Retreat to Bangkok, grazed but still kicking!

A very happy belated Christmas all round!  Ours was very nearly spent camping in the wilderness with no tent, but fortunately Father Christmas smiled down on us in the nick of time..!

As planned, we hired a couple of bikes the day before Christmas Eve with Nathan, our American neighbour from the island.  Banking on a fairly relaxed few days, we packed a little backpack and told the lady at the hire shop we'd probably be gone 3 days.  Some gorgeous waterfalls, a few minor accidents and a massive detour later, we were very lucky to make it to a town for Christmas Day (rather than being stuck out in the middle of nowhere, out of fuel, water, & range of presents!)  Fortunately Tim put his foot down in both senses, and insisted we stop driving along the mental dust track we had ended up on, and detour for civilsation. 

Christmas was very thankfully spent drinking Lao Lao & watching shit TV in a cumfy hotel room in Attapeu.  We met the only other westerners in town, a couple of Aussie girls, Mel & Sam, who were also on a motorbike tour and waiting for Sam's bike to be repaired.  Mel, in a fit of festive generosity, gave me a pair of trousers to replace my blood & mud stained ones.  There's not much you need for Christmas but that was massively appreciated!!

Unfortunately I've been suffering with an eye infection the last few days - contact lenses and dusty roads are not happy bed fellows - and this has proved quite debilitating.  Tim's been an excellent nurse!  So despite another stop at another gorgeous waterfall sight, we headed on back to Pakse, where we hired the bikes, ahead of the others. 

Next stop, back to Bangkok to meet up with Katt, and with Mum and Dad.  South Laos has been great, but we're up for a change again and hopefully the end of health related issues!  A very happy 2011 to everybody, big love, xx

A disturbing lack of trifle in Laos

Morning readers.  Or morning here, it's still last night with you so you're well behind.  You're missing out on a pleasant morning in Pakse, a nothingish town in south Laos.  I'm just glad that they have a reasonable internet connection here and sell toothpaste at 7:30 in the morning.  (Also managed to find Tim a couple of little Chrimbo presents, stationary mainly, but our needs are small!)

OK, so I've covered some serious miles since I last wrote.  I think I was in Cambodia about to go and meet Tim, post monestary.  That was a 24hr journey with Katt, through Bangkok and down to where the south party islands are.  I'm glad to report that his mental health seems to've been largely unaffected by the experience!  The main damage appears to be that he's now renounced mosquito repellent in favour of 'loving kindness'.  (Clearly he can't get away with calling me a hippy any more)

After that, Katt, Tim and I went to check out Ko Lanta, a little island south.  The rain has continued to follow us round even though the season should be well under way, & this put a bit of a downer on beach life.  Long story short, Tim and I decided to head to Laos earier than planned and Katt set off to Phi Phi, where she's been doing some big partying. 

Another 24hr+ journey (in the opposite direction for me) later, and we hit Don Det, one of '4000 islands' right in the south of the Mekong river.  The place claimed us for a week.  We've put in some serious hammock hours!  A bit of tubing out to tiny little sand dunes for a beer at sunset.  I've never found a place that was quite so horizontally chilled out.  Unfortunately, food handling seems to be one of the areas in which the good people of Don Det remain entirely relaxed, and as a result Tim and I both got a bit of food poisoning.  & although I've since tried to survive on cake from the organic veggie place, it came to a point yesterday when we just had to leave, or risk merging with the hammocks forever.

So, Christmas and all.  Feeling a touch odd being away from home, and unfortunately meeting back up with Katt hasn't worked out with the whole food poisoning fiasco.  We've decided to rent a couple of scooters with an american neighbour from the island, and check out some waterfalls and local towns.  I hope that I'll be able to get online at some point over Christmas, but if I'm not, a massive Merry Chrim to one and all.  Think I'll miss it a bit more than I expected!  Any spare trifle or mince pies, please send with my Mum & Dad who are coming out on the 29th (fingers crossed Heathrow is working now?!) xxx

Under the sea & all around some temples

It's nearly time to head down to Surat Thani, near the south islands, to meet Tim from his course.  I've been pretty manically busy since he headed down there, and a lot of ground has been covered. 

The first few days, in Pattaya (beach resort near Bangkok) I ended up doing 3 days' diving and snorkelling.  The best bit was a wreck dive which I haven't done before - really amazing.  Saw rays, camouflaged scorpion fish and a massive turtle.  I'm hoping to be able to do some more diving in the south, I've heard about some great spots.

Katt got a lift to Pattaya with two friends of hers in Bangkok, Neil & Kwan.  We all drove up to Ubon, in north west Thailand, where Kwan's family live.  We helped cut some rice, which was a cool experience (& pretty back breaking work!)  For them, it was a matter of some prestige to have farang, foreigners, helping with such lowly work.  Even if we did make a pigs' ear of it!

Neil then dropped Katt and I at the Cambodia border and we've been here for a few days.  In tourist style, we're at Siem Reap, checking out Angkor Wat.  Massive temples, in the abbreviated form!  & truly awesome.  Because of the timing, we haven't been able to do much else in Cambodia, which is a real shame because Cambodians seem like laid back, nice people.  It's horrible to ponder what happened here almost within my life time..

Tomorrow we get the bus back to Bangkok, and then travel on south.  I'm hoping to be back on a beach within a few days.. sorry, that's pretty insensitive isn't it?! xx

Tim has left me for a load of monks

What more is there to say?!  I'm temporarily going it alone whilst Tim gets stuck into 10 days of silent meditation.  I'm mildly terrified for his sanity, but he has promised to call me if it gets too bad..  Any spare positive vibes, please send his way!

Katt's in Bangkok on a massage course, and I'm nearby but sensibly back by the sea.  I'm going to get back under water tomorrow and do some diving.  It's been too long - I hope it comes back to me OK!  I met a nice American guy called Eric at the hostel I'm staying at who was conveniently also needed a dive buddy, so that's come together nicely!

Thailand, fireworks & lady boys

Hey!  I return with added energy after hearing that loads of people are logging in :) Leave me some comments, otherwise I feel a bit like I'm talking to myself!  (& you obviously, Mum!!)

Anyway, so been in Thailand for just over a week now.  I'm sure I missed off the end of Goa, but it was a bit more of the same - chilling on and around beaches.  Can't knock it!  Thailand is a different kettle of fish, almost literally.  Saying that, I think the mad frustrations of long distance travel in India, and getting a bit accustomed to a different pace of life and, unfortunately, quite a lot of poverty, has helped adjust to here pretty quickly.  The fact that Bangkok is a truly amazing place to shop though came as a surprise, and the budget has suffered a bit of a kick!

It was great to meet up with Katt at Bangkok airport, even though I felt pretty much like death after an insanely long journey from Goa to Mumbai, a mad day in Mumbai and a sleepless night flight.  Bless her, she'd also got up at the crack of dawn to meet us.  Lots of catch up on, but we've covered quite a lot of ground since then!

Katt knows a couple who live in Bangkok, and they were amazing hosts - giving us a quick tour of some local food, sights & rude entertainment options!  (Sorry Mum, I've seen some interesting things that, shall we say, were not necessarily as nature intended.  When you come to Bangkok I'll give you the tour!!)

Bangkok is fun, energetic and crazy.  Food being sold on the street everywhere, which really adds to that.  I was determined to try loads of crazy looking stuff, but so much is truly beyond recognition.  It's quite a stretch for anyone which vaguely vegetarian tendencies!  Still, plenty of time for lapsing.

The last couple of days we've spent in Chang Mai, north Thailand.  There's a crazy festival going on which requires (terrifyingly) constant fireworks, thousands of lanterns being lauched into the sky and candles floated out into the river.  What's kind of ironic about it is that the festival exists to apologize to the river for polluting it during the year.  I'm not sure how much this helps, but maybe that's my English cynicism! 

We've all been suffering a lot with mozzy bites, & in some pretty indecent spots, but other than that all is pretty well.  Tim seems to be quite a hit with the boys here, but I'm not too worried!  We're heading off again tomorrow I think, up to the Myanmar border to get out of cities for a few days and maybe see some tribes folk. 

Big love going back to England, xxx

Hampi: ruins, boulders & stuff

I gather it's now Wed, & our last day at Hampi (overnight bus from Goa inland - crazy missions!)  It transpires you can get to anywhere in India for practically no money if you can handle long distance buses/trains, and have plenty of time on your side.  Having figured this out, I feel like I could happily spend months here, travelling about and eating local grub.  However, Thailand beckons in a couple of weeks.  We've done pretty well and managed to do most of Goa, and Hampi has been a good tip (thanks, Lilly!)  A couple more weeks to check out a bit more of India before we head on!

This place is massive ruins, monuments and big red bouldery landscape everywhere.  Also, heaps of palm trees and paddy fields where we're staying, so it's very beautiful.  Tim and I have fallen into a massive chill out here - I got a great 75min massage yesterday for about 9 pounds which was amazing!  Tempted to get one every few days!!  Still, the money goes much further on food (thalis, veggie curry (of course) and dosas, my new favourite thing, big savoury pancakes with coconut/potatoe curry dips). 

Tomorrow we're going to mission a couple of buses and head back to the coast, Gokarna, which is a hindu pilgrimage spot.  The festival of light, Diwali, is on 5th Nov, and apparently that will be a good thing to see.  hopefully we've picked a good spot for it!

North Goa, a mission from down South

We've been in Arumbol, North Goa for over a week now and it's been a funny one - a mix between really loving the little apartment we're in, enjoying being able to do some cooking (we had a crazy mission buying a little kerosene stove last week; surprisingly user friendly!), and being frustrated by sudden downpours of rain.  It always seems to happen just as we're going out, bit uncanny!  So the tans we were looking forward to working on have faded a bit, and the cute little beach we're right next to has not seen as much sunbathing action as it might!  (Today was an improvement though!!)

Saturday before last we had a bit of a shock getting an autorickshaw at 5:30am, to get our train up here.  But we were very chuffed with the breakfast we had packed (banana bread and samosas!).  We'd just put away a samosa when a train turned up earlier than expected.  We were a bit confused generally, and when we'd got it together enough to ask if it was the train we wanted it had started moving and we needed to be several coaches down.  So I ran, jumped at a door and hoped for the best.  Unfortunately though, my bag wasn't over both shoulders so I just flailed whilst two very kind men pulled me on!  Tim made it look much easier!  (I felt even more of an arse when I found out the train was half hourly!)

When we reached Arumbol, I went on a mission and found the place we're staying.  Amazing view over the rocky coastline, and really cheep.  Also, hardly any mosquitos, loads of geckos and a bakery nearby that does the most intense chocolate brownies and croissants!!  It's taking great restraint not to eat them all!  All up the main street are shops/stalls selling generic hippy fare, it's a bit weary being constantly asked to 'look, buy something'.  We're planning to check out some markets on Wed, so any shopping will be attempted then!  We've had a scooter a couple of days and checked out the surrounding areas, but nowhere's appealing massively.  The loose plan is to head inland in a few days.  Hampi, I understand, is a good spot on the tourist route..