i have always thought of thailand as a meca for travellers looking for something different.. i watched the beach on my ipod the other day and he sums it up perfectly! everyone goes to thailand searching for something different but end up doing the same shit as everyone else.....
i havent really been feeling thailand to be honest and its time to jack it in....
i know some people who are helping clear up after the earthquake in indonesia. so i have set off.
pai - chang mai. 4 hours in a bus
chang mai, 8 hour stop over
chang mai - bangkok, 8 hour bus.
bangkok 7 hour stop over.
bangkok - malaysia 22 hours in train! (thats where i am now, waiting for the train)
then finally i am going to fly from KL to medan in sumatra, then another 22 hour bus down to pedang where i shall find out exactly where i am supposed to be going!
so will post you all again when i finally arrive sometime at the weekend! laters!
Monday, 16 November 2009
Mtorcyle Diaries
My original intention was to walk from Pai to Mae Hong Son. its only about 108km, so easily a feasable trek. however the heat during the day was just too much for me to bear and it soon became apparent that i would have to carry more water than was reaslistically possible to complete something like that.
quick change of heart and a look at some maps. i discovered that there was a route over the mountains that wasnt by road. it was dirt tracks and it passed all of the major hill tribe groups apart from the long necks. someone suggested it sounded like a good offroad adventure. i sourced a honda 250xr and discussed rental. worked out about a tenner a day. so i took them up on it!
yet theyd already rented it out... and despite me asking them, and them agreeing to reserve it, on a daily basis, they did this to me for three days straight! if you go to pai/chang mai, DO NOT use AYA motorcycles, they screwed me over on a few things and ended up costing me time and money! not impressed!
anyways, i finally got the bike and set off around 6/6.30am for the village of Wat Chan. This is a supposedly tarmacd road, however, most of it had been washed away by the rain and the bridges were all out. so it proved quite a challenge but nothing compared to what i was to come accross later on in the journey.
the roads were simply exhausting, i am fairly confident at riding motorbikes but this was a real challenge. one 5M/8KM stretch took me over an hour alone!!!!
during the trip i saw many tranditional villages and a lot of women in bright colours, very reminiscent of the andean colour schemes that im so used to. most of the woman seemed to be smoking pipes and were much darker than the thai population in pai. pictures to follow of course!!!
the paddy fields were sometimes endless, with store houses on stilts in the middle. these also housed workers when the midday heat became unbearable. when i left pai it was totally freezing but as always, between about 10am and 4pm, the heat shoots from 10 degrees up to about 36! ARG!!!
anyways, i completed the 200km+ round trip in a little over 6 hours and 40 mins! i was told by everyone i met that it was either going to take all day or was impossible to acheieve in 24hours. i admit there were times when i was driving a little fast... but it was necessary to skip over the enormous bumps and troughs in the ground!
it was def one of the most exciting things i have done in thailand and it showed me that tourists havent yet managed to penetrate all of the hill tribes, there are def some real ones left. they barely spoke thai, there were no stupid shops selling wooden statues and there was no tourist infrastructure whatsoever! something i will remember for a long time to come!
quick change of heart and a look at some maps. i discovered that there was a route over the mountains that wasnt by road. it was dirt tracks and it passed all of the major hill tribe groups apart from the long necks. someone suggested it sounded like a good offroad adventure. i sourced a honda 250xr and discussed rental. worked out about a tenner a day. so i took them up on it!
yet theyd already rented it out... and despite me asking them, and them agreeing to reserve it, on a daily basis, they did this to me for three days straight! if you go to pai/chang mai, DO NOT use AYA motorcycles, they screwed me over on a few things and ended up costing me time and money! not impressed!
anyways, i finally got the bike and set off around 6/6.30am for the village of Wat Chan. This is a supposedly tarmacd road, however, most of it had been washed away by the rain and the bridges were all out. so it proved quite a challenge but nothing compared to what i was to come accross later on in the journey.
the roads were simply exhausting, i am fairly confident at riding motorbikes but this was a real challenge. one 5M/8KM stretch took me over an hour alone!!!!
during the trip i saw many tranditional villages and a lot of women in bright colours, very reminiscent of the andean colour schemes that im so used to. most of the woman seemed to be smoking pipes and were much darker than the thai population in pai. pictures to follow of course!!!
the paddy fields were sometimes endless, with store houses on stilts in the middle. these also housed workers when the midday heat became unbearable. when i left pai it was totally freezing but as always, between about 10am and 4pm, the heat shoots from 10 degrees up to about 36! ARG!!!
anyways, i completed the 200km+ round trip in a little over 6 hours and 40 mins! i was told by everyone i met that it was either going to take all day or was impossible to acheieve in 24hours. i admit there were times when i was driving a little fast... but it was necessary to skip over the enormous bumps and troughs in the ground!
it was def one of the most exciting things i have done in thailand and it showed me that tourists havent yet managed to penetrate all of the hill tribes, there are def some real ones left. they barely spoke thai, there were no stupid shops selling wooden statues and there was no tourist infrastructure whatsoever! something i will remember for a long time to come!
life of pai continued
Pai is a small(ish) town nestled in amongst some hills in north west thailand. hippies arrive en mass to observe a drunken chilled lifestyle. there are some very decent clubs with live music and a couple of late night places that break the curfew and remain open until about 6am!
all in all, its fairly peacefull and hasnt been ruined just yet. the hill tribes still come down to sell produce at the market and its easily possible to eat a good sized meal from between 20-30 bath (45p)
i moved into a guest house named Pai River Lodge. fantastic is the only way to describe it. with vistas over the river, an amazing decking and a fridge full of serve your self beer, nothing could be better! its the best mattress ive slept on since leaving the uk, brilliantly soft and they had real pillows. i paid 180 a night for a bamboo bungalow on stilts. there is no need for airconditioning as pai actually gets pretty cold during the night (blanket provided, nice one too) you also get free entry to a farang run swimming pool called Fluid which is about a five min walk. there is nothing better than chilling out in the sun with a beer and sitting in an ice cold pool. FACT!
the rest of pai can be explored on foot, however its possible to rent a motorbike for about 80-100bt a day, plus petrol. there are several waterfalls dotted around the town which are worth a visit.
seven off us set off in a little hells angel (on scooters) styled group for one of the waterfalls and spent the afternoon relaxing in the cool waters. an ozy guy jumped in, despite it only being waist deep and ripped a big hole in his foot, a good 6/8ths of an inch across and pretty deep, his vein was cut in half and stuck out like two pieces of tube pasta.....sigh.... i acted as ambulance and drove like a bat out of hell to the hospital. we all went to the pub later (including the idiot australian) and had a few beers and a laugh about it.
i def reccomend pai to anyone who is travelling. there is accomodation, music and food to suit all tastes and its somewhere i even considered staying for a few months....
i met up with the ex pat. he has a fantastic house outside of town, hidden away in a bamboo forest. no electricity and three cats. he leads an idilic existance, slipping into town to munch and grab his daily coffee. very jealous. we talked for hours about music and the various uses of bamboo that i knew. both taught each other a thing or two. glad ive got a mouth on me and not scared of talking to strangers.
bike adventure coming up!
all in all, its fairly peacefull and hasnt been ruined just yet. the hill tribes still come down to sell produce at the market and its easily possible to eat a good sized meal from between 20-30 bath (45p)
i moved into a guest house named Pai River Lodge. fantastic is the only way to describe it. with vistas over the river, an amazing decking and a fridge full of serve your self beer, nothing could be better! its the best mattress ive slept on since leaving the uk, brilliantly soft and they had real pillows. i paid 180 a night for a bamboo bungalow on stilts. there is no need for airconditioning as pai actually gets pretty cold during the night (blanket provided, nice one too) you also get free entry to a farang run swimming pool called Fluid which is about a five min walk. there is nothing better than chilling out in the sun with a beer and sitting in an ice cold pool. FACT!
the rest of pai can be explored on foot, however its possible to rent a motorbike for about 80-100bt a day, plus petrol. there are several waterfalls dotted around the town which are worth a visit.
seven off us set off in a little hells angel (on scooters) styled group for one of the waterfalls and spent the afternoon relaxing in the cool waters. an ozy guy jumped in, despite it only being waist deep and ripped a big hole in his foot, a good 6/8ths of an inch across and pretty deep, his vein was cut in half and stuck out like two pieces of tube pasta.....sigh.... i acted as ambulance and drove like a bat out of hell to the hospital. we all went to the pub later (including the idiot australian) and had a few beers and a laugh about it.
i def reccomend pai to anyone who is travelling. there is accomodation, music and food to suit all tastes and its somewhere i even considered staying for a few months....
i met up with the ex pat. he has a fantastic house outside of town, hidden away in a bamboo forest. no electricity and three cats. he leads an idilic existance, slipping into town to munch and grab his daily coffee. very jealous. we talked for hours about music and the various uses of bamboo that i knew. both taught each other a thing or two. glad ive got a mouth on me and not scared of talking to strangers.
bike adventure coming up!
Thursday, 5 November 2009
The life of Pai
I had rented another 100cc manual bike from a company called Aya down by the train station. as they have another office in Pai i could drop it off without having to pay extortionate amounts to have it returned!
i set off out of chang mai on some very shady directions. they had agreed to send my passport (deposit)and enormous ruck suck on their shuttle bus to save my strength.
the journey was about 130km but up and down some ridiculous mountain switch back roads and was scheduled to take about 3-4 hours depending on stops. in the end it was prob closer to five!
i set off along the super highway out of town towards some unpronounceable place and was told to follow the signs to Pai from there. Just as i turned onto the road to Pai i saw another westerner struggling to get his bike started by the side of the road. turns out he'd been taking a picture of an elephant standing casually in a pick up truck doing about 100km an hour. his name was J and he was from germany and he was also going to Pai! bonus! some company! we drove to the nearest place that looked like it served food and of course grabbed a big plate of Phad Thai Gai! what else after all....
chatted got to know each other. his plan was to drive to pai, then to mai hong son, then loop back to chang mai! same ish route but with different transport i guess...
anyways, we set off in good spirits, boy racer style, maxing out the non working rev and non working speedo counter whenever possible! i taught him how to corner properly and when to brake and he got much much faster as the afternoon went on. we passed twisting mountain roads, rice/paddy fields and some fantastic scenary! oh! and lots of jealous tourists looking out of the back of their super slow pick up trucks and pointing at us as we whizzed by! we were having great fun racing everything that we came across.
we stopped once again for some chah (tea) and a pit of a bum rest..... very uncomfortable after a while...
we got to within 30-40km of Pai and disaster struck, my fuel gage had been showing full the whole way (suspicious but meh) and it suddenly swung round into the red and my bike started to make the classic put put noise of running on fumes. luckily it was downhill switch backs so i put it in fourth and let it coast a lot of the way! we thankfully saw a thatched shack selling petrol by the liter through a hand pump! WOO!!! the day was saved and the racing commenced once again! we shot off and finally arrived in Pai!
Pai is the hippie capital of thailand, there are prob more temp white residents than permanent thai people, everyone dressed in their grandmothers curtains and with obscure tattoos blazing out from awkward places....
we found a hostel that does thatched shacks for 80bht per night called the ice house. slap bang in the middle of the tiny wee town! i did opt for the 150bht room with ensuit and double bed! sigh... need a bit of luxury before my enormous walk that i have coming up!!!!!
thats the life of Pai so far!
off to this ex pat bills house to see what its like living out in the middle of nowhere! i shall report back soon!!!!
i set off out of chang mai on some very shady directions. they had agreed to send my passport (deposit)and enormous ruck suck on their shuttle bus to save my strength.
the journey was about 130km but up and down some ridiculous mountain switch back roads and was scheduled to take about 3-4 hours depending on stops. in the end it was prob closer to five!
i set off along the super highway out of town towards some unpronounceable place and was told to follow the signs to Pai from there. Just as i turned onto the road to Pai i saw another westerner struggling to get his bike started by the side of the road. turns out he'd been taking a picture of an elephant standing casually in a pick up truck doing about 100km an hour. his name was J and he was from germany and he was also going to Pai! bonus! some company! we drove to the nearest place that looked like it served food and of course grabbed a big plate of Phad Thai Gai! what else after all....
chatted got to know each other. his plan was to drive to pai, then to mai hong son, then loop back to chang mai! same ish route but with different transport i guess...
anyways, we set off in good spirits, boy racer style, maxing out the non working rev and non working speedo counter whenever possible! i taught him how to corner properly and when to brake and he got much much faster as the afternoon went on. we passed twisting mountain roads, rice/paddy fields and some fantastic scenary! oh! and lots of jealous tourists looking out of the back of their super slow pick up trucks and pointing at us as we whizzed by! we were having great fun racing everything that we came across.
we stopped once again for some chah (tea) and a pit of a bum rest..... very uncomfortable after a while...
we got to within 30-40km of Pai and disaster struck, my fuel gage had been showing full the whole way (suspicious but meh) and it suddenly swung round into the red and my bike started to make the classic put put noise of running on fumes. luckily it was downhill switch backs so i put it in fourth and let it coast a lot of the way! we thankfully saw a thatched shack selling petrol by the liter through a hand pump! WOO!!! the day was saved and the racing commenced once again! we shot off and finally arrived in Pai!
Pai is the hippie capital of thailand, there are prob more temp white residents than permanent thai people, everyone dressed in their grandmothers curtains and with obscure tattoos blazing out from awkward places....
we found a hostel that does thatched shacks for 80bht per night called the ice house. slap bang in the middle of the tiny wee town! i did opt for the 150bht room with ensuit and double bed! sigh... need a bit of luxury before my enormous walk that i have coming up!!!!!
thats the life of Pai so far!
off to this ex pat bills house to see what its like living out in the middle of nowhere! i shall report back soon!!!!
Chang Mai Surrounds
The two boys from Kerry and I rented two scooters and shot off into the mountains around Chang Mai to see what we could find.
We entered the national park and found there was a route to a 9 tier waterfall. however the path wasnt very well marked and we came to a tripple fork. after take the left hand route and doing a 1km circle we took the right hand route, the path was very very disused but we pushed on for another couple of clicks anyways. after a while we decided that this clearly wasnt the route and we turned around to head back. we saw two tiers of the waterfall but gave up going the extra 3k on top of what we had already done to see the 9th tier.
sigh. never mind!!! lesson learned!!
on the way back we stopped for some Phad Thai Gai, which is chicken with noodles, spring onions and some gorgeous flavours. at less than 70p a huge plate full of the stuff you cant really complain! its practically all i have eaten since i got here to be honest! cant say i am the biggest fan of thai food after all.
we also stopped at a big white buddha in a typical Wat that was overlooking the city. A woman told us to follow a track down for a bit and we would find a much better temple. so we set off and it only took about 30 seconds on the bike. what a gem!!! it was clearly hundreds of years old. there was a lot of khmer style architecture. the temple was cut in half by a waterfall and there were buddahs and towers EVERYWHERE! pictures to follow naturally! there were about 5 monks attending to the garden but apart from that it was just us. the masonry was breathtaking and some statures were clearly a cross between the original khmer style and thai buddhism! no idea what the name of this place was but it was fantastic.
we also passed a view point on the way down which showed us how much of the city we had really missed whilst confined to the old walled district.
we had left at about 1pm and got back around 6pm so it had been a fairly hectic day. i got a nice oil massage and relaxed for a bit whilst the boys passed out in some hammocks in the roof top garden of julies.
later on we had a spur of the moment idea to go and watch a Muai Thai fight down at the stadium, however we had missed the free tuk tuk! time to crack out the old motorbikes again! like a bat out of hell we shot across town, getting lost several times in chang mais complicated but necessary one way system! when we eventually arrived it was only about 8 quid to get in for reasonable seats. it was clearly a tourist night as there were barely any locals. the fight turned out to be for people prob under the age of about 20. the youngest fight was two 8-10 year olds who were so exhausted after the first round that they could barely stand!!!
there were several knock outs, some blood and some cracking bouts! one guy was really cheeky and clearly played the audience but lost on points for his cheekness! he was clearly the better fighter.....
checkedout now and off to Pai!
We entered the national park and found there was a route to a 9 tier waterfall. however the path wasnt very well marked and we came to a tripple fork. after take the left hand route and doing a 1km circle we took the right hand route, the path was very very disused but we pushed on for another couple of clicks anyways. after a while we decided that this clearly wasnt the route and we turned around to head back. we saw two tiers of the waterfall but gave up going the extra 3k on top of what we had already done to see the 9th tier.
sigh. never mind!!! lesson learned!!
on the way back we stopped for some Phad Thai Gai, which is chicken with noodles, spring onions and some gorgeous flavours. at less than 70p a huge plate full of the stuff you cant really complain! its practically all i have eaten since i got here to be honest! cant say i am the biggest fan of thai food after all.
we also stopped at a big white buddha in a typical Wat that was overlooking the city. A woman told us to follow a track down for a bit and we would find a much better temple. so we set off and it only took about 30 seconds on the bike. what a gem!!! it was clearly hundreds of years old. there was a lot of khmer style architecture. the temple was cut in half by a waterfall and there were buddahs and towers EVERYWHERE! pictures to follow naturally! there were about 5 monks attending to the garden but apart from that it was just us. the masonry was breathtaking and some statures were clearly a cross between the original khmer style and thai buddhism! no idea what the name of this place was but it was fantastic.
we also passed a view point on the way down which showed us how much of the city we had really missed whilst confined to the old walled district.
we had left at about 1pm and got back around 6pm so it had been a fairly hectic day. i got a nice oil massage and relaxed for a bit whilst the boys passed out in some hammocks in the roof top garden of julies.
later on we had a spur of the moment idea to go and watch a Muai Thai fight down at the stadium, however we had missed the free tuk tuk! time to crack out the old motorbikes again! like a bat out of hell we shot across town, getting lost several times in chang mais complicated but necessary one way system! when we eventually arrived it was only about 8 quid to get in for reasonable seats. it was clearly a tourist night as there were barely any locals. the fight turned out to be for people prob under the age of about 20. the youngest fight was two 8-10 year olds who were so exhausted after the first round that they could barely stand!!!
there were several knock outs, some blood and some cracking bouts! one guy was really cheeky and clearly played the audience but lost on points for his cheekness! he was clearly the better fighter.....
checkedout now and off to Pai!
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Chang Mai
On the way to chang mai in a very uncomfortable "vip" bus, i met an ex pat american called Bill and explained to him that i was thinking of walking from chang mai to mae hong son. He said the scenary was very bland between chang mai and pai and that i should rent a motorbike and drive to pai, which is about half way. drop it off and then continue my journey from there. he also said i could crash at his bamboo house in the jungle when i got to pai and relax. he was a wealth of invaluable information and pointed out many things to see along the route. including a jungle retreat where they teach meditation in english!! very excited about that!
i got to chang mai very early and the bus company took us to some dump of a hostel, prob hoping that we were so tired we would just drop where we stopped. i was having none of it and set off in the direction of a hostel called Julies, also reccommended by lonely planet. its got a fantastic common room area with a full size snooker table, a garden with hammocks and a roof top chill out area. this is more like the back packer style hostels of south america and autralasia that we all love!!! they only had a double bed room avaliable with en suit bathroom, but it was only 200bht per night so i jumped at the chance. if you get a dorm its only 70bht, which is about 1 pound 20 pence!
they serve reasonably priced food and the staff take people out during the evening. i do advice booking in advance though as they turn away heards of people in the morning due to being totally full at all times.
for the last two days its been the festival of Loi Kratong. this festival is celebrated by lighting lanterns and floating them into the night sky and by creating mini rafts out of leaves and lighting a candel and some inscense and setting them afloat along the river. with all the lanterns in the sky it looked like some magic setting from disneys mulan. there were literally tens of thousands of lanterns floating up across the sky. was like watching all the stars moving together! the hostel helped me make a raft in the garden (pics to follow) and we all trooped down to the river and set it off on its journey to god knows where!
we then went to a roof top bar which was nice, no chairs or tables, just sit on the floor and lounge around. and then after that we went to a regae bar that had live music which was great fun! i had a bit too much to drink again and stayed in bed the day after! need to go on a non alcoholic trek pretty soon!!!
going to head off in the direction of pai tomorrow and try and meet up with bill the ex pat! until then!
i got to chang mai very early and the bus company took us to some dump of a hostel, prob hoping that we were so tired we would just drop where we stopped. i was having none of it and set off in the direction of a hostel called Julies, also reccommended by lonely planet. its got a fantastic common room area with a full size snooker table, a garden with hammocks and a roof top chill out area. this is more like the back packer style hostels of south america and autralasia that we all love!!! they only had a double bed room avaliable with en suit bathroom, but it was only 200bht per night so i jumped at the chance. if you get a dorm its only 70bht, which is about 1 pound 20 pence!
they serve reasonably priced food and the staff take people out during the evening. i do advice booking in advance though as they turn away heards of people in the morning due to being totally full at all times.
for the last two days its been the festival of Loi Kratong. this festival is celebrated by lighting lanterns and floating them into the night sky and by creating mini rafts out of leaves and lighting a candel and some inscense and setting them afloat along the river. with all the lanterns in the sky it looked like some magic setting from disneys mulan. there were literally tens of thousands of lanterns floating up across the sky. was like watching all the stars moving together! the hostel helped me make a raft in the garden (pics to follow) and we all trooped down to the river and set it off on its journey to god knows where!
we then went to a roof top bar which was nice, no chairs or tables, just sit on the floor and lounge around. and then after that we went to a regae bar that had live music which was great fun! i had a bit too much to drink again and stayed in bed the day after! need to go on a non alcoholic trek pretty soon!!!
going to head off in the direction of pai tomorrow and try and meet up with bill the ex pat! until then!
Bangkok
I arrived and took a cheap bus into central bangkok from the airport. I met a lovely german girl who has been here many times before and she reccommended me to stay in the same place as her. Its called KC guest house, turns out to be on the lonely planet website as well. very cheap, only 220bht per night. considering how spotless it was and how friendly the staff were it was an absolute bargin. it was just down the road from Khoa San road as well. perfect.
On the first night, i went out with a german guy whos name escapes me. I think saying i had far too much to drink is a bit of an understatement. i spent the next day resgined firmly to bed feeling sorry for myself. chang beer is stronger than it looks.
khoa san road really did confirm for me that thailand has been raped into western culture. i was constantly bombarded with popping noises, made by men advertising ping pong shows and or comments like, you want boomb boom?? the street was awash with neon and cheap drink signs with barly clad girls offering discounts on drinks of all types. there was also jacuizzis full of fish that ate the dead skin off your feet! mad!
I couldnt sleep one night, so i got up at dawn and walked a good twenty minutes barefoot to Wat Pho. They have a 46mtr, 3 story high reclining gold buddah. i sat in awe next to a monk meditating and gawped at the fantastic murals and various buddahs. the temple is the home of thai massage and the original inscriptions are kept in magnificent cabinets.
After this monumental experience i decided i had to head off to pastures new..... bangkok doesnt represnt the real thailand..... it represents a sick thailand, striving for things it doesnt need.....
off to chang mai!
On the first night, i went out with a german guy whos name escapes me. I think saying i had far too much to drink is a bit of an understatement. i spent the next day resgined firmly to bed feeling sorry for myself. chang beer is stronger than it looks.
khoa san road really did confirm for me that thailand has been raped into western culture. i was constantly bombarded with popping noises, made by men advertising ping pong shows and or comments like, you want boomb boom?? the street was awash with neon and cheap drink signs with barly clad girls offering discounts on drinks of all types. there was also jacuizzis full of fish that ate the dead skin off your feet! mad!
I couldnt sleep one night, so i got up at dawn and walked a good twenty minutes barefoot to Wat Pho. They have a 46mtr, 3 story high reclining gold buddah. i sat in awe next to a monk meditating and gawped at the fantastic murals and various buddahs. the temple is the home of thai massage and the original inscriptions are kept in magnificent cabinets.
After this monumental experience i decided i had to head off to pastures new..... bangkok doesnt represnt the real thailand..... it represents a sick thailand, striving for things it doesnt need.....
off to chang mai!
Sunday, 1 November 2009
The idea.....
In 2007-2008, i trekked round South America on a budget of 4k. I spent a lot of time in a tent half way up a mountain but i did also spend some time working in places as well. It was such fun that once i had saved up enough money, i decided to do it again.
However, i do speak Spanish.... this time its going to be a little more complicated.... i don't speak any Asian language to any notable level... hello and thank you is about as far as i can get...
I flew into Thailand on the 28th of October and am flying out of India at the end of august next year. Once again the budget is around 4k.
Ive got a specialised hammock, tent, snow gear, jungle gear and cooking equipment. The whole shabang.... in a 90ltr ruck sack and a 25ltr day sack which is going to have to hang off my chest. Im also taking a canon dlsr 350d.
the plan: fly into Thailand, then go up north and visit the hill tribes. down south, into Malaysia, over to Borneo and do some extreme trekking in the middle of the rain forest. visit Brunei. see some orang utans.
then head back over to Malaysia, up into Thailand and then into Cambodia.
then head through Burma and onto Nepal. spend a few months in Nepal and then fly ou of mubai when i reach the end.
im sorry that sounds very long winded but i can guarantee it will be a trip to remember!!!!! i will be hitch hiking as much as possible and spending most of my time seeing the real people and the real country. sleeping on some random locals floor is a must, as well as finding some abandoned temple and cracking out the hammock!!!
i will be posting pics when i have a reasonable amount to upload and updating twitter and my blog wherever possible!!!! twitter name is trekkingnut as well, so makes it easier to keep a tab!!
im off to catch a bus to chang mai and start exploring these hill tribes!!!! WOOO!!!
speak soon!
However, i do speak Spanish.... this time its going to be a little more complicated.... i don't speak any Asian language to any notable level... hello and thank you is about as far as i can get...
I flew into Thailand on the 28th of October and am flying out of India at the end of august next year. Once again the budget is around 4k.
Ive got a specialised hammock, tent, snow gear, jungle gear and cooking equipment. The whole shabang.... in a 90ltr ruck sack and a 25ltr day sack which is going to have to hang off my chest. Im also taking a canon dlsr 350d.
the plan: fly into Thailand, then go up north and visit the hill tribes. down south, into Malaysia, over to Borneo and do some extreme trekking in the middle of the rain forest. visit Brunei. see some orang utans.
then head back over to Malaysia, up into Thailand and then into Cambodia.
then head through Burma and onto Nepal. spend a few months in Nepal and then fly ou of mubai when i reach the end.
im sorry that sounds very long winded but i can guarantee it will be a trip to remember!!!!! i will be hitch hiking as much as possible and spending most of my time seeing the real people and the real country. sleeping on some random locals floor is a must, as well as finding some abandoned temple and cracking out the hammock!!!
i will be posting pics when i have a reasonable amount to upload and updating twitter and my blog wherever possible!!!! twitter name is trekkingnut as well, so makes it easier to keep a tab!!
im off to catch a bus to chang mai and start exploring these hill tribes!!!! WOOO!!!
speak soon!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
