Posted by Anita
Wed, 18 Jul 2007 08:17:00 GMT
Location: Huay Xai, Laos
First up, apologies that the site has been inaccessable for some time seems there was a power cut which disabled our internet connection for a couple of days. Also, please note that a bigger version of all the photos can be viewed by clicking on the images on these pages.
We left Chiang Mai on a relatively comfortable ‘VIP’ bus for the Thailand Laos border at Chiang Khong, a 8 hour journey. Here we checked out of Thailand and caught the boat across to Huay Xai in Laos. Its quite a funny experience to enter a country but not via an airport. We managed to get a lovely room at guest house called BAP next to a balcony that overlooks the Mekong.
One of the other travellers on our bus, a swiss guy called Rito, had been trying to call the Gibbon experience to book in while we were travelling and didn’t have any luck getting through and when we got there he found out that the next tour was full and he had to go on a waiting list. We weren’t really too keen on hanging around for 3 or 4 days waiting to go on the next one so we made other arrangements.
There was a french couple staying at the BAP guest house that were keen to go on a boat trip up the Nam Tha river and were looking for more people to join to share the cost. It sounded pretty good so we signed up. Later on a swiss couple joined too which made it even less expensive. We had a day spare in Huay Xai which we used for our first decent relaxation of the trip.
Posted in Travel | Tags Huay, laos, thailand, travel, Xai | no comments
Posted by Anita
Mon, 16 Jul 2007 09:21:00 GMT
Location: Chiang Mai, Thailand
Well we spent a morning wandering aimlessly about central Bangkok not buying anything and walking into the big malls occasionally to cool off. Lunch time was soon upon us and we sought out a street food vendor that looked well patronised by locals. We ended up digesting some lovely tom yum soup. The vendors seemed somewhat surprised to have westerners at their stall - obviously not a common sight in Bangkok despite the fact that the stall was just around the corner from the hotel that we stayed in.
After our lunch we decided to make tracks for the train station to catch an overnight train to Chiang Mai. This involved hailing a tuk-tuk from the hotel, convincing him halfway through the journey that, no, we did not want to buy travel, suits or anything else. This frustrated him immensely. The tuk-tuk took us to a sky train station which then connected to the underground rail. All this had us at the train station within about 30 mins of leaving the hotel.
All trains were full until 7.20pm that night so we had some more time to kill. This we ended up spending at a large park in the centre of Bangkok, just 5 mins back up the rail. The park was so enjoyable we felt we should have been there all day. Entetainment was provided by the numerous cat fish and turltes consuming bread on the lake and the open aerobics classes being run nearby.
The train ride was very comfortable. We ended up in a seated (slightly) aiconditioned unit. The big supise was that food was povided on the journey (Jack’s third dinner). We both managed some sleep and arrived at 7am in Chiang Mai in a relatively refreshed state.
The lonely planet guide recommended the Chiang Mai Garden Guest House as one of the more honest establishments in Chiang Mai. Based on our experience so far the book is right.
Today has been filled with a trip up Doi Suthep to see a hill top Wat (temple). We plan to visit the night bazaar (market) tonight. Tomorow we will catch a bus to Chiang Khong near the Thailand-Laos border and make our way into Laos.
Posted in Travel | Tags bangkok, chiang, mai, thailand | no comments
Posted by Anita
Sun, 15 Jul 2007 02:49:00 GMT
Location: Bangkok, Thailand.
Well we finally arrived after our mammoth 13 hour flight at 10:30pm local time and dropped like a stone into bed. but the curse of not sleeping in at home had us awake for no good reason 5 hours later!!!
Anyway, we haven’t really thought things through that much because other than catching the train north this evening we have no plans for the day. All the really cool attractions seem to be out of town and at this stage we dont want to buy anything because it wont fit into our already bulging backpacks. I think we should have just come over with the shirts on our backs and got everything we need here. Haha at least that would give purpose to my girly desire to shop at every opportunity!
Posted in Travel | Tags bangkok, thailand | no comments
Posted by Anita
Fri, 13 Jul 2007 08:37:00 GMT
Location: Whangarei, New Zealand
Well our mini OE is finally here. We fly out at around 3pm tomorrow on a direct flight to Bangkok. Unfortunately I have developed my third cold in as many weeks and am having some apprehension about the 13 hour flight. I have however stocked up on just about every medication you can imagine and I’m sure that coupled with the relaxation that comes with the comfortable knowledge that we have 4 weeks of freedom stretching before us I’ll have it licked in no time.
We get to Bangkok at around 10:30pm and will make our way fairly smartly to the Hotel Indra (I think) for a good night sleep. The next day we’ll check out the overnighter train to Chiang Mai and make our way up there either that day or the next. We’ll spend a bit of time up in the north of Thailand seeing what there is to see.
Then we’ll head to the border at Huay Xai and check out the boats heading down the Meekong river to Luang Prabang. Around Luang Prabang there is the plain of Jars which are huge prehistoric stone jars that are just lying about.
Also to the east theres a Cave city and if we can figure out how to get to it it might be something to see.
Then we’ll head to the Capital - Vientiane which is apparently quite cool and has a bunch of adventure tourism things to do so we’ll check that out.
I’m not 100% sure of how we’ll be doing for time at this stage but if we have enough time we’ll be heading to South Laos as they have really cool Angkor style temples.
From there we’ll cross back into Thailand and head back towards Bangkok and hole up for a couple of days somewhere close but relaxing before coming home on the 11th of August.
We’ll be updating this site every couple of days when we have access to the internet. Many places we will be going will probably not be connected so we’ll do our best but can’t guarantee regular updates.
Posted in Travel | Tags laos, thailand, trip | 1 comment
We left Chiang Mai on a relatively comfortable ‘VIP’ bus for the Thailand Laos border at Chiang Khong, a 8 hour journey. Here we checked out of Thailand and caught the boat across to Huay Xai in Laos. Its quite a funny experience to enter a country but not via an airport. We managed to get a lovely room at guest house called BAP next to a balcony that overlooks the Mekong.
