Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hi all!
Finally got chance to stop and upload our piccies after a week of non stop sight seeing, trekking (we'll get to that later...) and travelling.
Day 1 - Arrive in Bangkok after a 16 hour flight and 3 hour visit to Bahrain. Emilia watched the film Walle a total of 5 times on the flight as she kept falling asleep! Gulf Air - 6/10!
When we arrived we just crashed out in the hotel and repacked our bags for the first of many times...
Day 2 - Staying at the New World Lodge Hotel near the river, pretty nice.
We met Sanit our tour guide who has has turned out to be Kelly's saviour, and went on a tour around Bangkok with him. We walked through a market which was actually minging but we got an awesome pic (see pics) - the market itself was ok but they had stalls of live fish, eels, etc... and the smell was just horrendous. We then got a boat up the river and got of at The Grand Palace (see pics). Sanit left us to wonder for the day on our own. Em and i absolutely loved it here, everything is so beautiful and colourful - Em has a new found love for Buddhism allthough they're not too hot on women! Also we here saw the Emerald Buddha which was gorgeous (not a very good pic as you couldn't take them inside) - they change the Buddhas outfit depending on the season - my favourite if the cold and Em's is the summer.
Also met some of our group today, Katie and Jemma from Bedfordshire, Carston and Bianca from Germany and Jeremie from France. Carston, Biance and Jeremie are with us until Singapore.
We then walked to Khaosan road which is famous backpacker territory - however a walk that according to Sanit should have taken 20 minutes took about an hour as we seriously had issues crossing the 12 lane road that had no traffic lights! (see pic)
At Khaosan we had our first Thai meal for 2.50 each - bargain! We both loved Khaosan - there is such an amazing atmosphere.
Then hopped on the overnight train to Chiang Mai (North Thai) for a what ended up being 15 hour journey...
Day 3 - Arrived in Chiang Mai a few hours late and organised a Thai cookery course. We got picked up by our teacher Boo and taken to the local market to buy ingredients. Sightings included boiled chicken blood, and chicken feet (which are apparently lovely snacks - not convinced). Back at the gorgeous cooking school we made Pad Thai, Thai Green Curry, Bananna fritters and soup - so gorgeous and we were given a cute cook book to take away so Thai food made by us when we get back!
After the cooking we went down to the night market and haggled for a watch and some bangles and then craving some familiar food went for a pizza!
Day 4/5/6 - The Hilltribe adventure begins...
On our way to the hilltribe we stopped at a waterfall and had a little swim, it was absolutely breathtaking and the photos don't do it justice at all. Then had lunch made by the NICEST man ever called Neagan, he was a monk for 20 years and then gave up as he wanted to experience new things, he was just so kind and generous and at every meal time would constantly make sure we were all happy, and constantly giggle. He also told us they say 'Oh my Buddha' which we all thought was quite amusing... Then the trek began. Now... when i signed up to do a trek i thought quite a chilled out easy stroll through the mountain, safe, amazing views. What i actually got was in total over two days 7.5 hours of walking on a 20 inch wide path (slippery thick mud) with next to it about a 30 ft drop and only branches to hold on too, going up really steep hills and then back down. I was completely s***ting it! The first day Em and i did an easier last hour as i was completely drained but the second day we all did the whole 4 hours, but this was easier
(no scary drops!). All in all the hardest thing i've EVER done, but with the support from the team and Sanit carrying my bag for a bit ;) i did it - NEVER AGAIN!!!
Emilia: I loved it!!!!!
Our accomodation was like tree houses and allthough extremely basic was actually no way as bad as we'd imagined, the food was absolutely delicious and the loo's were holes in the ground and we bathed in rivers and buckets! Love it! Also the first place we stayed was the Karen village which was the tribe that our guide Sanit was originally from, an incredibly remote but beautiful place. Very humbling, when we asked what they do for fun we were told they eat as a family and then talk about what they'd done that day, and they have no crime and the kids have to walk hour treks to get to school - but they are all so incredibly happy, generous and welcoming - so awesome to have experienced it.
We also had the opportunity on these days to ride an elephant and bamboo raft - neither of which Kelly was loving the idea of but given the alternative of trekking for a further 5 hours she jumped at the chance! The elephant ride was incredible - our elephant was really naughty and lazy and was called Maeja, Sanit told us how they train the elephants from babies and how they pick their own names - very cute. The next day we bamboo rafted. We don't have any pics from this but will get some of the others in the group and get them up eventually but there are some pics of the rafts so you can see what we were standing on, basically a raft that you stand on and float down the river gracefully until you get to the rapids where you just go with the waves and use all your balance and energy to try not to fall in! We did really well until the guys decided to jump onto our raft which sank it and we all went in!! Awesome experience though!
When we got back to Chiang Mai we all scrubbed up and went out for a lush meal at the Riverside and then went to a bar called the Rooftop which was so sterotypically traveller Thailand bar - cool though and nice to chill out!
Then back to the overnight train to Bangkok...
Day 7 - Today we got in to Bangkok at about 6.30am and have just been chilling out, we had a gorgeous massage, have done a bit of shopping and now doing this! Tonight we're gonna get dolled up and go for a really nice meal and a few drinks.
Next stop is Khao Sok National Park and Krabi - Bring on the beach!!
Love to you all,
Kelly and Emilia XxXxXXx
- comments