We got off the train in Chiang Mai and took and took a minute to get our bearings and decide what part of the city we wanted to stay in. Just East of the city center there were suppose to be a lot of good inexpensive hostels so we flagged down a truck taxi thing, negotiated the price and headed out.
The annual flower festival was going on so the streets were pack with traffic. So much so that we ended up getting out and walking the last few blocks. We checked several hostels, found one with availability, dropped our bags off and went to grab some lunch.
We walked into a restaurant and sat down. Then we noticed that our train companion, Cindy, was also at the same little restaurant. (So random) She joined us and we had a nice lunch together.
After lunch Julie and I strolled through the flower festival market and I picked up some much needed flip flops, I tossed my last pair on Lao Liang because they were on the verge of falling apart.
Chiang Mai has a nice relaxed atmosphere. We enjoyed evening walks in the city center and just taking it easy.
One night while there we went and watched the local Muay Thai boxing fights. It was fun and exciting to watch. As a sort of intermission between fights they got a bunch of Thai fighters up there, blind folded them and then they all started fighting each other, royal rumble style. It was hilarious!
You can pack a lot of different activities into one day around Chiang Mai. Although it is possible to work out arrangements on your own to do most activities, we decided to simplify our lives by just buying a package deal from a local tour company. We went for the less expensive package that groups you together with other tourists which turned out great because we ended up being the only ones in the group. Ah yeah!!! Private tour for the group tour price!
We got picked up the next morning and started the day at an Elephant park. We got to feed the elephants, hold their trunks, watch them do all sorts of amazing fun things like take a bath in the river, play soccer, paint, play harmonicas, move huge tree size logs around and tons of other stuff. Next we drove further into the hills, were treated to a basic fried rice lunch and then got to ride an elephant around the forest.
After that we stopped by a little village reservation where we saw Longneck tribal people, you know, the ones you've seen on the discovery channel, with the big rings around there neck.
Another short drive and it was time to jump in a boat for some river rafting. The river wasn't very fast and mostly made up of class 2/3 rapids but we still had a good time. Our boat guide was really funny and several times when we got near another boat a full scale water war would erupt.
After rafting we Had a few minutes to dry off and change and I spent the time learning how to play Sepak Takraw, a sport indigenous to Thailand. It's a variant of volleyball played with the feet and a light rattan ball. It is amazing to see players perform aerials, spiking the ball over the net with their feet.
Then it was back in the car for the drive back to Chiang Mai. On the way back we stopped off at an Orchid & Butterfly farm. They had some incredibly beautiful flowers.
It was a really fun day.
From Chiang Mai we decided we'd head to Laos to get a Vietnam visa from the embassy and then work our way through Laos to Cambodia, then to Vietnam.
Before leaving Chiang Mai I decided to have one last Thai experience. Thailand is known for inexpensive dentistry, cosmetic surgery and various other procedures. I thought it would be interesting to do something simple just for the fun of it like Botox. I found out that they do Mesotherapy and decided to try it out.
The basic idea behind Mesotherapy is that they inject a substance into areas of your body with excess fat and the stuff is suppose to break down fat cells and allow your body to more quickly metabolize them. Full effect takes two weeks and your suppose to lose a few pounds of fat from the treated areas.
I've heard of it before and though I don't expect it to work, I thought it would be an interesting experiment to try. The office was clean and professional looking. I laid down on my back on the doctors table, pulled up my shirt and he did about 20 injections spread across my lower stomach area. That was it. Took all of 5 minutes.
UPDATE: It's been 2 weeks and I've got an awesome 6 pack, hahaha...actually, not seeing any change so I guess it's back to eating right and exercise. Pft.
Thailand: Bangkok
Bangkok is a bustling, busy city. With many different sites, sounds and tastes waiting to be taken in.
We spent our time exploring major temples, palaces, markets, water ways, getting clothes tailor made, and eating great Thai food. (I'm really developing a thing for curry).
The Thai people are extremely friendly and helpful.
Thailand is very inexpensive. Even Bangkok was a bargain. A few dollars for a great meal that would cost 5x as much in the US. Comfortable, clean accommodation with a private room, your own bathroom, Internet and often breakfast for $25 or less. Transportation via Taxi, Tuk Tuk or boat was cheap and easy as well.
In Bangkok, Tuk Tuk's can be one of the absolute cheapest ways to get around if you know the system and work it effectively. Many local businesses, restaurants, etc offer various kick backs to Tuk Tuk
drivers for bringing tourists to them. This can really work to your advantage. Here is how you can get your own personal Tuk Tuk driver for an entire day, multiple destination, for about $1.33 US (40 Baht).
First determine the days itinerary. Where you want to go, what you want to see, what you want to do, etc.
Example: Visit some temples, bargain hunting at the market, grab some lunch, river cruise, check out the palace, stop in at a tailor to see about getting a hand made custom suit or dress. Find a Tuk Tuk and let them know you want to go several places and finish off the day at a clothing tailor. Then tell them your itinerary
and tell them 40 Baht for everything. They will try to negotiate with you but be strong and let them know you know they can get a kick back at the tailor. If they are still negotiating then let them know you are willing to
spend a little time at another location that gives them something. Jewelry stores are often an interesting stop because you can watch them actually hand craft the jewelry. The Tuk Tuk driver will wait for you at each location and you don't pay until the end of the day. We really enjoyed exploring the city this way and the fun interaction
getting to know our Tuk Tuk drivers.
How did we figure all this out? Just brilliant I guess ;-) Actually, a local, who use to work at the palace, randomly approached us on the street, asked what we wanted to do and then hailed a Tuk Tuk for us and showed us the above strategy. He didn't ask for anything, was just genuinely interested in helping us. It was really refreshing. Often when someone randomly approaches us on the street it's because they want to sell us something.
We had a lot of fun getting clothes tailor made in Bangkok. You can get amazing deals on high quality clothes, made just for you. Lots of places will offer a tailor made suit for $100 or less but in reality, if you go for that deal it will be very low quality material and workmanship...many places advertise like that to get you in the door to up-sell you into something better. We found a place called "The Oriental Galleria" and decided to just go for it...I mean, how often are you in Thailand and get to have some suits and shirts tailor made just for you...it was a fun process to pick out material, get measured up and come back a few hours later for further fitting with the nearly completed suits we bought. We were leaving that night right after the fitting and didn't have time to get the fully finished product so just had them shipped directly back home for us so hopefully they turn out OK...have read some not so hot reviews about "The Oriental Galleria" online since then so I'm not so sure what we'll end up with...haha...whatever happens it was a fun experience either way. We decided to do it kinda last minute without really leaving ourselves time for research and to get the finished product, so we'll see how it turns out when we get home in 6 months, haha. That said, things felt pretty nice during the final fitting so I'm still hopeful that everything will turn out great!
In hindsight, my recommendation would be to do your research online ahead of time on what clothing shop other travelers are reviewing well. Then try to negotiate half payment upfront and half on satisfactory completion. Make sure you have enough time in Bangkok to get the finished product and either take it with you or ship it home yourself so you can be sure that it fits right and that you get what you wanted. (You could also subtly threaten to burn the place down if your not satisfied).
From Bangkok we jumped on an overnight sleeper train to head north for Chiang Mai. We were in a comfortable and relatively clean second class sleeper car. It was much, much better than the second class or hard sleeper cars we encountered in China. Julie had the bottom bunk and I had the top. Riding in the bunks next to us we met Cindy, a quiet girl from Shanghai, and Paul, a really funny guy from the UK, who joined the train a few stops later. Paul kept us laughing for hours with story after story.
After several hours of sleep we awoke the next morning just a short distance from Chiang Mai.
Thailand: Ko Lao Liang
We got to Trang, Thailand late in the evening and had no clue where
the bus was dropping us off at, where to stay or how we'd get there.
Luckily there was one "taxi driver" waiting there for such an
opportunity. Charades and very broken English got the point across
that we needed to find a place to sleep so we could go to Had Yao pier
in the morning. He went to get our transportation while we got our
bags situated. I looked up expecting a taxi but instead was looking at
two motor scooters with our "taxi drivers" waiting to take us to a
place we could sleep. With packs on our backs we hoped on and held on
for the few minute ride to a random hotel, which was conveniently
right next to the mini bus station where we'd catch a ride to the pier
the next morning.
I asked the lady at the front desk how much for a room that night. She
didn't speak english so she wrote down two options. What looked like
980 for air conditioned and 250 without. With a 30-1 exchange rate the
air conditioned option seemed a big jump from the non-air option so I
tried to negotiate by writing down 750. She just pointed at the 980,
so I tried again by writing down 800, again to no avail. Then our
friend the "taxi" guy helped us understand that what we thought was
980 was actually 380...haha, wow! $12 US, the best price we've found
yet for one night accommodation.
In the morning we walked to the mini-bus station and packed into a
little mini van with eleven others for the hour ride to Had Yao pier
to catch a long-tail boat to Ko Lao Liang, a little secluded island in
the Andaman Sea.
Once at Had Yao we negotiated a boat ride but decided we should find
an ATM before heading out to sea to make sure we had enough cash for
whatever we needed since most island accommodations we might go to
didn't take credit cards or have ATMs around. Unfortunately the little
village of Had Yao didn't have any ATMs either. With little to no
english speakers available, it took some doing but we were eventually
able to figure out that the nearest ATM was a little ways away in
another village. To get there I negotiated a ride on the back of a
scooter from some guy in the village while Julie waited at Had Yao. By
this time I was really wishing I'd remembered to hit up an ATM before
leaving Trang.
After a few minutes flying down the road and around corners at break
neck speeds on the back of the scooter, holding on for dear life, sure
that we'd crash and burn any second, I was seriously re-thinking this
poor decision. After 5 minutes passed and we sent seem to be anywhere
near an ATM I began to realize that I definitely misunderstood the
distance factor of the earlier communication regarding the ATM. My
driver didn't understand English at all so I had no clue how long this
really might take. I decided to give it a few minutes and then pull
the plug and head back. The further away we got, the more I dreaded
the trip back. I tried to get across the question of "how much
further" and he seemed to understand my charades and expressed what I
interpreted to mean, "just a little further". A few minutes later and
we arrived. I got the cash and hoped back on the scooter. Thankfully
we made it back without incident, jumped on the boat and headed out
for the hour and a half trip to Ko Lao Liang
Ko Lao Liang is a small, quiet island. There is only one place with
accommodation and most people book it ahead of time but we just
decided to wing it and hope they had availability. If not we'd just
hop back on the boat and head to another island.
We were in luck, they had just one tent left. Yup, I just said tent!
There are only tent accommodations on Ko Lao Liang. They are really
big two room tents, a few steps from the beach with mattresses in them
for beds, a light and an electrical outlet, (electricity is produced
by a generator that runs in the evening and night time hours only).
There are about 30 tents on the island so it's generally a really
small number of people around, very relaxed atmosphere.
They have free kayaking and snorkeling (although much of the reef is
unfortunately dead on the west coast of Thailand, you can still see a
variety of fish but visibility is so so here). There are also 50 or so
great rock climbing routes on the island that draw in rock climbing
enthusiasts from all over the world. (rock climbers bring most of
their own gear so they don't really have any for rent/hire).
Many of the Thai islands are getting over crowded with tourists,
resorts, and everything that comes with that. We were really looking
to avoid all of that and just wanted a nice secluded place to relax
for a few days and unwind and Ko Lao Liang fit the bill.
They have a full time staff available that cooks you three nice meals
a day and keeps the island clean. They also have a small bar, more of
hut, on the beach with sodas and various types of alcohol available.
There are flush toilets and coldish showers that feel great on a hot
day.
We were there for 4 days/3 nights and spent most of the time relaxing,
kayaking around the island and a smaller neighboring island,
snorkeling, lounging on the beach and in the ocean, finding sea
shells, getting to know others on the island, learning to walk the
slack line that was set up by someone visiting and generally just
taking it easy. We really enjoyed our time there.
The weather was nice most of the time with an occasional rain shower
in the afternoon or evening, typical this time of year.
The island arranged our transportation back to the mainland. We headed
back via another long tail boat and then were driven to the Trang
train station to see if we could catch the overnight train to Bangkok.
We got our tickets and had a couple hours till departure so we got
some food and got a Thailand SIM card for our WiFi device.
We jumped on the train just as it was about to leave and I realized we
hadn't bought any snacks or such for the trip, you can buy stuff on
the train but it's much more expensive, so I quickly jumped off and
ran to a store, just outside the station, and grabbed a few items and
ran back to the train getting on 30 seconds before it left. Whoa, that
was a close one.
We were off to Bangkok!
Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Penang Island
Singapore is an independent city state notoriously known for strict
enforcement of laws with punishments like canning for graffiti and the
death penalty for drug trafficking. The reality is that the average
law abiding traveler has nothing to fear about travel in Singapore.
It's one of the most modern cities you will find in Asia and you CAN
drink the water. It's also a major hub of travel for the region and
ties in many flight options with Australia, South East Asia and
Indonesian points of interest like Bali.
The airport has free WiFi and we used it to find a hostel downtown
near Little India called Smeet Home. Many hostels were booked solid
due to the Chinese New Year celebration, so we were lucky to find
something. Lunar New Year goes on throughout Asia for 15 days at the
end of January and early February. So Happy New Year everyone! It's
the year of the water dragon so live it up!
Smeet Home turned out pretty good, other than our room being up 5
flights of stairs. Free Internet downstairs, free toast and oatmeal
for breakfast and we had a TV in our room. We got some good use out of
the TV watching some hilarious and intense Bollywood cinema. Serious
entertainment value, no joke!
Singapore has some interesting architecture and offers many of the
same activities you'd find in any major city. We'd done most of those
things other places so we explored the city a bit, relaxed a bit and
went to the amazing Singapore Zoo. Most of the exhibits allow you to
get up close and personal with the animals in ways you rarely see at
other zoos. It was really fun.
Due to all the travelers enjoying the Chinese New Year, most modes of
transportation heading north through Malaysia were booked up but we
were able to find a flight to Kuala Lumpur on JetStar for $2 a
piece...with fees and taxes it ended up being $45 each, haha, still a
good deal.
Kuala Lumpur, the Jewel of Malaysia, home to the Petronis Towers,
shopping and not much else. It's a nice enough city and worth a stop
if you're passing through but it seems to be Malaysia's answer to a
westernized big city with high rises, a shopping mall on every corner,
etc.
After a visit to the Petronis Towers and exploring the city on foot we
decided to take a relaxing break for an hour foot massage at the spa
just below our hostel. It was some much needed recuperation for our
tired little feet.
We stayed at a decent little hostel called Sunshine Bedz. Good price,
free Internet WiFi in the rooms and great location, walking distance
to the Petronis Towers.
From Kuala Lumpur we jumped on a bus and headed north to Penang
island. (In general, bus travel and train travel are very efficient
ways to get around Malaysia). We got off the bus at the Butterworth
stop and hoped on the ferry for a quick trip across the water to
Penang island and walking distance to the main tourist area. There
wasn't much we wanted to do in Penang but we were unclear on a few
things about the Thailand border, our next heading, so we decided to
crash in Penang for the night and head for Thailand the next day.
Again, not a lot of accommodation options with Chinese New Year on so
we ended up in a hole called KK Hostel. Our dirty room was directly
above the dirty butcher downstairs and smelled really bad. We survived
the night, spent an hour or so on a wild goose chase trying to find a
mini bus, (aka Mini Van), to take us over the border to the city of
Trang, Thailand, ended up heading back across on the ferry and
grabbing a regular bus to Hat Yai, Thailand. From Hat Yai we grabbed
another bus heading to Krabi and got off in Trang as it passed
through.
The Thai border was an easy and painless crossing. At the border you
can get 15 days in Thailand but if you want more time you can just
visit the Thai Embassy in Penang for a 30-60 day Visa.
Bali, Curtis
Bali was a great way to ease back into backpack travel mode and out of
car travel mode.
Off the plane and into a small airport, simple customs process and
lots of people asking where you'd like to go.
After a bit of effort trying, and failing, to get a local SIM card to
work with our Internet device, one of the shop keepers was kind enough
to give us the password to the airport WiFi, which was normally
reserved for airport staff and shops only, nor for travelers. (People
in Bali were very friendly and helpful in general, not the police so
much but we'll discuss that later). Language was sometimes an
challenge but often we found people who spoke some English.
Side Note: Language barriers can be frustrating or very funny, usually
it's your perspective that makes the difference. More than once while
traveling we've run into a situation where we need to figure something
out, no English is spoken, and charades just isn't cutting it so all
everyone can do is just share a good laugh about it together.
After looking up a few things online we decided to head inland a bit
and stay in the town of Ubud, near the Monkey Forest. Many of the
coastal areas are overcrowded and overrun with tourists at this stage
in Bali's tourism evolution so we opted to make Ubud our home base and
take day trips to other locations.
This turned out great for us because after the world wind tour of New
Zealand we were really looking for some rest and relaxation. We
negotiated a taxi ride and a short hour later were in Ubud.
We drove by the Monkey Forest on the way to find a hotel and monkeys
were running around everywhere. It was really cool and we were excited
to explore it later. Our driver took us to a couple of hotels near the
Monkey Forest so we could find what worked best for us. He was really
kind and didn't want to just drop us somewhere until we found what we
needed.
We found a nice place called
It was about $30 a night, included breakfast, air conditioning, a pool
and walking distance to the Monkey Forest. In fact monkeys were often
just hanging around the hotel.
The monkeys are brazen and mischievous. If you've got food and they
are around, watch out, there is a good chance they'll jump on you and
grab your food. One morning while eating breakfast in the open air
covered dining area some monkeys were up in the coconut trees next to
us actually throwing coconuts down at people until they were chased
off by the hotel staff. (Silly monkeys).
After spending an arm and a leg traveling around Australia and New
Zealand it was nice to be back in a wallet friendly zone. A nice meal
cost about $3. There are more expensive places but they are over
priced and unnecessary.
We spent a couple days just lounging around and catching up on the
needed R&R. Then we rented a motor scooter for a few days to explore
the island. It was only $5 a day to rent/hire a gas powered scooter
and it only cost $1 to fill up the gas tank. We drove all over about
half of the island and spent maybe $7 on gas.
Bali is full of motor scooters. Inexpensive, easy to maintain and
quick through traffic, they are the transportation method of choice
for the locals.
We love taking things in via motor scooter while traveling wherever
it's a big mode of transportation for the locals. We really feel much
more a part of everything and closer to the culture around us on a
scooter. Weaving in and out of traffic with the locals. Bunching up
with dozens of other scooters at a stop light. Seeing the countryside
all around us. Feeling the wind and smelling the distinct local
scents. Hearing all the different sounds and listening to the differed
language and interactions of the people. Exploring side streets, dirt
roads, small paths, etc. However, driving in another country,
especially on a scooter, can be very hazardous and should never be
taken lightly. Very loose or non-existent traffic rules and crazy
drivers, poor road conditions, livestock and other animals in the
road, etc. Driving a scooter in these conditions is not for the faint
hearted and you definitely do so at your own risk.
Word to the Wise: Many countries will let you do many risky things but
just because you can doesn't mean you should. Know your own limits and
follow the DBS rule...Don't Be Stupid! Your stupid limit will be
different from mine so know your limit.
I'll let pictures and Julie tell the rest.
