Bangkok

Took a flight from Krabi to Bangkok. It takes 10 hours by coach, and 1 hour by plane. The cost difference is about £20. The coaches in Thailand are not comfortable, or about as comfortable as aircraft seats!!

In Bangkok caught a local bus from the airport to the nearest 'sky train' station, and on into the city proper. Bangkok has a good, integrated transport system. The above city sky train, the underground, buses, and of course the river boats. 

Looking at the map we thought the distance from the nearest station to where we were staying would take about 30 minutes to walk. Not so, it took us almost 2 hours!! A distance of several miles. (The map was not to scale, just pretended to be) Still, it gave us an appetite, lol. Why didn't we get a taxi or tuk tuk you may ask. Well, it was rush hour and we were walking quicker than the traffic. Besides, Yvonne insisted that Mike needed the exercise. 

Got to our 'home stay', and very nice too. Run by nice people, comfortable, good breakfast, and just up from pier 15 (Thewet), so can catch a boat ride easily to the markets etc. Cost is 15 baht (30p) no matter how far you go. Ticket lasts until you get off the boat. 

There are literally thousands of catfish that come to be fed at the pier. You buy left over bread or fish pellets, a big bag for 20 baht, and then watch as the river at the end of the pier boils with fish in a feeding frenzy. People don't eat the fish from their own pier, but will eat fish caught from a different one. 

Went to an illusionist gallery, see what you think of the pictures.... Got there by using the underground. When we got to the street level it was throwing it down. A real tropical storm!

Had another of the those strange night calls of 'fuk ewe'.. Turns out to be a thing that looks like a squirrel and not a bird after all. 

This is our last night in Thailand. Tomorrow we return to Birmingham, via Heathrow. 

Impression of South Thailand is one of overall disappointment. They seem intent on over milking the money cow; killing the goose that laid the golden egg. Moving away from the land of smiles, towards the land of rubbing hands together, but to be fair, it is the 'high' season, and so much more expensive. 

Enjoyed the North of Thailand much more...

One thing for sure, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia are all up and coming, Thailand had better watch out!!

Leave you with some photos. Yvonne shopping; on Time Magazine; yoga practice; the path and road after storm; feeding catfish; boat engine. 

Ao Nang

About 23 km from Krabi along the coast is the seaside resort of Ao Nang. Stayed 3 nights. First night at a place called 'Green Leaf', quite nice and tidy at £16 a night. 

None of the staff speak English, so used pictures, sign language and expressions. Seemed to work well, (not sure why we ended up with a dustpan and brush) and amused the staff. 

Place was well worth the money. However, it was about 1.3 miles from the beach. Downhill one way, up hill the other!! Even though the transport up and down is relatively cheap, 40 pence each one way, it soon mounts up.

Decided we needed a bit of luxury, so moved to a hotel with a swimming pool, £50 a night with a breakfast, soft bed, air con, big room with a balcony, 3 minutes from the beach. 

Every time we walk to the beach we pass a massage parlour, outside is this diminutive young lady boy, (well okay, middle aged lady man) who has taken to tapping Mike on the shoulder and utter in a deep baritone 'want massage, special price'. Mike always politely declines. A bit further on the same thing happens at a different parlour. Except this lady boy has a five o'clock shadow, and an anchor tattoo with 'mum' printed under it!! Strangely, the request is repeated every time we pass!! Yvonne thinks it's hilarious, she knows Mike hates being massaged, and would rather have teeth pulled...

Place is okay, but wouldn't come back....

Leave you with some photos. Dave's place in Ko Lanta; some days are a bit lumpy in Thailand?? The beach at Ao Nang; long boat. 

Phi Phi

Enjoyed Ko Lanta. Good beach, accommodation was okay. In a good location.
The last few nights a bird of unknown species has woken us up with it's raspy call which sounds like "fuk ewe, fuk ewe". Every time we investigate it shuts up, lol.

Off to Phi Phi for a couple of days hard partying. Mike says okay, as long as we are in bed by 10 pm....

Arrived in Phi Phi after an hour on the ferry. All white devils have to pay 20 baht 'rubbish' tax to enter the island. 
Doesn't seem to have worked very well... Unless the tax is there to put out more rubbish.

After the tsunami in 2004 the Thai's had a chance to rebuild with a bit of sympathy and style, however it turned out 'same same but different'. The difference was that it became four times as big, and 10 times more commercialised. Very crowded, very loud, very over developed. 
So infrastructure not quite up to it, smell of drains/sewers quite noticeable in places. Reminded us of India.

One positive thing is no cars and motor bikes, (except official ones, e.g police bikes, dumper trucks and bulldozers). 
Had one night to indulge the party scene. Didn't go for the buckets, (think sand castle building bucket's). These are filled with very cheap rum, vodka, brandy along with a couple of mixers, and a straw. Some people drank theirs too quickly, and are soon out of it. Littering the beach, draped over low hanging branches, sleeping it off in the bottom of monsoon drains!!  Buckets of spew here and there. 
We did have a couple of shorts and beers, but were in bed by 1.30 am. 
Its a mad place at night, and like a ghost town in the morning. 
However, both thought one night was enough. Leave it to the youngsters...
So, caught the boat to Krabi, and then Ao Nang for 3 nights, before we catch the plane to Bangkok.

Just a quick aside...if possible avoid having Americans as neighbours, or standing near them in queue's. If on a bus, then catch the next one!! They do not talk so much as broadcast. One gentleman was explaining how he suffered terribly from asthma/shortness of breath. 
Not sure if he was talking to/at one person, or the whole damn queue!!
We thought he might be exaggerating as he talked, loudly, for 2 minutes without a breath, (might have been an advanced breathing technique) and non stop for 25 minutes. This was in a queue, no escape. 
Another was in a room next to ours. Male, very loud voice. Talked/shouted for 2 hours, non stop. We knew he had a partner in the room, but only heard the occasional grunt from her. Could have been worse. He might have been on his own. Or she might have been gagged..
Just our luck, sleeping in the room next to a serial killer!!
Had to ask him to lower his voice. Worked for a while, but was soon back to a loud, nasal, drone. At least he wasn't sharpening his knife...
One, who actually stuck up a conversation with a two way flow, admitted that Europeans seem to find the Americans irritating. We whispered they must find many Europeans to be quiet and reserved...
Find them nice enough people, just very loud.

Leave you with some photographs. Long boat; Party night; cleaning up bodies and buckets; getting ready for another fun night; sunset.

4 Islands

Went on a snorkeling trip, taking us to 4 different islands. Traveled in a 'long tailed' boat. Called this because a long prop shaft with a propeller at one end, and a car engine at the other, sticks out of the rear of the boat. The whole thing swivels to steer the boat. 

Off we set, 14 of us, some Australians, Germans, French, us Brits, and,of course, 4 Danes. 

The Danes massed at the front of the boat, wanting to be first off to pillage and stuff. Then mid way between Islands our boat breaks down. Unfortunately we have the only boat fitted with a Rover engine. Have to accept a tow from a passing craft with a Nisan one, lol. Drops us of at a beach where we wait 30 minutes for a replacement. The captain having phoned while bring towed! Can't swim cos thousands of jellyfish have invaded...

Get to Koh Chuck and have fun diving with thousands of different fish. 

Then onto the Emerald Cave at Koh Moon. Have to swim into this cave into the interior of the Island. Its like entering a lost land. The cave is the only way in, well apart from abseiling, or a helicopter, or parachute. Pirates used to use it to keep their loot safe. Half expected the Danes to bring shovels. 

Then to a small island for more snorkeling. 

Stopped for lunch at another island. Yvonne spotted a bird with a long beak, a Hornbill we think. Danes got their shotguns out, oops, ment cameras, and shot away.

So because of the breakdown we stopped at five islands. To be fair, the first and the last island were the same, but still....

The Danes turned out to be very nice and a bit of a laugh. On the way back the sea was quite choppy, and they, having stuck to the bow of the boat kept quite dry, while everyone else got most of the spray and water, and knowing grins from the Danes. Know their boats do the Danes, lol.

It took about 40 minutes to get back. Lots of people were looking decidedly green. 

Leave you with some pictures; our boat getting a tow; fish; snorkeling; only access is via the cave/tunnel; hornbill. 

Ko Lanta part 2

On 'Long Beach'. Reclined on a platform, with cushions, in the shade, having cold drinks. It's 1.30 pm, and about 35°C in the sun. The sea stays a constant 26°C throughout the year, so a tad chilly... In other words perfect for a swim!

Yvonne is drinking watermelon shake, Mike a chilled beer.
This part of the beach is very quiet, its more or less in the middle of what is a long beach. Most of the resorts tend to be at either end.

Still at 'Wonderful Resort'. They cut our cost from £20 (agoda) a night to £14 with breakfast, then to a superior air conditioned room at £16.

Had a walk north, beyond Long Beach to see Khlond Dao Beach. This is much smaller and more packed. The beach is not as clean, seems that oil gets washed up from the fishing boat area. You can see black deposits in the sand!! 
Total hike of around 10 km.
Decided to stay where we are...

There are a number of Dane's here, and while we have not met many  of them on holiday before, quite a few seem to package all that is negative of the European abroad; arrogant; rude; sour faced and ignorant. Appear to be self centred to the point of pathology, must be the heat lol.
It is also surprising that many have tattoos. Not subtle ones but great black ones of spikes, curls and whorls, or hats with horns on. The occasional long boat, or Nordic scary person with long hair and sharp teeth tattooed on swollen biceps/back of the neck!!
We think they are some kind of raiding party that have lost their way. Perhaps mistaking long beach for long boat!!
Perhaps they are from a chapter of the Danish hells angels. See if we can get a photograph of them massing on their Honda 50's and 90's. Oh well...

We are sure if we say 'good morning/afternoon/evening enough times one of them is bound to reply in the proscribed manner. We refuse to believe this lot is representative of the Danish people.

Tomorrow we go snorkelling to four islands, on a long tail boat. The ones with a car engine mounted on a beam with a propeller on the end. No gears, just a throttle, lol.

Leave you with some pictures; Yvonne cooling off; and relaxing; Mike relaxing; sunset and our beach bar.

Ko Lanta

Caught a ferry to Phi Phi, and then another to Kho Lanta. Although a longer trip its a lot cheaper than going direct. Temperature is in the 30°C range, but with a nice sea breeze. 

Its the high season until the end of April, so prices are higher, still, managed to find a place between the more popular locations, a sort of no man's land, left alone by the party elements. We can access them with a few hundreds of metres walk. (Don't think they can stagger that far). Means we have a quiet night, and an isolated beach area. Marvellous.

Place we are staying is called 'Wonderful Resort'. It's okay, breakfast, room with a fan, bathroom, and an area to sit outside. £14 a night, a bargain for this time of year!!

A bit dated and in need of some TLC, paint, clean blanket, and some basic 'snag' work, e.g fix toilet seat, empty fridge from last occupants stuff, white and not grey towels, overhaul of the fan, (clicks, rattles, makes strange noises), but still.... On looking else where discovered we had in fact a bargain. 

Have our own clean sheets/liners, sorted fridge, reduced some of the fan noise, changed towles. Sorted.....

Buy a lot of our stuff (beer, crisps, biscuits, odds and ends) from the local 7, 11 shops. For the cost of two beers at a bar we can buy a stack of stuff, plus two beers, and still have change. 

There are a number of very good eating establishments. Good meal + drinks, around £8 - 9, for two. Find that breakfast and dinner is sufficient food in this climate. Just how many calories can you burn sunbathing, lol. 

Leave you with some photos. Yvonne asleep on the ferry; awake on the ferry; Wonderful Resort; our bit of beach; having a cool drink.

Phuket. Patong

Pleasant little journey. Caught a plane from Saigon to Bangkok. Had a few hours stopover in Bangkok. Then hopped on a local flight to Phuket, then caught a local minibus to Patong. Started at 9 am, arrived at our hotel 8.30 pm. A place called 'BT Inn'. Nice little room for £15.

They do seem to have some (almost) unfortunate names for places e.g Phuket, Urin beach....

Patong is only for a couple of nights until we catch the ferry to Ko lanta, our island of choice for a week or so, (see how it pans out).
Patong is okay if you like Blackpool, Hastings or Poole. Brash, loud, a tacky party place. Lots of bars, women who promise you a good time, clubs and disco's.
One photograph sums it up, and all its promises comes out of one greasy, snake oil, bottle.

Perhaps I'm being a little hard on the place.... Let me consider... Ermm NOT!!!
Hardly a family location, or indeed where you might take your pet dog/cat/goldfish....
Having said that it does look better in the daylight. The beach is clean, and the sea inviting.
Wouldn't miss it for the world.

It is the right place to be to arrange our ferry, and it is fun to people watch.

Very sophisticated at parting the tourist from his/her baht Just get the hook in "do you speak English?", and before you know it you have agreed to a 100 year time share at a very reasonable £10 a week, 10% of the total as down payment... lol.
Both Mike and Yvonne adopt the 'we don't understand anything you are saying' look, or even better the 'you can't be talking to us' look. Just smile and say nein!!

We did take a couple of photographs, one of our hotel, and one tourist attraction.

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

Took a sleeper coach from Dalat to Saigon city. Leaving at midnight. Surprised at how comfortable it was. We were the only westerners on it. Perhaps they have coaches exclusively for tall tourists which have the shortest bunks. The beds on our second coach were much longer, and more comfortable. Could have got a whole family of stick insects on one bunk with room to spare.

We were told that the journey would take about 8 hours. So went to sleep....
Woken by the conductor at 5 am and told we had arrived.
In Vietnam 8 hours can mean 5 to 11 hours. Its just nice to take the mean, but a bit of a disaster for planning.

So found a café, it was closed but had seats outside, and watched the dawn break, and the rats scurrying home before full light. You would have thought they would be used to the traffic, at least one was most definitely not!!  More on the traffic later.

Staying at Ms Yang's. Good location for walking to many of the museum's and other places of interest.

Couldn't have our room until 12, so dumped our sacks and went to The War Museum. Lots of stuff about the war, as you would expect. Not just the USA, but also the Indochina war against the French. In fact, basically, the whole conflict was a seamless blend from the French colonial endeavour to the 'National' interests of the USA.

Ms Yang recommended a vegetarian eating place which turned out to be a little cubbyhole with seats/tables outside, and we had a very good vegetable 'Pho', a kind of spicy noodle soup with veg, onion, and tofu. It was very good and at £1.50 for us both, a bargain.

Went to the DMZ, the demilitarised zone, to see the infamous (Cu Chi) tunnels. Out of the whole bus of about 50 people on our tour only 3 went down one of the original tunnels, guess who 2 of them were?!

You have to crawl, Yvonne frightened a bat that was trying to sleep, lol. Tunnel was about 200 metres to the next exit/entrance. It was very dark, so Mike had a little snooze!!

There is a firing range, where you can buy bullets to fire one of the type of guns used in the war, American carbine, AK type assault weapon, etc.
We didn't, but quite a few did... Mostly the Americans, lol.

Traffic is amazing, thousands of mopeds, scooters and motorbikes, and of course buses, trucks, cars and vans. Many streets are one way, if you are on a moped etc, no problem if you want to go the other way. Simply ride on the pavement and use your horn a lot as you weave through the pedestrians...

So perhaps you want to cross the road. Easy, find a zebra crossing, step on it and play chicken because nothing will stop to let you across. Just keep watch, keep walking and rely on the vehicles to dodge. It can be quite intimidating at first. Hanoi was bad enough, but Saigon takes it to another level. Shaking your folded umbrella at them has minimal effect!!

Yvonne is collecting photos of exotically loaded mopeds/motorbikes. Got one with bags and bags of goldfish on the end of poles; a mattress upright on a moped; a double bed; one laden with more bags than you could shake a stick at. And more beside.
May post a few later.

Leave Vietnam tomorrow as our visa will soon run out. Moving to Thailand. Couple of weeks island hopping.

Must say we have really enjoyed Vietnam, the people are delightful, the countryside stunning. If you get the chance to visit we are sure you will not regret it. 

Leave you with some photos. Yvonne going down first tunnel; As is Mike; Yvonne in second tunnel (much bigger than the first one, here you are able to squat, and walk like a duck); Watching the traffic; Moped transporting a bed; Fancy a crisp?

Da Lat part two

Decided on a relaxed day, arranged a mini bus tour to see some sights. Part of a group, 8 others.
First stop flower farms. Various flowers are grown the year round under polyurethane green houses and sold all over Vietnam. All very exciting....

Went to a cricket farm. No, not the place where they grow Gooch'es and Gatting's, rather Jiminy (out of Pinocchio), and very tasty too, with a bit of chilly sauce!!

Then to a silk worm farm/factory, where they boil the cocoon with the live caterpillar inside, to soften the silk surrounding the cocoon, before pulling the fibres off. Tens of thousands of cocoons to make a nice silk hankie to blow your nose on. Just saying!!

Finished the morning by visiting the famous ' Elephant Falls'. Lots of lovely slippery steps to climb. Oh joy, exclaimed Mike... Oh and a quick dash to a Pagoda with a laughing Buddha. Then lunch.

The trip continued with a visit to a coffee plantation, where they specialise in producing ' Weasel Coffee'. This is the most expensive coffee in the world. The beans are eaten by the Asian Palm Civet. Passes through the digestive tract, defecated and collected.
Traditionally this has been done by collecting the faeces of wild civets, but now done in an intensive way, which is how it was at this farm.
The animals are kept in shocking conditions and force fed beans. Needless to say there were very few taker's for Weasel Coffee.
If you don't believe an animal can be depressed, then a visit to this place may change your mind!!

Final two places were a visit to the crazy house. A kind of fantasy construction based on trees. Finished off with a visit to an old French colonial railway station, which used to connect Dalat with Saigon, but no longer...And that was our day.
Oh yes, went on the lake in a swan boat.

We decided to catch a bus to Saigon at midnight, rather than wait until the next morning. Our sleep was being interrupted by a couple of young Americans who had voices like fog horns and didn't know how to keep their noise level to reasonable volumes past midnight, or indeed could not close doors without slamming. After a couple of requests to keep the noise down being ignored, Yvonne lost it a bit hammered on their door and gave them a piece of her mind. Thankfully, they then settled..

Leave you with some pictures. Mike with non weasel coffee; The happy Buddha; Yvonne at Elephant Falls; Yvonne with a tasty cricket; Flowers; Yvonne in swan boat. 

Da Lat

Got dropped off in the centre of town after a 4 hour bus journey.  Found our hotel on a map, and after a 10 minute walk arrived.
'Ken's House, Backpack Hotel'. £8 a night with breakfast. Okay its only an omelette and bread, or bread and jam, coffee or tea, but it starts the day..

Nice, clean room with toilet and shower. Has its own balcony. Quite a few stairs to climb, so Mike was more than happy.

First thing we noticed was the drop in temperature, from 30°C to around 26. In the evening it actually drops as low as 17. So don't need air con at all.

There is a lot of produce grown in the area, from strawberries to potatoes to artichokes to coffee. It is also known as the flower garden of Vietnam.
The temperature is quite mild all the year round. It is a favourite destination for many Vietnamese. Consequently there are many hotels and guesthouses. A large market where you can buy many interesting things, eg a grain of rice with your name printed on. Beats a bullet any day!!

Because it is in the highlands there are many canyons and rivers. Lots of sports to be had. There is rock climbing, kayaking, mountain biking, and this activity called canyoning

Yvonne and Mike hadn't done canyoning before, so they signed up.....
It involves making progress along a canyon by abseiling, water sliding, jumping from ledges into the river, scrambling and swimming. Look it up, google dalat canyoning. Were part of a group of 12, Yvonne and mike were the wrinklies by 3 - 4 decades, well perhaps Mike was more of a wrinklie than Yvonne. The instructor gave us the nickname "mama and papa", and soon that's what everyone was calling us, lol.

Dalat is defiantly a place to visit if you come to Vietnam. Off on another trip tomorrow.

Leave you with some photos. What you get for £8 a night; Our room is the second balcony up; The Crazy House of Dalat; Yvonne abseiling down a 25 metre waterfall; 15 feet from the bottom the rope runs out and Yvonne has to throw herself out and let go; so does Mike.