Leaving South East Asia

My heart is so sad because today we begin our trip which will end with us out of South East Asia.
I'm torn about going to Australia. I know that it's another leg of a crazy adventure. But it's just bringing me closer to ending this adventure. I only have 1 month left.


It's a "glass is half empty" kind of day today.

[disclaimer: surviving on not much sleep and running out of money quicker than I thought i would has put me in a bit of a pensive mood.
No, this is not my update about the Philippines, or Kuala Lumpar, I've got 5 hours on a bus today for that!]

I've got a post in the barrel, but until then you'll have to hold your horses.
Sorry - just been having too much fun to update! :)

Well I've found it- the place I love the most!
 Yes, yes, I do realise I've probably said that about every place I've been to, but his time I really mean it!
We are staying on Borakay in a hostel no more than 50 steps away from white sand and crystal clear water beaches. I have spent a day reading, swimming and laying down my head to sleep in the sand. What's not to love?!

After the initial scare of thinking we couldn't get money out at the ATM I finally was able to and after trying in vain to find our hostel on the wrong island (yes, the one thing I tried to plan I effed up) we finally arrived. 
This place is amazing; and it just so happens we've coincided this trip with Easter so most of the people on holiday are Filipinos. The Philippines are a 90% Christian nation, the only place in SEA to have that. Their language is also remarkably similar sounding to Spanish and it's been good fun to actually understand some of what people are talking about! 
The kids are beautiful and great fun to play with. Mostly everyone speaks a remarkable amount of English, even the radio shows are about 50% English- which is hilarious.
Yesterday I spent on the beach and lived off 97 Pisos. Had the best mango of my life which was so juicy I had to dive into the sea to clean up, then I considered the ant for a while as I watched them working hard. I love this place! 

On the bus we met two lads from England, Ant and Matt. Ant had been travelling for 18 months and had been to (I think) 26 countries. We hit it off almost immediately because i judged his music and he passed the test!  Matt had been away for 6 months and was the only person I've met travelling who was more than 100% ready to go home. 
After a freezing cold sleepless night on the sleeper bus we arrived in Bangkok at 4.30am and walked to a hostel that Matt knew from last time he was in Bangkok. 
I have walked along the streets of many big cities at that time before, returning from nights out, not being able to find sleep, coming home from holidays, going to the airport etc. But never have I seen streets so lively as they were in Bangkok. Clubs were still open, restaurants were packed, people were still completely wired and ready to go. The thing that struck me more here than anywhere else is South East Asia is that the mix of Thai to westerners was completely equal. it struck me as... I don't know. Partly sad because it would seem they've lost a way of life that their parents or grandparents would have lived, and partly happy because they're moving with the tines and as their city is becoming so very cosmopolitan so are these beautiful people.

I don't think we spent enough time in Bangkok, but the time we did spend there I loved. 
It, for me, was a city of firsts. First shisha (strawberry, and never a good idea when you still have a chest infection), first massage (sadly average at best), and first city in SEA where I've splashed out!
The heat was almost unbearable, and we spent quite a bit of time in the shower or the ever air conditioned 711 (newsagent chain) in order to bring our temperature down. 

The first day was spent in Art Centre of Bangkok. (we got a local bus and were very proud of ourselves!) If you ever visit Bangkok please go here! It was 7 floors filled with art work from all across the world. 
I was really impressed by the young artist of the year show, it's so interesting to not only look at the work, but also read what they each had to say about their influences. 
That's something I have found missing, and not just a little bit irritating, at galleries in England and New York, titles of work and a description. We're supposed to look at a piece of art work that looks like something a 4 year old ADHD child has produced while watching Ben 10 and draw our own conclusions on how "uber fantastic and original" this artist is. Meh. Call me old fashioned, but I like my art to look like art. 
Anyway-when did I become a grumpy old woman?!- I also really liked the exhibition that focused on how the river that runs from China all the way to Bangkok and beyond is changing due to dams and other man made things being built. The economy of all of the different people groups that live along the river have had to change to incorporate the loss of their livelihood. Very interesting and devastating stuff. 
That night ended with a drunken group of friends and me, being on antibiotics, very sober but having a very enjoyable night nonetheless. 

Another day we went to a park which was nearby and hung out there for a bit watching the most incredible break dancers aged 12-20 or there abouts, playing with the hula hoops, standing to attention when the national anthem was played, laughing at the aerobics group which contained the campest and most enthusiastic man I've ever seen do aerobics not dissimilar to this. (spiderman will make you gay) absolutely fabulous! Met up with the boys again and went to watch some football at a bar, which was actually just a VW camper van with a 40" tv out of the back with tables and chairs set up in a line near by. Nice bar though, and the sweetest bar guy. Soon though the heavens opened and the sort of rain that would fall over a couple of days in England fell in a few hours, we all got soaked to the skin, but enjoyed it!

The air of anticipation in Bangkok at the moment is absolutely amazing! Every family is in holiday mode for Song Kram. Song Kram is a festival of water which includes everyone, whether you like it to or not. Water guns in all shapes and sizes are for sale everywhere, there have been processions going through the street advertising the holiday for those who don't know about it, Koah San Road has been transformed into a festival street with streamers and bunting down the length of the street. It's going to be a great time and a welcome celebration with this level of heat. Unfortunately we're leaving at midnight the day before it starts--bah! 
Oh well not to fret, we're headed to the philippines so things aren't that bad!


 

Oh Pai, my heart resides in thee! 
Pai itself is a haven for hippies, Rastas and ex-pats who need rest. Everyone is so accommodating and free love presides! 
There were massage schools, bamboo tattoo parlours, organic restaurants, yoga schools small bars, family ran businesses and cute little bakeries in abundance. That's just the front street! This place had everything for an easy life! 

Upon our arrival we made friends with a girl called Niki, she seemed rather funny and we decided to share a room with her. Good choice! Niki turned out to be one hilarious woman who we quickly warmed to, it felt as though we'd known her for ages!
That nigt we hung out at the place we were staying, Edible Jazz, listening to a humorous French man play a wide genre of music and drinking the most delicious fruit shakes. 
We retired to our room after a bit and were serenaded to sleep by the music blasting from the Buddhist Temple next door. And by serenaded to sleep I mean we lay awake until the music finally finished at about 3am... Out partied by monks!

The following day had an early start with the Buddhists chanting at 4am...urgh. Although this place is just awesome, the Buddhists were getting my goat a little. I bet you've never met anyone who gets angry at Buddhists before, probably one of the more passive religions! 
That day I happened to read a bit about a celebration that takes part at this time of year to celebrate the bringing of new monks to a temple, and from then on had more patience for them, but my goodness we couldn't have picked a closer spot to the temple! ( as a side note, these monks were the cutest things ever! Little 6 year old boys being dressed and made up like little gods riding on the beds of open trucks, dancing about and then on the final day having their hair shaved and being dressed in the robes of a monk. However this new status doesnt seem to change these kids too much, in their down time they played with remote control cars and chased each other around the temple grounds.)
 
Feeling rested and alert (ahem) we hired mopeds and for the second time in my life I tried to balance a motorised two wheeled vehicle. 
The first time was an extremely unsuccessful time at the age of 16 when I drove sideways along a wall and managed to scrape off a good few layers of skin. I had high hopes for this second experience.

It was as easy as riding a bike! Honestly, I mean come on, I was riding a 115cc automatic, things don't get much easier than that! 
After precisely 1 minute of getting used to riding we took a ride to the hot springs just outside of town. The day was lovely, the sun was blazing after the showers of the previous evening, the air was fresh, the ride was beautiful, and as I gained confidence I found myself really appreciating the worlds beauty. The hot springs themselves were unbelievably hot and one could, if you so desired, boil eggs at the top and bathe nearer the bottom, in almost-too-hot freshwater. A lovely afternoon was wasted there reading and chatting a little. :). After we got bored enough we got back on the mopeds and drove to a mountain, which we read had a spectacular temple at the top. I led the way and rode up an unimaginably steep hill until forced to stop by the sheer gradient of the thing, turning into a spot at the side of the gravel track to park my moped, Kris and Niki followed suit with Cat bringing up the rear and to almost devastating affects forgetting which was the brake and which was the accelerator. As she teetered on the precipice I realised what an exceptionally lovely friend I have and how much I don't want her to die. To say we all sprung into action would be a gross representation of our reaction. I almost fell off my own stationary vehicle and screamed, "pull the break man Catherine!" Then jumped up to pull back the bike/keep it level. Kris just sat, and Niki shouted, "let go!" Cat did let go of the accelerator and was ok other than a couple of scratches which seemed to bleed profusely. (artistic licence has been put to use here by the way, she wasn't actually dangling or anything) the temple turned out to be a ruin anyway- the only impressive thing about it was the giant bell we all hit and made great resounding sounds down the mountain.

After our great motor adventure we were planning on going to an art show but I wasn't feeling well and decided to have an early night.


 I awoke with a fever through the roof and a cough to rival that of a 80 year old smoker, so needless to say I spent the next few days in bed and my lovely Catherine nursed me to health feeding me water, tea and fruit juice, laying cold towels on my head and visiting the pharmacy on my behalf to get antibiotics and cough medicine.
What a beautiful woman she is, and what a great mum she'll make! (attrctive, tall men, enquire within!)
Somethig that I came to realise during the great illness was the compassion and care which was showered upon us all by the owners and workers of the place we stayed, bringing us tea, checking on me when I was ill and Niki when she was hungover. They were fine examples of beautiful people. 

A couple of days later I surfaced to the world, still feeling a little shaky, but ultimately exceptionally restless. We started the day with a bout of fitness in the form of very unprofessionally executed yoga and a bit of pilates, all of which I decided to do in the dirt while wearing a white skirt. Yes, I'm that smart. After that I went to get a tattoo with a bamboo stick. And then Cat cut my hair. 
For the sunset we went on the bikes to the nearby canyon and had a well romantic time. Well it would have been romantic but I'm not gay with Cat or Niki, so it just reminded me of what I'm missing at the moment. Frown.
After a quick turn around and some food we got back on the bikes (best thing in the world) and rode to the jungle where there was a fund raising party going on for the victims of the Japanese earthquake. Wow. Just wow. Words cannot describe this night of pandemonium. I wasn't completely well,  my chest was still in massive pain then i had a bit of a dramatic asthma attack, so I left pretty early at 3.30. It was still epic and I wish I wasn't driving and unwell cause I think it would have been great to pull an all nighter. In the time actually spent at the rave there were the most beautiful black guys dancing with fire, crazy people drugged up dancing with the speakers which were blasting out all types of music, a digeridoo player, some of the most interestingly dressed people I've ever seen, a massive flag made from bed sheets that you wrote a message to Japan on, a man making t-shirts, food being sold, a bonfire, a dj pumping out dubstep and electronic music, a girl with a broken ankle after falling down the stairs, about 700 gallons of alcohol consumed and other general mayhem. 
And I heard that after we left it just got better!
The next morning as we were at the 711 getting some water at 9am we bumped- quite literally- into some of the revellers who were just returning. Quite a bunch of crazy, dehydrated, crazy, dancing, crazy, lovelies! 

A few more days passed, and we did much more of the same thing, minus the partying, both talked to our families a bit and generally lazed about. (oh and booked tickets to the Philippines).
Then on our last night, out of nowhere as we were sitting having a drink and listening to some music Jenni turned up! Our wolf pack are amazing and have the propensity of meeting up at all of the most random places! Yet again we extended our stay for the sake of hanging out with a wolf pack member without one single regret.

Pai has been by far my favourite place so far, for the bikes, for the music, for the waterfalls but mostly for the complete love we've received from the people here.

We left Pai, had one uneventful night in Chaing Mai where we stayed in the most comfortable bedroom yet, and then jumped onto the night-bus to Bangkok. 

We decided to travel to Thailand on a plane as apose to at least 35 hours on the bus and dodgy borders.
Although I think that the buses, trains and tùk tùks are something everyone must try, and not something i would have liked to miss, flying was such a delightful luxury at this point in the game. 
We arrive at our destination; in a different country no less, 3 hours after leaving our hostel. A completely unheard of miracle! 

After settling in I took a nap and Cat started to plan our trip to Australia. Dear people of the world, if you want to choose a good travel companion, make sure you choose Catherine Kite, or at least someone with her outlook on life, general loveliness and propensity toward wanting things to be sorted and in good order.
That night we hung out with an extreme girl from several different places in Europe, depending upon when you asked her. We also met a cool Belg and yet another Frenchy! 

Chaing Mai was a bit of a culture shock in reverse. We had left Lao, one of the countries named in the poorest 20 of the world and been catapulted into a city with either a McDonalds, Burger King or Starbucks on every street corner. Overly made up (wo)men beckoning clientele into the bars with bored looks on their faces. Western style restaurants churning out drunken Europeans and Americans. Beautiful Thai women holding hands or linking arms with portly--no overweight, 60+ white men, usually with some sort of awful body odour problem. That particular practise made me sick. 

But, probably unsurprisingly there were redeeming features about his city- the best $1 Pad Thai ever eaten, a lovely river teeming with fish running through the main street, friendly faces when you make the effort to greet people, sabadeekaa, for future reference. Oh and I totally forgot they offer the best courses, for anything, ever! Massage, art therapy, yoga, muay Thai, and of course cookery. 

I am now Thai chef! We went to cookery course where we learned how to make all manner of delish dishes! Although it was only half a day long I  managed to cook up an absolute culinary feast of thai green curry, basil chicken, caramelised bananas and of course Pad Thai. Thought I would explode with all of that food!  
That night we hung out with Belgium and Frenchy 3 at the Sunday night market. I love that place, so many talented people selling their wares and crazy people walking around- a great place to practise the sport of people watching.  
Belgium bought many various bugs from the market and chowed down, he made a bug fuss over nothing though! Of course i had to try the bugs- afterall it's a big adventure isn't it?! I tried a silk worm and a small cricket. No big deal.  
Until about 45 minutes later when the thought of what I'd eaten was too much for me and I threw up. I'm so tough! 

Today was a slow day after bad nights sleep. I am really missing various members of our gang, and have other emotional traumas which are just putting me completely at loggerheads with myself. 
I Love Cat though, she is constantly pulling me out of my shitty moods especially when I'm missing people. An excellent friend and a wonderful distractor!  And full of clichés.. Hehe!
We did a few little errands throughout the day and booked a bus ticket to the north but still felt completely out of sorts until out of nowhere someone jumped on us from behind...FRENCHY & Frenchy 2, they greeted us with such warm embraces I almost burst into tears of joy! 
Of course we extended our bus tickets and hung out with them for the night drinking at a little bar then moving on to a club for some dancing and an impromptu foam party when I found a canister of shaving foam! Yet another excellent past night with members of the wolfpack!

We got a minibus up to Pai the next morning, another twisty turny ride ending with the most beautiful views but the most sad stomaches! Imagine being in a washing machine after eating noodle soup or something- you'll get the feeling.

The first day in Luang Prabang we were surprised by the most beautiful weather and we settled into the city by wandering around with overjoyed looks on our faces- who knew how easy it'd be to forget what the sun felt like on our skin! 
We soon met up with Austria and Jen. We grabbed a bite to eat from a woman we soon dubbed as the happiest woman in the world due to her ever bright countenance and hired bikes. I haggled because Frenchy wasn't there to do it for us and off we went to explore our surroundings. The city itself is really pretty and has a number of little boutiques selling nice dresses, shops selling hand made jewellery and more temples than you can shake a stick at! To go with the massive amount of temples there were a heck of a lot of monks, all ages, sizes, and of different levels of solemnity!   That night after an all you can fit on a plate meal at the night market, we went to a lovely bar called Laos Laos garden for drinks and girl time (plus Austria, who may have had a rude awakening into the ways of women!) 
While we sat there I heard the call, "what the fuck?!" we all turned around to see nome other but out lovely Frenchy!  We hung out for the night and arrange to meet him the next day for the tour we'd booked earlier that day.

The day trip a was excellent, despite being a bit of a rip off, to think we paid $32 for 2 nights and 3 days trip to Halong bay, and we were paying $45 for a day--oh well. The trip was great and it was nice to not have to worry about anything at all. 
In the morning we went to ride on elephants, which was lovely if a little smelly! The hide of an elephant is surprisingly tough and the hairs are very coarse, not the most comfortable animal to ride but a great experience. 
In the afternoon we went to the waterfalls. With the turquoise water and rope swing I felt like I was in paradise. 
I managed a spectacular crash into a tree because I was too scared to let go of the rope! Very graceful and super cool I'm sure! After that embarrassment I managed a couple of great swings into the water to redeem myself, but was massively outshone in both grace and beauty by Austria and Frenchy, who like most boys are just able to do stuff like that easily!
Early evening took us to a little village where child labour is in full swing. We were sold bracelets by lovely little kids who chimed 5000,5000,5000,5000 until you bought something! At one point I had to use my teacher voice on them cause we were all getting sick of the 5000 chorus! 
The little boys were playing an awesome game of beat the crap out of each other with clods of mud. Like snowball fights but way more vicious. Of course I joined in for a few minutes hitting various members of our group with mud much to the shock of the lads! Then I offered to buy one of the babies for 5000 from his mum; she found his hilarious and told her neighbour across the way who also though this was hilarious, offering me a toothless laugh that left me smiling for the rest of the day!
That night was Lisa's last and so we went for goodbye drinks at Laos Laos. After the bar closed we hit the road and went to the only club in town to dance our hearts out to an obscure mix of western and Thai music. I loved that club, and had no idea how much I missed dancing until that night.
After the club lots of people came back to our hostel where they sat outside until the wee hours of the morning!

The next day was a day of mourning as Lisa left and the group was smaller yet again. Argh- that girl really does have a special place in my heart, she's one of those people who you know you're supposed to meet and be friends for life! 
That night we had an awesome fondue dinner to say proper goodbyes to the rest of the gang as we were splitting up he following day.

As we travelled up north to Nong Khiao for a few days on a local bus with the wind blowing in my hair and a steel pole separating my spine from the right side of my back, I realised how exceptionally lucky I am to be here.
Strangely I miss work, and less strangely I miss my family and my wifey and my heather, but I am so very happy I am here- gaining new experience, getting to know myself a bit more, and changing, in ways I didn't think I would. And mostly meeting some excellent people that I otherwise wouldn't have met.

Anyway, I stayed in a lovely little bungalow on the riverside in Nong K. Very peaceful, it was like going on a holiday within my travels! Went to some caves but forgot my headtorch like a fool, banged my shoulder and it hurt lots so we sacked the cave exploration in the intrerest of personal safety and walked home! On the way we waded through a river which was like marshland of poop under my feet- not the best idea, but a lovely day! 
I liked that village a lot and the people just seemed lovely. I don't know why, but I am so incredibly broody here! I literally have to put my hands in my pockets so that I don't pick up every child from their mother! Just for a hug- don't worry I haven't moved onto kidnap yet!

Our bus arrived at Pakse where we were told we had an 8 hour wait for the connecting bus. With tired minds and bodies we sunk into the plastic chairs in the waiting area to wait.
 As we sat there daydreaming and drifting in and out of conversation we were shocked to see Frenchy and Tom disembarking from their bus. After only 5 hours we were reunited!
The boys decided to come with us to vang vieng and we set off on a 4 hour long winding bus ride without anything resembling air conditioning. What a delight!
I imagine 10 years ago that Vang Vieng was a lovely little village with a couple of places to eat, bamboo bridges over to the smaller islands surrounding it, kids going to school, weekend trips to the caves and a sense of nothing big ever happening. 
Vang Vieng is still a small town, but lining the streets are open plan restaurants with cushions to lie on and tables for the western food served, wih each place blaring either family guy or episodes of friends on loop on widescreen televisions. The streets are lined with fast food kiosks selling crepes, sandwiches and fruit shakes. 
The main clientele are in their early 20s and are there to get completely wasted while meandering down the river on inner tubes, dropping in on the bars along the way to consume mushroom shakes and buckets- yes buckets - of Lao Lao and coke. As the Lao Lao is a lot cheaper than coke, the ratio of this local wiskey to coke leads to a potent mix that I'm sure would floor an elephant.
The bars have swings and slides into the river, which would be amazing to use, but as it's dry season, they are terribly dangerous, however the mix of drugs and alcohol lead the general public to believe they are invincible. Every year there is at least one death and probably about 365 extremely bad injuries due to his stupidity.

As Luck would have it, although at the time we were devestated, it rained a cold, unpredictably strong rain throughout our trip. Tubing was cancelled for us. Ah well, I like my life and limbs, so as I said, it was a blessing in disguise!

Saving grace for Vang Vieng- the caves! We were still with Frenchy, so passing the time sitting on our bottoms was not an option! He roused the troops and we all donned our warm waterproofs and embarked upon a 6 hour hike to the caves. We waded through rivers, cut across private fields and pushed our way through overgrown jungle to get to the caves where we explored with our dim head torches careful not to look at the walls which at times teamed with interesting insects to which we were in extremely close proximity! So much fun was had that day, and as I wrote all of our initials on a cave wall (with clay or something similar) and signed it with the date and "wolfpack", I really felt a great affinity for our family. 

That night I experienced a bucket first hand and the less said about that the better.
The rest of the time in Vang Vieng was spent reading, walking around and waiting for the crappy weather to pass. It didn't, so we did! 
The last night together we pushed the three beds together and Cat, Tom, Lisa, Frenchy, Raechelle and I had a sleepover and watched a beautiful french film 'the choir'. It was such a beautiful end to our time together. 
The next day the girls made 

 I wroth that about 2 weeks ago, but wanted to finish it before i posted, oh well! It's been such a long time since i wrote anything here- which is just a sign of personal journalling, writing emails or just having too much to do! It's not that I don't want to keep these updates going, i know I'll appreciate them in the long run. 

So...The girls left to Luang Prabang, which is in the north of Lao. ( or Laos if you prefer!)
The ride was..well it felt like we were travelling on a road made of soggy spaghetti, designed like one of those "follow the squiggly line and find Fido a bone" puzzles. The rain had been coming down in droves and the road was at times seemingly impossible to drive on, but where there's a will, there's a way, and our driver certainly had a will!
We arrived 3 hours after our ETA cold to the bone, desperate for a wee and utterly miserable. After the túk túk driver tried (and succeeded somewhat) to rip us off we arrived at a hostel and collapsed into bed.


*in the travelling sense where everything is so temporal yet feels so permanent