Adventures in South East Asia!

Photos: Southern Thailand... all good things must come to an end.

olivercl — Wed, 4 Aug 2010 03:09:00 GMT

Photos: It's a holiday in Cambodia...

olivercl — Tue, 3 Aug 2010 22:38:00 GMT

Flight of the Gibbon!

olivercl — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:13:00 GMT

Swinging through the jungle on zip lines, clamoring over suspension bridges and abseiling down trees made for a very exciting, Tarzan-like time! The course is called "Flight of the Gibbon" and it consists of over 18 platforms and is a total blast!

Here we go!!!

A tandem ride...

Going down...

Weeeee............

Our two guides we hilarious. Peter's favourite part: "Cola? Why not Pepsi?" (well, actually it is CoRa... with an R... nah, I didn't even bother)

After we went on a short hike up to a waterfall and then ate some delicious curry.

We had a lot of fun - maybe a bit too much fun!!!

The next day we were planning on going on an Elephant trek and whitewater rafting but it ended up that we could only get train tickets for that night so we had to cancel our trip. However, before we jumped aboard the train we decided to hit up the local womans prison and get ourselves a massage.

It was fantastic. It also proved to be a great cure for the bar hopping we had done the night before! The prison, if you're wondering, has surprisingly good rehabilitation program and the inmates are trained in hospitality (there was a restaurant there too) or in traditional massage. They are not career criminals and are on their way to being released. They were very kind and it seemed like a very proactive system.

After our massage we climbed aboard our train.

These are the seats and at night they fold them down into beds. Fun!

Because we got some of the last seats we both ended up in top bunks which are smaller and lacking a window. On a positive note they are also cheaper!

A view from the train before it got dark:

And before we knew it... we were back in Bangkok.

We had a few hours to kill before our flight to Phnom Phen so we decided to wander around China Town (since that is where the train station is) it is significantly quieter during the day.

We even hit up our old guesthouse and had some breakfast on the roof. From here we called home and hung around to kill time before making our way to the airport.

We bought some fruit for our journey and said a temporary farwell to Thailand. . .

Photos: Adventures in Chiang Mai

olivercl — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:37:00 GMT

Lazy Days in Chiang Mai

olivercl — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:46:00 GMT

Lazy days are good days!

We spent the next two days in Chiang Mai just taking it easy. The first day we decided to rent bicycles and explore the town a bit better. We ended up at CMU (Chiang Mai University) and spent a lot of time exploring... and then trying to find our way out (no helpful Ring road here!).

Whoa, Schneider Electric really is taking over the world!

Inside a lab. The classrooms are a bit different here. The doors are all open to the outside- like a cheap motel. Labs and rooms are just padlocked shut and I can't imagine how sweltering it must get in those rooms - at least some of the rooms appeared to have air con!

Peter had tons of fun exploring the Engineering buildings and while I had zero desire to explore the Education department I did stop for a picture at the sign :)

Later that night we watched the World Cup final. The fact that the game didn't start until 1:30am our time didn't deter ANYONE from watching or from starting the celebrations early.

Woot Party! We managed find a place to sit and actually watch the game. A nearby restaurant had decided to unexpectedly stay open. When we showed up a small handful of people were there watching and the owner said "only 2 beer left and no food, but sit sit" (the night was going well for her). She ended up calling back her staff or children and they opened the kitchen and went on a booze run. Some staff? were just sleeping on the floor (the game didn't end until after 4am). After the game ended the Thai police had their hands full trying to disperse the crowd. We took a quick video and left while everyone was in a relatively good mood.

The next day we were supposed to join in a cooking class (yes, with only a few hours sleep-not to mention the beer). However, there was some miscommunication with Jim, our guesthouse owner, and we ended up having a free day. Yahoo for lazy days! We spent our day sleeping, eating and wandering around. Later that night we decided to head up to Chiang Mai's Night Safari.

We hoped on a songtaew (which is a modified red pickup truck with seats in the back - it acts like a cross between a taxi and a bus). There are no set stops and you can hire it privately or wave it down and ask if it is going your way.

We're on our way! Here is the view from behind.

Pretty mellow day on the road.

At the safari we got to walk around Swan Lake (just like home!) and look at lot of animals. As we made our way around darkness fell and the pictures stopped turning out. For the most part the animals looked healthy and fairly well taken care of - some of the enclosures had us questioning the safety ... but we survived to tell the tale :)

Peter's favourite! Turtle Power!

Another one of Peter's favourites. This is a deer mouse (too bad it was getting dark) but they run really fast and funny - they were super cute!

Oh, I wanna hippopotamus for Christmas...

After our walk around Swan Lake we hopped aboard the English version of "Savanna Safari" which took us around to see zebras, giraffes, kangaroos etc. Many of these animals were free to come right up to the tram. It was way too dark to get any good pictures and flash wasn't allowed. But they had spotlights and we could easily see the animals. At the end there were elephants that sprayed us with water and did some cute tricks.

Here is a hyenna:

After that was the "predator prowl" which took us close to lions, tigers and bears ... not to mention a lot of other predators that were at a very questionably safe distance. I dont know if a ditch will really deter an angry bear or tiger.

Roar!

Photos: Cooking in Chiang Mai

olivercl — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:37:00 GMT

Cooking class held at an organic Thai farm.

Chiang Mai a breath of fresh air!

olivercl — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:38:00 GMT

We flew Thai Air from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and WOW what a difference from China Eastern. It was as if we were flying in 2010 instead of 1990 (which is what it felt like on China Eastern - of course it was compounded by the fact that we were in the air for over 16 hours with them!). One hour on Air Thai was enough for us to consider paying more for long haul flights... time to start buying lottery tickets maybe?

We arrived in the late evening, got a taxi to our hotel and basically crashed. Traveling is tiring! The next day was spent putting in some leg time and exploring the 'old city' which is conveniently surrounded by a moat and a few brick gates.

This wat (temple) was located around the corner from our guesthouse.

Blue skies! Going to be a good first day I can tell already :)

Here's another. . .

. . . and another.

Actually, this one was a huge golden shrine. With a different Buddha on each side. I couldn't get a picture that captured how awesome it looked. We did get a few at night when it was lit up - which was even cooler. (They were a day later so you'll have to wait!)

One of the 4 Buddhas

A side view and another temple in the background.

Okay, here was a particularly spectacular temple. You can't tell in the picture but the entire place was sparkling in the sun. It was quite a site!

But the most impressive part of this wat was the ruins of an ancient wat in behind.

It had some very interesting statues around. These serpents that appear to be coming from the mouth of a crocodile type animal were found at the bottom of the stairs on all four sides.

Elephants once were all around the temple - However, have been destroyed (either by earthquake or invading armies - there are conflicting stories).

These ones were are reconstruction in the 90's. There is one remaining one that I seem to have forgotten to upload a picture of(it is missing its trunk and ears and is much darker than the new ones).

Monks, in their bright orange, of all ages can be seen all over Chiang Mai.

The following statues were all found in behind the ruins of the old temple. Their size, especially the one that is laying down, was quite impressive.

Um. Okay.

Peter ringing the bells for good luck.

A motto for life. My life.

Another temple...

I believe this one was made of old teak.

Are you getting temple burn out just looking at these select photos? We didn't even take pictures of all the temples we saw on this day! There are so many - and that's just in the old city part of Chiang Mai. After all that temple hoping we required some refreshments.

Fruit juice time!

Yes, it is hot. Very hot and humid. And yes, my drink is neon purple. Yay dragon fruit!

Feeling refreshed we hit up a few more temples and explored a bit more of the area. Then we decided to head on back to our guest house (a new night a new guest house). Since it didn't seem nearly as hot here as it did in Bangkok we decided a fan only room (no a/c) would be manageable. So we spent a whopping 200 Baht (Just under 6 dollars Canadian) on a small room with fan. What we didn't account for was that the place held the days heat in all night... combine that with tiny windows and some dusty fans and you can probably imagine the kind of sleep we got that night.

Here is how I tried to keep cool. . .

I'd run the shower over my legs - or all over - and then go and try off via the fan. . . it was cool for about 30 seconds each time. Not exactly long enough to get to sleep.

Here is Peter in "jail" as we came to call it.

Can you spot our washroom. Yes, it is right behind him. The walls only go up so high. In fact, you could argue that we were sleeping in a washroom.

We also tried keeping the door open and blowing coolish air in from outside. However, when strange large moths and other critters started coming in we decided to scrap that plan. Here is our bird like moth that came to visit. We tired to get the cell phone for perspective... but it didn't work so well :)

And so ends our first day in Chiang Mai. We love it here. So much better than Bangkok. It is much more relaxed and friendly. We even got the experience of low budget rooms. However, after almost no sleep in jail we decided that we were "rich" enough to afford to move. Here is Peter in our next guesthouse (400Baht -12 dollars). It has AC! Doesn't he look happy?

Talk soon, Love Cora & Peter!

Bangkok by Day and Night (Part Three)

olivercl — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:29:00 GMT

For our last night in Bangkok we decided to check out a bit more of the nightlife scene in the Sukhumvit area. It is also near the more seedier area of Bangkok and we saw a lot older foreign men with (surprisingly not so attractive BUT much younger) Thai escorts. As you can see, the local vendors know their market.

Seems just a tad sketchy to us! After exploring our neighbourhood (and no we did not hit up the total sketchy parts where women advertise doing seeming impossible things with their bodies) we decided to try out a few bars.

Our first stop was called "Cheap Charlies" it had a junkyard theme going on and was very popular with the expat crowd and the local backpackers. After a few drinks there we wandered around and tried a street bar - yes, right on the street!

Just a tad different from Canada. Strange setting aside the bartender made the best mojitos!

**We have taken quite a few movies - including one that should fit in right here - soon!**

Just because it is late doesn't mean it's cooled down. Better have another icy one!

After Lisa's awesome street bar we tried another bar or two but they were all closing down. Leaving us with two options 1. the dance club or 2. 7-11 for some beers and snacks. After a bit, the desire for munchies won out and we learned a little more about liquor licensing laws in Thailand. Mainly, 7-11 can only sell alcohol between certain times. After midnight is not one of them. This totally bummed Peter out but we managed to get some bizarre sandwiches and other snacks which improved our mood!

That's crab and seaweed I believe.

Our guesthouse tonight was called "Soi 11" and it was very unique. You can almost walk right by it thinking that it is some sort overgrown garden or a part of Bangkok that the jungle is trying to reclaim. Upon closer inspection you do see the wooden guesthouse that is oozing with character. While more expensive than we'd like to pay, it was in a prime location and just trying to navigate its interior was a feat in itself!

It is one of those places where you can write on the walls. Here is some Canadian pride.

Peter thinks the halls were designed to look like old Bangkok streets... I think they just knocked out what there to join old buildings together. Either way, with secret rooms, rooftop hangouts and a lot of character I'm glad we decided to stay there at least one night.

This was the view from our room - I can't imagine living above all this chaos all the time.

The next day while waiting for our flight to Chiang Mai we walked around the area that was heavily damaged in the red-shirt protests.

The building in behind is Central World - which was a high class mall before it burnt. These are the only signs of the recent trouble that we've seen so far.

And with that sobering thought we were off to Chiang Mai,

Photos: Chiang Mai

olivercl — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:47:00 GMT

Bankok by Day... and Night! (Part Two)

olivercl — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 12:02:00 GMT

Chinatown made the other parts of Bangkok we'd seen seem mellow by comparison. Narrow streets with shop goods and street vendors taking op their share. Countless pedestrians, stray cats and dogs, motor bikes, vendors with carts, bicycles and, yes, cars and trucks all are negotiating these narrow streets. With everyone going in different directions and passing within mere centimeters of eachother Peter and I were shocked that we never saw one accident.

That night we called "River View Inn" our home. It was run by some very friendly Thai staff and was old but clean.

Inside our room.

The view from our room was... well... interesting. Peter loved it!

Dinner for the night was some delicious and spicy street food. The price was right too - around two dollars with Peter's fish.

Can you spot Peter buying his fish? (he is behind the man in the yellow shirt)

Our dinner. Not bad for 40Baht!

Peter's delicious fish!

After dinner, we hit up a 7-11 and bought some local (and not so local) snack food. We were a bit disappointed by the selection - nothing too crazy like Japan - perhaps it was just the limited selection. However, what we did manage to find was tasty (although I am not so much of a fan of the sushi flavoured chips - the spicy ones were much better. Peter enjoyed his seaweed and crab sandwich and I enjoyed a new flavour of tim tam! Yum tim tams!

After this I took a picture of our money - reminiscent of a similar picture we took in Japan.

That night we took advantage of the bar on the top floor of our hotel and enjoyed some slightly unusual drinks: Peter ordered a lemon grass concoction and I ordered a ginger one (and holy it was gingery! Huge chunks of ginger were floating in it which was a bit much by the end).

(can you see the ginger?)

One of several riverboat dinner cruises that went by - blaring cheesy music at the tourists on board. A tourist attraction we can totally live without. :)

The highlight of our rooftop visit was our buddy the wall lizard. He came right out on the table and ate some of the spring roll crumbs Peter was enticing him with - however, the camera scared him away big time!

On our way to the train station we decided to hit up one of Chinatown's biggest temples and visit another Golden Buddha.

Here is Peter sporting his new hat, a Chinatown purchase.

Here is the story of this Golden Buddha:

The Golden Buddha was cast sometime in the 13^th century and is an excellent example of the gracious Sukhothai style that is still very much in favor to this day. At some point, it was covered in plaster and lacquer, most likely in an attempt to hide the valuable icon from thieves or looters.

The disguise was so good that everyone apparently forgot about what was hidden beneath. A member of King Rama III's court had the statue moved to Bangkok and installed in a temple near where the Oriental Hotel is today. That temple fell into disuse and was completely abandoned around 1931.

The true nature of the Golden Buddha wasn't discovered until it was moved to its present location at Wat Traimit in 1955. When the image was being hoisted into its new home, the ropes broke, dropping the statue. Some of the plaster was chipped off, revealing the gold underneath.

Unfortunately, we didn't purchase our train tickets early enough and they were sold out so we ended up spending another night in Bangkok. This time we saw a bit more of the nightlife scene!

To be continued in Part 3!

Bankok by Day... and Night! (Part One)

olivercl — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:18:00 GMT

Bangkok is an assult on the senses. The background noise of the constant "beep, beep" of traffic horns and the "where you go?, 'suse me, maam. where you go? I take you 10 bat" combined with the intense food smells (mostly delicious) except of course for the fish sauce which I think smells like urine when it is cold from the fridge - you can imagine how temperatures in the high 30's help. The exceptionally dirty streets (especially near our guesthouse in Chinatown - which was in the automotave repair section) and the lack of traffic rules - traffic lights? Rarely. Rules of the roads? Apparently not. Driving on either side of the road? Sure! Motorcycles on sidewalks? Sure. Sidewalks? If you're lucky. Driving in one lane? Where is the fun in that? Driving on the shoulder? How about making a new traffic lane of the shoulder and weaving randomly in and out of traffic? Now that's more like it!!

We spent a few overwhelming days there - days where finding an internet cafe and typing anything more than a few sentences felt like a bit much. But we also had a lot of fun.

Our first day was spent wandering the shopping centre of MBK. Unlike shopping centres back home, MBK is more like a air-conditioned market selling everything! We managed to unlock our cellphone and buy a Thai sim card from a ladyboy with a five-o'clock shadow. We even found a camera charger for our camera which was about to become as useful to us as a parka. We even went back to MBK to upload our pictures as the internet connection was far faster than the one at our guesthouse!

On our first real night there we went to a Cabaret show. Who doesn't want to see lipsyncing ladyboys - who have better bodies than most women I know - dance the night away? We didn't take many pictures but the performances were varied and highly entertaining. Espcially, watching this one poor audience memeber, a middle aged man, become the centre of attention from one very comical and touchy performer. ;)

The next day we hopped aboard a river taxi that runs in the small water cannels around the city. Aside from the insanely dirty water and the funny smell - it was an awesome way to get around. The trip was fast, a bit rock and roll, and cheap - 9 Baht each (that's less than 30cents Canadian!). Slightly disoriented after our river taxi we decided to take a tuk-tuk driver up on his offer - "10Baht each, many stops okay." It started off okay. We got to visit the giant Golden Budha and another smaller shrine. After that is when things started going downhill. After a visit to a travel agent - um no thanks and then a tailor - heck no! We paid the driver (much more than aggred upon - just to get him off our case, and considered it a good learning experience (since everyone should get taken for a ride by a talented scam artist when they travel to Thailand. Three dollars isn't much to pay - some poor tourists end up paying a lot more buying expensive pre-packaged tours and "silk" suits).

Here are some things we saw during our ride:

Giant Golden Buddha and a (fake) monk sitting opposite.

Below: After walking through a school yard game of soccer we saw this much much smaller temple and met our tuk-tuk drivers partner... one of many I'm sure.

**sadly I accidently erased the video Peter took of our crazy ride**

After, our fun tuk-tuk ride (a crazy ride which was worth the 3 dollars) we headed for the backpackers ghetto of Khao San. We did not last long there - we were approached by another con-artist "an English teacher" who just happened to know of some great deals and places to go via tuk-tuk (fool me once...). Khao San is not our scene. Hundreds of tuk-tuks and taxis all asking "where you go?" grotty looking places to sleep and things to do. Travel agencies that probably rival the tuk-tuks in number and of course tons of backpackers. We stopped at an ice cream store to look at a map (as looking at one outside will no doubt get you a lot of tuk-tuk attention) and asked the cashier how to get to the river. After a bit of a hike we managed to find the river and we quickly hoped aboard a river taxi and headed for a new guesthouse in Chinatown.

At the park in front of the river taxi stop:

Not only does milk do a body good it is also a super hero of sorts!

A view from our much bigger river taxi. Chinatown here we come!

Photos: Welcome to Bangkok!

olivercl — Wed, 7 Jul 2010 17:23:00 GMT

Bangkok at Last!!

olivercl — Wed, 7 Jul 2010 11:47:00 GMT

After some very very long flights and having our 6 hours layover in Shanghai extended by a few hours (oh joy)! We finally arrived in Bangkok :)

** July 7 am - We have tons to say and write and lots of pictures but I have less than 4 minutes on this computer before it shuts off on me!! I promise to add pictures and fun stuff tonight when we get to our new guesthouse! *** Love, Cora XOXO

** July 7 pm - Update! So, after crashing this guesthouse's computer numerous times and waiting more than 1 minute between clicking and something happening I've decided to call it quits with the updating today! I must be connected with a 14k modem... and a slow one at that! :)

Here is what you're missing:

Crazy shopping malls and markets

Tons of awesome street food

Incredibly dirty streets

Fish spa! (little sucker fish that nibble on your toes - it was bizarre!)

Hot and humid weather

River taxis

Lip syncing Ladyboys

Tuk Tuks and scams

Golden Buddha temples

Cocktails on the rooftop overlooking the river

Tiny wall lizards

And using the same internet connection as the Flintstones!

** More on all that later. XOXO

Okay here is a very short recap!

11 hours later we arrived in Shanghai Airport. Peter is trying to capture how long the airport was - but it looked even longer in person. We are standing about halfway - so you can double what you see :)

After eating a VERY expensive ($33 USD-we didn't know the exchange rate) and not very tasty boxed meal from "Acting Restaurant" (how fitting). We struggled with the dirty, but free, laptops offering free internet.

Then we settled down and slept and then slept some more!

Bangkok airport:

Even though we got into Bangkok several hours late. Our hotel still had an airport agent waiting to whisk us away to our hotel for the night. Where we did some MORE sleeping! But at least this time it was in a bed. Yahoo!

Bangkok at last! Goodnight!