Chiang Mai - Day 1

Sukhothai to Chiang Mai

After thoroughly exploring Sukhothai National Park I took the bus from Sukhothai to Chaig Mai. Unfortunatly it appears my luck was all used up on the quality of my last bus as this one had seen better days. I think it may well have been an old Wilts and Dorset bus from 15 years ago. Despite this the 5.5hr journey went quickly and was helped by the great scenery outside.

Chiang Mai is in the mountains so alot of the uphill journey was travelling along roads surounded by hills and Jungle. I arrived at the bus station and had a to carry out the customary in depth negotiations with the tuk tuk driver to take me to my hostel at a reasonable price. I feel I won a moral victory as I managed to agree the ride for 100 baht from the quoted 150 baht (£2 not £3!!!). Although the lonely planet guide later told me it should have cost about 60 baht.

Buddist prayer session

The hostel im staying at is fantastic and the first thing I noticed is how many outdoor activities there are to do. Due to the surrounding mountains you can do pretty much anything like Rock Climbling, White water rafting, Bungy Jumping, 'Go Ape' in the Jungle tree tops surround by Gibbons etc. Ive opted to do downhill mountain biking tomorrow which im looking forward to.

I went on a bit of Watt spotting after settling in and was fortunate enough to see a Buddhist prayer session. I stayed for about 20 minutes at which it was still in full swing and didn't look like ending any time soon.

Peter from Poland vs Thai guy

The town has a really nice laid back feel for asia which ive not really experienced yet. I think its somewhere I'd like to come back to do some more activities which I maybe able to do as it has an airport so flying from Ho Chi Minh City should be pretty cheap and easy.

In the evening I noticed there was some Thai boxing which I really wanted to see. This was arranged through the hostel and a large number of us went along so it was another good opportunity to meet people.

Not happy...He'd just been whooped by Peter from Poland

There were a total of seven fights starting with young teenagers and getting better. I was weary of the Thai boxing as I'd heard that some fights are fixed and made to look good for the tourists but I wanted to see it for myself anyway. The first two fights were very suspect and first round knockouts done with what looked like wwe style 'finishing moves'. I managed to catch one on my camera on video and slow motion revealed that the kid had clearly taken a dive.

However after the first two matches the fights improved and looked quite nasty. The main even was a chap called Peter from Poland, who looked a bit like Ivan Drago from Rocky IV, against a Thai guy. Peter was about twice the size of the thai guy who didn't really stand a chance, he did well to last till the fourth round though. We went back to the hostel and showed the video footage of the dive to our Hostel manager who was not impressed and phoned the boxing promoter to complain saying she would not be recommending this arena to any more residents should this happen again... It was very funny!

Sukhothai Old City

Ayuthaya to Sukhothai

Caught the bus yesterday from Ayuthaya to a place called New Sukothai which has a historical park near by. The journey was actually quite enjoyable and flew by considering it took 5 and a half hours. It was a local bus and possibly the best bus ive been on. They had a TV and a waitress (like htey used to have on the national express buses) and they gave me a goodie bag containing water and a muffin when I boarded. We stopped at a 'service station' for some food after about 3 hours which was included in the price of the bus ticket. The Pat Tha looked the safest option and was pretty tasty. I didn't really know what was going on but fortunatly a thai girl was there who spoke good English and told me what was happening.

One of the many many Watts in Sukhothai Park

I went to the historical park today which contains vast numbers of old Watts. I hired a bike with a dutch person I met on the bus that morning and we cycled to all the old sites that were in the area. One of the routes was a 5k ride where lots of the Watts sat on hill tops. One involved a 200 meter climb to the top. It was quite nice cycling through the Thai countryside seeing all the rice fields and watching the locals going about there daily routines (which looked like lying down and doing as little as possible). It was a pretty hot day and I got through 2 and a half big bottles of water in about 3 hours. I'm not sure why most of the Watts were not in good condition. Most of them were build circa 1200 but only re-discovered a few hundred years ago. Im suspecting it has something to the Burmese again but I could be wrong. Unfortuantly the lonely planet guide which I rely on for most of my facts didn't explain this.

Watt at the top of a big hill

It looks like I timed the trip perfectly because when I got back in the late afternoon (Ive got my own bungalow set in the gardens of a guest house) it started raining big time. Im leaving for Chiang Mai tomorrow which is another long journey. I only have 6 days left on my Thai Visa so at the moment im planning to make my way to Laos after Chang Mai which is to the East of Thailand.

Ayuthaya

A long Journey

Travelled from Krabi to a place called Ayuthaya yesterday. This involved taking the coach from Krabi to Bangkok which took a total of 14 hours then a train from Bangkok to Ayuthaya taking a further 3 hours. Wasn't looking forward to the journey but it went relatively smoothly. This time I packed a survival guide in the form of a tube of pringles to keep me going and to stop me getting grumpy.... It worked pretty well. We were dumped in Bangkok at which appeared to be at a random location of the bus drivers choice at 5am in the middle of a thunderstorm. I managed to get a taxi to take me to the train station surprisingly easily. One benefit of being dropped at 5am is that all the tailored suit shops were closed so any taxi driver couldn't try to take me shopping which is a constant problem for all tourists in Bangkok.

Arrived in Ayuthaya and found accomodation relatively easy. I hired a bike which was recommended in the lonely planet guide to see the sights of the town. There are some pretty impressive ruins and Watts here. The city used to be the Royal Capital many years ago until it was moved to Bangkok due to contant attacks from the Burmese. I assume they moved to Bangkok since they knew the Burmese would not want to go anywhere near that place for fear of being hussled into buying tailored suits.

Wat Chaiwatthanaram

In the evening I went on a boat cruise with some other people I met at the guest house where I'm staying. The town in basically on an Island and the cruise went around its perimeter.  This was pretty nice & chilled and I got to see the town from a different angle. After we went to a night market for some dinner time russian roulette then for a few chilled drinks near our hostel.

Moving again tomorrow to a place called Sukhothai for some more Thai culture, I think this is only a 6 hour journey before moving to Chiang Mai in a few days time.

Ko Phi Phi & Maya Bay

Bamboo Island

Went on another boat tour today around a number of other Islands. Ko Phi Phi, Bamboo Island, Maya Bay (where they filmed 'the beach'), Monkey Lagoon, Hin Klang (where we did some great snorkling) and Viking Cave.

All the Islands were amazing, you can tell which are the pictures of Maya Bay as the beach was full of hundreds of people. Viking Cave contained drawings that were 1000's of years old but im just going to have to take their word for that as we wasn't allowed to see them due to some birds that now nest in the caves.

Maya Bay

I really liked Bamboo Island which was as I would imagined a desert Island to be. It had a fantastic beach, it wasn't too busy and there was a jungle in the middle. Most of the places we visited had great snorkling where you could feed hundreds of tropical fish.

Im heading away from the Islands in the next few days to the north of the country. Im planning to stop at a town called 'Ayuthaya' which used to be the Royal Capital of Thailand and now has some good ancient ruins and Watts

Hong Island

Went on an Island tour today to Hong Island, this also included shorter trips to the lesser known Daeng Island, Lading Island and Hong’s Lagoon. Hong is a small uninhabited Island off the Andaman coast, close to Krabi where I’m staying (the south west of Thailand). The beaches were fantastic! We also got the opportunity to do some snorkelling and see some great fish.

On Hong Island there was a trail which took us into the jungle (didn’t meet King Hong). I went with three Chilean guys I met on the boat. We saw some interesting wildlife including some enormous spiders.

What was fascinating was that there were some boats a fair distance in land it turns out they had been swept there by the 2004 Tsunami. I also noticed that on the beach there was a Tsunami warning system in place and instructions on what to do, should a one happen basically you run into the jungle as quick as possible.... simple.

On the way home our speedboat broke down, the warning signs were there earlier in the day when we were at the Lagoon and the engine cut out. The guide, who didn't tell us the boat was broken, suddenly told us we could get out and have a swim which wasn’t on the schedule.

This was good as we got to dive off the side of the boat, however whilst we were doing this the boatmen had all the floorboards up trying to fix the problem. Fortunately when the boat finally did give up for the second time it was close to end pier and another boat arrived quickly. We all moved to the new ship which got us home safely. It was a cracking day.

http://www.baracudastourkrabi.com/

Krabi



Krabi

Left Ko Phangan yesterday and made my way to Krabi. The journey consisted of getting a taxi to the Islands pier, then ferry to the mainland and finally a coach to Krabi. The journey took approx 8 hours.

Most of the people on the ferry, like myself, had been out all night at the black moon party the night before. knowing I had a big day ahead of me I didn't stay too late and didn't drink too much. Seeing the pain and suffering in the other passengers eyes was enough to convince me I'd made the right call on that one - I put that down to experience.

Night market - 'dodgy tummy russian roulette'

When I arrived I booked into the hostel and went to get some food at the nightmarket. Nightmarkets are a good idea and most Thai people seem to eat at them as opposed to cooking at home. Ive had mixed experiences with them so far, about half the time they've given me a dodgy tummy but the food is still tasty and very cheap.

Krabi is a good place as they do lots of tours to the Islands, ive booked myself onto a tour of a group of Islands tomorrow.

View from the hostel window

One thing Im still getting used to is how quickly the weather changes here. I left the hostel in sunshine this morning and was worried that I hadn't put enough sunscreen on only for literally 5 minutes later the sky to turn black and heavy rain to set in.

The rain was so heavy that everyone just stopped what they were doing and took cover

It was still very hot and its a strange sensation to be wet from the rain but also from sweating at the same time too.

Ko Phangan



Sunset Beach

I’m about to stay for my fifth and last night on the Island of Ko Phangan. I’ve been staying at this nice resort with a couple of people who I met on Ko Samui but as there are lots of other people doing the same thing I’ve been able to meet and chat to lots of other travellers, a number of them have also taught English in various countries so it’s been good to hear their stories and ask advice. There is not much sightseeing to do here so just trying to relax at the moment.

Ko Phangan to Krabi

It does appear that this Island is like ‘Asia’s Ibiza’ with parties going on every night till the very early hours. There is a ‘black moon’ party tonight (any excuse for a party) which is scheduled to go on till 10am. We have been going to the beach for a few nights which have parties with people doing entertainment with fire sticks. It has been fun and I’ve done my best to keep up (well sort of) but I’m partied out so a change of scene is in order. I’m off to Krabi tomorrow and them onto Ko Phi Phi. 

Also learnt that all Thai people are amazing at connect 4, I’m not sure if it’s in their national curriculum but they play it everywhere, at bars, on the beach and they always win. I think a lot of them use it as a way of making money which is not a bad idea.... I may get good and start hussling around Bournemouth town centre on a Friday night.