Category: Jenni

Although its all been wonderful, there are just a few experiences we could have done without:

An emergency trip to the doctors /hospital in three out of the four countries we visited! Thankfully no serious harm done.
My leech bite – yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck…….did I say yuck?
Mosquito bites – we’ve been through 6 bottles of insect repellant but we’ve still been itchy most of the time!
Being asked for the 15th time in one day if someone can take a photo of Susie. Gets wearing for all of us, but especially Susie.
Chinese tour groups at breakfast buffets! There’s definitely a culture clash. Eventually we had to give in and teach the kids to push in instead of waiting patiently.

As the trip draws to a close we have been deciding on our favourite experiences during the trip. In no particular order we think:

Swimming! And boy we’ve done a lot. It’s been great to see the children improve and Luke learn to dive.
The overnight trains – the adventure of climbing into your own little bed on a moving train and being somewhere completely different when you wake up!
Climbing s live volcano – the sense of achievement, the beauty of the scenery and the learning experience.
Riding bikes together. We’ve ridden old ones, new ones, funny ones and broken ones but we’ve enjoyed them all and the speed they take us through the countryside and villages with everyone waving and shouting to us.
Enjoying the fantastic hospitality of Tony and Ally and cathcing up with the cousins. A fabulous way to start our trip. Thanks again guys!
Elephants. Feeding, hugging, washing, riding we’ve loved it all.
The Perhentian islands – truely a tropical paradise with amazing diving, snorkeling and an amazing hotel with unbelievable food. Happy to recommend if anyone is ever thinking of visiting. One day we might go back…..
Last but not least the people we have met. The entertainment value of Susie being trated like royalty (shame we onlynfound the t-shirt which said “no photos please” in the last few days!). The kindness and consideration of just about everyone we have met, from the man who invited us to his home, to the train conductors, the hoteliers and the innumerable random people on the street.

There are so many more things we have loved, this is just a very small selection!

We have thoroughly enjoyed our last few days outside Chiang Mai. The horse riding we planned didn’t work out terribly well. It turned out that they had misunderstood that we were only here on holiday although we had been clear about it from the start. When they finally understood they didn’t want us to ride at all. We did eventually persuade two pony rodes out of them for Luke and Susie but as this only involved being walked on a lead rein around the arena they quickly got bored!

Emma and I really enjoyed our one day cooking course. We visited a market where Emma’s food knowledge easily outstripped that of most of the other (adult) attendees! The difference between ginger and garlic anyone? We then went to the location for the cooking where we each had our own workstation and wok. We learnt to make a soup each, pad thai and a curry each starting with the curry paste. The instructor and other group members were good value and we had lots of fun. Unfortunately I forgot to take the camera so no photos of our food! We packed up most of the food and brought it back to our hotel where it was reheated for the whole family to eat for tea. By no means the best Thai food we have eaten, but not too shabby either 🙂

Yesterday we had our day with the elephants. We were able to walk amongst them, feeding them bananas, hugging and stroking them. Some of us were even kissed by a baby one. A funny but not altogether pleasant experience.

We then had a lesson in basic elephant commands before we each had a turn, astride our own elephant at putting them into practice. True to form, susie showed no fear and was first to mount up and have a go. All the kids did very well and were very brave as it is quite a daunting experience!

After some lunch we took our elephants out for a walk in the “jungle”. Because of the kids ages we were given a professional mahout to ride in front, one for each child / elephant. Phil and i had to ride behind with luke and susie. I have to say that riding on the back, as opposed to the neck, of a large elephant is a very uncomfortable position and there was more than once when I felt like I might fall, particularly as my rope to hold o to had slipped. However we sll stayed on, and the kids loved being on the front. Afterwards we all had “elephant legs” with a strange gait :-). Finally we took the elephants into the water where we washed them and they sprayed water over us. Lovely to cool off and great fun for everyone. Even the baby ones came to join in.

We were dropped off at the Saturday walking street for a few last minute souveniers before our ride back to the hotel. Just time for a nightime swim under the stars before bed. What a fabulous day to end our trip.

Today we are packing and travelling home. Three aeroplanes – a short one from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, then Bangkok to Dubai, and finally Dubai to Gatwick. No doubt we will be very much looking forward to our own beds once we get there.

With Emma’s foot still to sore for much in the way of moving around, we decided to continue as planned and head by bus to Chiang Rai as this would give her a reasonably stationary day. It means we have left Chiang Mai behind without actually visiting the city but we plan to go back later on….

We caught the VIP bus for the trip. This more than halves the trip time, down to only three hours. It was also very comfortable and we were given green cake to eat. No idea what flavour it was meant to be but some of us liked it!

We found our hotel in Chiang Rai easily, specially chosen because it has baths not just showers, much easier for keeping one foot dry! Fortunately it seems nice enough as well and they have upgraded us from one standard room and one delux (with the required bath tub) to two delux rooms in order to be able to place us together. Lovely.

Having ditched our luggage we set out to find a few essentials, including cash, and some tea. For some reason today our credit card has been refused at all ATMs. We were quite calm about it for the first five hours and phone call to the uk, less so over the next couple of hours and second phone call. Fortunately the second call did the trick and we now have access to funds again 🙂

We wandered further loking for tea and Phil spotted a row of stalls up a side road. We went up and stumbled into the midle of a huge music / food festival and dance competition. Lots of things going on and hundreds of food stalls. No information in English at all :-). Phil and I set out separately to find dishes for us to share. I found spicy, peanutty fried noodles with banana flower (strangely like a cross between banana and cabbage!) and fried rice with sausage of some sort. Phil came back with barbequed chicken, satay and some beef liver soup with a frighteningly jelly-like consistency. I think it’s fair to say my finds won the popularity contest ;-).

We then chose chocolate coated banana slices, candy floss and mini coconut ice cream cones for desert. Yum!

I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to try out a Thai massage, less than £1.50 for 30 minutes. Oh my goodness! I got cramp in my foot and it was nothing like as painful as what she was doing to me. I’m sure I will be black and blue tomorrow….. I can’t imagine that you could make it more painful if that was your sole purpose. I’ve never been so glad for 30 minutes to be over. Of course I went with the English approach and when asked if I enjoyed it said “oh yes, lovely thank you!”. Madness.

We topped off the evening by watching a few acts in the local Thai equivalent if x-factor by which point we had completely lost touch with the children in the hoards of screaming school girls so it seemed sensible to recover them and head back to the hotel. We will all sleep well tonight I think!

We arrived off the overnight train from Bangkok tired and hungry. The train was due in at 8am so we had rashly decided against ordering breakfast on the train the night before thinking that we would purchase some once we arrived. Unfortunately the train was delayed by 2 hours, as it is every day we are now told!

We finally got some breakfast, and given it was of the rice and curry persuasion perhaps it was just as well that it was nearly lunchtime :-). We were met at the station by Hans our Dutch host for the next few days. He drove us 20kms or so out of the city to his beautiful hotel. We have a delightful Traditional Thai bungalow (on stilts) with gorgeous furnishings and a beautiful pool. Its a very easy place to get lost doing nothing!

Yesterday we dragged ourselves out, borrowing some of the onsite bikes. They are very high quality dutch bikes including a tag along for Susie this time. We did a 15km circuit including a visit to “the Thai Grand Canyon” otherwise known as an old quarry pit. We also stopped by an equestrian centre and, after considerable shouting through the gate to get anyone’s attention, we were allowed in the meet the horses, ponies, birds and dogs. Quite an amazing facility with a competition size dressage area and some beautiful horses. They wouldn’t allow us to ride due to the surface being waterlogged but suggested that if we come back next week it may be possible to have some lessons.

After a good session in the pool we headed out to the Chiang Mai night safari. Not an authentic Thai experience but hand feedng the giraffes will, nonetheless be one of my favourite memories. Less so the performing elephants and the staggeringly awful cabaret / magic show afterwards! Seemed designed to scare the already tired kids… Almost forgot that we saw the very rare Kangaloo from Austrarira!

This morning we planned to head into Chiang Mai itself but Emma scuppered our plans by dropping a jar, onto her glass, which smashed and dropped onto her foot creating a rather large and deep hole. I have never seen so much blood so quickly! Fortunately Phil was quick with the first aid kit and Hans drove us immediately to the local clinic. Emma was immediately put onto a trolley, wheeled inside and seen by a nurse. The nurse set up to suture, but having anethetised decided that afterall the surgeon was needed. My heart sank. Thankfully the surgeon was happy and simply put in the three stitches needed. A quick stop on the way back for some new flip flops which don’t touch the wound and nearly as good as new. The whoe thing including antibiotics, painkillers and wound dressing kits fir the next 10 days came to less than £10! The only pain is that Emma must keep it dry for 10 days until the stitches come out so no swimming or bathing elephants.

So instead of our day sightseeing the kids are sat around the bar watching childrens films and Phil has headed out to look for replacement items for our first aid kit! We are reviewing whether this will change our plans dor the last 10 days of our trip.

We’ve had a lovely few days in Kanchanaburi.  It’s a funny place with an entirely separate tourist village away from the main town.  It’s a funny mix of World War 2 history (it’s where the bridge over the river Kwai was built), backpackers and middle aged men searching for Thai wives.  We have done our best to avoid the latter which hasn’t proved too difficult as they only hang around in bars which also sell egg and chips and steak and kidney pie!

Our guest house has had bikes to borrow, inckuding a pink tandem with an extra child seat on the back.  In the absence of any other bikes to fit, Phil has cycled this with Luke and Susie on the back while Emma and I have had our own bikes.  We spent a day exploring the area including temples and war cemeteries.  Very sombering to see the scale of them, and they are only for the allied troops and not the 100,000 or so local drafted labour.

We also fitted in a visit to the Erawan waterfalls – seven tiers, although we only climbed as far far as number five.  Stunningly beautiful and somewhat eerie with a pale turquoise colour water.  We swam in pool number four where you can slide down the waterfall like a theme park slide.  Lots of fun, but none of us much liked the very large fish which nibble you in the water.  Rather like a fish spa only a full body version with fish 10 or 20 times the size.  Rather disconcerting and uncomfortable if not actually painful.  Luke was particularly bothered by them and didn’t manage to swim.

We took a tour which took us for elephant riding andbamboo rafting.  The elephant riding was more successful than our last experience witha trip through the jungle and into the river.  It feels very precarious going up and down hill on the back of an elephant!  We were able to feed the bananas at the end of the trip.

The bamboo rafting was nice but not amazing.  We were towed up river and thenfloated back down.  Pleasant enough.

We also rode on the tourist train across the death bridge and on for about 30 minutes.  It’s a popular tourist trip and as such was very busy.  The river is in flood at the moment because its rainy season.  We’re lucky that we haven’t as yet been too impacted by the rain. It seems to be mostly in heavy showers in the late afternoon early evening and we haven’t got significantly wet so far.

Today we leave Kanchanaburi and head, first by bus back to Bangkok and then by overnight train up to Chiang Mai.

Today we took a car from Danau Toba to beristagi, a journey of about four hours.  First we hiked a couple of miles with our rucksacks back to the German bakery which we had previously enjoyed for breakfast.  Having taken full advantage  of the buffet options, we caught the 9 am ferry to Parapet.  There we were met by our prebooked car to drive us to Beristagi.  The journey involved more random acceleration and deceleration, hairpin turns and blind overtaking it.  I took my mind off it by spotting me favourite uses for a moped.  They included twelve (or was it 13) children on one scooter travelling home from school, the man with a full size fridge freezer strapped to the back of his (how do you balance that?), the one with a home-made 6ft by 6ft “windscreen” made from bamboo and sheets of plastic, the ones converted in mobile hawker stalls who can pull to the side of the road, pop up an umbrella and cook you whatever you would like for tea, and the one with chickens on the back!  I also noticed that in the UK we seriously underutilise the opportunies to honk our horns.  Here you need to honk at every other vehicle and most of the pedestrians you pass.  Plenty of value achieved 🙂

We’re staying somewhere a bit more upmarket in Beristagi but the altitude means that the temperature is lower.  I think this might restict our use of the outdoor pool.  Phil and Luke have braved a local barber for haircuts.  luke looks like a different child – his hair is very short now!  He’s happy and i’m pretending i don’t mind the lack of curls!

We’ve booked a guide for the climb of Sibayak tomorrow.  We are all excited to climb a real live volcano, although there’s been no actual activity for a long time!

It is as stunnngly beautiful here as we remember from our last trip and the weather has been fantastic with a combination of sunshine and dramatic storms.  Yesterday we rented three bikes for me, Emma and Luke and a motorcycle for Phil and Susie.  We wanted bikes for all of us but much searching proved that it wasn’t possible to rent a bike small enough for Susie to reach the pedals and the handlebars simultaneously, or a child seat on an adult bike.

Concerned about the safety of the motorbike we requested helmets, no problem we were told.  They handed us a helmet just for Phil.  We considered for a while, but the choice was no helmet or no trip so we went ahead.  We had a lovely day exploring the local countryside and villages.  Emm and Luke cycled brilliantly, coping eith uneven roads, honking horns, kids running to try and touch them and everyone shouting hello.  Luke had a few tumbles off the unfamiliar bike, mostly from being to interested in looking at things other than the road ahead, but no serious damage was done.

For lunch we found a german run hotel with a fantastic bakery.  Today we have walked back from our hotel in the cool of the early morning to take advantage of the bread, rolls, cakes and buns in the breakfast buffet.  We will catch the boat around the island back to our hotel for more swimming in the lake later.  The kids are practicing their olympic diving from the diving board!

Tomorrow we move on again, to Beristagi and hopefully climb a live volcano if we can find a guide.

Today we have reached the halfway point of our trip – five weeks gone, and another five to go.  It seems more than five weeks since we left home but I suspect the second half of the trip will feel much shorter.

We have been busy since we last updated the blog.  Everyone was well enough to thoroughly enjoy our last day in KL at the Sunway Lagoon water park.  We went down all the water slides, and most of the fair rides as well.  There was some random height measuring going on.  The official height restriction was 1.1m for all the rides, but at some rides Susie stood well over the marker and at others a good 10cm under.  In the end, after some debate, there was only one she was not allowed on.  We arrived as the park opened, and left as it closed.  We all slept well that night.  Phil has taken some footage with the waterproof camera but video is proving difficult to edit and upload so it may not be seen until we are home!

The following day we caught our bus for Penang.  Ramadan caught us out again – the six hour bus was broken only by a toilet stop and not the expected lunch one!  The kids thought all their Christmas’s had come as they ate bisuits and crisps for lunch :-). We made it to our hotel on Bayu Ferenggi by about five pm.  A quick dip in the pool and off to look for tea.  It turns out there is an excellent hawker centre ( well Penang is famous for it’s food) nearby which we have frequented every night.  The sweet rotis with cndensed milk have been a hit, as was Emma’s oxtail soup!

While we have been here we have visited Georgetown where we took the opportunity to buy our 20 hour overnight train tickets to Bangkok for later on.  The lovely lady behind the counter informed us all days after ours are already booked solid due to the end of Ramadan but also told us that one or two days a week the train is cancelled on the day!  Fingers crossed it is not ours…..  We enjoyed walking around the city, looked at Fort Cornwallis and the museum as well as taking in the architecture and soaking up the culture.  At lunchtime we stopped in Little India at a small restaurant where we liked the man cooking rotis at the front.  We sat down and when asked for our order mentioned rotis.  “only lunch menu now” we were told.  We looked hopefully for a menu but none was forthcoming so we asked “what’s on the lunch menu?”. “banana leaf set”.  So that’s whar we had, and very tasty it was too!

We have also visited Kek Soo Li temple, been up Penang hill and played in the Youth Park. All good fun.  Now we have to pack up again, we are off to our third country – Indonesia – with a flight to Sumatra tomorrow.