Jul 2006

Despite all my best intentions, I've again managed to leave it until I've been in a different country for two weeks before managing to update this thing, but in my defence it has been a pretty busy two weeks. Arriving in Thailand, in contrast to India, was a bit of a mixed bag. The first few days were amazing just for the freedom, we could go out for beers, I could wear shorts and strappy tops, there were hundreds of other tourists about... but a few days in I began to notice the change in the place in the short 3 years since my first visit. Khao San Road seems to have just expanded in every direction, and whereas before it was easy enough to wander into an area where tourists were more scare, now virtually everywhere has menus in English and stalls on the streets selling knock-off Diesel and fake Birkenstocks. The first time I visited I remember thinking how frenetic and stressful Bangkok was, but coming from Delhi, the impression was of a pretty much hassle-free, chilled-out city. The touts were tame in comparison, and the travel arrangements practically came and found us from one of the million travel agents lining the streets of Banglamphu.

As Chiang Mai had definaitely been a highlight of my first trip, we headed up after a couple of days relaxing in Bangers, and ended up taking a trek on the same route I had done previously. Although it had been chllenging, fun and informative last time, it was pretty disappointing the second time round. I presume because of the increase in demand it seemed to have changed from largely a cultural trip to a blatant let's-go-up-to-the-hills-and-get-hammered thing. The guide was a quiffed and mulletted pretty boy in a David Beckham shirt, who quite obviously had zero interest in the countryside or it's inhabitants (besides their opium production), and demonstrated this by squishing every bug he could find, chasing piglets around the villages and telling us absolutely zilch about the hill tribes or their heritage. The group saved the trip really, as it was an interesting bunch, but because numbers were down we were mixed with a group who were trekking for a day less, and as a result of that and our guides blatant come-downs, we spent our mornings sitting about waiting to do something until midday. Although I really wanted to take Peet to the parts of Thailand I enjoyed so much the first time round, I think I've learned that re-visiting things is probably quite likely to be a let-down.

The next few days back in Bangkok made up for the disappointment though, as we managed to catch up with Calum and Iona (my step-brother and his girlfriend) and had an excellent time. We went for Thai and foot massages, had facials and saw some more of Bangkok, albeit only in the afternoons since we were staying up pretty late. Jim Thomson's House was a highlight, he was an American arts afficionado who settled in Thailand and worked to rejuvenate the silk trade, before an untimely dissappearance into the Malaysian jungle a few decades back. His teak house is full of artefacts and traditional Thai furnishings, complete with a beautiful tropical garden and fishpond. A trip to Ayuthaya, one of Thailand's ancient capitals was great too, if a little spare on the explanations.

It was good to get to Vietnam though, on the whole. As tradition dictates that I must have left the country before starting to think about writing about it, I'll leave that for next time...

New pictures on Flickr though!

Ta ta xx

I've been really lazy with the blog-updatery lately, and we're now a week into our first South East Asia stop, but don't have much time today so I'll leave everything after India for my next entry.

We ended up spending a ridiculously long time in Pondy, longer than we'd spent anywhere else in fact, but it's such a relacxing place and we felt quite at home there after a couple of days. We saw a lot of the town and rented bikes to get around for a bargain 40 pence a day, and had some nice French-style meals.

Our train back to Delhi was booked from Chennai, a 3 hour bus ride away, so we had a day there wandering along the beach right on the edge of the city. Like everywhere seemed to be in India, it wasn't as relaxing as you'd imagine walking along a beach should be, but crowded with people, touts, food and drink vendors, dogs and the sounds of the city nearby. We took a walk through the streets for a while afterwards but really were glad to get on the train and get ready to leave.

We were in a sleeper cabin with 4 berths, and had some really interesting travel companions. We were on the train for about 35 hours in total, so in that time we got to know a little bit about their lives and religion. One of them was a young guy in training to become an army officer, and he told us a lot about young Indians, their careers, family obligations and the rituals that they live by. The other was a middle aged man who turned out to be a psychologist, and who asked me lots of questions about my career plans and was very encouraging. In addition to this he told us that he practised palm reading and astrology as part of his therapies, so there was obviously an Eastern edge on the type of therapies that he provided. All in all it was a very pleasant journey, although by the third day the loos were to be avoided at all costs.

Our return trip to Delhi was altogether more pleasant than we anticipated, and although we were taking things pretty easy we managed to see Humayun's Tomb, a huge complex of ancient temples, mosques and mausoleums from the Shah period, which was really fascinating. Pictures to be seen on Peet's Flickr page, as he's altogether more organised about these things than I am.

It's www.flickr.com/people/windymiller if you fancy a look.

We're now just about to leave Chiang Mai after heading up to go trekking, and in some ways the contrast between Thailand now and three years ago when I first visited is surprising.

But I'll have to wait 'til next time to get into that.

Cheerio for now.