May 2007

Ok, so, Ummm, back to Bangkok again...

So to bring you upto date I was a smart boy and Lost my Passport, you know the thing you NEVER lose, so I had to go back to Bangkok to go to the New Zealand Embassy to get a new one, and to get it all started ASAP I decided I'd go the quick but expensive way and go by Plane from Koh Samui to Bangkok on Friday the 18th.

So the night before I'd decided to have a quiet night, funnily enough that didn't happen as I had to say goodbye to all our Coral friends and what better way to do it but with a few Beers/Buckets, and well one bucket lead to another. So after 3 hours sleep I actually woke upto my Alarm at 8:30am to get ready for my boat trip to Koh Samui at 9:30. Aftee the Boat trip I got to the airport on Samui and Booked a flight for Midday, but at just before checking in over the Load speaker they say the Flight has been cancelled due to technical problems, so I rush to the ticketing office and get my ticket changed for the 1:40pm flight (next non-full flight). I arrive in Bagkok at 2:45pm and get my bags, jump in a taxi and explain where I want to go, after almost 2 hours in the taxi I get to the NZ Embassy at 4:40pm, yes they closed at 4:30, what a day, and yes all on 3 hours sleep, I couldn't even sleep on the plane, so now I have to wait till monday.

After getting in a Taxi and heading for Khao San Road I booked myself into the same Place Grant and I stayed in last time, and got a Much needed Beer or 5, there we go I feel much better now!!!

Atleast I knew a few of the Coral friends were going to be In Bangkok shortly so I wouldn't have to spend my time on Khao San Road alone, never alone on Khao San!!!

So on Monday I get to the Embassy to sort out my Passport, and get told the quickest way is to get and ETD, Emergency Travel Document, which is basically the same as a Passport but only valid for 12 months. I get given a form to fill out and hand in with a couple Passport Photo's and a BIG bundle of cash, then get told I should be able to pick up my ETD tomorrow afternoon. I'm actually starting to feel fine about it all now, next day and I'll be able to catch back up with Grant.
That night I caught up with a few of the Coral guys and we decided to have a few drinks, as you do.

Alan and a Nasty, but ohh so Tasty Bucket.

Alan with a few of our Coral friends on Khao San Road

So after the night before I got up a little later then I'd wanted to, but as it turned out I couldn't pick up my ETD anyway, they had only given me one valid for 3 months. Which was useless as I needed atleast 6 months validity to get into Singapore, So to cut a long story short I had to wait another day, to get it, then another day to get it sorted through Thailand Immigration, so Thursday comes around and I can travel again, yes I was pretty stressed by then!!!

So I spent the next couple days just relaxing/shopping, yes you read it a Male relaxing and shopping at same the time, obviously no Females with him, and got a flight down to Singapore yesterday (26th) to catch back up with Grant.

As they say better to learn from others mistakes then make them yourself, so I hope this taught you all a good lesson...

Alan

Ok so we arrived in the backpackers haven in Bangkok called Khao San road in the pouring rain at about 6 am which sucked as nothing was open. So by about 9 am we had a place to stay and full stomachs so we had a nap. We were pretty tired so went out to sort out our suits, and have a wee shop (I had to replace my ipod that I lost in Hanoi). But after that we were just too tired, and took a boat along the river back to Khao San Rd. Not much else happened that day.

By the 2nd day we were just sick of the noise of Khao San Road, so we just chilled out all morning until we checked out and went to see Grand Palace, but we missed out on seeing it by 10 minutes as the King had some Coronation thing that day, so we went to Wat Pho and Alan was pretty amazed by the temple complex. Grant was bored as he had seen it before. Then we just had to kill time before our bus and pack our new suits away. Now Grant looks like he has way too much luggage for a backpacker....

So we arrived in Koh Pha Ngan after a very long bus and boat journey, we decided to stay on the area away from all of the partying which was great. We went snorkelling, sat and read books, ate, had naps, and that was about it for 2 days. Brilliant!

Then it was off to Ko Tao, the boat ride was about 90 minutes which was just long enough to get a bit of an addition to the tan! We arrived there and sorted out our open water dive course, and we got free accommodation if we do the course. Diving is one of the coolest things we've done, and the water is pretty warm which made it pretty easy. Not getting eaten by a shark or attacked by a trigger fish made it much better!

Alan diving

Grant in Diving Gear

Ko Tao was a pretty cool town, very much set up for tourism. Plenty of bars on the beach and parties. On the 1st night we went to Thai Kickboxing with 7 fights. Saw a couple fo guys get knocked out by elbows to the temple. It's pretty crazy and I wouldn't go near it!

Next was Koh Phangan... party central! We stayed there for 7 nights and partied a lot as we picked Coral Resort which had a bunch of crazy (but cool) people staying there. The first few nights were just about meeting new people that were staying there. We've made friends from all sides of the globe and partied with them all. There was basically a party on the beach every night that went to about 5am, and there were always people keen to head out all night.

On the 15th there was a pool party at the resort, we both agreed it was one of the best parties we have ever been to. It started off with drunken Jack from Holland putting on a performance that only he could, swinging from table to table and shouting whatever came to his head... Then it was time to get in the pool before it became horribly polluted, then everyone started arriving from over the island so we went and partied. Great fun!

The next night was the Black Moon Party, Alan wasn't too keen after the pool party, but Grant went... It was actually pretty lame, really psychadelic trance with everyone seemlingly off their heads on drugs and not in any mood to be social. Not my idea of a good time at all!

The last night was a really fun night out, our group of new found friends just hanging out at Coral all night as most of us were leaving the next day. Grant had fun throwing ice whenever Richard and Mel started sucking face as we were sick of them doing it all day!

Grant and some of our Coral Friends

Then for other reasons which Alan will specify in his blogs, we had to split ways... Alan back to Bangkok, and Grant to Krabi. We will update you on these antics later

Ka kite
Grant & Alan

Ok so now I'm on a decent keyboard I'll keep you up to date on what we got up to in the 2nd half of our Laos Soiree...

So we left Vang Vieng for Louang Prabang, we were told not to take the bus so we got a minivan, except they put too many of us in the 1st one, and only 3 people in the 2nd one. Luckily half way we got in the 2nd one so it was much more comfortable! All was going well until the storm arrived, We even got hail the size of golf balls!!! It was pretty cool, although the Irish girl we were with got a bit scared...

But we arrived in Louang Prabang, they have an excellent night market so we checked that out for a while. We had an early night, about time for Alan! The next day we looked around the old city, it's a world heritage site as it has so many buddhist temples mixed with old building with french architecture. It's quite a peaceful town and it was nice to walk around. We had a look in the museum of the royal family then walked up a big hill in the middle of the town to get a good view, it wasn't that great though, too many trees in the way. We had a late night at the bowling alley (it's the latest place for all the cool kids to hang out) that night after meeting a few people at the pub.
The next day we went out to a waterfall, it was quite beautiful, and peaceful as well. We had a swim, but it was pretty darn cold! We got back to town and just chilled out for a while, Grant had a really bad lunch so wasn't feeling the best. Never get buffalo stew!

So next it was up to Luang Namtha, it took us 9 hours to get there, it's only 300 kms away but the road is pretty attrocious at points. It was better than the 11 hours on the local bus anyway!

We got to Luang Namtha and organised our trek for the next day. And that night at the restaurant at our guest house we met a few people keen to do the same one, which made the next few days so much fun!

So up in the morning to do our trek, there were 7 of us (2 Poms, a German couple, and the obligatory Aussie). We did about 4 hours trekking the 1st day, then we arrived at a village and had a good rest and a swim in the river and a walk around the village.

The trekking crew by the river

The buffalo that was lazing by our hut

That night we had the most amazing dinner. We all get to eat with our hands which we both loved, and the food is all organic and so tasty! We had the chief of the village join us and we got to ask questions about the village which just made our lives seem so ridiculously and unnecessarily complicated. He was really nice and seemed to enjoy having the tourists visit. Oh and best of all, he's the chief by a vote! A mini democratic society!
We went off to bed early that night, not much to do with no electricity and just candles for company.

Up early in the morning, we had breakfast and started on our merry way at around 9:15. Today was the tough day as there were loads of leeches and the guide almost stepped on a few snakes... Alan was right behind him and was given quite the fright when Ket the guide jumped a few feet in the air! Leeches were just a nuisance, although we didn't get any on our skin, just socks and shoes.
We stopped at another village, was still quite nice, had another great lunch eating with our hands, had a rest and on up a steep hill we went. At the top of the hill we were all very sweaty but we walked along a bit and got views like these above the bamboo trees.

So we had a pretty good day, were shattered when we got back but shouted our guides a beerlao for being so awesome, they thought we were pretty awesome too! And beer kept flowing until around 10 when we all went to bed as most of us were up early in the morning for buses.

Ahhh Public buses in Laos... We got to the bus station at 8, the bus left at 9:30 when it was full (which includes sacks of rice on the floor) and 5 hours later we arrived at the Thai border. The Border is on the Mekong river so we had to cross that to get to Thailand. We got to the other side to find that we had a 2 1/2 hour wait for the minibus to take us to Chiang Mai, so we ate and drank and had a laugh with the lady at the restaurant who admitted that she loved money and wanted us to spent as much as we could there. And we finally arrived in Chiang Mai at 11PM. Quite a long day! So we wandered around the night market which is open until 1AM. But we were in bed at midnight...

So now you're all up to date. Next stop Bangkok, and then to the islands in the sun! Can't wait!