Island of the Gods

Uluwatu

Backdated: 15th July 2013

So I’ve not blogged during this trip so far (nor for the few before this.. lazy me =/).. but last night I experienced something so extraordinary and strange to me that I want to record it for future reference and for anyone who wants to read it. 

Some background information – so I’m doing some research for university within a Villa Management company in Bali. I arrived at the beginning of June and will finish my research mid-August. At the point of writing this I have been here around 5 weeks – I’d say I’m mostly familiar with the parts of Balinese culture you encounter day to day. I understand the offerings and temples you see everywhere – I have even taken part in ceremony twice myself having borrowed Balinese Kebaya of a colleagues wife. 

At ceremony wearing kebaya

So one evening after indulging in tuna pepes and arak with the guys that work in front of house roles within the company, they invite me to join them to go to a temple for ceremony. Although I’m not Hindu, I enjoy the spirituality within the ceremony and the ritual itself. As I’ve told my closest Balinese friend here – you pray to your God and I’ll pray to mine. A couple of hours later we arrive at someone’s house – not technically a temple at all. However this house temple is supposed to be important/special somehow and once a month they invite people in to partake in ceremony. 

I’m kneeling down with my colleagues, completing the now familiar ritual by putting rice on my forehead and chest, when one of our friends starts shaking and grunting. The owners of the house stand up immediately and go to bring back the black and white checkered fabric that you see everywhere within the religion – mainly the small umbrellas and wrapped around the base of the temples. They tie two strips of the material around each of my friends arms and a more colourful one around his neck. When he stands, it is quite apparent to me that he is not himself. He has ,in fact, been possessed by the spirit of God, and is handed several sticks of lit incense to hold. 

Villa staff at ceremony

I must admit this is the part of the night I found most uncomfortable. As I reflect on the situation, I may have reacted differently had it not been someone I know and like so much. The noises and demeanour adopted by him once possessed made me uncomfortable – and yes I will openly admit that I got a bit overwhelmed and cried and asked to leave the room. We only left and sat outside the room, which was all glass anyway, so we could still witness everything. 

I think throughout the duration of the event 6 people were possessed, each acting differently. One woman – and the one that amused me most – just walked around very sultry, chain smoking cigarettes (I definitely have a theory she wasn’t possessed and just wanted to smoke – something I haven’t seen many women here openly doing). Another rather large gentleman would lean down over something burning, inhale the smoke then lean up and give a small speech and then repeat the process. 

Prayers

Everyone who was possessed got wrapped in either a white sheet of fabric around their waist or two checkered strips around each arm. The possessed people seemed to be able to impart their state onto other people – I watched my friend throw a metaphorical ball of energy at a woman, who then turned into the one chain smoking. Then she hit another woman on the forehead with the bottom of her palm and the hit woman screamed out in pain and started dancing. 

I must admit I was scared someone may touch me and I may become possessed – but I was reassured only certain people are born with the ability to channel the Gods this way. 

There was a cleansing ceremony conducted by my possessed friends. Part of it included opening a young coconut in order to drink it and extinguishing incense into it before drinking it. More likely to make you ill than cleansed in my western opinion – but then what do I know. 

 One of scariest and most unique experiences of my trip so far and one not to be forgotten in a hurry.

Koh Phangan

Backdated: 5th July 2012

We arrived in Ayutthaya train station at 12.00pm and then spent the next 30 hours either traveling or inside train/bus stations. It was absolutely knackering it has to be said. We met our first Americans of the whole trip – which may sound an odd thing to point out but there was a serious lack of Americans anywhere else is our travels - just lots of Europeans, Canadians and Aussies. 

Arriving in Phangan

So we arrived in Koh Phangan about 5 hours late due to various delays along the way as is to be expected of travelling in Thailand. We checked into our guesthouse and headed straight for the beach, despite the fact the sun was nearly set already. It was just a relief to be able to put our feet on sand and in the sea finally. 

We relaxed in the evening and called in an early night. The next day we got up and hired and bike (just one… after much deliberation, I finally decided to let Len drive). We spent the morning riding round, getting lost several times, visiting waterfalls. We wondered if we have even managed to find the first one at all, just a pathetic slither of water over some rocks. We scrambled up the rocks a little way to see if it was higher up but decided if it was up ahead it was too far. So we tried the next one. This one was more impressive than the first but still pretty pathetic! The lady at the waterfall told us that Phangan had no rain and all the waterfalls were pretty low. So we decided to give up on the waterfall ideas and just head to the beach. We were staying on Haad Yao, which I have to say was a lovely beach. We tried a few but that one was definitely my favourite. We spent most of the rest of the afternoon there, but eventually got bored and went to get changed etc and then try to find a view point that is marked up on the map. 

Exploring lush beaches

Unfortunately being the fool I am, I left the map at home when I was getting changed. Luckily Len guessed, and we did find a view point. Not sure it was the right one but it was nice. Stupidly steep – tried and failed to ride the bike up the hill and had to walk. Not really sure where the viewpoint was because the concrete ended and went to a dirt track we gave up walking up. So not even sure if we looked from the proper view point. It was still beautiful. There were no lights on the track up so we decided to head back before the actual sunset and try to get back to the beach to watch it. However this plan was ruined as the bike spluttered and gave up on us half way home. We knew there was nothing wrong with the bike so we knew we must have just been out of gas. Well… I say nothing wrong with the bike, but I think it goes without saying that the petrol meter thing wasn’t working. Another stroke of luck meant that some Irish people had also broken down further up the hill due to a flat tyre. One of them offered to go and get us some on the one of the two bikes that was working – a real life saver. 

We missed the sunset and so decided to treat ourselves to relaxing oil massages on the beach to overcome the stress. It was lush and we then went to get food on the beach but by the time the food came we were both half asleep and not very hungry. 

The next day we decided to rent the bike for another day and enquired about elephant trekking but we felt that the price was too high for the amount of time and considering that the waterfalls were empty so we wouldn’t trek to the waterfalls. So we went to Koh Ma and went snorkelling instead. Took a little while to get over water in the eye but it was really good fun eventually and cheap because we just hired the snorkel and didn’t go on a trip. There is a sand strip you can walk to get to the reefy bit. So worth it. 

My bucket of booze

We then just decided to ride the bike around and explore the island… great fun. We also booked our transport over to Krabi for the day after the Full Moon Party. 

Full Moon Party

Then we went over the Haad Rin early intended to meet a friend for dinner but ended up just completely lost and unable to find a commonplace to meet. So we just got painted and went into the party early. Buying whiskey buckets and chicken burgers. We then found our friends in the party – it was a really good atmosphere and we had a really good time early on. Unfortunately we peaked quite early and ended up home by 2.30.. FMP definitely something I need to try again haha.

A lesson learnt..Then learnt again..

Emotions and thoughts are accepted to be two of the most difficult things to control and change.. this is accepted to the point where, culturally, we believe we cannot. We have a myriad of different expressions and phrases in our everyday vocabulary that suggest this change is impossible.

I can't help it... It's just the way I am... 

While, personally, I don't subscribe to this belief, my ego outsmarts me every single time. It is a Buddhist belief and aim that we control negative thoughts, harbour positive thoughts and create an indiscriminate compassion for living beings - including oneself. Convincing your ego to be compassionate to you is the most difficult task of all - it is almost a completely separate and selfish being. I like to call mine Sally.

Sometimes when I reflect upon my life, I realise I have a tendency to repeat life mistakes. Sally has the uncanny ability to convince me that 'this time it's different' and everytime I buy it. Until later on all goes wrong and on reflection I realise it was the same mistake in a new guise.

You'd think Sally was supposed to be your friend.. instead Sally is like a wild horse that needs breaking. So here is a declaration of intent: I want to tame Sally. Convince Sally she is okay on her own, so she won't convince me otherwise.Tell Sally that pursuing what we want needs to be the number one priority and everyone and everything needs to fit in with that agenda.

Make sure that you are accountable for every decision made, every journey undertaken, every thought expressed, every moment shared, every kiss, smile and tear.

Bring on 2014

ah-YOO-tayar

Backdated: 29th June 2013

Me and my bike

Today was our full day in Ayutthaya, after arriving yesterday and grabbing some grub. We decided today we would either rent bicycles or motorbikes – depending on rental prices. We enquired: 80 baht (£1.60) for two bicycles for the day or 400 baht (£8) for two motorbikes for the day. Although when you convert it into English money, the motorbikes were a good deal, we decided to be stingy and sweat it out on the push bikes. 

We had already drawn up a rough route on the awful tourist map they give you here (there are no street names on the map so even figuring out where we were staying was difficult. I spent 20mins last night using lonely planet and google maps to figure it out and scribble all the names onto it). Our route encompassed Wat Phanan Choeng (with its 19m high gold Buddha), Wat Chai Wattanaram, Wat Phra Si Sanphet, Wat Phra Mahathat and Wat Ratburana. We had planned to do the two that were furthest away and off the island first and then basically work our way home, however we changed this plan on the advice of the lovely lady from Tour With Thai who told us that Wat Chai Wattanaram was lovely at sunset. 

Big Buddha

So we began by cycling down to the ferry port and jumping on the ferry that took us and our bikes to ‘big Buddha’. We were so sweaty and hot from the cycle there, and we didn’t have a clue where we were headed. Luckily for us it became a game of hot or cold with the admission fee collection lady. Every time we would head towards somewhere that was wrong she would yell over ‘helloa, big Buddha’ and ambiguously point in the direction we were already headed. We just kept trying until we eventually spotted hoards of Chinese tourists swarming around a doorway. It was the doorway that lead to the wihan housing the huge Buddha. I found the statue extremely impressive but couldn’t help but think it should be housed in a bigger hall. There was only about 3m in front of the Buddha where people were kneeling praying and the small entrance made it difficult to actually get in and appreciate the huge Buddha comfortably. After seeing the Buddha, we wasted no time and hopped straight back onto the ferry and headed towards the Elephant Kraal where elephants used to be gathered and trained for war. 

There is now a company who take abused elephants and take tourists on rides around the ruins with the elephants dressed up in royal outfits. Not sure how much I believe they’re ACTUALLY trying to do good as the elephants are still being trained to sit and pose with tourists and still be loaded with the chairs that I hear are bad for them. On top of that, it costs 400 baht (£8) per person for a 20 minute ride around ruins that you don’t want to see (not strictly true - I’m sure they’re nice but they’re not the important ones). So we decided, for all reasons listed above, to give it a miss and cycle on to Wat Phra Si Sanphet. 

Rocking the audioguide

After missing the entrance the first time and cycling around to Wat Mahathat and Wat Ratburana, we made our way back and found the entrance. We bought our entrance tickets and I purchased the 3 Wat audiobook (Wat Phra Si Sanphet, Wat Mahathat and Wat Chai Wattanaram). The guy on the audio tour made a point of saying ‘ah-YOO-ta-yarr’ really exaggerated every single time he said it. It was annoying and impressive in equal measures – annoying because the sentences hardly flowed and impressive that he didn’t forget for a single time the City name was used. As I walked around to all the stops, hopping from shade to shade, I found the audio tour to be really good value. Having not really read too much about the history here and not having time to visit a museum it gave the visits some meaning. 

Remains of Buddhas body

We then moved onto Mahathat and Ratburana, which were both lovely. On the way over to them, however, we realised that Len’s back tyre was flat so we decided that after these we would head back to the shop to see what the lady would say and also get a well needed shower. I must confess, after hearing the jet-ski/motorbike scams that happen here in Thailand where the company set up that the vehicle is damaged and then make you pay unscrupulous amounts of money for repairs, I was panicking that the lady was going to turn evil and insist we pay her hundreds of pounds for a tyre. However, to the credit of Tour With Thai, she just told us it was probably a thorn, there were lots of them in the historical park and told Len to pick another bike. PHEW! 

Buddha head wrapped in tree roots

After our showers and some dinner we set off for Wat Chai Wattanaram. Wow was that longer than I could handle… We ended up walking with the bikes for some of the journey, particularly the smaller roads and the steep bridge. But eventually we made it. Only to be told that the temple was damaged in the recent floods and we could do nothing but sit in the car park and look at it! We were there much earlier than sunset as we had allowed time to complete our audio tour and then sit and watch the sunset there. However it is fair to say we were shattered from the long ride and didn’t want to sit there forever waiting for the sunset knowing we had that journey back to do. So we recuperated for half hour or so then set of straight back. When we arrived back the lady instantly says ‘what are you doing here? It’s sunset now!’ and then laughs at us when she sees our exhausted and sweaty faces. 

All in all, our bike rental was a successful experience. We only had one collision – and that was with each other! We were on a roundabout: 
Me: is there anything coming or can we cross (the junction) 
Len: no we’re fine (2 seconds pass) motorbike (a second passes and I immediately start to brake – Len is still looking over his shoulder) actually nah, go! 
CRASH. 
Len: FUCK! 

Auditioning for 'house band'

After yet another shower (our third of the day) we head out to the same place we ate yesterday to chill out with cheap (and extremely strong) cocktails and a live band doing there audition to see if they could be the ‘house band’. They were good, as were the drinks and food yesterday. Chang house – if you’re visiting Ayutthaya you get much better food and service than other (nicer looking) places to eat on the street. 

Nakhon Ratchasima

 Backdated: 27th June 2012

We arrived in Korat at 3pm, after being ripped off by taxi who managed to convince me my research was wrong, the bus station wasn’t ten minutes away it was half hour away.. When, in fact, we just ended up paying over the odds. Advice: always try to get a taxi willing to go on meter if you’re not sure how much it should be – they know the city better than you and will always get the better of you when bartering if you’re not local. 

Lambert family house

3 hours on a bus and we were there – a much shorter journey than we had anticipated. Although on the bus we started to encounter our first communication issues with the conductor lady. Once we were off the bus we called up Hughi, the local guy that had agreed to pick us up from the bus station and take us to the house. When we arrived at the house, and said an awkward hello and introduction to Len’s half-sister - both of us knowing we don’t really speak the other persons language well enough for it to be anything but slightly awkward. 

Admittedly, Nakhon Ratchasima isn't much of a tourist attraction and there isn't much to do but as mentioned before this was more of a social visit to see Len's family and take advantage of a couple quiet days rest. 

So the next day, we relaxed for a while and had a lie-in which was lovely for a change and then headed into the city for a wander around the mall – much like all the other malls I’ve experienced in Asia. We bought Len’s sister some presents and nephew some ps2 games, ate and then headed back home for the evening. A little while after we arrived home, a confused conversation happened in which we finally understood that Len’s sister was inviting us out for dinner. 

Out for dinner

She told us it wasn’t far and we would go on motorbikes – me on the back of her bike and Len on the back of her boyfriends. This was my first time on a scooter thing at all, and to say I was nervous would be a massive understatement. I kept reminding myself, this is how she gets around all the time so it’s a good chance to take note of how to ride them sensibly. We arrived in one piece and my fear of the bikes disappeared. We had a lovely dinner. You have a bucket of hot coals on your table and they put the pan thing on top in a similar shape to a large lemon squeezer. It is designed so that you put the soup around the bottom and the meat on the middle pointy bit to cook. It was delicious and a unique way to eat out. 

Be good..or else..

Just as we were enjoying our meal, we were disrupted by a huge gust of wind and the staff hurriedly started moving the outdoor tables, inside. Sand was blowing in from outside and one of our Thai friends warned me to cover my glasses. As we were nearly at the end of our meal, my immediate thought was that of how are we supposed to ride bikes home in this! We paid the bill and waited for the wind to die down a bit then set off. I wasn’t too nervous until the other Thai girl who ate with us, the only one of 6 people to bring a helmet, insisted that I wore it… although when halfway home, a rock or something hard flew into the helmet making a loud bang, I was extremely thankful that she had. Luckily, all 6 of us arrived home safely, with only one gust of wind pushing us off course. 

They see me rollin..

This morning, we woke up with only one intention which was to head to the local tesco and buy small items with big notes purely because local smaller shops hadn’t enough notes to give us change. When we had eaten breakfast, yet another confused conversation (at first we thought we were going shopping in the city) we finally established we were going somewhere outside the city, it would take 30 minutes to get there for a look around. We pulled up and I could see lots of familiar looking caricatures. For anyone who had watched Karl Pilkington’s An Idiot Abroad 2, these would appear familiar. It is a sort of theme park with huge brightly colours animated statues depicting what will happen to you if you do bad things and then die… their depiction of hell if you like. The gruesome statues show a man having his manhood axed in half, a man with the snake up his backside and coming out of his mouth and many other similar scenes. We got blessed by a monk again at the temple there and then rode in the back of the van to tesco for us to change our notes. 

Me and Foy

It wasn’t until we jumped out of the van there that my lobster red skin began to attract our attention. Therefore, we chose to break our notes by buying aloe vera to help heal me.. Then we went home and relaxed for the rest of the day playing with the cute puppy, Foy, and playing GTA and burnout on the playstation.

Cooking course and whitewater rafting

Backdated: 24th June 2012

So thanks to a few late night-early morning combos, I didn’t manage to write entries for the past couple of days so we last left off just before our cookery course. 

Shopping for ingredients and trying durian

We were picked up from our hostel at 9 and drove around to pick up all the others who had booked the course. I was a little surprised when a family climbed aboard, with a 2 yr old and a 7 yr old. After selecting which dishes we each wanted to cook, our first trip was to a local market where our ingredients were sourced. Our teacher walked us around and introduced the main ingredients and explained the differences between local produce and produce available at home (e.g. garlic in Thailand is smaller and you can leave on the skin). We were then allowed to roam around for 20 minutes while the teacher bought the right amounts of all ingredients. We all stuck together pretty much and looked at buckets full of live frogs and tanks full of fish. As we walked further around there were chickens heads and feets, pigs trotters and testicles among other meat produce. Within the group, the mum bought her girls some jelly which she offered everyone to try. It was creamier tasting than jelly I have eaten previously. Then, Mike, a Canadian law student in KL, bought some durian and kindly offered it around for everyone to try. Having previously avoided trying durian at all times, I felt this was my time to try it – share the experience with others who hadn’t eaten it previously. Suffer together as it were. However I was pleasantly surprised by the notorious fruit. The smell, admittedly, is awful but the taste is not as pungent and could even be considered nice haha. 

Our group eating our food!

After this we went back to the school and began cooking the dishes we had selected. I picked to cook chicken fried rice, green curry (paste then the curry itself, chicken with cashew nuts and finally spring rolls. Len chose pad thai, panang curry (paste then the curry again), chicken with cashew nuts and papaya salad. It was a really great experience – well run and fun. You also get a recipe book at the end – which was great as I spent more time chatting to everyone than actually listening to my teacher… Things haven’t changed much since school to be honest. 

In the evening we headed out to Wororot Market on the advice of a Thai who was visiting from Bangkok. I’m actually so glad that we did. It was different to the tourist night markets; much more food available and much cheaper. There weren’t the same souvenirs opportunities I guess but for clothes and things it was a much better option. We also saw for the first time a genuine stall selling insects for people to eat – not just one set up for people to take pictures of. 

Bridge over whitewaters

The next day we got picked up at 8.30 for our white-water rafting course. Over breakfast, we realised the couple in the room next to us had ended up booking the same course as us after deliberating over the all-inclusive hill tribe tours. We then got in the mini-van to find two of the girls from our cooking course yesterday. The final passenger in our mini-van was Deedee – a Thai lady who had moved to the US to study for a little while. Our first task of the day was to sign our lives away. Then we all got chatting and to know more about each other on the 2 hour drive up to the top of the course. On the way we stopped at a food market while the guides handed in paper work. We saw snake being sold at a meat stall which was something we hadn’t seen at the other stall. I walked around the cooked meat stalls looking for snake to try but couldn’t find it anywhere. 

Whitewater Rafting

We arrived at the base, were introduced to three other guys from another bus and ate lunch together. Yellow curry, fried veg, chicken and ginger with rice and sticky rice with banana – yummy yummy. After a quick safety talk, it was on with the rafting. We were in a raft with Deedee and our two captains. The waters were calm – apparently they get more rapid and white around September. However we still had a fantastic experience – a great introduction to white-water rafting. The guides were playful splashing us, racing during the calmer sections and even capsizing the boats at one point (my reaction: panic – much to the delight of the safety kayaker!). It was certainly a highlight of the trip so far. 

At the night market

We decided to visit the Saturday Walking Street Market that evening – just to see what it was like... ended up spending just under 1000 baht (£20) on clothes, a bag, some gifts, sushi and drinks. A good deal nevertheless. It’s said the Saturday Market is a much better deal than the night bazaar – and I feel that we got good deals on the things we bought; much cheaper than Bangkok or the other tourist markets we visited. Word on the street is that the Sunday night market is even better but unfortunately I’m writing this on the train rather than shopping for bargains! 

Leaving Chiang Mai Train Stations

So that brings us up to today – our last day in Chiang Mai. I think it’s fair to say we were both a little upset to leave. Chiang Mai is such a lovely city and on top of that we had a lovely guesthouse. Certainly worth the hours on a train and slight lack of sleep! So we’re currently en route back to Bangkok (ugh!) but then moving swiftly into the rural area of Korat (Nakhon Ratchasima) to visit Nok, Len’s sister. Should be completely different again =]

Temples, temples, temples

 

Backdated: 21st June 2012

Today was our temple tour of Chiang Mai. The plan: Wat Phra Singh – Wat Chedi Luang – Wat Prathat Doi Suthep. 

So we walked over to Wat Phra Singh first of all. It was lovely and peaceful. We walked past one of the rooms and didn’t enter because there was a row of monks all meditating opposite the doorway whom we didn’t think would appreciate the disturbance. However, as we wandered past a second time we saw a Chinese lady inside, so thought we would go in since someone had already gone in and they didn’t seem upset by her. Embarrassingly, it wasn’t until the last moment on entering the temple that we realised they were wax figures of previous resident monks… No wonder they didn’t mind the disturbance. 

Chanting session

Monks making reparis

After a peaceful 20 minutes wander around Phra Singh and having read most of its inspirational signs hung in trees, we left to see Chedi Luang. Not really knowing where we were walking we actually got into the grounds via a side entrance which exposed us first to the 700 year old chedi. While it is in a pretty rough state and being worked on by builders, it is still an awe-inspiring sight. Although I can’t decide which I preferred; the old chedi or the interior of the temple. I can’t put my finger on why but I much preferred the temple to others we have visited so far. I felt very comfortable there to sit and think about things. 

Upon leaving the temple grounds, we got to chatting with a guy who is visiting from Bangkok. He told us about a religious festival going on in the evening at 5 – many monks coming here to pray. So we decided to go to Doi Suthep sooner rather than later so that we would come back in time. 

Making my offering at the temple 

Myself in Doi Suthep

Once we had, rather upsettingly, walked all the way to the bus station, we accepted that it was gonna cost 500 baht between 2 of us for a return trip. Halfway up the hill on the way to the temple, a Chinese couple of friends joined us and I instigated a one sentence Chinese convo by asking the boy’s name in Chinese but quickly abandoned the idea when he replied in English, clearly having no faith in my language skills. We were then further ripped off by buying flowers and incense at the bottom of the stairs for 40 baht when the same was sold at the top for 10 baht. However, this was definitely the highlight of the day – such a peaceful temple with more pilgrims than tourists. The atmosphere in this temple was so much nicer than the others. We even joined in the merit-making ourselves offering Buddha flowers, incense and candles as a mark of respect and thanks for the teachings he gave us. After we had given our offerings, we were then blessed with holy water and given holy cotton wristbands by a monk which was a great experience. The temple also offers great views over all of Chiang Mai – just a shame the cloud was sitting quite low. 

Chilling in the temple

On the way back to Chiang Mai, we asked our driver if he’d mind taking us to the waterfall near the temple. I meant the big waterfall that has a big sign and you have to pay admission for… missing this fact, the guy took us past that one to a little natural area with a little running stream with a small waterfall. We went and took some nice pictures anyway and it was nice… oh well I’m sure there are more waterfalls to be seen! 

After a little rest in the hostel and some food, we walked to the temple that we were told would have a ceremony at 5pm. There was a guy hovering at the entrance who advised us that if we had time we should return at 8am when there was a ceremony… 
‘So nothing is happening tonight?’ 
‘Oh you know the festival?’ 
‘Yes a man told me earlier that something would happen tonight?’ 
‘No… just the usual chanting at 5pm’ 

So we went over to the monk chat area where you can sit and talk to a monk, ask him all the questions you want so he can practise the English he learns at university. It was really interesting to learn about the monks and also get some questions answered about Buddhism. He told us he supported Man City – Len later accused him of being a glory hunter… haha. We then watched the chanting for half hour – more than enough for us. The most fascinating part was how long the monks were… from 10 up the monk told us. And at heart it was a bit like school assembly – fidgeting, itching, giggling or chatting. It was nice to see a human side to monks who are normally nothing but fully composed. 

Turkish food in Chiang Mai

To finish our day we went and enjoyed some Turkish food with a group of CouchSurfers and came home to rest for our cooking course tomorrow! Night =]

Thailand's Second City - Chiang Mai

Backdated: 20th June 2012

On the sleeper train

We arrived a little before 10am after a pretty awful night’s sleep and were bombarded at the train station by taxi offers. We walked away from them to figure out whether our hostel was walking distance of the station. Exhausted from a broken night’s sleep we quickly decided it was definitely too far and hopped into a taxi-bus thing. Typically, just as the taxi stopped to let us out the rain started but we were soon safely into Finlay’s Cottage and greeted by Ratti, the extremely friendly Thai lady who helps run the place. 

Our new friend - Wahyou

After a little nap, we headed out for a walk to explore the place before the real sightseeing begins tomorrow. As we were just within the gate of the old city I heard a voice behind me say ‘hello where you from?’ I thought – great there really is no escape from touts! A quick glance behind before I continued to ignore them revealed that it was indeed a monk who was greeting us. We walked along with Wahyou (probably spelt differently) for some 10minutes as he lead us somewhere that was good for local food. His English was great, he asked us many questions and told us he was on his way to Buddhist university, where he learnt his English (alongside cable TV and American films). At the end of this surreal experience, he asked for our e-mail addresses and home addresses in order that he could write to us to practice his English some more. 

Ready for my massage!

The place he took us to eat was lush as well, but I can’t remember the name of it. After eating we decided we had time to fit something in we wanted to do but were dressed inappropriately for any temples, leaving us with one obvious answer – massage! Rather than having an ordinary masseuse pull and crack our bodies we decided to go to Chiang Mai’s Women Correctional Unit and have inmates massage us (as recommended in LP – an obvious fact as 3 out of 4 groups who entered after us we clutching the book – and also featured on An Idiot Abroad 2). For a little under £4 we had a full one hour thai massage. I cracked in places I never believed possible and somehow came out feeling slightly more crippled than when I went in but the benefits are long term (so I’m told..) 

Chiang Mai Women Correctional Center

We went home to shower and book some courses – which Ratti was more than happy to help with. Cynical readers will think, of course she was happy! She got commission. However, there is no tour desk as such, just leaflets. The only benefit is that booking is sped up by having a native speaker and she even got us 10% off than we would have booking ourselves. So we have a half day cooking course booked on Friday (£14) and white-water rafting booked for Saturday (£32) 

For food this evening we wandered into a little establishment and dined on delicious local food. You really can find nicer cheaper places if you just walk a little further. On the way home we accidentally walked through the night market – an attraction we decided we would avoid earlier and instead head to the Saturday market. However it made for an interesting walk home!

One Night in Bangkok

Backdated: 20th June 2012

We got out of the airport and onto the city line train to go to Phaya Thai station, the end of the line in central Bangkok. We then aimed to get a bus to our booked hostel. Our orientation was off and if it weren’t for a friendly and helpful Thai man, we would have ended up on the BTS skytrain – which was not very useful to us. Having successfully exited the station, we were then greeted by yet another friendly Thai man, dressed in an army t-shirt who told Len it was bad to smoke… alone! After borrowing a light, he told us which bus we should get to get to our hostel and warned us it would be a good idea to book most hostels ahead of arriving due to Thai school holidays. It’s a shame most of the Thai people we met after this were just trying to tout us. 

After waiting for the bus for about 20 minutes and having watched several bus numbers pass us, our fatigue got the better of us and we flagged down a taxi to take us. After rejecting the first taxi who had refused to put the meter on and wanted to charge us 200 baht (125 baht too much), we got into another taxi. We had a fair bit of conversation with the driver who eventually asked us why we had rejected the taxi before and gone with him. When we explained why, he told us that petrol costs are very high. Taxi drivers have been striking and more and more of them are refusing to go on meter. He says although petrol costs have risen over the years, the starting price of the meter on a taxi has not and the money they make after covering costs is barely enough. The government say they will think about putting it up next month. 

When we got to our hostel, Khaosan Baan Thai, we were pleasantly surprised with how lovely the hostel was. Beautifully decoration teak wood house; small and comfortable with welcoming and extremely hospitable staff. We highly recommend anyone visiting Bangkok and wishing to stay somewhere quiet and clean, to stay here. 

Being 'taken for a ride' on the canals

It was still quite early when we got to the hostel so we decided to go out for a wander and orientate ourselves a little bit. We eventually decided we would just walk to the river and have a look. On the way, we may have been successfully touted for a longtail boat ride around the Thonburi canals of Bangkok. On reflection, I definitely think we paid a little over the odds for it, but we had the boat to ourselves and the ride was lovely. The people there think that if they feed the fish it will bring them good luck. As soon as the first handful of food is thrown, the calm canal erupts into jumping fish battling for the food. It’s just as shame that the only thing I could think about as they splashed was that they were covering me in dirty and potentially diseased water – though my mind was later rested on the disease thing when we saw children playing in the water. 

Food @ Khaosan

After our ride, we walked back up to Khaosan road. We had passed through and had some chicken pad thai from a street stall earlier on our wander to the river. We decided to go there for dinner. Being the adventurous eater that I am, I ordered chicken pad thai again. Paid 40 baht more for the same dish and it wasn't anywhere near as nice. 

We woke up this morning after a decent night’s sleep. Our sleep would have been perfect if it weren't for our lovely neighbour flemming every 10 minutes. We ate our complimentary breakfast from Khaosan Baan Thai of egg, toast and sausage and headed for The Grand Palace. 

Me at the Grand Palace

We were prepared for the onslaught of deceiving tuk tuk drivers, however it still came as a shock to me that even within earshot of the English announcement which stated the attraction was open every day from 8.30-5, that these resilient drivers still insisted ‘it’s a Buddhist day.. open this afternoon –not now.. why not see big Buddha first?’ 

Having fought our way through, we paid our entrance fee (about £8) and wandered inside. The palace and temple buildings are all beautiful. Must have taken such a long time to decorate with the shiny mosaic type walls everywhere insight. The emerald Buddha was much smaller than I anticipated, but the temple is lovely overall. The whole time in the grounds, all I could think was ‘imagine living here... walking around here without the hordes of Chinese tourists… having this as your home’. Being King had some pretty big perks (not to mention 80+ wives). 

Reclining Buddha in Wat Pho

Behind the palace is Wat Pho, much less popular with tourists it must be said. I feel that you are able to enjoy Wat Pho much more than you are the Grand Palace because there aren't the same crowds. The buildings and grounds are just as beautiful and reclining Buddha is amazing! Nothing had prepared me for the sheer size of him. 

Wat Pho

We had planned to visit War Arun today as well, however our feet were tired and stomachs hungry so we retired once more to Khaosan road to enjoy some satay, tom yum goong soup and a half hour foot massage. We then wandered back to the hostel to pick up our luggage and then attempted, for the second time in our trip, to take the bus. Attempted being the operative word, at 17.10 (30 min after the bus was scheduled) we decided not to risk being late and to get a taxi. 






And we are now sat writing this from our bunks on the Bangkok-Chiang Mai sleeper train… which I must say is surprisingly comfortable.