So that's the end of that

I'm back in NZ, I'm not sure what everyone else thought of the blog, I had the best intentions to keep it updated but the countries I was travelling to didn't always allow this and the speed at which I went through central america meant it was nearly impossible to email home let alone organise thoughts enough for a blog entry. I like the idea that I can go back and read over it again like a flash journal with pictures but I know it's proabably more interesting for me than those left at home. The biggest problem I found with doing large chunks of it weeks or months after the fact meant I've left out the most entertaining bits when I thought at the time "i must tell so and so about that!" but it never made it to paper and I can't remember what it was or what city I was in! Anyway, better get onto planning the next trip!

This little piggy . . .

English Breakfast
9th Feb
100baht (NZ$4) for 2 eggs, toast, bacon and chips.
I sat on the beach a lot and got a bit pink. Then I cooked my own red curry chicken for lunch with help from the girls in the kitchen (I still have to pay for it) really simple to make and tastes great. Swimming this afternoon and pork noodles for dinner. Watched a movie The Cave, wasn’t too bad.
10th Feb
My last full day on Koh Payam
So of course I had scrambled eggs for breakfast, packed my bags and did some washing. I walked all the way to the end of the beach (Big Tree Bungalows down that end) then back to Baan Suan for a bacon baguette – I swear the food just gets better and better. I had an afternoon swim and more seabass (steamed with spicy, garlic and lime) for dinner and a movie with Jet Li and some X gamers? I had a couple of beers with Rasana and a chat about how her mother bought the land the bungalows are on for 7baht/rai of land (not sure how much land that is?) she started out growing crops then when the tourists started coming Rasana built the bungalows.
11th Feb
Travel day today:
Breakfast (fruit yoghurt and muesli)
Swim
Pack
Bacon baguette lunch
Motorbike taxi (ordered yesterday) to boat
2hours 20 min boat ride (hard wooden seats – wear a hat)
taxi to Ruangrat Road to pass the time at the market where I bought a Thai DVD I had watched some of on the island. Spent some time on the internet and managed to get 1 whole photo onto digitalmax!
Caught the 8pm overnight bus to Bangkok.
The 12, 13 and the morning of the 14th I spent shopping in Bangkok and I visited the Grand Palace and Wat Arun (a must see).
Shopped at MBK (Like an indoor, and therefore air conditioned, market 7 floors high)
Chit Lom and Siam Square (large multi-storied mall with lots of flash shops, and some really really flash shops – I just window shopped here! Bought almost everything at MBK).Then Caught 5:25pm flight to Sydney stayed the night then on to Wellington
arriving home on the
16th February 2007
Kathryn picked me up from the airport, so great to see her, then we drove to the Naki stopping for Subway on the way!

It's a strange feeling, very exciting to be home again to see everyone and see what's changed but it's also almost as if you haven't been away because not much has visibly changed and you almost wish it had because you have changed so much from being away and yet you have to keep reminding yourself that you did in fact travel around the world and have been gone for nearly 10 months because it's alomst too hard to believe. I know that makes almost no sense whatsoever but I'm going to leave it here as a reminder to myself in years to come of that churning feeling in my chest I don't like very much but couldn't live without.

Sea Kayaking

After my fruit and yoghurt breakfast I went down the beach to hire a sea kayak (2.5hours 200baht) It was a great day for it, a light breeze and the sun shining. I headed out to a small rock sticking out of the ocean on the edge of the bay and circled it to get a look at the birds and crabs then headed towards the other side of the bay (the end I was staying) and around the point where I stopped at a tiny beach. It was rocky but the water very clear and lots of crabs everywhere.


By this time I was getting quite hot and knew I had a long way to go to get home so I headed back, the wind had picked up quite a bit and my nice breeze turned into a head-on wind as I aimed for the beach. It took a while to get back but felt good to be out on the water and using my muscles!! I drank more than 3 litres of water before lunch too!! Lunch as it happens was absolutely brilliant, red curry chicken on rice at Baan Suan. Then dinner that night was fried seabass with a crunchy garlic pepper topping. I will be sad to leave this place!

This is the view from my part of the beach into the bay, you can see the rock

I kayaked around in the distance (not the far distance!)

The most important things I learnt in Thailand.

Never, ever put your hand (or your foot) into a dark place before (you are sure) nobody else is already happily ensconced there.
This goes for your clothes, hanging on the line or lying on the floor. Your bed – shake blankets and pillows before every use.
Check windows before opening in case large green cicada-like insects with obscenely long legs are out there, waiting.
Shine a torch on the ceiling to be sure no large wasps are laying eggs. (Although the geckos eating them are less of a worry.)
Look into the toilet, and the bathroom in general to ensure frogs have not taken up residence. Have a really, really good look inside the toilet water, the small pail with a handle in a large container of water for pouring in the toilet may just have a resident spider that refuses to be re-homed that insists on running up your arm when you want to flush the toilet.
And when you take a seat for dinner, check above your head – those ants crawling on the beam may not be much of a threat but once the lights go on and large beetles are smacking excitedly into the light these ants may become dislodged (and angry) and end up in your plate :-)

Relaxing on the beach

6th Feb
The only problem with staying here is there’s no kitchen for me to use so I have to order all my food, but there are a number of restaurants along the beach for me to choose from.
I had fruit, yoghurt and muesli for breakfast sunbathed for a while and went for a swim in the warm calm waters just steps from my bungalow. Then I walked along the beach, checked my email, watched a movie, had a few drinks of Thai rum and went to a party with free bbq down the beach (how many drunk people can you fit on a scooter driving along the beach??).
I love Thai scrambled eggs with toast, everything else I eat is very Thai but I like to have scrambled eggs for breakfast!!

Today I walked to town. The 'road' the scooters drive on is more like a footpath through the cashew trees from one side of the island to the other and north from the dock to beaches on the east coast of the island. So I stopped at "middle village" a restaurant partway over to the town where I had lunch (more Phad Thai) I had a look around the town, (little shops for food, some clothes and a bakery) booked a ticket out of there and a bus ticket to Bangkok on the 11th. I caught a taxi back to Smile Hut and walked along the beach to my place before taking a well deserved nana nap!

We arrived back at Chiang Mai at 5pm and after a well needed shower and a lie-down we went to Utopia for a buffet dinner, where you got to cook your own meat.

Wednesday 31st January
I caught a minibus from Chiang Mai to Pai which took 4 hours (270baht VIP).
Pai is a small village so I walked down to Breeze of Pai as I had seen an ad on our lunch stop from Chiang Mai 300baht for a nice quiet private room with a hot shower towels and toilet paper included. I walked around town for a while and across the river then had a look at their small night market.
It’s February – almost home time!
Apple Pai
Slice of Pai
Pai in the sky
Utopai
Some interesting shop names!
I spent some time on the internet at 1baht/minute had chicken and potato “pie” for breakfast. Went to a nice restaurant called Duang for lunch and had fried rice, pineapple pork which was amazingly great and a lovely banana shake. I found a second hand Thailand book so I can try and figure out where I’m going next.
The next morning I walked up to the nearby Temple for a view over the countryside and Pai. It sounds strange but I had deep fried doughnuts for breakfast which is quite common here (would normally be a bit heavy but since I’d already been walking a while was quite good). I showered and checked out of my hostel and spent some time hanging out at Duang again, I had a spicy coconut chicken soup and they meant spicy! Caught the 1:30pm bus to Chiang Mai. And picked up a bag of sticky rice and spicy green chicken for tea before boarding the overnight bus to BKK at 8:30pm arriving at 6am on the 3rd. I caught a taxi to the Southern Bus Terminal and caught the next bus to Puachuap Kiri Khan at 8am after finding food and water (which was cheaper at the 7/11 across the road than in the station shops). Once at Kiri Khan I found a hotel then walked along the waterfront and saw my first Thai monkeys. I had wanted to go to the caves that the book claimed were nearby but it would have been too expensive by tuk tuk and it was too windy to visit the nearby beach. So I just looked at the day market, had a shower, then found my dinner at the night market where I had seafood on a stick and deep fried battered fish pieces (very puffy). While there I met James, an American who has been travelling a lot in India Thailand and Malaysia. He was very interested in my trip to South America and recommended an island of the coast of Ranong for a nice beach and a quiet atmosphere. We talked for a few hours then I was ready for bed.
This morning I climbed the steps up a nearby hill to the Temple there, there were a lot of monkeys. Locals were selling peanuts and bananas to feed them. There was a family walking ahead of me with a huge bag of bananas so the monkeys were all over the steps, I had a scary moment or two when one lunged at me with bared teeth on the 1.5m wide staircase. No way was I feeding the buggers! I also visited the Temple at the bottom of the hill but got scared off by the barking dogs. I checked out of my hostel and spent some time on the internet before getting a tuk tuk out to the main road to catch the bus to Ranong (which lucky for me was late as I had been told the wrong time!). Stayed at Sin Tawee (160baht) after a ride on a motorbike taxi from the bus station. Found a little restaurant for dinner after checking out the poor options at the market. My shower dripped all night . . . . .
At Pon’s Place the next morning I organised a bungalow on Koh Payam and had pancakes and bananas for breakfast. Then caught the 9:30am boat to the island (arrived 12:30) then a motorbike taxi to Baan Suan Kayoo at Ao Yai which is right at the end of the 3km long beach.

My Bungalow at Baan Suan Kayoo



The open air restaurant very nice, with a book swap. I had Phad Thai for lunch then walked down the beach to Hornbill Bungalows to use their internet.

28th Jan was the first day of a 3day trek, Richard and Jelle from my hostel + 8 others, Kiki and Ken our guides. We visited a temple and a waterfall and stayed the night in a Karen Village.
29th The 3day trekkers split from the overnight trekkers this morning a lot more actual walking today, just four of us including Ken so very relaxed, lots of pine trees. We swam briefly at one waterfall before eating our prepacked that morning, leafwrapped lunch of noodles, Ken made us all freshly cut chopsticks.
We arrived at a little village (6 families) where tea was cooked for us and we played with the puppies and had quick cold showers before it got too cold, also got to try what the locals (including Ken) were having for tea spicy egg with sticky rice – I love sticky rice. Not that our spring onion dish wasn’t great too!! (the green bits)

Rice Paddys

30th Jan
Made a side trip to another waterfall, bit cold for me to go swimming, then we just had a short walk to the nearby restaurant where we had lunch and headed off to do bamboo rafting and elephant riding. The bamboo rafting was fun we made a race out of it against another 2 groups the bamboo raft is made up of about 5m long bamboo poles lashed together until it was about 1m wide, there was a little seat in the middle and the guy that knew what he was doing steered with a pole in the front and someone helped out at the back, except we thought we’d be great at this so demoted the professional. The rafting is done on a narrow, windy and rocky stream so you need to be pretty skilled in knowing when to dig your pole in and swing the raft around, I was out by about a mm, I thought I had made it past a rock, so I took my eyes off it and instead met the water head first over the front of the raft!! Rather painful exit from my turn at captain but very entertaining for the other rafts!! It also meant we lost our lead but managed to gain it back again just before the finish line. Then off to the elephant riding, by which time I was regaining the use of my jarred foot. All three of us rode the same elephant, always female elephants, and don’t let them see the sugar cane or bananas before you get on or they wont work!

26th January

Packed and checked out, left my jeans/galabaha from Egypt and sleeping bag in storage at the hostel then spent 3 hours at an internet café updating my blog, I’m still in France unfortunately so a long way to go to catch up! Plus emailed home. Caught an overnight bus to Chiang Mai (5pm from TAT office) ate in a 2nd floor market nearby before we left had chicken wrapped around a sausage and coated in cornflakes, very interesting. It was so cold on the bus, they gave us blankets and pillows but the a/c was on high and very noisy was sitting opposite it near the back of the bus. Was given a strange sandwich and a green sponge thing with a drink then we stopped at 11pm for dinner, noodle soup and a drink although I’m still not sure if I should have had both, instructions weren’t very clear to any of us tourists.
Today Melissa is 12 weeks pregnant.
I arrived at 4am in Chiang Mai was transferred to the Family Tribe Hotel (Booked at TAT office and went straight to bed. When alive again walked around the moat area of Chiang Mai (actually very large city but interesting bits in one area where most hotels etc are), visited some Wat then went shopping at the night market which was the best I’ve seen.

Wednesday

I didn’t sleep very well last night, probably still catching up on jetlag so stayed in bed till lunchtime which made me feel much better, especially after lunch from a stall next to the hostel where I had fish (“little hot” which turned out to be fiery for me!) with rice and deepfried sweet potato (or similar).
On Thursday I went to see Wat Po also known as the Reclining Budda

He had Mother of Pearl inlaid into his feet depicting everything from flowers to elephants.
That night I went to Patpong Market with Anne, a Canadian from my hostel, there was loads of rip-off brands, clothes and watches etc plus some pretty cool stuff clothes and lights.

Thailand

Monday 22 January
I arrived in Bangkok and took a very expensive taxi to Big John’s hostel 220baht/night with 20min free internet per day and 30baht off breakfast. I slept most of the day and ate noodles and pork at the hostel.
NZ$1 = 25 Baht
On Tuesday I had scrambled eggs for breakfast with real toast then wandered around the hostel area and got supremely lost. Managed to find my way to the Skytrain which I caught down to the Central Pier (Skytrain very neat and tidy can buy day pass for 120baht from machine or friendly lady in a box, passengers patiently line up to board after other passengers have disembarked, in other words the opposite of London!) Ate some great chicken at the pier and caught one of the regular boats down the river. I met an Irish girl called Laura on the boat and we went into China Town (18baht fare for express boat) where Laura bought some dragon tea then we caught a tuk tuk to Hao San Road which is where most of the hostels are located, very touristy and noisy and lots of young people. Not somewhere I wanted to stay. We walked back to the river caught the last boat back to Cantral Pier and headed to a vegetarian restaurant called Tamarind near my hostel. I had Vietnamese summer rolls and phad thai, quite expensive but very nice and posh. Made it home for a shower and bed ~11pm
All in all a fun and exciting day with lots to see!