Up next on our Thailand itinerary was the northern city of Chiang Mai. The trip started of with an overnight train ride from Bangkok. I'd booked 2 tickets just before Johanne arrived, but all they had left were an upper and lower bunk on the sleeper train, not 2 lower bunks like we'd prefer. Johanne of course insisted on taking the upper bunk, which I'd already had the pleasure of trying out on my train from Hat Yai to Bangkok. Actually, the upper bunk really isn't that bad, just a little "snug" and brings out a bit of claustrophobia to those inclined (me included).
So, Johanne hauls herself up there and proceeds to have a mini-meltdown, while I'm laughing so hard I'm almost crying. She seemed to be having, umm, shall we say a bit of difficulty turning around on the bunk bed, which just made it even funnier. You had to be there, but trust me, it was hilarious!
We'd booked ourselves a room at the 3 sis (short for sisters, who could resist with a name like that!) bed & breakfast and ended up upgrading to their newer rooms in the "lodge" part of the place. My budget was definitely blown on this trip, but boy was it great to have a little luxury & not have to double/triple check the room & bed for bugs everyday!
We had a few things planned while in Chiang Mai, like a cooking class and a day trip in the surrounding area. The cooking class was great fun and made us discover some excellent Thai food. Although, I have to say that after that day, I will be staying away from spicy papaya salad. The "medium" spicy version our teacher suggested we make almost had me in tears, and I wasn't convinced I was going to survive ;-) I am not going to risk that again! Johanne and I were dubbed good Thai wife material because of our strong arms and ability to pound the crap out of ingredients in the mortar & pestle (merci MWM!).
Our 1-day excursion was completely disorganized & probably way overpriced for what we ended up doing, but we still had fun. It's amazing what a stress-free life will do for your attitude :-). I think Johanne enjoyed watching me freak out while riding an elephant. I was completely petrified, more so than for anything else I've done on this trip so far. For the first 15 minutes of the ride, I was convinced that the only thing keeping me from falling off the elephant and plunging to my death (OK, so I may not be stressed but I'm still dramatic) was holding on to the back bar of the "seat". It doesn't sound scary, I know, but trust me. When the elephant is trudging up and down hills on a narrow path, it becomes very very scary. For me anyways, since Johanne was cool as a cucumber and laughing at me the whole time.
The day included other activities such as riding a bamboo raft down the river and trekking to a waterfall. "Trekking" to a "waterfall" must be taken with a grain of salt. It was a 10-minute walk (uphill, but still) to a little trickle of water over some rocks. I think the waterfall only appears during the rainy season, but for some reason, the tour guides still think it is worthwhile to go there. It was funny to see them proudly point out the waterfall, with all of us just scratching our heads wondering what we were looking at.
We also visited a few hill tribes, including the "long neck" Karen tribe, where the women wear multiple brass rings around their neck to make it longer. Although I'm curious to see the villages and see how the locals really live, it just feels wrong somehow. It feels like gawking and somewhat like being at a zoo. It goes both ways for sure, as the tribe "villages" are mostly markets aimed at getting the tourists to buy stuff. Still, I find it uncomfortable.
The rest of our time in Chiang Mai was spent walking around town and visiting temples, shopping and getting foot massages. The best of all worlds!
After booking a few flights and scrambling to find accommodation, we set off for the beaches of south Thailand. Our first stop was in Phuket, more specifically on Patong Beach. After an initial "mishap" of being switched hotels on arrival, we settled into a beachside hotel on the very busy Patong Beach. It was no busier than an all-inclusive resort in Mexico, Cuba or the Dominican Republic, but there were supposedly more quiet beaches around, so 2 days there was plenty for us. Also given the fact that Patong Beach is very popular with the sex tourist crowds, with men young and old "renting" themselves Thai girlfriends for their holidays, we felt a little out of place. Even while trying to adopt a "live and let live" attitude, it was disturbing to see a whole family of men (father, 2 sons in their late teens, early twenties, 1 young son under 5), each with their own "girlfriend". When not taking care of their respective men, the Thai girls would play with the little kid. Sets a great example, doesn't it?
We left Patong Beach and headed 10 km south for another beautiful stretch of sand called Karon Beach. We stayed at a nice resort a bit further away from the beach, but it was quite worth it for the extra luxury it afforded us. My days of "lifestyles of the rich and famous" were quickly running out... The beach was nicer, less busy and a few more waves in the crystal clear water. We did nothing more than spend the day at the beach sleeping (Jo), reading (Janie) and swimming (both). Paradise! After 3 more days of this, it was time to move on & get moving! We took a cheap mini-bus to Krabi, a few hundred km away. Here is were we planned a few excursions, like going to Ko Phi-Phi, made famous in the movie "The Beach". We stayed in Krabi town and made 2 days trips from there: the first was to Ko Phi-Phi and surrounding islands for some sun & snorkeling. Johanne and I both being slightly scared of fish, I was really impressed how well we took to snorkeling. After initial "panicky" moments, we both settled into it quite well. I saw one of the fish from Finding Nemo, so I was happy :-)
The next day trip was a snorkeling/kayaking trip around Hong Island, another beautiful spot in the area. I was really nervous about the kayaking aspect of the trip, since my previous experience with it many years back did not go well (fell in the sea, couldn't get back on & had lifeguards sent after me. Quite unnecessarily I might add. Very embarrassing). We started the day off with snorkeling, which wasn't half as nice as the previous day, since the water was choppy and unclear. The kayak tour involved kayaking around Hong Island. Johanne and I were paired off and pushed into the sea with no instructions whatsoever. Whatever, we're both smart girls, so we could figure it out. After only a few minutes, it was very obvious that something wasn't quite right, since we kept veering to the right. After a few more minutes of experimenting, I determined that it was Johanne's fault ;-) She was obviously paddling way harder on one side than the other. The woman doesn't know her own strength! 10 minutes into it, Johanne already had a burst blister, we were both exhausted and I had no clue how we'd make it around the whole damn island! But at one point you just get over it and keep moving. An hour or so later and we were done. I was again impressed at how we both mostly kept our cool and didn't yell at each other (too much). We may make a good "Amazing Race" team after all!
And after our short stay in Krabi, it was sadly time to head back to Bangkok and say goodbye to Johanne. I was already feeling bummed, even before leaving Krabi, but I was fairly miserable by the time we got to Bangkok. We spent our last day shopping at the weekend market buying last-minute souvenirs, enjoying one last movie at the amazing Siam Paragon cinemas, and a nice meal in a proper restaurant.
I won't dwell on it too much, but saying goodbye the next morning was no fun at all. For the first 3 months of my trip, I always had this nice little break with Johanne to look forward to whenever I got homesick. Now that the trip is over, it's going to be a long while before I see Johanne again, or any of my family & friends from home (next up: traveling with Melissa through Africa!!!) Plus, even if I enjoy traveling on my own, it was nice to have a compatible traveling partner for a while.
The next 4 days were spent feeling low and holing up in my way-too-expensive-yet-still-shabby-and-depressing hotel room in Bangkok. I watched at least 10 movies on cable, I do not exaggerate. But since my visa expired on Feb 7th, I had to get my ass in gear and start moving again. By the time I got around to making travel plans again, the worst of my blues had passed and I was ready to move on. Next stop: Laos!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
I'm back!!!
So, now that my "vacation" with Johanne is over (snif, snif), I should be back to a regular schedule of blogging. I'll hopefully be caught up by the end of the week, if my access to OK Internet connections continues.
I can sum up our vacation in 1 word: Fantastic! But of course, it wouldn't be a very interesting blog if I left it at that, so yes, I will go into a bit more detail...
Johanne's & my reunion was held at close to 2AM on January 7th. It was so great to see her, after more than 2 1/2 months away! She looked great, especially considering she'd had such long flights. And it made me laugh to see her arrive with 2 Canadian backpackers in tow, having corraled them into a little group earlier on during one of their layovers. Leave it to Johanne! Still the social butterfly my sister!
The next day started bright and early. We had 4 days planned inBangkok, and a whole list of places to go/things to do. And admittidely, I was eager to impress Johanne with my new found travelling skills and my stamina. However, my pride would take a little beating that day, as things didn't really go as planned...
First of all, I wasn't in the best shape that day, having managed to catch a cold somewhere between Malaysia and Thailand. I'd just been joking with a fellow traveller the week before that ever since I hit Asia, everytime I hear someone caugh or sneeze, I automatically think: Oh!oh! Bird flu alert! Kind of ironic that I'm the one now getting the cold, sneezing, coughing, blowing my nose, all the symptoms you'd expect from a good old fashion winter cold in Quebec! And of course, having just travelled half-way across the world, Johanne was in perfect health, with no signs of jet lag at all! So much for showing off to my sister :-)
The next blow to my pride came later that same day just after we'd left the Royal Palace. Before getting into that, I need to give you a bit of background: One of the things the Lonely Planet guide books are good for are describing the potential scams you may run into while travelling. One thing they tell you clearly, frequently and in BOLD flashing letters, is never to believe anyone who tells you that the attraction or place you want to go to is closed. This is almost always a scam to get you someplace else of their choosing, where you'll be encouraged to spend your money and for which the driver will get a commission. So back to my story: There we are on the corner of a main road, just outside the gate of the Royal Palace. Our next destination was Wat Po (aka Temple of the Reclining Buddha) and were just checking the map to see which way to go, when a nice gentleman offers up his help. He says he work for tourist information and he keeps saying: "just information, free free, no money". So I end up showing him our map and asking for directions to Wat Po, which he quickly gives us. He goes on to say that we should switch the order of our sightseeing, since Wat Po is closed this afternoon until 3:30 (it was around 12:30) because of a special ceremony for the King's sister, who'd just passed away the week before. I had heard about the Princess, so it all seemed logical to me (duh!). He also told us that we could take a tuk-tuk (motorcycle rickshaw) to go see the Giant Buddha and maybe stop off at a tourist information office to help plan the rest of our trip. He is so helpful that he even points out which tuk-tuks we can trust, telling us to take only the one's with drivers wearing an official looking shirt, with a collar and badge. How nice of him! And before we knew it, he had stopped a "good" tuk-tuk and even negociated a good price for us. It would cost us only 20 baht (about 65 cents) for our own chartered tuk-tuk that would bring us to 3 different places and wait for us while we visited. Sounds too good to be true? Of course it is, but still, it didn't ring any alarm bells for me yet.
After our perfectly nice stop at the Giant Buddha, we then stopped at the tourist information office, which ended up being just another travel agency. We were being pressure-sold a package for the rest of our trip, everything from flights, hotels and taxi transfers to/from the airport. We declined and I left feeling stressed about booking our time down south. By the sound of it, we would be lucky to find a flight at all. Now at this point, I still had no clue that I had fallen prey to a textbook example of a tuk-tuk scam, but the lightbulb finally came on when the driver suddenly stopped by the side of the road shortly after we'd left the tourist information/travel agent, and proposed to bring us to another one. We said "no", he said "OK. I bring you to a tailor where you can look to get clothes. You only need to look, no need to buy". Since I'd already been there, done that, just the day before (scammed by yet another tuk-tuk), I was not interested. After a bit of "chatting" with the driver, we ended up getting off then and there, without paying. Since we had no clue where we were, we started looking for a taxi and were lucky enough to get one before it started to rain. All's well that ends well.
Overall, our luck wasn't great that week, with little misshaps like trying to go to the museum on the one day a week it was closed, or showing up at the Teak Palace only to be turned away by the guards at the entrance because the Prince & Princess of Monaco were there visiting. But the misshaps didn't amount to much, considering I was having a great time traveling with my big sister.
One of the better moments of the week was an "Amazing" one. When we finally ended up at Wat Po, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, Johanne and I were both quick to realise that we'd seen this before on the "Amazing Race", as part of a "Fast forward" in season 1. Of course, Johanne even remembered who won the challenge (team Guido). She's a freak ;-) We did our own reproduction of the challenge (dropping coins into a bowl. not Olympic-event material).
All in all, our time in Bangkok was well filled with sightseeing and catching up. I'd say 4 days in Bangkok is enough for anyone who isn't completely enthralled with big cities. It's big, takes forever to get anywhere, but you can do so cheaply. It's also hot, humid & very smogy. It has nice attractions and the best cinema I've been to yet (Siam Paragon, a must-see!).
I can sum up our vacation in 1 word: Fantastic! But of course, it wouldn't be a very interesting blog if I left it at that, so yes, I will go into a bit more detail...
Johanne's & my reunion was held at close to 2AM on January 7th. It was so great to see her, after more than 2 1/2 months away! She looked great, especially considering she'd had such long flights. And it made me laugh to see her arrive with 2 Canadian backpackers in tow, having corraled them into a little group earlier on during one of their layovers. Leave it to Johanne! Still the social butterfly my sister!
The next day started bright and early. We had 4 days planned inBangkok, and a whole list of places to go/things to do. And admittidely, I was eager to impress Johanne with my new found travelling skills and my stamina. However, my pride would take a little beating that day, as things didn't really go as planned...
First of all, I wasn't in the best shape that day, having managed to catch a cold somewhere between Malaysia and Thailand. I'd just been joking with a fellow traveller the week before that ever since I hit Asia, everytime I hear someone caugh or sneeze, I automatically think: Oh!oh! Bird flu alert! Kind of ironic that I'm the one now getting the cold, sneezing, coughing, blowing my nose, all the symptoms you'd expect from a good old fashion winter cold in Quebec! And of course, having just travelled half-way across the world, Johanne was in perfect health, with no signs of jet lag at all! So much for showing off to my sister :-)
The next blow to my pride came later that same day just after we'd left the Royal Palace. Before getting into that, I need to give you a bit of background: One of the things the Lonely Planet guide books are good for are describing the potential scams you may run into while travelling. One thing they tell you clearly, frequently and in BOLD flashing letters, is never to believe anyone who tells you that the attraction or place you want to go to is closed. This is almost always a scam to get you someplace else of their choosing, where you'll be encouraged to spend your money and for which the driver will get a commission. So back to my story: There we are on the corner of a main road, just outside the gate of the Royal Palace. Our next destination was Wat Po (aka Temple of the Reclining Buddha) and were just checking the map to see which way to go, when a nice gentleman offers up his help. He says he work for tourist information and he keeps saying: "just information, free free, no money". So I end up showing him our map and asking for directions to Wat Po, which he quickly gives us. He goes on to say that we should switch the order of our sightseeing, since Wat Po is closed this afternoon until 3:30 (it was around 12:30) because of a special ceremony for the King's sister, who'd just passed away the week before. I had heard about the Princess, so it all seemed logical to me (duh!). He also told us that we could take a tuk-tuk (motorcycle rickshaw) to go see the Giant Buddha and maybe stop off at a tourist information office to help plan the rest of our trip. He is so helpful that he even points out which tuk-tuks we can trust, telling us to take only the one's with drivers wearing an official looking shirt, with a collar and badge. How nice of him! And before we knew it, he had stopped a "good" tuk-tuk and even negociated a good price for us. It would cost us only 20 baht (about 65 cents) for our own chartered tuk-tuk that would bring us to 3 different places and wait for us while we visited. Sounds too good to be true? Of course it is, but still, it didn't ring any alarm bells for me yet.
After our perfectly nice stop at the Giant Buddha, we then stopped at the tourist information office, which ended up being just another travel agency. We were being pressure-sold a package for the rest of our trip, everything from flights, hotels and taxi transfers to/from the airport. We declined and I left feeling stressed about booking our time down south. By the sound of it, we would be lucky to find a flight at all. Now at this point, I still had no clue that I had fallen prey to a textbook example of a tuk-tuk scam, but the lightbulb finally came on when the driver suddenly stopped by the side of the road shortly after we'd left the tourist information/travel agent, and proposed to bring us to another one. We said "no", he said "OK. I bring you to a tailor where you can look to get clothes. You only need to look, no need to buy". Since I'd already been there, done that, just the day before (scammed by yet another tuk-tuk), I was not interested. After a bit of "chatting" with the driver, we ended up getting off then and there, without paying. Since we had no clue where we were, we started looking for a taxi and were lucky enough to get one before it started to rain. All's well that ends well.
Overall, our luck wasn't great that week, with little misshaps like trying to go to the museum on the one day a week it was closed, or showing up at the Teak Palace only to be turned away by the guards at the entrance because the Prince & Princess of Monaco were there visiting. But the misshaps didn't amount to much, considering I was having a great time traveling with my big sister.
One of the better moments of the week was an "Amazing" one. When we finally ended up at Wat Po, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, Johanne and I were both quick to realise that we'd seen this before on the "Amazing Race", as part of a "Fast forward" in season 1. Of course, Johanne even remembered who won the challenge (team Guido). She's a freak ;-) We did our own reproduction of the challenge (dropping coins into a bowl. not Olympic-event material).
All in all, our time in Bangkok was well filled with sightseeing and catching up. I'd say 4 days in Bangkok is enough for anyone who isn't completely enthralled with big cities. It's big, takes forever to get anywhere, but you can do so cheaply. It's also hot, humid & very smogy. It has nice attractions and the best cinema I've been to yet (Siam Paragon, a must-see!).
Friday, February 8, 2008
Welcome to Thailand!
My time in Thailand did not exactly start off the best way. I'd booked a cheap mini-bus from my guesthouse in Penang to get me to Hat Yai, Thailand. Even if Hat Yai is NOT renowned as being a great place to stay, I'd decided on 1 or 2 nights there as a pit stop before taking the train to Bangkok.
I spent the 4+ hour drive litterally sitting on the edge of my seat, watching our driver trying to stay awake. He would blink at least 100 times/minute, and would even close his eyes for a few milliseconds too many. And he eventually did fall asleep, while I wasn't paying attention, and drifted a little onto the side of the highway. Luckily there was no harm done, and the adrenaline kept him (and me) awake for the rest of the journey.
Once in Hat Yai, I was kind of shocked to see that all the signs were in some unreadable script that I now know as being Thai. A little naive of me, but I thought english would be much more prevalent than it was, and it was unsettling to realise I couldn't even read street signs! At least in Malaysia, they use the same alphabet as we do, so even if I didn't know the meaning of the words, I could recognise them easily enough. Not so in Thailand!
As for Hat Yai itself, I don't have many positive things to say about it, so I'll be brief. I had done my research and knew enough about Thailand to stay away from the south-eastern provinces, where fighting and terrorist attacks still go on each day. My research wasn't that thourough though, since I didn't know that Hat Yai was also considered somewhat dangerous, with recent bombings targetting shopping malls and the train station. I found this out once already in Hat Yai, and I freely admit that it spooked me. Let's just say I didn't spend much time there, and booked my train ticket out of there for the next day.
I took the overnight train from Hat Yai to Bangkok, and had a lovely time. It was my first time on a sleeper train, but I was relatively comfortable on the top bunk, if a little claustrophobic, but I managed to sleep well. I met a Malay couple going to visit family, and they gave me plenty of tips and things to see while in Thailand. I think they were worried about me travelling on my own, so they tried to "take care" of me while on their watch. They were very nice and helpful.
I arrived in Bangkok at around noon on Friday. Johanne was scheduled to arrive very late Sunday night, so I had a good 2 days to kill without doing any of the obvious touristy stuff, since I would be doing it with Johanne in a few days. I just walked around the backpacker ghetto known as Khao san road, and people-watched for a while. A very interesting bunch of tourists, lots of hippy types too. And I was suprised by the number of Canadians in Bangkok. It's obviously quite a popular destination.
And as further proof of how small the world really is: as I was sitting there having dinner on Friday night in a little restaurant next to my guesthouse, I noticed a girl I thought I recognized heading for the reception desk. I quickly paid my bill and went to check, and yes, it really was someone I knew. I had met this Swiss girl in my dorm room at my very first hostel in New Zealand, on the 2nd day of my trip! And here she was again in the same guesthouse in Bangkok! Very small world indeed!
I spent the weekend wandering around, getting the lay of the land. Regula, the Swiss girl, having been in Bangkok before, showed me around the River boat and SkyTrain transport systems, so I would (hopefully) be a pro by the time Johanne arrived. I enjoyed myself a bit, but I have to admit I was mostly just really looking forward to seeing Johanne on Sunday night. It was a loooong weekend for me....
So, my first post about Thailand is a bit of a downer, but I promise it gets better after this! I was just off to a slow start, and really excited about seeing Johanne and starting my own little "mini-vacation" from travelling solo. More on that in the next post (and on Johanne's blog - johannel.blogspot.com)
And for those interested (yes, I mean you Dad!), I added a link to my travel map that I keep up to date in TripAdvisor. The link is at the bottom-right of the page, in the Links section. I usually add the cities that I've been to a few times a month, but I will also try to add the places I am planning on going to, so you can get an idea of my itinerary.
And lastly, don't be shy about posting a comment or just saying hi! I'm now back to travelling on my own, and would love some company, even if just "virtual"!!!
I spent the 4+ hour drive litterally sitting on the edge of my seat, watching our driver trying to stay awake. He would blink at least 100 times/minute, and would even close his eyes for a few milliseconds too many. And he eventually did fall asleep, while I wasn't paying attention, and drifted a little onto the side of the highway. Luckily there was no harm done, and the adrenaline kept him (and me) awake for the rest of the journey.
Once in Hat Yai, I was kind of shocked to see that all the signs were in some unreadable script that I now know as being Thai. A little naive of me, but I thought english would be much more prevalent than it was, and it was unsettling to realise I couldn't even read street signs! At least in Malaysia, they use the same alphabet as we do, so even if I didn't know the meaning of the words, I could recognise them easily enough. Not so in Thailand!
As for Hat Yai itself, I don't have many positive things to say about it, so I'll be brief. I had done my research and knew enough about Thailand to stay away from the south-eastern provinces, where fighting and terrorist attacks still go on each day. My research wasn't that thourough though, since I didn't know that Hat Yai was also considered somewhat dangerous, with recent bombings targetting shopping malls and the train station. I found this out once already in Hat Yai, and I freely admit that it spooked me. Let's just say I didn't spend much time there, and booked my train ticket out of there for the next day.
I took the overnight train from Hat Yai to Bangkok, and had a lovely time. It was my first time on a sleeper train, but I was relatively comfortable on the top bunk, if a little claustrophobic, but I managed to sleep well. I met a Malay couple going to visit family, and they gave me plenty of tips and things to see while in Thailand. I think they were worried about me travelling on my own, so they tried to "take care" of me while on their watch. They were very nice and helpful.
I arrived in Bangkok at around noon on Friday. Johanne was scheduled to arrive very late Sunday night, so I had a good 2 days to kill without doing any of the obvious touristy stuff, since I would be doing it with Johanne in a few days. I just walked around the backpacker ghetto known as Khao san road, and people-watched for a while. A very interesting bunch of tourists, lots of hippy types too. And I was suprised by the number of Canadians in Bangkok. It's obviously quite a popular destination.
And as further proof of how small the world really is: as I was sitting there having dinner on Friday night in a little restaurant next to my guesthouse, I noticed a girl I thought I recognized heading for the reception desk. I quickly paid my bill and went to check, and yes, it really was someone I knew. I had met this Swiss girl in my dorm room at my very first hostel in New Zealand, on the 2nd day of my trip! And here she was again in the same guesthouse in Bangkok! Very small world indeed!
I spent the weekend wandering around, getting the lay of the land. Regula, the Swiss girl, having been in Bangkok before, showed me around the River boat and SkyTrain transport systems, so I would (hopefully) be a pro by the time Johanne arrived. I enjoyed myself a bit, but I have to admit I was mostly just really looking forward to seeing Johanne on Sunday night. It was a loooong weekend for me....
So, my first post about Thailand is a bit of a downer, but I promise it gets better after this! I was just off to a slow start, and really excited about seeing Johanne and starting my own little "mini-vacation" from travelling solo. More on that in the next post (and on Johanne's blog - johannel.blogspot.com)
And for those interested (yes, I mean you Dad!), I added a link to my travel map that I keep up to date in TripAdvisor. The link is at the bottom-right of the page, in the Links section. I usually add the cities that I've been to a few times a month, but I will also try to add the places I am planning on going to, so you can get an idea of my itinerary.
And lastly, don't be shy about posting a comment or just saying hi! I'm now back to travelling on my own, and would love some company, even if just "virtual"!!!
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