Christmas in Bangkok

We got the train from Ayutthaya and arrived in Bangkok 2 days before Christmas. This time we stayed in a different part of Bangkok, Silom, still quite busy, but not as much of a buzz in the streets as in Khao San road area. Did a bit of shopping in MBK and bought Christmas presents for ourselves. Colin got an A&F top and I got a ge-nu-wine Links of London bracelet. On the 24th evening Colin and I celebrated on our own with a few drinks and maltesers. On Christmas day the rest of the Greeners arrived and we had a traditional Christmas dinner... Red Thai Curry and Chicken pad Thai. We did a bit more shopping on Boxing day before all spending the afternoon at the hotel pool.
On our last day in Bangkok we headed back towards the Khao San road area to see the Grand Palace and the emerald buddah and Wat Pho and the reclining buddah. Colin wasn't allowed in the Grand Palace with shorts, so had to rent some funky trousers. He was almost tempted to keep them, but didn't want to pay what they asked.
It was really nice to spend Christmas with family, especially as we've not seen family since leaving South Africa in November.
Next we head to Koh Samui and Colin and I have a bus and ferry journey to look forward to.

Ayutthaya - Thailand

We left Laos and stopped off at Ayutthaya, which is an ancient city and the former capital of Thailand. The train we were on was supposed to stop at 4:30am, so we set our alarm, but annoyingly we only actually arrived at about 6:30am... but don't worry, I got in a snooze while Colin stayed awake. We decided to walk from the station to the hostel, as Colin said it wasn't very far... I learnt, not for the first time, that Colin's 500m actually means 2km's.
We were warned about all the stray dogs in Ayutthaya, but only once we got there did we see how many of them there really are. They're all over the place and they look very horrible and sick, some of the female dogs look like they have cow's udders on them. On our walk to the hostel one of these dogs was lying on the pavement in our way. I walked round him, quite close and he growled at me, but we thought no more of it and kept walking. Next thing we know this dog has come up behind us and is barking and growling at us, looking like he's ready to eat us up. We were so scared, but didn't want to run as he would probably have chased us. We managed to lose him when we crossed the main road and he got stuck behind a bus. It was as if he lay on the pavement and thought he'd let us go after growling at us the first time, but then decided on second thought that he's not doing anything else with his day so why not scare these silly tourists. After this we kept a big distance from any dog.
Besides the dogs, the city is full of ancient buildings, monuments and temples. We cycled around going to all the different sites and taking loads of photos. We can imagine what an amazing city it must have been when everything was still standing as it's even very impressive now.
It was very hot here, over 35 on both days, so we got quite tired cycling round and caught a bit of sun. It was nice to stop off here and relax before heading back to the hustle and bustle of Bangkok.

Vientiane

On Thursday morning a tuk-tuk picked us up from our hostel to take us to the bus stop. Twelve of us were crammed on the back and Colin and 2 other guys had to stand up, holding on to the rails, as the driver sped down the little roads. When we got to the bus stop a big bus was waiting for us, although we'd booked a mini van, but we were told to get on despite the driver not being able to talk enough English to tell us for definite that we were on the right bus. Once our bags were on and we'd settled into a seat, we heard that the bus was going to the airport and no mention of Vientiane city centre. So we got off to find out what's happening, but felt reassured that we'd get to Vientiane by this bus, as almost everyone else on there were in the same situation as us, so got back on. Apart from this confusion at the start, the journey was alright and this time it was 3 hours like they said it would be. We did stop at the airport, which we found was only a few km's outside of town and the next stop was Vientiane town centre. There was a Chinese lady on the bus with a little baby (maybe 3 months old) and when we got to the airport I got off the bus to get some fresh air. The lady got off too and looked around nervously. Next thing I knew the baby was in my arms and she disappeared off. He was a very good baby, didn't make a peep and although I didn't mind holding him, I was a bit worried that his mom had gone off somewhere, never to return and Colin and I would have a little traveller joining us. Colin, looking down from inside the bus, was even more nervous than me and wanted me to keep my eye on the mom. She did come back and though the baby didn't cry when he was sitting by me, he cried a bit when his mom took him back.
We came to Vientiane to explore the city and see the many beautiful temples and also to get visas for Thailand (we're only allowed 15 days at a time in Thailand if we cross the land borders, but in Vientiane we get a 60 day  Thai visa for free). Once we had taken our passports in, we had  to stay 4 days in Vientiane. We've seen a few really old and pretty temples called Stupas, Wats and Thats. We also went up a building that was a replica of the Arc de Triomphe, which we thought was beautiful, but the inscription on the wall desribes it as ugly and a "concrete monster". There's also a lot of new buildings being built here and I imagine that in a few years time the city will look totally different and be much more developed.
We've enjoyed our time in Laos, it wasn't somewhere we originally had on our schedule, but due to recommendations we decided to come here afterall. It's a very relaxed and laid back country and being here forces you to chill out too. There isn't all that much to do in Laos, but it's worth a visit if you're in this part of the world and plus you can get a Thai visa which saves you doing border runs mid way through your trip.
Next we head back towards Bangkok for Christmas and are really looking forward to seeing Les, Eileen and Kelly. We have a couple of extra days so we'll stop off somewhere on the way.

Vang Vieng

Having left early from Luang Prabang, we expected to arrive in Vang Vieng in the early afternoon, but a 5 hour bus journey turned into 10. Within in the first hour we broke down twice and so by the inevitable third time happened the bus came to a standstill and the engine died, by this time we had travelled about an hour. We stopped here for 2 hours in which time a new bus was on it's way and the old bus was being repaired. Just as the old engine started up again, the new bus appeared, but we'd all got off the old bus and didn't want to get back on. After this commotion, we headed off again, but pretty slowly, as the road was dangerous with lots of sharp bends. At least we had lunch to look forward to, provided free by the bus company... or so we thought. By 2pm we thought we must be stopping any minute. By 3pm, we started to get grumpy and feel sick. By 4pm, we thought the driver must have missed the lunch stop and we'd given up on eating as we should have arrived in Vang Vieng by this time. At 5pm, we finally stopped for lunch, worried this was only half way of our journey. Thankfully we arrived in Vang Vieng around 7pm, but were so tired and hungry we had dinner and went striaght to sleep. A real waste of a day!
The main reason we came to Vang Vieng was for tubing. This involves drifting down the Nam Song River on a tractor tyre inner tube. Along the way there are plenty of bars all selling drinks and food, but some included opium shakes, even though it's illegal here. Vang Vieng is the centre for drugs in Laos, we heard so many stories of people comsuming too much and the police accepting bribes off people when caught in possession. We just stuck to beer and I tried the Laos whisky with pineapple juice.
Vang Vieng is a nice, but strange town. It really targets western tourists with tv room style bars mostly showing Friends reruns and walking through town you see clips for about 20 different episodes and people lying on beds in the bars drinking and watching. It's a bit bizarre.
There is also an ex-CIA runway in the middle of town that's not used for anything except dropping off tourists from the buses. It was built to be used during the Vietnam war and now just stands empty. Other parts of the town are really pretty, with the river running through it, little bridges across and also the views of the mountains in the distance.
We had a great time here (despite Colin being a bit unwell on the second day) and are pleased we stopped off. From Vang Vieng we go to Vientiane, luckily only a few hours by bus... we hope.

CIA runway

Laos - Luang Prabang

We left Chiang Mai on Saturday morning and got to the Thailand border at about 3pm. We then had to get on these little boats (picture below), as the Laos / Thailand border is the Mekong River, so this was the only way across, but was fun and interesting. From here we still had an overnight bus journey to Luang Prabang. This drive was not very comfortable, as the roads were incredibly windy and the seats were cramped.
So after 20 hours on the bus we arrived in Luang Prabang early on Sunday morning. This might sound like a long time, but the other option was to get a slow boat which would have taken 3 full days and 2 nights and the boats have hard seats and didn't seem all that safe.
We liked Luang Prabang, especially walking along the Mekong River that runs alongside the town and found a bar that made the nicest fruit smoothies where we just hung out. Our first impression of Laos food wasn't great, but mostly because of the restaurant we first went to.  To start they brought me the wrong order, with the wrong rice and when I eventually got my food, by which point Colin had nearly finished and my rice was cold, I found a little cockroach in my food. Luckily we had some nice food the second day at a place that was so festivly decorated you'd think it was Santa's grotto. Both evenings we walked through the night market with such lovely and different items, which again we were tempted to buy.
The next day we got an early bus and headed to Vang Vieng.

Trek in Chiang Mai

On our third day in Chiang Mai we organised a trek in the jungle. This is the main attraction to Chiang Mai and something that everyone had recommended for us to do. We got picked up from our hostel in a little truck and after a quick stop to pick up some supplies, arrived at a village where we were served lunch. After lunch we started walking and it wasn't too long till we saw the elephants we would be riding. This was an amazing experience, although I think it helped that we had a good elephant that stuck to the path and followed the guide through the river. The other group with us had a much larger and naughtier elephant. He was always disappearing off the path to eat, he sprayed water and broke a few trees on the way. Half way through the ride, the other group wanted to get off as they were getting a bit worried, especially when they had big branches falling on their heads and shoulders.

After the elephants we started our long trek through the jungle to where we were spending the night. It was really hard going, all uphill, the temperature was really hot and it was very humid. Luckily everytime we thought we couldn't go anymore, the guide stopped for a rest and after some water we felt fine again. Just before sunset we arrived at our cabin. Dinner was made for us on a fire, green curry and rice and there was a fridge full of beers. We spent the evening chatting with the others in our group and our guide who wanted to practice his English (although he was really good already). He got quite animated when he was immitating the lady boys to try and explain to us how to spot them. He also taught us some cocktail stick games. We were all pretty tired after the tough day of trekking and were asleep by 10:30pm.

The next morning we had scrambled egg and toast and headed out of the village and back into the jungle for the next part of our trek. The next place we came to was a waterfall and becuase we were so hot from 2 hours of trekking, we dived into the cold, but refreshing water. After a nice swim, we trekked a bit further for lunch at another village then got transported to the rafting station.

Here we went white water rafting down the river, there wasn't too much white water as it's the dry season, but we still got drenched and managed to lose our guide on one of the rapids. One minute he's telling us when to paddle, the next minute he's swimming past our raft chasing his oar. We thought we'd be fine without him, but got stuck on a rock and had to wait for help from on of the other groups. Eventually the guide got back in once the rapids were over. We enjoyed this part and would like to do it again, but next time with bigger rapids. Finally we switched over to bamboo rafts. These just seemed to sink straight away and we were basically sitting with half our bodies in the water, floating down the river. We were slightly worried that we were sinking, until we found out the pater was only about a foot deep. After drying off, we headed back to Chiang Mai. We really enjoyed the entire trek and would definitely recommend it if you come here. It did help that we had a really nice group with us.

Chiang Mai

We arrived in Chiang Mai feeling refreshed as we'd had a good night's sleep on the train. It was nice to get off the buses and back onto the more comfortable sleeper trains. Got to our hostel and were very pleased to see it had a pool. We walked through the town and little markets both of the mornings we were here and then came back to the hostel for a swim in the afternoon. One of the mornings when we'd stopped for a drink from a little shop, a Thai man started talking to us. He was asking Colin about England and he said that he'd been to London a few times and some parts of Europe too. Then he asked us what we thought of Thailand and what we had done so far and what we were going to do next. Then he started asking about shopping and if we like to buy things and what sorts of things we look for. Up to this point we thought, or should I saw hoping, he was just a nice man that wanted to talk to us, but then he mentioned precious stones that he takes to London to sell. We'd just read the story in the Lonely Planet which mentions this exact scam... usually turns out that the "precious stones" are coloured pieces of glass. He ended the conversation pretty quickly once we told him that we'd read about the "precious stones". We've found that we've become so sceptical when people talk to us, we know they're either trying to sell us something or scam us and a few times we've felt guilty for thinking the worst first, but so far we've often been right.
On the first evening, after coming back from dinner, we went down a little side street (soi) and saw an elephant in the road. It was with 3 guys who seemed to be having dinner on the road and this elephant tried to grab their food and was wacking them on the head with its trunk. Then the men would shout at the elephant and make it turn around and face the wall, it was so funny.
The next evening we went to Chiang Mai night market and wandered through the stalls. After a while they all sell the same thing, but we did see a few bits that we'd love to have gotten if we had the space in our already heavy bags.
Our third and fourth days here we organised a trek in the jungle round Chiang Mai, but now we leave for Luang Prabang in Laos, where we plan to spend the next few weeks.

Quick stopover in Bangkok

We left Cambodia on Friday morning on a long bus journey to Bangkok. The ride to the Cambodian border was good and leaving Cambodia was fine too. Then we had to literally cross the border, on foot and go through to Thailand and then jump in a minibus. There were about 40 of us going to Bangkok, but we got separated after the border to fit into these little buses. There's 13 seats in these and the driver, but that leaves no space for luggage. Colin and I were the last 2 to be called to one of the buses, but when I saw how packed it was I was convinced that we wouldn't fit on there and so didn't want them putting my bags in until I knew for sure it would be our bus. The guy got annoyed with me and told me that I have no choice, either I climb in the bus or I stay at the border. We did all get on, but Colin and I had to share one and a bit seats for about 5 hours and Colin had the luggage digging into his side. It was not a pleasant drive, especially in the heat, but we did arrive safely.
We really only went to Bangkok to get to Chiang Mai, as we're going back to Bangkok in a few weeks for Christmas, but thought we'd use the time to explore the Khao San Road area and parts of the old city. We were walking around when we heard a band and saw all the Thai people standing to attention. I had read that the national anthem gets played a few times a day and that the locals stop what they're doing and stand to attention and that it is respectable if you're a tourist to also stand to attention. So we did stop walking and had a few people looking at us, amused that we knew what to do. They're so patriotic, it's wonderful!
For dinner we both ordered Pad Thai... Colin said the one I make is better and I thought so too, but didn't want to be the first to say it myself.
We'd had enough of the buses, so booked an overnight train to Chiang Mai. A taxi took us to the train station and I thought I'd share the amusing "what not to do" sign on the window.

Siem Reap and Angkor Wat

We arrived in Siem Reap quite late, so just grabbed a traditional Cambodian meal, Hawaiian Pizza. Then straight to sleep after another long bus journey. We came here to see Angkor Wat, but knew we'd be tired the next day, so after a wander around town in the morning, spent the day by the hostel pool, just relaxing and drinking pineapple Fanta, before heading back to town in the evening for dinner and drinks. This time we did have traditional food, some Cambodian curries with Angkor beer.
The next morning we awoke at 5am, hired bikes and cycled to Angkor Wat. The hostel suggested this time, so we could arrive for sunrise, and although we ended up missing it, we still got there at a nice time as there were no crowds yet. We got free parking for our bikes, but only with a $2 cup of tea that was worse than you get on an airplane. We spent about 4 hours at Angkor Wat, taking loads of photos and exploring the temple. The temperature was already uncomfortable on our cycle there, but by 10am it was unbearable, and we tried to find shade wherever we could. It's both hot and humid here, so there's not much escape even in the shade.
After Angkor Wat we went to Angkor Thom, just a few km's further. There were more temples here, but they were smaller in size and different to Angkor Wat. Some were terraces, some had been destroyed and were being restored and some you could see how the used to look, but were now in a state of disrepair.
After 4 more hours exploring and cycling around the rest of the impressive complex, we headed back to our hostel for a cooling swim, some food and a snooze. We spent the evening in Siem Reap again, it's a really nice little town, with a lively nightlife, but really is catered to us tourists.
We've really enjoyed our stay here, but next is Bangkok which will take us to northern Thailand and Laos.

Phnom Penh

We left Vietnam on a 6 hour bus ride to get to Cambodia. This involved going through 2 borders, the Vietnam border was the most disorganised and inefficient mess we've ever seen (although weirdly it didn't take as long as we thought). We had to give our passports to the bus driver who then gave them to the official at the border. We all queued up like you would expect to do, but after 10 minutes a Chinese tourist told us there's no need to queue as you just have to listen for your name and then go forward and through. So first they did all the Vietnamese people, then other Asian people and then the foreigners. Of course the guy couldn't pronounce our names so ended up holding the passports in the sky and hoping people would recognise their own. We're still not sure what the point of this was. Going through the Cambodian border was much easier... or at least it should have been. When we got to the front, the lady told Colin: "Your visa no good, not found". After a few minutes of searching the system and me cussing the lady that organised our visas, they found the mistake and his visa. The barcode didn't match the number of the visa. So we entered Cambodia and had 3 more hours on the bus before we arrived in Phnom Penh. Just outside of Phnom Penh we had to catch a ferry across the river and while waiting to board the ferry we had little kids knocking on the bus windows begging for money. I spotted a boy that hadn't come over, instead he was next to an older man that was hitting him and throwing him around. Finally the man grabbed the boy, pulled down his pants and then hung the boy on a tree by his t-shirt. For a second I felt so sorry for the boy, then I realised he was a cheeky little devil, as when the boy got down he was hitting the man with a stick as he had done before. When he saw me looking at him, he came over and winked and blew me kisses and then appologised to Colin.
When we got to our bus stop, as usual we had loads of tuk-tuk drivers hounding us to drive with them. We decided we'd walk instead, but when we found out it was 4km in this humid weather and with our backpacks we quickly changed our minds. We stopped a guy along the road and took our first tuk-tuk ride, which turned out to be really fun, even though it was quite slow.
There wasn't too much we wanted to do in Phnom Penh, we were just happy to sit at cafes watching the happenings in the town and drinking banana milkshakes and cocktails. On the second day we walked past the palace and a temple, but weren't too fussed to go into either and in the afternoon there was a rain storm that forced everyone indoors. We weren't caught in the rain, as we'd got back early, not able to stand the heat and were sipping a milkshake while watching the drenched people come in.
We headed off the next day for Siem Riep.