Border towns - arrrrgggghhhh!

For many travellers, Burma (Myanmar) was a no go zone following a request by imprisoned pro democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi. In 2009 however, she suggested that tourism to Burma is now OK, provided it is not government co-ordinated.


Our location in Chiang Mai allowed us access to an area south east asia which is labelled the "golden triangle", and it includes the point at which the Thai, Burma and Laos borders meet. 30 years ago this would have been a hazardous location to visit, largely due to the area being a massive producer of Opiates. As the Thai security forces have largely eradicated this (so they say) the area is now safe and tourism is big business here.


Getting on a mini bus tour in the very early morning, we headed first to a hot springs (turned out to be a dull collection of gift shops surrounded by a couple of small pools for warming feet in), and then onto Chiang Rai's new Buddhist temple. To be honest we were a little templed out this point, but the temple did feature some unexpected oddities:

• Many 3+ foot long catfish in a depressingly small pool
• Weird plaster cast devil heads hanging from trees
• Murals of hollywood cinema, and uncomfortable images representing 9/11 inside the temple

Chiang Rai's new Temple

The next stop was a boat trip on the mighty Mekong river, where we got a look at Burma, and then a short trip into Laos. As these are two of the poorest countries in the region (and the world), you can imagine everyones surprise to see vast casinos on the banks, which are placed there for rich Thai and for jet setting Chinese to fly into, as gambling is illegal in their home countries. I hope that the locals get to see some return from the presence of these casinos (seems doubtful, as in Laos for example the government has sold a 100 year lease on the land to a private Chinese casino owner), but from a tourism point of view it was a pointless trip, as we didn't get to see any "real" parts of Burma, and we only stopped off in a "special economic zone" of Laos (read - crappy tourist gift shop area).

Paradise Casino - In Burma????

Laos children - desperate for any Thai Baht or food they can get

Sadly time constraints meant that this was as close as we got to either country, which is a big shame as fellow travellers have often reported that despite the poverty, Laos and Burma have often been the highlights of their trips. I can't really recommend the golden triangle trip as a day excursion from Chiang Mai, as it was a long (600km) day, with little to show for it in terms of sights and experiences.

After leaving Chiang Mai, we headed on a bus scheduled to travel from Bangkok to Siem Reap in Cambodia.  Although scams in Thailand are rife, we seemed to have done quite well in avoiding them, but this was not to last. The bus dropped us off near the border, where it was announced we would need to pay 1200 Baht ($32US) each for our visas, when we knew we should only be paying $20 US. When we refused it became clear we were on our own, so we walked off to the border (it seemed afterwards we started a mini exodus which was quite pleasing), only to find that none of the cash machines would give us any dollars, so we couldn't pay for the fee to get into Cambodia.

It was soon clear that I would have to swallow my pride, and head to one of the obiquitous casions, where I had to buy some chips with my Credit Card, and then sell them (ungambled....) to raise some cash. To make the experience just that bit more fun, the croupiers all found the site of the sweaty stressed westerner one of the funniest things they had ever seen! Following a couple of hefty queues, and very questionable exchange rates levied by the Cambodian officials, we got through the border, only to have to dodge an army of touts who seemed to ambush every westerner present.

Dog tired

As with Malaysia, the heat in Thailand can become overwhelming, so as we did further south we headed up to the hill country. Chiang Mai is Thailands second city, and perhaps more than Bangkok is very traveller friendly, perhaps as much down to its available activities as its scenery and city scape.

After an OK overnight bus journey, we arrived at 4am, and immediately checked in to a hotel for a few hours kip. Chiang Mai was refreshing after Bangkok, it feels much more relaxed, and had a low rise less corporate vibe.

Wat Thra Singh Temple- Chiang Mai

Prayer Flags

The first activity we booked on was the confidently named "Thailands best cookery school", run by the amusingly un PC "Perm". We had a great time learning to make Tofu Pad Thai, Mixed Veg Soup, Green Curry and Chicken and Cashew Nuts.

 The highlight of the day was the chance to set fire to the hot oil in the wok, something one of our fellow students was able to video

As we now only have limited time left for our travels, we are on a bit of a mission to cram activities and destinations into a short time span, so the next day we went straight into a three day jungle trek.

Unlike the Keppler track in NZ, this trek was guided, and included organised accomodation and food. The trek was led by Yai, who managed to combine impressive fitness and cooking with a remarkable intake of the local moonshine and cigarettes. How he managed to avoid coma inducing hangovers I really don't know!

Feeling quite fresh on the first day

In addition to Yai, we were motivated by a local dog, who has adopted a nomadic lifetstyle where he follows along with random groups of hikers, including sleeping outside of the huts at nightime. We named him Dog (#1), and he provided endless entertainment with his almost limitless energy. Each time we walked through a new village, he had to run the gauntlet of local dogs fighting him to protect their territory, but he seemed to come through ok.

Ursh and Dog1 at the bat cave

The accommodation was quite basic, but fortunately all the hikers got on well, and also we were so knackered we slept ok despite thin matresses and cold temperatures. On the second night we were woken early by the plethora of animals that surrounded the hill tribe village where we were staying. I think we all hoped that the cockerell who started the noise at 4am would be on someones menu soon!

"Compact" Accomodation

Pre programmed alarm call for 4, 4:45, 5:30 etc

Anna and Torben for Germany were delighted to hear that "mini pigs" are called Piglets in English

Although the scenery was more rolling hills than sharp mountains, we both felt we had had a good workout, and three days was certainly enough. It was also great fun to be able to swim in the waterfall pools, and also great that we got to meet some excellent fellow hikers, as the group got on really well.

Back L-R: Mike, Ruth, Adrien, Chris, Torben,Yai, Mickhal
Front: Anna, Ursh

Dog 1, ate anything put in front of him, including biscuits, veg and spicy soup

This is more culture, init?

"George" has complained about too much beach stuff and not enough culture in the blog, so here goes.....

Having been to Bangkok before, I can't say its my favorite city in the world, but it does do two things very well, namely food and temples.

The Thai food we have eaten has been some of the very best on the trip, and even within Bangkok its possible to eat both cheaply and well. Surprisingly, there is even good food available in the shopping centres, where unlike most countries, the independent outlets haven't completely lost out to the chain restaurants. There is also a huge range of other food available, including English theme pubs (one of which we shamefully visited when in need of some UK comfort food).

Being a predominantly Buddhist country, Thailand is full of temples, and nowhere is this more true than Bangkok. Using the canal (very smelly) based ferry system, we travelled from our hotel in the Sukumvit area to the main temple area, where we visited Wat Rajnadda, and Wat Traimit.

Wat Rajnadda

Wat Traimat temple houses the largest gold Buddha in the world. Remarkably, despite being three metres tall, weighing five and a half tonnes and thought to be worth in excess of 140Million US, it was actually lost for several hundred years.

Wat Traimat

Memorable dates big and small

We've now been travelling for four months, and leaving London seems like such a long time ago, maybe as our memories have been overloaded with all the places we've been to and all the adventures on the way.

Much more important however is the fact that we have now been together for 10 years! Our travels so far are just a small part of the last decades excellent journey, and much as I don't say this enough, I can't wait for many more adventures to come.

A reluctant Gizmo helping us celebrate our 10 years!

How do you like my island, Mr Bond?

You wait for ages for one idyllic tropical island (Boracay) to come along, and then two more turn up one after the other.....

Practically every backpackers itinerary includes the islands of Koh Samui and Koh Phanagan when visiting Thailand, and with good reason, as they are stunning, traveller friendly and still have some budget accommodation available despite loads of development.

Big Buddha Statue, Koh Samui

There are endless possibilities for activities on Koh Samui, including the obvious options of go karting, off roading, bungee jumping and the like. Given the amazing scenery, we booked a trip on the Speedstar speedboat (tag line, "teaching the wind how to fly!") which was an all day trip for snorkelling and island hoping in the Ang Thong marine national park. 

The all day trip started with a bumpy journey to the first island, where there were so many schools of fish that at times we were practically swimming through them. Shortly after, the boat took us through the marine parks multitude of small islands, most of which were named for their obvious shapes.

King Kong Island

Shoe Island

Lion Island

The highlight of the trip was the visit to the "Golden Bowl" lake, a land locked sea water lagoon that is completely encircled by cliffs, but is linked to the sea via under water passages. The was widely touted as the inspiration for the location for the beach in the Alex Garland book "The beach". Unfortunately its not where the film was made however, but is still impressive.

Golden Bowl

Turtle head gag anyone?

The last stop was for "James Bond" island. This is the rocky island, which we were led to believe was the location for Mr Scaramangas solar panels in the film "Man with the Golden Gun". Impressive as it was, the James Bond nerds amongst us weren't convinced, and a little research showed that it looks maybe a little like the island, but isn't actually the same one (the real one is on Thailands West Coast).

"James Bond Island"

Koh Phanagan was the next island to visit, and proved even better for travellers, with a host of beach huts available for remarkably little cash. The island is much less developed than Koh Samui, which adds to the charm of the place, and also brings down the prices. The island, and its smaller neighbour Koh Tao are a divers paradise, but unfortunately as with previous journeys, we had both picked up bugs on the flight to Koh Samui, and we couldn't dive at all.

Everyone on the island travels around on rented motorbikes, which usually cost only £4 per day. We travelled around the island on one of these, only to discover later that Koh Samui and Koh Phanagan are statistically the most dangerous places for motorcyclists in the world!

Two vodka bottles of petrol required for a lap of the island!

Leaving the island we treated ourselves to a first class sleeper cabin on the train to Bangkok (following an easy ferry trip). Thai trains as we discovered are regularly very late, and ours arrived 3 hours after it was due (at 2:20am....)

Ursh catches up on some kip and Surat Thani station

When it did arrive the train was great though, and having our own compartment meant that we got some much needed sleep.

Relegated to the top bunk!