I caught up with my couchsurfing friend Dhugal and my blogging friends Skribe, Ceezedby and JOOB. And even attended a twitter meetup with Dhugal and Skribe!

I ate lots of awesome food in hawker centres (trying different food is a big part of travelling for me, which is definitely not always a good thing!).

Went to the Raffles and had a Singapore Sling and Million Dollar Cocktails, which cost a ridiculous amount of money and I wouldn’t really recommend…

And Dhugal and I visited the Singapore National Museum and learnt how Singapore has become such a developed country so quickly! We got a free guided tour there by a french volunteer!

All the Singapore photos are in this set on flickr.

And so my 6 month trip through Indonesia (Bali, Lombok and Komodo Islands only), Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Singapore ended. It was not enough time, but what would be enough time?

Hopefully/maybe I’ll write a blog post at some stage about my overall reflections on the trip. Either way, I had a lot of fun, met a lot of awesome people, and learnt a lot. Mostly about myself I think!

Ubon Ratchitani
From Pakse in Laos we (Raf and I) crossed into Thailand by bus with Kate and Fred. While they flew back to Bangkok to catch their flight home, Raf and I stayed in Ubon Ratchitani for a few days, then took a sleeper train to Bangkok. We didn’t do much, Raf was sick again and I made use of the free wifi by doing some work. We did enjoy eating at the night markets again, the food is definitely more varied in Thailand than in Laos!

On our last day, after checking out of our cheap hotel, we took a taxi to a more expensive one towards the train station and payed a small amount (about $2) to use their swimming pool and again had free wifi, so believe it or not, but I got some work done while lying next to the pool!

Bangkok
We arrived in Bangkok the following morning at around 7am and made our way to MBK to pick up my fixed camera. Unfortunately it doesn’t open till 10am so we had to kill some time.
Then we made our way to Stefan and Poi’s place again, were we were able to stay for a few days until Raf flew home and I took a bus back to the North.
With Stefan and Poi we ate smoked reindeer and drank swedish schnapps, had massages, went out for Peking Duck (my first time ever) and went to the Chatuchuk Markets.
Raf and I visited the nearby Fashion Island Mall and did some shopping. From the outside (and mostly the inside), it looks like we were back in Australia. We did however get our hair washed(+head massage and hair blow dried) for $2. :o

Back to Chiang Mai
So on 17 January I left Raf to fly home after 7 weeks of travelling together, and I took a bus to Chiang Mai, alone again. But not for long. While in Bangkok I messages some couchsurfers I’d met last time I was in Chiang Mai (through another couchsurfer I knew from Perth), and there happened to be a chinese dumpling making party that evening at someone’s house. I could also couchsurf with one of them. So I went straight there from the bus station, on the back of a motorcycle taxi! The bus had taken 11hours, so I was a bit late, but the party was in full swing.

Kow soy, a northern thailand/burmese noodle soup:

I ended up couchsurfing in Chiang Mai for 4 days, while waiting for my friend Nic to arrive from Perth.
I hired a bike, and my host Scott and his other couchsurfing friends took me out to local restaurants and bars. A highlight was the Thai hotpot restaurant. A huge undercover area, with two huge buffets set up in the middle, and a stage with live music/comedy (in thai) at one end.

Each table gets a ‘hot pot’, a type of small bqq/steam dish. You can bbq meat etc on top, and around it in the water you throw vegetables etc to make a broth. On the buffets there were also other things to eat like sushi, fruit, salads, steamed buns and dumplings made fresh and cakes, pastries and other ingredients to make dessert! All you can eat for around $5.00!

On night at ‘Bangkok Bar’, a bar with a thai cover band playing rock music, Ross bought some crickets/grasshoppers and a couple of meely worms off a passing seller. I’d had a drink (but was definitely not drunk), and was convinced to try them. The meely worm was the easiest and tasted the best (like twisties), the cricket had eyes so was harder, and didn’t taste like anything in particular but was bigger and while still chewing I tried to wash it away with Thai whiskey, which didn’t work to well.

Oh well, try anything once! I lie, I doubt I’ll ever try a cockroach or spider, but never say never!
We also went to the North Gate Jazz Coop, a bar that’s mostly frequented by thai bands and audience. First one and later two more elephants came wandering past, led by one guy with someone else offering people sugar cane for sale to feed the elephant. A few days later while nowhere near the ‘old city’ and tourists it happened again at a bar, proving it’s definitely not just a thing for the tourists.

I really enjoyed staying longer in a place and ‘pretending’ to live there amongst the locals, learning from the expats. Though Chiang Mai is a very modern/western city in many ways, a lot is different from home. Tap water is not drinkable (as it hasn’t been for all of my trip, I’ve been buying water in bottles). I discovered that in Chiang Mai, there are drinking water ‘dispensers’ on some streets, where you can fill up a container for 1 baht for 2 litres, wayyyy cheaper than bottled water (at least 5 baht for 1 litre for the cheapest).

There are also many places with washing machines along the road.

Most people do not have a washing machine at home, many don’t even have a kitchen or kitchenette, especially in apartments.
And for something different: street drinking is not illegal, and that’s reason enough to do it!

I loved the Thai ice teas with milk – Chai (Nom) Yen. This is a regular street vendor, off the tourist trail, that I passed while biking around Chiang Mai. So proud I could order my drink in Thai and they could now understand me.

Back to Pai
Then Nic arrived, and we took a minivan to Pai, where we caught up with my friends Marissa (met in Perth, southern Thailand and Laos!) and Phoebe, who I’d met travelling in Northern Thailand a few months ago. While having a drink while watching the sunset over the river we also got talking to a israeli/russian girl who I then invited to dinner with us. It was funny, later it felt like I was ‘giving back’ after all the times I was asked to dinner when I was travelling alone. That’s how it goes on the backpacker trail.
We ended up in Releaf where a duo who I saw last time in Pai was playing, a thai girl with a beautiful voice and a farang (foreigner of european descent) guy on an acoustic guitar. I have mixed feelings about Pai, but one of the things I love is all the live music everywhere.
After a breakfast at Good Life Pai (I generally don’t like eating at the same place all the time, but this place is really good value), Nic, Marissa and I set off on scooters to Cave Lodge, near Soppong on the road to Mae Hong Son.
Good Life Pai:

Ok, the above was written only a few weeks after all that happened, but now I’m writing the rest of this at the end of March, so it’s going to be more of a summary :P

Back to Cave Lodge

It was an awesome scooter ride up and down the mountain range. So beautiful and not much traffic so just so much fun. At the top of the highest points are some markets so we stopped for a while.

Late lunch in Soppong, then the last 9km through forest to the town of Ban Tham and Cave Lodge, which is about 500m from Tham Lod, the cave. I love it, this is the second time I came here and generally I don’t go back to places. It’s a wooden lodge, set on the side of a hill looking over the river and the mountains. Big verandah/open restaurant area with a fireplace, cushions and a table tennis table. There’s dorm accommodation and separate huts. All made of natural material and all very open, but everyone gets a mosquito net.

That evening we asked where a nice place to do a small hike and see the sunset was, and were told the ‘Big Knob’. We drove our scooters through the main town, but then walked through a small group of houses to the base of the knob. We kind of made it halfway, the last bit we didn’t see a path, and it was getting dark and I was on thongs (flip flops).

The next day after a morning bath in the river (quite cold water and a bit shallow for a proper bath!) we wandered around a bit and then at 4pm did the Tham Lod cave tour, and watched the swifts flying back in at sunset. And another evening of good food, reading and table tennis.
Cow, Nic, Marissa:

Very old coffins in the cave:

Mae Hong Song, Ban Rak Thai, Burmese border roadtrip
The following day we decided to do a 2 or 3 day trip to a town further to the north east, again on the Burmese border, but this was a Chinese town, founded by ex KMT fighters in 1950. Bit of a tourist town now for thai people. We only saw 2 other western tourists. Was awesome, something different. And the ride there was beautiful, and we got chased by rain and thunderstorms! First at the top of the big mountain pass beyond Soppong we had to stop to shelter from a thunderstorm.

And then just before arriving in Ban Rak Thai we were being chased by clouds (sweeping over the road behind us!!) and it started raining soon after.
On the way we had lunch in a small town and through not being able to communicate much, we just ate pad thai. We also stopped to view a waterfall, but there wasn’t much water.
In Ban Rak Thai the power was out due to the thunderstorms. There was one restaurant open and we shared a table with some thai tourists from Chiang Mai and/or Bangkok. We didn’t order much before it was all chinese type food (so not much choice for Marissa and I, vegetarians) and very expensive compared to what we were used to paying. Confusing that a place that pretty much only caters for Thai tourists is more expensive than western tourist places.
Guesthouse with chinese decorations, and Nic and Marissa:

After a night sharing a big bed (we only got one room as accommodation was expensive too!), we scootered back south and to Mae Hong Song, the capital.

After a look around, and lunch at which a crazy US ex-army guy joined us and told us stories about the Free Burma Rangers, corrupt police and drugs, we scootered back to Cave Lodge. Long rides that day, but very nice. Right in the very north of Thailand.
Temples in Mae Hong Song City:

Pai again
Back to Pai the next day (28 January) and we visited the hot springs at night, and then went to a party at the Pittalew Art Gallery, where there was music, art, food and an awesome fire show, probably the best I’ve seen!

The annual Pai Reggae Festival ‘We Be Jammin’ was on for the next two days just outside of Pai and we went the first night and had a great time! Nic, Marissa, Eve, Phoebe and Marissa’s friends. I may have also driven a scooter with two passengers for the first time ever… No, not after drinking alcohol, but still, shhhhh.
The reason Phoebe was back in Pai/Thailand was that she’d been invited to play saxophone with a band at this festival. I played photographer for the night using her DSLR, but am proud to say that my point and shoot camera (with Nic and I using it), got some shots that were just as awesome:

And then it was farewell to Phoebe who was staying in Pai, to Marissa who was staying one more day and then back to Aus. Back to Chiang Mai for a night, said goodbye to my new friends there, and said goodbye to Nic who had another two weeks.

And now I continue writing this in the middle of June, so it’s going to be even more summarized.

Homeward bound
I spent a night in Phuket, one of the hells on earth for me (ok, slight exaggeration…). I got to the airport at around 3pm, spent about 3hrs getting to Patong, the place with the cheapest accommodation, and I had to leave there around 5am again in a shared taxi to get back to the airport to fly to Singapore. It was so much more built up that other areas of Thailand (ok, except Bangkok of course). So many hotels!

Everything was double the price of Northern Thailand, and I hadn’t seen that many Australians since Kuta in Bali (and so not my kind of travellers) and there were also heaps of american soldiers on leave, and plenty of lady boys and prostitutes. Or girls that dressed as prostitues… It was strange seeing Tsunami Hazard Zone and Evacuation Route signs everywhere in Patong.

My only luck was that my room had free wifi from a restaurant downstairs. I skyped my parents, pretending to still be in Chiang Mai. Part of my carefully planned trick of showing up on their doortstep 4 days before they even thought I was in the country again.

Phew!

Only a few days of left of my six month south east asia trip.

Edit: ok, so I lied, I was already back in Perth when I wrote this, but I was keeping parents, Oma and some other people in the dark so I could surprise my parents by turning up on their doorstep 3 days early. It totally worked, it was awesome :D

So Raf and I flew from Bangkok to Luang Prabang, northern Laos, in a cute little plane.
My camera was in Bangkok for repairs, so most of the photos below are from my camera phone, and some by Raf and Marissa. I did miss my camera a lot.

In Luang Prabang we spent an hour trying to find our hotel with the help of several people, after dodgy directions (and the wrong name of the place) from our friend Emily. Fun, fun :D

Emily has been living and working in Laos for a year, through the Australian Youth Ambassodor Program. She worked with remote communities in Eastern Laos (near the Vietnamese border), setting up education programs to help teach the locals about illegal logging and wildlife trade and such (or something like that…). With her, her sister and her mother, and our friend Marissa, we travel from Luang Prabang to Vientiane, via Phonsavan/Plain of Jars and Vang Vieng. They’ve organised a minivan and driver! And along the way we’re staying at quite fancy accommodation!

In Luang Prabang it’s a Laos style villa, that we have nearly all to ourselves.

It’s christmas and Emily has organised a small tree, and Raf makes some paper decorations. The girls from the hotel join in at one stage!
We have a la carte breakfast in the garden every morning, awesome! On Christmas day it’s extra special, with crackers and champagne brought from Australia.

We’re quite far north here, it’s cold at night (jumper weather!) and cool and cloudy in the mornings, then sunny and around 25 in the afternoon. My perfect weather!
Luang Prabang has a night market we enjoy, and we take a walk across the Nam Kan river to another village, and then back along the Mekong River.


On Christmas Eve we have a fancy dinner (most expensive of my trip at around $50!) at Le’Elephant. A 5 course, french type meal, very nice!

On Christmas Day we went to the main waterfall outside of Luang Prabang

It has several different levels. Above is the longest part, and below is a lower level where there is a rope swing. Scary and cold water, but fun!

Our ‘christmas lunch’ was beer and cake and fruit at a picnic table, and dinner was from a street stall at the night market back in Luang Prabang :D

On Boxing Day we got in the minivan and headed to Phonsavan, middle of Laos. Awesome landscape, green mountains, and then when we got closer it started to be dryer and looked a lot like Australia in summer! There were even eucalyptus plantations and pine trees! 6 hour drive through very windy roads wasn’t easy, but I was lucky compared to the others, as I don’t get bad car sickness, and can even read.

Laos is known as being (one of?) the most bombed country in the world, mainly ‘thanks’ to the Vietnam War. The province we were headed to, Xieng Khouang, is the worst hit. There is still a lot of UXO (unexploded ordinance) in the ground. When we stopped by the side of the road to pee, you can’t go in the bushes, because it’s too dangerous. So you’re pretty much peeing along the side of the road. Luckily there’s not a lot of traffic…!

In Phonsavan we stayed at Auberge de Plain du Jars, a nice hotel with bungalows with wood fires, run by a half Laos half French guy. The view was awesome:

The next day, after finding hair elastics at the market, our driver took us to the three main sites of the Plain of Jars.

There are random stone jar things, probably used for fermenting wine, for burials and maybe other things like storing rice throughout the year. There’s still much confusion and they’re hard to date.
We also saw bomb craters and trenches from the war. The sites have been mostly cleared, but there’s warnings everywhere to stay on the paths.
Emily and I with our friendly driver. He only spoke Lao, but thankfully so did Emily.

We stopped in Old Phonsavan for lunch and saw the two temples which managed to survive the bombings (not much did).

After a beer at a Lao place on a reservoir and dinner at the Indian place in town, we joined the hotel owner and his mates (one was the chief of police!) for a few drinks and some talk about Lao culture. A great day.

It’s Hmong (hill tribe) new year, and the teenagers play a ball game, throwing a ball back and forth, while chatting. Courtship?!

The next day we drove, through the mountains again, to Vang Vieng (just north of the capital Vientiane). At one stop it was so cold and foggy!! High altitude, cool! Annemarie and I:

In Vang Vieng we stayed at Nam Tok Guesthouse (friend of Raf’s) which was great. Again we only had one day, but we visited 3 caves, the third one being one filled with water, that we had to tube through! So much fun!

Vang Vieng is surrounded by limestone karsts, which I love. There’s good caving, rockclimbing and river activities in the area.

The next day the final leg with the minivan and so many people travelling together, and we arrive in Vientiane. On the 31st we started with a surprise champagne brunch at Sticky Fingers for Em’s birthday.

Later we moved to my friend Renae’s house. I know her from Perth, she’s a couchsurfer, so Raf, Marissa and I couchsurferd with her for a few days. We had to stay in Vientiane till after the long weekend because we needed to get visa’s from the thailand embassy.
It ended up being 6 nights and days of 2010 celebrations. It involved a lot of cocktails, watching dvds, playing with the cute toy poodle Minnie, ten pin bowling, pool, foozball, home cooking and driving around on a supercub motorbike/scooter. Good times :D Though, learning to drive the super cub (gears!) while stressed and trying to find the thai embassy, with Marissa on the back, in peak hour Vientiane traffic (with motorbikes coming at me on the wrong side of the road) was a liiiitttle crazy. But still fun when I succeeded without injuring anyone! :D

And then Marissa left to go back to Thailand, and Raf and I took a night sleeper bus down to Pakse, where we met up with our friend Kate and her dad.
We went down to Champasak and visited Wat Phu. Then we went and hung out on Don Khon in the 4000 Islands (next to Don Det) for a few days and bicycled around and visited the waterfall. Along the way we crossed the mighty Mekong River several times.



From Don Khon we took a boat out onto the river to see the rare Irrawaddy dolphins at sunset. There’s only about 70 left here on the border with Cambodia. (there’s a few thousand in total around southeast asia, mostly near India).
While we were on the river we asked our boat driver to take us to Cambodia. There was a little island with a hut selling beer! We had to pay a $1 fee each to the lady there, and then pay for the beers separately, but success, we drank Angkor beer (ok, so it’s not as nice as Beerlao, but had to do it).

Made our way back to Pakse, and then crossed the border back into Thailand and stayed in Ubon Ratchitani.

Sleeper train
I’m writing this on the sleeper train from Ubon Ratchitani in Eastern Thailand(Isan) to Bangkok. This is my third sleeper train in Thailand (have also travelled on a sleeper train in Vietnam, and sleeper busses in Vietnam and Laos).
It’s 19.45, the train left the station at 19.30. Initially you’re sitting in seats and it looks just like normal train.

Then a steward comes along and pulls down the top beds and pulls out the bottom beds from the seats, puts sheets on them, a pillow case over the pillows and gives you a blanket. It happened early on this train, so I’m writing this from my bed. Raf and I booked bottom bunks (this is second class/fan) so she’s on the other side of the train. Random thai dudes in the bunks above. Three other western looking backpackers in this carriage.
Edit: I thought I had a good sleeper train photo somewhere, can’t find it. Figuring it must be on that mobile I lost, grr! Well, here’s a crappy one with Raf not looking pleased…

At the end of the carriage there’s a little room/bed for the steward a toilet and washbasins. The toilet on this train is a squat one. Toilet paper and the bidet/spray thing is provided. Bit scary when the train is jolting around…could get messy :o
Other trains we’ve been on have had western toilets. I’ve only had to use squat toilets in the cheapest places I’ve stayed in, in Thailand and Indonesia. Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos seem to have the most western toilets, I guess due to the french influence a while ago.
The big windows on the train were wide open, but the steward closes them when he makes the beds. The door at the end of the carriage is also open. I was standing there earlier, holding on, as you could easily fall out if there’s a jolt! Fun :D
There are racks in the middle passage for bags, so my bag is right next to me. If you’re a top bunk, then there’s a rack up there too.
I forgot to mention the curtains. Everyone has a curtain in front of their bed. Essential for keeping the light in the passageway away.
We’ll arrive in Bangkok at around 7.30 in the morning.

Food stalls, night markets, plastic bags
All over south east asia there are roadside stalls offering takeaway food, and sometimes there’s some plastic tables and chairs provided. They usually serve things like fried rice and noodles, noodle soup or rice soup(a breakfast thing), fried chicken, satay stick things, fried donuty things, indian roti pancakes. Varies a lot per country what is served.
Often a city or town will also have a nightmarket, where the stalls are altogether in one area from around 4pm till at least 10. Especially thailand does these well, lots of variation.

They’ll often have tables and chairs set up. I guess kind of like a food court in Australia. So cheap, so good. And can often be quite adventurous when you’re in a non touristy place and you just point at things and see what you end up with.
If you order takeaway (or sometimes even when you don’t), the food will come in styrofoam, or just as often, small clear plastic bags. Even salad or drinks come in plastic bags. They tie an elastic band around the top, and with drinks just stick a straw in it.

Last night in Ubon I grabbed a salad in a bag (lettuce, cucumber, corn kernels, tomato, hard boiled egg, little bag of dressing) from one stall and sat down with Raf at a table where she’d ordered chicken with rice. I borrowed a fork, and as I was struggling ripping open the bag and pouring the dressing over the salad, the lady from Raf’s food stall handed me a plate and a spoon. Awww, so nice!
For dessert I had a pice of baked pumpkin with coconut custard in it, which also got handed to me in a plastic bag. This is a traditional thai dessert, we made it in my cooking class in Chiang Mai.
Earlier in the day we ordered a chai nom yen (tea milk cold=ice tea with sweet milk) in a little hole in the wall restaurant, and that also was handed to us in a plastic bag. No elastic band, just a straw stuck in. Usually the ice tea gets given in a plastic cup with lid though.

Modesty
In south east asia, it’s generally disrespectful to walk around with shoulders and knees uncovered. Most definitely in temples and sacred places it’s just not done. The more tourists there are, or the bigger or more modern the city is, the more it’s just accepted. I have no trouble keeping my knees covered, but I still don’t find light airy t-shirts as comfortable as singlets. I’ll usually remember to wear something with sleeves or bring a sarong to cover myself up in temples. And I’ll usually try to wear my shirts with sleeves more in more traditional towns. I already stand out enough as a tourist (though not as much as tall or blond people, and my skin is as dark as many as the locals now! Actually, I regularly get spoken to in Thai and once was asked if I was half thai. Just then a guy on the train spoke to me in thai!)!
When swimming at tourist spots like a waterfall, the local people generally go in the water fully clothed. When they bath in rivers (poorer areas), they’re usually in a sarong. Though, I’ve also seen quite a few half naked people by the side of the road washing themselves, I think just in Laos.
At popular tourist spots, western tourists including myself generally do what we always do, not wear much. I have occasionally kept my singlet on though, and am usually wearing boardshorts.
Today we paid about $2 to hang around the pool at a fancy resort in Ubon. There was no one around but there were a lot of hotel rooms looking onto the pool, and it was a very thai place. I wouldn’t sunbathe topless anyway, but I didn’t even feel comfortable walking around in my bikini. Though the staff were amused I think. I walked past two ladies (cleaners I think) hanging out in a doorway near the pool, and they said something like ‘hello, very good, very good’ and sort of jiggled around and laughed. I had my arm in front of my chest so I think they were trying to tell me not to be embarrassed, haha.

On a slightly different subject, generally you take your shoes off when you go inside places here, including many some shops, all beauty/massages and guesthouses. Restaurants you leave shoes on. It’s become nearly second nature, and is easy when you’re wearing thongs/flip flops.
I recently realised that I have been wearing thongs for pretty much 5 months straight now. Only when I’ve done a trek or a whole day of motorbike riding (around 10 days in total on my whole trip) have I worn my walking shoes! They’re not that pretty (I really wish I could have found the black ones of this model instead of brown, boo!) and it’s just too annoying having to take them off when entering somewhere! And obviously it’s been very warm for most of my trip.

Here are some random ones I did write down:

Trek near Umphang, months ago
Our mahout (elephant handler), climbed from the neck of the elephant, over us, and stood on it’s butt and peed off the back. We had stopped to let the baby elephant drink milk, and we were last in line of all the elephants.

Last week in the car in Northern Laos:

Raf: there’s a machete next to the driver, for if we have to hack through jungle
Emily: No, everyone has a machete for when you hit a buffalo, and have to divide it up. Whoever hits the buffalo, gets to keep it. Or half.

Emily is serious. She knows stuff, she’s just lived in rural remote Laos for 10 months. She’s said so many other things I’ve already forgotten :( Except this ones. This is a ‘joke’ in Laos, but really, it’s true.

In Vietnam they drive on the right, in Thailand they drive on the left, in Laos they drive in the middle.

It’s true, though Vietnam is more the middle too.   Also, they like to drive on the wrong side on the road here, when the traffic is too busy to cross the street. I came across at least 10 of those just this morning on my crazy trip on super cub motorbike to the Thai embassy. Vientiane rush hour traffic, oh what fun!!

Caught the train back to Bangkok after a 2.5 hour delay, then a taxi to Stefan and Poi’s (Raf’s friends) house in the eastern burbs.

They were awesome and their maid made us a late dinner! Their maid lives with them, is a young girl from a poor family, she works about 4 or 5 hours a day (cooking, cleaning, washing), and the rest of the time she has free. She earns well, and they’re planning to send her to high school. Still, it’s weird, hehe.
The following morning I caught a taxi with Stefan to the nearest train station, and while he went on some business, I continued to MBK, one of the biggest shopping malls. I needed to drop my camera off at the Canon service centre there, and buy a new mobile phone. Camera will be fixed in 5 or so days…but I’ll be in Laos by then :( and got a new model of same phone I had, simple nokia with 5mb camera).

Then I decided to go watch Avatar in 3D on the 7th floor of MBK, so it was necessary to buy a warm hoodie (jumper with hood), which I need anyway for north Laos. They have the aircon up way too high here.
Was a long movie, so didn’t make it home till 8pm after 2 trains and a taxi.
Another friend of Stefan and Poi’s also arrived.

Avatar…I have mixed feelings. I enjoyed it overall, as a fun, visually nice movie. But I’m not a fan of silly fantasy things, or sci fi in general. Good that it was pro nature and pro indigenous peoples, but still…I dunno. Can’t be bothered thinking more about it right now.

The following morning Rafeena and I caught a cute little plane to northern Laos.

After a night train, a 2hr wait at 5am in a small city (we had savoury food with chilli for breakfast at the market) and another train, we got to Kanchanaburi, which is 200kms west of Bangkok, at around midday.

We ended up hiring two normal scooters (I wanted to get manual/motorbike, but they didn’t have any available and I just chose the easy option). We left our big bags with the guesthouse and scootered 65kms to Erawan Falls National Park. There we hired a tent for 50baht (around $1.50). The lady told us we wouldn’t need blankets as it didn’t get that cold. It did really. We slept without matts in all our clothes on and under sarongs. I luckily also had my silk sheet liner thing. Got a bit chilly and uncomfortable by early morning. But you know, we saved  a few dollars ;)
The 7 tier waterfall was very nice, and we swam in one of the pools and let the fish bite the dead skin off our feet (free fish spa!), which is ticklish and creepy but you get used to it. And luckily the big fish stayed away.

The awe factor of the waterfall didn’t come close to that of Thilawsu near Umphang further northwest though, where you can see all the different tiers at once and it’s just so much wider and higher. But after that, every waterfall in asia probably won’t match up, hehe.
One our early morning walk along the river on the ‘nature walk’, Raf spotted a lizard in the water. It swam underwater and then stayed really still while we took photos.

In the evening we had dinner at the cheap market stalls near the entrance, and chatted to some Tjech, french and english people.

The following day we rode on, and got off the beaten track a bit. Had lunch in a non tourist town, by signalling with out hands for food and two words and we ended up with fried rice with pork, vegetables and of course chilli.  Unfortunately my mobile phone dropped out of my pocket somewhere. I was using it to take photos as my camera is broken. Damn, I’ve never lost anything important like that! Luckily my phone isn’t *that* important to me, and my australian sim wasn’t it. Most annoying was losing the photos on it, as Raf hasn’t taken that many photos. And for example the photo I took of her driving in the campsite on the scooter with the tent in one hand flowing behind her.
We made it to Hellfire Pass, which is one of the many passes on the Death Railway(Thai-Burmese railway built by Prisoners of War in the Second World War, ordered by the Japanese), hacked out by hand in 3 months. The site is now a museum and memorial site, run by the Veteran Affairs Department of the Australian Government. We did an audio tour.

We also saw some small tree snakes wrestling in a tree and one fell out.

We asked around about accomodation in the area but most things were above our budget and the one cheap one we were told was gross and had lice. So we ended up riding back to Kanchanaburi. Ended up riding about 150kms that day. Sore asses. Dusty. Watering eyes from the wind in our eyes. Good times :D

That night we had an awesome steamboat/bbq buffet dinner at the night market, but unfortunately Raf got sick really quickly and spent the next day in bed.
I went out on the scooter in the afternoon and visited Chung Kai War Cemetery and a temple cave just outside Kanchanaburi. The Lonely Planet said that in 1995 a tourist was killed by a crazed monk in the cave. I walked into at 5pm, alone. No other visitors around. Bit creepy! But halfway through I bumped into a scottish lady who turned out to be half Dutch. She was glad she didn’t know about the murder when she went into the cave on her own!

The last morning I rode out further, picked up the pace on the highway towards Bangkok, then turned and crossed the river at a dam, and looked at some temples, but didn’t have time to go in.
Checked out of our accomodation and went to visit the Bridge over the River Kwae, part of the Death Railway. It’s just a memorial/tourist thing now. Made famous by the book and movie. But pronounced like square without the s.

I am writing this on a train to Kanchanaburi, it’s 9.30am. Rafeena and I have been travelling for nearly 24hours, we left Ko Pha-Ngan yesterday at midday on a ferry, caught a bus to the train station then a night train to a station before Bangkok.

We were on Ko Pha-Ngan for 12 days, it’s the longest I’ve stayed anywhere since leaving Perth 4 months ago! Though even the 6 weeks before leaving I was moving around in WA a lot, so it’s been longer.

Lazing around in a hammock reading books and catching up on work online was good, but towards the end it was even better exploring the whole island by scooter and motorbike.
We had different company in our 12 days. The first few days were spent with Kat and Jim, an English couple we met on the ferry. We arrived in choppy seas and monsoonal rain, but jumped straight into the ocean anyway, lightning and thunder surrounding us.
The question still remains, the notices in our bungalows that said ‘this is a nudist beach, please keep it clean’…was it bad english and did they mean nature or natural beach?!!

Those first few days I couldn’t resist the lure of the bamboo needle, and got my star tattoo on my neck extended down my back and to my side. Took 3.5hours the first day and 1hour the second day. Second day hurt, going over sensitive skin. Bamboo tattooing is down by hand, I don’t think it hurts more than a machine, but it takes longer. Heals faster though.

A few days after we arrived Marissa joined us, an awesome American girl we met through couchsurfing in Perth. Hopefully she’ll also join us for christmas and new year in Laos.

For our last few days Erik joined us, another American couchsurfer we met in Perth. At this stage Rafeena and I had already hired scooters and were starting to explore the island, but Erik took it one step further and hired a real motorbike. Raf was starting to enjoy the scooter (her first time riding one), but at a slow pace. So I joined Erik in some faster trips around to the other side of the island. Still, we were careful, the concrete roads often had potholes and halfway through the middle of the island they turned to gravel and sand, made worse thanks to rain in the past.
Going at a snail’s pace around a corner we fell over in slow motion. I didn’t have a single scratch, thanks to our slow speed and Erik holding up the motorbike long enough for me to get out from under it. He ended up with some nasty looking bloody scrapes on his knee and ankle, but luckily they weren’t deep and nothing broken. First motorbike ‘accident’ for both of us! He’s been riding for years but we could have done with less tyre pressure on the gravel.

The weather has been great for most of our stay, occasional cloud, but that usually makes for an awesome sunset.

We discovered some beautiful beaches, cute waterfalls (nothing big) and snorkelled around Ko Ma, a small island in the north.

I’m a bit scared of the ocean (mainly jellyfish, scary fish, random seaweed…) and I don’t wear contacts, so can only see things at close distance when I don’t wear my glasses. The whole swim took nearly 2hrs, and I surprised myself!  Staying close to the side of the island when we were on the far side where it got deep quickly and there were waves, and just following Erik who could see better helped me. Also surprised myself with my relative fitness level, I declined his flippers for most of it and though my arms were tired at the end, I felt fine the next day!

That afternoon saw the most spectacular bird I think I’ve ever seen, the Great Hornbill. Reminds me of a tucan! Just after I took photos, it flew away, but came straight at me, I had to jump out of the way and may have squeeled a bit!

We stayed at a place called Ann’s Heartbreak Restaurant and Joon Bungalows, right on the beach with hammock and a swing, the restaurant/bar/our loungeroom 10m from the water. Around the corner were a few beaches with no bungalows or restaurants in sight. And then a 15min walk (or 2 min scooter ride) in the other direction was Thong Sala, the main town on the island.
Apart from the first night, we’ve been eating at the night market there every day, and at a local thai place for lunch. Cheap local prices and lots of variety, even some vegetarian options and yummy desserts usually involving coconut.

We mostly led a quiet life, but did make it to an occasional cool bar (like the sunset rock bar which took 145 steps to get to and did have a good sunset view), and the Half Moon Party in the jungle. The full moon party on the beach in the south is a huge famous happening, but the Half Moon party in the jungle was big and slightly crazy too.

And now I’m finishing this post and we’re in Kanchanaburi. Hiring a scooter and a motorbike later for about 4 days to explore the area which has national parks with awesome waterfalls, caves, and the ‘Death Railway’ (made famous by the book/movie ‘Bridge over the River Kwai’) where thousands of pow’s in World War II died. Going to try and go all the way to the Burmese border but not sure we’ll make it time wise.

Or two.

I arrived back in Bangkok at 6pm, and Bazz (on a stopover for 20hours) was due to arrive at 6.30pm and my friend/housemate Rafeena from Fremantle at 7pm. What timing!
I’ll be travelling with Raf for the next 6 weeks. First 3 weeks in southern Thailand, then 3 weeks in Laos, where we’ll meet up with our friend Emily and others for christmas and new year.
Bazz took over an hour to get through customs, and after waiting two hours for Raf I gave up and decided to get a taxi to KoaSan Rd and hope to meet her there. Turned out her plane was delayed for 3 hours, but she eventually made it to our hotel at 1am!
Hung out in Bangkok for two days (massages, christmas shopping) and then took a night train, bus and ferry, and are now on Ko Pha-Ngan. It’s lovely, except for the monsoon rain. I knew there’d be a chance of it, and am not bothered much. It should be sunny tomorrow. But after that might be worse, so we might move to the other coast which should have much less rain at the moment.

The doctor in Phnom Penh confirmed that I had Dengue Fever (I must have caught it from mosquitoes in Thailand, near the Burmese border). But despite it now being 9 days I’ve been sick (including fever, headache, rash, vomitting once), it’s a mild case. Dengue Fever is often called breakbone fever, and I never had the feeling my bones were breaking. Still, if I get it again, I have a bigger chance of getting Dengue Hemorrhage Fever, so I better be more careful. I was so happy when I had it confirmed though, so good knowing I was right (eventually), and glad it’s not malaria or typhoid fever!
I’d already started feeling better anyway, and seeing the next day was my last full day in Cambodia, I visited S-21 and the Killing Fields with Brent, a guy I met in my hostel.
The Khmer Rouge period of genocide (75-79) is very shocking, and it’s crazy that only now some of the leaders from then are on trial (like Duch, who was the leader of S-21, his trial is being televised in Cambodia).

In the evening we met up at the lakeside backpacker area for drinks with friends there, then later moved on to a night club called ‘The Heart of Darkness’. Good times. Then next day, after getting over the hangover, I felt all better. And that was good, as I was flying back to Bangkok, Thailand, in the evening.

Other random things I’ve done lately and not blogged about:

Went to a restaurant in Siem Reap that was called ‘Dead Fish Tower’ and had a pool with crocodiles and a girl doing a traditional Cambodian dance.
Kampot. Did a river ‘cruise’ in Kampot at sunset, but unfortunately didn’t get to trek up and around Bokor. Did have a nice dinner in Kampot, and slept a lot, ha. Saw a cow wandering in the middle of the city.
Met a nice swedish couple and a canadian guy who is living here, in my hostel, and went out for cambodian dessert at a street stall.
Had good but brief conversations with Brent about books and reading and consumerism, like Walden by Thoreau and read his notes. I still want to read it though.