$1 US      = 45 Thai Bhats (decreased to 55)
   1 Sterling = 78 Thai Bhats 

Saturday 20th to Monday 22nd December 1997
Hotel; Welcome Guest House, Kho Sang Road.
I recommend that you try to get a hotel off Kho Sang road There are some great spots in monks villas which are much more homely and cultural than the loud Kho Sang road area.
Room Type: Double room, outside shower and toilet (200B)
Verdict: Sufficient, hot water

Bangkok
Bangkok has all the mod-cons and facilities of a modern western city, including the traffic jams and pollution. It also has a wealth of things to see, places to visit and hidden adventures.

Eating and Entertainment
Along Kho Sang Road where all the tourists hang out are many cafes with both Thai and western food and most offer videos and football on large screens. There is a lovely Indian restaurant if you prefer the hot Indian food to sweet Thai food. It is possible to spend a whole day in these cafes merely watching movies, reading and writing letters. Bangkok also houses all the fast food chains, plenty of McDonalds, KFC, Dunkin Donuts etc.... There are also a few cinema complexes showing current hits in English. The Central Cinema complex on the way to the southern bus station is an impressive high-tech cinema. Of course the more mischievous souls head for the night shows on Pha Pong. Beware of being ripped off. A beer may only cost 70B but they'll try to charge for shows and all kinds of 'extras'.

Sight-seeing and Shopping
Bangkok is well endowed with plenty of temples and sights. Don't try to see too many Wats or you will be sick of them before you even get out of Bangkok. The Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha are magnificently gaudy and a great first introduction to Thai style architecture. The Emerald Buddha is a meditating statue about 2 feet in height has been the object of a tug-of-war between the Thais and the Lao since it was found in Chang Rai, Northern Thailand in 1464. It is perched in it's specially made golden gown atop an extremely ornate golden altarpiece bordered by larger gold Buddhas standing in the peace position; elbows to the side, arms out and palms facing upwards. The Audience Hall, the symmetrical Dusit Group, the Golden Stuppa, the Belfry and all the other buildings in the compound are intricately detailed in metallic coloured tiled mosaics. One has to admire the detail, craftsmanship and restoration work.
I found the permanent collection at The National Gallery not as good as the fantastic artworks on display in the Environmental exhibition. Allow a few hours to wander around the National Museum across the road.
There are many clothes, crafts or fruit and vegetable markets, which you can explore, some at weekends and others being the early morning floating markets. You can get cheap fake designer clothes, watches and jewellery on Kho Sang Road and it's environs. Although local markets are cheaper they mainly cater for local tiny petite figures!

Transport and Communications
Tuk-tuks on Kho Sang Road try to charge high prices. We found it very difficult to bargain down to a fair price. Therefore if we did not avail of public transport (boat or bus) we took taxis which have a pick-up fee of 35B and are very cheap thereafter mainly because they don't get very far very quickly in the ridiculously congested traffic of Bangkok.
The G.P.O. in south Bangkok has a superb parcel service for all those people who have gone wild shopping. Stamps and great postcards can be bought in local shops everywhere. There are many telephone exchanges and fax facilities on Kho Sang road although not all of them have a call-back facility (which you must pay for). Phone cards are also available in local shops. Email and Internet is accessible at HELLO Cafe on Kho Sang road quite cheaply. There is a scanner there too but it was never working when I was there.

Boats
A boat journey down the canals are a must. The silent waters off the main rivers have a wonderfully peaceful atmosphere, wooden houses balance on stilts over lapping water. Residents get around by boat, kids play on wooden stairs above the water and older folks laze in swaying hammocks while pets snooze the afternoon away.
If you are trying to get around the city it is often quicker to catch the express boat along the river and then make your own way from one of the many stops to your inland destination.

AROUND BANGKOK
There are many great one or two day trips from Bangkok One should make an effort to get out while waiting for visas etc. It is too easy to waste time watching videos and shopping in Bangkok. Try not to let this happen. Unless you're a middle aged couple or on business I would not recommend the Rose Gardens as it is very package-tourist and a colourful showy version of Thai culture.

Travel and visas
Arranging travel around Thailand can be done at any of the tour operators on Kho Sang road. Be aware of the many horror stories from a lot of travelers about these places. We decided to book a ticket directly from the Southern bus station to the southern islands. However it is as easy and as cheap to book tickets up north in any of the Kho Sang road tour operators. We shopped around for the cheapest and most reliable and bargained down the price. We encountered no difficulties or rip-offs going through the tour operators.
We bought our visas for Laos and Vietnam directly from the embassies which is cheaper and less risky than trusting a third party with your passport.

Tuesday 24th December 1997
Hotel; Bus from Bangkok to Kho Phang Nang via Seurat Thani and Kho Samui
We got a bus from the southern bus station to Seurat Thani, across on a boat to Kho Samui and up to Kho Phang Nang. Having left Bangkok at 10pm we arrive after a bumpy journey at 11am on Christmas day.

Wednesday 25th to Thursday 1st January 1998
Hotel; Huts, Haatrin east.
Room Type: Double room, inside shower and toilet (200B)
Verdict: Grand, hot water, outside balcony with hammock provided. Not exactly the Ritz but quaint Kho Phang Nang
This island is supposed to be less Costa del Sol than the neighboring Kho Samui so we headed for this retreat for Christmas. There were hundreds of beautiful people strutting their stuff daily on the beach and wiggling their petite little bums to party music in the beach bars at night. There are plenty of places to eat and watch videos during the day and of course many shops.

A boat ride around the island is recommended. It costs about $10 for the day and is really lovely if the weather is in your favour. Included is the chance to scuba dive (equipment provided) off the northern tip of the island. It is also a good opportunity to view the quaint secluded beaches which are accessible only by boat. For a bit of peace and quiet opt for these beach hideaways rather than the more hectic Haatrin and Thong Sala areas.

You can also hire motorbikes for 200B to explore the islands' waterfalls and jungles. Be warned, the roads are extremely hilly and dangerous and in the north of the island they are merely sand tracks with areas washed away during the monsoon season. If you dare, be prepared to fall. Notice the scarred people limping around Haatrin!!!!!

Saturday 10th January 1998
Hotel: Bus to Chang Mai (200B for bus and board the following night in Chang Mai).

Sunday 11th to Friday 16th January 1998 (not including 2 nights on the trek).
Hotel: Chang Mai Holiday Guest House
Room Type: double room at 140 B (first night free, included in the bus ticket)
Verdict: Good; temperamental hot showers, good people but loads of shouting kids from the schoolyard in the early morning
Chang Mai
Chang Mai was freezing when we reached the city at 7am. We were collected from the bus station and brought to the Guest House where a humorous business-woman explained the customs, tours, regulations etc. to the group.

Eating
There are plenty of places in Chang Mai to eat local and western food. At the night market there is a huge outdoor courtyard with many tables bordered by about 20 stalls, each separate stalls offering every kind of Asian food. This is a good spot for a crowd in the evening but watch out for the bat droppings. McDonalds and other fast food joints are just around the corner.
Chang Mai has its fair share of pubs both local and pseudo English/German/Irish. We located the Irish pub and had a makeshift Irish Breakie: ham instead of bacon, a single withered sausage, cold scrambled eggs and tomatoes, and a lovely warm bread roll. Also on the menu were tempting spuds garnished with spring onion. This Irish pub is not called, Molly Malones, Scruffy Murphys, Kitty O'Sheas', DarbyO'Gills, The Old Shebeen or anything as imaginative as those usual foreign drinking establishments claiming Irish culture. It was simply titled "Irish Pub", no beating about the mulberry bush. Of course the 'Irish Writers' with Seans' and Jimmys' intense mugs was pride of place on the bar. Other posters of Killarney, Co. Armagh donned the walls as well as the tea cloth with the letter from an Irish lad to his mum writing about the crazy Americans on a piece of cotton! There was a bicycle with a front basket parked outside but alas it belonged to a backpacker and was not part of the decor - an oversight by the manager.

Sightseeing
Within the old city walls surrounded by a dried up moat you will come across plenty of Wats and other hidden wonders. Take a taxi up steep windy mountain to Wat Phra that Doi Suthep. Reached by a curvy dragon/serpent lining the 300 steps uphill, this temple is a great Sunday outing for all the family. There is cable-car up to the top if the heart is weak or unwilling. Female monks vend incense, candles, flowers and paper parcels of gold foil to worshippers. The candles and incense are burned under any of the many Buddha shrines. Exquisite white single blooms and roses are placed on the outstretched arms of Buddhas and gold foil from the paper parcel is stuck on to the figure. The gold, red and blue metallic temples, stuppas and walkways light up the peaceful relaxed atmosphere. While we sat in one of the Buddhist shrines, feet and toes facing away from the figure as is the custom, we were invited to be blessed by Mr Buddhist monk from his seating position to the side. He waived branches tied together and whetted from an urn beside him, chanting a he scattered the droplets over our bended bodies.

Markets
The day markets in Chang Mai are located by the moat. Night markets are more expensive and directed towards tourists. You can get trinkets, crafts and clothes everywhere in these.

Treks
A Description of the 3 day, 2 night trek we did from our hotel ($16)
The squeeze in the Ute (short for utility vehicle) lasted for 3 hours before coming to a halt at a marketplace in a race with many other vehicles - Ute city. Hundreds of backpackers relieved themselves, bought whisky, bog roll, chocolate and water and some fresh fried rice. Boarding the Ute again we drove off into the sandy horizon. It was cramped and hot and a few people were ill. Lunch was served by a hot geyser. Eggs were boiled in the bubbling sulphur pool and eaten with the rice. Our final destination was a remote village two mountains to the west of the highest mountain in Thailand (2,500m) which we were warned that we would have to climb in 2 days - a thought which remained in my brain for the following 32 hours. At 4pm we set off trying to beat the setting sun to reach our destination 3 hours into the vales. Needless to say the mountains gobbled up the sun and our footing failed on many occasions. Arms grabbed at tree trunks, rambling roots and large fresh leaves to steady our wobbling bodies. Wet tiered rice fields bordered colourful mountains and smoke rose from the many fires that had ignited in the hot sharp sunshine. The forest jungle is hot and dry but the leaves exhibit autumnal colours and your pace crackles as you step on the crisp leaves. The Thai farmers here wear the triangular straw hats and walk on raised pathways between rice paddies with their burdens balanced at the ends of the bamboo poles about the shoulders - just like the movies (without the American jet fighters and helicopters buzzing overhead). Lodging for the night resided in wooden teak stilt-houses with a veranda and a welcoming fire. Dinner was served on a large mat before we smoked, sang and drank the night away. Turns were taken at bashing local drums, spluttering in wooden pipes, strumming the guitar and picking at some other similar but smaller instruments. Accompanied by 14 wailing out of tune voices the result was pretty terrible but the banter was great. We settled down to sleep in our wooden room on woven mats to cover the holes in the floor with something burning to keep scorpions at bay. A version of Hotel California sung in a Margarita Prakatan way ( Clive James Show) and Jason Donavans "Sealed with a Kiss" made us long for some sleep and escape from this reality leaving with that lucky sucker on that jet plane.

We were woken the following morning while it was still dark by the throaty calls of cockerels at 4am in the morning. This was followed by the pounding sounds of women bashing rice and babies crying in the next room. At 7.30 we were called to breakfast; cold toast an runny eggs which succeeded in running down my face and fleece. Down at the fire the women and babies gathered in the slowly warming day. Us tourists took photos as they posed in the usual Thai-hill-tribe-mother-holding-child pose. Then they decided to play the ' look what the pink people do when we do this', game. One young woman sat on the makeshift swing and her children followed suit looking so cute cuddling against her breasts. Sure enough 4 cameras were pulled out and 4 pink people hunched on honkers pointing appariels at the sight. This cynic took a photo of the hunched pink people from behind and the coveted photograph content in the distance.
Five elephants trumped up to the village house and we mounted from a ledge. Kim and myself got into the basket and Andrea tucked herself on the neck between the ears, Tarzans'-Jane style. Hubon, our elephant led the way and was extremely well behaved. Five loaded elephants wobbled though paths and trees, up and down hills, over streams and under low hanging branches laden down with gigantic spider webs. Over warbling brooks, dropping our bags at a local house and we dismounted and climbed up to the waterfall. The vicinity was shaded and the water icy cold. Nervously we waded into the shallow pool and edged over to the cascading mass. It was fast and heavy and still freezing so we did not linger long. Lunch from the bonfire stove brought forth noodles and tuna while we dried out, packed up and trudged back to our bags. At the top of that mountain, beyond the picturesque shriveled cabbage patch fields (no room for potential nurturing of ugly baby dolls) we witnessed more Kren village life. Daughters ground rice, women cooked, babies toddled in the mud and cheeks bloated trying to blow up the balloons that us pink people brought as gifts. Men grinned through beetlenut stained teeth as they sold us coke in bright red cans in the middle of nowhere. We struggled on down vales and across streams on makeshift bridges constructed from two bamboo poles cut and laid over the shallow waters gathering fresh loafas from trees and bushes for our imminent wash in the brook. Yes, loafas grow on trees, not on the sea bed. They come in pods and when dry one can peel the cloak layer, remove seeds and hey presto a loafa for the shower. One of the many the things you learn when you travel!
After side stepping over and back numerous times like Moris dancers we came to a halt at a hut on the stream. Offering benches as well as the welcoming fire we laid out our sleeping bags for the night. The girls bathed by the trickling stream while the dinner was prepared including a pumpkin, which we had picked up on our trek through the fields. Around the fire that night we ate, drank, told jokes and asked questions. I now know monkeynuts grow in the soil like a root vine, lentils come in a pod, loafas grow on trees and how rice ends up in Mr Bens bag. At least these were some of the various explanations being thrown around for numerous queries some of which were very bizarre. That night was extremely funny - enough laughs to fill a year and enough tears produced by the laughter. No sleep again and very little opportunity as we were not horizontal for long.

Up early, one and a half hour trek in the blistering sun. The jeep brought us to the edge of another river where we boarded our makeshift bamboo rafts strung together with rubber from tyres. After a fried rice lunch we mushed in to the Ute and headed for the hills, or rather the highest mountain on top of which we saw pagodas; the tombs for the president, the view and the Golden Buddha. Dusty and wrecked even though we had driven and not climbed we got back to Chang Mai, showered and had a wonderful Thai massage before relaxing with a few beers and another few laughs in the Irish Bar.

From Chang Mai we got a bus back to Bangkok, collected our visas from the Vietnamese and Laos embassies and got another bus up to Na Thrang and across the border at the Friendship Bridge into Laos where we got a tuk tuk - now called a jumbo if they are the larger version of the samlor (a 3 wheeled motorcycle) to Vientiane.

Best Route between Laos and Thailand
The best way to go from Thailand to Laos is to cross over beyond Chang Rai in the north of Thailand into Laos. At the Duty Free you meet a lot of people crossing the border and gossip is the best research. Then board a slowboat for the trip down from Huay Xai to the Mekong to Luang Praban. The trip lasts 2 days and chugs past remote village life. We did not take this route because we had to go back to Bangkok from Chang Mai to collect visas.

LAOS

$1 US = 12,5000 Lao Kip $1 US = 58 Thai Bhats in a bank in Laos Saturday 17th Janauary 1998
Hotel; Santisouk Hotel, Vientiane
Room Type: 3 bedded room at 12 US$
Verdict: Superb, clean crisp whie sheets, ensuie bathroom with shower, bath and Hot Water,chairs, bedside lights, wardrobe and table.Fantastic and the cheapest around this ity.
Laos is a tremendous country. It is a beautifully scenic landscape and homeland to smiling friendly faces. Best of all this quaint and peaceful land has not yet being too tarnished by tourism, high rise buildings, extensive infrastructure and pollution. Let's hope it will remain innocent for another few years at least though there is a tourism campaign by the Government at the moment similiar to Visit Nepal 98 and Amazing Thailand, campaigns. Similiar to Ireland the country population is only 4.8 million for the 200,000 sq km (compared with Thailands' 58 million which is 2.5 times the size). The population is well dispersed around the country so rush hour in the captial (480,00 people only!) is a doddle to jay-walk through. We crossed over the Friendship Bridge from Nong Khai in North-east Thailand and took a tuk tuk - now called a jumbo if they are the larger version of the samlor (a 3 wheeled motorbicycle) to Vietienne without much bother. Arriving in the capital city one immediately notices the French influence with houses romanitcally nestled behind bursts of flowers, serene shuttered windows, and of course french translations on signposts. Laos was a colony of France from 1893 (or rather was uder the protection of France) until the Franco-Laotian Treaty of 1953 granted full Independance to Laos and thereafter internal tensions between royalist, neutralist and communist factions ensued.
During our walking tour of Viantienne we sat by Buddha in many Wats, strolled along sandy main roads, greeted locals and received warm smiles in return. Chldren ran up to us asking 'What is youor name?", Buddhist students bade us "Good Morning ' and conversed in english with us. Spie was a 15 year old chap dressed in is bright orange robe and holding a London black umbrella above his shaved smiling head to shade out the sun. After snapping his image with his permission, at the Sacred Stuppa he waited for us to chat as we walked down the 3 km stretch towards the Victory Memorial - Arc de Triomphe. He would finish studying in his monastery next year and would go to New York where he lived when he was younger and where his father still resides. His aim was to study drama in New York, although it was quite difficult imagine how this placid looking buddhist student would fit in waiving his arms to Shakespeare unashamedly on the big stage. We all love Laos and plan to stay longer than our original few days depending on which areas are accessible and not in too much danger from rebel geurillas which tend to cause disurbances on the aptly chosen Route 13.

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