Thailand 2

So we returned to Thailand, this time to explore the south of the country.

The following photos are from various thai islands; Koh Phi Phi, Koh Lanta and Koh Phangan. As it took as 36 hours straight travelling to get there, we decided we needed some relaxation time by the beach.



So this is the beach in Phi Phi where they filmed the film "The Beach". Read it back again, it just about makes sense... Beautiful place but it was a shame it was so busy, and there were so many boats.



An example of one of the white sand beaches that we came across in Koh Lanta.



A massive past time all over Thailand are fire shows, with poi and staffs. The guys make great subjects for budding photographers.



Up in the air...



Fire man...



We then had some more heavy travelling involving a night ferry to Koh Phangan for full moon. The area here was where we all slept side by side!



One usable picture of Koh Phangan! And next stop Malaysia...

Cambodia

So after much deliberation I decided to go back to Cambodia. I thought about travelling to the Philippines, but then decided it cost too much and I was too lazy to take unnecessary flights.

I planned to stay for only 3 nights or so, but that turned into 3 weeks.... Big thanks to Otres beach, and Done Right for putting up with me that long!



So this is the sunset I had to deal with every night....



And this is the lovely setting of Done Right. If anyone is in Southern Cambodia make sure you visit, try to make sure Derek isn't there...



For the attention of Willy B, yeah I spent 3 weeks drinking pineapple fanta, be jealous.



Another beautiful sunset.



Mr Bokgack, the resident chicken. I've never met a chicken that has the personality of this one. He will sit on your shoulder, awesome times.



As I didn't go to any temples this year, so I thought I would include a token picture of them from last year. I do enjoy a bit of culture now and again.... Just to be clear I did actually take this, I didn't steal it!

Vietnam

So first and foremost, I know its about a month late, but Merry Xmas! We spent our christmas eve and christmas day in Ha Long Bay.





Great times, with great people...

So then we got back to Hanoi and decided that our pipeline idea of buying motorbikes, and riding them north to south, could actually happen.



The beasts.



After Hanoi we had 3 days driving through the Central Highlands to reach Hue. One day we stopped at what we thought was a restaurant which turned out to be a huge party with the whole village. Great food, rice wine, and karaoke was had by all. Mike even kissed a man on the lips.



One of the best things about the bikes was that we saw things you would never get on the bus, and could stop wherever we wanted.



We then stopped at the North South Divide (which somehow I managed to blaze straight through and not even notice!).

This is the Hien Luong bridge. The only structure which linked North and South Vietnam over the Ben Hai River.



We then reached Hue, and there wasn't much to do, bar celebrate New Year, and visit the Citadel. The Citadel is a royal palace, and a huge battle between North and South Vietnam took place here. The South Vietnamese army finally took control here on the 29th of February 1968.



The next drive, to Hoi An, included the Hai Van pass. This is an amazing section of road which starts next to the coast and heads up into the mountains. The best thing about it is a few years ago a tunnel was built through the mountains, so hardly any big trucks or buses go along here! Probably the best road in Vietnam.



Next stop Hoi An, a beautiful little city, and one of my favourite places in Vietnam. Lots of pretty lanterns hung up along the river. It's also fun getting suits made up as well....



As the river in Hoi An moves with the tide, at some point during the evening, it usually floods out onto the road. Makes for a rather strange picture.



Next stop was Quoy Nom, a little beach town above Nha Trang. They seem to have an interesting method of fishing, not even going to pretend I know how it works.



Nha Trang has a pretty cool cable car that goes across the sea to Vin Pearl. Shame we didn't have great weather while we were there.



Another token bike picture. Felt there was room for one more.





Next to Mui Ne, where the KTA kite surfing championships were being held, so that was cool to watch for a couple of afternoons.





We also visiting some large sand dunes, and slid down them on plastic boards, provided by our trusty guide/child. But didn't manage to go very fast, just ingested alot of sand...



We then visited Ho Chi Minh City, the journey in was interesting to say the least. About 200/300 bikes at every set of lights... Anyway we visited Cu Chi tunnels while we were there, hence the old American tank. Also fired an M60 machine gun, a step up from the mere M16 I fired last year.



I think these 2 pictures capture the craziness of Ho Chi. Real madness.



The second being one of my favourite photos of the trip. Got lucky with this shot I think!

Laos

So after a chilled out time in Pai, we had a long journey to get to Luang Prubang. We opted to take the slowboat, which took 3 days in total, over the option of a 17 hour bus. The boat was, as the name suggests slow, but really nice as we met a lot of people and could walk about, have a few beers etc. The boat was ridiculously packed, and on the first day we found it hard getting a seat. The second day we decided to sit in a raised open area, with no seats, but meant we could stretch our legs out.

NB honourable mention to Coolio the Cooler, who diligently kept our beers cold, asking for only a top up of ice now and again to achieve this.



The first day on the river. This picture implies that this boat was really motoring along, this is deceiving...



As the boat went past, all the kids from the little villages on the banks would run out to wave at the farangs on the boat. (Farangs = foreigners).



I know another sunset picture. They are nice though. This was at the end of the first day, just before we pulled into the port in the dark, and the mayhem ensued...



We reached Luang Prubang after 3 days travelling. It was a lovely cute little place, reminiscent of Hoi An. The 11.30 curfew was pretty annoying, especially with how strictly enforced it was. The waterfalls were beautiful, by far the best I’ve ever seen.



We decided that we wanted to get off the tourist route a little bit, so went south east, to a little town called Thakhek. There isn’t really much to do in Thakhek, apart from rent bikes and do ‘the loop’, a 500km motorcycle route.



Our first night on the loop was spent in a tiny village, with no restaurants, and only one small guesthouse. Cold temperatures meant fires, and Lao Lao whiskey were the order of the day.




During our first night on the loop, we realised that a ring had been built just across the ‘road’ (dirt path) from our guesthouse. At around 9pm, the villagers starting selling admission tickets to the homemade ring area they’d built, for 5000kip, around 40p.



As we left one of the caves, we came across lots of little vegetables patches along the river, basically allotments, Lao-style.

Next stop Vietnam, although annoyingly we had to go back to Vientiane to catch a bus, so 6 (which ended up being 10 due to a 4 hour break down) plus 24, all in 48 hours, lush...

Thailand Take 1

CHIANG MAI and PAI

We flew into Bangkok on the 20th, and as there isn’t much to do there, we preceded to get hammered for the first 2 nights. On the third night, we were sensible stayed in, and tried to catch up on sleep, however the hot, window-less room we were in had other ideas. Ridiculous heat meant neither of us slept a wink, so we decided to check into a nice hotel, with air con, a telly and a roof top pool, convenient as Spurs played Bremen that night as well. We moved on after we got our Vietnam visas, and headed to Chiang Mai.



On one of the days we went to the Tiger Kingdom, I say decided, the girls we were with organised everything for us, and we just paid! The Tiger Kingdom is a sanctuary for tigers, where all the profit made is put into tiger conservation, and to try and raise awareness. This was a pretty daunting experience, with all of us shitting it as soon as the tiger moved a paw suddenly! However after being exposed to people all their lives, and being well fed, they were very tame and weren’t too interested in eating us.



The next day, once again organised by the girls in our group, we went to have a day learning to ride and look after elephants. You could do a tour which included half an hour or so of elephant riding, but we wanted to do it properly. It was pretty hard trying to control an elephant while sitting just on its head, no saddle. At first it seemed like Mike got the worse deal, with his elephant seeming pretty crazy, but as we got into the trek, we realised that wasn’t the case. Mine did whatever it wanted regardless what I or the trainer said, then resorted to trying to hit with bamboo trees, and finally decided to try and break my camera by shooting it with water. (I have to confess the last 2 pictures weren’t taken by me….)



After having a pretty manic time in Chiang Mai, me and Mike decided to split from the group and head to Pai. Pai was the chilled out town we expected Chiang Mai to be. No clubs, just a few bars, and cute little restaurants. The second night we stayed in a tiny bamboo bungalow, directly next to the river. A cool experience, but it was not cool being woken up by Thai people at 5am, just for them to sit around, not even go anywhere or do anything! With all the fog in the morning, it did feel like waking up in Jurassic Park or something.



On one of the days in Pai we rented motorbikes to get around the surrounding area of the town, this was mainly so we could see the waterfalls, but quickly turned into just driving around for fun. Some of the waterfalls were cool, but there was no real swimming opportunities. Decided it was a good time to play about with some camera bits I got Hong Kong. Above being the result of a timer, self- portrait type thing, not sure if I like it….

Hong Kong

So we had two stupidly fast paced nights in Hong Kong, as we already had our flight booked, and hadn’t even planned to go to Hong Kong. So we visited islands that make up Hong Kong, and took the Peak tram. An old tram that goes up one of the hills/ mountains surrounding central Hong Kong, so you can see amazing views of Central, and the other Islands nearby.



A lot of the buildings were all lit up at night, which made them pretty impressive to see. Here’s an example.



So Hong Kong is a pretty interesting build of modern and traditional, a lot more in the 21st century than China. For example, spitting is not allowed, not even just in trains and restaurants, but outside as well! A breath of fresh air compared to China’s constant spitting. This picture almost perfectly sums up that idea. Two men, reading, one of which with a magnifying glass, who must have been about 80, while enjoy a cup of McDonalds coffee. Makes me chuckle every time I look at it.

Shanghai

So after a bit of a fuck up with trains, we had only 2 days in Shanghai, so it pretty much meant we were on the go the whole time.



Most of the time we spent trekking along the Bund, the main river in Shanghai.



A crazy place, which looked amazing at night.



On the river I was trying to teach a Finish guy some photography basics, tricky with my limited knowledge! While playing about during our crash course I took this shot of Nels, decided I liked it, so here it is.