhere at night, and the poverty of the place confronts you continually.  But it’s still one of my favorite spots so far, maybe because it has the greatest mix of interesting sights, maybe because you have to have respect for the people here, who have suffered through so much, but can continue to be kind, open, friendly.  The people here would rather sell you something, or work for you, than beg: can you blame them if they get a little aggressive and hassle you more than you’d like? Can you blame the land mine victims for asking for money at tourist sites, when you know that there are very few other support systems for them, when you know how much more a dollar will buy for them than it will for you? The hardest part about Phenom Pehn is that the people are deeply loveable – and you can’t help them all.

We saw most of the tourists sights on offer here in one day. (I’ll be referring to doing all the sights in one city as quickly as possible as “Phnom Pehnning it” for the rest of my blog, by the way.)  The S21 Prison, where the Khmer Rouge regime carried out brutal atrocities against the Cambodian people, is pretty much the most harrowing thing I hope I ever see, but I can see why it’s essential to keep the museum as a reminder of what we are capable of doing, as a species.  It made the visit to the killing fields outside of town, mass graves where the bodies of the prisoners were dumped, that much more affecting. We were glad to move on to lighter fare in the afternoon, checking out the Royal Palace, with the stunning Silver Pagoda, and the National Museum that contains many of the treasures rescued from the famous Angkor temples, where many statues have been looted or stolen.

We even managed to find a second wind that night and go out on the town with some new-found friends from the UK! A newly-opened restaurant/bar/karaoke club on the bank of the Boeung Kak lake, near our guest house, called “Nick” (yep, just “Nick”) was beautifully set up, with low tables and lounging pillows. They offered movies for travelers to watch; karaoke downstairs; a full cheap dinner and drinks menu; and they were completely empty.  This has been an ongoing phenomenon on our trip: everywhere seems set up for about 50-80% more people than the number that are here. I don’t know if it’s the economic crisis or the disruption of the Bangkok airport, but it always seems like there are fewer tourists than there’s supposed to be, wherever you go; and you can tell the businesses here are starting to feel the pinch.  In any case, we were fawned over and visited by the staff all night, and as we left they even gave us Christmas cards signed from the owner! I couldn’t help but think that this kind of genuine, personal touch is the kind of thing people hope they’ll find in the tourist resorts in Thailand, and usually end up disappointed.  It’s nice to know, if you’re willing to go further afield and put up with a bit of discomfort, it’s still out there waiting for you.

We took an overnight bus, which wasn’t very wise
And the beds were really too short, like some torture you’d devise
When we found upon arrival someone’d rifled through our stuff
We hadn’t slept a wink and so we didn’t call their bluff.

Tired and exhausted, took the first room we could find
To say it was disgusting is being rather kind
From the bugs inside the bathroom to goop dripping down the walls,
To the ‘Hello Kitty’ bedsheets – you would have been appalled.

The only sight in Pakxe is a big cement hotel
Where a prince once kept his harem (t’was a palace, so they tell)
When we’d wandered the whole city, with it’s dusty greyish hue
We went back to our hotel room – ’cause there’s nothing else to do.

You could sail up to the arctic, where it hits sixty below
And be thrown into the water, and pulled down by undertow
You’d sink frozen to the bottom, your complexion pale and waxy
But it wouldn’t be the worst thing – ’cause you wouldn’t be in Pakxe.

I really don’t miss rules.

It takes a trip to foreign territory to make one realize how regulated things have become at home. And while rules ensure safety, respect for people’s rights, yada yada, you have to admit, they can sometimes get in the way of a little thing called “fun”.

If Laos were a country of rules, Vang Viang, about halfway between the capitol city of Vientiane and Luang Prabang (coolest name ever!), would not be allowed to exist. At every turn, very cheap alcoholic drinks are sold alongside mechanisms for drunk people to hurt themselves. You know that part of the night on the town, where something seems like the best idea ever? And then later, in retrospect, you realize that alcohol does in fact impair your judgment, and that the ‘best idea ever’ is, at best, a bad idea, and at worst, dangerous and/or potentially lethal? Vang Viang exists in that blissfully ignorant state between these two points.

Exhibit A: Drunken Yahoos Flying Off a Giant Concrete Slide Into a River of Unknown Depth

Yes, there is a river in Vang Viang, and the ‘in’ backpacker activity there is to rent a tractor tube in town and float down the river. We were a little apprehensive as we’d heard that several people have died in the last few years, combining alcohol and fast-flowing water. What we didn’t realize was that the term ‘fast-flowing water’ was an extreme, extreme exaggeration. The water flows lazily along, at a usual depth of about three feet. What cannot be exaggerated, however, is how incredibly drunk people get. Well, drunk enough to drown in three feet of barely-moving water, apparently. The shenanigans start at the first of many bars along the river, where tubers pull over for a drink or eight, while dancing to the blaring sounds of Micheal Jackson and/or Britney Spears. This bar is between 20 and 30 meters from where the tubes have been put in the water, so you can understand that a drink is required after that kind of athletic activity. You can choose to float another 20 – 30 meters to the next bar, drink, and repeat – or you can choose to stay at one bar, as many “tubers” do, and take a tuk-tuk back into town at sunset. Most choose the bar with the slide pictured above, which also has a rope-swing/bungee hybrid device you can use to launch yourself 30-40 feet into the air over the river.
Yes, the entire thing should be illegal. The copious quantities of alchohol in the ‘bucket drinks’ sold at the many bars around town, usually at less than $2, often two-for-one during happy hour, should be illegal too. But wow, was it fun.

In the end, Jack and I opted to enjoy the amazing scenery by motorbike instead of taking the tube route; we’re sure we got to see more, and remember more, that way. Incredible limestone karst formations loomed above the view of the river off our waterfront deck at the guesthouse; the ride out to some of the many caves in the area was also a heck of a lot of fun. We took the bikes out to the “Blue Lagoon” – a local swimming hole – after some cave exploration to cool off, and chilled out in hammocks at a riverside restaurant. (Incidentally, we found the very best chicken satay EVER!) The mellow vibe of the after-tubing parties at the many beach bars was really cool, as people mingled and danced around bonfires in the dark. So Vang Viang can be fun, even for those not looking to get as inebriated as possible for as little money as possible.

On our bus ride out of town, travelers shared horror stories and compared injuries: someone had seen someone break his nose or dislocate a shoulder; nearly everyone there had massive bruises of some kind. But you know what? They were all smiling.

Q: What happened? You only got to partway through your tour on your blog!
A: Sorry, I was busy doing this:

Polly Diving at King Cruiser Wreck Near Phuket

Q: I hate you now.
A: Sorry. Had to be done. It was pretty awesome.

Q: What tour was it, anyway?
A: It was through a Canadian company called GAP (“Great Adventure People”), and I recommend them fully. The description of the tour I was doing can be found here.

Q: So are you going to keep writing retroactive updates?
A: No. I’ve decided pictures are worth a thousand words, so you can catch up on the rest of the tour and my time since looking at them here. The albums include:

• One from before the tour started and one from the first day of our tour with a bicycle tour of Bankok and Thornaburi across the river

• One from our trek to visit hill tribe villages near Chang Mai in the north

• One from th ancient ruins of Ayuthaya, a UNESCO heritage site and former capital of Thailand when it was ‘Siam’. I was really tired after the night train the night before so I couldn’t absorb any of the names of the temples there – sorry! The album also includes some shots from the ‘rafthouse’ we stayed on on a resevoir lake near Kanchanaburi

• One of our cycle tour of Kanchnaburi, including the museum and memorial sites for the Death Railway, and the bridge over the river Kwai

• One from our two-night camping trip from Ao Nang (near Krabi, in the south; we flew there from Bangkok one day before the airport closed) to Bamboo Island, a small island near the Phi Phi islands

• One from Patong, and several that my dive instructor took while I took my SCUBA diving courses (a refresher of my Open Water, since it had been six years and my Advanced Open Water.) I took some of them as well; one of my Advanced dives was underwater photography.

Q: Will there be more pictures?
A: I hope so; but I broke my camera. It’s an underwater camera, and as you can tell from the pictures I took snorkeling on Bamboo Island, it was working great. My last day in Phuket I decided to do a snorkeling day trip to a nearby island, and the camera started leaking and now it won’t turn on! It’s under warranty, but I have to work that all out. If I can’t get it fixed soon, I’ll look at buying a cheap digital camera in Bangkok.

Q: So where are you now?
A: I am back in Bangkok. After ten days in Phuket, I took the bus to Khao Sok National Park, about three hours drive north. It is one of the most bio-diverse areas on the planet, and has a gorgeous lake with enormously tall, jagged limestone karsts jutting from it. On arrival there I found a lovely little guesthouse, with a supremely chilled-out restaurant/bar area playing Jack Johnson tunes and mellow reggae, complete with mood lighting, pillows on the wooden floor, and hammocks. My bungalow was a self-contained little room on stilts, almost like a treehouse, with a veranda and my own hammock. The Thai family that runs it are gorgeous and sweet and call you by your first name, arranging all the night jungle treks or daytime trips to see the lake and explore river caves that you might desire (I did both!) If you get the chance to visit, Smiley’s Guesthouse is a gem.

The next day I made my way to Ranong, a town on the Myanmar border. Many people do their ‘Visa runs’ from here, skipping out of the country by going across the river to Burma/Myanmar, and that’s what I did too. Now I can stay in Thailand another two weeks, and the whole process took three hours, thanks to the help of a lovely local taxi driver who basically led this poor farang girl about by the hand, and made sure I got back in time for my overnight bus to Bangkok.

Jack is joining me for his Christmas break from school! He arrives tomorrow, and we will hatch a plan for the next few weeks. We are thinking Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam…

Q: Are these questions really frequently-asked, or are they just some literary device?
A: I’ll let you decide that for yourself…

Nights trains in Thailand are really not that bad. The sleeping berths are comfortable and the stewards / stewardesses (and several of them were both) are paid on commission and try to ply you with relatively cheap alcohol. Here is the most flattering picture of me from the night train from Bangkok to Chang Mai, so you can guess how unflattering the rest of the pictures were:

Polly on the night train

We arrived the next morning in Chang Mai, Thailand’s second-largest city and the capital of the northern region.  Here we would spend several days trekking through forests and jungles, staying in villages of the northern hill tribe people. Many of these people are displaced from Burma/Myanmar or other regions, and are semi-nomadic tribes with no fixed address or citizenship.  They subsist by trading between themselves and growing crops, and are generally the poorest people in Thailand.

Many of the tribes grow tea to sell at markets, and we saw tea plantations on our drive up through the mountains from Chang Mai.  Our first day was spent hiking along what was either a very rough road or a marginally-drivable dried-up river bed; a lot of our drive there had been up a similar class of ‘highway’.  The scenery was beautiful, and the hike fairly easy, but we were glad to arrive at our first destination, Balo, a village of the Lahu people.  The town had built a large bamboo stilt-house for visitors, and all 14 of us piled into the one-roomed structure to lay out our beds and help with the cooking, also performed in the same room.  Several group members played outside with the village kids while others helped prepare dinner.  It was a lovely way to see the people up close and see how they live.

The next morning we set out for our first stop: a waterfall nearby! It was so picturesque, it seemed it couldn’t be real, and we took turns actually sliding down the bottom part of a waterfall like a slide. Our guides (nicknamed “Tiger”, “Sit”, “Gun” and “Best”) had prepared a delicious lunch of noodles wrapped in banana leaves, with bamboo chopsticks! It was tough to leave but we had to head out to our next destination.  We spent the next several hours on what felt like a “real” jungle hike; narrow track through creeping vines, dense brush, or even a bamboo forest! It was so diverse, even over a few short hours, and very beautiful.  Our guides had to construct impromptu bridges for us several times as we crossed the river at least four or five times – every time they re-arranged rocks, hacked bamboo with their machetes, and had something workable in no time at all!

That evening we reached a hill tribe school, near the village we’d be staying at.  Kids come from miles around and most of them stay at the school during the week as their villages are too far to trek to each day. We spent some time playing with the kids and watching them get ready for dinner; then we headed up the road to our place for the night.  The second village, Mae Mae, is home to some Shan villagers. The accommodation was much more upscale with  individual rooms for each pair of people and ‘happiness centers’ (bathrooms) with showers and flushing toilets! We enjoyed massages from the local women before dinner, and learned some Thai cooking from the gregarious Mr. Tag. After a few Chang beer many of the group were singing along to Tiger’s guitar with some well-worn hits…Hotel California will never be the same.

Our last trekking day, we headed out on what proved to be the steepest and most grueling part of the trek – luckily it didn’t last long and we were soon at another waterfall, for more bathing and playing.  A short distance from that, our trucks met us and whisked us away for a Pad Thai lunch before our last adventure for the day: elephant rides! I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves – but just so you know, it is pretty scary when something that big lurches downhill!

After checking out the famous Chang Mai night market that evening, we were certainly all ready for bed after an adventurous day. We were even more ready for the “free day” we had the next day! Several people went on tours of the local temples and craft markets, but I decided to stick closer to home with a Thai cooking lesson (SO delicious! I hope I can find the ingredients at home!) and a relaxing massage. The massage was especially needed before our second night train that night, this time to the ancient capital of Ayuthaya.

Bangkok Pictures: here and here

Chang Mai Pictures: here