back to the brummie flat

This is my little interlude from all the travelling talk....

Halloween weekend

The basics:

1. New fish: Barnabus the big polka dot fish (Captain Pugwash's first mate), Rafiki our little white fish with a red bum tail, Rocky the slow moving sharky fish and Meatloaf the fatty.
2. Freckles are fading already so I had to document it when I am slightly tanned
3. A Halloween get together including fake blood all over my bathroom floor and a livingroom that smells like cooked breakfast and left over beer.
4. My first pumpkin I have ever carved which I am awfully proud of **
5. Back to British food of steak pie/pizza/chips/apples/cheese
6. Josh is back to gardening
7. Speaking to the lovely friends for hours on the phone and watching gremlins with them whilst in pjs and having bed hair.
8. MY NEW LAPTOP ARRIVING TODAY
9. Lie-ins in my double bed-messy bedroom-flat knowing there isn't a check out time or a shower with cold water and a toilet that is a squat... and this is made better when I wake up next to him. nawwww. Even though at the weekend I was even luckier and woke up next to two hotties (ha ha... one had breasts)
10. Bath time with rubber ducks and pirate ships

So its good to be home... even if all I want to do is go travelling again!

** When I was younger my family did not do anything for Halloween but I just like it because we get to eat chocolate out of a pumpkin, I get an excuse to dress up and it makes me laugh when I see people's costumes and everyone being freaky-looking for just one night. After all, this is my favourite song of Halloween and its TERRIBLE! ha ha.

Day 9: the waterfall trek

Day 9 (part 2)

Mud, bare feet, tiger talk and sunshine

After the elephants we were whisked away for some lunch at a local Thai cafe, the best places to eat are ALWAYS full of Thai people, have no English word on the menu and are cooked in front of you.

The waterfalls at Kanchanaburi are known as the Erawan Waterfalls and have seven tiers. The top tier is a LONG trek (about 2km) and each tier has a pool of clear blue water you can swim in. Unfortunately, when we went (as it was the rainy season) there was a lot of mud which meant the water was not as clear as it could have been. However, the sun was shining and due to it also being the low season the waterfalls were not overcrowded with people!

The first four tiers are pretty easy to reach within 20 minutes, although to get to the fourth tier there are some 'park guards' who confiscate any food or drink you have on you, so picnic before this stage of the walk! The fourth tier has rocks that people can slide down, the fifth tier is full of pools to swim in right by the waterfall and the seventh tier, the one right at the very top, is said to look like a three headed elephant called Erawan who is featured in Hindu mythology.

We managed to get to the fifth tier and had a swim, this is also where Josh dropped his tshirt in the mud ha ha. On the bus ride back we must have smelt terrible but we did still manage to make friends, three girls who were studying to be doctors (hello if your reading this) and a woman who worked at the tiger sanctuary. She told us all about the treatment of the animals, which obviously started a wee debate:

The tiger debate. Excuse my ramblings.

Now, Josh and I avoided the tiger kingdom/tiger sanctuary/tiger temple due to the uncertainties surrounding this tourist attraction. The one this lady worked at was called the tiger temple whereby you can go round and have photos with a variety of old and young tigers who are chained up - in order to not cause any harm to the visitors. I cannot really present any accurate facts about the running of the place as I have never been myself but because it seems so unnatural I felt I did not want to support something if I did not know how the animals were treated. There are rumours about them being drugged, put in tiny enclosures, sprayed with water and generally treated badly and this woman we met was able to say that this was not the case - and I did believe her. It turns out there are a lot of rumours that have spread without much evidence, for example she said the tigers only appeared so calm and relaxed due to the time of day when all the tigers are drowsy from nap time... not due to drugs. However, I think that tigers are wild and dangerous animals and it confuses me how they can be so relaxed around people. Maybe its just because I think tigers shouldn't be comfortable around humans, its not natural. If it turns out they have enough space and care then I am not one to turn people off visiting, I mean tigers are BEAUTIFUL, I just think its something I would really have to research before going to. I hope they are treated well, as it seems sad to think that there are more tigers in captivity in America (as pets/in zoos/in circus and entertainment) than in the wild.

ANYWAY...

After a minicab ride back to Bangkok we went out for dinner and drinks with the girls from the bus. This included my meal of Morning Glory - ha ha - which is like spicy green beans complete with chili!! Also, the night escalated when my cocktails were so strong that after a few I was pretty drunk.

The next day was our last in Bangkok.

Day 9: (excuse me whilst I squeal) Elephaaaaants!

Day 9 (part one):

The day spent with ELEPHANTS 

Happiness bottled.

The mini taxi picked us up from our hostel at 6am (complete with wet hair!) and we happily met our mini-bus friends. The rest of the day I spent with elephants! Bathing them, feeding them bananas from our hands, getting kisses, riding on the back of their necks and being squirted in the face by my elephant who really loves bath time!

Before booking this day I had to make sure we were supporting an elephant sanctuary that really cared for the elephants. This one gave the elephants enough room to roam and treated them with the care they need. There is a whole little village around the sanctuary that live and work with the elephants. They thrive off the tourism but give the elephants daily baths and walks through the surrounding jungle. They never use chains and only carried sticks in order to make sure the elephants do not hurt anyone, however a tap with a stick to these huge beauties is like a mini pinch to a human - they can barely feel it at all!

We were lucky enough to be paired with a young male called 'a little shy'. He was really well behaved until he got into the water and trying to roll around and squirt us whenever he could. When in the water we had to wear the life jackets as the river was really fast moving and the elephants love to go completely under. We got given this elephant shampoo to wash them with as elephants are covered in little hairs that tickle bare legs! Also, on the land again he seemed to love bushes and constantly walk into them, hence why in a few of the pictures he seems to be eating long leaves! Our elephant carer found it funny when 'a little shy' decided to snatch the bananas out of our hands and spray us with spit!!!

Later in the day we also got to the see the baby elephants who during the day are kept away from the main center of the sanctuary (although on this day all the villagers seemed a little pre-occupied with one HUGE male elephant so it wasn't very busy all day). There were two little elephants that were let to roam in the small wooden pen and a local man put a flower ring on their heads (we think it was some sort of blessing) which made them look UTTERLY PRETTY ha ha. Except there was definitely one who was a rebellious baby, who kept taking the flower ring off his head and trying to put his trunk in RUDE PLACES! They gave us kisses by sucking really hard on our faces!

We were such suckers for them and bought them lots of bananas. 

Later on in the day we also got to visit a National park with stunning jungle and waterfalls, but I will post that later!

Dear Amie....

I hope you enjoy your present.
I kept my promise to make sure Kuala Lumpur will remember you.

Lots of love from,
Me x

Day 8: the Bangkok weekend market

Day 8:

Puppies, kittens, bunnies, squirrels and squid

Our day back in Bangkok started with a change of hostel, now we were staying in Lumpa House, an amazing hostel just down the road from the Khao San Road with a waterfall in the courtyard and friendly staff! We popped out for a delicious breakfast and then got a tuk tuk to the weekend market.

The weekend market (otherwise known as Chatuchak market or the JJ market) is a bit further out of Bangkok, but you can get a tuk tuk there is about 15 minutes... if you get a crazy driver like ours! We got ours for free again by going to a jewelery shop first, although this was made slightly awkward when the lady showed us loads of rings after Josh joked about wanting a pimp ring for me to kiss. She honestly thought Josh wanted this HUGE diamond one! He also insisted I called him Randy whenever we go into these shops. BRILLIANT. ha ha.

 The market is mental! Its HUGE and you get lost so easily. Clothes everywhere, gadgets everywhere and a lot of crazy food. However, half way through the day I heard this yapping noise and when I followed it, we got to this animal section.

Most people hate you taking photos of the animals, mostly because the animals are not treated as they would be in the UK. For example, the squirrels really made me upset as they were strapped down by the neck so they couldn't move and all of them were dressed up in stupid hats and costumes. However, as this is a completely different culture its hard for me to understand, when this might be a common way of treating your pet in Asia (we did see a woman with a squirrel pet in her handbag). The puppies and kittens meanwhile were seemingly in much better condition. The puppies in particular were in air conditioned containers and were fed and groomed regularly. Therefore the stall owners were happy for me to take pictures... after all... they are SOOOO CUTEEE. I, personally, find it a little odd - in particular all the outfits the pet shops were selling for pets - but at least some of the animals seemed to be treated nicely and after all dogs in handbags happens in America and Britain (although I still think this is wrong too!).

I managed to get at awesome pair of Aladdin trousers (the ideal travelling companion) but when I went to upload the picture my laptop deleted it. (HELP?) But my other achievement of the day was that I tried SQUID. I have such a fear of weird food, but I have to be honest, squid was not too bad. At least Josh didn't make me eat BUGS?! We headed back to the main part of the city when the market made us so hot and sticky... mmmm nice.

The rest of our day was spent organising the next few days travel - which we ended up getting for a BARGAIN - and also as I was feeling particularly rough that day (I think it was either the lack of sleep or food?) we ended up in a little shack stall restaurant which was dirt cheap but served the most amazing food. Then we found another little market stall serving beer in front of a television showing Thai wrestling. Chang beer is surprisingly nice.

We also saw LADYBOYS, which is like a complete shock to the eyeballs. You honestly think they are women until the big feet and heavy makeup gives them away.

 

But we had to go fairly early to bed as we had a 5am wake up call for something UBER EXCITING... all will be revealed. 

Day 6 and 7: more tubing and the RESULTS of two days of tubing

I don't actually have any pictures of the second day of tubing (until I find the photos from other people!), due to my batteries running out in my camera and no plug sockets in the hostel!

Therefore, I thought instead I could show you the aftermath of tubing for two days. Firstly, tubing made me have my first western food since being abroad, a big cheesy burger on the walk home. I kind of blame my hostel friends for that one! ha! Although, honestly that hostel was the most amazing place I stayed. Everyone was so nice and we met the most lovely people: Dan, Aki, Dutch 1,2,3 and 4 and Vic and Felix! Plus all the people we met tubing... weirdly the boys from the sleeper train a few days ago too! Secondly, leaving was pretty tough as you do miss the place (honestly, I wish I had got to see more). Laos was one of those countries that is so relaxed about everything and so BEAUTIFUL.

This was our favourite little place in Laos, the 'Otherside' cafe/bar which had these incredible views and it was our last little slice of Laos before we boarded the bus back to Bangkok.

Now this bit is not pretty:

These are our little injuries (in sepia to make them less gross!!)

Now that's over, sorry!

Leaving Laos also turned into the day of 4 buses. Firstly, a tuk tuk around Vang Vieng which was so small that with all our bags and people on board we could barely fit and 3 guys had to hold on at the back, then we all were transferred to a small minibus that took us down the bumpy roads to Vientiane where we boarded tuk tuk number two to a bus/coach park and finally a coach to Bangkok that took us over the border.

Included in the package was a meal at this crazy little place just outside the border where all the locals were dancing and singing. Also, this was the moment, after knowing I had no Laos kip, I found I had spare baht coins in my purse and was able to afford a coke and water to go with my free meal... which honestly made my night! Also, at the border back into Thailand (considering we had NO Laos kip) we were able to avoid paying the 9,000 kip return fee (equivalent to 70p) because the border lady realised we had no money on us!

The last coach was a bit of a nightmare. We barely got any sleep: partly due to being freezing, the showing of 'Easy A' the film - which is dreadful by the way - and the chairs not going back very far. We arrived in Bangkok at 5am when it was tipping it down in rain! We decided to run to the nearest hostel, ironically called 'the nice hostel' and fell asleep on small blankets (by the way.. I do not recommend this hostel). With about 4 more hours of sleep and realising the bathroom door had graffiti "get out of this hostel" in large letters on the back, we decided to change hostels at 11am!

BACK IN BANGKOK.

  p.s. this is my little secret

Day 5: Laos the land of tubing ruled by pringles

p.s. Pringles is a cat 
 

Tubing is crazy.
(Hi mum, if you are reading this... don't worry... we came back alive with only one broken toe, one bruised bum, swollen finger and scars all over our feet! ha!)

To explain the title a little: from the night before we met Pringles the cat, a little black kitten who lived in the hostel. Pringles is king of all. He caught a rat, massive cricket and many mosquitoes, he was our hero. Also, all the dogs at the hostel had massive nipples! ha ha.

We also met our other lovely hostel friends then set out tubing after a FREE breakfast of fresh cooked scrambled eggs with peppers and tasty baguettes, nom nom nom!

Tubing is basically when you get a rubber ring and you are taken to the top of the river before floating down through the rapids whilst bars on either side try to hook you in with long ropes with plastic bottles on the end that you grab. All the bars are apparently re-built every year due to the change in the flow of the river and also how deep the river is. Also most bars have slides, rope swings, zip wires and bouncy air bed things that you can fly off into the water. This combined with buckets of alcohol, spray paint (that does NOT come off) and a big party on weird little platforms... equals TUBING.

Here it goes: wee boat to the first bar, four of us trying to get to the next bar on the opposite side of the river where I bruise my bum on rocks, Josh broke his toe, dancing and free whiskey, getting spray painted, Vic bit my stomach, laughing when people miss the bar and had to walk back, bouncy air bed jumping, the most lovely Thai woman doing the YMCA... amazing, floating down the river at the end for 40 minutes as it gets dark, the most amazing view of mountains and jungles whilst in a blissful float back, trying to get out of the tube at the split of the river, hurting our feet even more on rocks, running to the tubing man, begging for our deposit back (you need to get the tube back before 6pm), failing and out to Q bar.

And then... we did it again the next day too! HA!

Day 4 (we lost day 3 somewhere): the journey into Laos

Day 4:

The day of transport and Chang beer

From Bangkok we decided to take the sleeper train to the border of Laos. You can travel either first, second (split into two) or third class on this train. The third class is just a bench, second class are either more comfy seats with padding or sleeper beds that are like bunk beds in sets of four and finally first class which is a private little cabin with bunk beds - able to sleep two. Due to us still feeling the jet lag we decided first class was a better option so we could sleep when we fancied it... luxury.

However, this didn't really go to plan!! After stocking up on snacks for the train (including pot noodles, crisps and Chang beer) and also after our wee pub session we started playing a few drinking games. This gradually turned into a drinking game of Uno with the boys in the cabin next to us. That I lost horrifically!!

Josh also tricked me into thinking there was only a squat toilet available on the train, so on a moving train and being pretty unstable I peed in a hole only to find there was a toilet at the other end of the carriage. Thanks.

The wake up call the next morning at 7am by the loud train man who kept shouting about breakfast and the next stop was not very pleasant for my poor Changover. And to make matters worse, the train ended up being 4 hours late, but if you are taking transport anywhere in Asia then you always have to accept there may be an added 2 hours on your journey. We arrived at the Laos border and there is a line of tuk tuk that's greet you. The border at Laos is actually pretty easy compared to some, its simply a matter of queuing for a visa and it was roughly £16 ($25) that you can pay in dollars, Baht or Kip (but the best exchange rate is in dollars) but you will need a passport photo.

At the border we met the lovely Vic and Felix and decided to take a shared taxi together. This is where my tale turns slightly hilarious.

Basically, a checkered shirt man was meant to take us all the way to Vang Vieng and from the look of the mini bus (complete with leather seats, oh the sweaty bums) it looked like a winner. However, twenty minutes later we stopped in the middle of nowhere in order to 'pick someone up' - as claimed by the driver. This was not the case. Without really knowing what was happening we were put on a local bus with lots more people, we tried to protest but being in the middle of nowhere we didn't really have any option.

Then it gets even better.

The road into Vang Vieng is like a dirt track... complete with: cows walking across randomly, the driver stopping to kick the wheels of the van back on, pot holes the size of houses, puddles that actually swallow up the entire van but AMAZING views. So the bumpy ride that looks like it could take 2 hours, took 6! ha! Yet, this would have been quite entertaining except a Thai woman a few seats behind us was not having a nice ride.
Look away now if you have a weak stomach
She started puking about 30 minutes into the journey and did not stop until she was dropped off, this meant about 6 carrier bags of sick were leaking down the van and the smell was HORRIFIC. Also, the bus driver would not let us open the windows in order to keep the air conditioning working.

A pit stop at a road side stall was a breather for us all... until, to make the journey more exciting Felix and Josh were able to barter for 4 beers for the equivalent of £1 and our driver picked up FISH!!!

Fish and sick, nice.

We arrived in Laos in the evening after a little detour by the driver to a creepy looking hostel that we all yelled that we would not stay at! We decided to stay at a hostel called ChampaLao which was right by the river and had an amazing communal area, but it was dark so it was like a mini surprise in the morning when we saw THAT VIEW. It had cold showers and toilets with a flush you have to do manually and beds with mosquito nets, this came in useful as mosquitos LOVE ME. It was perfect.

After a meal at the 'Otherside' - best food ever and a really cool vibe with low down seating and giant pillows- we headed to Q bar for a few BUCKETS.

Thats all for now folks.

Day 1/2: three flights, free drinks, Bangkok and tuk tuk trauma

Day 1:

TRAVEL DAY

Are you ready for this long load of text?

The day of 3 flights: From Birmingham to Dubai, from Dubai to Kuala Lumpur and then a final flight to Bangkok

Our day started with a block of cheese and a pint in the airport, classy travellers that we are. Then we boarded the flight of KINGS... Emirates. On Emirates you can order any food and drink and they don't say no, which means we enjoyed a lot of whiskey and beer whilst watching films, bliss. Only thing is, when you order a double Jack Daniels and coke, they give you two bottles of Jack Daniels and one of coke... this makes for a strong drink! I have never felt so classy when having to scrape the empty drink bottles off my table at the end of the flight to a baffled member of staff!
Once arriving at Dubai airport we also managed to go to the first class lounge with our fancy priority passes (thank you co-op bank) so more free food and drink! This all amounted in our first error of day 1...

A seven hour flight and alcohol could have been our downfall.
Basically, we thought our next flight was at 3am, so with a few minutes to spare we stroll up to the assumed gate feeling a bit proud of our stop-over VIP moment. However, we were greeted by a man telling us we were at the wrong gate and we should hurry to make our flight. TERRIFIED we ran the entire length of Dubai airport (this would probably have been a lot easier if Dubai airport wasn't so LONG!). Out of breath we arrive at the right gate only to find our flight is actually at 4am and we are an hour early. ha!

The second Emirates flight was a little less manly. Basically our plan to keep awake and drinking was foiled by sleep and a dark cabin. We arrived in Kuala Lumpur to only find we needed to take a 30 minute bus to the other terminal/airport and then our final 2 hour flight to Bangkok with Air Asia which Josh noted "had a nice colour scheme". Excellent.

Finally arriving in Bangkok we made our second error of the day.

Turns out when you are tired and maybe a little drowsy and late for a shuttle bus, taking out cash results in the card being left in the machine. OOPPS. We quite happily left poor mister card in the machine and boarded bus number one to the coach station, then bus number two to a random bus stop (the bus driver kind of kicked us off just outside Bangkok) and a final taxi to the Khao San Road. Arriving at the D&D hostel we discovered the card was missing but were able to skype the bank and sort it all out before heading out for a VICTORY BEER and spring rolls in Bangkok and crashing to bed.

And our final error... air conditioning in our room (that's right... we were fancy on our first night and had air conditioning) seemed to be too warm so we bunked it up to a cold temperature only to absolutely FREEZE all night! haaa! 

Day 2:
Our very touristy day in Bangkok

I may call this 'day 2', but in reality we think we may have lost a day due to our many flights. So R.I.P. Day 3.

Bangkok is one of those places that is sticky hot. Its so sexy like that. We woke up and had a lovely breakfast. Breakfast at the D&D is included, and its pretty amazing. For me, part of the reason I loved it is because of the giant fishies in the nearby pond and the delicious melon.

Now, to see the city we decided we would just kind of walk around but after a few minutes a man had approached us and told us everything he thought we should see and even drew us a little map with PICTURES. We jumped in a tuk tuk with a man who loved to overtake like a mad man and pull up next to women and try to chat them up... what a lad! However, we liked his style and ended up bartering a price of 40 thai baht for the whole day (which is like 80p). 

A wee hint, if you want a free tuk tuk ride most drivers will take you anywhere as long as you go for a stop for them, which includes either a suit shop or a massive jewelery shop. Josh and I decided this was worth it so managed to get the tuk tuk for free by going to two suit shops. At first I was a little uncomfortable as we knew we didn't want any suits, but by the second one I was pretending we wanted a yellow suit for Josh to wear and the sales man was so confused by our crazy demands I think we scared him more. 

We managed to see the (in the Thai man's words) 'the big standing buddha', 'the stairs to see bangkok', 'a sitting down buddha' and 'a pretty temple'. Yes, this was all on our handmade drawing map, and I have no idea what they are really called!!

By the evening we were still in the mood to explore the city so we walked for hours before coming across this little cafe place full of locals and knew we were onto a winner. However, we had gone during Vegetarian week so all the food was tofu. (Stupid Rosie - hello Rosie if your reading this) I have to admit, it was still delicious but I am a girl who loves her meat. HA!

That evening we were due to catch the sleeper train to Laos, so we popped to the bars to get some beer and cocktails down us. We met a lovely Swedish lad and stocked up on some Chang before heading to the train. Oh Chang beer, you delicious downfall.

AND THATS THE END OF THIS CHAPTER

the trip to the land of no cheese

My trip to ASIA

I have just got back from 3 weeks of:
£2 a night hostels,
Buckets of alcohol,
Mosquito bites,
The best food from little street stalls (with no translation available),
Long 18 hour coach journeys with air conditioning that makes you shiver even in a country where outside its 35 degrees,
Views that make you smile,
People you meet for a day and feel like they are your best friends,
Bottles of water,
The friendliest locals,

Bottles of Chang/ Beer Laos and Tiger,
The 'Asia' smell,
The most beautiful temples with elaborate designs,
Markets that are full of the most bizarre things including real life squirrels, dancing toys and squid sticks,
Clear water,
Sweaty foreheads
and
ELEPHANTS.

The basics of our wee trip: 

Fly into Kuala Lumpur and then straight away a flight to Bangkok, one jetlagged night in Bangkok, sleeper train to Laos, Laos tubing and chilling out, coach back to Bangkok and a day spend around the weekend market and temples, minivan to Kanchanaburi for the elephants, coach/boat to Koh Phangan for the FULL MOON PARTY, boat back to Surat Thani, bus to Hat Yai and enjoyed Thai fried chicken, across the border to Pulau Pinang the island of little discoveries and finally a coach to Kuala Lumpur for our flight home.

All will be revealed in the next few posts :)