'All aboard the Chang Train'

'Chang Mai' - 11/07/2013 - 17/07/2013

The bus to Chang Mai wasn't the greatest. The leather sleeper seats were knackered and mine just squeaked for 12 hours straight, this meant no sleeping happened. We arrived in Chang Mai just outside of the city and managed to get a free lift in to the center after promising a Thai guy we would stay in his hostel. It was a dive so we decided to go and check out Dee Jai's which was meant to have a really good backpacker vibe.

We settled in here nicely and spent the day exploring the city and markets with a few pub stops along the way. The city is surrounded by mountains and a beautiful temple which you can see from our room is high up in the clouds, for the first time in Thailand i feel like we have found a bit of culture.

We were a bit tipsy by the afternoon but had successfully booked ourselves in to a cookery class the following day on an organic farm, I was overly excited about this as was Olly. We miss cooking so much.

In the morning we met at a market and were shown all the various types of rice, herbs spices etc, we didn't buy any here as we were going to use all the ingredients fresh from the organic garden which was a 40minute drive into the countryside. 

When we got there our teacher called 'Gay' showed us around the garden it was so well maintained and full of all sorts of goodies. I decided there and then I want to have a little patch of land with fresh veg and fruit growing in it when I'm older :) She had 3 different types of basil, sweet, hot and lemon - they tasted AMMMAZING.

Eating the yummy lemon Basil... With my authentic cone hat :)

Believe it or not this fruit is actually related to the cucumber, although I forget the name ... oops!

We spent the day cooking all sorts from appetizers to curry's which we made fresh pastes for. It was really good to have a knife back in our hands and to learn how to cook authentic Thai food (It's impossible in the UK due to certain ingredients which you just can't get) Olly made his curry so hot Gay couldn't even handle it, personally i thought it was spot on. 

This is me making the filling for spring rolls!!

  Below is a red curry paste, green curry paste, massaman, and penang. If you want the recipes I can give them to you, so worthwhile, most flavoursome curry's in the world!!!!!

We wen't out in the evening with a group of people we'd met in the hostel, but the following day we had the famous 'Flight of the gibbon'. 15 Ziplines carry you through the jungle, comprising of the longest one in the world at about 850m, 2 abseiling drops and a no-handed zipline. This was so scary..  they basically hook you onto the line from behind and you have to jump off the edge of the platform, you can't hold on and you can't see how your attached. I have a good video of me freaking out before hand, sweaty palms and all!!!

The infamous Gibbon himself!!

Our group from the day!

Below is the platform that you abseil from, I'd never abseiled before it was really good fun :)

Olly spotted this on the way back, it made us laugh...

 The following day we were due to start our 3 day trekking into the jungle, we met with 2 Germans who became really good company and a group of 7 French teachers.
The first thing we did was elephant trekking, I was really excited about this but it turned out to be a bit upsetting as they bash the elephants with sticks and you ride them sat on a cage, I felt sad about the mistreatment of the elephants but we had a big bag of sugar cane and we kept feeding them, which I think made them a little happier!!

We found this little cheeky monkey, he loved my necklace and squealed when i tried to take it off him.

QUICK, take the sugar cane!!!!!

We trekked for 3 hours into the jungle, our tour guide made us all walking sticks with his machette, we saw some strange bugs, beautiful plants and mind blowing views across the mountains and jungle. I have never sweated so much in my life, I didn't know it was possible ....

We visited a bat cave too, not much to write home about.. it smelt funky..?

This tree is so beautiful, they call it the tree of love, all its leaves are heart shaped and all turn pink eventually. Awwwww

HOT ASS CHILLIS!!!

Found this furry fella too... 

 When we finally arrived at our cabins for the night we had a beautiful view and the sunset was lush. They cooked us some amazing food and we played games all night before going to bed where we found Mr toad hiding under our mattress.

The next day we woke up early and had breakfast, we hiked for another 2 hours to a waterfall where there was a 10m jump into a pool below, it was a bit scary as you had to clear the rocks below. It took me 20mintes to pluck up the courage and then i went for it. I paved the way for some of the other girls in the group to have a go, there was also a slide carved naturally out of the rock from the water, you sit on your bum and down you go, weeeeeeee. I don't really have any good photo's of this but some brilliant videos.

After this we trekked for another hour, it was much easier than the day before! We got to our hut in the woods, pigs were sleeping underneath and chicken and dogs ran around everywhere. We had a nice selection of warm beers, so we made a camp fire and sat up chatting and playing games. We drank all the beer I think our tour guide was annoyed he didn't have more. I don't think he is used to hiking with such alchies haha.

The following day we hiked for another hour, it absolutely pissed it down and we had to hide under a tree for a while, although the path started to turn into a river so we decided to move on before we were washed away!! 

This is a view of the waterfall we'd been jumping in the day before from above!

A friendly Gecko K had just grabbed out of a tree, as you do!

In the afternoon we went bamboo rafting down the river, it was a really relaxing way to finish off the 3 days trekking. Brilliant!

Chang Mai was brilliant, onto the tiny hippy town further north of Thailand that is Pai.

'Bang on'

Bangkok 07/07/13 - 10/07/13

I've met so many travelers who hated Bangkok with a passion, I think had we have not been to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh city it would of been the same for us, but the city was a little pussy cat compared to the tiger that is Vietnam's crazy metropolis.

Our hostel was so outdated it was comical i think the owners were stuck in the 40's. Apart from that it was busy but the strange smells and sights made it really fun, just wandering about was an experience in itself.

We got scammed with the tuk tuk's but who doesn't, we didn't end up paying much more they just drive you around to jewelry and suit shops trying to get you to buy stuff you don't need. We visited a cool temple which had amazing views of the city and then wen't to Koa San Road where we met Michelle and Kate. In the evening we went to a ping pong show, erm... you have to see it too believe it!

The next day we went to the Grand Palace, so over the top! Gold everywhere. I am suddenly aware as well that temples are going to look really shit after having visited this one! (Until Angkor Wat) The amount of intricate details in gold, glass and stone were incredible, you can't even begin to imagine how long and time consuming it was to build this palace, just because the king decided he wanted a new palace on the other side of the water... what the hell?

For the rest of the day we took a Tuk Tuk around china town, it wasn't great. We were so hungry and in search of food but every restaurant sold shark fin soup and other weird things, I am totally against shark fin soup and refuse to go into any restaurant serving it, the process that they use to get the fins is so inhumane and as scary as sharks are their endangered too. We wandered around the markets which sold anything from tennis raquettes to dildo's it was overwhelming as the chinese eat anything, the smells can be so aromatic or literally make you gag.

It started to rain so we headed back to the old town and booked a bus to north Thailand, Chang Mai here we come.

'Two Phi's in a pod'

Koh Phi Phi 02/07/13 - 05/07/13

I'll never forget the boat ride here, it was ROUGH. Only lasted for an hour and a half but everyone except Olly and I were throwing up around us, it got a bit stinky. It was the huge swells that made the journey so rough, at points I would look out of the window and just see water and then when we were at the top of a swell it was as if we were flying, all I could see out of the window was sky. That's when your belly went doing somersaults, water started pouring in the bow of the boat and I wondered at what point they would decided that it's too rough to carry on... I don't think they would, it is Thailand after all!

After chucking our stuff down in the room we decided to go for a wander, we ended up getting stuck in the Irish bar for a good 2/3 hours as the heavens opened. By the time we got to leave the streets were flowing rivers, Phi Phi is quite a sweet little place really, the narrow streets are home to vast arrays of shops, bars and restaurants. At points I forgot that I was actually on a tiny island, most of the island has been repaired since the 2004 tsunami although you can still see remnants of the disaster in back streets that head away from the main hub. Considering how badly the island copes when it rains heavily I cant imagine the state it was in directly after the tsunami hit.

Later that evening we went to go and see and old friend who we hadn't seen for 9 years, he lives and works in Phi Phi, it was really nice to catch up after so long!

The following day it rained hard ALL day, so it was impossible for us to really do anything productive. We ventured out a few times to get some food and then hid away in our room. We managed to find a Greek restaurant that served pitta bread and hummus, AMAZING. Olly and I used to eat hummus all the time at home, we even had hummus Tuesday where all our friends would come around with bread, dip and beer! It was good to have it again! (Although the hummus we make is obviously better ;)

Feeling rather optimistic we booked a tour for the next day to go to Maya Bay where the beach was filmed, to do some snorkeling and visit a few other beaches/caves. There was a high chance the trip could be cancelled because of the weather but we had to book something otherwise we had done nothing and seen so little of this beautiful island and it's surroundings. That night there was an almighty thunderstorm...

BUT... It meant that the next day although still grey and miserable and raining slightly the conditions were good enough for us to go exploring!

We took a long tail boat with only 4 other people to a tiny rough little cove where we were instructed to battle the huge waves and wrestle our way up an assault course of sharp rocks and dodgy ropes! It was mad, quite dangerous really but I'm a strong swimmer so it just added to to the adventure and excitement.

I didn't think I'd be as excited as I was about visiting a location that was famous for being in a film but the sheer beauty of Maya bay was overwhelming and I started giggling thinking I might be stood where Leonardo Dicaprio had been... Mmmm

When we got to 'The beach' a storm came in really hard (This is why these are all the photos we have of it), and instead of the crowds of people that are usually in this tourist hot spot there were only the 6 of us. It was amazing, we all just floated in the turquoise lagoon as the rain pelted against our faces. It was more beautiful and memorable than it would have been had it been a hot sunny day I think.

On the way back we went snorkelling and the boat driver took us too a secret little lagoon where we swam about for a bit, this was easily one of the most amazing places in the world with the towering limestone cliffs all around us. The water went from a beautiful baby blue to a dark green as the sand dropped off into the depths of the ocean.

It was an amazing day and I couldn't stop laughing on the boat ride back as waves came up and slapped people with force in the face. I was drenched from head to foot and freezing cold but I really couldn't of cared less.

Next stop, Krabi (Again) on our way to Bangkok. I was ready for the capital, bring on the chaos!