Leaving Laos

Yesterday we caught the 11am bus to Muangsing and met two Japanese men on the way -- Hiro-san and Shinpei(-san). Fortunately Hiro-san knew the small village of Muansing well and showed us around two small villages after we checked into our guesthouse. It was a fairly fast-paced day, especially due to the exceptionally hot weather. We also met a French photographer, Julian, and spent the time in the villages with him. Julian is a professional photographer so it was fairly interesting for me to watch how he interacted with the people at the places we visited -- he knew a few magic tricks which the young kids absolutely loved and had a way of managing to talk with even the most reluctant tribespeople.

In the evening the four of us (Julian, Shinpei, Sayaka and I) sat about in Shinpei's room talking about this and that, as well as spending lots of time mulling over why Japan even bothers with kanji when hiragana/katakana would suffice. More time was spent deciding a Japanese name for Julian and eventually it worked out something like "Big tree understand" or something like that. In other news my official Japanese name (ru-i-su, ルイス) is 流意素, which means "source of the river" -- apparently a very cool name to have.

This morning we had an eight o'clock bus to catch so we decided to check out the morning market in, well, the morning. Up at exactly 6:18am when Hiro-san woke us (we had an alarm for 5am!) we spent maybe 40 minutes at the morning market before getting on the bus to ensure a seat. Now back in Luang Nam Tha we decided to stay another night and catch the 8am bus to Jianghong, way across the Sino-Lao border, instead of getting a bus to Boten, then another across the border to Mengla and from there to Kunming or Jianghong. The distance between Luang Nam Tha and Jianghong is maybe 200k but if we cover that distance in less than six hours I will be extremely surprised. I only hope we manage to wake up early enough to get a seat!

This afternoon/evening there was a stunning thunder/lightning storm that interrupted the power supply for much of the night. I had a go at catching the action but was in a fairly poor position to do so (from the balcony) as it was all going at directions I couldn't get to. I think the attached attempt is pretty good for a first tree and might even go to say this might be a top photo, if I had found a better angle to catch it. I wandered out onto the balcony and met Shinpei, before being joined by ガンジャさま, followed by Young, a Korean girl about to make her way across the border to Jianghong, then her travelmate, whose name I forget, an Australian girl that seems to have already covered much of the world. Finally a Texan joined the group before the power came back and a couple of us headed to the local Indian for a curry.

Once again, it's already very late and I have an early start tomorrow. I should dig out my Chinese SIM card, too, as I imagine it will come in handy again in China. Right now I'm really not looking forward to going home. The last month or so in Thailand and Laos has been absolutely excellent. In China there are far less backpackers (and maybe I was staying at the wrong sort of places) which are one of the main factors that make a stay in any place enjoyable. A few days ago I discovered a train from Kunming (the capital of Yunnan province) to Shanghai takes around four days -- I won't be on that train but will have to find a cheap flight instead.

To the rice paddies

Today we got on our motorbike and managed to find the same rice paddies that we saw on the way into Luang Nam Tha on the minibus. First of all we had some breakfast -- two chicken samosas, two popadum and some chips; very odd for breakfast, but nice, too.

The weather today wasn't quite as nice as the previous day but at one point we found a stunning bamboo bridge crossing over a small lake/large pond. Just as I had taken one or two photos it began to rain and the sky became fairly overcast. If I got all of my settings right I really hope to pull one or two excellent photos from those I took. We ended up sitting in a small bamboo hut for about 30 minutes in the heavy rain and were joined by two boys of 12 years and four boys of seven years as they were making their way with two large inner tubes from the road to the nearby lake. I don't think anybody here really does any work... or if it is, it's pretty interesting work involving largely sitting about and chatting to your mates.

Earlier I filled up the motorbike and dropped it back off at the garage (and collected my passport!) so we're on foot again. It was pretty good fun scooting about like that but when I want to stop every three minutes to take a photo it gets a little annoying taking off/putting on the helmet and starting the bike up. Tomorrow we are going to Muayxin (or something like that) and from there I believe there is a bus that goes right to Boten and across the Sino-Lao border, which is better than the other buses on offer.

I'm looking forward to getting back to China. Judging by how I've badly overstayed in Laos it looks like I might be visiting just Yunnan (Kunming, Dali, etc.) and not Sichuan as I had planned. I guess that the world's biggest Buddha is next year's trip...

Luang Nam Tha

I've not had a chance to get to an Internet cafe just yet but sometime tomorrow I will do. I'm now in Luang Nam Tha and Sayaka and I are staying at the Bus Station Guesthouse where we have a room with two beds for $4.50. It seems a little expensive for what it is... a little damp with fairly poor beds. The location doesn't sound all that great either, but it is okay and very quiet. For the first time in a while I have my own personal bathroom (well, actually I have to share it with Sayaka but it is still en-suite and that's what counts ;) that even has hot water! The water pressure isn't up to much, but that's another story.

Since my last entry I woke up, waited around for Sayaka to not show before getting a tuk-tuk to her guesthouse and finding that she'd just overslept after spending the whole of the previous night up drinking with the owners of her guesthouse... not a good idea when the drink is laowlao!

Fortunately we managed to get to the bus station and picked up an American lady along the way (we dropped her at the pier so she could get to Pak Ou caves) before discovering the bus was at 8:30am and it was now closer to 9:10am. After a wait (and some food) of around three hours we set off to Udomxai, which is even further north (and closer to the Chinese border) than Luang Prabang.

Six or seven hours and a very numb bottom later we arrived in Udomxai to discover it was a ghost town. There was absolutely nothing to do, apart from get the bus to Luang Nam Tha (further north). There was no bus until the following day at 8:30am so we found a guesthouse (a very reasonable $4 for a nice clean room with two beds and a shared bathroom (with no hot water)) and set off to get something to eat. We quickly found somewhere and I was happy to be able to talk a little bit of Mandarin for the first time in a while... this close to the border there are plenty of Chinese so Mandarin and yuan come in very handy.

For the first time in a very long time I ordered a non-Western dish -- just fried rice with pork. It was actually very nice and I think I've found something I can happily eat when I get to Yunnan and discover McDonald's haven't opened up shop yet!

Despite our best efforts to arrive at the bus station on time we were... on time. I think the bus left early because it was already full. Once more I had fried rice for a meal, but this time with chicken. Very same-same. This time we spent most of the time talking in mixed English, Chinese, Japanese and a little kanji with a Chinese guy that was in the same eatery (can't really call it a restaurant ;).

The bus journey itself was... interesting. The bus, which was a mere minibus, was absolutely packed. At 11am Sayaka and I noticed it was starting to fill up so quickly headed over to grab a seat. As it happened there was just one free proper seat left, so I ended up on a little wicker basket chair. Plenty of other people ended up on plastic chairs or standing. One Lao guy, who was presumably a member of the army, ended up on a tiny little stool for about four hours before he managed to upgrade to a plastic chair when a few people got off (and a few more people got on). At the same time I managed to make it to the real seats after spending more time on just one or two legs than four for the duration of the trip. I've never been on such an amazing bus... nothing would stop it... including differences in road height that meant the bus was driving at a 45-degree incline along a 100m drop to some river or another.

Amazingly (really) we did arrive, although about two hours late due to the treacherous road conditions. But before that we stopped on a road just outside of the town to drop some people off (and for the driver to go to the toilet). I got off at the same time as we were in rice paddy land and some of the little wooden huts set against the heavily saturated green rice looked stunning. I was lucky too that there were some really interesting clouds and the light was spot on. I took about four shots off of the bus (and a whole load on the bus, which are all wasted) and of those two are good -- the same photo but with more/less foreground. With a little tweaking and over-saturating the greens it looks absolutely stunning. When I get back home and manage to figure out why my RAW converter messes the colours up it will be one of the first I play with!

I'm now sat in my room at the Bus Station Guest House after spending the day zipping about on a little motorbike we rented for $10 for 24-hours. It's amazing that there is no license nor insurance required. You just pay and that's all there is to it. I've never been on a motorbike before but even that doesn't matter... it only takes about a minute to figure out what's going on and at that point you realise that driving a car is a damn sight more complicated.

After the amazing light yesterday I wanted to get out to the rice paddies again but we didn't manage to go the same way... instead we ended up somewhere else where I almost wondered if some of the people had never seen a foreigner before! It was great fun and especially interesting when I'm sat on the back of a motorbike clad with helmet (the only person in Luang Nam Tha, I might add) and Sayaka is attempting to get the thing going by kicking it into first and revving the engine as hard as she can... once again I managed to cling on!

After getting a few photos we went a bit further before turning back and stopping off for a couple of drinks along the way.

Tomorrow we will do a bit more travelling on the bike before returning it for 2pm and then figuring out what else there is to do. I want to do some kayaking while I'm here but I don't think I will be as fortunate as last time in finding three other people in need of a fourth.

Right, it's already late and I want to get some sleep for an early (hopefully) start tomorrow.

Luang Prabang

Wow, it feels like weeks since I last posted an entry. I've not even updated my personal diary/timetable/thingy in the last four days!

My time in Luang Prabang (SE-Asia's most (adjective) town, according to the Lonely Planet) has been an absolute blast. The time has shot by and I really wish I could stay longer. But the people I know here are all beginning to (or have already) left now -- James left yesterday, I think Chris (the Australian "fuck it" guy) left today (as today was the first time I didn't bump into him at least three or four times), as well as Quentin and Conrad and Vicky catch a bus early tomorrow morning... as do I. My next destination is Udomxai, which is about six or seven hours by "public" bus. Quite what a "public" bus is, exactly, I don't know. I am having rather worrying thoughts about being sat next to a chicken coup for four hours, only for it to be replaced by a small duck and a cow with calf for the last three hours. Time will tell.

There is definitely something about Luang Prabang that sets it apart from everywhere else in Asia that I've visited. It is a small, lazy town populated with a couple of Lao but (seemingly) mostly travellers. But even the travellers are close-knit and friendly... it's hard not to be when half of the foreign population spent two full days on a boat together, if coming from Northern Thailand, or four days, if coming from Northern Lao/China's Yunnan province.

This is where I met almost all of the people that made the time here so interesting -- James was the first person I really met, when we had our Indian meal after a day of sailing down the Mekong, followed very shortly by Conrad and Vicky, Quentin and Chris, when I bumped into them sharing a couple of beers outside their guesthouse. As it turned out I spent the last five nights in the same guesthouse as Conrad and Vicky and most of the past four days were meandering around Luang Prabang's two streets with James (who stayed at a guesthouse nearby). Chris, who I think everybody on our boat knew, was everywhere all at the same time. Not an hour went by without bumping into him at one of the numerous bars, guesthouses (which have beer after 10/11pm) or 5000kip all-you-can-eat buffets. Quentin wasn't quite so omnipresent but I saw him quite a few times and thre group of us (bar Chris) spent a nice day at the nearby waterfalls.

The waterfall trip was cheap -- $2.5 per person for a four-hour round trip. Unfortunately there had been some heavy rain for quite a few days so the path to the top of the falls was nothing less than treacherous... Conrad and Vicky made it the farthest, while Quentin and I attempted to trek up a different path but got little further than a stagnant pool of water before turning back. I can't quite remember what happened after that but Vicky told me I had a shower when we got back, spent some time on the Internet before the four of us (James, Vicky, Conrad and myself) had dinner at the rather expensive TamTam Bamboo restaurant (famous because Jamie Oliver did a cookery course there, or something). The rest of the evening was passed playing a great card game, that I won every time!

The following day, a Tuesday, I had arranged an expensive ($32) kayaking trip after telling myself to do one for the last two months. It was a great day, despite the early morning to meet Wem (a Dutch guy) and two other Polish girls whose names I cannot remember. They were white-water rafting while I was in a white-water kayak. After two, almost three, hours sat in the back of a tuk-tuk the three guides inflated the raft and we set off down some river (not the Mekong but I wasn't paying enough attention to remember the name). While the guides explained the basics and safety to the rafters I tried to remember how to balance in a kayak... it's quite a lot harder on open and flowing water than in a swimming pool. We paddled over to a waterfall flowing straight into the river, which was great, but I promptly capsised when I hit a tree on the way out -- no need to worry as I promptly rolled with infinite skill and was safe... much to my surprise. The first rapids were grade one (and rightly so) -- I didn't really realise that water swells so much, but it does. You can almost feel it when you get close but the waves that follow are great fun. One of the guides suggested I go left through the rapids but I forgot and just followed (and shot past) the raft, which was a considerably harder section. Great fun and absolutely disorientating when you smash through a wave to find another just ready to hit you full-on in the face. I don't think I've been quite so confused before... flailing around near a great big hole (whirlpool) unable to see because of the wave that just smashed into me. But, amazingly, I didn't capsise... I guess all the practice on the flat water really did me some good!

As we were getting close to the biggest rapids of the day (grade three, but more like grade four due to the high rainfall the previous day) it decided to rain. I thought it was great up until the water started bouncing up off the river and hitting me in the face... then straight into the rapids where water assaulted me from in front, above, below and behind. When I came out of these rapids my heart was literally racing... I've never had so much fun before in my life. But unfortunately the water was flat for the next hour and a half. This gave us enough time for lunch (I brought three croissant with me), a quick drink and a chat before a rest (a bit too much rest) and the next set of rapids.

All-in-all there were four or five major rapids but the time spent on the water was close to four hours. It was an absolutely brilliant experience but next time I'll enquire about the number of rapids, the frequency and the grades. The flat water was just boring by comparison. I'm proud I didn't capsise when it counted, too, once when hit by a tree, another time when I spotted a big bamboo stalk at one side of the river -- I tried to get over to grab it but was travelling way too fast, hit it at speed, capsised and rolled to find myself totally covered in horrible flies from the bamboo -- and once more on purpose (the flat water was *really* boring ;).

Shortly after getting back to my guesthouse and having a shower I headed out to the night market to take a few photos. My plan had been to arrange a bus or boat to my next destination. This was quickly interrupted when I met a girl I took a photo of yesterday. She had been buying a small bag from a stall and I was doing my best (but failing miserably) to get a shot of a foreigner buying something from one of the Lao stalls. After I took the photos the day before I said a very polite thank you (arigatou gozaimashta! with a bow) so when she spotted me today I think she was fairly curious to look at the photos and so on. After the introductions (her name is Sayaka (さやか), 21 and has just quit her job at a casino to travel around the world and buy things to sell) we wandered to a nearby table to sit down and have a chat. James quickly found us and the three of us wandered off to get some food, where we were met (quite at random) by Chris, who decided to join us. What ensued was fairly bizarre but involved talking about lots of different brands of Japanese motorbikes, hi-fi, cars, cameras, etc.... just for fun. I'm not quite sure what happened next but somehow we ended up at Chris' guesthouse (after a stop-off for Sayaka and I at a photo exhibition on the way) where two seriously drunk Lao guys were force-feeding anybody about copious quantities of pig fat and laowlao (70% alcohol). Worryingly the guy that had the most to drink was trying his very hardest to get Sayaka onto his boat leaving the following morning at 8:30am. I just said "yes, okay" so he'd leave me alone!

Today I met Sayaka at 12pm at the crossroad at the beginning of the night market, which is also very close to my guesthouse. We got a boat across the Mekong to visit the village at the other side. Somehow we spent an hour and a half there and wanted to stay longer (it was even more chilled out than Luang Prabang) but were convinced by the "captain" to take a trip up the next river to watch the boat racing practice. This wasn't such a bad idea as I got a few photos of boys jumping out of trees to fall stupid distances into the river.

Shortly afterward we took a trip up the hill to visit Phou Si (pronounced "pussy") temple before spending three or four hours buying things at the night market. It wasn't me buying. We had a quick curry at the local Indian (Nazim, very good) before bumping into Conrad and Vicky and arranging to meet up for a drink an hour later. Unfortunatley Sayaka had to get back to pack so I met up with Conrad and Vicky back at the guesthouse for a quick chat and goodbye.

Tomorrow morning (today, now) I've got a tuk-tuk with Sayaka to the northern bus station to catch the "public" bus to Udomxai. She's planning to spent three or four days there but I can't really afford more than one or two... having said that, if it's anything like as good as Luang Prabang, I might be forced to extend my stay. It would be nice if we could stay together as we have the same final destination in Yunnan province, China.

But now... bed. It's already 1:22am and I have to be up at about 7:20am to change some money, properly sort myself out and meet my tuk-tuk driver. Byee ;)

My guesthouse

I'm sat in the most wonderful and comfy bed I've been in for a very long time. I've got a great strong fan attached to the ceiling above my bed and I've just had a nice soothing warm shower. Not washed my hair (and I didn't manage it this morning either, as the water was so cold) but I'll do that tomorrow when I meet Conrad, James and Vicky to tour the local Wats.

I'm just shifting my photos onto my laptop to free up space on my CF cards and I'm elated that the one potentially great photo I took today is sharp and in focus. I can't really upload it now but it is of a young girl (maybe seven or eight) sitting on her family boat and looking out over the water towards our slow boat. The framing isn't perfect... if I had the chance to go back again I would have tried to focus more on her upper body, cropping fairly close to her head... but I don't think I really had the focal length to do that. What I've got is very good though and I'm feeling quite proud :)

Did I mention that the bed I'm lying in is really comfy? Oh, I did? Well, good job, because it is. Good, too, at 120B (almost two pounds) but I think I can get the price a little lower tomorrow when I exchange some baht for kip. I'm really looking forward to an excellent night's sleep.

Luang Prabang

As you can see I've pretty much given up on naming my entries now... I'm in Luang Prabang after a two-day boat trip down the Mekong. The whole place here is pretty nice, it's a laid-back and very relaxed place. The only downside is that everywhere seems to shut *very* early. I had some pork schnitzel for dinner, which was fairly so-so.

I'm now travelling with the two Chinese guys and the English guy I mentioned yesterday. We had a nice relaxing evening after checking into the same hotel (I'm paying 120B/night, which is about two pounds -- room with fan but shared bathroom) but got kicked out of the riverside bar at about 9:30pm because they wanted to close.

I've just asked the guy here about burning a DVD and he's quoted me 60,000kip, which is about 230baht, which in turn is about GBP3.10. A whole lot! Especially as I'm wanting to get 15 of them. I tried explaining that I could buy three DVD writer drives for that price but I don't think they got the point. I'll have to try somewhere else tomorrow.

Of tomorrow, I will be checking out the local Wats (temples) and generally chilling out a lot. The following day the four of us will likely get a tuk-tuk to the local waterfalls (about 30km away), which are home to all sorts of wonders (I'll tell you just what wonders when I get back). There are plenty of places here offering treks and tours and I'm thinking about getting a day's worth of kayaking in, if I can. That will likely fill the day after the waterfall tour and from there I will begin to head further north to the Lao-Sino border.

It's only 10:20pm but I'm surprisingly tired... I was up about 7am and spent all day couped up on a boat, so that might explain it. It's time for me to get some sleep, I think.

Laos!

The border crossing went very much without incident -- got my stamp and my exit paper removed on one side of the Mekong, took a boat across and paid 1500B for my 15-day visa and then got a couple more stamps as I officially entered.

I had paid up for the slow boat to Luang Prabang yesterday but I tried to change to the fast boat, which takes just seven hours to get all the way to Luang Prabang -- much quicker than the two days for the slow boat. After talking with a girl who had already travelled on the slow boat I quickly decided the slow boat was, in fact, for me after all -- the idea of a super-noisy (and they are noisy) boat for seven hours with almost no rest isn't much fun. Add to that a large number of floating logs and other debris (included, as it happened, a dead human body today) and you could quickly end up with a fatal accident.

The boat itself was incredibly cramped. I literally could not believe just how cramped the seats were. I got there reasonably early and picked myself a nice window seat. It wasn't a nice seat. There was a support for the roof where my arm could have gone and I was in just the right position from the bow so as to ensure maximum spray. Add to this that the person infront shoved a great big cardboard box under his seat (meaning I had to put my small bag under my seat) and a rather unforgiving seat buddy meant that I was in near agony for almost two hours, before I finally got up and walked to the front where people get on and off the boat. I sat there for about five hours and I think I annoyed the others sitting there but I didn't particularly mind -- even with me there they still had a lot more room than I could have even hoped for back where I was sat. It also turned out to be a reasonable spot and I managed to snap a few half-decent photos as we chugged along.

We arrived at wherever it is I am now at about 5pm and I quickly found a decent guesthouse for 150B... it is a room with a large bed with fan and a shared bathroom. I had a half-decent chicken tikka vindaloo, albeit very very mild, at the Indian (amazing for such a tiny town) across the road and spent about three hours chatting about this and that with a fellow Brit. After a while a couple from a previously unknown origins arrived and I eventually found an opening to ask just where they were from. I had spotted them as they boarded the boat some eight or nine hours earlier and was just dying to know -- the guy looked, to me, almost Afghani and was dressed in a fairly similar style. Much to my surprise they were both Japanese so I managed to mumble a few phrases at them and got a few answers. It seems I have a fellw Akira Kurosawa follower!

About 10pm the guy I'd been having dinner with (I think it was James... but I really am not good at remembering names) headed off to bed and I was about to do the same but Conrad, a Canadian-born Chinese, waved at me from his guesthouse porch in a state of utter wastedness. I wandered over and said hi to him and his girlfriend (from Hong Kong) before being invited up by the other guys they were sat with. I'd obviously seen them all on the boat and they seemed some great guys. The conversation was mostly about travel (as it always is, not that it ever gets boring, mind -- everybody has totally different experiences and stories) then photography (because one of the guys, Quentin, was also using a nice Canon film camera) and finally films.

All-in-all a really excellent evening, with some excellent scenery earlier on in the day, although totally un-excellent seating. I was up pretty early in the morning to get my stuff together, get a shower and have twice slices of toast before heading to the border. I said a fairly brief goodbye to Laurene who is probably in Chiang Mai right now (I guess she'll be at CC Teak House, where we stayed earlier on), although there is the barest chance she managed to get all the way back to Bangkok.

It's already late and nobody has any idea what time the boat leaves tomorrow. Some people say 7:30am, some 8:30am and I've even heard one person say 9am. Not good. But I've got an alarm for 6:45am, which should give me enough time to shower, pack, eat and sort some food out for the boat. Chances are I'll be kicking about for an hour and a half after that because the 9am departure is correct. Ah, well.

Sleepy town

Chiang Khong is the most laid-back, sleepy town I've ever been to. As we arrived so late I didn't really have time to sort out my visa stuff or even figure out how to get into Laos. I got up so late today (it was great) and then headed over to the bar we visited last night. I've spent the past three or so hours reading my new book (Raise the Red Lantern), which is very good, as well as feasting on a rather excellent spaghetti bolognaise and a couple of Fantas.

Having spoken with the very friendly owner about Laos I've found out all I need to know and I'm now quite set to catch the slow boat to Luang Prabang tomorrow. I've got to nip across the road in a few minutes to get a passport photo for my Laos visa, but right now I'm just chilling out in this Internet cafe. Problem is, the Internet has just stopped working so it might be a good time to go and get myself something to drink.

Here's to a very laid back afternoon and evening.

The Golden Triangle

Well, after quite a bit of travelling I have now reached Northern Thailand and I am currently in The Golden Triangle. Sounds good but it is nothing fancy -- just where the borders of Laos, Myanmar/Burma and Thailand meet. Possibly more interesting is that just around this area is where a considerable amount of the world's opium supply comes from.

We missed the bus to Chiang Rai last night by a matter of minutes so we checked into a beautiful guesthouse nearby called CC Teak House. As a result of being so highly recommended by the French guide La Routard, it was filled mainly with French-speaking people. Not really a problem as I purchased a good number of new books earlier on in the day. On that subject, I finished a whole book in less than 24 hours... something I've not done for a very long time! Anyhow, after another wonderful croissant breakfast Laurene and I headed back to the bus station (by tuk-tuk at 30B (about 45p)) and caught the first bus to Chiang Rai. Fortunately for us this was a 2nd class bus (the best buses are the VIP buses, followed by the air-con buses and then the ordinary buses) and left in about 45 minutes, giving us some time to head to an Internet cafe and check out the news. The bus journey was pretty uneventful but there was some truly stunning scenery to be seen along the way. I had a go at taking some photos but with the exception of one (which isn't all that good) I failed miserably... but what can you do when you are moving so quickly?

At Chiang Rai our intention was to head straight to Chiang Khong, which is a crossing point into Laos. Much to our luck we caught the very last (ordinary) bus by a matter of seconds... although we weren't quite expecting such a long trip. The weather is fairly cool now too, so heat certainly wasn't a problem, nor was space. Half way there some very drunk army guy got on and proceeded to tip his bottle of cider all over the seat, before getting off and, presumably, back-tracking a mile or so to where he should have got off. But anyway, we arrived eventually and quickly found the Bamboo Guesthouse, which is where I am now. There was another Swiss couple with us who were en route to the same place.

Right now we are staying in the 200B/night for a hut with two beds but no en-suite shower/toilet. It's not far to go but I'm beginning to wonder if maybe accepting the "Honeymoon Suite" would have been a better idea. Granted, it was 300B and had just one large bed instead of two... but it did have a shower/toilet and something tells me that there weren't quite as many ants and other little insects crawling all over the bed. I think I will sleep fully-clothed this evening. And I think the mosquito net I was going to ignore (because they really are a pain) will come in handy as a bug net. I'll have to tuck it in tight around the edges ;)

We spent what little evening we had in a beautiful bar near our room... it was undoubtedly the cleanest and all-round nicest place I've visited in Thailand, short of the Siam Bank. The owner, who was a Dutchman, was very friendly and seemed to have travelled widely in the area. He has similar thoughts as me about China and the future*. There we also met a Spanish-American guy (who has a Scottish father and the surname of "Haggis" (no, really, I saw his passport!)) who had just finished his postgraduate degree in Australia. When the bar closed we headed next door, which was a little more lively. There was a local Thai band playing and a visiting Australian DJ played a few tunes as well. But the most bizarre thing about it all was the lead (?) dancer of the Thai band... he certainly looked like a woman and sounded like a woman but he was just too... feminine. But his dancing was unbelievable. I don't quite know how to describe it... you have to sort of imagine a stunning but tall Thai girl wearing a very, very short white skirt (so short you could see her pants) and an equally small, white top. Oh, and black boots. Maybe you're getting the picture... now, if you remove the skirt and half of the top when the second song comes on, followed by a change in dancing style with the third song you might be getting remotely close to what this was like. I've never seen anything like it.

But now... I think it really is time to get to sleep... or try to not think about the bed bugs until it gets light outside. We've not arranged anything for tomorrow morning but the slow boat leaves at 10:30am and we have no visa and no photos to get one. Not to mention that our track record on waking up early has so far been... non existent. I guess that's what you get when you put two people who don't like to get out of bed together (err, you'll have to un-jumble that so it sounds right).

Chiang Mai

Getting here was fairly interesting, what with the train journey from Ayutthaya being well over 13 hours, coupled with the fact that Chiang Mai is flooded so we had to get off the train quite a bit before the station itself. A free bus was provided (great) but for some reason this gave up about half way, unloaded us all and left us to pay for the local Mafia (as some bizarre little old Thai lady said) to drive us to the centre. It really was flooded. Flooded like you see on the news some times. People wading around the street, having a go with their bicycles and motorbikes. Big four-wheel drive trucks were the only thing that really cut it, which is good, because it would seem that is what the local Mafia drive.

We eventually turned up... somewhere... by which time I had made friends with about five other French guys, a British-Greek guy and his British-Singapore girlfriend. It seemed that the Greek guy and I were the only ones that couldn't speak French, but this didn't really stop us.

After the lot of us wandered around... somewhere for a while we eventually began to disperse before there were just three of us, one French guy, Lauren and myself. We had a nice, albeit late, lunch in a cafe before heading out to do some serious searching for somewhere to stay. We stumbled across a place called Aloha (because the owner's husband was from Hawaii) but they could only offer a single room with fan and a double room (with one large bed) with fan but no bathroom. The French guy stopped here but Lauren and I kept looking. After about 30 minutes we found this nice place with single rooms with fans and private bathrooms for 100B (about 130p); just as we were about to put our names down she offered us a double room with air-con and private bathroom for 250B... now you just can't turn an offer like that down

We've both had showers (damn, does it feel great after 36 hours of pure sweat!) and I dropped some clothes off to be washed (and got really rooked by the little old lady there... 40B/kg isn't cheap and I had 2.2kg... she wasn't even letting me get away with 80B for the lot! Ah, well, I'll survive) and we're now both sat in this small Internet cafe.

This evening we'll probably go to the famous night market as it is already getting a little late to go visiting temples. So tomorrow will be another mad rush; maybe we can find another (cheaper) tuk-tuk driver for the day, as that worked out brilliantly yesterday. I think we might then head up to Chiang Rai (yes, subtle name change) in the evening by bus, or maybe Pai, which is further west. Since Lauren might be visiting Laos it looks like this could work out pretty well -- I've got a vague idea of where I'm going but once I'm at any place I'm pretty much useless at figuring out what to do -- maybe I can get Lauren to sort it out!

Once again, enough for now. I need some Fanta to quench my thirst. My Fanta can speed-drinking skills are now nothing short of amazing. I have no idea why I've been liking Coca-Cola all this time when Fanta Orange has been idling on the shelf. I mean... it tastes of something!

Ayutthaya

My rather short time in the ancient capital of Ayutthaya was rather short, but very full. I think it might have been nice to spend two days here but I managed to fit a lot in in a short time.

After collecting my washing and eating breakfast at Burger King I attempted to walk from the Mo Chit sky train station to the bus station but got lost. Eventually I found a taxi and from there it was all very straightforward. I arrived in Ayutthaya at around 1:10pm and was offered a tour at 200B/hour by a tuk-tuk driver. First of all I bought a ticket to Chiang Mai (a lower bunk at 11pm but once again I ended up on top, this time due to there being a woman with a little kid... I wouldn't mind but I'm sure they do it on purpose and the difference between upper and lower is about 20B (not much at all)) and dropped off my big bag. I then spent the next five and a half hours touring the major temples/ruins in Ayutthaya. Some of them are truly spectacular and a damn site more interesting than anything in Bangkok! This is what I call Real Thailand!

Unfortunately I ran out of space on my two CF cards rather quickly and so copied them onto my laptop to free up space. In the process I managed to nuke the FAT table on one card (just like I did in Japan) so I made an image and will attempt to recover it later. It's not as straightforward as last time as I now have NEF files and JPEG files. Anyway, I'm hoping.

The driver dropped me off at a McDonald's but there was a Pizza Company nearby so I went there instead. After that I walked to the train station but spent about an hour or so outside with a Thai family, which was fairly bizarre. All of the guys keep pointing to various girls (probably their own family, as well as those walking by on the street) and asking if they are beautiful... then asking if I want bum-bum. Err, okay.

But now I'm on the train again and I'll be in Chiang Mai in about two hours, which will give me enough time to brush my teeth and freshen up a bit. I'm not sure where I'm staying yet but I've got an idea from The Book.

With any luck I'll have as much fun today as I did yesterday ;)

Muay Thai (lots of it!)

Today has been an excellent and action-packed day. I booked into my hotel (same as last time, Lodge-1 on Th Sukhumvit soi 1, but a different room), dropped my dirties off for washing where I will collect them tomorrow morning at eight.

Before checking-in I stopped off, as planned, at a Burger King to make up for the total lack of food the previous day. It has occurred to me that when I head up to Chiang Mai the day after tomorrow I will likely not be eating anything I like for quite some time... a week or two, maybe! Once settled in and showered (which was really nice -- hot water, even!) I got the Sky Train at Phloem Chit station to Banghampalu and caught a taxi from there to the Grand Palace. I tried chatting up a tuk-tuk driver but he wasn't content with 50B (about 80p) for the drive... he should have been because in an air-conditioned taxi on a meter it cost just 61B. Anyway, I quickly checked-out the Palace, which was more impressive, in my mind, than Wat Pho. I wasn't so keen on the enforced trousers-to-your-ankles and had it not been for the masses of other foreigners wandering around in oversized elastic trousers, I might have looked silly!

I took my shoes off to go in to see the Jade Buddha but got bored as all it seemed to involve was going in one door and coming out the next -- not so great when I could see the buddha damn well from outside. It wasn't like you could go in with a camera, either. So I gave up on that and took a few photos of people praying. I'm not too sure where I stand on this, actually, but I've seen loads of other people snap away and I don't try and hide the fact I'm taking photos. So far nobody has objected or given me any funny looks, which is good enough for me.

As it got close to 12:50 I made a dash for the exit (which took a while as I couldn't find the exit I came in at to return the baggies) and found a taxi to take me back to Siam Square, where I was to watch my film at 13:10. Unfortunately I didn't get there until about 13:25, which meant I missed the oh-so-entertaining pay-homage-to-the-King bit at the beginning as well as a few minutes of the film. It's not like it mattered... there wasn't really a story that I could make out, other than something to do with elephants. It was a great film though -- I don't know what it's called but it starred the same guy that was in Ong-Bak, which was the most crazy martial art-cum-crappy storyline I've ever seen. Ong-Bak was done entirely without wires but I don't know about this one... it wasn't quite as good, but that might have been as much to do with the fact that big baddies appeared from nowhere, as much as anything else. If you can find a cinema playing it, I'd advise you to go. I don't know the name but there aren't that many Thai films kicking about, are there?

After that I headed back to my hotel room to empty my CF cards onto my laptop, splash a bit of talc (which I've found works very well for soaking up sweat in all sorts of funny places (think itchy heat or whatever it's called (trapped sweat goes itchy)) and have a drink. I also quickly stuck my mobile on charge as it had run out. Then I headed straight to Lumphini Stadium to watch some Muay Thai (Thai boxing)! I managed to get directions to the stadium from a Japanese couple in the end, as they were on their way too.

Following the advice from the Lonely Planet I ignored the hawkers selling tickets (although they looked very official and I honestly couldn't see the problem) and went straight to the window. For some reason all the pricing categories were shifted about and I had to pay the ringside rate for the not-quite-so-good seating. No idea what that was all about but it wasn't a massive amount.

The first match was a real let-down as they didn't seem to be doing much kicking at all. As I later found out (i.e. as soon as the second match began) they were just doing normal boxing. I have no idea why. The place was fairly empty to begin with but did fill up a bit towards the end. The fighting ranged from fairly poor to what looked really good to me. There were plenty of kicks to all parts of the body (anything goes, including private bits) but my favourite was when one of the guys from the main event smacked the other guy around the neck and head with his foot. It makes the stuff you see on TV look like a toddler's game, I swear. Lots of groin punching, kneeing and elbowing, as well knees to the back. I was a little unhappy not to see any elbows to the head, or any bring-the-opponents-head-down-hard-on-your-knee business. That's fairly classic Thai boxing stuff, I'm sure. But all-in-all it was really good but is in no way reflected in my attempts at photos. I've got some serious respect for boxing photographers now... although I'm sure they must sit right by the canvas underneath the ropes to get the brilliant shots they do.

Only one guy went off on a stretcher though, which was a little disappointing. Fortunately it wasn't one of the 14-year-old kids that seem to have taken it up. Maybe they're just not important enough for a stretcher and have to shift themselves off?

After that (wow, it really was a busy day!) I headed to Si Lom to try and find one of the many Indian restaurants down Th Si Lom (Th is short for something in Thai that means "road") but gave in after about three minutes of not seeing any (but being invited to see quite a few different ping-pong shows, etc.) and went in to a Mexican place I saw. I was in for a bit of a shock when I looked at the menu after ordering a coke... my nachos were just 150B but chicken fajitas were 750B! That's about GBP10! I have no idea what they were on but I just wasn't in the mood to argue... my bill came to 1230B in the end, which is about GBP17! I must have spent almost fifty squids today, what with the expensive meal, the boxing, the Burger King, getting ripped off a little for taxi rides and my hotel at 700B/night. I probably didn't spent a quarter as much for three days on Koh Phanghan island! But I had a lot of fun, which I didn't really have on the island.

Finally I've been in a tuk-tuk! I arranged to pay 150B (just over two squids) to get from Si Lom to Th Sukhumvit Soi 1 (my hotel), which was about 15 minutes. I really enjoyed it and can't quite understand why I didn't get in one before. It wasn't particularly cheap as I could have got the Sky Train home just as quickly for about 20B (told you it was an expensive day!) Again, well worth it, especially for the amusing tips like: "you want girl? Lots by this road (waits about 10 seconds and points to two beautiful Thai girls sat on the curb) about 500B (GBP7) each!" I didn't bother to mention that at such a bargain price they also threw in a couple of STDs and a stolen [wallet|mobile phone|laptop|camera]. We had a sort-of race with another tuk-tuk too, which managed a most impressive wheelie with two big German-looking guys sat in the back... it would have been more impressive if it didn't almost cause a traffic accident with an oncoming taxi.

But now... now I'm sat in bed with a bottle of Coke from the FamilyMart down the road and I'm ready to go to sleep. Tomorrow morning I pick up my laundry, pack my bag, get a shower and get dressed (obviously I dress in some dirty clothes to get my laundry) before getting some breakfast/lunch (Burger King) and going to the bus station to catch a VIP bus to Ayuth--whatever. I was going to get the train but I figured I could leave my bag at the bus station (after removing the smaller rucksack with laptop and other such goodies), which is where I'll be heading back after visiting a few ruins. The official plan is to view Ayuth... then head straight for an overnight bus journey to Chiang Mai. It won't be a sleeper bus, but it will take a long time and I will sleep (I really hope I will). At Chiang Mai I'll check-in to a hotel, shower and then check out some places before coming back for an early night. Well, here's to hoping!

Back to Bangkok

Well, I'm back on the train again. I was up at 8:20am this morning to pack my stuff and get a shower (which was nice for once -- today has been fairly cool (if you count 35C+ as cool) which meant that I didn't start to sweat the very second I switched the shower off). I had to collect my joint ticket (boat, bus and train) from a place right at the other end of the beach (a good three minute walk ;). There was some really great rain as I was walking along so I got totally drenched -- this was pretty much the first time I'd been anywhere without my camera... I could have really done with it as the sky was dark and the water a little choppy but what would have really made the photo was the palm trees. Come to think of it, I think they were the first palm trees I ever really saw... maybe one or two in Spain quite a few years ago.

The boat journey was horrible... the first 20 minutes were pretty rough and I was beginning to feel a little queasy (but only just -- 20 minutes longer and I think I would be running upstairs to find a railing to hang on to!) but we docked at Koh Samui to pick up more passengers and from there onwards the sea calmed down quite a bit. It still wasn't a great trip due to the over-abuse (if there is such a thing) of the air conditioning... I swear the place was about 15C and everybody is sat about in shorts and t-shirts. I got to watch After the Sunset again though as well as the first 30 minutes of National Treasure, which has left me wanting more.

The bus was pretty uneventful as is this train journey. There are a few foreigners a little further down (right at the end of the carriage by the toilet door -- poor guys) and across from me are at least three people sharing one bunk (okay, so it's a mother and two small children, but still!). I keep making faces with the younger of the two boys, who seems to enjoy it -- mostly a who-can-stick-their-tongue-out-for-longest competition... but then I went and introduced eye-crossing which totally confounded him!

I'm looking forward to arriving in Bangkok again. I didn't really enjoy it so much last time but I feel in a better state of mind now, however weird that sounds. I'm toying with the idea of heading to Koh San road (or whatever it's called), which is the main backpacker place in Bangkok... the rooms might work out a bit cheaper and there is definitely a lot to do, but it has no nearby Sky Train or Metro. Since I'm only in Bangkok for one night I'm tempted to head straight back to my last hotel, check in and send my laundry across the road straight away, before heading straight to Burger King (I've actually not really eaten anything all day... unless you count about four Pringles (crisps, not tubes of) and what the 7-11 girls called a "hot dog") followed by the Grand Palace and a few other things in that area. For the amount of time I spent in Bangkok last time (three days?) I only really managed two main attractions -- Wat Pho and the Golden Buddha. I should be able to bump that up by at least two more, three if I manage to catch the Muay Thai as I hope (which I really am looking forward too, even if it is an outrageous 1000 baht (about GBP14 ;).

I had about an hour to kill while waiting for the train so I had a quick look around the city and enjoyed myself. People here are *very* friendly... maybe more so than the Chinese. What's good for me is that seem to really like foreigners where maybe the Chinese are friendly towards foreigners but might be happier without them. I got one or two photos but nothing spectacular... I've missed seeing things on Koh Phanghan but I hope to sort that soon at Ayuthaya (or whatever the hell it is), as well as in Laos (or Lao, as it seems to be called here).

Well, it's getting on towards 10pm here and my train arrives around six. I didn't sleep too well last night (not sure, really... I had some weird feeling like I was still on the beach or still reading my book... it was a bit bizarre really -- I don't know how marajuana works but I didn't think you could get affected by being near people smoking it... maybe I was wrong and that was the cause? I really have no idea... more likely I just wasn't sleeping well because of the heat. Ah, yes, heat... I'm looking forward to a decent air conditioned room and a shower with cold AND hot water this/tomorrow evening. Not to mention that with air con you often have fewer mosquitos -- they turned out to be a problem the last two days with my hand quite literally balooning and my elbow is a good deal wider than normal.

But anyway. Now, I'm off to sleep... if I can manage it with the strip light riht above my bed.

Got any wood?

Today was, on the whole, much like yesterday. I got up late after reading well into the morning... and did, well, some more reading. At around 1pm I wandered down the beach to find a travel agency to book me a ticket from here to Bangkok (i.e. the one I bought to get here, but in reverse), which was no major hassle. I've got to go back tomorrow morning to collect the ticket and then get to the boat by mid-day. This shouldn't be a problem as there is a taxi leaving here around 10am, which will give me time for breakfast, a quick read in my hammock as well as some time to pick up some food for my journey. The travel agent guy said I would only be waiting at the train station for about an hour and a half, but I'm a little dubious. I guess time will tell.

I spent some time with a couple from England today, which was very interesting. This is their last time to really travel together as the guy is about to start a job and won't be seeing many decent length holidays for a while. The girl, on the other hand, is about to start her masters in psychology. Maybe that means she won't see any decent length holidays too.

After some dinner I met a guy from Ireland and another from England... mainly because the Irish guy had the Nikon D70 more than anything else. The three of us spent the evening chatting about travelling, places we'd been (they seemed to have been everywhere!) and places we'd like to go (again, in their case!). This was a really great chance to sit back and relax and a chance to really take in the beautiful sky and sunset. After some hours talking we were joined by a couple of Australian guys who had been drinking some "tea" with a few magic mushrooms. From then on the conversation seemed to revolve around wood, mainly due to the fact they couldn't find any to get the bonfire going again. A little bizarre but exceptionally amusing.

I can't write too much now as it's past midnight already and I have to get up (reasonably) early tomorrow. I've a lot to do.

I've also sorted myself out with a sort-of schedule. Tomorrow I travel to Bangkok and will arrive very early the following day (around 6am) whereupon I will likely head back to the same hotel I stayed at before, drop off all my clothes for washing and then head out to the Grand Palace, which I missed out on first time around. I've got to get at least one ride in a tuk-tuk (although I hear they have those in Chiang Mai) and I really want to pay lots of money and get a decent ringside seat at Muay Thai (Thai boxing). If I can't manage that for whatever reason, I'll likely head out to the cinema in Siam Square and catch up on one of my favourite hobbies... as well as pay tribute to the King.

The following day I plan to head to the old capital of Ayu-something, which supposedly has some really great wats (temples) to visit. My plan was to catch a train early in the morning and pay to leave my rucksack somewhere, allowing me to spend the whole day wat-hopping, before getting on a bus (I really hope a sleeper!) to Chiang Mai, which is in Northern Thailand. There I'll do whatever the place has to offer (quite a bit) before heading up even further north to the Golden Triangle, where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet. Depending on time I might try a day excursion into Burma -- more to say I've been there than to actually see anything -- before crossing the border and getting to Luang Prabang in Laos. With any luck I might meet Anna there (if she's checked her email) and then let her figure out what's good to do in southern Laos. Past that I've got no idea. Just head north until I reach China, I guess ;)

Anyway, time for me to head to bed... well, just put my laptop away and slide a bit further down the bed, really.

Photos at Paradise Island

I took quite a few photos today of the beautiful beach here, as well as the rather unspectacular sunset (ah, well, you can't have *everything* I suppose). What I've learned from this experience is that my lens has two spots of dirt, which really mess things up. I've already cleaned the lens once when I first saw them, but either I did a poor job (likely) or the dirt is somehow trapped inside the lens (who knows how likely... but definitely not good). Before I take any more shots tomorrow I'll have to get everything clean and in order, otherwise I waste almost every exposure (well, actually just those at the wider angles).

I was otherwise unimpressed with my photos. Somehow I have almost every single photo at a funny angle. I'm not really sure how this has happened though as I used my grid marks to align everything up with the horizon... I can understand one or two photos rotated... but all of them!? But on the whole they seemed to lack depth and interest... I suppose one or two might make handy brochure photos (minus the black spots) but that doesn't say much when you've seen the brochures around here.

I'm beginning to think that taking landscape photos isn't really my thing. On the whole I enjoy taking photos of people a lot more... but you can't capture a truly spectacular sunset (which I want to) if you spend all day peering through your lens pointed at a little kid. I'll have to try again some more tomorrow and maybe find some photos other people have taken. I've never really spent much time looking at photos before now, which isn't really a good thing. I need to try and imitate people to learn, I think. Having said that, I frequently discover things on my own... maybe I could have copied it without too much effort (i.e. I would know the method to get the desired effect) but I enjoy looking at a fairly mediocre photo and thinking "Oh, so that's how they do that!".

I've just had a quick look at some of my earlier photos from Zhejiang province and one or two from Beijing. I think I managed to take one or two retty great shots then, although some of them I would have done quite differently now. For almost all of my shots (apart from my beach and landscape attempts) I almost never shut the aperture down past around f/8... more common is f/5 or in many cases f/3.5 (the widest at 18mm) and f/4.5 (the widest at 70mm). On the whole I think this is a good thing as I like more of my more recent photos than I do of my older ones, but obviously from time to time I ruin a photo by having too little depth of field. Ah, well. But it's not just DOF I find myself looking at... one photo of the Hutong around Tiananmen Square that I particularly liked (because of the strong shadows cast by the early morning sun) is now little more than mediocre -- the focus is too soft, which really ruins it. Had it been nice and crisp and sharp the photo might be one of my better ones... but even the framing is different from what I'd try now. Ah, I don't know. I think I had more usable photos earlier on with the odd good one, now I have far fewer decent photos but a higher rate of decent ones. But it all depends on the day and the location, really.

If the Internet decides to work around here then I'll include a photo I took at the Summer Palace around a week ago. It was fairly far away from the hordes of tourists but reasonably close to Suzhou jie (street). There were about five or six boats and the men were removing all of the green weed from the water. I think this is one of the best photos I've taken -- the shutter speed is, in my opinion, perfect (or at least, the aperture was set right and I got a nice shutter speed ;), the framing is absolutely spot on and the brilliant greens really bring the whole thing together.

I'm thinking I'll head to bed now. I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow... I might get a long-tail boat to the other side of the island to visit the famous Bottle Beach, or head up a mountain to try and find one of the many waterfalls on the island. I don't think I'll stay here too long... maybe another night after this. After that I might try a night on another island, or just head right back up to Bangkok for a night (and a tuk-tuk ride) before going north to Chiang Mai and then on across the Laos border.

Ko Pha-Ngan

Wow. I'm on this island now, checked into my bungalow for 200B/night (About GBP2.70) and I've taken a few quick shots of the beach for your pleasure. I appear to burning like mad but I spoke to some German girls that asked me what I was doing and they say I'm using completely the wrong type of sun tan lotion, so I'll have to go buy some more.

Right, when you see these photos you'll absolutely understand why I can't be bothered to stay and write here. Tata!

[inline:1]My bedroom

[inline:2]My bathroom

[inline:3]The beach

[inline:4]More beach

Ah, screw you. The satellite Internet link here is about as fast as a turtle taking pot. You can see them later but I want to go swimming, damnit.

X&Y

The things that keep me going...

Coca Cola and Pepsi, although lately I've taken to drinking Fanta Orange. Don't touch the luminous green stuff or the equally bright red stuff. The other orange drink they have here is nice too.

My shoes... Merrell something. They really are waterproof and are fairly comfortable. A little too tight at times but better than any other shoes I've used as heavily as these before. I've noticed that the sole is wearing down a lot, which might mean they are pretty much useless in a month or two more.

Coldplay's X&Y album, which I don't even own. I downloaded the MP3s back in England and have them on my iRiver iFP899. At first I wasn't keen at all but I listen to the album almost exclusively and still *love it*, which is impressive.

My Lonely Planet guidebook. Well, sort of. It is so-so but nowhere near as good as the books dedicated to a single country. I have the South-East Asia on a Shoestring edition, which just doesn't have the space to cover what I need.

My camera :)

Paradise Island

I'm heading off my my paradise island this evening. My train is at 7ish o'clock from the train station at Hualamphong. I arrive at some other place around 6:30am (I have a sleeper cabin) and from there I have a three hour boat journey to the island of Ko Pha-Ngan. I don't really have any idea what time I'll get there, what I'll do then, or even when I'll leave. It doesn't really matter though -- I'm sleeping, travelling and arriving all for a whopping GBP20! If only we could introduce some Thai prices for transport in England!

While visiting the Golden Buddha today I ran into two girls backpacking around Asia (at the moment). One was 22 from Canada (and really beautiful ;) and the other was 20 from Denmark. They'd met in Australia while working there for a while and have spent the last month and a half together travelling. I was invited to join them as they head north, which I would have done had it not been for the fact I had just booked some tickets south. Hell, thinking about it now I would have probably done a lot better by just abandoning my tickets and following them -- more company, more people to figure out where to go and Anna, the Canadian, was also heading up into Laos! Ah, well, I've got their email addresses and estimated travel dates so there is still a chance we can meet up further down the line.

I'm just catching up on my site, UA and Slashdot now, as well as posting this entry. I'm not sure how available the Internet will be on this island but if the number of massive satellite dishes in Bangkok are anything to go by, it shouldn't be a problem. Even if it's not I don't see it being a problem -- I've hardly used the Internet in the last couple of months and I have a Thai SIM card so I can keep in contact with everybody I need to.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to taking my "beat-up boat looking out over beautiful teal sea" photos in a day or so. I'd really like to see some serious stormy weather too... something a little different would be great.

Right, that'll do for now. I'll have a go at attaching a photo to this entry showing the road, the buildings, the people, the greenery and the skytrain.

Reclining Buddha

Today I managed to do a little more than yesterday... I might even go so far as saying it was an eventful day but I might also exaggerate ;) I got up around 11am and headed straight to pick up my laundry from across the road -- they weren't done with it yet and asked me to come back in the evening before midnight... when I turned up at 11.30pm they had closed, which is fairly useless.

Anyway, after that I hopped straight onto the Sky Train to go to the very last stop on one line, at which point I would catch a river taxi all the way up to the temple I wanted to visit. This went according to plan for the most part, but the big Burger King sign was too much for me to resist, so I had to make a little detour.

I got all the way to the temple and a little bit further... which meant a 20 minute wait for the next river taxi back one stop. So far so good. The temple itself was a little disappointing, in my mind. Supposedly this is one of the really big places that people make pilgrimages to and all sorts of things... but for me it was just a big buddha having a kip (a kip that to look at required removing my shoes, too). The other buildings were fairly interesting and what I might call "stereotypical" Thai temple building thingies... but then that's only because I really do know squat all about Thailand and Thais (apart from that they never sweat, love selling sex and wear copious amounts of talcum powder). I think I might have not enjoyed myself because I found the whole place really uninspiring... the guy shouting "Keep moving! Don't stop!" while you try to take off your shoes, put them into a little cubicle and move forwards with all your belongings really didn't help. Then inside the wat (the temple) the buddha was just a big buddha lying down (reclining buddha) -- it was pretty much too dark to take photos (or required taking five of each just to ward off the evil camera shake; or shooting at ISO 800-1600, which I don'twanttodothankyouverymuch) and even those that I did take were dull and lifeless. I guess there isn't much you can do with a big buddha lying down.

Outside I got one or two half-assed photos of the spire bits but those aren't anything worth putting on a postcard (and you'd be amazed what they try and get away with in Asia). I somehow managed to overexpose pretty much every shot in an attempt to move away from exposing for hilights (i.e. always the sky). The results were pretty poor -- brilliant white skies were there were nice dark white/grey skies with some interesting clouds. As my Dad said when you can't capture the full dynamic range it is a choice... I think for me I expose mostly for the sky and let the shadows take care of themselves; sure, I might end up with no information in the shadows, but at least the sky won't look like somebody took a great big ink eraser to the photo and attempted to remove the sky.

Then it rained. It's supposedly the monsoon season here now but it has only rained the once. It lasted around 20 minutes and even then it wasn't particularly heavy -- nothing like the rain I saw near Huangshan mountain in China last year, or even like the rain I saw in Beijing this year. But this was nice in a way as I met another Japanese girl sat on a bench under a tree trying to keep dry. I don't understand why but none of them seem to have jobs. Eventually I really had to escape the rain and ran for shelter... I don't think my camera could have taken much more, but my skin is as waterproof as ever. This was nice as I ended up getting just as wet, if not more so, but I was at least sharing the company of about four Dutch English teachers and one German English teacher. They suggested heading to an island down south, which, after having spoken to Davide yesterday about how quickly you can get to the Laos border, I think I'll try.

Once back from the temple I searched for a travel agent but gave up a couple of hours later (after having had more Burger King!) when I ran into a cinema showing the Japanese film "The Hidden Blade", by the same guy that directed "Tasagori seibei" or "The Twilight Samurai". In true Thailish it was a bit "same-same" in many aspects but "not same-same" in others. I think I'll have to see it again to make my mind up. I certainly enjoyed it though and would definitely recommend it. Quite possibly the most bizarre thing I've come across out here (welll, maybe excluding **** ping-pong) was the section just before the film started -- "Please pay respect to His Royal Majesty the King". Err, okay. But everybody stood up instantly, so naturally I followed suit. We then got to watch photos of him for the next minute or so before finally sitting down to the watch the film. I wonder what would happen if they tried that in England?

After a few more hours in ancient Japan (well, not that ancient, more like the late-1800s) I was hurriedly woken up and brought back to the Land of Smile... much to my disappointment. I could very happily be in Japan right now, especially after watching the film. Everywhere in Asia (that I've been to) draws on Japan. Culture, style, dress, etc. are all very visible in Bangkok and Beijing... Hong Kong too. Or maybe I'm just making this up and in fact I only think so because all the out-of-work Japanese are kicking about in other places in Asia?

I've been here three days now and I have finally found my feet. I can use the subway, I can use the river taxi, regular taxi and sky train. I've still not been in a tuk-tuk, which I will have to do before I leave. I can't say I particularly like Bangkok. It just doesn't rank up there with places in China and Japan for me. I'm obviously getting pretty lonely now and I think that has a lot to do with it... but the same was true in Japan last year. Maybe it's because I've come from somewhere I now really love (Beijing), which wasn't really true last year. I don't know, but I'm really hoping for my very own little slice of paradise if I manage to head south tomorrow. I've not found a travel agent yet but tomorrow I should have no trouble, even if I end up just going to the train station and doing it alone. From there I will head back to Bangkok and take the one day bus to the Laos border, cross and take a two-day boat trip into the centre of Laos. From there I cross back into China's Yunnan province. Well, all that if I can manage to get myself out of bed tomorrow morning.

More Bangkok

Today I spent my time much the same as the previous day. I kicked about around Bangkok, did little but saw lots. I had my lunch/breakfast at an expensive Italian restaurant and made the mistake of ordering calamari that was a little too un-frozen calamari from Safeway for my liking. Specifically it wasn't deep fried, so I ended up with a plate of cooked squid. It was edible but it had absolutely no taste. For main course I had spaghetti bolognaise, which was mediocre at best. Maybe Thailand does to Italian food what Japan does to pizza (hmm... pizza is Italian, maybe that's some link)?

I travelled on the subway/metro today, which is ultra-modern with large, spacious carriages and high-power air conditioning. I only went three or four stops before coming back to try and find something interesting to do. I met Davide, an Italian guy that grew up in Germany who is now working in New Delhi, near a large monument in a park. There we saw some crazy synchronised aerobics and quite a few other people there to take photos. Davide had to find a DVD for a friend so we went on a hunt for OZ season three. This took quite some time but along the way we passed hundreds of market stalls and probably twenty times as many girls.

It was impossible to escape the people out on the street pimping either girls themselves or "DVDs". We made the mistake of saying that yes, we were after DVDs, only to discover that the selection was more than a little specific. We did find the DVD in the end, but not before taking photos of a massive neon sign displaying "SUPER PUSSY" and being invited to see all sorts of bizarre shows (ping pong, smoking, balloon... *ahem*).

After passing by all the go-go bars (with very open front doors) we headed to Burger King for some more of my staple diet. I attempted to follow the directions to the toilet, but gave up after going about ten metres down an unlit passage behind a door market "Toilet, Staff Only". The nearest superstore was the next big idea and on the whole it worker. I was still with Davide at this time so we took some amusing photos of how low the cubicles were -- I could quite clearly see Davide's head and shoulders as he stood inside. Granted, he's a little taller than me, but I should imagine there are plenty of tall people kicking about in Bangkok.

Davide left shortly afterwards for the second fitting of his two new handmade suits. Each one is costing around 50 Euros, which is outrageously cheap. About this time I took the sky train to the next stop and then walked the short distance to "Brown Sugar", a jazz bar and restaurant. Here I met two Japanese girls sat at the bar so I tried to strike up some highly intellectual conversation... it sort of went along the lines of: "are you Chinese? Oh, Japanese. I see." They didn't seem too interested in a conversation but I persisted by attempting to ask a question at each song interval... things like "nihon no doko desu ka?" (where are you from in Japan?), they were from Osaka, and then if they know this film or the other film. Right now there are adverts for "Swing Girls" here in Bangkok, so I brought this up and it turned out that the more talkative of the two girls had seen it at the cinema over five times! And I thought I was a fan!

In the end they seemed fairly interested to talk. I half think that they thought I might be picking up on them, which is why they were so stand-offish. Once I brought up films and music I think they quickly realised I was only interested in somebody to talk to for a little while. Somehow they are only 28 (although if they'd said 22 I wouldn't have known) and have both already quit work because they didn't get enough holidays. Well, that sure is one way to do it!

I feel a little more comfortable here now. The first day I was practically scared -- it looked so similar to some of the busier parts of China, yet everything was so different. I didn't know how much things were worth, how to get places, where to go, etc. It didn't help that people seemed to wholly ignore me -- not so much because I wanted people to talk to me, but because it made everything feel even more odd. For example, when I visited the electronics store yesterday people didn't try and sell me things, introduce prices, etc. like they do in China. They pretty much just ignored me, which kind of threw me off guard. In the end I got quite a lot of attention when I brought my laptop out in a Sony store (to show the t-shirt guy) -- the staff there had never seen an X505 and thought it was the most beautiful thing ever. I ended up having to pose for photos as a result -- a little over the top, I thought ;)

But anyway, now I'm getting to grips with how things are here. One thing I don't get at all is girls (and guys) -- how do you tell the hookers apart from the rest? This was partly why I talked to the Japanese girls this evening... because I knew they weren't Thai girls, so therefore I wasn't going to try and initiate conversation with a prostitute, which could end up being a fairly sticky situation to get myself out of. Having said that, people here are very helpful and friendly -- the guy at reception downstairs is nice as have all of the other people I've had to talk to. I was trying to ask a street food vendor where Road X was when I heard "Excuse me, can I help you?" in quite possibly the most perfect English I've heard for a very long time. I was literally shocked when I turned around to find the most stunning Thai girl was the person that had asked the question. She told me that it was the street I was looking for and asked me where I was going -- she must have known the area pretty well because when I said jazz bar she knew exactly the place I was looking for. I can't say for certain she wasn't a prostitute... but I would be very shocked if she was -- I'm sure she could earn far more as a translator or guide, her English was really that good. Most likely she has probably hooked herself up with a foreigner, which seems to be the common and sensible thing for girls here to do.

Right, time for me to head to bed. I really want to get to this temple place tomorrow as it has some rather obscure opening hours. It takes about two hours by bus due to the bad traffic. I think I'll combine the metro and buses to cut the time down.

Bangkok

Yikes. I'm in Thailand!

I arrived this morning at around 2:30am after my flight was delayed at Beijing Capitol Airport for almost two hours. I was supposed to fly the previous day but I turned up too late to check my baggage. Ah, well, there were no major hassles -- they just stamped my ticket and told me to come back the following day... just a little earlier.

The airport was a fairly easy thing to sort -- I followed the advice of my South East Asia on a Shoestring book by Lonely Planet and walked outside to the main road and flagged a taxi down from there. It was pretty cheap but unfortunately at nearing 3am all the hotels were pretty much booked up. After quite some time I found a fairly reasonable place... but not before being shown some horrendously overpriced places with the biggest cockroaches you have ever seen! I tried to tell the guy that because it was 4am I would hardly be in the hotel a night... could I get a discount? Good work to me... he turned around and told me to come down in the morning and pay then -- I got my first half-night free. The hotel isn't super cheap at 700B (baht), about GBP10, but I don't think I'll move while in Bangkok.

I'm having to haul everything around with me -- my laptop, cheques, Sterling and camera, not to mention my SE-Asia book. It wouldn't be so hard but I've found that rucksacks aren't great for cameras but I can't find a decent-sized camera bag that I can fit my laptop, book and a bottle of Coke in. I might have risked leaving my laptop in an extremely bizarre hiding place at the hotel (as I have done in China) were it not for the fact that every single door on the way out of the hotel (about four) has signs plastered over them saying the hotel cannot be held responsible for any lost belongings.

I got up pretty late today as a result of my late night/early morning. I've not actually done anything specific, but I've wandered around the city a little, been in a rip-off taxi, a river taxi, two buses, a McDonald's, a Burger King (oh, yes!) and spent quite a bit of time kicking about inside a computer shop I came across.

Here I met a guy who was running a fake t-shirt import business into the Lake District. He was looking at buying a laptop so I gave him a hand with that before going to get my tea. The next hour or so I spent wandering around the street taking a few photos. I'm shooting at around ISO500 and I've found that I can actually hand-hold my camera at around 1/10th of a second... that's obviously at the widest focal length (18mm). I don't think any of them will be particularly great but I quite enjoy it... it gives me a sort of purpose and seems to distance myself from the people with services to sell... of all different varieties.

Now is as good a time as any to talk about the more intimite services on offer here. So far I've seen at least two "ladyboys" and almost certainly far more that were a little less obvious. One of these, uh, ladies was with a guy that looked well over 60... who knows how old (s)he was, but I should imagine well under half his age.

I didn't quite realise the scale of the industry here. I've been offered at least three or four massage trips so far, although only from tuk-tuk and taxi drivers. I briefly entered the main district early this morning while looking for a hotel -- I left just as quickly. I don't know how much sleep you'll get if you stay in a hotel attached to a brothel, and I'm not particularly sure that I want to.

Few foreigners (men) seem to be without a Thai girl. I don't know if they are bar girls, girlfriends or what. I'm guessing in most cases it will be the former. After having spoken to the t-shirt importer, who has a Thai girlfriend (not a bar girl -- she owns a hairdressing shop), I distintly get the impression that the girls aren't really treated as girls, so much as playthings that people take a little too seriously.

I would love to find out what percentage of visitors are here for tourism of the "other" variety. I imagine it will be pretty high.

Anyway, tomorrow I will head out to some temples. I'm not quite sure how this will work out as I have no long-sleeved t-shirts, while are pretty much required for the trip.

It looks like this Internet cafe is closing now so I better wrap this up.

As for photos... I still don't have enough bandwidth to upload them. I'll do loads of it when I get back.

Bye for now!

Tiananmen blogging

Right now I'm sat on Tiananmen Square copying some photos from a CF card to the hard disk on my laptop. I've not had my laptop out in the Square before and I don't recall ever seeing anybody with one.

There's alreadya little crowd but that's sort of to be expected... I mean, if you generate a crowd just by being there, think about the crowd with a laptop.

Just watched the flat lowering ceremony with a girl (Ava) from Hangzhou and gave her a lift up just as they started lowing the flag as she couldn't see to take a photo. I think she is pretty much the first girl I've seen that seemed serious about taking photos -- a nice thing to see on what may well be (again) my last day on the Square.

The crowd has grown. Getting a little weird now... who knows who does and doesn't speak/read English? ;)

I should stop writing now as there...

Well, that's about as far as I got before one of the army men kicking about on the Square came over and told me I wasn't allowed to use a laptop there. A bit bizarre as there is no limit on cameras, books, PDAs and all sorts of other things. Still, it was a good job that my photos had just that second finished copying ;)

I'm in the Internet cafe now and I'm just catching up on what's been going on in the world and I'll have a look at finding a decent flight to Bangkok. So far the quotes I've had from Chinese travel agents have been around 2400RMB, which works out at almost GBP200 for a single-way flight! Not cheap when compared to the GBP350 I spent getting a return flight from LHR to PuDong airport in Shanghai!

If I can't find anything better then I'll have to take it, but it really pushes the price of everything up. One good thing is that everything is a lot cheaper in Thailand than in China. We've also been hit by the revaluation of the Chinese Yuan against the US Dollar. Last year I was getting around 15.5RMB to the Pound while now I'm on a fairly poor 13.11RMB! Ah, well, can't be helped I suppose.

That's it for now... with any luck I might be blogging from Bangkok tomorrow!