Cycle Tour In Bangkok Suburb from phildavies on Vimeo.
Erawan falls Thailand near Kanchanaburi
Erawan Falls Thailand from phildavies on Vimeo.
Kanchanaburi
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.
Cycling tour in Bangkok
We have just finished a great cycle ride with “On” our guide for the day. It all started this morning getting a cab to a different hotel to meet up. We thought it was odd that one taxi driver refused to take us but thought it was the time of day, or not far enough. We then took a trip round a wet market at Makkasan station. Most of the sellers were from the same village where we were on our way to and they , true to form, all fell in love with Susie. We saw loads of fruit, the insides of chickens with the eggs still growing inside. Did you know that they start off as yolks before the shell is made? It might settle the age old argument about which came first!
We then waited nearly an hour for a train and the train ride itself took nearly another 30 minutes.
By the time we got there everyone was very hot and so we were quite worried that tears would flow if the bikes were not right. We had given the tour company a list of heights for the children in advance but you never know. It was only the second time they had catered for young children.
We got the bikes adjusted and set off and I have to say I was very proud of our three for getting on with it.
We cycled through rice fields and learned about how it grows, is planted and harvested and examined some that was nearly ready to be picked.
We also got a close up of the banana plant to see what else is used in cooking other than the banana fruit itself. Quite a bit more than I thought.
We also passed many shrimp and catfish farms. The shrimp farms are distinguished by the paddle wheels across them used to aereate the water as the shrimp need a lot of Oxygen.
We eventually came to the village and we had lunch in a lovely cabin built over the shrimp farms with giant doors and a cooking class layout inside. The food was delicious and all local from the greens beans to the chicken, rice and bamboo. We washed it down with coca cola and water. It was important to eat everything because the ingredients take a long time to grow!
The return journey was great with our kids teaching On the and games that have become quite common on our trip – “a sailor went to sea, sea, sea” etc.
We passed another train that had caught fire and paused for a look. Nothing different to the UK there then.
I took some pictures of the level crossing just before our station where in an ordinary world the traffic waits for the train. Here of course possession is nine tenths of the law so you park across the level crossing and stay firm in your traffic jam until you can move again. The train shoudl stop. We waited for 10 mins on the train!
Overall we had a really good time and the kids did us proud in the main.
Getting back to our hotel was more tricky. Remember I said a taxi driver turned us down on the outbound route? Well this time there was definitely something wrong with our destination as no fewer than 6 taxis said thanks but no thanks! It seems they don’t like traffic jams. Bummer if you are a taxi driver in Bangkok then because that is pretty much all there is!
I did a time lapse of Bangkok at night from our hotel the other night through to sunrise. I have put two pictures to give you a feel for it at the bottom of the photo stream. It could be quote cool as there are 3800 pictures to make it but I need a computer at home to combine them.
More videos
I managed to get these videos, one of diving a set of swim throughs in the Perhentians and another of the Samosir village group, a traditional folk band on Samosir Island.
T3 HQ a dive with Dirk and Marleen and the Quiver Dive Team from phildavies on Vimeo.
Samosir Village Group from phildavies on Vimeo.
Orang Utans
This was a post of photos we took that I have been trying to upload unsuccessfully until now. We saw the Orang Utan feeding session on our first day at Bukit Lawang to ensure we saw something. We need not have worried as on the trek we saw lots of stuff but not all of it photogenic!
Butterworth to Bangkok
We boarded the overnight train in Butterworth and enjoyed saying goodbye to Malaysia which we have enjoyed so much.
The border crossing was as border crossings do and Susie threw a tantrum at the immigration official refusing to have her picture taken. That was awkward! We got back on the train after and the dinner lady was at our table waiting to take our order. We went for a selection and whilst it did not look like a great picture what arrived certainly welcomed us to Thailand. I pigged out on Red Curry. Hat Yai was where the food was presented and we shunted around picking up more carriages. It is a very large town and instead of the usual shanty town view there is a Mall in the distance.
I was really glad we have gone with down stairs beds on the train this time and apart from the people camping out on my bed the overnight trip through central Thailand should be quite relaxing
If anyone tells you it is cooler to be on the top bunk on overnight trains ignore them! The bottom bunk is bigger, better appointed and has better views of the countryside. Not least is you dont have to do gym in order to get to the loo. A huge bonus if you have need for the loo frequently like me today. Still recovering from Sumatra. It is odd that yesterday we were still there.
We are just arranging a possibly awesome finale to the trip. There is still space left at a place called elephant stay which looks to be on the other end of the “interacting with elephants” spectrum from the experience we had near KL.
It says we will spend 3 days with a specific elephant and look after it. The cost is very high ostensibly for the high cost of maintaing elephants properly and contributing to their protection. www.elephantstay.com
It is now 06:26 and whilst everyone on the other side of the window are tending flocks of cows and buffalo in the Thai forest, I have just been served a paper cup of coffee. It might be because I have only seen a sunrise and a sunset in Thailand so far on this trip but the prospect of the next three weeks here is looking very rosy indeed. I have missed Thailand so much.
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Update
A lot has happened since we last updated the blog! We enjoyed Our time in Beristagi, being in the mountains means that the temperature is lower and for the first time we used our fleeces although still only in the evenings. We terrified the people running the food stall so much they wouldn’t speak to us. They just ignored us until eventually another diner took pity on us and translated. We got BBQd chicken, soup and rice and it was amazingly tasty.
The next day we met our guide, Barus, early to climb up Sibayak. We drove for a short time to the start of the path. The first 20mins or so of walking were on tarmac. Susie whined incessantly about how tired she was and her legs hurting. We could see Barus calculating how awful his day was going to be! However as soon as we hit boulders and scrambling all the kids were happy and bounded ahead like mountain goats. As we got closer to the top we could see, and hear, the steam escaping from vents around the crater. We felt different temperatures of water in different pools as we went up. We climbed right to the crater but not inside as the sulphur can cause unconsciousness. We then climbed up a very narrow ridge to the highest point. Amazing views all around. We employed the Hunt, hands, feet and bottoms policy climbing back down. Fairly hairy but we were glad we had done it.
There was then a long walk down steep stone steps to hot springs on the other side of the volcano. We all had wobbly legs by the end! The hot springs were very welcome although somewhat smelly. The locals thought we were great entertainment as we moved from the cooler pools up to the very hot ones.
Stiff legged we spent the next day catching up with journals and some maths homework and learning about volcanos online.
We had a private car to take us to Bukit Lawang – another terrifying experience of Sumatran driving, probably not helped because we asked the driver not to smoke in the car.
Bukit Lawang is by far the least developed in terms of amenities of all places we have visited, although visited by far more tourists than any of the others as well! The car has to drop you off at the bus station and it was a 30minute walk with our backpacks along the river to our hostel. There’s no luxuries like flushing toilets or sinks here!
We visited the orangutang feeding station and were lucky enough to see a mother and baby and the big boss! Very impressive. The following day we did a one day trek.
Bike, our guide, collected us with a swagger and set off at a clip through town with the kids trailing behind. Phil and i thought we were in for a poor day. Fortunately we then collected Agus our assistant guide who immediately took to Susie and engaged everyone. Bike turned out to be a good bloke who was talked to death by Emma and Luke with very good humour. We were lucky enough to see a wild orangutang, feed Thomas Leaf monkeys, see Macaque monkeys and white faced gibbons, hear (but not see in time) a hornbill flying over us and lots of interesting insects, plants and reptiles. We stopped for lunch by the river and had a very tasty meal followed by an amazing fruit salad which Argus created in front of us. We then walked back through the river, very wet trainers! Everyone else was much entertained by a leech which bit me. It doesn’t hurt, in fact i didn’t notice it had happened until i found blood everywhere but it dies make me squeamish if i think about it!
All day Susie had been carried by Argus and we thought initially she was taking advantage of his happiness to carry her, but by lunchtime it was clear there was more to it than that as she fell asleep across my knee. By the time we got back she had a raging temperature and was very drowsy.
On friday we stayed around the hotel with Susie quite unwell and both Emma and Luke also under the weather. We made two attempts to get Susie to a doctor but without success although we did get her antibiotics.
On saturday, with no sign of Susie improving we have reluctantly cancelled our rafting and BBQ by the river trip and abandoned our only prebooked hotel room to move to Medan. We have gone upmarket to the Marriott where we have soft beds, air conditioning and a doctor on call. Hopefully he will be here soon (our appointment was 30mins ago now) and Susie will get on the mend. Tomorrow we are scheduled to fly back to Malaysia.
Berastagi
We arrived in Berastagi yesterday. A place which we had not fondly experienced last time we came to Sumatra but were determined to make the most of it this time and I think we have achieved that.
Today we ascended the local dormant volcano with a guide “Barus” . It was a short steep trek for one hour to the crater where we were hissed at by the sulphur vents. Susie made it without any significant delay or coaxing required, fairly hopping up the last 20 mins through the rocks once it stopped being boring.
The views and the immediate surroundings were very photogenic so adding some photos from our Lake Toba trip here we present a fair few of the things we have encountered in the last 5days.
Travelling day
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!