Adventures of a megasaurus

Photos: Thailand part 1

lisaj72 — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 11:16:00 GMT

Bangkok & Chiang Mai

Thailand, part 1

lisaj72 — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 11:09:00 GMT

Sorry for my pathetic lack of blog entries over the past few weeks, as I am now the proud owner of a shiny new Macbook I'll be able to keep in touch more regularly :-) Here's part 1 of my Thailand trip...

Arrived Bangkok 17th Jan for a couple of days, had heard that would be all I needed and I have to agree… First impressions were: dirty, smelly, chaotic! You took your life in your hands crossing the road as no-one stops for you, even at crossings - and taxi drivers were a nightmare, if you insisted they put the meter on, or tried to negotiate the ridiculously high rip-off fare, some would just drive off! My hostel was near Patpong Market, which was an experience in itself - should have been called Ping Pong market, with all the seedy bars and 'shows' nearby.. even as a woman on her own I was being hassled to come in, being constantly stopped and shown a menu of different tricks that the women perform!! The massage place next door to my hostel was even offering 'special testicle massage'... Went for a wander to check out the quality of the local ladyboys, then decided to call it a night. The next day I decided to do the tourist thing and take the Chaophraya river boat (no more taxis for me!) to see the major temples - Wat Arun, Wat Pho and the Grand Palace. All very impressive, but by this point I was all templed-out and very hot, ended up chatting to a guy over lunch and we went for cocktails at a rooftop bar while watching the sun set over Wat Arun… a great end to the day. A visit to Bangkok wouldn't be complete without going to the Khao San Road (where all the backpackers are -I wasn't impressed) where I had a massage, before I caught the overnight sleeper train to Chiang Mai. 16 hours (and a surprisingly good kip) later I arrived, Chiang Mai was literally a breath of fresh air after the madness of Bangkok. There is a brilliant night market every Sunday, so had a wander round and sampled some of the great street food, so cheap, most dishes around 20 baht (less than 50p). The next day I was up early to start my 2 week volunteering at the Elephant Nature Park, little did I know that they would turn out to be 2 of the best weeks of my life…

After we arrived and were shown around, the first thing we did was bathe the elephants in the river (and each other!) really great fun. We soon discovered that the main tasks would be: a) poo and b) food. When we weren't doing that, we were doing other tasks such as making mud pits for the elephants to roll in, building fence posts, and the worst job of all…cutting corn - we had to cut down a whole field of corn with machetes, and then bundle it up and carry it to the truck - in the blazing heat, not a nice task! As a reward we went tubing down the river so it wasn't all bad… the park is an amazing place, home to 35 elephants rescued from all kinds of terrible situations and who have suffered horrendous abuse throughout their lives. They can now live out the rest of their days in a wonderful place where they will never have to work or be beaten again. The owner, Lek, is truly inspirational - dedicating her life to saving elephants, although sadly there is so much more to be done... The park is also home to around 400 dogs, mostly rescued from the Bangkok floods - not to mention many cats too! Anyone who knows me will know that this is the perfect place for me :-) What made the experience even better were the fantastic group of volunteers who were there, we all got on so well and had a great laugh, not to mention the volunteer co-ordinators who work at the park, so entertaining, really great guys who do a fantastic job.

For the second week, a few of us went to live with a hill tribe, 8 hours outside Chiang Mai. The money we paid goes to the villagers so they will keep their elephants with them to roam freely rather than being leased out to trekking camps, so its a great programme. The journey there was long, with the last 2 hours crammed into the back of a truck, not the most comfortable ride ever! Arrived at the village and set up our 'beds' (thin mats on the floor & a sleeping bag under a mozzie net) in one of the family houses. The villagers were really friendly, and the kids just wanted to play - just a shame we couldn't speak their language! I've never seen kids who have so little, be so happy - could definitely teach Western kids a thing or two… I fell in love with one little girl, wished I could have taken her home! 'The 'facilities' in the village left a lot to be desired, no electricity, hot water, or wifi (so no Facebook!!) The next few days were spent trekking to follow the elephants in the wild (was amazing to see them in their natural habitat and particularly to see twin elephants which are very rare), learning about the villagers and their lives and trying to learn how to cook some Thai dishes; nights were spent around the camp fire with Toby playing his guitar, and havng a drink (or two!) After one late night we had to wake at 5.30am to climb up a big hill to watch the sunrise - halfway up I was definitely wondering what the hell I was doing there but the view was well worth it. On the last night we had a traditional Thai dinner with the villagers in their houses, had a bit of a Q&A with them, bought some of the hand woven items the women in the village made, and took some last pics… Again, I had an amazing group of people to share the experience with, which made it so special. I didn't want to leave…

But leave I had to, and spent the next couple of days on a post-elephant comedown, before heading off to a little place called Pai for a couple of days. Not much to do there really, and it was so hot, so I just chilled and arranged the next leg of my trip, heading down south to Koh Phangan to spend a week with Monica, who I met during my week at the village. Was definitely looking forward to some beach time & relaxation!

Last few days in Aus

lisaj72 — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 23:21:00 GMT

Well, the last few days of my trip to Melbourne were fab - spent the weekend on the Great Ocean Road, first stop Geelong, where we took a few pics with the various bollards they have there in the shape of people including sailors, fishermen and a town band (see headline pic). Carrying on the drive, we stumbled across a little wildlife park, with an incredibly friendly kangaroo, wallabies and a donkey (which looked just like the donkey off Shrek). The guy at the wildlife park told us about a place where we could see wild koalas, and we did - 20 of them! Most were sleeping in the trees but one was being very adventurous trying to eat the leaves at the very end of the tree branches, we thought he'd fall on us! Too cute for words...

We then went to the Otway Fly treetop walk, which was really high up in the treetops of the rainforest: www.otwayfly.com then stayed the night in a place called Warrnambool, where we had a fab Mexican and fishbowl margarita, then watched the locals getting leathered in an Irish bar! The following day we headed back via the 12 apostles and went for fish & chips at Apollo Bay - the weather had really turned by this point and we were freezing, then to top it off it started to rain... not what we ordered! We stopped off at a few more places, Torquay, Lorne, and Bells Beach, and Lee drove us to a place where he said we were guaranteed to have loads of parrots literally eating out of our hands, so we turned up with a load of bread and they were a complete no-show :-( However the koalas more than made up for it.

That night we thought we'd see if we could get tickets for the Australian Open which started the following day, and to my delight we did, in the equivalent of centre court, to see Maria Sharapova, Novak Djokovic and Samantha Stosur! All great matches and a brilliant atmosphere, weather was amazing and they had a band on after the tennis, it was like being at a mini music festival - a great day all round.

The last couple of days were spent chilling, with a trip to the beach in an attempt to get some kind of colour, then Caz & I went to have a look around some incredible show houses, they were absolutely stunning (might seem an odd thing to do but I absolutely love noseying round houses, especially ones as gorgeous as those!). Having not been on a bicyle in more than 20 years Caz got me out for a cycle round the lake, I really enjoyed it - don't think it would be quite the same at home in cold, hilly Yorkshire though! Ended the trip with a lovely meal at Sam's boatshed in Williamstown, before a tearful goodbye at the airport as I headed off to Thailand...

Thanks so much to Lee & Caz for all the researching, planning, driving, navigating, and being very naughty in not letting me pay for anywhere near as much as I should have! Hope to see you both again when I return to Aus in March/April xx

Australia part 1: Sydney - Melbourne

lisaj72 — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 13:58:00 GMT

Well, been here almost 2 weeks and already done so much! After being ill at home for 2 weeks, developing sinusitis and worrying if I'd be able to fly, I arrived bang on time in Sydney on NYE, went to stay in Normanhurst, a suburb of Sydney, courtesy of Caz's work friend. Free accommodation in return for looking after her 2 cats... Fab! New Year's Eve was brilliant, the atmosphere was amazing, circa 1.5 million people there to see the fireworks, which were spectacular! Went to the Rocks after midnight for a few drinks, then headed back on the train (which had an upstairs!!) for a well-earned sleep. Spent New Year's Day on Palm Beach, where they film Home & Away, then had a bbq in Newport before heading back. Next day headed into Sydney for some sightseeing, thank god I took my cardigan, it was freezing (not by UK standards, but I still needed a cardie ;-)) Went all over, Circular Quay, Darling Harbour, opera house, harbour bridge, and constant quiz questions courtesy of Sue, so had to pay attention!

Then headed off to Manly in the evening to meet a friend of Sue's, had a great night and arranged to meet at Watson's Bay the following day for some sunbathing and lunch. Went for a walk via the nudist beach and saw some real sights.. none of them good! Fish & chip lunch (love how they do grilled fish with chips here) and then went to Fox Entertainment Centre to see the dress rehearsal of a new arobatic/burlesque show, Empire. We had front row seats, right next to stage, for free, should have been $149!! The show was brilliant, like having Cirque du Soleil performing in your front room. The banana trick performed by a (married?!) couple had to be seen to be believed!

Following day was our last in Sydney, we went to Wollongong to the beach and rock pool, then to Hyams beach (or hymens beach as Caz misread!!) before arriving at a motel in Batemans Bay for a bbq and overnight stay, missed the funfair unfortunately so watched The Shining in our room. No-one was murdered in the hotel as Sue feared! Next day we made our way to Canberra, was getting hotter and hotter, was 38 degrees when we arrived at the apartment. I still wasn't feeling well so headed off to bed, then we went our for a drive round, was pretty spectacular as it was dark and there was a massive thunderstorm with some impressive lightning! Went into town for some drinks, Canberra felt a bit like any major city in the UK on a Saturday night and there were loads of groups of girls and guys out getting absolutely hammered! Apparently weed is legal in Canberra so everyone was up for a good time!

Next day we had a long drive to our next stop, Albury, where the temp had now reached 41 degrees - I've never felt heat like it. The short walk to the bottle shop was all I could stand, so of course we had to get into the cold tub with some booze to cool ourselves down :-) It was still boiling at 9pm when we headed out for pizza, got barely any sleep that night as it was too hot! Next day was Sue's birthday so we did presents then came back to Altona where Lee & Caz live before heading into Melbourne to meet up with some of Sue's friends for drinks & dinner. Got given the hard sell of how fab Australia is and that we should come and live here! By this point I had already lost track of what day it was, but the next day was spent in the city, I couldn't believe how big Melbourne is, its fab. Went for the weirdest Mexican meal I've ever had (at a place called Mamasitas that was recommended and had people queuing out the door) and then went to see the flames outside Crown Casino.

We booked the penguin tour at Phillip Island the next day, so this was a pretty full-on day, so cute to see koalas, and the tiny little penguins waddling up the beach at night! Didn't get back till 1am so had a bit of a lie-in followed by a couple of hours at the beach. As I'm hardly a sun worshipper I thought I had it sussed sitting in a sun tent (factor 50 protection) without sun cream, but hadn't realised how cold it would be out of the sun, so I ended up coming in and out and got burned for the first time so far!! Then we went for a drive to St Kilda, cool little place, lots of backpackers. Then for a Thai meal with Lee & Caz's English friends and drinks back at the house. Waved Sue off this morning, she's going back to the cold UK...

Off to the Great Ocean Road tomorrow so will update this before I head off to Thailand on Weds! Having such a great time but will be sad to leave my friends and head off to crazy Bangkok on my own!!

Photos: Australia - first leg

lisaj72 — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 08:15:00 GMT

Sydney - Melbourne road trip