The long and winding road

We left our safe haven in Ko Chang en route to Bangkok, with a quick stop off to visit some familiar faces in Trat. We were greeted with the sort of welcome you would expect from old friends. In the smaller towns around Thailand, people’s willingness to receive you into their homes and welcome you as if you are their family can be a truly humbling experience.

From Trat we took the inevitable journey that any backpacker makes in Thailand and we packed up to head for Bangkok. We approached the city from the South through a series of spaghetti junctions, some signposted in Thai, some in English, a veritable game of Russian roulette with the Thai infrastructure.

From all angles the city sprawls, not saved by such reinforcement as London’s green belt, the city quite literally spans out in all directions as far as the horizon. Like a perpetually growing sponge it indiscriminately absorbs people and places and creates a vacuum of anything truly natural or wholesome.

We stayed three days, which was about all we could take of the place. The last words to leave Tammy’s mouth as we walked from our guesthouse were “let’s get the f**k out of Bangkok!”

Reclining Buddha, Wat Pho, Bangkok

Kev and Tammy haggle with a street vendor, Bangkok

While I paint a fairly dim picture of the place it did have its redeeming qualities. We ate some great food, drank some great drinks and had some laughs along the way. But an encounter with the Thai police left us feeling weary. Kev’s honesty resulted in him presenting at a tourist police station, admitting to damaging some low hanging phone lines with the top box of the van. While being directed where to park by a member of the Thai police he was instructed to reverse; only to find that he had hit a parked car at the side of the street. This was followed by a fairly heated debate between Kev and the Thai police, by this stage there was the damage to the phone lines, a light that had been snapped by the lines falling and of course a third party’s car had suffered minor injury. A sufficient bribe needed to be settled. Needless to say that Kev did not come out of this engagement with the tourist police with a smile on his face.

Wat Pho, Bangkok

But we soldiered on, these things are sent to try you and you can’t let things get you down too much. But we all decided it would be prudent to exit the city that never ends and head North for Chiang Mai.

The view of Wat Arun (The Temple of Dawn) from the floating markets, Bangkok

The drive from Bangkok to Chiang Mai is a long one so we stopped roughly half way in a sleepy old Sukothai, which is a world heritage site and is a national history park. Some of the temple ruins dating back pre 12th century. We arrived fairly late so it was dinner for us in a small restaurant followed by beers and a film in Betsy and then to sleep.

The camper is very well equipped. The seats fold away to become one double bed, and a second bed can be folded down from a compartment above the driver. The whirring fans, however, serve as little respite from the sweat and breath generated by three people on a hot night in Thailand, at times making sleep an unattainable aspiration. In the morning Kev and Tammy decide to sleep on while Richie rose early, armed with his camera and his sun-cream to get some pictures of the stunning temples and ruins in the surrounding area.

Here are the fruits of his early mornings work

Wat Mahathat, main monastic ruin in Old Sukhotai

Wat Si Sawai, Ancient Hindu Temple in Old Sukhotai

Wat Traphang Ngeon, Sukhotai

Wat Sa Si, Ancient Sri Lankan (Sinhalese) Buddhist Temple, Sukhotai

We left Sukhotai first thing after breakfast and in a little over four hours we arrived at the old walled city of Chiang Mai, surrounded by a moat. The moat separates the sleepy old town inside, while the lively new city sprawls along outside. The new part of the city maintains the sleaze and tease that a very particular type of tourist travels to Thailand for. A walk through Chiang Mai will take you through a jungle of food stalls and markets. On certain streets you can find an array of dried fish and fruit, and a spectacular flower market lolls on a backstreet, easy to miss but worth seeking out.

As you move to the newer parts of the city the streets are crammed with street vendors and market stalls focusing more on shoddy electrical products and questionable jewelery. While in Chiang Mai we booked a three day trek through the jungles just north of the city. 3 days and 2 nights in the wilds of the jungle, why not?!!

Kev, the rambling man...

Our jungle trek saw us visiting members of the Karon Hill Tribe, easily identifiable by their women who wear solid brass bars coiled around their necks causing them over time to extend.

Karon woman, Chiang Mai

The weight of these adornments is shocking; some women constantly carry 5 kilos in brass on their collar bones. While the visit was extremely staged and lacking in authenticity, it was an interesting encounter. The women are truly beautiful.

Karon woman with Child, Chiang Mai

The Karon also have an affinity with elephants, having built a working relationship of sorts with them over generations. Most elephants required a rider, also called a "Mahout" in order to direct them, similar to a jockey I guess. But the bigger, older ones who were better trained could be simply directly by the Mahout speaking to them in the Karon people unique dialect. The Mahout for our elephant, which was conveniently the biggest bull they had, failed to inform us of this fact however! Making our first 5 minutes on an elephant pretty scary as there was no rider and the huge guy just strode off of his own accord, or so we thought. We calmed down once we realised what was going on.

Tammy and Richie rode on top of this beast, lovingly named Stampy for a day

The task of trekking through the jungle was no easy feat. The heat and the humidity created under the canopy were stifling. I (Tammy) was once told by an old school teacher that “horses sweat, men perspire and women glow”. In the jungle we were all horses. We sweat. And then we sweat. And then we sweat some more. By the time we reached our base camp we were sticky, worn out, bitten by critters and somehow feeling damn good from it all. Nothing a cold beer and a Thai massage can’t cure.

Young Lahu boy catching crabs in a rice paddy, Chiang Mai

Lahu Hill Tribe Village, Chiang Mai

We stayed with the Lahu Hill Tribes, who once again we a shining example of Thai hospitality. We celebrated our day’s work on top of a mountain, under a full moon, drinking moonshine whiskey and getting to know our fellow trekkers.

Our camp in the Lahu Village

The following days consisted of much the same formula. Walking, sweating, climbing, at times falling, navigating bamboo forests, more sweating, cooling off under jungle waterfalls, and then finishing it off with a cold Chang beer. Our base camp the second night was nestled on the side of a river. The girls, (myself and out three fellow trekkers from Bavaria, Germany) opted to use the showers. But Richie and Kev decided to go wild and clean themselves in the river itself. We huddled around a campfire for most of the night and then slept in a relatively exposed jungle camp falling asleep to the sounds of the cicadas and the river rushing by.

Our camp for our second night in the jungle

Our trek ended with a white knuckle ride down the rapids balanced then by a relaxing stint on a bamboo raft. We all were humbled by the energy and graciousness of our guide, Puzaa, for the three days. He took us through the highs and lows of the jungle and kept us entertained the whole way.

Jungle Camp, Chiang Mai

Puzaa who guided us through the wilderness, and a local villager

By this stage the time was beginning to tick by on our visas, so a stop off in Myanmar (Burma) was on the cards. We headed South (with a brief stop off in Pai) to Mai Sot for a visa run. It took only an hour and cost only BHT500, but it was an eye opener. As you cross the "Friendship Bridge" from Thailand to Burma, the difference between the two countries is striking. Thailand has its development and infrastructure. And Burma is about 50 years behind. Dirt roads, and not a sniff of western influence anywhere. I don’t believe I have ever seen a shop that doesn’t stock Coca Cola; somehow it has not infiltrated this place. After a brief walk around we decided that Breakfast in Burma was not as romantic as it sounds.

Burmese Temple

After the visa run we headed further south for Ko Phangan, for a mini holiday on a not so mini island. We were all in agreement that we were fans of this island. We rented bikes and travelled around for a day or so seeing the area and spending too much money on bits and pieces along the way.

Tammy on her "hog"

Richie with "Sephuu" a vain puppy sporting red nail varnish!

The islands of Thailand are renowned for their precarious hills strewn haphazardly across the sides of mountains. On bikes they were fun to drive up, but beware on the way back down. People in cars have little regard for people on bikes and accidents are a frequent occurrence. Locals on the islands also feel free to charge ridiculous prices when dealing with "Farang" (Foreigners). But they had a hard time we the three of us, cause we not only know how to haggle, but actively enjoy it. Though sometimes you still feel like your not getting the service you've paid for when you have to get out and push your own taxi up the aforementioned hills.

Who will win the battle? Hill or taxi?!

So that pretty much takes us up to date. After Ko Pga Ngan we three set off in the van for Phuket, to visit our friend Nicola from home who has been living and teaching in Thailand for some time now. I reckon she'll be able to show us a good time.

Here is also where we say a farewell to Betsy. Tammy and Richie have been proud to call her home for 4000km over roughly 5 weeks, the length and breath of Thailand. Kev has taken her through the battles and struggles from Ireland to Thailand, so after 46,000km in 11/12 months his farewell is an emotional one. She will be shipped home from Malaysia to become Kev’s project over the coming years. I’m sure he will lovingly restore her to her former glory before the world took it out of her.

Buying diesel, near Mai Sot, Thailand

Thanks for reading and we will keep you updated on all future events and scandals. For now it is night busses and trains to get the three, Richie, Tammy and Kev up to Laos and say farewell to Thailand for a while.

Richie with some street kids in Bangkok
Selling chewing gum and smiles for BHT20