Hello All, hope everyone is good and well. It's been a long while again since I blogged. So firstly, apologises for being absent. I am now in Laos and have been for I think for a week. I have really lost all comprehension of time, day and at times even the month. This will be the first of 2 blogs and I will explain my time after koh Chang.
Sunday November 6th
As I had explained at the end of my last blog (if you can remember) I had decided to head to koh Samet with Ellie. Koh Samet a small Island only 6km in length and 3km is north of koh Chang and would be around a 4hour bus journey and 30min ferry ride from the town of Ban Pae. We had booked our ticket the previous day for BHT500 each which included the taxi on Koh Chang to the ferry, the ferry to Trat, minibus to Ban Pae and then the ferry across to Koh Samet. We were picked up at 8am from Siam Huts and should have had only a max 30min bus to the ferry terminal, I say should because we made a number of stops of which one we had to wait almost 20mins for a passenger to emerge from his hotel, along with a very angry German guy who refused to get on the minivan due to the condition of it, to be fair he had a good point with all the tires bald and noises coming from rear suspension. Nether the less, first of all it was a short drive and secondly this is Thailand, what do you expect?? MOT's?!??! The whole journey to Koh Samet was around 8 hours, after changing minibuses waiting for ferries and scheduled pit stops, 4 hours my arse! this is 'Thai Time'. The only saving grace was that we got to see yet again an awesome sunset on the ferry over to Koh Samet.
We researched a beach we wanted to stay on, it was going to be quiet, with no partying or rowdy backpackers (yes I am sure i am one of these at times). The beach 'Sai Thong Beach' and with the island being small i guessed it would only be a short taxi ride, if the roads had been tarmacked it would have been, instead they were dusty, dried muddy potholed roads, only 4x4 cars and trucks as well as ATV's dare try and negotiate these roads, along with of course mopeds, though this was a tedious and slow way of getting round. We arrived at Sai Thong beach. It was less than a 1KM long with bungalow resorts lining the edge with many of them having bungalows only meters from the beach and sea. We were both tired and picked the first resort on the beach, it was BHT400 for a bungalow but not on the beach, we took it and decided that we would look for something on the beach the following day. We dumped our stuff and wondered down the beach, it was dead, hardly a person in sight, the odd couple or single lone traveller here and there. The beach however was almost the colour of snow and super soft, by far one of the nicest beaches I had been on. Each resort had a restaurant that overlooked the sea, and there were more workers in each establishment than there were guests. The whole time on Koh Samet i wondered how they even made enough money to pay the staff. We ate dinner and then grabbed a beer from the one and only 7/11 on the beach, found some deck chairs and drank our beers sitting inches from the waters edge.
Monday November 7th
We rose pretty early after a reasonable nights sleep, grabbed some breakfast from the resort we were staying and then wondered down the beach to see how much the prices of the bungalows were over looking the sea. The ranged from BHT700-1200, this was more than we really wanted to pay. However in the last resort on the beach we picked up one for BHT600 and it was on the beach only 5m's from the sea. It wasn't exactly a bungalow but a tree house. It was tiny with only enough room for a bed but it had balcony with 2 deck chairs which over looked the sea. The bathroom was a short walk away, but given the price and of course the view we took it. The rest of the day we just chilled out, I couldn't still get in the sea as my tattoo was still pretty fresh. So we spent it reading and relaxing.
Tuesday November 8th
Today was spent pretty much doing the same as yesterday..nothing! It was so nice to have some down time, during the day the beach got busier with holiday makers (mainly Russian again) getting ferried over from a boat that obviously did day trips to different beaches on the island. By 6am it was again like a ghost town. That evening though we found 'Roger's bar' it was the only place that seemed to have something going on. It was as the bar suggested run by a guy called 'Roger'. He had a huge collection of music video's, so Ellie and I sat at the bar drinking cocktails,listening to music and chatting to the odd random and local workers who had by 9pm already finished in the restaurants which had now already closed. Roger suggested that we go with him to another beach resort round the coast were it was a little more lively. We were both up for it at first but then decided against it and hit the sack at around midnight. That night I awoke with 'something' crawling over me, I am pretty sure it was ants but couldn't be sure, it freaked me out the rest of the night i tossed and turned with paranoia.
Wednesday November 9th
The previous day I had suggested that we should maybe move from the tree house bungalow to somewhere a little bigger with its own bathroom. We already knew that they other bungalows on the sea front were a little more expensive but it was Ellie's birthday in a few days so as birthday present i said i would pay for a couple more nights before heading back to Bangkok. Ellie was still trying to decide whether to stay in Bangkok or head home back to Switzerland. We found a bungalow for 600BHT right on the sea front. It was nice, with our own bathroom and outside decking area with chairs and table. After moving our gear we decided to go for a walk to some of the other beaches, there was a coastal path which went from beach to beach. We were meant to leave early but by the time we got going it was almost 12 and the midday day sun was so hot that by time we reached the first beach , which only had about 5 bungalows and was very secluded we were perspiring from every pore. We grabbed some lunch and chilled out for a while before deciding to head up to the road and grab a 4x4 taxi to the main beach. 100BHT each later, which was quite expensive and 15min journey we arrived at the main beach. This was as you can imagine very touristy, full of foreigners, and again mainly Russian's. We walked around shops, not really looking for anything in particular. We then ate at a local Thai restaurant, the food was great and it overlooked the sea and beach. We chilled for a while and then headed back. Again that evening we just chilled, Ellie having lots of decisions to make and still undecided whether to go back home or not.
Thursday November 10th
Our last day on the island before heading back to Bangkok, as the rest of the time on Koh Samet the day was spent chilling out. It would be the last time for both of us to enjoy beach life for a while, with Ellie pretty much decided she was going back to Switzerland and me heading north to Chaing Mai and then Laos. We booked our tickets through the Bungalow resort back to Bangkok at a cost of BHT500 each and leaving at 10am the next day for the ferry with the minivan leaving Ban Pae for Bangkok at 11am. That night we walked to a neighbouring beach for food, it was semi lively but still no real bars to talk of, just lots of restaurants on the beach. This beach was mainly for families and the older generations. We found a place but the food was pretty bad and over priced. However we were treated to one of the best fire shows I have seen in Thailand (i had seen lots on Koh Chang) the shows were very impressive and i managed to get a plenty of pic's. (insert pic) We headed back, grabbed a beer on the way from the 7/11 and sat on our balcony while watching a DVD on Ellie's laptop.
Friday November 11th
We were picked up by the taxi at 10am and made our were to the pier were we jumped on the ferry, we would hopefully be in Bangkok by early afternoon. This wasn't to be the case, the ferry was late leaving and it was slower than the ferry we gotten over. We arrived on land at 11:20 and then struggled to find the pick up point. After finding it, we hoped we would be straight off, of course this is Thai time, the lady that had booked our ticket hadn't given enough time for delays on the ferry, the next minivan to Bangkok was now 13:30. We grabbed food and randomly played 'connect 4' in a bar to fill the time. The minivan arrived at 13:30 and with only 1 stop along the way we got into Bangkok at around 4.30pm. We then had to grab a taxi to Ellie's apartment which was only another 15min. We didn't have long to chill out, while on Koh Samet Ellie had arranged with friends to meet at restaurant to celebrate her birthday which was the following day. Along with her Bangkok friends 2 friends from Switzerland were also in Thailand and had come to see Ellie and celebrate her birthday also.
We met in a garden restaurant which despite the weird and wonderful name 'Condoms and Cabbages' was really nice and served great Thai food. there were 9 of us in total. After great dinner, chit, chat, laughs and of course alcohol we moved on to a popular night life area of Bangkok, 'Royal City Avenue' or 'RCA'. RCA is on 1 of 3 Goverment designated nightlife zones and caters for all music tastes with around 10 bars. We ended up in a bar called Route 66 which was big and busy with a mixture of foreigners and locals and played mostly Hip Hop. We managed to get a table outside, now with only 6 of us left we ordered a bottle of vodka and a number of mixers. soon we were dancing and getting pretty drunk. At around midnight we moved onto a club which was back near the restaurant we had been in, so jumped in a taxi. In all honesty the club wasn't really my scene and I wasn't feeling too great, we got in another bottle of vodka but I remember not really having much of it. We made our way home for about 4ish. Was a good night though and Ellie's friends were good fun people.
Saturday November 12th
Today was Ellie's birthday, I awoke really not feeling too well, I had a chesty cough for a while and couldn't shake it, on top of that I felt tired and drained and maybe slightly hungover. Ellie, now decided that she was going to go back home in a week wanted to visit the dentist as it would be a lot cheaper in Bangkok than Switzerland. I decided to stay in bed and get a little more sleep and try and feel a bit better. We agreed to meet at the shopping after her appointment and we could could grab some food. Around midday we met at the shopping mall, I still wasn't feeling the greatest and hadn't eaten, the top 2 floors of the mall were all eateries, plenty to choose from, however it still took us nearly an hour to get into a place, firstly not sure what fancied and the fact it was Saturday every place had a 20-30miin wait. By the time we sat down in the Japanese restaurant we were both almost passing out from hunger, well I thought that's what mine was anyway. When my food came I couldn't face eating, I had barley half and felt sick. After lunch we headed back to Ellie's place and just chilled. It was today i noticed when flicking through my passport that my 30 day visa was quickly coming to an end. Though Ellie had said i could stay as long as wanted, I had to think about what to do next, for nearly a month I had just been playing it day by day. I wanted to see the north of Thailand, Chiang Mai and Pai now with only 4 days left on my visa I was cutting it fine. I had only 2 options, miss the north and go straight to Laos or go into Cambodia on a visa a run, staying one day and on re-entry get another 15 days visa for Thailand. I decided on the 1st option, getting a flight to Chaing Mai staying maybe 2 days and then moving into Laos and taking a slow boat from Houayxay to Louangphrabang. After chilling most of the afternoon we decided to get a massage from a parlour just down the road which Ellie had a used a number of times before. I decided on just a back and shoulder 1 hour massage. It was a nice place and very relaxing, however the massage was far from so, I opted out of the traditional Thai massage for just a normal one. Now, I either i wasn't relaxed enough or the guy doing the massage didn't have a clue what he was doing but i walked out of the parlour feeling like my back had been hit with a sledge hammer, Ellie on the other hand was on cloud 9!! That evening we met Ellie's 2 Swiss friends and one of the girls brother. We found a nice restaurant close by, still feeling not 100% i opted for a no alcohol day. We ate and chatted for a good few hours before all heading back to Ellie's to chill and listen to some music.
Sunday November 13th
Feeling alot better today, we got up reasonable early, did some laundry had some lunch and I booked my flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai for the following day. My visa ran out on the 15th, I hoped to get into Laos on that day, with the possibility that I may have to pay BHT500 for that day, even though I was leaving the country. That afternoon we made our way to famous MBK shopping mall in the Siam square area of Bangkok. 9 floors high more like an in door market than a traditional mall, very popular with backpackers and tourists, from the outside looking like a fancy up market mall which would sport all your top world wide brands but inside more like a up scale street market. I needed a couple of t-shirts and also a card reader for my Sony point and shoot camera as thus far I had been unable to get the pictures from the card due to Sony having their non standard memory card. After picking up a couple of t-shirts and finding a card reader for less than a BHT100 (bloody bargain) we met up with Ellie's Swiss friends who were going to be leaving for the north that night. We grabbed some food and then headed back to Ellie's. We had decided to go the cinema, so got changed and took short taxi ride to the cinema complex. It was pretty quiet in the cinema, but I must admit the actual theatre was impressive, the normal seats were big and comfy with plenty of room, the sort of seats back home you pay a small fortune for. We decided to walk back to Ellie's after the film rather than a taxi ride and it was the first time i had really noticed Bangkok at night, still at nearly midnight on a Sunday, was full of people and traffic. As a 'tourist' city Bangkok really isn't somewhere I would tell all my friends about back home, however for somewhere to live, I think i would really love it.
Monday November 14th
It was time to move on and after 3 weeks with Ellie, time to say goodbye. We had breakfast at cafe down the road, did some Internet stuff and before I knew it, it was time to leave. My flight was 14:20 and it would take around 30mins on the airport shuttle train. I left around 11am and jumped in a taxi to the station. I got to the airport with no hassles and checked in with an to spare. at 15.30 we are all still waiting to board, that had been no announcement of any kind to explain a delay, everyone else didn't seem bothered and in all honesty nor did I. 10mins later I was boarding and heading for Chiang Mai. I had attempted to persuade Ellie to come with me but TNA, I was going to miss her. I arrived in Chaing Mai just before 5, that morning i had found a hostel dorm for BHT100. Getting a taxi at Chiang Mai airport seemed a slow process and at nearly 6 i finally was on my way, the driver knew the hostel and within 15mins I was paying the overpriced fare and checking in to the hostel. It was weird being back in a dorm, for nearly 3 weeks i had been either ion a bungalow on my own or with Ellie. It was back to actually travelling again. I need to get to Laos ASAP and needed to leave the next day without fail. I needed to get Chiang Kong which is the border town on the Thai side from which then I'd move into Houayxay in Laos and then get the slow boat from there down the infamous Mekong River. The hostel advertised the trip for BHT1700. That included the minivan to Chaing Kong, one night stay over and then the slow boat ticket. The boat takes 2 days with a stop half way to Louangphrabang. The guy at the hostel said that there was a space. This 1 night stay over in Chaing Kong also meant now that my over stay in Thailand would perhaps be 2 days and that i would have to pay BHT1000, i guess its much better than getting thrown into a Thai jail. All booked up I grabbed a beer in the garden of the hostel and chilled, I was soon joined by a group of people and we chatted and drank beer. We all grabbed some food and then went to supermarket to get some cheap beers. Compared to south of Thailand the north was a lot cheaper with large beers being 10-15BHT cheaper. I ended up buying 2 bottles of rocket fuel, the 7/11 had sold out Chang so we opted for a 25BHT a bottle of what I can only describe as snake bite. It tasted like shit and after finishing the 2 bottles along with the 2 from earlier I was well on my way. We then headed to a reggae bar. Here i met 2 English guys from Hull, Nick and Andy who turns out had booked to leave the next day also, we were soon on the buckets.
Tuesday November 15th
The next thing I remember was waking up outside my dorm on a sofa at around 8am, I hadn't even made my bed. I didn't feel too bad but I had stomach pain's, I attempted breakfast but the thought of food made me feel sick. We boarded the minivan myself Nick and Andy at 10.30am, we had a short stop to pick up more people and we were away. For the first hour I felt OK, but soon i was really struggling I thought hangover but it really didn't feel like that and my stomach was turning and in pain. We had a 15min stop to see the white Temple just outside Chaing Rai, it was pretty impressive.
We still had a couple of hours to go and with 10mins before Chaing Kong i really felt like i was going to be sick and almost shouted to the driver to stop. It was almost 5pm when we reached the border town. The nights accommodation should have been included in the price I paid at the hostel. For some it was, for however because i was on my own, they wanted to charge me 200 extra baht, why i didn't really know, i was now feeling very Ill and i just wanted a room so paid the money. Before i could retreat to my room and die we all had to sort out our visa's, the hostel to make things quicker and of course for a small fee would do this for us all so that the next morning on the Thai side at least we could just breeze straight through. After paying $25 for the visa and 100BHT for hostel to sort it all out I crashed in my room, it wasn't long before I had my head buried in the toilet and puking, this carried on for the next 3 hours on and off, I hadn't eaten all day and my stomach and body was in agony. I stayed in my room all night and even drinking water only proceeded to make me be sick again. By midnight i felt better, now starving and no way of getting any food I just went to sleep.
Wednesday November 16th
I awoke feeling much better, even though I didn't sleep well, breakfast was included and it though it was only 2 bits of toast with an egg, made me feel much better. Our visa's had been sorted and the lady in the hostel handed them out. I had paid an extra 500BHt because knew i had stayed over a day, however i now had to cough another 500 as they included today as another overstay day even though i was going to be out within the hour, robbing gits!! We headed down to the border, the Thai side was easy as the hostel had sorted it all. We then had to jump on a long boat which ferried us across the infamous Mekong River to the Laos border town of 'Houayxay'. The long boat took all of 3min's and we were soon in Laos. The Laos immigration was less organised, when i say less organised the office had only 2 windows and with a good few hundred people waiting to get stamped in, it was far from ideal especially when the last Slow boat left at 11:30. by 10am an hour after reaching the Laos border we had all been stamped and ready to go. We were picked up by a guide who would be looking after us and taking us to our long boat. We were showed to what seemed to be a travel office, in total around 60 of us. Here we were left waiting for another 30mins before being taxied to a shop with which sold fresh sandwiches, drinks and beer. We then waited here another 30mins. We then all received our slow boat tickets were guided down to the river and the slow boat.
Another epic blog by Ruffy, really sorry for those that are still reading, its hard to keep up a daily update. I have decided to leave it here, even though i still have 10 or so days to cover but now in Laos, thought it would be a good time to stop and I will blog again very soon and hopefully will get up to date. I really enjoyed Thailand and I am gutted I didn't see more of the North, Chiang Mai had a great feel about it. If i have time i am going to head back that way before going home.
Sunday November 6th
As I had explained at the end of my last blog (if you can remember) I had decided to head to koh Samet with Ellie. Koh Samet a small Island only 6km in length and 3km is north of koh Chang and would be around a 4hour bus journey and 30min ferry ride from the town of Ban Pae. We had booked our ticket the previous day for BHT500 each which included the taxi on Koh Chang to the ferry, the ferry to Trat, minibus to Ban Pae and then the ferry across to Koh Samet. We were picked up at 8am from Siam Huts and should have had only a max 30min bus to the ferry terminal, I say should because we made a number of stops of which one we had to wait almost 20mins for a passenger to emerge from his hotel, along with a very angry German guy who refused to get on the minivan due to the condition of it, to be fair he had a good point with all the tires bald and noises coming from rear suspension. Nether the less, first of all it was a short drive and secondly this is Thailand, what do you expect?? MOT's?!??! The whole journey to Koh Samet was around 8 hours, after changing minibuses waiting for ferries and scheduled pit stops, 4 hours my arse! this is 'Thai Time'. The only saving grace was that we got to see yet again an awesome sunset on the ferry over to Koh Samet.
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| Another awesome sunset |
We researched a beach we wanted to stay on, it was going to be quiet, with no partying or rowdy backpackers (yes I am sure i am one of these at times). The beach 'Sai Thong Beach' and with the island being small i guessed it would only be a short taxi ride, if the roads had been tarmacked it would have been, instead they were dusty, dried muddy potholed roads, only 4x4 cars and trucks as well as ATV's dare try and negotiate these roads, along with of course mopeds, though this was a tedious and slow way of getting round. We arrived at Sai Thong beach. It was less than a 1KM long with bungalow resorts lining the edge with many of them having bungalows only meters from the beach and sea. We were both tired and picked the first resort on the beach, it was BHT400 for a bungalow but not on the beach, we took it and decided that we would look for something on the beach the following day. We dumped our stuff and wondered down the beach, it was dead, hardly a person in sight, the odd couple or single lone traveller here and there. The beach however was almost the colour of snow and super soft, by far one of the nicest beaches I had been on. Each resort had a restaurant that overlooked the sea, and there were more workers in each establishment than there were guests. The whole time on Koh Samet i wondered how they even made enough money to pay the staff. We ate dinner and then grabbed a beer from the one and only 7/11 on the beach, found some deck chairs and drank our beers sitting inches from the waters edge.
Monday November 7th
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| Tree house on the beach |
Tuesday November 8th
Today was spent pretty much doing the same as yesterday..nothing! It was so nice to have some down time, during the day the beach got busier with holiday makers (mainly Russian again) getting ferried over from a boat that obviously did day trips to different beaches on the island. By 6am it was again like a ghost town. That evening though we found 'Roger's bar' it was the only place that seemed to have something going on. It was as the bar suggested run by a guy called 'Roger'. He had a huge collection of music video's, so Ellie and I sat at the bar drinking cocktails,listening to music and chatting to the odd random and local workers who had by 9pm already finished in the restaurants which had now already closed. Roger suggested that we go with him to another beach resort round the coast were it was a little more lively. We were both up for it at first but then decided against it and hit the sack at around midnight. That night I awoke with 'something' crawling over me, I am pretty sure it was ants but couldn't be sure, it freaked me out the rest of the night i tossed and turned with paranoia.Wednesday November 9th
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| View from Bungalow on the beach |
Thursday November 10th
Our last day on the island before heading back to Bangkok, as the rest of the time on Koh Samet the day was spent chilling out. It would be the last time for both of us to enjoy beach life for a while, with Ellie pretty much decided she was going back to Switzerland and me heading north to Chaing Mai and then Laos. We booked our tickets through the Bungalow resort back to Bangkok at a cost of BHT500 each and leaving at 10am the next day for the ferry with the minivan leaving Ban Pae for Bangkok at 11am. That night we walked to a neighbouring beach for food, it was semi lively but still no real bars to talk of, just lots of restaurants on the beach. This beach was mainly for families and the older generations. We found a place but the food was pretty bad and over priced. However we were treated to one of the best fire shows I have seen in Thailand (i had seen lots on Koh Chang) the shows were very impressive and i managed to get a plenty of pic's. (insert pic) We headed back, grabbed a beer on the way from the 7/11 and sat on our balcony while watching a DVD on Ellie's laptop.Friday November 11th
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| Ellies Birthday |
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| At Condoms and Cabbages |
Saturday November 12th
Today was Ellie's birthday, I awoke really not feeling too well, I had a chesty cough for a while and couldn't shake it, on top of that I felt tired and drained and maybe slightly hungover. Ellie, now decided that she was going to go back home in a week wanted to visit the dentist as it would be a lot cheaper in Bangkok than Switzerland. I decided to stay in bed and get a little more sleep and try and feel a bit better. We agreed to meet at the shopping after her appointment and we could could grab some food. Around midday we met at the shopping mall, I still wasn't feeling the greatest and hadn't eaten, the top 2 floors of the mall were all eateries, plenty to choose from, however it still took us nearly an hour to get into a place, firstly not sure what fancied and the fact it was Saturday every place had a 20-30miin wait. By the time we sat down in the Japanese restaurant we were both almost passing out from hunger, well I thought that's what mine was anyway. When my food came I couldn't face eating, I had barley half and felt sick. After lunch we headed back to Ellie's place and just chilled. It was today i noticed when flicking through my passport that my 30 day visa was quickly coming to an end. Though Ellie had said i could stay as long as wanted, I had to think about what to do next, for nearly a month I had just been playing it day by day. I wanted to see the north of Thailand, Chiang Mai and Pai now with only 4 days left on my visa I was cutting it fine. I had only 2 options, miss the north and go straight to Laos or go into Cambodia on a visa a run, staying one day and on re-entry get another 15 days visa for Thailand. I decided on the 1st option, getting a flight to Chaing Mai staying maybe 2 days and then moving into Laos and taking a slow boat from Houayxay to Louangphrabang. After chilling most of the afternoon we decided to get a massage from a parlour just down the road which Ellie had a used a number of times before. I decided on just a back and shoulder 1 hour massage. It was a nice place and very relaxing, however the massage was far from so, I opted out of the traditional Thai massage for just a normal one. Now, I either i wasn't relaxed enough or the guy doing the massage didn't have a clue what he was doing but i walked out of the parlour feeling like my back had been hit with a sledge hammer, Ellie on the other hand was on cloud 9!! That evening we met Ellie's 2 Swiss friends and one of the girls brother. We found a nice restaurant close by, still feeling not 100% i opted for a no alcohol day. We ate and chatted for a good few hours before all heading back to Ellie's to chill and listen to some music.
Sunday November 13th
Feeling alot better today, we got up reasonable early, did some laundry had some lunch and I booked my flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai for the following day. My visa ran out on the 15th, I hoped to get into Laos on that day, with the possibility that I may have to pay BHT500 for that day, even though I was leaving the country. That afternoon we made our way to famous MBK shopping mall in the Siam square area of Bangkok. 9 floors high more like an in door market than a traditional mall, very popular with backpackers and tourists, from the outside looking like a fancy up market mall which would sport all your top world wide brands but inside more like a up scale street market. I needed a couple of t-shirts and also a card reader for my Sony point and shoot camera as thus far I had been unable to get the pictures from the card due to Sony having their non standard memory card. After picking up a couple of t-shirts and finding a card reader for less than a BHT100 (bloody bargain) we met up with Ellie's Swiss friends who were going to be leaving for the north that night. We grabbed some food and then headed back to Ellie's. We had decided to go the cinema, so got changed and took short taxi ride to the cinema complex. It was pretty quiet in the cinema, but I must admit the actual theatre was impressive, the normal seats were big and comfy with plenty of room, the sort of seats back home you pay a small fortune for. We decided to walk back to Ellie's after the film rather than a taxi ride and it was the first time i had really noticed Bangkok at night, still at nearly midnight on a Sunday, was full of people and traffic. As a 'tourist' city Bangkok really isn't somewhere I would tell all my friends about back home, however for somewhere to live, I think i would really love it.
Monday November 14th
It was time to move on and after 3 weeks with Ellie, time to say goodbye. We had breakfast at cafe down the road, did some Internet stuff and before I knew it, it was time to leave. My flight was 14:20 and it would take around 30mins on the airport shuttle train. I left around 11am and jumped in a taxi to the station. I got to the airport with no hassles and checked in with an to spare. at 15.30 we are all still waiting to board, that had been no announcement of any kind to explain a delay, everyone else didn't seem bothered and in all honesty nor did I. 10mins later I was boarding and heading for Chiang Mai. I had attempted to persuade Ellie to come with me but TNA, I was going to miss her. I arrived in Chaing Mai just before 5, that morning i had found a hostel dorm for BHT100. Getting a taxi at Chiang Mai airport seemed a slow process and at nearly 6 i finally was on my way, the driver knew the hostel and within 15mins I was paying the overpriced fare and checking in to the hostel. It was weird being back in a dorm, for nearly 3 weeks i had been either ion a bungalow on my own or with Ellie. It was back to actually travelling again. I need to get to Laos ASAP and needed to leave the next day without fail. I needed to get Chiang Kong which is the border town on the Thai side from which then I'd move into Houayxay in Laos and then get the slow boat from there down the infamous Mekong River. The hostel advertised the trip for BHT1700. That included the minivan to Chaing Kong, one night stay over and then the slow boat ticket. The boat takes 2 days with a stop half way to Louangphrabang. The guy at the hostel said that there was a space. This 1 night stay over in Chaing Kong also meant now that my over stay in Thailand would perhaps be 2 days and that i would have to pay BHT1000, i guess its much better than getting thrown into a Thai jail. All booked up I grabbed a beer in the garden of the hostel and chilled, I was soon joined by a group of people and we chatted and drank beer. We all grabbed some food and then went to supermarket to get some cheap beers. Compared to south of Thailand the north was a lot cheaper with large beers being 10-15BHT cheaper. I ended up buying 2 bottles of rocket fuel, the 7/11 had sold out Chang so we opted for a 25BHT a bottle of what I can only describe as snake bite. It tasted like shit and after finishing the 2 bottles along with the 2 from earlier I was well on my way. We then headed to a reggae bar. Here i met 2 English guys from Hull, Nick and Andy who turns out had booked to leave the next day also, we were soon on the buckets.
Tuesday November 15th
The next thing I remember was waking up outside my dorm on a sofa at around 8am, I hadn't even made my bed. I didn't feel too bad but I had stomach pain's, I attempted breakfast but the thought of food made me feel sick. We boarded the minivan myself Nick and Andy at 10.30am, we had a short stop to pick up more people and we were away. For the first hour I felt OK, but soon i was really struggling I thought hangover but it really didn't feel like that and my stomach was turning and in pain. We had a 15min stop to see the white Temple just outside Chaing Rai, it was pretty impressive.
We still had a couple of hours to go and with 10mins before Chaing Kong i really felt like i was going to be sick and almost shouted to the driver to stop. It was almost 5pm when we reached the border town. The nights accommodation should have been included in the price I paid at the hostel. For some it was, for however because i was on my own, they wanted to charge me 200 extra baht, why i didn't really know, i was now feeling very Ill and i just wanted a room so paid the money. Before i could retreat to my room and die we all had to sort out our visa's, the hostel to make things quicker and of course for a small fee would do this for us all so that the next morning on the Thai side at least we could just breeze straight through. After paying $25 for the visa and 100BHT for hostel to sort it all out I crashed in my room, it wasn't long before I had my head buried in the toilet and puking, this carried on for the next 3 hours on and off, I hadn't eaten all day and my stomach and body was in agony. I stayed in my room all night and even drinking water only proceeded to make me be sick again. By midnight i felt better, now starving and no way of getting any food I just went to sleep.Wednesday November 16th
I awoke feeling much better, even though I didn't sleep well, breakfast was included and it though it was only 2 bits of toast with an egg, made me feel much better. Our visa's had been sorted and the lady in the hostel handed them out. I had paid an extra 500BHt because knew i had stayed over a day, however i now had to cough another 500 as they included today as another overstay day even though i was going to be out within the hour, robbing gits!! We headed down to the border, the Thai side was easy as the hostel had sorted it all. We then had to jump on a long boat which ferried us across the infamous Mekong River to the Laos border town of 'Houayxay'. The long boat took all of 3min's and we were soon in Laos. The Laos immigration was less organised, when i say less organised the office had only 2 windows and with a good few hundred people waiting to get stamped in, it was far from ideal especially when the last Slow boat left at 11:30. by 10am an hour after reaching the Laos border we had all been stamped and ready to go. We were picked up by a guide who would be looking after us and taking us to our long boat. We were showed to what seemed to be a travel office, in total around 60 of us. Here we were left waiting for another 30mins before being taxied to a shop with which sold fresh sandwiches, drinks and beer. We then waited here another 30mins. We then all received our slow boat tickets were guided down to the river and the slow boat.
Another epic blog by Ruffy, really sorry for those that are still reading, its hard to keep up a daily update. I have decided to leave it here, even though i still have 10 or so days to cover but now in Laos, thought it would be a good time to stop and I will blog again very soon and hopefully will get up to date. I really enjoyed Thailand and I am gutted I didn't see more of the North, Chiang Mai had a great feel about it. If i have time i am going to head back that way before going home.
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