Chiang Dao

Our second morning of Chiang Dao we got up at 5am to take the 500 steps up the side of a mountain to this forest temple to watch the sunset. The temple itself wasn't even carved out of the rock. It was like they'd built a building around a cavern and all the gaps in the rock or crevices were filled with statues of Buddha or pictures or favours.

It was too long ago and I'm too far behind myself blogging to give details but here's some of my favourite snaps...









The inevitable nap. They're so cute when they're sleeping.

The internet is unbearably slow on Koh Tao. Yep I'm about two weeks behind, Chiang Dao feels years ago! I'll do my best to catch up when I escape the island!

Deviating from the plan

One of the great inspirations I’ve met along the way shared this quote with me that went something like "The art of traveling is in deviating from the plan".

The great explorers

I was deviating from the plan before I even got on the plane as I started planning on going North and then South which I rapidly changed to South then North to fit around a diving trip. This all changed again on about my third day in Thailand when I found out that the weather down south was unnaturally dire and ended up heading east (even though I had had no intention of going in this direction at all).

This great teacher I had at school comes to mind. He was called Doctor Peevey - he taught RS and we didn’t give a damn about most of the subject but once our relationship had found an unsettled balance(I think I made up a new excuse for not having done my homework every week for a term until he stopped asking for it) he came out with some fascinating insights into life and spirituality. Most prominently I remember one lesson where I hadn’t heard a thing (too busy daydreaming) until he piped up with “I’m going to tell you something really useful. The key to life is to have a plan”. I think it’s a good key to take with you and it’s definitely been a useful idea, but a lot of enjoyment and self confidence and adventure arises from deviating from the plan...so anyway.

There were a few things I was DEFINITELY not going to do. Things like drinking tap water*, letting a tuk-tuk driver take me on a route with -insert random number- stops, staying in dorms with just boys*, going into possible malaria zones without malarials* etc etc. (Take a wild guess as to what the * stands for.) One of the most prominent of these was getting on a motorbike/scooter of any sort. There’s too many stories in my family tree of motorbike accidents and only this April I met a couple who were same side leg amputees after a biking accident and took away far too many details about how this came about. It also seems to crop up in every “dangers and annoyances” section of every Lonely Planet page associated with Thailand. ******!

Sooooo deviating from the plan….

The morning of our departure for the big mountainous adventure I went to yoga with Tom (from Koh Samet) and then returned to the hostel to meet Rowan to make plans. Tom had decided to join us and we agreed we’d need to rent another bike so Rowan gave him a…er crash course and set him off to practice for a while around the town.

Half an hour later I’d long finished packing and we’d seen and heard nothing from Tom. Another half hour later we’d both been out to look for him around the nearest blocks and Rowan was on the phone to the tourist police to try to get the number of the local hospital. Tom rocks up with a load of scratches down his arm and no bike. He’d panicked at a junction and naturally reacted by driving into a car smashing a wing mirror and his confidence.


Tom left a permanent mark in Chiang Mai

So Tom took the extortionate 40baht (80p) bus to Chiang Dao and I hopped onto the back of Rowan’s motorbike (*). The trip was spectacular. The views of the sun setting across the mountains were stunning and then we hit the winding jungle roads where we’d occasionally pass through pockets of moist (cool) air for which neither of us was appropriately dressed - cue slightly awkward hugging to keep us warm. We wafted through amazing aromas of barbecuing pork and chicken from every road-side stall and waved at children and wrinkly grandmothers sat in makeshift sidecars. Heavenly.


The ride to Chiang Dao

The feeling of adventure was slightly tarnished (in more of a polishing than blackening way) when we realized how lush our accommodation was. An en suite brick hut in amongst these fruit and flower trees with our own porch and hammock and a gorgeous view of the huge mountain. Two massive double beds ("well I’m the only girl"), towels, hot water and the most adorable puppy running around yapping and nipping at our ankles.


Lucky and the boys

On our first morning we got up early, (played with the puppy while we waited for Tom to finish faffing) and headed into town with all three of us on the motorbike (when in Rome...). We wandered around the most authentic market I’ve seen yet. Markets in Chiang Mai and Bangkok are really just massive tourist traps, this was most definitely more about practical home products, clothes, food and the trade. We’d heard that the hills tribes people came down to trade and we did see one or two but not as many as expected - I resolved to ensure we took a trip to a village. We were pretty much the only white people there attracting wide-eyed stares from the children and furtive glances from the adults. One woman stopped me to ask me to take her picture so she could see it, others were excited to use their few English words - a lot of “hello”s.


A very happy Rowan

My favourite stop was with this woman filtering honey into bottles straight from the comb. It was the smoothest, most delicious honey I’ve ever tried and the boys and I spent the next half hour dipping our fingers into the cup I bought and getting ourselves suitably messy and hyper.


Fresh honey in the market


Beans, rice, herbs, roots, all sorts!


We and our cameras became an attraction. This woman asked to have her picture taken.

After wandering the market we rented me a (much nicer) motorbike (than Rowan’s :D) and headed up to a national park to explore. We’d had the foresight to grab some exciting looking fruits, leaf-wrapped coconut packages (to die for when smothered in that honey) and lime nuts for lunch which we wolfed down after scrambling all over yet another beautiful waterfall - this time with FAR fewer people oggling bikini-clad Sam. We were the only people there besides a Thai mother and her kids having lunch for ten minutes at the bottom.


A coconut pastey lunch

After all that exercise and the equivalent of asian cookies and milk the boys took a nap. We then ambled round a pretty herb garden, risked certain death playing on some logs that had fallen across a little brook, and then took a mini-hike along a nature trail up into the jungle. The crunchiest leaves I’ve ever known crackled under our feet making bird watching nigh-on impossible, but we made up for this by attempting to climb vine-suffocated trees and arguing over whether the landscape was more Star Wars or Star Trek and, upon a decision for the former, who was which character.


Layers of mountains

Coming down as the sun sank behind the jungle-covered hills we got on the bikes again and headed to some hot springs - exactly what we needed after our sweaty hike. We skipped the freezing showers and shamelessly jumped in as the sky turned pink and the few other visitors departed.

The heat was intense. It wasn't that it was particularly hot - comfortable hot bath temperature, maybe 38 celsius - but we were soaked/absorbed through with it and, unlike a bath, the constant flow of warm water meant that there was no reprieve. With a recommended 15minute maximum stay in the water Tom and I jumped out and hit the cold showers to hop back in for another soak. Dragonflies flitted around the pools and we watched the sun go down between the trees and the stars come out.


Hot springs in the dark

We took the motorbikes on the hour long ride back in the dark - the dark, me, all of a day's experience riding a motorbike, I don't think I've concentrated harder at many things in my life! We were also still sopping wet from the springs so Rowan and I in particular suffered a chilly ride and I was glad to have Tom to hug my tummy warm!

We found an excellent friendly little restaurant for dinner and were uncommonly excited (especially given the aforementioned bike ride) to find some really good ice cream!

I haven't slept as well as I did that night in a while!

There's no such thing as adventure tours

After the Kanchanaburi trip I spent one night in Bangkok before heading north to Chiang Mai on the sleeper train. The "15"(17) hour journey wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it’d be and I met some other travelers who kept me entertained with their stories and card and word games.

I headed to my first hostel called Little Bird after getting a convenient free cab to some random hotel 100yards away who managed to convince these four Brits to stay there -everyone’s happy! I struck super lucky with my room mates Jacqui (Slovenia), Cecile (New York/Venezuela) and Jessie (London).


Jessie, Kelly, Rowan and I had dinner on the river one evening

My first day was a useless faff day (I’m learning fast that you have these everywhere you go). I still managed to have every meal with a different person (which I LOVE doing) and took in a few temples (barely a day goes by…). I met various backpackers and an Italian woman working with refugees from Burma who were all pretty fascinating. I also read this awesome book called Eleven Minutes which is all about a Brazilian prostitute in Switzerland (I picked it up off a table in the hostel when I was bored) and is really thought-provoking. Faff days also involve getting around to uploading my pictures and writing these blogs (I'm falling progressively further behind each time but at least they're still coming!)

Fortunately, despite my massively unproductive day, Cecile had had a hugely useful one and found a brilliant yoga studio. I made a huge mistake of assuming that I could just pick up on a “level 3” (advanced and fit intermediate) yoga class and suffered for it for the next three days (much to the amusement of various masseuses who tried to work on my shoulders).


I had real trouble remembering to take pictures of the food I'd made before instinctively scoffing the lot!

I spent Christmas eve out with the girls in various bars around Chiang Mai, my favourite of which had a rooftop terrace from which you could see the stars. Our Christmas day cookery course was a tad painful as we tried to recover from the night before but it was still incredible. We were given a guided tour of the food market (different kinds of rice and chilli pepper, how coconut juice, milk and cream differ) and made seven dishes including mango sticky rice (YUUMMM), Pad thai, curries, soups, spring rolls and all sorts. And ate it all!


Tom yum(!) soup that I made

Most bizarre was this appetiser they gave us called something like meu meung which involved wrapping small pieces of raw garlic, shallot, peanut, chilli pepper and palm sugar syrup in an edible vine leaf and munching it whole.


There are some stunning temples in Chiang Mai

Although I enjoyed the cooking and yoga and people, I became a bit dejected with Chiang Mai when I realized that every other shop was selling variants on the same tour (at different prices), and most of the activities were things I’d already done in Kanchanaburi. I wanted to meet hill tribes and explore the mountains a bit but I didn’t want to follow the beaten track.

“Adventure tour” is simply an oxymoron. There’s adventures and there’s tours but you’re kidding yourself if you think an adventure tour is in any way wild or unique.

Getting into a truck with a load of other tourists/backpackers to go around tiger (and human) zoos before being rushed past a waterfall and down a river on a raft, and all before dinner that evening is a tour. Getting onto the back of a motorbike with a guy you met yesterday to go into the mountains for two days is an adventure.


This somewhat sums up the way I felt about getting onto the back of a scooter/moped/motorbike...until last Tuesday

I met Rowan when he was rallying people to head out for lunch at the hostel. At lunch I mentioned that I’d decided it was time to go to Chiang Dao, and probably tomorrow and he said simply that he’d been planning on going by motorbike. Three minutes later we were decided...

Take rest days.

In the afternoon of the first day of the Kanchanaburi tour we went to Saiyoknoi waterfalls where the water tumbles down these sandy rocks forming platforms and pools. It was heavenly.



Most people were just taking photos but I'm damned if I'm going to spend three hours watching other people have fun in the water out of shyness.



A quick knickertrick later and I was leaving my stuff with a lovely Canadian family I met at the floating houses. The rock of the falls is made up of some sort of sandstone and it would dissolve a little when you pushed your fingertips into it. Once I'd discovered this, I was scrambling all over the falls seeing how high I could get (and slightly scaring myself). It was stunning and refreshing and liberating and slightly uncomfortable when I realised just how many hundreds of people were standing below taking pictures of the waterfall (and me in my bikini!). Canadian Dave was kind enough to take some photos for me.


I got about halfway up this one - it's much steeper than it looks, honest!

Later we checked into our rooms. As I was the only person alone I had a room to myself with three mattresses across the floor. Awesome! The houses would rock when boats went by (not very often fortunately) - I have no idea how people managed to have a sensible game of pool in the floating bar! Despite my initial concerns I had no nocturnal visits from spiders (like the French couple next door), snakes, scorpions or even mosquitoes once I put up my mosquito net for the first time.

I'd overheard a lot of talk about how great it was to swim with the elephants so I got up early the next morning and paid this guy 500baht so I could go too. The early morning mist was still hanging on the river as I rushed to get my stuff together. Stunning.



I can't really describe how cool swimming with the elephants was. I was completely nervous of them to begin with - I know how dangerous they really are and I hadn't yet got a feel for whether they were well treated and actually enjoyed what they were doing.



It was awesome though and the elephants would rock and roll you into the water on command and then you'd get back on for another go!



Best bath ever!

After this we had a quick, (hideous) western breakfast and then went elephant trekking. I was really unsure about doing this as I've heard that they don't like to be ridden, and I almost didn't do it but then got chatting to the mahout I was with. He'd been a mahout for three years and was taught by his father. Together they'd trained his elephant "Mo" since he was born and he was now 25-30 years old and the head of the "herd". He said they rarely get angry but if he does he can calm him down, and in the hot season when they go into musth they don't ride or wash them with tourists but just chain them somewhere in the forest and keep them well fed. The elephants had no chain marks on their legs or necks that I could see. The mahout knew so much about the elephant and really seemed to have a genuine affection for him so I was won over.


This just made me laugh.

Since we were head elephant, we walked at the lead of the herd. Halfway around our walk Mo decided to let loose his bowels and what must've been a huge cloud of gas headed back down the following elephants. The smell was pretty bad from my position but watching everyone behind me covering their faces was hilarious! My kind of elephant!



Mr Mahout jumped off and let me "drive" (who am I kidding?!) for a bit. They carry these bamboo sticks with a dull blade on the end of them to control the elephants but you can see where young elephants have had them used on their heads. Mo doesn't have any marks like this and was completely comfortable with me up there instead of his mahout. The forest was alive with sounds of birds and geckos and the scenery is simply stunning.

After this we jumped onto a bamboo raft for a "ride" - they basically tow you upriver and let you float down. It was another chance to get soaked and play at water fights with the locals. This guy would shout "crocodile" pointing across the river and then shove you in (if/) when you looked.



A white-fronted kingfisher I'd seen along the river.

It was such an action packed two days I felt completely exhausted! I slept for about an hour on the bus back to Khao San road. I enjoyed every minute but I've learned now that if I'm going to live like I'll die tomorrow, just occasionally I MUST take rest days.

A duty to die.

No sooner had I gotten the last few grains of fine white sand out of my belly button than I was off again!

Saying goodbye to the island and the people I'd met there was really hard for me and if it hadn't been for my commitment to take Tor to Bangkok I wouldn't have left.

Back in Bangkok I booked myself onto a two day trip to Kanchanaburi National Park that was recommended to be by a semi-drunk Deniz. All in all it was awesome. I hadn't really looked at the itinerary which was great because it meant I had little or no expectation of what was to come.


The cemetery where 6,982 of the tens of thousands are commemorated.

Our first day was mostly about World War II. We visited the bridge over the River Kwai and the crematorium and Hellfire pass museum and took a train ride along the river. I didn't really know what the whole thing was about - no I haven't watched the film and I hated history at school - so I was blown away by it all.

I don't really buy into war. I don't like the idea of armies. To me they're people employed to put their lives on the line for the ideas of other people who have more power. And I don't trust anyone with that much power.

I've always felt that where a dispute comes to blows or even just to an argument there's been a miscommunication of just lack of communication or understanding. And if you get to a situation where someone's "won", you've both lost.


The railway path was manually cut through the rock by 30,000 odd prisoners of war kept in horrendous conditions and beaten or tortured if they were too slow. Less than half survived.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't believe in turning the other cheek either; bullies need to be stood up to (the Nazis and communism to name a few), but I want to live in a world where, when someone tries to take more than they need, especially if it's to the detriment of others, (e.g. the disregard of the environment and general rape of natural resources to sustain "quality of life" in the USA and no doubt many other countries including the UK), the other peoples of the world would unite to make a standpoint. It's an unrealistic idea and requires a large number of people having the same values: regard for human life, a desire for greater universal happiness etc. but it doesn't feel like our current politics are working towards a better solution or situation.



We're so stuck in our ways. All I ever see in the houses of parliament are stupid little men and women trying to take the mick out of one another to make their teams laugh at the embarrassment of the opposition. They're like flipping bickering children the lot of them.

These outdated systems prevent (necessary) change and it's tragic.

My point is that I don't ever want anyone to have to die for me. No one has a duty to put down their life for someone else's argument. Yet so many of the 6,982 gravestones said "he did his duty". I respect those who put their lives on the line for my rights: the right to vote, the right for free speech etc etc but we're in a modern society in an age of education and enlightenment - no one should be put into these situations. We shouldn't have people in power who are so bad at negotiation or have such low compassion or morality that they would force other people to die to make their point.



What would you do if you caught a (influential) six year old paying some heftier six year olds to kick the ass of someone with a nicer set of toys?

Life is more precious than these arguments and greed and selfishness are so universally accepted. Why?

The problem with rooms with no windows.

I'm KNACKERED! The next post will explain why but right now I'm too wired from the first 15minutes of my morning to try to write it.

I had a semi-disturbed sleep last night in this place I'm staying that's pretty active and has relatively thin walls - but that's ok because "I have ear plugs and tomorrow's my rest day so I'll just get up late (check out's at 12) and chill out in the bar all day...and maybe sneak into Villa Cha Cha to use their pool"... best laid plans'n'all.

I heard people moving about in the night and they woke me up a little but it never felt like morning so I concentrated on getting back to sleep. I got up at 7am yesterday morning without even trying and made it to the elephants before the morning mist had lifted off the river (more to come on that), so I figured my body knew what it needed to do.

It didn't.

After hearing a load of Thai ladies chattering I thought I'd check my phone to see how long I had before they'd be coming round to clean.

12.03 $*&#@!
Manic rush to get everything into my bag (I'm like the blob when it comes to rooms - I spread to fill the available space) and get myself downstairs. I made it there for 12.11 sweating and shaking (I'm not one for getting up quickly) - I think the woman on the desk probably didn't charge me the extra night because I looked so ill!

The problem with rooms with no windows: There's no natural light to wake you up.

Snorkels, sharks and surprises

Our snorkelling day was a cool day (literally) and really windy - it started with a hair-raising boat ride (waaay too fast) across very choppy waves out to the islands. Tor and I loved it but I think we were the only ones. We were already soaking by the time we arrived at our first destination.

Long story short we had a great time but no piccies I'm afraid (good thing too - my camera would've been soaked). The trip ended with a visit to this surreal aquarium-cum-fish farm where a series of square nets containing turtles, sharks and other big fish were divided by walkways made up of wooden boards strapped to floating barrels.
Every time a boat passed the waves made the walkways rock. They were only about a foot and a half wide so it was very precarious and we were terrified of falling in with the sharks swimming just below. I felt that some of the turtles really shouldn't be there in these tiny 2 by 2m nets and was especially tempted to liberate a small hawksbill but I was wary of the number of people watching and the fact that they were a hundred times better than me at walking the sharky walkways!


I took a long walk along the beach that evening and it was phenomenal! The sun was setting and the sea was still warm, the tideline was littered with cuttlefish shells and little clam shells amongst wiry bits of driftwood. Butterflies flap along the beach here too - I always thought films romanticised these scenes with CGI but it really happens. The Thai kids came out in force as I walked along, sticking their tongues out and demanding that I show their friends the hand games. The little daughter of our hostel was introduced to me as "Entee" and her friend "Tun" follows her around. We went back to the hostel and I made them origami flowers and cranes which they demanded by flapping their arms and pouting - so cute!

Entee took a load of pictures with my camera.


They were still out running around the Muay Thai boxing ring in our bar at 11.30pm that night as I joined Tom on the beach to give him a frisbee lesson and do some yoga. He was sporting a new tattoo!

Making friends on The Beach.

After getting scorched on day 1 in heaven we hid from the sun on day 2 sitting in the shade where the massage ladies sit chattering all day. Koh Samet is GORGEOUS.
How was your Wednesday?

Hours go by without you noticing. I'm pretty sure I literally stared at the sea for half a day. I may have gotten up to walk up and down "meditation beach" but that's it.


Our new friend Tom showed up out of nowhere as usual and we booked the snorkelling trip he'd recommended. He's been on Koh Samet for three weeks (he meant to stay for three days) so knows everything - the people, where to eat, fruit stalls, how many farang each bartender has slept with...! He'd been toying with getting this tattoo but seemed really uncomfortable with what the Thai guys at the tattoo place had come up with - we convinced him that it's him that's going to have to live with it for the rest of his life so he shouldn't go for something he wasn't sure of.

That evening we went to the bar at our hostel (Naga's) to put on a film (everywhere's dead until about 9.30pm) and this little Thai girl appeared out of nowhere and put on The Lion King which we proceeded to watch in Thai with English subtitles, singing along (in English) to the very weird songs which the mini-Thais enjoyed.
Entee and me

They were pretty distracting though and I ended up teaching them a few handgames (making a mask out of your fingers, trying to slap your friends' hands). They brought me some of their sweets which were absolutley grim. Tor returned later to find me wrestling two Thai kids desperately trying to get me to eat 6 or 7 of these gross sweets by holding my nose and pushing them in my mouth. They were unsuccessful - but still cute.


We met A Turkish guy Deniz and our chum Tom in the bar where Deniz completely baffled me with a card trick the bartenders had taught him. It took me about eight tries to twig that he had a rigged card but by that point I was crying with hysterics. The four of us headed to a club for a boogie and a bucket on the beach...

You're not going to like this post.

Sun, sea and beautiful fine white sand. LOTS OF IT. That gets everywhere! (Pics to follow...you're going to be soooo jealous!)

We hopped on a bus yesterday morning that took us to Ban Pen? Ben Pha? Ben Phe? Somewhere on the coast, where we caught a boat driven by the only person I've ever seen to authentically pull off Thai fisherman trousers.

And we're in paradise.

We woke up this morning to the sound of birds and geckos (replacing BKK's cars, bells and whistles). The beaches are STUNNING and the sea is warm. I'm hiding here in the internet cafe (at a steep 2baht/4p a minute!) after getting a light scorching on my forehead and shoulders earlier.

This place has pancakes :D

Totally deserves a paragraph of its own! The Deet/SSS experiment isn't going that well what with the lack of bites. Tor rightly says that this just proves that both do their job which, as any good PHD student knows, is totally dull. I've only had two bites, both on the forefinger of my right hand which I think is simply a confounding location due to my inability to rub Deet into my left arm with my left hand.

Having let me zap her with our electric supposedly-itch-reducing zapper, Tor thoroughly enjoyed watching me use it on my forefinger at breakfast before smothering said finger in Tiger balm. I think she probably took more enjoyment out of me itching my nose with the edge of the same finger a few seconds later causing my eyes to stream and my nose to tingle before going numb. We were giggling the whole way through our pancakes.

We'll be here for a few days taking in the sun and sea, possibly going on a snorkeling tour or two and probably attending a few fire shows and "half moon parties" which appear to be daily. :D

I hope you're all enjoying the reported rise in temperature to above freezing point! ;)

What a difference a day makes

Our second day started off pretty useless. We meant to get up early but ended up heading to Grand Palace in the scorching heat and just as a gazillion tourists arrived so left it and returned to KSR to have a drink by the pool.



After nagging a cabby to put his meter on we enjoyed a 30minute air conditioned ride to the bar to meet Brucey (a mate from Wildscreen) which was 120baht - that's about £2.20 - Bristol public transport is going to drive me mental when I get home.
We enjoyed some strange looking drinks and had a very appropriately British chat about the weather and local politics. We picked up some great tips before heading to meet Perran's mum's Uni friend, Jada.What more could you want?

Jada's was amazing! We had fresh coconut juice (with the flesh floating in it) on their terrace before heading inside to be served a meal by their cook - could get used to that! They'd prepared some local dishes which aren't too spicy so that we could find out what we liked - bless! Basil chicken, papaya salad, pork, tofu soup, vermicelli, rice, and vegetables followed by mango and sticky rice with coconut paste (YUM) and bean paste sweets (not at all sweet - bleurgh!). They explained how Thai people eat pushing everything onto a spoon with a fork. And they helped us come to a decision about a trip we'd been thinking of doing down south (until thunderstorms came into play) saying it just wouldn't be worth it and agreeing to Bruce's suggestion that we head to Ko Samet, a beautiful beachy Bangkok getaway popular with the locals.

Crazy KSR

Heading home (stuffed and) on a high after our ridiculously useless morning we decided to go out for a beer and ended up singing along to some great western covers enthusiastically performed by this little Thai man with a knack for accent impressions. He did a brilliant Ronan Keating/Boyzone number minutes after belting out a convincing Mick Jagger. We had a quick stroll up and down KSR (as you do) and went to bed.

Chill with a Chang

Additional great news - Tor is really tasty! She has twenty bites on one foot since last night on Jada's terrace and I had nowt...which has been slightly debilitating to my Deet vs Skin So Soft experiment (Left arm and leg Deet, right arm and leg SSS)...until just now (but I hadn't put any repellant on in a while).

Phrase of the day: "There's no such thing as a good hair day in South East Asia."