kuala lumpar

the first thing we noticed about kuala lumpar was the heat!!! It was intense! Very hard work.

we managed to get a great place to stay. The coliseum- an old run-down hotel which looked straight from a graham Greene book! Downstairs the pub was full of old men, and the guest book looked like it was about 100 years old. All faded wood decor and high ceilings...Really cool.

we headed out for a walk, and in search of an internet cafe to try and meet up with Becky and Chris, which got too much after about 10 mins...way too hot! And right on time we spotted b and c right across the road! How's that in a city the size of kl?!

we headed for a drink and some cool air in a bar nearby to catch up. Ended up staying for quite a while cos an amazing thunderstorm started-loads of lightning and loud crashed as it hit the buildings, and torrential rain. As well, we got given vip tickets for that night at the bar, with dirt cheap drinks. Later we all headed off to a bar which had 'ladies night' on. It was quite dreadful- so trying to be glam, but girls got free drinks and we all got free food, which was so good. suchi, salmon, pakoras and stuff. We went up several times of course ; ) . When the music got too bad to bear, we headed back to liquid bar. We knew we had these vip tickets but I have never in my life had such amazing treatment in a bar. Seemed we were the only ones with these tickets as well. We first got a lovely polaroid of us in a frame, then they were constantly coming over bringing us drinks, and general being really nice, and we even got free champagne! Was a great night, dancing and everything. So much fun!

also went up the petronas towers which was pretty special and to a few nice parks. Its a really fun city. Lots on and the skytrain is amazing! We said goodbye to the others which was really sad. Will miss them, but it wont be long till we see them again so that's good news!!

we spent the last night in the airport, and slept pretty well actually. Somehow, we STILL ended up running through the airport to catch our plane to the Philippines. We hadn't accounted for the 50 million people at immigration- argh!!! But, we made it. We got our flights free a few months ago, with air Asia. Don't ya just love budget airlines!!! So that's where we are now...and I ll tell you more next time. Bye for now

trains and planes and confusion!

We took the overnight rain from Chiang Mai to Ayuthaya just near Bangkok. It wasn;t the best journey.

Our cheap 3rd class tickets weren't going to be the fold down ones we expected. Just short wooden benches with a solid 90 degree angle. My stomach started hurting just as we were getting on the train and after about an hour i was really ill. It was just horrible. Not sure what exactly caused it, but i was so sick. Spent most of the 14hr trip in the bathroom vomiting. So horrible, but at least we weren't on the bus, i guess ;) . It was such a relief to get off at last, and get to the place that someone had recommended to us. It was nothing special but nice and clean and airy, and you could watch DVDs downstairs, so it was perfect to catch up on sleep and recover a bit! I did feel that it was a bit rubbish cos it was our last day in Thailand, and it was a shame not to be eating curry or at least doing something, but i just couldn't face it. Later on tho, we were watching James Bond, when Marc noticed that the clock on the wall said 27th February...hmm, our flight which we thought was the next day was on the 1st. SO we'd actually totally miscalulated and arrived a day early!

So happily we DID get to spent the last day looking around Ayuthaya and eating curry! its a nice town, with lots of ancient Khmer type ruins in the parks. Also we went to an elephant krall, where we saw an elephant with the massivest tusks ever, and also fed a little baby one. Lovely!

The next day we left what we thought was plenty of time to get to the airport as the woman in our hotel told us it took half an hour. It actually took 1 1/2 hrs, so again we had to run through check-in and the whole airport, they announced our names 3 times and just about managed to catch the plane. Even though we were a day early. Oh dear-seat of our pants as always!

Tesc-Yes!

We travelled back to Chiang Mai and hired a car to drive to Doi Inthanon National Park. So much fun to be able to do something without having to rely on public transport (apart from when i lost the keys and i had to retrace my steps in the park, till i found it half way up a hill we'd climbed beside the waterfall-oops).

On the way we noticed a sign for Tesco...AMAZING. It was huge! It had absolutely everything in there, including table tennis tables, baths, and furniture. Got a bit caried away and ended up with lots of exciting new thing including a camping mat and a little pillow, which was have actually been brilliant! Plus bread, cheese and chicken-woo hoo!! We also purcahsed a fantastic tape of 80's music which started messing up after about 2 songs and i spent the rest of the 2 days trying to listen to bananarama 'love in the first degree' just one time. really did feel like back to the 80s with those sort of tapes. the joys!

Anyway! The park was lovely- loads of gorgeous waterfalls, and we got to use our new tent. We had a nice spot to camp and a massive fire, which we cooked our chicken on and melted our cheese! And the tent was FREEZING hardly got any sleep at all. oh dear, not a good start for it!

Lovely Pai!

Spent another few days in Pai. Its so lovely there- quite a travellers town, but kind of hippy-ish, nice cafes, bars and bookshops. Very laidback, but still fun things going on.

Stayed in a fantastic wooden hut, by the river. It was newly-built and on stilts, kind of split level, with a big balcony all around, and views of the mountains and fields. Even better, they had a big bathroom, with a hot shower(!!!), the floor covered in pebbles, with a fence around but no roof. Lovely! They just ahd done so many nice things with the wooden furniture it was a gorgeous place to stay...one of my favorites of our trip!

Did some careful cycling around the area! The surrounding countryside is just beautiful there and you can enjoy it better cos you the hills aren't quite so challenging! Visited some hotsprings where people were boiling eggs in the water. At the top where it comes out of the ground its about 80 or 90 C. Further down it cools a little, but not that pleasant to bathe in when its 30 C in the air as well! What was MUCH better was the local swimming pool, which was great to cool down in. They even play music, and serve amazing ice coffees. its a really nice place to spend an afternoon!

to the city and back to the hills

So we were back in Thailand. It was quite odd how developed and Westernised it felt after Laos. Never noticed that there was such a big difference! Anyway, it made a nice change and always good to be in Thailand...

We spent a couple of weeks travelling around the north which was totally different than the beaches and sights we've seen in Thailand before. Sadly for us, (but good as well really) Chris's job offer for freelance work came through earlier, so at this point we split from Chris and Becky for a week or 2, while they went off to do a last minute bit of diving. We knew it was coming just not so soon! boo hoo. Really sad to see them go. Its been a fantastic 4 months together. Thanks you 2 and good luck! See you in Australia! (We would also meet up in Kuala Lumpar in a couple of weeks but I'll tell you about that later).

So we spent a couple of nights in Chaing Rai in the coolest placem- it was like a room for a gnome or something, with all green gnarly furniture and the bed up some steps. Very funny. Caught up on some Thai curries.mmmmm, had a bit of a wander round the city- not too much to see and to be honest it was all a bit of a shock to the system afetr the calm and quiet of Laos...so much traffic and shops! argh!!! they do had a great night market there though, with live music and a big open square.

We headed off to Chaing Mai then, briefly stayed over night. Visited a mall which felt crazy! I felt like I'd been xmas shopping on Oxford ST on Christmas Eve. Bizarre- my head was spinning!!!!! (Don't worry, I since recovered from this problem). But we did manage to pick up a tent in the hope that we're going to be able to save lots of money on accommodation. We'll see.... My main memory of that night in Chaing Mai was the shock of the heat at night again! Its so mountainous in Laos that it got really chilly, whereas this was absolutely baking. So yes, we just sat there and sweated in a bar and ended up listening to music from about 3 different bars at once, which was quite painful!

We then headed to the Cave Lodge near Mae Hong Song. This is a lovely place up in the mountains and set by a river in a little wood. Its very tranquil, they have a big communal area with a big fireplace in the centre (you needed it-again it was freezing at night!!) and a table tennis table. It was a lovely few days, went for some walks by the river and in the forest, went into a cave in a little raft and climbed up into the massive caverns, and chilled out really. In the evenings, at one end of the cave all the bats fly out but at the other 300 000 swifts fly in to feed on the insects and roost. Its quite an amazing sight-the air is just thick with birds!

After that, we went to Mae Hong Song for a few days. Its a lovely little town, but not what I expected-its totally manicured, with a little lake and fountain in the town centre. Its more like a little village in Austria or something! We had a very nice and exhausting day cycling up hills whihc nearly killed me in the heat- such hard work. Anyway, it was all very lovely-visited the national park, and a nice waterfall- until Marc decided to try and take a photo of some dogs racing the bike beside me. And somehow managed to go flying over the handlebars and land on his head. There was lots of blood, and black eyes and bruises...oh dear!

zipping videos

i've some videos of us in action on the zip wires under the 'links' section on the right...mine didn't really work in this one! but chris has made a great documentary!!

the gibbon experience

We spent our last 3 days in Laos at the gibbon experience in Bokeo region. It was quite incredible to say the least.

The place is a huge forest area, and they've built 3 treehouses, at heightrs of about 40m up! They are massive trees, and it was quite amazing how they managed to build them. Even more mad is that the only way to get into the treehouses is to harness yourself onto a zipwire, fly across a valley of which were up to 70m below us, land and try to recover from the experience! They had set up the zip wires originally to try and catch poachers, but now its also for tourists!

Speaking of poachers, they had found a little baby sun bear a few weeks before we arrived and the women there were looking after it. Apparently, some people there had frightened off the mother while they were picking blackberries...hmmm. Anyway, it was absolutely gorgeous- so cute, with a little round tummy. They were feeding it milk and it was trying to walk. Held it for a little bit- just so sweet!!!! I think they plan to try and release it gradually, but look aftre it as well. i'm sure it couldn't survive long by itself...

Anyway, while we were admiring the little bear we alsmot forgot that in a few minutes we'd be throwing ourselves off a cliff and dangling by a wire quite a few metres up. It was so terrifying. I could hardly do it, but kind of walked and the thing was taking me away before i had any choice any more! And it was as terrifying as it looked! Once in the treehouse, the views were absolutely gorgeous- all around you could see trees, hills and valleys. We were way above most of the treetops and were looking down on the top of them. You could see the birds at your level and below which is definitely a different way of viewing the world. Poor marc didn't enjoy it quite so much - he has terrible vertigo and didnt leave his spot- at the very centre of the treehouse- for about 20hrs, apart from when i had to take him to the toilet!!! The houses were amazingly well made- 2 levels, lovely bedding, little sinks, coffee, snacks, a telescope, binoculars-everything! the best thing was the bathroom- they had a shower with just a lattice for the floor so you could see all the water flying down and down and down below you-plus the lovely views all around..pretty spectacular!

The afternoon was spent trying out the other zip wires, which were unbelievably even more scary! it definitely got better as you did them more and actually it was awesome, but one or two were just a little bit too high and free swinging for me! i think i might have developed a bit of vertigo!!!

Spent the night up in the sky, with the moon shining over the tops of the trees below us. The next morning they woke us up to come and try and find some monkeys-it wasnt the easiest thing to throw yourself off a 40m high tree first thing in the morning i can tell you. it certainly wakes you up! After an hour or so of crashing through lots of bamboo and falling down hills, we were ready for breakfast- its so cool- they all just zip back and forward with kettles of hot water, pots and pans, gas tanks, whatever!

And then came the highlight of the trip...its quite easy to forget that it is called the gibbon experience what with all the fear, but really the main thing about the place is that often, if you're lucky you can hear the gibbons sing to each other in the mornings. Appparently, its where human song evolved from, and they perform duets with their mates to show the strength of their bond. SO all of a sudden we just heard this crazy noise- like totally not what i expected, and it got weirder and weirder- whooping and wailing like space aliens or something! It was mad. And it just seemed to get more and more psychadelic, echoing across the valley, seemed like lots were joining in... It was certainly one of the most amazing things I have ever heard. Becky got a couple of recordings of it. I'll try and put one on the end of this

Then we had to move treehouses to the farthest one away. marc finally managed to zip out of the treehouse and had decided he wanted to to spend the night on solid ground. so we'd just arrived, were chatting to some others, enjoying the views and planning to go back and see him, when all you heard was the noise of someone coming on the wires...well, how shocked were we when it was marc! unbelievable-he managed to get through 8 or so different wires to get there! well done! so we had another lovely night in another treehouse-this time with some company- a few scurryings in the night and a big green snake in the next tree- far enough away for us not to worry too much tho!

And then we had to go. A brilliant way to end a brilliant country. Laos was so nice, lots of smiling kids and people, the most stunning scenery, and definitely the scarist bus journeys!

a few problems...

after a nightmare few days of trying a failing to to get to the thai border by boat, going back and forth, getting ripped off and very very scary buses on dirt tracks we finally got there by bus! a 10hrs long journey where we got pummelled by dust the entire way- we were covered...! got left 5 k out of town, we thought it was 1k and started walking, but managed to get a tuk-tuk. just as we started relaxing we realised we werent going to the right hotel and he took us to his mates one instead. after arguing for a while he finally took us to where we wanted. hmm, definitely a reminder that we were back near thailand...then all the hotels were full, then we saw a dog getting run over, and then becky got hit by a scooter. it was actually totally fine, the girls on the bike fell off but were ok too- think they d just hit her bag and she wasnt hurt at all but it was the last straw! we checked into the nearest place- then discovered that between our rooms someone had drilled a peephole! man!!!! the whole of laos we had such good experiences, which seemed to run out just at the end! still, it was all ok in the end!

almost in china!

Spent a few days in the north of Laos in Luang Nam Tha- enjoying the scenery and hills and cycling around. Went on a days kayaking trip down the rapids which was really fun, especially as chris and marc spent the entire time falling in. they didnt quite have the technique! becky and i had to be looked after cos we were girls, and the guides took us through the rapids, which was a bit less exciting, but probably safer! anyway, the scxenrey was stuning- jungle surrounding us on both sides and the river was so peaceful when we werent in the rapids.

Up there in Northern Laos there are lots of people from the various hill tribes, which is quite interesting. they all wear amazing multi-coloured clothes and hats, etc, and all have special customs that they still live by...one tribe only wear indigo tunics, and kind of white legwarmers, and when the girls reach womanhood, they pluck out all their eyebrows and take two strand of hair tye it back around their heads and wear a bun on top, and that is what they look like from now on
And another tribe wear loads of silver coins sewn all over there hats and down their tunics. its really cool! we didnt really do any hilltribe village tours which seem a bit like a human zoo, but it was nice to see them walking round in the markets. unfortunately a lot of them are quite pushy and literally accost you to buy their bracelets and things as soon as you get off the bus, and when you say no, they surrepticiously pull a massive bag out of their bag and whisper 'majijuana, opium?' at you. its quite weird. these little ladies about 60 and they're trying to sell you opium...its amazingly open but right in the golden triangle there.

after a nice few days there , we went even further north to muang sing. now there was a place with nothing to do, apart from try to avoid the crazy hill trive women! it was quite nice, but not very exciting apart from the fact that we cycled to china! we were only 10k from the border so we thought we should see it! it was a hard climb on the worst bikes but we made it! and ooh, it looked really different! we probably could've just cycled on through- the border control didnt look very strict- loads of people were just wandering on through- but we decided to give it a miss! instead we shared a small warm chinese beer between the 4 of us and went back to laos...

to lovely boats...and back on the bus

from luang prabang we took a much more relaxing journey up to nong khiaw-on the boat! it was a full day and still pretty uncomfortable, but it really is the way to travel in laos! absolutely stunning scenery through countryside, hills and cliffs. the water levels were so low that at one stage all the guys (he he!) had to get out and push the boat along. nong khiaw was really beautiful as well, on the river surrounded by hills and really remote.

after that we ended up back on the bus westwards...this was another crazy journey. we were all crammed in to a songthaew- an open sided truck with 2 benches along the sides. it looks like it only holds abot 10 people but everytime they manage to squeeze about 20 in. This time was quite interesting. One woman got on with bags of rice, clothes, baskets of meat, 2 pigs, and chickens, and a sack of about 20 massive fish. Its so strange, they were sitting on someones foot and the whole place stank and nobody even looked annoyed. Poor Chris had been a bit ill the night before with food poisoning and wasnt really feeling the best, and the next thing, one of the boxes on the roof (also filled with fish) kind of burst and becky and chris got covered in fish juice...so gross!!! but also quite funny- just glad it wasnt me!!!!"