Bangkok - the final chapter -

Having made the overnight train journey down to Bangkok we revisited the Khao San road area for a 3rd time on our trip. After having to stay a night in our last choice guest house we managed to get in at our favourite... New Siam II. This is a great place to stay and nearly always full. It was a good location as it wasn't right in the main backpacker area but just on the edge so you weren't out of things.

Our feelings were mixed as we entered Bangkok for the final time - from Vanessa's excitement at the possibility of a shopping extravaganza to the low and realisation of our last week of close to 5 months travelling and to the anticipation of finally being able to settle and start to build a new life in / back in Oz. We didn't have extensive plans for our final week but did want to try and see some of the sites that we didn't have time for in our previous visits as well as some of the nightlife that had been recommended by others we'd met on our travels. To begin with we took a trip on the river. The river was surprisingly choppy but our guide soon took us along the backwaters of the city and we uncovered the quieter Bangkok life of inhabitants living on or next to the water. It was by no means spectacular but still nice to see the variety of houses and the verandas that each seemed to have for guests or just sitting and relaxing.

Following this trip, the next day we visited the Grand Palace. Here we had to hire short sleeve shirts and long trousers out of respect for the Buddhist religion. We ended up looking like - along with everyone else - MC Hammer lookalikes! The palace itself was pretty impressive. Lots of decorative gold leaf, but also a fusion of styles introduced by the various Kings of Thailand over the years. We saw 3 stupah's on the upper terrace dedicated to Cambodia (in the style of Angkor), Thailand and a gold stupah similar to those we had visited in Sri Lanka. Our guide was very informative, but also very strict which we found quite funny but unfortunately he didn't really reciprocate our good humour. The paintings / murals around the walls of the palace were also really interesting to see and were similar to those we'd seen in Angkor and even in India. This wasn't surprising however, due to the link with Buddhism in India and throughout SE Asia. The more modern parts of the Palace were strange with obvious influences from France and England. Indeed one of the building's was designed by a British architect and was very English but with a thai roof...in fact apart from that it looked remarkedly similar to Kings Cross station!

Our night time activities centred around the area around Chatuchak night markets. The markets themselves were great with everything on offer, including all the latest films at the cinema on dodgy Thai DVD. We also bought our first proper art piece here. A nice bright and vibrant oil painting. It was actually the first one we both looked at and immediately both liked. Once you'd had enough of shopping the markets also played host to great food and entertainment with lots of food and beer stalls surrounding tables and at one end a live band with dancing girls overlooked by a huge screen showing Premiership football, Perfect! The Thais successfully catered to both of us...

Our second night around Chatuchak took us to the nearby Thai boxing (Muay Thai) stadium - Lumpini stadium. The tickets cost a mint (ok for ringside seats) but we had to see it. We weren't disappointed and saw 6 matches in the 3 hours we were there. The Thai people were very passionate and the boxers very skilled but also very light. The heaviest we saw were around 115 lbs. Before each match the boxers would participate in a preparation ritual which involved praying / bowing in each corner of the ring and then performing a kind of dance around each other in the centre. The fighting was full on and a few times we saw blood being spilt. We didn't see any knockouts or towels thrown in though and the fights were decided by the number and quality of direct hits connecting with the opponent using fist, elbow, thigh or foot. The atmosphere was electric as the 4th / 5th rounds came on and the Thai's started betting frantically.

For our final 3 nights we decided to treat ourselves for the final time by checking into a proper hotel so we booked the Asia Hotel which was handily located next to a Sky Train station. Still, didn't really matter as Taxi's were so cheap and easy to come by that we used them to get around usually. We had a big comfortable room with cable TV and comparatively more grandeur than usual.

We treated ourselves by visiting two of the highest points in Bangkok for a drink and dinner. Sirocco is probably the most amazing bar we've both been to. On the 64th floor of the State Tower we were drinking at an open air bar that had spectacular views across Bangkok's night life. Drinks were pricey but the experience was worth it. The bar changed different fluorescent colours and a jazz band played on a platform to the side of it. From there we made our way to the Baiyoke Sky tower where we had an all you can eat buffet meal. Unfortunately, this was far from the exclusiveness we had experienced at Sirocco and the views weren't quite as good, but still we'd lived it up pretty well.

The shopping around our hotel - the Siam area was also pretty amazing. The shopping centres were numerous, from the electronics complex of Pantip Plaza to the bargain MBK Centre and the Siam Square and Siam Discovery centre. All of these were at least 6 storey's high and a good few hundred metres wide. We watched Memoirs of a Geisha in comfy sofas in the MBK cinema (6.5/10 Vanessa, 3/10 Andy) and picked up plenty of pairs of the cheapest Diesel and Replay jeans as well as t-shirts and more DVD's. However, all of these places were eclipsed by the amazing Siam Paragon shopping centre with immaculate designer shops and the best quality food court we'd seen. We picked up a few bargains in the sale...

The final day came upon us and we were now slightly over budget after all the shopping....even though I'd decided against a new PS2, footy boots, video iPod and Armani jacket. Amazingly, we managed to cram all our purchases into our existing luggage (plus one extra bag we had to buy) and were just inside the Emirates limit. We headed to the airport with our final mad taxi driver...who had verbal diarrhoea and kept talking and laughing the whole way. A fitting final journey after many other similar mad journeys over the past 5 months.

We had an amazing 5 months. There are plenty of happy and fantastic memories to take with us to our new life in Australia as well as some invaluable life lessons and appreciation for everything that we have. We're fortunately able to have just peeked into some of the poverty that exists in the places that we've visited rather than actually have to live it day to day. But to see how happy people were with so little and how kids can make a game out of a plastic bag and rolled up paper it really does raise the question of do we really need everything that we have? Of course we're already talking of flats looking over the harbour and plasma screen TV's but hopefully we won't forget and will try and help out those we've met on our travels. We're now looking forward to the next phase - for Vanessa finally returning home and for Andy starting a new career and new life in a country with more sport on TV than anywhere else he's been! ;-) Wish us luck...
Andy Wright and Vanessa Toutounji
Andy Wright and Vanessa Toutounji
Andy Wright and Vanessa Toutounji
Andy Wright and Vanessa Toutounji

Up to Northern Thailand and Chiang Mai -

So...as we chose neither of the boat options and couldn't get a flight we embarked on a journey taking a number of buses upto Chiang Mai. The journey wasn't too bad and as we were transferred from a bus station in Nong Kwai to another bus station to take us to Chiang Mai we met our bonkers tuk tuk driver! Now having travelled for many months by now I did have a bit of a beard and moustache which this guy thought was hilarious. He kept looking at me in his mirror and pointing and sticking his thumbs up. He also tried to race a few other tuk tuks and generally just had us in stitches for the 15 minutes we were with him. So...we 'rewarded' him by giving him my Everton shirt (Ok, maybe not a reward I'm sure some of you will say!). He was chuffed and showed all the women around the bus station his new shirt...

We arrived in Chiang Mai safely and after having done extensive research before leaving Laos headed for a guesthouse we'd heard great things about...especially the owner who seemed to be the font of knowledge for all things Chiang Mai. The Blue House was a bargain and had cable TV. We were happy and the owner Jimmy promptly sorted us out with a cooking course at an organic farm and an overnight trekking trip. He also gave us the local info and a map to get us started...we began by visiting the Sunday markets.

These markets just can't be missed if you're in Chiang Mai. They had absolutely everything including my favourite Pearl Milk Tea which I hadn't had since Bangkok. We devoured spring rolls, chicken and pork skewers, ice cream, pad thai and much more as we wandered the streets looking at stalls and buying bits and pieces of local handicrafts. That lunchtime we also had the best fish ever...with a salt crust on barbecued on a skewer on the street...it was fantastic! We ate a lot and the next day proceeded to eat even more!

This time though we put much more effort into what it was we were eating...our Organic Cooking course was a great experience. There were cooking classes advertised all over Chiang Mai but we definitely reckon this one was the best. We were taken out to the organic farm (about 17km outside of Chiang Mai) where we were shown around the farm and educated on all the different herbs and vegetables that they grew in the gardens. We used all the fresh ingredients as we cooked.... - Thai Chicken Green Curry, Chicken with Cashew Nuts, Pad Thai and Mango with Sticky Rice. All the food was amazing (if we do say so ourselves!) and we were stuffed by the end of the day. The cook who taught us was very friendly and funny as she teased a few of the slightly dumber and older American women who kept mistaking soy sauce and fish sauce and putting the wrong amounts of everything into their dishes.

The day after cooking we went trekking! We packed up our stuff and left the bulk of it with Jimmy (at our guest house) and set off in a Songtaew (kind of like a truck taxi) heading up into the hills to visit the hill tribes - the Karen people. First stop was a waterfall...not quite as impressive as Luang Prabang but not bad nonetheless. It didn't have the pools surrounding it but I got in for a photo anyway. The force of the water was immense and it was bloody freezing as well! We carried on up to some hot springs where the water boiled and steam was everywhere...it was kind of like when we visited the Volcanic region in Japan but must have been even hotter given the average temperature in Thailand. Our trek started in earnest here as we started walking up..and up..and up..and up! The teva's we'd bought in Bangkok were being put to good use, but inevitably Vanessa 'I've got a blister' Toutounji soon needed to stop to apply cream and socks...yep, Sandals and Socks! That night we arrived at the village where instead of trying to take a shower in the makeshift bathroom I ran down to the river and jumped in with a bottle of Johnson's baby shampoo. It was the most refreshing shower I've ever had... The Karen people didn't speak any English of course but were very friendly..considering they've always got travellers coming through their village. Our guide Bobby cooked us a great Green Curry and then we sat down around the camp fire drinking beer and singing songs with the rest of our group...Divyah, Cornelius, Monica and two English girls who at 19 made us feel very old. That night...it was freezing! We slept on a mat on the floor and despite the sleeping bag and numerous blankets we were given it was still difficult to sleep. For me, more because of the hard floor. So when 7am came around we were all glad to get up, have brekkie and get on with our trek down to the elephant camp.

We jumped on the back of an elephant and casually rode along the river for about 2 hours on the back of our grey, leathery transportation. It wasn't that comfortable but the scenery was beautiful. Although the seat was hard for us, the mahouts had no problem sitting on the elephant's head and guiding us along. In fact we passed another mahout coming back along the river...asleep on the back!

We arrived at another village down river where locals had built us a bamboo raft. We had to float down the river and negotiate rapids with long bamboo poles. Unfortunately, after hitting a number of rocks the twinings on the raft started to come loose and at the back of the raft I suddenly started to notice gaps appearing between the bamboo. As we hit one rapid and I lost my balance my foot and 'chicken' leg went straight through and left me with a nice gash and bruise for the next week or so. Still, we had a really quality time on our trek and we all were thoroughly exhausted by the time we arrived back in Chiang Mai.

Now here is when the great Jimmy and Blue House lost all our faith and goodwill. They promised to keep us a room - but now we'd spent all our money with them on trips - they transferred us to another guest house because they were 'full'. We were too tired to argue and when we got to the new guest house sat down and instantly started getting bitten by bugs in the bed. Not happy we stormed out and found somewhere else...This seems to be the problem when travelling...if you're not spending they don't like you...if you've spent, they've liked you and left you - hunting for more like you! Ahh well!

After the trek we decided to chill out for a few days and headed up to a place called Chiang Dao. Here we relaxed, read books, chilled out and ate fantastic food. We stayed at Chiang Dao Nest 2. The setting was idyllic...beneath a mountain and the thai food was scrumptious. Unfortunately, the lady running it was a bit grumpy and not very friendly at all. So, one night we decided to visit another place up the road - that we'd hoped to stay in the first place. We met Malee who was a fantastic host and extremely friendly. One night we took some new friends (Jeff and Becca) over to Malee's where she cooked us a fantastic BBQ and we had a great night. Jeff and Becca are on a year tour taking in almost 40 countries. An amazing feat if you manage it guys.,...keep us posted!!

Chiang Dao caves were a must see and we were escorted around by an old man with a gas burner who pointed out all the little crevices and names of the different rocks - usually arrived at based on what they looked like. The cave was much bigger than we expected (although after, Vanessa realised she had been there before!).

With one week to go...we set off for Bangkok on the overnight train and left Chiang Mai having had some really good days and an overall mixed experience. Compared to the rest of South East Asia it felt as if Thailand is a little too geared up for tourists...