After having had a ball in Cambodia it was
off to Thailand. We had been told some rather chilling tails involving young
tourists in Thailand from the infamous gem and tailor scams to actually being
beat up by 10 Thai guys and then being arrested by the police for fighting. We couldn’t
wait to go! After Danny was an idiot and had his knife confiscated from his
hand luggage at airport security (the Cambodians are relaxed, but not that
relaxed) we bored the plane to Bangkok. I was almost instantly hit by a horrific allergy attack from the planes air-con and spent the next hour irritating everyone with my sneezing etc, not nice. There was quite a line for the immigration post so using my cunning and charm I managed to get sent through the important foreign diplomats station. The women behind the desk instantly realised I wasn't a foreign diplomat but found it so funny that I had been put there she stamped me through anyway, ahahah. After meeting up with Lauren in the airport (she had been waiting for us for nearly nine hours, ouch) we headed for our hotel. This hotel wasn't the Ritz but it did have one feature that will go down as legend, the shower. This shower, it was like being bathed in a waterfall from heaven, mixed with unicorn tears and everything else wonderful. Tom and I must have been there for an hour each. After going to see the new hunger games (seeing a cinema again was a nice change but when we had to sing the nation anthem before started that was an interesting change) we bored a sleeper train to Chang Mai. Tom was promptly ripped off within 10 minutes and i almost stepped on a sleeping child in the dark, but 17 hours later we arrived in the cold north.
Chang Mai was one big adventure park, so many things to do, so little time.The main reason I had heard of Chang Mai was it's Tiger Park. This place breeds tigers and has been breeding tigers for years. The difference is the tigers are bred in the company of people thus over the generations have become totally tame. For those of you who haven't seen the photos on Facebook, I got to hug a tiger, a TIGER!!! They were quite possibly the most cuddly thing in the entire world, certainly a close second behind my chickens. Lying next to them was so surreal, I could never have imagined being allowed to do it. They were like big stripy pillows but with huge claws and teeth and that were breathing. I am sure I have seen things that fit that description in the mess in my sisters room but those are certainly not tame.
This however was not the scariest experience in Chang Mai, there were two others that topped it. First there was a completely innocent visit to Burger King. Everyone knows Burger King, a slightly more expensive version of McDonald's, just usual stuff. Wrong! This was Thailand Burger King and there was something slightly different on the menu, a TRIPLE WHOPPER BACON AND CHEESE!!! Imagine three normal whoppers, large even then, but stacked one on top of another. This was the behemoth that was served here. So naturally i challenged my travel partner Danny to finish a whole one. He also went large on chips and drink because as my dad has always told me 'Son, if a job is worth doing it's worth doing well'. It came to early 450baht, almost ten pounds. It was a struggle and there were points were we thought h would fail but Danny did manage to devour the beast, amazing.
Now comes the most intense and scariest experience, possibly of travelling altogether. We had been told of the dense and incredible jungle that completely surrounds Chang Mai and so had to experience it. We were recommended a whole day adventure trip, seemed safe enough. It started with a scenic bike ride, taking us along a river, through fields and hills with amazing limestone rock cliffs and huge hanging trees and vines. You could hear nothing but the crunch of gravel and the sound of birds, bliss. We rode for maybe an hour until we reached my most anticipated moment of the day, the elephant camp. I had the opportunity to ride an elephant, how many people from Gairloch can say that. Our group was however was slightly large so someone had to sit on the elephants head instead of in the seat. Step up tom. He described it almost like sitting on a hair brush, although a very large, grey and moving hairbrush that hit him with its ears every 20 seconds. We trekked through the jungle on our elephants still struggling to grasp quite what we were doing. Everything was going nicely until our elephant decided she had had enough of just plodding along. In a swift movement she turned off the path and into the trees at a brisk pace. Our faces were hit with branches, seeds, leaves, vines and everything else in-between. I think she was just bored and hungry, Lauren was convinced she was trying to kill us. Our guide finally managed to rectify the situation.
Now comes the scary bit, after the elephant trek was our white water rafting experience. We travelled up river and were briefed. The rapid goes from 1 to 6 with 6 being almost 90% un-survivable. We would be experiencing category 5 rapids, yeah. We set off fine, traversed the first few rapids with little difficulty, just a few bumps. Maybe half way through however came a rather larger rapid. Here during a particularly tricky corner, the raft almost flipped, onto my side. I was out of the raft, my head was under the water for a significant amount of time. Thankfully our captain managed to grab and hold my ankle while still steering the raft. I survived just. That brought our time in Chang Mai to a rather intense end. The next morning we went to the 2nd Hobbit film on release day, the went even further north to the sleepy town of Pai This was the perfect backpacker spot: chilled, relaxed, peaceful. We spent the day chilling by the river and the night hanging out with other people doing excatly what we were doing. It was also incredibly cold, so cold that you could see your breath in front of your face. We did rent mopeds one day to visit the countryside around Pai. The highlight of that was pulling into a temple car park and find an entire biker convoy, all riding large, noisy manly bikes. Oh did i mention our mopeds were bright pink (they were the only two left for hire). We said joining the as they departed the temple would be immature and childish s naturally we did it anyway. Riding back into town we felt very macho.
After Pai, south we went. We wanted to see the Thailand's famous east coast tourist islands. We had to take a ferry to Koh Tao. This was quite possibly the worst journey ever! The sea was very very rough, I mean Scotland rough. We were lurching all over the place for nearly two hours, this was before 7 in the morning. The worst part was the vomiting. People everywhere were chucking up, loudly. It was horrible, I had to put my music on full volume to drown out the noise. Finally we reached the island all looking rather pale. That night we went for a stroll down the beach, just chilling. What we found was incredible. There was a huge fire show, complete with performers, flaming jump rope and limbo. Being of course completely awesome, I decided I could totally jump the flaming skipping rope. 3 times I tried, 3 times I epically failed. The next morning I awoke to find I had burnt all the hair off my legs. They were as smooth as a babies bum, softer than the tigers in Chang Mai. It was utterly hilarious! Next day was probably the day one of us would regret most from the whole holiday. We rented mopeds again and attempted to drive to the top of the islands mountain. Halfway up, Tom drove his moped off the road. Due to the contracts we had signed, we were charged for any damage caused. Tom was out 11000baht, which I then had to bail him out for.
We left Koh Tao very poor, but Christmas was approaching and we had arranged to meet in Phuket. This was the ultimate south Thailand tourist location with huge packed beaches, night life, shopping and great food. Unfortunately we found it was also the seedy capital of Thailand. It was rather horrible to see all the old men that were clearly only there for one reason, and it wasn't to enjoy the beach. We still had a good time and had an amazing Xmas lunch, it was an all you can eat buffet complete with silly party hats and party poppers.
After Phuket it was nearing the end of our travels. We had to take a local Thai commuter train to reach the border. You know when you are packing a rucksack and you are sure there is room for just more things, this train was like that. There was sometimes 3 people to a seat, stand, people in luggage racks, everything. We survived and reached the border squashed but alive. On walking over the border however i tripped, causing my legs to start bleeding. I have to say walking over an Asian border covered in blood is not the experience ever, but I was let into the country.
Finally after being away for almost two months we were back in Malaysia our now home. I think one of the best bits about going on holiday is the feeling when you get back home, and this was no different. I also returned to 14 dead cockroaches in the house, lucky me. My two months travelling round South East Asia will possibly be one of the most experiences of my entire life. My horizons were certainly broadened, I did many things ill remember and a few things ill regret but all the memories wll last forever.
Back to Project now, ready to take on the New Year.
Chang Mai was one big adventure park, so many things to do, so little time.The main reason I had heard of Chang Mai was it's Tiger Park. This place breeds tigers and has been breeding tigers for years. The difference is the tigers are bred in the company of people thus over the generations have become totally tame. For those of you who haven't seen the photos on Facebook, I got to hug a tiger, a TIGER!!! They were quite possibly the most cuddly thing in the entire world, certainly a close second behind my chickens. Lying next to them was so surreal, I could never have imagined being allowed to do it. They were like big stripy pillows but with huge claws and teeth and that were breathing. I am sure I have seen things that fit that description in the mess in my sisters room but those are certainly not tame.
This however was not the scariest experience in Chang Mai, there were two others that topped it. First there was a completely innocent visit to Burger King. Everyone knows Burger King, a slightly more expensive version of McDonald's, just usual stuff. Wrong! This was Thailand Burger King and there was something slightly different on the menu, a TRIPLE WHOPPER BACON AND CHEESE!!! Imagine three normal whoppers, large even then, but stacked one on top of another. This was the behemoth that was served here. So naturally i challenged my travel partner Danny to finish a whole one. He also went large on chips and drink because as my dad has always told me 'Son, if a job is worth doing it's worth doing well'. It came to early 450baht, almost ten pounds. It was a struggle and there were points were we thought h would fail but Danny did manage to devour the beast, amazing.
Now comes the most intense and scariest experience, possibly of travelling altogether. We had been told of the dense and incredible jungle that completely surrounds Chang Mai and so had to experience it. We were recommended a whole day adventure trip, seemed safe enough. It started with a scenic bike ride, taking us along a river, through fields and hills with amazing limestone rock cliffs and huge hanging trees and vines. You could hear nothing but the crunch of gravel and the sound of birds, bliss. We rode for maybe an hour until we reached my most anticipated moment of the day, the elephant camp. I had the opportunity to ride an elephant, how many people from Gairloch can say that. Our group was however was slightly large so someone had to sit on the elephants head instead of in the seat. Step up tom. He described it almost like sitting on a hair brush, although a very large, grey and moving hairbrush that hit him with its ears every 20 seconds. We trekked through the jungle on our elephants still struggling to grasp quite what we were doing. Everything was going nicely until our elephant decided she had had enough of just plodding along. In a swift movement she turned off the path and into the trees at a brisk pace. Our faces were hit with branches, seeds, leaves, vines and everything else in-between. I think she was just bored and hungry, Lauren was convinced she was trying to kill us. Our guide finally managed to rectify the situation.
Now comes the scary bit, after the elephant trek was our white water rafting experience. We travelled up river and were briefed. The rapid goes from 1 to 6 with 6 being almost 90% un-survivable. We would be experiencing category 5 rapids, yeah. We set off fine, traversed the first few rapids with little difficulty, just a few bumps. Maybe half way through however came a rather larger rapid. Here during a particularly tricky corner, the raft almost flipped, onto my side. I was out of the raft, my head was under the water for a significant amount of time. Thankfully our captain managed to grab and hold my ankle while still steering the raft. I survived just. That brought our time in Chang Mai to a rather intense end. The next morning we went to the 2nd Hobbit film on release day, the went even further north to the sleepy town of Pai This was the perfect backpacker spot: chilled, relaxed, peaceful. We spent the day chilling by the river and the night hanging out with other people doing excatly what we were doing. It was also incredibly cold, so cold that you could see your breath in front of your face. We did rent mopeds one day to visit the countryside around Pai. The highlight of that was pulling into a temple car park and find an entire biker convoy, all riding large, noisy manly bikes. Oh did i mention our mopeds were bright pink (they were the only two left for hire). We said joining the as they departed the temple would be immature and childish s naturally we did it anyway. Riding back into town we felt very macho.
After Pai, south we went. We wanted to see the Thailand's famous east coast tourist islands. We had to take a ferry to Koh Tao. This was quite possibly the worst journey ever! The sea was very very rough, I mean Scotland rough. We were lurching all over the place for nearly two hours, this was before 7 in the morning. The worst part was the vomiting. People everywhere were chucking up, loudly. It was horrible, I had to put my music on full volume to drown out the noise. Finally we reached the island all looking rather pale. That night we went for a stroll down the beach, just chilling. What we found was incredible. There was a huge fire show, complete with performers, flaming jump rope and limbo. Being of course completely awesome, I decided I could totally jump the flaming skipping rope. 3 times I tried, 3 times I epically failed. The next morning I awoke to find I had burnt all the hair off my legs. They were as smooth as a babies bum, softer than the tigers in Chang Mai. It was utterly hilarious! Next day was probably the day one of us would regret most from the whole holiday. We rented mopeds again and attempted to drive to the top of the islands mountain. Halfway up, Tom drove his moped off the road. Due to the contracts we had signed, we were charged for any damage caused. Tom was out 11000baht, which I then had to bail him out for.
We left Koh Tao very poor, but Christmas was approaching and we had arranged to meet in Phuket. This was the ultimate south Thailand tourist location with huge packed beaches, night life, shopping and great food. Unfortunately we found it was also the seedy capital of Thailand. It was rather horrible to see all the old men that were clearly only there for one reason, and it wasn't to enjoy the beach. We still had a good time and had an amazing Xmas lunch, it was an all you can eat buffet complete with silly party hats and party poppers.
After Phuket it was nearing the end of our travels. We had to take a local Thai commuter train to reach the border. You know when you are packing a rucksack and you are sure there is room for just more things, this train was like that. There was sometimes 3 people to a seat, stand, people in luggage racks, everything. We survived and reached the border squashed but alive. On walking over the border however i tripped, causing my legs to start bleeding. I have to say walking over an Asian border covered in blood is not the experience ever, but I was let into the country.
Finally after being away for almost two months we were back in Malaysia our now home. I think one of the best bits about going on holiday is the feeling when you get back home, and this was no different. I also returned to 14 dead cockroaches in the house, lucky me. My two months travelling round South East Asia will possibly be one of the most experiences of my entire life. My horizons were certainly broadened, I did many things ill remember and a few things ill regret but all the memories wll last forever.
Back to Project now, ready to take on the New Year.
Great stories - so pleased you are having such a varied time! Ailisx
ReplyDelete