We flew into Bangkok after a knackering 40 hours of awakefulness, the monotony of which was only broken by the airports of Cairns and Sydney, and 4 feature length films on the flight over to Bangkok. Due to Linz having some sort of Sub-economy ticket, she couldnt be fitted on our flight, so had to follow Clare and i the next day.
Bangkok was crazy; very very dirty ( you can actually see the pollution hanging in the air) very hot and humid, which equals reams of sweat everywhere,and a higly dangerous rode system filled with Tuk tuks ( motor bikes with a traior on the back- very good for nipping around in)scooters, angry taxis and pedestrians everywhere. Thyis is coupled with added issue of getting from A to B, with every Tuk Tuk driver insisting on taking you to a gem fatory, or cloth store, or boat ride etc ( they get fuel vouchers from the establishment owners) on route, even if you empahtically state you dont want to go. At first, very annoying, but after 5 days, it actually becomes pretty funny! Despite all this, i loved Bangkok, and the energy and madnes was a welcome change from the predictabilty of Australia and New Zealand. The temples especially have to be seen to be believed- Wat Phra Kaew, in the grounds of the Grand palace is a huge haven of glittering temples, right in the middle of Bankok, and WatPho houses the iconic 46 m long, gold reclining Buddha- both well worth the heat.
After taking in a lady boy show, Khao san road ( THE backpacker haven of Bangkok, and pretty good in small doses)and getting our Vietnam visas sorted, after our 5 ish day in Bagkok ( and reunited with Linz) we headed up north to Chiang Mai on the 14 hour over night train. Chiang Mai is a beautiful city, tiny compared to Bangkok, and still retaining in the old sector the original city walls, though housing just as many temples as bangkok. The old tricks still go here; a taxi driver said he woud take us to the main temples for 100B bewteen the three of us ( about 1.30 pounds) if we would go to some factorys first - 6 latre, it was pretty tedious, but we saw a lot for not a lot!
The next day, we headed off intrepidly into the jungle on a three day trek ( i was ill the first day, classy, but recovered shortly after- same couldnt be said for poor Linz). It was amazing! We rode elephants, stayed with the hilltribes, the hill tribes children sang to us ( organised chaos, but very cute!) swam in water falls, and went bamboo rafting on the last day. Even when Clare got knocked into the water off the raft by an unruley tree trunk, didnt dampen the spirits!
Next stage of the journey is to head to Laos- we get picked up at about noon today,and get taken to Hua Xing on the Laos border. Then tommorow we cross over, and take a two day slow boat through Loas to Luang Prabang. Very Excited!! Must dash, Coz i havent packed!
