Chiang Mai... Pad Thai Anyone ?!

Continuing north through Thailand I reached Chaing Mai a great town to spend a little time shopping and generally relaxing between extreme activities such as white water rafting, jungle treks or Thai boxing ! After another wonderful overnight train journey (putting UK public transport again to great great shame) I arrived well and happy. The next day I embarked on a two day trek and camp with a group of 10 others. The trek involved lots of up hill rocky walking through rivers mud and rice fields I found it a challenge but have definitely given my new ankle a thorough testing and can confirm it works perfectly ! Part of the trek was done by elephant which was terrifying as we literally slid down muddy banks on an elephant followed by other elephants sliding along, I had visions of an elephant domino effect and me being squished under tons of elephants in the mud. After about 10 hours of travel and trek we stopped to camp for the night next to a beautiful water fall which I took no time in getting into for a swim and wash. We cooked dinner on a camp fire, ate roasted silk worms and drank beer by candle light. It was difficult to sleep as the jungle noises were so very loud better than street traffic though. Another day of trekking ended i was rather knackered but luckily was in Chaing mai for the famous Sunday markets where they close most of the streets off and open up markets so wasted no time recovering and got out shopping.

I decided to take a Thai cookery course for the day.I had a wonderful time shopping for goods on the markets and preparing traditional dishes such as spring rolls, pad Thai, green curry, Tom Yum soup and stir frys...all delicious although some of the cooking techniques i will not be using at home for fear of burning the house down (see pic !!!) I will be putting these new found skills to good use on my return for so for all future meal bookings please contact me by email !

Tigers and Bridges

From Bangkok I headed towards Kanchanaburi to visit the war cemeteries and famous bridge over the river kwae and 'death railway'. The bridge is really just well..a bridge and not being a fan of the film or a bridge spotter I could really only appreciate it for its beautiful location and respect what it stood for and the terrible things that happened there. I travelled for three hours along the death railway and realised why it is called death railway I felt sure there must have been an easier more accessible place to build a railway but maybe the location was chosen was as out of punishment as it was about access logistics. The museum did not really tell me much but had some unusual exhibits such as the dental surgery used by the Japanese during the war...

I had heard much about the Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yannasampanno Forest Monastery or 'Tiger Temple' a couple of hours West of the bridge and was rather excited. Its mooted as a sanctuary where tigers rescued by monks life together and in harmony with each other. I had hoped to observe this. What I discovered was a different thing the wildlife sanctuary was great and it was amazing to see so many animals that otherwise would have been dead. However the tiger element was not what expected. It was originally a low key place where the tigers were rescued and lived with the monks in the temple. The down side of tourism has seen an increased interest and its now more like a tiger petting place. The tigers are 'tame' and can be touched the money raised from the sanctuary entrance fees is apparently going towards a new project to prepare rescued tigers to go back into the wild however to do this the monks would have to change their whole approach towards the tigers and thus the main tourist attraction and income...I will be watching that space.

Pics show me with a tiger, me on 'the bridge' view from the death railway (it was very high on a cliff !)

Sa Wat Dii Kha

Hello from Thailand !

From Pondicherry to Madras then a 5 hour flight to Bangkok it was with sadness and excitement that i boarded the plane from India. A true adventure and experiences I will never forget (no always for the right reasons!)

Arriving in Bangkok the fresh warm air hit me and the sight of clean streets made me giggle. An easy check in at a hostel and high speed reliable Internet and IT services nearly made me faint with excitement then i found a mug of tea hot toast with marmite and a Thai foot massage...it pushed me over the edge. Smiley and happy i chatted to other travellers and pounded the street of Bangkok. I presumed that i would not really like Bangkok as a city I had lots of ideas of what it would be like some were right (sex tourism !) but scraping away the seedy layer and the spectacle of Th Khao San road i started to find a Bangkok of niche art cafes and small contemporary art galleries and open minded people that i never expected to find. I decided to head North and return to Bangkok and the South of Thailand towards the end of the SE Asia trip.

Pudding Cherry

Time for the drive of your life... being in a car on the roads from Madurai to Pondicherry or'puducherry' as its been renamed or 'pudding cherry' as I have renamed it (well everyone else changes the names of places in India so i thought i would join in !) well where was I...yes the journey was almost undescribable...I will try...I could no longer hear anything after 7 hours except car horns, we passed a truck at a strange angle stopped in the middle of the road....nothing much new there but until we realised that what we had seen as charred remains on the road 400m s before was infact its gear box. The driver simply sat in his cab dangling his legs looking bemused whilst cars beeped him to death. Few more miles along a big truck had toppled over...no panic it made a good source of shade for the men of the nearby village to watch the woman build the roads. In some ways I was pleased that this would be one of the last epic Indian road journeys at least for this year... after the painful journey some luxury was needed a hotel with a pool and breakfast included !!! Good shopping, coffee shops and a beauty salon nearby made Pondicharry the pudding cherry of the trip. Pondicherry is seemingly the shopping outlet mecca of India...guilty i bought a very nice bag. More than shopping though Pondicherry is a lovely place to relax its french roots give it a gentle european feel with the quirkyness that is india still ever present.