Geez, we have earthquakes to the north, floods to the south, our Guest house owner, Mr Miaggi, prophesising about the end of the world in 2012 - I think it's time to get the hell out of Thailand! Trouble is, that's proving easier said than done. I mean, we had a plan. The plan was to get to Bangkok and then travel down to Malaysia for some culinery delights and blue seas, only that's no longer a good option, with reports of whole roads being washed away down south. We can't afford to fly to Vietnam, haven't got time to go back up north, so decision has been made - we are going to Cambodia. 8 am tomorrow morning, with bags full of healthy road snacks, we will be getting on a bus bound for Cambodia. With any luck avoiding fighting at the Thailand/Cambodia border and on to Siem Reap. Here's hoping that Siem Reap has some good food and coffee to offer.
It's a bit scary how near we're getting to the end of our trip. For months now I've been dreaming of England, remembering through my rose tinted glasses the culture, the pubs, the fish and chips. England to me when I'm away morphs from this cold, rainy country of football yobbos and grey streets to a disney-like paradise land. I spend so many of our long journeys thinking of how much I miss people and how much they mean to me and how it'd been too long since I've been home. I am still excited to be going home and I can't wait to see everyone and drink wine and eat cheese. One big problem is I have to leave Brett behind, which kind of sucks! Sure, he doesn't pay proper attention to my breakfast needs, but he is pretty good to have around and we've kind of got used to always being together. If all the people I love could just live in one bloody country, life would be so much easier! Still, I suppose life isn't meant to be easy. If I just buy a private jet then all my problems are solved! And in the meantime, there's some good times in Cambodia to be had.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Back to Bangkok
Finally - we did it, we spent a night on public transport and actually slept! All it took was approximately 48 hours without sleep and a reasonable sized hangover and we were both dead to the world for a good 8 hours.
We left our lovely hippy party land of Pai on a good note. We went to a half moon party somewhere deep in the forest. This then turned into an all-nighter but through no fault of our own. With some classic Thai stretching of the truth, there was actually no half moon, barely even a quarter moon, but there was definitely a party. The leaflets all said "Don't drink and drive - free taxi." What they didn't say was that it was a free taxi service to get there and then you were abandoned in the middle of bloody nowhere in the depths of the Thai forest with no "free taxi" home. By the time we'd realised this fact at the end of the night, we were watching the sun come up. There are definitely worse places to be abandoned than in some beautiful mountainside clearing, sitting by a log fire with some good people and music, but it did nothing for our chances of sleep.
By the time we got back to our bungalow at about 7 in the morning, the logical thing, according to me, was to abandon sleep and just get a good, big breakfast before we had to get the bus back to Chiang Mai. The logical thing,according to Brett, was to crash out on the bed for an hour as a last, desperate attempt to get some sleep. This apparently "essential" hour of sleep resulted in us having no time for proper breakfast. Oh boy, was I cranky! Ironically, all night people kept going on about what a good couple we were and how laid back. Ha - that was before they saw me when I missed my morning coffee and breakfast! Then cheerful and laidback goes out the window! Brett tried to console me by buying cheese toasties from the 7/11 for breakfast. The more he tried to convince me this was a satisfactory breakfast, the crankier I got. We may well be all chilled and friendly, but you mess with my breakfast or his sleeping then things get messy!
Anyway, we're now back in Bangkok, relatively well rested. This is probably a good thing for my health as Pai was taking us on a spiralling road of partying, alcohol and bad cheese toasties. I can't say Bangkok inspires me like it used to - I miss the north of Thailand where things were more laid back and the people friendlier. Now though we have to make a decision where to go next, the bus to Malaysia is looking most likely. One thing's for certain - I'm going on a health kick. No more alcohol and no more scoffing junk food because I get bored sitting for hours on a train! It's fruit and sesame seeds all the way now! (Well, not all the way but maybe some of the way).
We left our lovely hippy party land of Pai on a good note. We went to a half moon party somewhere deep in the forest. This then turned into an all-nighter but through no fault of our own. With some classic Thai stretching of the truth, there was actually no half moon, barely even a quarter moon, but there was definitely a party. The leaflets all said "Don't drink and drive - free taxi." What they didn't say was that it was a free taxi service to get there and then you were abandoned in the middle of bloody nowhere in the depths of the Thai forest with no "free taxi" home. By the time we'd realised this fact at the end of the night, we were watching the sun come up. There are definitely worse places to be abandoned than in some beautiful mountainside clearing, sitting by a log fire with some good people and music, but it did nothing for our chances of sleep.
By the time we got back to our bungalow at about 7 in the morning, the logical thing, according to me, was to abandon sleep and just get a good, big breakfast before we had to get the bus back to Chiang Mai. The logical thing,according to Brett, was to crash out on the bed for an hour as a last, desperate attempt to get some sleep. This apparently "essential" hour of sleep resulted in us having no time for proper breakfast. Oh boy, was I cranky! Ironically, all night people kept going on about what a good couple we were and how laid back. Ha - that was before they saw me when I missed my morning coffee and breakfast! Then cheerful and laidback goes out the window! Brett tried to console me by buying cheese toasties from the 7/11 for breakfast. The more he tried to convince me this was a satisfactory breakfast, the crankier I got. We may well be all chilled and friendly, but you mess with my breakfast or his sleeping then things get messy!
Anyway, we're now back in Bangkok, relatively well rested. This is probably a good thing for my health as Pai was taking us on a spiralling road of partying, alcohol and bad cheese toasties. I can't say Bangkok inspires me like it used to - I miss the north of Thailand where things were more laid back and the people friendlier. Now though we have to make a decision where to go next, the bus to Malaysia is looking most likely. One thing's for certain - I'm going on a health kick. No more alcohol and no more scoffing junk food because I get bored sitting for hours on a train! It's fruit and sesame seeds all the way now! (Well, not all the way but maybe some of the way).
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Life in Pai
Hmm, it seems that we have crossed some line and morphed from normal respectable (ish) people into hippy wanderers, completely by accident! I'm not sure quite what went wrong. We were always pretty relaxed and having a good time travelling but you could at least rely on my constant appetite to keep us to some kind of routine, eg. having at least 3 meals a day and getting up at a reasonable hour for breakfast. Now, we are living in this timeless state of contentedness where nothing seems to matter. I forget about lunch, Brett's trying on crazy hippy trousers - it's all a bit worrying.
We left Chiang Mai and took a long, windy road through the mountains to Pai, which is a small little hippy town in Northern Thailand and we have been living in this very chilled, almost dream like state ever since. Our last morning in Chiang Mai was the beginning of our morphing. We got up and went for a late breakfast and then we just never moved. The day drifted on, we drank coffee, we got talking to some aging travellers from England with some good stories, we drank more coffee and then at 3.30 we drifted over buzzing with caffeine to get our bus.
Pai is a beautiful place full of little souvenir shops, coffee shops and bars with a mainly reggae theme. We are staying in a little bamboo bungalow across a rickety bamboo bridge by a river and a whole managerie of crazy biting bugs just to stop it being too idyllic. We've met some good people and found a good place and could probably happily drift on like this for a very long time. Luckily, we have no choice but to be dragged back to some kind of normality as we have the night train back to Bangkok booked for Monday. For now though we have a half moon party tonight and just time for some coffee and snacks first.
Oh, and quickly - back to the elephants! This was a few days ago now so I have to sift through the fog in my brain to remember what we did. We went to the conservation park and got to meet with real elephants. They are just beautiful animals. They are also amazingly agile and intelligent (so there goes the affinity with elephants I always imagined I'd have). We went trekking through the woods, played with the baby elephant, visited the elephant hospital and made some elephant dung paper. It was an amazing day! Oh, and we had a wee earthquake tremor which did nothing for my dream-like state. I was convinced someone had slipped something into my lipton ice tea - it was a relief when it turned out to be an earthquake!
We left Chiang Mai and took a long, windy road through the mountains to Pai, which is a small little hippy town in Northern Thailand and we have been living in this very chilled, almost dream like state ever since. Our last morning in Chiang Mai was the beginning of our morphing. We got up and went for a late breakfast and then we just never moved. The day drifted on, we drank coffee, we got talking to some aging travellers from England with some good stories, we drank more coffee and then at 3.30 we drifted over buzzing with caffeine to get our bus.
Pai is a beautiful place full of little souvenir shops, coffee shops and bars with a mainly reggae theme. We are staying in a little bamboo bungalow across a rickety bamboo bridge by a river and a whole managerie of crazy biting bugs just to stop it being too idyllic. We've met some good people and found a good place and could probably happily drift on like this for a very long time. Luckily, we have no choice but to be dragged back to some kind of normality as we have the night train back to Bangkok booked for Monday. For now though we have a half moon party tonight and just time for some coffee and snacks first.
Oh, and quickly - back to the elephants! This was a few days ago now so I have to sift through the fog in my brain to remember what we did. We went to the conservation park and got to meet with real elephants. They are just beautiful animals. They are also amazingly agile and intelligent (so there goes the affinity with elephants I always imagined I'd have). We went trekking through the woods, played with the baby elephant, visited the elephant hospital and made some elephant dung paper. It was an amazing day! Oh, and we had a wee earthquake tremor which did nothing for my dream-like state. I was convinced someone had slipped something into my lipton ice tea - it was a relief when it turned out to be an earthquake!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
The day we caught the train
Another day, another train, another place!
We arrived in Chiang Mai as broken shadows of our former selves. The truth is that we had just a bit too much of a good time in Bangkok, rarely making it to bed before 3am. We then caught the 10pm train to Chaing Mai. This train was a luxury model compared to what we had in Java - we had real beds and pillows and sheets - all mod cons! Even the toilets didn't smell too bad. But could we bloody sleep?! Nope, not a wink! I swear we are just incompetent travellers! First, I felt really claustrophobic as the carriage had just a narrow walkway, lined with bunk beds and hideous green curtains, which looked like something out of a hospital ward, or as someone helpfully pointed out, a horror film. Once the train eventually got moving (an hour or so late), the breeze came through so I felt better, that was until the wind blowing my hair kept tickling my face and my latest mysterious flea bites started itching - pathetic but true! For Brett, the lights were too bright and the beds too short, the fans too much of a decapitation risk. Like I said - just incompetent all round! In the bright light of day, with an early morning cup of coffee, you could really appreciate the soothing clicking of the train and the lovely scenery. Some of the places we passed were so charming - it was almost like passing through toy town with colourful stations and lush greenery and just the odd person in a wide straw hat and the odd cow.
People we met in Bangkok recommended a guest house in Chiang Mai that's turned out to be almost too good to be true. The place is cheap and cheerful and friendly. We get free coffee and free drinking water, a cool little balcony, free bikes to use and a colourful wee reggae bar attached. It seemed like a surreal joke at first when we arrived, tired as we were. The place is called the Giant Guesthouse and the tiniest guy I've ever seen turned up to meet us, clutching the sign "Giant." We then piled into his car (also with "Giant" written on) - now me and Brett aren't the smallest people in the world but we're not the biggest either and we were like little sardines squished into the front seat of this tiny vehicle. The poor guy couldn't move into second gear without hitting my leg. On route, we watched a tuk tuk and a car collide right in front of us and the tuk tuk bounced onto it's head and down the road. I'm pretty sure noone was too hurt but it was a bit too much of a dramatic start to the day for our frazzled heads.
Chiang Mai itself just feels like heaven. We enjoyed Bangkok while we were there, but this is just a completely different world. It's relaxed and friendly and really quite a hippy town. There's lots of little garden cafes, loads of bookshops, a few arts and crafts, plenty of temples and lots of massage and meditation type places all contained in the old part of town, which is surrounded by a moat. I'm in my element! Last night I treated myself to a whole glass of red wine with dinner - my first red wine (or wine of any kind for that matter) for far too many months. That the wine cost double what my meal cost is irrelevant, and that it was probably the cheapest, crappest wine out there did not matter, for it was wine, lovely red wine. I had the best sleep last night!
For tomorrow we have booked to go to the Elephant Conservation Centre, we shopped around and booked through an eco tour place so we can be pretty sure they really work in the best interest of the elephants. It's the most expensive splashing out in our trip yet (even more than the wine) but I'm so excited that we're off to see elephants!
We arrived in Chiang Mai as broken shadows of our former selves. The truth is that we had just a bit too much of a good time in Bangkok, rarely making it to bed before 3am. We then caught the 10pm train to Chaing Mai. This train was a luxury model compared to what we had in Java - we had real beds and pillows and sheets - all mod cons! Even the toilets didn't smell too bad. But could we bloody sleep?! Nope, not a wink! I swear we are just incompetent travellers! First, I felt really claustrophobic as the carriage had just a narrow walkway, lined with bunk beds and hideous green curtains, which looked like something out of a hospital ward, or as someone helpfully pointed out, a horror film. Once the train eventually got moving (an hour or so late), the breeze came through so I felt better, that was until the wind blowing my hair kept tickling my face and my latest mysterious flea bites started itching - pathetic but true! For Brett, the lights were too bright and the beds too short, the fans too much of a decapitation risk. Like I said - just incompetent all round! In the bright light of day, with an early morning cup of coffee, you could really appreciate the soothing clicking of the train and the lovely scenery. Some of the places we passed were so charming - it was almost like passing through toy town with colourful stations and lush greenery and just the odd person in a wide straw hat and the odd cow.
People we met in Bangkok recommended a guest house in Chiang Mai that's turned out to be almost too good to be true. The place is cheap and cheerful and friendly. We get free coffee and free drinking water, a cool little balcony, free bikes to use and a colourful wee reggae bar attached. It seemed like a surreal joke at first when we arrived, tired as we were. The place is called the Giant Guesthouse and the tiniest guy I've ever seen turned up to meet us, clutching the sign "Giant." We then piled into his car (also with "Giant" written on) - now me and Brett aren't the smallest people in the world but we're not the biggest either and we were like little sardines squished into the front seat of this tiny vehicle. The poor guy couldn't move into second gear without hitting my leg. On route, we watched a tuk tuk and a car collide right in front of us and the tuk tuk bounced onto it's head and down the road. I'm pretty sure noone was too hurt but it was a bit too much of a dramatic start to the day for our frazzled heads.
Chiang Mai itself just feels like heaven. We enjoyed Bangkok while we were there, but this is just a completely different world. It's relaxed and friendly and really quite a hippy town. There's lots of little garden cafes, loads of bookshops, a few arts and crafts, plenty of temples and lots of massage and meditation type places all contained in the old part of town, which is surrounded by a moat. I'm in my element! Last night I treated myself to a whole glass of red wine with dinner - my first red wine (or wine of any kind for that matter) for far too many months. That the wine cost double what my meal cost is irrelevant, and that it was probably the cheapest, crappest wine out there did not matter, for it was wine, lovely red wine. I had the best sleep last night!
For tomorrow we have booked to go to the Elephant Conservation Centre, we shopped around and booked through an eco tour place so we can be pretty sure they really work in the best interest of the elephants. It's the most expensive splashing out in our trip yet (even more than the wine) but I'm so excited that we're off to see elephants!
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Cabbages and Condoms
Time has flown since we've been living it up in Bangkok so I'll have to backtrack a couple of days.
It was say maybe two days ago that I dragged Brett half way around Bangkok in search of a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms. I read about this place in the Lonely Planet and for some reason decided to make it my mission to find it. I think maybe I'm just a sucker for a catchy title, but the reason behind the name is also really good. It was all started as a means of raising awareness and money to encourage family planning here in Thailand. It has now developed into a huge NGO, working on many projects, including work to combat the spread of AIDs and support the use of condoms. Finding this place took the best part of our day but I reckon it was a day well spent. Plus, the food was lovely and set in a tranquil garden area and you got free condoms with your meal (not really sure what they're suggesting there but still it's a novelty!)
Hmm, what have we done since then?! One of us (and when I say one of us, I mean Brett) can't handle his Thai beer so had a great night in Bangkok followed by a great day seeing the inside of our little room (lightweight!). The other one of us, being infinitely more sophisticated and able to handle her alcohol, had a good cultural day of more art galleries and temples. I also wandered my way through a demonstration of the pro-democracy people who all wear red T-shirts. I'm a bit hazy on exactly what the political situation is here (awesome politics graduate that I am!), I'm pretty sure that I promised my support to the red t-shirt people I chatted to but maybe I'll do a bit more research before I put my money where my mouth is! Either way, it made for an interesting wander.
Last night back, a group of us went out to watch the moon from the bridge (the moon being specially bright) and then went on to an all-you-can-eat buffet - Thai style! This was surely just an open invitation for everyone to get serious food poisening. We all seemed to have escaped this fate but I'm sure it was just freakishly good luck rather than any kind of judgement. The place was located right on the water's edge and beautifully lit (the Thais sure are good at a good light display!). It was also massive and hot and loud and oh so very smokey! The concept is that you have hot burner things in the middle of your table and then you go and fetch all of your raw food and cook it yourself. To get food, you queue until someone gets bored of the queueing process and then it just seems to be a free-for-all. It all takes a bit of getting used to. Beginning, as I did, hungry and faced with a table full of raw meat and veggies, I was so disappointed. Somehow it all works though and the food is eventually really good and the hot, loud smokiness all adds to the atmosphere. We stuffed ourselves stupid, listened to some seriously cheesy live music and seem to have managed to escape food poisening.
Today, me and Brett took the boat, then the skytrain to the giant weekend market. It's a shoppers heaven with so much to see. Our stamina didn't last long though as it was hot and sweaty (Oh yeah - the cold spell is over, it's intense sweaty heat and grime all the way again). Now I'm hungry and my brain is fried from trying to upload photos onto this bloody computer so I'm going to collect the Australian (who is currently bending the ear of our poor German friend with an entire encyclopedia's worth of information on New Zealand) and get some food. Tomorrow is our last day in Bangkok before we get the night train up to Chiang Mai. Then we really need to decide where to go next!
It was say maybe two days ago that I dragged Brett half way around Bangkok in search of a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms. I read about this place in the Lonely Planet and for some reason decided to make it my mission to find it. I think maybe I'm just a sucker for a catchy title, but the reason behind the name is also really good. It was all started as a means of raising awareness and money to encourage family planning here in Thailand. It has now developed into a huge NGO, working on many projects, including work to combat the spread of AIDs and support the use of condoms. Finding this place took the best part of our day but I reckon it was a day well spent. Plus, the food was lovely and set in a tranquil garden area and you got free condoms with your meal (not really sure what they're suggesting there but still it's a novelty!)
Hmm, what have we done since then?! One of us (and when I say one of us, I mean Brett) can't handle his Thai beer so had a great night in Bangkok followed by a great day seeing the inside of our little room (lightweight!). The other one of us, being infinitely more sophisticated and able to handle her alcohol, had a good cultural day of more art galleries and temples. I also wandered my way through a demonstration of the pro-democracy people who all wear red T-shirts. I'm a bit hazy on exactly what the political situation is here (awesome politics graduate that I am!), I'm pretty sure that I promised my support to the red t-shirt people I chatted to but maybe I'll do a bit more research before I put my money where my mouth is! Either way, it made for an interesting wander.
Last night back, a group of us went out to watch the moon from the bridge (the moon being specially bright) and then went on to an all-you-can-eat buffet - Thai style! This was surely just an open invitation for everyone to get serious food poisening. We all seemed to have escaped this fate but I'm sure it was just freakishly good luck rather than any kind of judgement. The place was located right on the water's edge and beautifully lit (the Thais sure are good at a good light display!). It was also massive and hot and loud and oh so very smokey! The concept is that you have hot burner things in the middle of your table and then you go and fetch all of your raw food and cook it yourself. To get food, you queue until someone gets bored of the queueing process and then it just seems to be a free-for-all. It all takes a bit of getting used to. Beginning, as I did, hungry and faced with a table full of raw meat and veggies, I was so disappointed. Somehow it all works though and the food is eventually really good and the hot, loud smokiness all adds to the atmosphere. We stuffed ourselves stupid, listened to some seriously cheesy live music and seem to have managed to escape food poisening.
Today, me and Brett took the boat, then the skytrain to the giant weekend market. It's a shoppers heaven with so much to see. Our stamina didn't last long though as it was hot and sweaty (Oh yeah - the cold spell is over, it's intense sweaty heat and grime all the way again). Now I'm hungry and my brain is fried from trying to upload photos onto this bloody computer so I'm going to collect the Australian (who is currently bending the ear of our poor German friend with an entire encyclopedia's worth of information on New Zealand) and get some food. Tomorrow is our last day in Bangkok before we get the night train up to Chiang Mai. Then we really need to decide where to go next!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
A day in Bangkok
So here we are in Bangkok and it's absolutely bloody freezing! I don't know what went wrong, we arrived amidst intense heat and humidity and then on our first night we got caught out in a giant thunderstorm and now the temperature seems to have dropped about a million degrees. It's like a freak chill is settling over Bangkok! (Ok - it's not icy or snowing or anything, but I have had to fish out my wooly hat and live off hot soup to survive!) Brett meanwhile is cowering away in bed, apparently feeling ill but I know the truth is that he can't cope with anything under 20 degrees.
The thunderstorm made for a dramatic first night - When it rains here it really rains! We just ventured out for some food and before we knew it, we were running for cover, shin deep in water and soaked to the bone. After the rain stopped, there was a bizarre "calm after the storm" atmosphere with all of these soggy people emerging back onto the streets and the vendors gingerly unwrapping their soaked carts. A group of us staying at the guest house did the only thing we could in the circumstances and went to the nearest cafe for food and beers.
Yesterday, Brett and I began what was meant to be a cultural day and went quickly downhill. We caught the bus across town to go to a big art gallery. This had not only fantastic art but also the best toilets I've found to date in Thailand! We then thought we'd have a quick look at the giant shopping centre known as MBK as we were so close. There we seemed to digress in years and spent a while playing on the network of escalators before enjoying a wholesome lunch of chocolate donuts and coffee.
I got my hair cut, which was a necessary evil as it had started to form dreadlocks, but was still a less than enjoyable experience. It all started out fine, I confirmed the price of a cut and blow dry and went to have my hair washed. Before she started to cut my hair, the hairdresser spent a good while trying to convince me that I really need highlights and my hair would look much better for a bit of bleach for just 2000 baht. I managed to decline long enough for her to give up, until half way through cutting it was apparently essential that I spend just 800 baht on a special hair treatment "very nice for me and very good price." By the time I'd declined that and then also the special hair shine for just 200 baht, I think the hair dresser quite genuinely hated me and if she could have just yanked my hair right out of my head she would have! Still, I'm happy to say I now have less split ends and a semi-reputable hair cut.
To help me recover from my trauma and round off our cultural day in Bangkok, we took a spontaneous trip to watch Rango the cartoon at the cinema. The tickets were a fraction of what we'd pay at home and I'm sure the popcorn tasted better (probably full of highly illegal preservatives). We had to stand to pay tribute to the king before the film started, making it a cultural experience after all. After waiting over an hour to get the bus in the morning, when we saw our bus standing there to go home, we did a dramatic jump over the fence to jump on board. In this burst of fence-jumping activity, I managed to pull my skirt right down over my bum in front of the busy road. The least said about that the better, I prefer to treat the matter with my characteristic quiet dignity (and at least I was wearing good knickers!) We finished our day in Bangkok going to a little local street restaurant for cheap food and beer and free magic tricks - this creates a really nice atmosphere as everybody joins in and has a laugh and can generally eat, drink and be merry.
Now, me and Brett are trying to work out where we might fancy venturing after Thailand and where our budget and time will let us go next. Vietnam or Cambodia?
The thunderstorm made for a dramatic first night - When it rains here it really rains! We just ventured out for some food and before we knew it, we were running for cover, shin deep in water and soaked to the bone. After the rain stopped, there was a bizarre "calm after the storm" atmosphere with all of these soggy people emerging back onto the streets and the vendors gingerly unwrapping their soaked carts. A group of us staying at the guest house did the only thing we could in the circumstances and went to the nearest cafe for food and beers.
Yesterday, Brett and I began what was meant to be a cultural day and went quickly downhill. We caught the bus across town to go to a big art gallery. This had not only fantastic art but also the best toilets I've found to date in Thailand! We then thought we'd have a quick look at the giant shopping centre known as MBK as we were so close. There we seemed to digress in years and spent a while playing on the network of escalators before enjoying a wholesome lunch of chocolate donuts and coffee.
I got my hair cut, which was a necessary evil as it had started to form dreadlocks, but was still a less than enjoyable experience. It all started out fine, I confirmed the price of a cut and blow dry and went to have my hair washed. Before she started to cut my hair, the hairdresser spent a good while trying to convince me that I really need highlights and my hair would look much better for a bit of bleach for just 2000 baht. I managed to decline long enough for her to give up, until half way through cutting it was apparently essential that I spend just 800 baht on a special hair treatment "very nice for me and very good price." By the time I'd declined that and then also the special hair shine for just 200 baht, I think the hair dresser quite genuinely hated me and if she could have just yanked my hair right out of my head she would have! Still, I'm happy to say I now have less split ends and a semi-reputable hair cut.
To help me recover from my trauma and round off our cultural day in Bangkok, we took a spontaneous trip to watch Rango the cartoon at the cinema. The tickets were a fraction of what we'd pay at home and I'm sure the popcorn tasted better (probably full of highly illegal preservatives). We had to stand to pay tribute to the king before the film started, making it a cultural experience after all. After waiting over an hour to get the bus in the morning, when we saw our bus standing there to go home, we did a dramatic jump over the fence to jump on board. In this burst of fence-jumping activity, I managed to pull my skirt right down over my bum in front of the busy road. The least said about that the better, I prefer to treat the matter with my characteristic quiet dignity (and at least I was wearing good knickers!) We finished our day in Bangkok going to a little local street restaurant for cheap food and beer and free magic tricks - this creates a really nice atmosphere as everybody joins in and has a laugh and can generally eat, drink and be merry.
Now, me and Brett are trying to work out where we might fancy venturing after Thailand and where our budget and time will let us go next. Vietnam or Cambodia?
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Las foo stop
Well after all that extensive researching we eventually got to Bangkok on the night bus rather than the train. We thought we'd just check with a travel agent to see what prices they could give us for the journey and it turns out the train (well at least the seats we could afford) was full anyway and the bus was half the price. So much for my foolproof plan of turning up at the train station and hopping on a train! With the help of a lovely lady boy travel agent we got sorted with tickets and here we are in the bright lights of Bangkok. (I'm confused as to whether lady boys should correctly be referred to as he or she - I guess "she" makes more sense) Anyway, she was so lovely and helpful, I have no regrets about missing the train experience (or a night of sleep) at all.
The 13 hour over-night bus journey was pretty painful but we had a good load of people to while the time away with. How people manage to sleep in so many weird, contorted positions is beyond me though. I mean, I try, but my body just won't cooperate - I start out in one position and my neck will start whinging that it hurts so I move and then my hand gets pins and needles so I move again and my hip starts clicking out of joint. And so it continues for 13 hours. It's like all of my bones and joints conspire against me to punish me for putting them there in the first place. Stupid high maintenance body parts!
By far the funniest part of the whole trip was our 1.45am break. By this time pretty much the whole bus is fast asleep (those with agreeable body parts obviously). There's a large restaurant type set up that apparently stays open just for the night buses, as such they make dam sure that they get there money's worth from us! Most people were rudely awoken by the bright lights flicking on the bus and then there's a shout up the bus that this is "the las foo stop." And in case anyone should have missed that, the driver parades around the bus bellowing "las foo stop" at the top of his lungs. Literally noone escapes. So there we are - all these half asleep passengers being practically force fed all manner of Thai food delights at 2am in the morning. To me and Brett, semi hysterical as we are from lack of sleep, this is still funny now! (It's the small things!)
We arrived in Bangkok at about 7 in the morning - a really nice time to arrive in a new place. There was a light rain which woke us up enough to stumble the streets and find somewhere to stay. And we seem to have got lucky with a lovely, friendly little guest house just off Kho San Road which is cheap and cheerful and has a nice little court yard so we can sit and chat, away from the constant hustle of the streets. And we even have a window this time (in fact two windows!).
Not only is there bigger and better food available in Bangkok, but the coffee is a million times better than down south. There, we mostly got by on some kind of instant shit and if you wanted anything nicer you paid for it. Today, we stopped at a little takeaway coffee place and asked for Thai style coffees. They were sweet and strong, oh so strong! I think that's what's keeping me going now 10 hours later. So far, Bangkok is seeming alright by us (wired on caffeine and dysfunctional as we may be!)
The 13 hour over-night bus journey was pretty painful but we had a good load of people to while the time away with. How people manage to sleep in so many weird, contorted positions is beyond me though. I mean, I try, but my body just won't cooperate - I start out in one position and my neck will start whinging that it hurts so I move and then my hand gets pins and needles so I move again and my hip starts clicking out of joint. And so it continues for 13 hours. It's like all of my bones and joints conspire against me to punish me for putting them there in the first place. Stupid high maintenance body parts!
By far the funniest part of the whole trip was our 1.45am break. By this time pretty much the whole bus is fast asleep (those with agreeable body parts obviously). There's a large restaurant type set up that apparently stays open just for the night buses, as such they make dam sure that they get there money's worth from us! Most people were rudely awoken by the bright lights flicking on the bus and then there's a shout up the bus that this is "the las foo stop." And in case anyone should have missed that, the driver parades around the bus bellowing "las foo stop" at the top of his lungs. Literally noone escapes. So there we are - all these half asleep passengers being practically force fed all manner of Thai food delights at 2am in the morning. To me and Brett, semi hysterical as we are from lack of sleep, this is still funny now! (It's the small things!)
We arrived in Bangkok at about 7 in the morning - a really nice time to arrive in a new place. There was a light rain which woke us up enough to stumble the streets and find somewhere to stay. And we seem to have got lucky with a lovely, friendly little guest house just off Kho San Road which is cheap and cheerful and has a nice little court yard so we can sit and chat, away from the constant hustle of the streets. And we even have a window this time (in fact two windows!).
Not only is there bigger and better food available in Bangkok, but the coffee is a million times better than down south. There, we mostly got by on some kind of instant shit and if you wanted anything nicer you paid for it. Today, we stopped at a little takeaway coffee place and asked for Thai style coffees. They were sweet and strong, oh so strong! I think that's what's keeping me going now 10 hours later. So far, Bangkok is seeming alright by us (wired on caffeine and dysfunctional as we may be!)
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Cheese and red wine
We have now landed in Ao Nang after getting another ferry boat back from Phi Phi island. It is a lovely seaside town set in stunning cliff scenery with lots of pretty shops and good street food (which means we can afford to eat well, so we are both happy). The beach here doesn't quite live up to the island but then we have been pretty spoilt for beaches lately! We are staying in a wee hovel of a room with no window (which freaks me out) but hey, it's cheap and right now cheap is what we need! We're discovering that the tighter our travel budget gets, the more you can find really cheap accommodation if you try hard enough. You may have to be prepared to traipse the streets for a while and compromise on luxuries such as flushing toilets, but it's possible!
We spent our last night on Phi phi sitting on the beach and watching a fire throwing show while listening to reggae music. The thing with these parts of southern Thailand is that they are ridiculously touristy (at least the parts we've stuck to). But, the Thais do do touristy really well, with so many beach front places, beautifully set up and pretty lights everywhere and cheesy holiday music. We've just been enjoying it and going with the flow. I do have my doubts about how eco-friendly the hoards of ferry boats are, not to mention the fishing boats with their huge nets. Still, like I said, for now we're just going with the flow.
Earlier today we walked the length of the beach and ended up following some rickety old nature track up around the cliff (this was some wooden contraption that was built with a healthy disregard for health and safety). At the end of the track we found a wild monkey happily munching away on his lunch. The monkey's lunch was a super-size box of McDonalds fries. We have no idea whether the monkey was given the fries or got them himself, either way, we felt so at one with nature! The truth is that we can eat at all the little shack restaurants we want and gaze out at isolated, clear blue waters, but really you have to go a lot further than we have to escape the capitalist world. In reality, we are approximately 2 minutes away from a 24 hour McDonalds (where they even deliver) and about a street away from Starbucks. I don't know if this is reassuring or tragic, but at least the monkey seemed happy enough.
Tomorrow the plan is to head onwards and upwards to Bangkok. As ever, there seems to be next to no reliable information on times or fares. I have pretty much zero patience with searching the internet for this information. As such, my plan (just for a change) is to just go to the train station and see what we get from there. Brett has maybe marginally more patience and is still researching but I have a hunch we'll just be piling into the train station and hoping for the best.
I have absolutely no right to complain, especially with what we've seen on the news of Japan just now, but I still can't help my craving for red wine and cheese! We have so much good food here and enough coffee to keep the caffeine cravings at bay, but still it's been over a month now since I had any wine or any good cheese! And boy, do I ever miss my cheese and wine! Brett reckons this is a sign of my middle class, yuppy roots, but as this is coming from a grown man who spent a considerable amount of time earlier today chasing a crab around the beach, I won't be losing any sleep over his comments. The fact is that cheese and wine were an integral part of my life well before the uneducated Ozzy and long should they remain so. I won't say any more on the subject but if I could have one luxury item in my life right now, it would not be windows or flushing toilets, no - it would be cheese and red wine!
We spent our last night on Phi phi sitting on the beach and watching a fire throwing show while listening to reggae music. The thing with these parts of southern Thailand is that they are ridiculously touristy (at least the parts we've stuck to). But, the Thais do do touristy really well, with so many beach front places, beautifully set up and pretty lights everywhere and cheesy holiday music. We've just been enjoying it and going with the flow. I do have my doubts about how eco-friendly the hoards of ferry boats are, not to mention the fishing boats with their huge nets. Still, like I said, for now we're just going with the flow.
Earlier today we walked the length of the beach and ended up following some rickety old nature track up around the cliff (this was some wooden contraption that was built with a healthy disregard for health and safety). At the end of the track we found a wild monkey happily munching away on his lunch. The monkey's lunch was a super-size box of McDonalds fries. We have no idea whether the monkey was given the fries or got them himself, either way, we felt so at one with nature! The truth is that we can eat at all the little shack restaurants we want and gaze out at isolated, clear blue waters, but really you have to go a lot further than we have to escape the capitalist world. In reality, we are approximately 2 minutes away from a 24 hour McDonalds (where they even deliver) and about a street away from Starbucks. I don't know if this is reassuring or tragic, but at least the monkey seemed happy enough.
Tomorrow the plan is to head onwards and upwards to Bangkok. As ever, there seems to be next to no reliable information on times or fares. I have pretty much zero patience with searching the internet for this information. As such, my plan (just for a change) is to just go to the train station and see what we get from there. Brett has maybe marginally more patience and is still researching but I have a hunch we'll just be piling into the train station and hoping for the best.
I have absolutely no right to complain, especially with what we've seen on the news of Japan just now, but I still can't help my craving for red wine and cheese! We have so much good food here and enough coffee to keep the caffeine cravings at bay, but still it's been over a month now since I had any wine or any good cheese! And boy, do I ever miss my cheese and wine! Brett reckons this is a sign of my middle class, yuppy roots, but as this is coming from a grown man who spent a considerable amount of time earlier today chasing a crab around the beach, I won't be losing any sleep over his comments. The fact is that cheese and wine were an integral part of my life well before the uneducated Ozzy and long should they remain so. I won't say any more on the subject but if I could have one luxury item in my life right now, it would not be windows or flushing toilets, no - it would be cheese and red wine!
Friday, March 11, 2011
The trouble with having no money
The trouble with having no money tends to be that things cost money! Here we are in Thailand on a ridiculously tight shoestring budget but we don't want to be this close and miss out on the chance to see all of the beautiful islands just off the coast of Phuket.
Generally we prefer to do our own thing and make our own way as we travel along but after checking the price of ferries just to get to Phi Phi island, it turned out that the cheapest option was to book one of the special deals advertised. This actually worked out pretty well, especially as the lovely lady graciously let us change the whole package to suit what we wanted. As such, we have managed to arrange our boat to Phi phi (on which we found free coffee and little donut things - the one thing guaranteed to make me happy in the morning!), 2 nights accommodation on a little beach resort on Phi Phi Don island and a ferry back to Ao Nang, down the mainland coast.
Not that everything went swimmingly, we got to our resort place to find out we were only booked in for one night. All was well that ended well though and the lovely dude sorted it for us and showed us to our bungalow (bungalow is actually pushing it - we are staying in a shed with a bed and a fan and a toilet that you have to tip water down to flush). Still, beggars can't be choosers and the location is pretty dam perfect!
We also got a free lunch and a chance to go snorkeling all as part of our package. It was awesome (the snorkeling that is, well also the lunch, but specially the snorkeling) I've never been proper snorkeling before (evident in the amount of sea water I swallowed before figuring out that you have to swim just below the surface of the water). It was beautiful and we saw so many fishes - although how you can quite appreciate the grace and beauty of the underwater world when the bloody snorkel thing makes you sound like Darth Vader is a bit beyond me.
Today we swam, we ate, we had a thai massage and now it's about time to eat again! Who needs money anyway!
Generally we prefer to do our own thing and make our own way as we travel along but after checking the price of ferries just to get to Phi Phi island, it turned out that the cheapest option was to book one of the special deals advertised. This actually worked out pretty well, especially as the lovely lady graciously let us change the whole package to suit what we wanted. As such, we have managed to arrange our boat to Phi phi (on which we found free coffee and little donut things - the one thing guaranteed to make me happy in the morning!), 2 nights accommodation on a little beach resort on Phi Phi Don island and a ferry back to Ao Nang, down the mainland coast.
Not that everything went swimmingly, we got to our resort place to find out we were only booked in for one night. All was well that ended well though and the lovely dude sorted it for us and showed us to our bungalow (bungalow is actually pushing it - we are staying in a shed with a bed and a fan and a toilet that you have to tip water down to flush). Still, beggars can't be choosers and the location is pretty dam perfect!
We also got a free lunch and a chance to go snorkeling all as part of our package. It was awesome (the snorkeling that is, well also the lunch, but specially the snorkeling) I've never been proper snorkeling before (evident in the amount of sea water I swallowed before figuring out that you have to swim just below the surface of the water). It was beautiful and we saw so many fishes - although how you can quite appreciate the grace and beauty of the underwater world when the bloody snorkel thing makes you sound like Darth Vader is a bit beyond me.
Today we swam, we ate, we had a thai massage and now it's about time to eat again! Who needs money anyway!
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
The great mistake
Too much sun and one too many pancakes seem to have fried my brain so not much to say today. The only reason to come into the wee internet cafe today (aside from the fact I'm too full of pancake to do much else) is to write about Brett's near fatal mistake ....
Last night we were in the midst of a big thunder storm (just to set the scene), as such, we splashed out on a real restaurant meal, not having much faith in the little umbrellas shielding the street cart stalls to keep us dry (or indeed safe from lightning strike). It was all very nice, we sat and ordered our drinks, then we ordered food. I just got a nice sensible veggie option thing and asked for medium spicy, then Brett ordered green thai curry and asked for it spicy. There's a mistake he won't make again in a hurry! In all fairness to him, we were happily devouring the full flavour spicy food in Indonesia, turns out though that Thailand is a whole different ball game! The first mouthfull was declared as spicy but nice, by the third there was little beads of sweat on his forehead, by the fifth, a little vain started popping in the side of his head and a little after that I was sat opposite this red eyed, sweaty, dribbling wreck of a man (well that was more or less how it went, with maybe a touch of artistic license used in the description - I didn't literally count each mouthful but I did watch things rapidly go downhill for him). I did a damn good job, not only managing to keep a straight face but also making helpful suggestions all the way through the meal. The waiter was far less sensitive and cracked a smile when he passed our table.
Anyway, Brett finished his curry (he couldn't really not - our budget's too tight to waste food). A giant chocolate milkshake and a banana pancake later, he was almost back to normal. Lesson well learnt! (And yes, we are eating way too many pancakes and yes I will probably return double the size of when I left, but man - pancakes here are so yummy!) Plus, they're on practically every corner so resist one stall, you still have to run the gaunlet of 3 more on the way home. That would take a stronger woman than me to resist!
Tomorrow we are off to Phi Phi island.
Last night we were in the midst of a big thunder storm (just to set the scene), as such, we splashed out on a real restaurant meal, not having much faith in the little umbrellas shielding the street cart stalls to keep us dry (or indeed safe from lightning strike). It was all very nice, we sat and ordered our drinks, then we ordered food. I just got a nice sensible veggie option thing and asked for medium spicy, then Brett ordered green thai curry and asked for it spicy. There's a mistake he won't make again in a hurry! In all fairness to him, we were happily devouring the full flavour spicy food in Indonesia, turns out though that Thailand is a whole different ball game! The first mouthfull was declared as spicy but nice, by the third there was little beads of sweat on his forehead, by the fifth, a little vain started popping in the side of his head and a little after that I was sat opposite this red eyed, sweaty, dribbling wreck of a man (well that was more or less how it went, with maybe a touch of artistic license used in the description - I didn't literally count each mouthful but I did watch things rapidly go downhill for him). I did a damn good job, not only managing to keep a straight face but also making helpful suggestions all the way through the meal. The waiter was far less sensitive and cracked a smile when he passed our table.
Anyway, Brett finished his curry (he couldn't really not - our budget's too tight to waste food). A giant chocolate milkshake and a banana pancake later, he was almost back to normal. Lesson well learnt! (And yes, we are eating way too many pancakes and yes I will probably return double the size of when I left, but man - pancakes here are so yummy!) Plus, they're on practically every corner so resist one stall, you still have to run the gaunlet of 3 more on the way home. That would take a stronger woman than me to resist!
Tomorrow we are off to Phi Phi island.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Phuket - Thailand
We have arrived in Phuket - land of the beautiful landscape and oh so much tacky tourism! We have been here for 2 nights already and the original plan was to fly in to Phuket but then escape as quickly as possible and go to some nice, tranquil island hideaway. Instead we have decided to embrace the tack and are having an awesome time! Maybe it is because we are glad to wash away the grime of Jakarta that we are seeing Phuket through rose tinted glasses, but for some reason the European football bars and rows upon rows of sun loungers lining the beach that would normally make me run far way are just all part of the easygoing vibe here!
Plus, while many of the many western bars and fake labels clothes markets do epitomise tourism here, there is also stunning scenery and amazingly clear blue water with jumping fishes and lush green hills. Today we spent most of the morning on the beach, swimming and spotting impressive degrees of sunburn and states of undress. Brett has been busy proving his apparently finely tuned ability to tell which country people are from just from their appearance (that we can't usually prove whether he is right or not does nothing to dampen his enthusiasm). I, meanwhile have been chuntering away about how the jet skies and speed boats are dangerously close to swimmers. Yep, we are surrounded my middle aged tourists so we too have become middle aged tourists to fit in!
So far we have found that we can get far nice accommodation here for our money than in Indonesia (or maybe we've just got better at sniffing good places out). We are kind of missing our Bali coffee though, coffee here is perfectly nice but I think we're still fully addicted to the full caffeine/sugar hit that you get from a Bali coffee! Also, while Brett and his book and constant be-friending of locals saw us through quite well as far as learning Indonesian went, Thailand has us stumped! It's not even real letters! I have just about, sort of mastered thank you, but every time I say it, I either get laughed at or told how to pronounce it correctly, so I keep repeating it over again until the kind person who tried to help me just gives up! Still, we have a few weeks yet to learn more!
Brett has so far made friends with the local pancake dude (a dam good contact!) and one of the tailors who just can't comprehend how someone can be so shabbily dressed day in, day out and is convinced that Brett secretly yearns for a well-cut suit!
I have developed some hideous, mutant growth thing on my left foot! I think it must be an allergic reaction to a bite of some kind but no cream is having any recognisable effect! I'm consoling myself that my mutant foot could prove to be a valuable medical science break-through that will ultimately make me rich and famous. Or maybe I'll be like one of the X-men with super powers. Brett is sceptical, but then that's what I have to put up with, travelling with a cynical non-believer who clearly can't see a potential medical breakthrough when it's staring him in the face!
Plus, while many of the many western bars and fake labels clothes markets do epitomise tourism here, there is also stunning scenery and amazingly clear blue water with jumping fishes and lush green hills. Today we spent most of the morning on the beach, swimming and spotting impressive degrees of sunburn and states of undress. Brett has been busy proving his apparently finely tuned ability to tell which country people are from just from their appearance (that we can't usually prove whether he is right or not does nothing to dampen his enthusiasm). I, meanwhile have been chuntering away about how the jet skies and speed boats are dangerously close to swimmers. Yep, we are surrounded my middle aged tourists so we too have become middle aged tourists to fit in!
So far we have found that we can get far nice accommodation here for our money than in Indonesia (or maybe we've just got better at sniffing good places out). We are kind of missing our Bali coffee though, coffee here is perfectly nice but I think we're still fully addicted to the full caffeine/sugar hit that you get from a Bali coffee! Also, while Brett and his book and constant be-friending of locals saw us through quite well as far as learning Indonesian went, Thailand has us stumped! It's not even real letters! I have just about, sort of mastered thank you, but every time I say it, I either get laughed at or told how to pronounce it correctly, so I keep repeating it over again until the kind person who tried to help me just gives up! Still, we have a few weeks yet to learn more!
Brett has so far made friends with the local pancake dude (a dam good contact!) and one of the tailors who just can't comprehend how someone can be so shabbily dressed day in, day out and is convinced that Brett secretly yearns for a well-cut suit!
I have developed some hideous, mutant growth thing on my left foot! I think it must be an allergic reaction to a bite of some kind but no cream is having any recognisable effect! I'm consoling myself that my mutant foot could prove to be a valuable medical science break-through that will ultimately make me rich and famous. Or maybe I'll be like one of the X-men with super powers. Brett is sceptical, but then that's what I have to put up with, travelling with a cynical non-believer who clearly can't see a potential medical breakthrough when it's staring him in the face!
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Jakarta
Yesterday I felt like I did when I was a child and went to the village carnival and made it my mission to eat as much of all the available food as I could stuff in my little mouth and then I'd feel sick. We spent the day exploring Jakarta and I just ate my way round: everything from deep fried banana, to nasi goreng (mixed rice) to sateys to croissants and coffee - yep, it was good!
We explored Jakarta with the help of Brett and his map, he is one of those map-loving people who like to know where they're going and get there most efficiently. I am not one of these people, maps make my head hurt! Still, I suppose if you travel with one of them map-loving people occasionally you have to compromise sometimes and let the map lead you, so there we were, efficiently navigating our way round Jakarta - then we got a tuk tuk back anyway so I didn't really see the point in us not being lost!
It was a fun day, although Jakarta definitely doesn't make it onto my list of top 10 cities to visit, the food was pretty good! We still seem to be some kind of point of interest, and people kept taking our photos, then a couple even asked if they could come and be in a photo with us - random! Next stop Thailand where hopefully I won't be Quasimodo anymore.
Now I think I've waffled on enough lately so I'm off. Brett's just come in having agreed to take part in a survey outside, except they couldn't understand his accent and asked if he could speak English so they gave up on him. Thailand here we come!
We explored Jakarta with the help of Brett and his map, he is one of those map-loving people who like to know where they're going and get there most efficiently. I am not one of these people, maps make my head hurt! Still, I suppose if you travel with one of them map-loving people occasionally you have to compromise sometimes and let the map lead you, so there we were, efficiently navigating our way round Jakarta - then we got a tuk tuk back anyway so I didn't really see the point in us not being lost!
It was a fun day, although Jakarta definitely doesn't make it onto my list of top 10 cities to visit, the food was pretty good! We still seem to be some kind of point of interest, and people kept taking our photos, then a couple even asked if they could come and be in a photo with us - random! Next stop Thailand where hopefully I won't be Quasimodo anymore.
Now I think I've waffled on enough lately so I'm off. Brett's just come in having agreed to take part in a survey outside, except they couldn't understand his accent and asked if he could speak English so they gave up on him. Thailand here we come!
Friday, March 4, 2011
To the big smoke and bright lights
Java has been a bit of a culture shock for us after the easygoing, beach lifestyle in Bali.Our oh-so-well-laid travel plans started to unravel slightly when we reached Surabaya. It was early morning and by then approximately 24 hours since we had any sleep. We didn't have our (already limited) wits about us and we were struggling to remember our own names, let alone the little Indonesian we know. This lead to us being completely ripped off by a little dweeb of a taxi driver who drove us around the houses before dumping us at the most expensive hotel in Surabaya and charging us 90,000 rupiah for the privilege . A long walk, a few swear words (from the ever eloquent Ozzy) and a nice taxi driver later, we arrived at a more middle budget hotel. It cost us 40 odd dollars which completely blew our budget for the day but it had shiny floors and a swimming pool and complimentary bottled water and I was not walking another metre of that damned town with my backpack on!
Neither of us were particularly inspired by Surabaya, it's very polluted and apart from a few impressive statues and plenty of street food options, we couldn't find much to write home about. It lacked the charm of a little village but also lacked any of the bright lights and excitement of a city (mind you, seeing it for one day through tired eyes may not have given us the best impression). One thing that I suppose was quite a refreshing change was that we appeared to be the only tourists in town (I imagine maybe there were others, but we didn't see any, they were probably sensibly hiding away in their posh hotel!). I especially got stared at - a lot! It's quite unnerving, I feel like some kind of freak, people even pointed and stared (and I was well covered so it wasn't because I looked like some kind of Western harlot!). I guess I just have to accept that I am the Quasimodo of Surabaya
My favourite thing in Surabaya (posh hotel aside) was our street dinner! We found a few food carts just down the road from our hotel and stopped for something to eat. We've eaten at a few street places now, but at this one I got special treatment! The man seemed to be amused by me and cooked everything fresh, in front of me, chatting away as he cooked. Usually I'm very interested in eating and less so in cooking but it was really fascinating to watch him go with everything he needed on the back of his tiny cart. The noodles got dunked into a mystery pot of hot liquid while he chopped everything up and put it in the wok-pan thing with lots of random spices. Then the noodles were added to the wok-pan along with some mystery liquid and fried up good and proper. It was delicious! Me and Brett ate and shared a glass of coconut milk while everyone stood around us and stared and made fun of us in Indonesian. (This was a lot nicer than it sounds, as they were very good natured about it, or maybe we're just getting used to being stared at!)
We left Surabaya bright and early to get the fast train straight to Jakarta. We paid double what we expected (apparently because it was a Friday!) When we found our seat, our window had all the reinforced glass shattered on the outside - apparently people sometimes throw rocks at the train as it passes! Awesome!
With the price we paid for our tickets, we figured when they handed us cups of coffee and juice that they were complimentary - fools! Thank god we were presented with our bill and wised up before the carts of cigarettes and toy trains went through or it could have been a very expensive trip! The toilet on the Surabaya to Jakarta train was a hole in the floor of the train. I don't so much have an issue with this, I just wish that people would aim better so that wee actually goes down the hole. With the smell in the toilet, there was no point trying to convince myself it was just water on the floor! Poor flip flops - they have a rough time of it sometimes! Ah, the glamorous life of a wind swept traveller!
Now we are in the bright lights of Jakarta. Now this is a proper city! No more rip-off taxi drivers for us, we got a motorised tuk tuk thing from the train station. It wasn't comfortable but it is definitely the way to enter a city! We arrived at Jalan Jaksa, a cheap and cheerful street complete with food, music, twinkly lights and lady boys - this is more like it! Surabaya eat your heart out!
Neither of us were particularly inspired by Surabaya, it's very polluted and apart from a few impressive statues and plenty of street food options, we couldn't find much to write home about. It lacked the charm of a little village but also lacked any of the bright lights and excitement of a city (mind you, seeing it for one day through tired eyes may not have given us the best impression). One thing that I suppose was quite a refreshing change was that we appeared to be the only tourists in town (I imagine maybe there were others, but we didn't see any, they were probably sensibly hiding away in their posh hotel!). I especially got stared at - a lot! It's quite unnerving, I feel like some kind of freak, people even pointed and stared (and I was well covered so it wasn't because I looked like some kind of Western harlot!). I guess I just have to accept that I am the Quasimodo of Surabaya
My favourite thing in Surabaya (posh hotel aside) was our street dinner! We found a few food carts just down the road from our hotel and stopped for something to eat. We've eaten at a few street places now, but at this one I got special treatment! The man seemed to be amused by me and cooked everything fresh, in front of me, chatting away as he cooked. Usually I'm very interested in eating and less so in cooking but it was really fascinating to watch him go with everything he needed on the back of his tiny cart. The noodles got dunked into a mystery pot of hot liquid while he chopped everything up and put it in the wok-pan thing with lots of random spices. Then the noodles were added to the wok-pan along with some mystery liquid and fried up good and proper. It was delicious! Me and Brett ate and shared a glass of coconut milk while everyone stood around us and stared and made fun of us in Indonesian. (This was a lot nicer than it sounds, as they were very good natured about it, or maybe we're just getting used to being stared at!)
We left Surabaya bright and early to get the fast train straight to Jakarta. We paid double what we expected (apparently because it was a Friday!) When we found our seat, our window had all the reinforced glass shattered on the outside - apparently people sometimes throw rocks at the train as it passes! Awesome!
With the price we paid for our tickets, we figured when they handed us cups of coffee and juice that they were complimentary - fools! Thank god we were presented with our bill and wised up before the carts of cigarettes and toy trains went through or it could have been a very expensive trip! The toilet on the Surabaya to Jakarta train was a hole in the floor of the train. I don't so much have an issue with this, I just wish that people would aim better so that wee actually goes down the hole. With the smell in the toilet, there was no point trying to convince myself it was just water on the floor! Poor flip flops - they have a rough time of it sometimes! Ah, the glamorous life of a wind swept traveller!
Now we are in the bright lights of Jakarta. Now this is a proper city! No more rip-off taxi drivers for us, we got a motorised tuk tuk thing from the train station. It wasn't comfortable but it is definitely the way to enter a city! We arrived at Jalan Jaksa, a cheap and cheerful street complete with food, music, twinkly lights and lady boys - this is more like it! Surabaya eat your heart out!
Bali to Java (and a bit more on Bali)
Well, whatever we lost in terms of a "genuine local experience" on our last ferry ride, we definitely gained on our bus/ferry trip to Java! A lovely taxi man got us from the middle of Kuta out to the main bus station (we bartered down the price before getting in the taxi but then he was so nice that we ended up paying the original asking price anyway). The bus station was just one big, fat hive of activity and people hassling us to buy tickets from them whether their bus was going in the right direction for us or not. I have to admit I looked oh so longingly at the big, luxury, air conditioned coaches, but for 1/4 of the price we clambered on to the little local bus. It had wheels and a driver but that was about where the similarities ended. Our bus was full of local people and a chicken. The locals were in general very friendly, the chicken looked like it could think of many places it'd rather be than on that bus (I know how it felt!). My poor stomach got fully jolted for 4 hours and digested a generous dose of carbon monoxide but it held up well. In fact, our bus ride was great in the end! As soon as you leave the tourist mecca, you travel along a long and winding road, passing rice paddys, villages and beautiful, tropical greenery. There is a big Hindu celebration across Bali on 5th March, effigies are made to be paraded and then burnt to banish demons (at least that's that vague details I've managed to pick up when I've asked people but they probably shouldn't be relied on to be factually correct or anything!) . These effigies are giant and spectacular, we passed many along the way.
The ferry ride across to Java was even better, leaving just at sunset in calm water (it could have been romantic except for the people staring at us and crowding round to talk to us). We seemed to be the only white tourists on the boat and managed to attract a random haggle of people who wanted to use us to practise their English, or ask us questions (with those who could speak English acting as interpreters for those who couldn't) it was all a bit confusing but kind of cool. We were warned that we may get a lot of hassle at the ferry landing so I had the bright idea to leave in the middle of a crowd and blend in. Bloomin' genius plan, because Brett at 6 foot 4 plus me, carrying our backpacks are never going to stick out like sore thumbs anyway in a sea of Indonesian people whose average height was maybe to my neck! Either way, we got a fair few stares but very little hassle - maybe because we arrived at night, maybe we just got lucky or maybe because we looked like big, white giants?!
With all the fleeting stops in internet cafes and battling with sticky keyboards (I don't question why they're sticky, but they just always are!) I forget to write so much stuff that I think at the time I should write. So I'm going to scrawl a couple of extra things on Bali before shutting up today:
Families: There's something very special about the role of families and communities here in Bali. We keep commenting on it so it has to be worth writing, it's just different from what we're used to back home. Children in particular just seem incredibly happy and self sufficient, helping out at home, playing together, always smiling. We have literally heard just one Balinese child cry since we got here, even the babies seem always contented. We met one family when we ate in their little warung shop front, The owner worked there with his wife and son (who worked at a hotel in the mornings and came back to help his Dad in the evenings), the grandchildren padded around and local kids and friends drifted in and out and stopped for food and a chat. It was such a lovely, easygoing environment and so close knit yet friendly to us!
Corruption: Yeah, I suppose you could say that all governments are corrupt everywhere in the world, but general consensus is that corruption is especially rife in Indonesia! To get a job as a Government official (eg, police) you have to pay 70 million rupiah. Considering that the average wage is about 1 million a month (and that's probably a generous estimate) this is a ridiculous amount of money and I guess leads to a career of bribery and corruption. I think this may well be why communities rally together so well as they sure as hell can't rely on the government to help them out. Speaking to people, we've learnt how much of a struggle it can be to afford education and many people have had to drop out of school early to find work (and they still speak better English than I can ever dream of speaking Indonesian)!
Tourism: This is my first time in Bali, but even for me it's clear to see just how much and how quickly tourism has changed Bali. New hotels are literally being knocked up on every available spot of land and the good old Ozzy influence is strong. The streets of Kuta are riddled with Australians in varying degrees of drunkness, proudly wearing their Bintang t-shirts! Brett spends a lot of time apologising for being Australian, but for better or worse, tourism must now be one of the most essential industries here now. I still wish I'd come in the 70s or even the 80s when apparently there was very little traffic, way fewer tourists, more natural scenery left, but hey, it's still got a lot of charm in 2011.
Chickens: I wouldn't want to be a chicken in Bali (thinking about it, I probably wouldn't choose to be a chicken full stop), but still, I specially wouldn't want to be a chicken in Bali. We've passed a couple of chicken lorries and they are literally piled high with chickens in these wire cages, bits of chicken hang out at all angles and they look either half dead or very sorry for themselves! Cock fighting is also pretty popular here. Generally animals in Bali seem perfectly well and contented. The many cows (introduced to us as the Bali tigers) seem well happy and contented with their lot. I just feel that the chickens get a rough deal.
Anyway, moving on! As I said, we are now in Java. So far we seem to be treated with a bit more suspicion than we received in Bali. That said, I will forever be grateful to a shop man who by some miracle understood Brett's miming of a train (complete with arm actions and sounds) and drew us a map to the train station. There we found a lovely lady who could speak English and was able to tell us the times and prices that we needed to travel on to Surabaya in Java. We traveled Executive - check us out, going all posh again! The train ran overnight so that we landed in Surabaya at about 6 in the morning.
The ferry ride across to Java was even better, leaving just at sunset in calm water (it could have been romantic except for the people staring at us and crowding round to talk to us). We seemed to be the only white tourists on the boat and managed to attract a random haggle of people who wanted to use us to practise their English, or ask us questions (with those who could speak English acting as interpreters for those who couldn't) it was all a bit confusing but kind of cool. We were warned that we may get a lot of hassle at the ferry landing so I had the bright idea to leave in the middle of a crowd and blend in. Bloomin' genius plan, because Brett at 6 foot 4 plus me, carrying our backpacks are never going to stick out like sore thumbs anyway in a sea of Indonesian people whose average height was maybe to my neck! Either way, we got a fair few stares but very little hassle - maybe because we arrived at night, maybe we just got lucky or maybe because we looked like big, white giants?!
With all the fleeting stops in internet cafes and battling with sticky keyboards (I don't question why they're sticky, but they just always are!) I forget to write so much stuff that I think at the time I should write. So I'm going to scrawl a couple of extra things on Bali before shutting up today:
Families: There's something very special about the role of families and communities here in Bali. We keep commenting on it so it has to be worth writing, it's just different from what we're used to back home. Children in particular just seem incredibly happy and self sufficient, helping out at home, playing together, always smiling. We have literally heard just one Balinese child cry since we got here, even the babies seem always contented. We met one family when we ate in their little warung shop front, The owner worked there with his wife and son (who worked at a hotel in the mornings and came back to help his Dad in the evenings), the grandchildren padded around and local kids and friends drifted in and out and stopped for food and a chat. It was such a lovely, easygoing environment and so close knit yet friendly to us!
Corruption: Yeah, I suppose you could say that all governments are corrupt everywhere in the world, but general consensus is that corruption is especially rife in Indonesia! To get a job as a Government official (eg, police) you have to pay 70 million rupiah. Considering that the average wage is about 1 million a month (and that's probably a generous estimate) this is a ridiculous amount of money and I guess leads to a career of bribery and corruption. I think this may well be why communities rally together so well as they sure as hell can't rely on the government to help them out. Speaking to people, we've learnt how much of a struggle it can be to afford education and many people have had to drop out of school early to find work (and they still speak better English than I can ever dream of speaking Indonesian)!
Tourism: This is my first time in Bali, but even for me it's clear to see just how much and how quickly tourism has changed Bali. New hotels are literally being knocked up on every available spot of land and the good old Ozzy influence is strong. The streets of Kuta are riddled with Australians in varying degrees of drunkness, proudly wearing their Bintang t-shirts! Brett spends a lot of time apologising for being Australian, but for better or worse, tourism must now be one of the most essential industries here now. I still wish I'd come in the 70s or even the 80s when apparently there was very little traffic, way fewer tourists, more natural scenery left, but hey, it's still got a lot of charm in 2011.
Chickens: I wouldn't want to be a chicken in Bali (thinking about it, I probably wouldn't choose to be a chicken full stop), but still, I specially wouldn't want to be a chicken in Bali. We've passed a couple of chicken lorries and they are literally piled high with chickens in these wire cages, bits of chicken hang out at all angles and they look either half dead or very sorry for themselves! Cock fighting is also pretty popular here. Generally animals in Bali seem perfectly well and contented. The many cows (introduced to us as the Bali tigers) seem well happy and contented with their lot. I just feel that the chickens get a rough deal.
Anyway, moving on! As I said, we are now in Java. So far we seem to be treated with a bit more suspicion than we received in Bali. That said, I will forever be grateful to a shop man who by some miracle understood Brett's miming of a train (complete with arm actions and sounds) and drew us a map to the train station. There we found a lovely lady who could speak English and was able to tell us the times and prices that we needed to travel on to Surabaya in Java. We traveled Executive - check us out, going all posh again! The train ran overnight so that we landed in Surabaya at about 6 in the morning.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
The posh boat option
Well it was a bit of a hairy boat trip for a bit there but glad to say we made it back to mainland Bali without drowning or vomiting - a great result all round I'll say! My mysterious poisoning seemed to stay with me through yesterday so what with that and slightly rough weather we decided to abandon the rickety 8am ferry ride from Musa Lembongan and upgraded to a little speed boat type option. This was all well and good in theory, in practice it was still fairly budget, it just went faster through the water. While everybody else crammed inside the little boat, Brett, me and 2 other people opted for riding outside (stupidity prevailing every time). This was the fun option, it was also the option that saw us absolutely drenched from head to toe as a massive wave of water covered the top of the boat and landed straight on us! Even more reassuring was the boat guy who then proceeded to grab a little scoop and started to bail water out of the back of the boat. Anyway, like I said - we made it so all's well that ends well!
Back in Bali after the peace of the island, you realise just how hectic it is here in Kuta, and just how much pollution there is from the hoards of scooters! Mind you, it is also a fair bit cheaper. We found (when I say we, I mean Brett found, while I waited with our bags in a cafe with a nice iced drink) a room for just 80,000 rupiah (approx $8) for the night. I mean it had a bed and a toilet so we've got nothing to complain about but we pretty much got what we paid for. And it didn't even come with toilet paper, we had to buy that extra!
Today we are leaving Bali and starting our journey across Java - we have some basic, vague travel plans along the lines of getting a bus then a ferry then maybe searching out a train to get as far as Jakarta. So far we have tried and failed to get any concrete information on bus or train timetables so the plan is to go up to the main bus station, find a bus and go from there.
With a fool proof plan like that, what could possibly go wrong?!
Back in Bali after the peace of the island, you realise just how hectic it is here in Kuta, and just how much pollution there is from the hoards of scooters! Mind you, it is also a fair bit cheaper. We found (when I say we, I mean Brett found, while I waited with our bags in a cafe with a nice iced drink) a room for just 80,000 rupiah (approx $8) for the night. I mean it had a bed and a toilet so we've got nothing to complain about but we pretty much got what we paid for. And it didn't even come with toilet paper, we had to buy that extra!
Today we are leaving Bali and starting our journey across Java - we have some basic, vague travel plans along the lines of getting a bus then a ferry then maybe searching out a train to get as far as Jakarta. So far we have tried and failed to get any concrete information on bus or train timetables so the plan is to go up to the main bus station, find a bus and go from there.
With a fool proof plan like that, what could possibly go wrong?!
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