Oct.29 Siamese history in Sukhothai

We took the bus from CM to Sukhothai to start the move back south. (No boat trip down the Mekong River into Laos this time.) We weren't on the bus pad for 2 minutes before a very motherly lady asked us to come stay at her guesthouse. Fortunately for her Sukhothai GH is in our book and we missed getting off the bus at the old city. Lonely Planet did not do a good job describing how Sukhothai is split into "Old" which is a small town built up around the historic park and "New" which is the city 12km away. SGH had mostly older couples staying (parents and uncles/aunts take note!) in the nice bungalows with verandas and a pretty garden. We took the plain (read cheap) room, went to the market, bought a DVD and watched a movie in the common area since there wasn't much to do in this small town.

The next day we rented some scooters and headed up the road to the old city. Images of the ruins are splashed across many advertisements of Thailand, even in restaurants back in Winnipeg and I was keen to see them in person. The historical park is a sprawling site and it's a good thing Julie figured we should rent the motorbikes. Strangely the visitor centre is poorly maintained and few of the sites had much information about them. But they did have 3D drawings of what they suppose the ruin looked like when first built – quite frankly ancient civilizations had a lot of time/money on their hands!

A guidebook said that the park is lit up at night creating a neat effect. We hung around till dark, had supper at small restaurant and drove back in to the park only to find it completely dark. Dammit. So we headed home.

If anyone’s ever rode a bike at dusk then they know how bugs get in your face. We never did find cheap sunglasses to ride the bikes so tonight we used the plastic sleeve that our cutlery came in at the restaurant. Julie’s head’s a bit smaller than mine so the plastic wrapped around perfectly to cover her eyes. Dorky, perhaps. Effective, yes!

Oct.21-27: Chiang Mai, northern Thailand

It's sort of surprising that we've spent a week (well, more than) here in Chiang Mai since we didn't expect to, but we've been busy! Picking up a handful of brochures the first day, we at first thought we'd for sure have to spend a week here just to do everything that interested us: trekking, cooking classes, mountain biking, yoga, whitewater rafting, etc... Julie spotted the horse riding brochure so our first activity was learning how to control the temperamental little horses. Mine tried bucking me off, Julie's wouldn't go anywhere but home and our guide's horse succeeded in tossing him over the front. But we plodded around safely and had fun.
The picture show is available here.

In the evening we took a quick Thai cooking class where we learned to make curry (from scratch) and spicy Thai soups. We also got a tour through the market (to buy our ingredients) and learned what a lot of things were that we'd been eating for the past week. I suppose if we can find the ingredients back home we'll try to remember how to make it and possibly whip up some tom khaw gai for you.



Pretty much every hotel, guesthouse, restaurant and regular travel agent will sell you a tour or arrange any ticket for you. The standard stuff that they all pitch are trekking tours into the hills to go elephant riding, rafting and a hill tribe. I was not interested at all in this "default tour" as I called it, but after heavy rains everyday Julie got her wish as I figured mountain biking wouldn't be too good in the mud. We got a deal on the tour (900ß vs. 12-1400) and really it wasn't a bad way to spend a day. The orchid/butterfly farm was neat [sorry mom, I was hoping to get you a pretty orchid brooch but figured it wouldn't survive my backpack]. My first white-water rafting experience was quite fun although our bamboo raft was barely buoyant. And the elephant ride through the jungle was entertaining too. But the hill tribe "village" was a total joke and confirmed my fears of feeling like a tool. We pull up to this little strip mall of huts with scarves in them and our guide calls out to the ladies to come out from their homes in back. A handful of "long-necked" women came out and did their thing on their looms. Our guide showed us the brass rings that they place around their neck and shins and said "take a picture! Buy something!". Our group wasn't impressed and it was a short stop. Julie bought a book on hill tribes and I was wondering why long-necks were not mentioned in it. That's because they're not really in Thailand, sort of imported by tour operators as a gimmick, although we think some of our tour fee went to the people to send back home. [More info available @ http://www.letsgo.com/travel/thailand/posts]

We heard from others that if you took a 2d/1n trekking trip then you actually went out into the jungle and found real villages where real people really lived and it was more interesting. But it was time to move on; we are running close to our visa allowance time & still need to hit Thailand’s most famous beaches.

Oct.24-25 Adventure in samWAENG!

If you want it done right, do it yourself - so we rented a car and set off to create our own tour.

There are road maps created by a motorbike group giving suitable day trips from Chiang Mai and surrounding areas. We found one for the Mae Sa loop around Doi Suthep (Sutep Mtn) that appeared to provide a good taste of the countryside. In our little Toyota Vios (compact sedan) we set out and stopped at a Tesco (sort of like SuperStore/Walmart) for some supplies since they are the only place that we can find cheese and crackers.

The hills north-west of CM are very scenic: luscious green with the tops of the hills shrouded in mist and small villages and rice fields scattered in the valleys. Stopped and bought a pomelo from a roadside stand (10ß! vs 50 at Tesco and this lady even peeled it and cut if for us. Oh, a pomelo is large fruit, size somewhere between 5-pin bowling ball and a volleyball that tastes like a mild grapefruit and we're becoming big fans of them) and Julie munched on that while I enjoyed all the hairpin turns up and down the hills.

We got to the halfway point of the small town of Samoeng and were pointed in the direction of Samoeng Guesthouse. It's a quaint little place in a traditional Thai style teak wooden house up on stilts. Very nice woodwork that would probably cost a fortune back home. There was a map on the wall pointing to some hot springs just up the road, so we figured we'd go there in the morning.

We had a good map and it showed the hot springs on it and also showed that there were some dirt roads to travel to get there, but we didn't rent the 4x4. So when the pavement suddenly ran out and the road turned to wet clay I had my doubts of continuing. But Julie can sniff out a hotspring! We asked some kids (Ai and Bia- ha ha his name is 'beer' in Vietnamese) for directions and got some strange looks driving the little car down the back roads. And then it got worse: it had rained and the road disappeared into mud and water. "We've gone this far!" Julie says so we stop the car and continue on foot. I see some buildings up ahead and oh look! the road's washed out with a board laid across for motorbikes. We get to the buildings and it looks like it would have been a nice resort back in the day, but the pool's empty and bridge is collapsed. [Tony G, I've got your next investment opportunity!] Other than being inaccessible the place is in perfect condition & open so we use the toilet. Some more buildings are visible a little way up the river so we walk up and sunuva- PongKwao Hot Springs!

The gate's closed (no wonder since the road is washed out) but we squeeze through and go in. We walk around a building and lo'n'behold there are people! A lady sees us, comes over with 2 folded towels and says "hot springs?". I'm still flabbergasted by it. The 4 people working there seemed indifferent to us walking up and continued playing cards while we swam and had Mr.Noodles. The hot water was surprisingly nice given the air temperature and I hadn't felt that good walking out of there in a long time. The place had 2 large pools along with a handful of personal pools each in it's own hut.

We walked back to our car only to discover a flat tire. I position the car on a level spot on the small road to change the tire only to discover that there's no jack. Honestly! And then a pickup truck comes around the bend, squeezes past us on the narrow road and stops to help. Fortunately it was carrying 6 guys who lifted the car onto a bottle jack that they had. Quickly changed the tire and go lower the car - no, wait, the jack's jammed. So we lift the car up off of the jack and set it down. We smile and bow our gratitude and head back to Chiang Mai. This is what I call choose your own adventure!

Oct.17 Party in chaWAENG!

Cabaret show and discos on Samui's party beach

We waited until our last night on Samui to hit the party town of Chaweng for a lady-boy cabaret show & some partying at the many open air discos. We had our bungalow host as our guide to show us the best spots to hit and to point out with skill which were the Thai lady-boys (i.e. guys dressed like ladies trying to get with tourist men) and which were indeed ladies. Either way, the sex trade is alive & in your face here.
The Cabaret show was extravagant with lady boys dressed in impressive costumes (picture sequins here) dancing and lip-syncing to all the popular show tunes you can imagine. We didn't take the front row seats which were occupied by the real drunk tourists who were right into it, stuffing bills into the performers' costumes which somehow amazingly hid whatever there was to hide very well. Now the most unfortunate part was that we didn't bring our camera out for the evening, so your imagination will need to fill in the blanks ;) [well, you can sort of see the show in this photo]
Following the show, the party in the streets between clubs complete with drinking red bull & vodka out of beach buckets, resembled a cross between Mexican resort town nightlife & the full moon party we experienced earlier in the week. This night was definitely an experience we will remember. Good thing we're heading north to the cool & peaceful mountains of Chiang Mai.
-Julie and Andrew

Island life in Thailand

Okay, now we're going to make you jealous. As I type this I am sitting on the beach outside our bungalow watching an elderly Thai couple trying to catch their meals for the day. We've been here for nearly a week now and quite frankly it will be hard to leave.
We arrived in Koh Samui almost by accident since my mom warned us of the political turmoil in Bangkok and thus we sat in Bangkok's airport debating our next move. Finally we decided to head south to catch the party and rest. A last minute ticket and off we went!
One night in a tiny resort room left us wanting more, and we found it a short stroll down the beach. See Daeng bungalows appeared and we soon found ourselves as characters in what would appear to be some sort of 80's sitcom or an episode of Big Brother. Marie, an ex-pat Swede, creates a friendly atmosphere and we are feeling at home in our bungalow a few feet from the beach. Also in the mix are her Swedish friend and his Thai girlfriend, a big German Reudiger and a multi-year traveling English couple. David (the Swede) is as entertaining a character as you can get! Regaling us with stories of having lunch with Mats Sundin (his friend was Mats' boyhood coach) or how he's about to produce a record with the ABBA keyboardist Ben. With the international group, we've all taken turns preparing a meal from our homeland so we've had a German casserole that Rudi slaved away at for 6 hours even making the noodles from scratch, famous Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes, Thai bbq on the beach, Canadian breakfast (pancakes and bacon was all we could think of and source ingredients for), British tea and sandwiches, tonight Japanese and tomorrow Irish stew.

We haven't done much touring of the island. Rented scooters one day and did the loop around the island, making some notes of where to go back to (swim in a waterfall and such). Then went on a boat tour to Angthong Marine Park which was less than spectacular, but interestingly it is the location described in the novel "The Beach". I guess we'll have to see that movie sometime...

Full Moon Party!

we came, we saw, we partied under the full moon.An eclectic group (Canucks, Brits, Germans, Thais) of us from the bungalows ventured across the strait to the other island of Koh Phangan to see just what all the fuss is about regarding this famous full moon party. Well, really, not much. The Brit(Ed) and I agreed that besides the fact that it's on a beach and it's the full moon, there are big parties like this back home (i.e. Commerce or Corn & Apple socials) that seem even more out of control.

Good times though. Drinks are mickeys dumped into a plastic bucket with a can of mix, ice and the ever-optional Red Bull. The beach is lined with restaurants and bars, each with their own massive sound system pounding the beats out onto the beach. And yes, one of them played typical social music, complete with Brian Adams' "Summer of 69". All places charge around 10-20baht to use the toilet and some got pretty gross; thus there could often be a row of guys with their pants hiked up peeing in the ocean but tough luck for the girls.

The bulk of our crew left early but Julie and I stayed a bit later. We found a balcony overlooking the party and just took in the action. For some reason we were not content with the drink selection so we figured we could make our own for cheaper. So we bought a bottle of booze, some mix, a big bag of ice and a bucket and a nice cashier gave us some straws. Are we cheap Winnipeggers or what??

Around 3am we'd had enough and queued up for the boat ride home.

Parting thoughts on Vietnam

I think we short-changed ourselves on Vietnam by leaving too early. After the few days out in the Bay, our last 12 hours in Hanoi were a flurry of errands - getting fitted in our new clothes, requesting modifications, finding a bank machine that would work so we could pay for it all and finally catching a water puppet show. We also seemed to be missing a celebration for Oct.10 is the 54th anniversary of the liberation of the nation's capital and the town center was decked out in red flags and the sounds of brass bands. It was a festive atmosphere and even more crowded than normal.
The Water Puppet Show (http://www.thanglongwaterpuppet.org/) is an ancient art form developed by rice farmers to pass the time while the rice grew in the flooded fields. It's quite a neat show to see and also quite remarkable how they control these puppets "remotely" underwater via a bamboo pole and some strings. The show is accompanied by an orchestra who helps narrate the story. Typical Asian music and not much help for us who don't speak Vietnamese, but we could always get the drift of the story.

Also stopped in for a quick and cheap dinner of "pho" which is a noodle soup. It's good, and here it's a lot more basic than what I've had in Winnipeg not to mention cheaper (cost about a buck). We did eat quite well here in Vietnam. Had a delicious meal at the Cyclo restaurant here in Hanoi (expensive! at ~C$8 each) that was a nice fusion of Vietnamese and French cuisine.