The End of a Journey

Location: Bangkok
Country: Thailland

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This will be my last update in the blog, as tomorrow my trip in Asia comes to an end.
Though I am very eager to get home, I have decided that before returning, I will pay a visit to my family in London for a couple of weeks.

I spent about a week on Haadrin beach (Kho Phangan). Unfortunately the weather was not very good and the beach there has been ruined, it's all clubs along the front and the beach is very littered.
I spent most of my time there watching films.
To be honest, I don't think I could have enjoyed anything too much at that point, my heart just wasn't there already, I just wanted to be in London and then home.

From Kho Phangan returned to Bangkok, my last long bus trip!! It took about 20 hours door to door. So glad those trips are behind me.
Though my trip to London will actually be a rather long one too. In order to save about 200 USD, I am flying via Sri-Lanka, and will have the great pleasure of spending 10 hours at Colombo airport. I think it will take me about 30 hours in all, but at least it's not a bus trip, a plane will be luxury in comparison.

Spent almost a week in Bangkok, I always enjoy my time here.
It was extremely hot and humid, and I don’t think that there has been a point in the last few days when I have not been sweating.
Spent most of my time shopping, one of my least favorite activities, but it had to be done. I’m sure I bought much less than most people do here; I don’t know how they get all their packages on the plane.
I am finally done with the shopping and am looking forward to being on my way tomorrow.

I am proud to tell you that the zip I reported I had sewn on my bag a few updates ago, is still there, my own abilities surprise me.
Maybe that should be the direction my career could take upon my return – I could go work in a sweat-shop sewing zips on bags and earn less than minimum wage.
I've been waiting my entire trip for some inspiration about what I will do when I get back, and it has finally come to me.

I want to retract something that I said in one of my updates – I said that Ben Elton was my new favorite author. Well, I have read 5 more books of his since, and my opinion of him has altered slightly. The books were good, but none of them as enjoyable as the first one I read ("Inconceivable"). The only one that was almost as good was "Dead Famous", which was rather funny.
So, though I think he is quite a good author, definitely not my favorite. I feel he tries too hard in his books to criticize society.

Apart from all the obvious, there are a few things that I am really looking forward to about going at home:
* Not needing to wear a money belt.
* Being able to sit on the toilet seat.
* Showering bare foot, not having to wear flip-flops.
* Not having to brush my teeth with mineral water.
* Not carrying all my worldly possessions on my back.
* Sleeping in my own bed.
* Having home-cooked meals.
* Not having cold showers.
* Not having to spend more than 5 consecutive hours in a vehicle.

So, this is it, we have come to the end. I want to thank all my readers who have stuck by me over the last six months; I hope you enjoyed reading the blog as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
Special thanks to Mum who never missed a comment.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my journey, some parts were better than others, but I wouldn't change any of it.
I have met some great people along the way, and I hope that I will keep contact with at least a few of them.
Paula – Having you join me for that time in India was brilliant, and I was sorry that you couldn’t stay longer.

I didn't need to travel for six months in order to discover that "there is no place like home", I knew that from the start and I am so happy to be going back.
No matter how much I will complain once I'm home (finding a job, finding a house, leading a regular life again), I know now, more than ever, that there is no where else I would rather be.

The Islands

Location: Kho Phangan (Haadrin beach)
Country: Thailand

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My apologies for not updating the blog last week, the Internet in the islands is really expensive, and seeing as I have been concentrating my energies on doing nothing, there really isn’t much to tell.
I spent a few pleasant days in Bangkok, even venturing around the city a bit, the shopping malls there are just unbelievable. I don’t know about Thailand being a 3rd world country, they look Israel look like one.
The shopping malls are huge and so modern looking, and there are just so many of them around. I went to one that had 7 floors of electric appliances; I was dizzy when I came out of there.
In Bangkok I met quite a few people that I had met during my trip, was very nice to see some of them, seems like everyone ends up in Thailand eventually.

From Bangkok I headed down to the Islands, decided to go to Kho Phangan.
When I was in Thailand last time, I came to this Island and stayed on Haadrin beach, which is the party beach where the fullmoon party takes place. I heard that it had changed a lot and become like a small town. I also did not fancy going there as it was a week before the fullmoon and I knew that it would be packed with people.
I wasn’t really sure which beach I was heading for.
On the ferry on the way to the Island I met this nice English guy – Sadler, and was chatting to him, he said that he was going to Thong Nai Pan Yai beach, it sounded good, so I let him know that I would be following him.
In all, the trip to the beach from the island ended up taking about 20 hours, was quite exhausting.
The beach was really nice, huts all along the front with nice restaurants around and a bit of a night life (though not much).

The weather has not been perfect, as it should be this time of year, have had some cloudy and rainy days, but seems to be getting better all the time and last few days have been lovely and sunny.
I stayed at Thong Nai Pan Yai beach for about a week and a half, ended up spending most of my time with Sadler (nothing romantic, too big an age gap). We got on really well, he’s a great guy.

My days were spent on the beach, reading, chatting, eating and playing cards. Can’t complain.

After Sadler left and a noisy construction site suddenly appeared outside my room, I decided that it was time to move on.
Even though I knew that Haadrin beach would be nothing like I remember and rather developed, I wanted to see it.
I arrived today and was quite shocked by what I found; there is not one thing that I recognized. There actually is one club that I remember from last time, but the only thing that is the same is the name (The Cactus), it is completely different.
I have about a week left in the islands, and I think I’ll spend it here. Even though it is very developed, it seems quite pleasant, and I can hang out watching films in the restaurants when I’m not at the beach, catch up on current movies a bit.

The Lao boat experience

Location: Bangkok
Country: Thailand

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Spent a couple of days in Luang Prabang. It is a very pleasant town with not too much to see. Saw some temples, though I pretty much feel that I have seen enough of those to last me a life time.
Every night the main tourist street closes to traffic and they have a night market which is really nice.

From Luang Prabang I decided to head to Thailand. There was some more things to see in Laos, but to be honest I have grown a little tired of travelling and just wanted to get to the islands in Thailand. Before heading for the islands I wanted to stop in Chang Mai in the north of Thailand to do an elephant trek.
To get to Chang Mai from Luang Prabang I had five options to chose from, none of which were extremely appealing :
Option A: Get a one hour flight. The main fault with this option is that only Lao Airlines fly on this route, and flying with them is pretty much equivalent to committing suicide. They are one of the worst airlines, they have very old plains and refuse to publish their crash statistics. So I decided to give this option a miss.
Option B: Get a bus that takes about three days on dreadful roads. No need to explain why I didn’t chose this option.
Option C: Get a night bus to Vientiane, from there a night train to Bangkok and from there a night bus to Chang Mai. Quite the long way round, and I knew that if I arrived in Bangkok, I would probably be too lazy to head to Chang Mai and will just go to the islands.
Option D: Get a six hour fast boat to the Thai border and from there a six hour bus to Chang Mai. Would have been the best option, only that according to the “Lonely Planet”, there is at least one fatality a week on the fast boat, and you should avoid going on them at all costs.
Option E: Get a two day slow boat to the Thai border, stopping at some town on the way for the night, and from there a six hour bus to Chang Mai.
This seemed to be the safest option, so I chose it.

The chairs on the boat were the most uncomfortable wooden benches you could imagine (suddenly the local bus in India seemed comfortable). The first day was supposed to take nine hours.
About two and a half hours after leaving Luang Prabang the boat engine suddenly died. Though the engine did make quite an awful noise, the last thing you wanted is to stop hearing it.
They managed to steer us to the river bank despite the really strong current. The Lao people started getting off the boat, when suddenly they began running of in a panic. At this point it was rather scary, didn’t know if we were drowning or if the whole thing was about to blow up or what. All the foreigners were just standing on the boat trying to figure out what was going on and what we should do.
The biggest question – do we get off and abandon our backpacks to an unknown fate?
We all got off (I would say that there were about 25 of us), and the locals were struggling to hold the boat with this rope, whilst the river was making it’s best effort to fight them. The chances of the boat not drifting away were not looking good.

I was not about to lose my backpack. I organized the foreigners to get all our backpacks of the boat, and felt calmer when my bag was on dry land.
So there we are, sitting on the sand by the river, the sun blazing, no shade in site, no food and hardly any water left, and absolutely no idea how long we were going to be spending there.
We were quite surprised by the Lao efficiency, when 2 hours later our salvation boat appeared.
This boat had no seats at all, which was much better, as the floor was more comfortable than the wooden benches and it also gave a good atmosphere all sitting together.

The boat sailed off to the sound of our cheers.
We cheered too soon. Five minutes after leaving we had to stop because the propeller, or something of that sort, broke hitting the rocks. Luckily they did have a spare one and we were only delayed for half an hour.
By now we had a little group of forgings that were getting friendly and I was sitting with two really sweet Israeli guys playing cards.
All seemed to be going well.
The catch was that we couldn’t make it to the town where we were supposed to sleep before dark, and the boat can not sail in the dark. We stopped at this tiny village and were told that we have to sleep on the boat. It gets pretty cold and night, and I remind you that we had no food and drink either. Not a great situation.
Then this guy came along and said that there was a guesthouse and we should come with him. I got my two Israeli guys to come quickly, as it was obvious that there would not be enough room for everyone.
So we go off marching in the dark, about 25 of us, with our backpacks, through these sand dunes. Must have been quite a site.
We arrive at this shed which is the house of a family in the village, there was the room were the family slept and one room where they could accommodate us. They could only fit 15 people in, so it was lucky that we were ahead in the line. The rest of the people had to go back to sleep on the boat.
We got sticky rice and plain noodles to eat. But after hardly eating all day, it was delicious.

We asked for water and were told that there is only beer. After buying over priced beer that we didn’t really want, some of the guys found the shop in the village and found that there was water. They just wanted to make more of a profit on us, so they didn’t tell us. Lovely Lao people. But at least we got water in the end.
By this time there was a real bond forming in the group and the atmosphere was really cool.
After supper they laid out mattresses on the floor in the whole room, was rather a tight fit.

The chances of me being able to sleep in such conditions were extremely low, until one of my new friends produced a Valium pill, I slept like a baby.
The next day we headed off at dawn to the town where we were supposed to sleep originally, with hope that we would make the next boat heading to the border.
Thankfully, we made it.
There were benches on this one, but our little group chose to sit on the floor at the back as it was more comfortable.
We passed the time with about eight of us playing cards (Apparently Taki is not an Israeli game and is known abroad as Uno).
We had a great time on the way, as by this point we were best mates, having been through so much together.
We reached the border town too late to cross to Thailand, and spent the night in Laos.

The next day I headed off with the two Israeli guys and two Aussies to Thailand. After crossing the border we had a 7 hours bus to Chang Mai.
On the way we got friendly with another girl and we all found a guesthouse together, which wasn’t an easy task, as the city seemed to be packed.

My reason for arriving in Chang Mai was that I wanted to ride an elephant.
So yesterday I went on a day tour. They didn’t have a tour with only elephant riding, so I also had to walk for an hour (!!!) to see some water fall and there was water rafting. The rafting I did not do, I have had enough of rivers.
The elephant ride was really cool though and I’m glad I did it.


Last night I got a 12 hour bus from Chang Mai to Bangkok. I was going to stay and explore the north of Thailand a bit, but all I feel like doing right now is heading for the islands and chilling out.
I will probably spent a couple of nights in Bangkok and head south.