Down under...

Well, i have officially been in Perth for a week now.  My journey to Singapore to catch my flight was not straight forward... i had anticipated catching the train - and had attempted to buy a ticket when i was in Bangkok, but they insisted i buy it on the day and assured me it would not be full - so when i arrived and went to purchase a ticket, i was told it was full.  So a mad dash to the bus station to catch a bus instead... The one directly to Singapore was full, so i had to get one to Kuala Lampur in Malaysia and then catch an onward bus from there.  The bus arrived in KL at about 4.30am, so i spent a few hours waiting around for a connecting bus, which left at around 7am and arrived in Singapore at around 1pm.
My flight was only scheduled for the following morning - that was definitely the earliest i had ever arrived for a flight!  I had intended to just sleep at the airport - Singapore is expensive - but when i was there i decided to see if they could get me on the evening flight instead, and so it was that i got to Perth at 1am the following morning...
I did my usual catch up of movies on the flight and attempted to sleep at the airport when i arrived... But first customs... i had heard all the stories about how they are, so i had posted all 'offensive' material home from Thailand... but that was before i went shell collecting.  I wasn't sure if they were going to let me keep them but i thought it was worth a try.  So when it came to declaring what i had, i ticked everything, declaring boots, shells, medication... i was sure that i was going to get searched thoroughly and have various items confiscated or sprayed - however, i ended up just breezing through without them even checking me!  So the half eaten pack of Oreos in my bag did not cause me to get a AU$250 fine!
My school friend whom i was staying with did not get my message about the change of flights, so i just waited at the airport for the time to pass.  They had free internet terminals, so i was content... ;-)  The food there was so expensive though!! i payed AU$4 for a muffin (R30, £2,50) - coming from South East Asia, i was in a bit of shock... and hungry!
My friend Lee, and i spent lots of time catching up - after all, it has been 22 years since we had spent time together!!
Lee had some gardening that needed doing, and i needed some odd jobs in order to earn some $'s in order to pay for the rest of my holiday, so it was gardening time!  We also drove around the area visiting the orchards and managed to find a couple of fruitpicking jobs.  I also found a shop assistant job and someone responded to my add for a cleaner or gardener... so all in all, i managed to find 4 jobs (and that is excluding the work that Lee had for me to do)... wow - i don't know how anyone can be on the doll in this country... there is just so much work that needs doing...

I have decided to do a picture blog this time... word can't describe my experience, so i am hoping that my pics might do a better job...

A storm is brewing...

a little far from home....

the storm revisited

Pieter, Elseline and myself on our 4 islands tour

fish feeding time

that would be me top left... a little bit of rock climbing squeezed into the itinerary...

a fisthermans sunset

a wishing lanturn

our wishing lantern ;-)

Some pics from my two dives near Ao Nang, not taken by me, but by my instructor...

sunset on the way back from diving... a perfect end to my stay in South East Asia... ;-)

Bangkok - the final curtain...

This was now my third time in Bangkok, and it is to be my last for a while!  I decided that i should do some shopping here, like buying clothes for when i get home, as i will only have my backpacking clothes when i get there, so getting them cheap here and posting them home was the plan.  I also couldn’t resist buying a few other little trinkets as they are just so cheap here...

So my first full day was spent at the Chatuchak weekend market, where they have over 15 000 stalls. You can buy anything that you can imagine here...  from pet hedgehogs, to crafts, to clothes, to food, ceramics, lighting... well, i will leave some space for your imagination...  At one point i joined a group of Thai women who were making these bead balls which fit nicely onto fairy lights and they look so beautiful.  I ended up learning how to make them and helped them by making two for their big order.  There was a Thai woman who was struggling to get it right and when she saw this ‘falang’ (foreigner) getting it right, she gave up in frustration.

After walking around, i then tried to find my way home – it took me about 1hour before i was on the right track in order to catch a bus back... i was wanting to just calapse after that long day of walking around in that chaos, but i had washing to do...

Els was making a return visit to Bangkok, and so i my stay in Bangkok coincided nicely for a reunion.  This time Els was with her partner, having both just come from a trip to Tibet, and so we decided to go to the Royal Palace together. After a long hot morning wandering around the palace grounds, they went back to their guest house and i went to China town and beyond.  I had intended on taking the bus, but as i didn’t quite know where to catch it from i found myself walking.  I landed at this amazing wholesale market where i managed to find the same beads that the ladies in the Chatuchak market were using, so i bought some of those to send home! I was exhausted by the end of the day, so headed back with my arms laden with shopping bags...

The Garuda protecting the temple that houses the Emerald Buddha

Miniture Angkor Wat (as in Cambodia)

nice roof, against nice clouds...

The infamous Emerald Buddha, that was taken from Laos a few hundred years ago...

My last day was spent packing up a parcel to send home – as i cannot take any wooden items into Australia, so all such goods had to be sent home ahead of me... and then of course, in order to lighten my load for the next month, i sent some of my shopping home too...  Then it was off to catch the night bus to Krabi...

Ayutthaya

When i was in Bangkok previously, i saw a postcard with the head of a Buddha statue amongst the roots of a bodhi tree – and when i saw it i said ‘I want to go there’.  It so happened that it is a couple of hours outside of Bangkok, so when i was heading south from Vientiane, i decided to stop over for a few days.

I managed to find myself a really cheap place to stay with free wifi – it is so easy to make me happy...  ;-)

I had been on the overnight train and didn’t sleep a wink, so when i arrived at my guest house i slept for the rest of the morning... In the afternoon i just walked around the markets and then went to find the night market for dinner.  It was not nearly as good as Luang Prabang, but i still managed to have a vegetable omelette, a piece of watermelon and a chocolate donut for less than a pound...

The next morning i met Liam who asked to join me for the day in seeing temples. It soon emerged that Liam was homesick and needing some company, so we spent the day walking around checking out the temples and walking all over the landlocked island before he caught his bus north that evening.

Now a little bit about Ayutthaya – it is an island at the meeting point of 3 different rivers. It was once the capital of Thailand, but was invaded and as a result it fell to ruins.  As it was once such an important place, it has many historic buildings and Buddhist temples and Buddha relics.  So although this is an important place in Thai Buddhism, i was unable to feel anything other than a tourist here.  The Buddha statues are huge, bordering on overwhelming as are the temples.

fortune sticks... you shake the container until one stick falls out, and then you look up the number on a piece of paper to determine what your future holds...

I stumbled upon an elephant enclosure, where they take tourists on elephant rides, and there are some smaller elephants that are used for photo oportunities as well as to perform tricks... Although i was happy to have the close up with the ellies, at the same time i could feel the humiliation they have to endure...

After a couple of days walking around in the heat i had had enough and headed to Bangkok to meet up with my friend Els, as well as to do last minute shoping...

Vientiane revisited...

My second visit to Vientiane, was a short and sweet one as i was on my way to Thailand.  I had the good fortune to stay with my friend Marion again, and this time it was a quieter occasion – only one game of tennis and hockey!  I had been on the overnight bus from Luang Prabang, and as i did not have a wink of sleep, i caught up on my first day by sleeping until 2pm...

On the Sunday, Marion and I took Whiskey for a long walk in this lovely area outside of town – it clearly had some spiritual significance as there where religious images in and around the rocks, and the view was spectacular!

There were a few touristy things which i had left out in my previous visit to Vientiane, one of them being the Buddha Park and the other That Luang.

I finally managed to figure out the public bus system, and managed to catch a bus to the Buddha Park – instead of paying the tuk-tuk fare which is quite costly if you’re on your own...  The Buddha Park was designed and built by a yogi-priest-shaman who merged Buddhism and Hinduism to create these unique sculptures.  It was strange, yet lovely, to walk through the park and i had memories of The Owl House in Nieu Bethesda coming back to me...

View from the top of the round building...

The strange building you can climb inside of.

Inside the strange round building...

I then took the bus back home for lunch, and in the afternoon i visited the most important temple in Loas – That Luang. The museum itself was closed but i did managed to walk around the Wats.  I am still highly confused at the amount of buildings they have and what they are used for – there was a huge new building (which looked like a temple), which is apparently being used for administration... and it is bigger and more beautiful than the nearby temples... mmm? Why does one need such a building for administration, surely a little concrete block would suffice??

On the day of my departure i bought a load of eggs to boil up to take with me.... i then piled all my lugguage on and headed for the bus stop where the bus was practically waiting for me to take me to the border 6km down the road.  Crossing over was a breeze, and when reaching the otherside i decided to walk instead of taking local transport... i had thought to take the bus, but as the train station was closer i took the train. 12 hours in 3^rd class with the locals... not as bad as India, but still not sleep enducing...mmm... And so this is how i found myself back in Thailand.

Elephants, waterfalls and the girl with the butterfly tattoo!

Ocean and I arrived in Luang Prabang a couple of hours later than expected due to a landslide – by this time i am totally bored with landslides and not phased by them at all – i just got on with catching up on my blog while waiting for them to clear the road.  We got a tuktuk into town and then went guest house hunting.  I made one request – it must have free wifi!  So the first guest house we found had wifi and it was a reasonable price for a lovely room – we had decided to share to reduce costs – so we took it without further ado.  We headed straight for the night market, which has a section for selling local and Thai wares as well as a few food sections.  The one cooked food section is a little alleyway which gets transformed at dusk to become adjoining eateries – restaurants is just not the right word for them.  The sell chicken and fish on a stick and an ‘all-you-can-fit-on-your-plate’ option for less than £1.  They had a few vegetarian stalls which had options of rice, noodles and many plates of veggies – including pumpkin!!  Oh how i have missed pumpkin!  So pile it on i did – after all, i hadn’t eaten since breakfast!  After that we walked around the night market, which just has such an amazing ambiance, and then a fruitshake – fresh fruit liquidised with ice (and coconut milk if you wanted). Being sufficiently full i headed back to the guest house to make use of the wifi... ;-)

the night market street by day...

The night market at night...

dinner!!!

The next morning, we just wandered around a bit and then spent quite a few hours in the museum in the afternoon.  The Palace Museum in Luang Prabang used to be the palace of the Laos royal family – they were forced out of power about 30-odd years ago, and were never seen thereafter – so no one quite knows what happened to them.  The palace is quite modest inside, only the front room is a bit gaudy.  On display are the royal cars, their bedrooms, books, clothes and gifts from foreign countries – the one gift from the US was a piece of moon rock from when a spaceship visited the moon – quite a cool gift!

We then headed back to the night market for dinner – same again James!  As we were leaving we managed to make it onto Japanese television... LOL!  Eating dinner in the night market were Japans top comedians in bright green jackets and grass hats and funny glasses, so Ocean being the friendly person she is decided to start up a conversation with the non-English-speaking Japanese (luckily they had an interpreter).

Our second full day in Luang Prabang, started off hunting for a reasonably priced rental bicycle – we were heading out of town.  We had been told that the road to the That Sae waterfall was good for cycling, so once we found some lovely pink bikes we were off!   What people don’t notice when in a car is the slight incline in a road – it is definitely noticeable on a bicycle!!!  After a few ups, we came to a big down – which was great – but what went through my head was ‘no way am i cycling up this hill on the way home!!’   We both agreed that hitching was the way forward!

After our sometimes tiring 17km bike ride, we arrived at the village of Ban Aen – someone being creative had set up a car park – where you pay to park your bikes and scooters.  We were not falling for that one, and headed on straight to the ferry.  As we disembarked on the other side we could hear the waterfall, but before that we found the elephants!  There is the opportunity to feed them either bananas or sugarcane, so we bought a bunch of sugarcane.  They untied the one ellie and he legged it straight towards us and the sugar cane bundle – no one has taught him manners, as he just grabbed it and stuffed it in his mouth before i could really make sense of what was happening.  That over with, we walked a few more meters to the falls.  That was us for the day – we stayed at the waters edge and wadded with the elephants when they were allowed to come in for a dip, and when we were sitting on the side they would come there too, so we had the opportunity to stroke them.  I had a bit of a tussle with one ellie as he grabbed an abandoned waterbottle and decided to drink it – bottle and all!  I tried reasoning with it and tried to take it away, but i don’t think she spoke English, and i wasn’t too sure how she would respond if i was overly assertive.  Unfortunately i failed in my attempts and the ellie ate the plastic bottle.  This was quite upsetting for me and i put my forehead to hers in distress.  I suspect it is not the first time she has done that, and there are no signs saying keep your belongings well away from the edge of the water.  Water bottle incident aside, it was a truly magical day – where else can one have such an experience with these amazing creatures.

At the end of the afternoon, the elephants were made to perform tricks, like playing basketball, football and other acrobatic stunts with their mohuts (handlers).

The journey home involved a ferry back across the river and then a shortish ride to the main road, where we decided to wait for a lift.  We probably waited about 20mins before a female truck driver with long electric blue fingernails stopped to give us a lift.  The back of her truck was empty, so plenty of room for the bikes, and we headed back to town.

And yes, back to the night market for dinner!! LOL!

Our last day in Luang Prabang was spent catching up with a family we had met in Vang Vieng and catching ferry across to the other side of the Mekong to explore the local villages and temples. It was very hot and we really had no clue what we were going to do on this side, so after a while we ended up taking a tuktuk to a local village where the driver proceeded to show us around before returning us to the ferry area.  I felt a bit weird walking through the village – it kind of makes people into spectacles, which is not how i like to explore places.  Then it was back to the other side to catch the local bus back to Vientiane.