Thailand. Chiang Mai.

So the train journey to Chang Mai was pretty good, just the odd waking a up to turn over in my narrow bed! Had a lovely waking at 6:45 by the "orange juice" man walking up and down the carriages trying to sell his crappy orange squash. Eventually got up and the train staff turned the beds back into seats. We got in about and hour earlier than expected, Thai trains clearly don't need to run to a timetable, and went to out hotel. As thee are three solo girls on this trip we are taking it in turns to have a room by ourselves. Tonight was my turn and I got a room with no windows! I didn't know how to cope with not sharing a room as I had been for the last 2 and a half months. It was so weird and a bit scary! But free to use the toilet as frequently as I wanted! 

We had breakfast in the hotel and I managed to get an exploding bottle of ketchup all over me and another girl in our group. Excellent start to the day! So we decided to all go and visit the Tiger Kingdom which this place where you could visit tiger which were apparently tame enough to touch and weren't drugged. We went in this taxi type vehicle which was like a van with an open back. To was hot and sweaty and pretty dangerous! 

It was about a half and hour drive to the Tiger Kingdom and we went in to chose what tigers we wanted to see. I chose the cheapest option which was to see the adult ones. The smaller the tiger, the more expensive it was to touch them. The adult tigers were in an enclosure which everyone could see so we could see what we were getting ourselves in for. It was so weird. I felt really uncomfortable as the tigers were sleeping/maybe on some kind of sedative and the staff were encouraging the visitors to lie on them, or use them as a pillow or hug them. It seen really wrong. The information says that they were not drugged but they seemed so passive. The staff would slap their paws with sticks to make them move into a more photo friendly position which was horrible. 

So we queued up and went in the on closure. Our guide would take us around the four adults in the enclosure. The first one who was sleeping against the enclosure wall got his paws slapped to make home move to face us and we were encouraged to take our photos with him. Really weird and we were all about standoffish. 

The next tiger was playing in the water and the guide was using a big cat toy to play with her. The females were more playful and the males just slept apparently. It was so close and got splashed a lot!

The next two were sleeping on a deck and we were getting more ok with the idea of posing with them. It was fun and got some good photos. 

Looking back I feel really uncomfortable about doing it. The tigers don't want to be doing it :( and there was a lot of tourists there paying good money to keep it going. 

After eating out for lunch we went on a guided tour of Doi Suthep temple to watch the monks chanting at the end of the day. We drove up a suicidal road up a steep mountain on a windy road. There were so many scooters with drivers with no helmet and maybe children or another passenger on. It was crazy! 

We climbed the steps up to the temple which was at the top of the mountain and paid out tourist entry fee. 

It was a bit gaudy, as I am discovering all temples seem to be! We went in and walked around the exterior of the temple. There were a lot of bells and they would be struck to indicate the start and end of ceremonies. 

We went into the inner part of the temple and it was another golden extravaganza! And there were a lot bells decorating the place. 

We wrote our names on a roll of fabric which was to be tied around the temple. No idea why!

The monks then started to chant and we watched then chant at the gold inner temple and then went inside into the temple. My favourite monks were two young boys who were not chanting but chatting through it all. Reminded me of being at church and not wanting to be there!

In buddism there is a Buddha for each day to represent the day you were born. Thanks to the iphone I found out I was born on a Friday and found my Buddha. 

After we survived the suicide road downhill in the dark we went out for dinner. We went to this weird food court! We had to buy food vouchers which we exchanged for our food. There was so much food to choose from! It wasn't the best meal I've had, but the thai dancers were good entertainment!

After this we rushed our way through the night markets to go and see a ladyboy show. The show was entertaining but very low rent in comparison to the show I saw in manchester! I had an early start the following morning so I headed off to bed. 

In the morning I was going to take a thai cooking lesson. We started off by visiting a food market which was cool. The rice stall was my favourite as there was so many different types of rice. The meat stall was my least favourite as the meat was just covered in flies! Vegetarian for me please! 

We then went to our class and we got to chose four dishes to cook. I chose a hot and sour prawn soup, phad thai, green curry and coconut sticky rice with mango. It was all amazing and so easy to cook! Need to  keep it up when I get home!

After lunch we checked out of our hotel and got in mini buses for our 7 hour journey to Chiang Kong. This is the boarder town between Thailand and Laos. The driver was the worst driver ever. Not hazard perception and no idea about stopping distances. Another suicide ride! We stopped off en route at a cashew factory. I learnt that cashew nuts hand off the bottom of a red fruit and have a black resin inside that is poisonous. The factory tried to make out that they are shelled by hand, but no way. There were two guys shelling them and they were working so slow! There was definitly a mechanised factory line somewhere! I bought some tom yum flavoured cashews though which were great! 

We then travels and stopped in Chiang Rai to see the white temple. It was gross. So disgustingly ornate and modern and bizarre. It had lots of statues of modern superheroes and baddies from films and weird skulls everywhere. So grim. 

We finally made it to Chiang Kong after some more terrifying driving in the dark and checked into our hotel. It was a tiny town and went to a great restaurant for dinner. This was definitly the best meal id had so far and so much cheaper. I had prawn phad thai (number 2 of the day!) and a big beer all for 135 baht. Really good! I came home and did some skyping and got ready to get up bright and early for our boarder crossing into Laos the next day. 

Thailand. Bangkok.

The flight to Bangkok was another arduous trip. I got the airport transfer at 3:30pm and set off on the first of three flights. I flew from Alice to Darwin on another completely empty flight.  I then had to spent the night in the airport before getting my 5:40am flight out. I had hoped for some good seating, but no, I spent most of the night sitting on a stool. But at least they had unlimited wifi and plugs. It was a joy when I could check in and get through to departures for some comfy seats! I got some chicken nuggets and then found a big double bed sized pouffe to lie on. Luxury! 

I set off on my Malaysia Air flight to Kuala Lumpur and it too was completely empty! Can't have been more that 20 people on. Not sure if this is because of the missing Malaysia Air plane or not. Was so sad thinking that all those people had heard the same safety announcements andstill  they are lost somewhere. We landed in Kuala Lumpur and I had just a couple of hours wait until my next plane. Some fast wifi was nice to have! But back to the shock of squat toilets. Very glad they also have western ones! My next flight to Bangkok was full which made a change! The airport was enormous at Bangkok but made it though surprisingly fast. Immigration was easy and my bag was first out. So I then had to get to the hotel! I took the train and it was pretty easy to work out. I first had to take an overground one and then change to an underground. The train platforms are so weird I did not think I was in the right place at the airport stop. It just looked like a corridor and there was no one else there. Turned out the train comes in behing glass walls. The train was nice and it was easy to get tickets and find my way around. I got to the hotel and it was amazing!! Luxury in comparison to where I've been! I got to my room which I was sharing with a girl called Steph and I had a double bed!! And real towels!! And air con!! And a TV!! My excitement would have been palpable if I wasn't so exhausted! I got a shower and had a nap. Bliss! 

We had a meeting with or guide Andrew in the evening and got to meet the other people in out group. There are 10 of us and a bit more adult that my previous travel companions. It was so weird to have adult conversations! I felt so young, even though I'm not the youngest. Steph is 23 and we have a 25 year old guy. The oldest is mid 40's. It's a really nice mix. We went out for dinner and had some cheap food. I definitely chose the wrong thing, I had a sweet and sour tofu dish. It was delicious, but of course everyone else's looked better! We then went to the hotel roof terrace and hung out for a bit. Great views and a great hotel. 

In the morning we had an amazing breakfast. Waffles and pancakes and eggs and bacon and fruit. Yum! I should have had more but didn't have time. There was some much else to eat and try! 

We checked out and met our Thai guide for the morning. Miss Or took us on a canal boat along the Chao Praya river and through canals. 

The canals were cool as people live right on canals in a right mixture of houses. Some are like sheds and some are nice. 

We arrived at our stop. It was called a pier but just seemed like a stop at a restaurant and shop. We walked to the temple we were going to visit, Wat Po. Is was huge and beautiful. There was an enormous reclining Buddha! It's feet were covered in mother of pearl artwork on the sole which was so beautiful. 

We walked around the temple and learned how people would bury dead peoples ashes under a Buddha and pay the monks to pray at it. There was a lot of Buddhas!

After the temple Miss Or left us and we had a free afternoon. Some of is went to the famous Khao San Road which is like a street full of markets and backpackers. 

We stopped for lunch and then went shopping! I did some haggling and bought some new harem pants and a handbag which I've been coveting for a long time! A little embroidered cross body bag. We spent ages on the road then needed to get back in order to shower before getting on the sleeper train. It was so hard getting a taxi! Everyone wants to rip you off and refuse to use the meter. We got one finally and paid more than we should have but was great to be back in the air conditioned hotel and get a shower! Bangkok is so hot and sweaty!

We left our hotel for the train station where we caught the sleeper train the Chiang Mai. It was a 15 hour trip! It was surprisingly comfortable and spacious. The seats were big and the air con was good. We chose our food and got delivered an amazing four course dinner! They even have us a table cloth on our storable table. 

The food was good. I had non spicy soup which was mainly cabbage, a chicken and cashew stir fry, duck red thai curry and then fruit. Best train food I've ever had! They came and put the beds up pretty soon after and they are surprisingly spacious! The lower bunk is much bigger my mines not bad! Even got some straps to make sure we don't fall out! So here's to a good night!

Australia. Alice Springs and Uluru tour.

After a rather unpleasant stay in Cairns airport I was so excited to get on the plane to leave! It was a really empty flight which may explain the super expensive ticket! But it was an amazing journey to sit and watch the ground below the window (through sunglasses still!) as the landscape changed so rapidly and so many times. It just went red and dry so quickly and just like a desert, and then more river beds could be seen and finally some bush came to fill the red sand. When we were on out descent into Alice Springs you could see that the town was surrounded by hills which had been blown up in places to get the road in. Getting off the plane it felt so cool! It was 27oc but it was so dry it was such a pleasant change!! 

I went to my hostel at about 2pm and then went to town. I had an optician appointment later in the afternoon so I also wanted to check out where I was going. I walked the short walk to town and unfortunately instantly felt uncomfortable as there were so many drunk aboriginals hanging around the streets shouting and being generally anti social. But I had a look around the shops and especially the aboriginal art galleries and souvenir shops. I bought mum another tea towel and myself a fabric bag both out of beautiful printed fabrics. 

The town was pretty crappy and not much going on so filling my time until my appointment was hard! But when my time came I saw the optician and he said my eye had not got better as well as it shoul have been after 8 days of antibiotics but I got prescribed some anti inflammatories which should help with my light sensitivity. He said I needed to be seen again after taking these drops so he so kindly offered to come in on Easter Sunday after I get back from my rock tour for another check up! So nice! And the appointment only cost $30, bargain!

I went back and as I was exhausted from the crappy airport sleep and as we were getting picked up at 5:30 am I went to bed. Luckily the girls in my dorm were on the same tour so we all went to bed and set out alarms for 4:45!

We got collected by our Irish guide and set off on our hot little bus! Everyone on the bus was really nice, half German of course! Our driver was really nice if a but annoying but he told is that we weren't allowed to ask how long we were going to be driving, as the answer was always going to be "forever". And it always was! So we drove forever and then went to Kings Canyon which was a giant canyon, as the name suggests! We went for a long walk around it and through some spectacular scenery. The rock are so red and sky was so blue that it was amazing. 

There was also a lot of cliff edges to get some good photos on!!

The rocks were like slate in their formation with lots of layers. When we descended into the gorge we got to the water and the landscape became more lush and like a rainforest almost. 

After our walk we set off and drove forever. We stopped by the side of the road and had to set off and collect fire wood. Out guide was very specific about what he wanted size and thickness wise it was a really shitty job. We had to pull down the trees and a lot of them were burnt so they were really sooty and and we got so dirty and had no showers in our camp in the evening! We were allowed to wash up in a toilet we passed on the way during the beer stop, then drove forever to out camp. We were camping out in the bush in the middle of absolutely nowhere!  There was a fire pit, a shelter for the kitchen and a really grim long drop toilet. We made the fire and cooked dinner on it. Our guide was a shit cook and really needed a more extensive supply of spices that curry powder and paprika to cook our meals with for the three days! So we had a crappy chilli with no spices in and rice. It was warm and it was dark when we ate so it went down ok! After a few beers we went to sleep. We were sleeping out under the stars in swags. I though a swag was going to be like a hammock, but no it's like a mattress with a canvas sleeping bag type thing attached and a big flap which you can flop over your head. We made the beds and then in order to keep the snakes away apparently, we made a line around our beds as apparently they can see the straight line and think it's another snake, and put salt in the line to keep away the spiders. Thought that was just for keeping witches away, but we did it anyway! The stars were amazing too but the moon was so bright it made them a bit less bright. I slept pretty well despite the snoring in stereo! I felt pretty safe until the dingos started howling!! There were two on one side of us and then another one started calling too on the other side, at which point the flap went right up over my head! 

We got up earlyg and drove to our next camp which was at the Uluru resort where everyone stays who visits Uluru. We had breakfast and showers! I was not expecting to get a shower for the three days so this was amazing! We then set of another forever drive and made it to Kata Tjuta and walked through the Valley of the Winds. The rocks here were made from rocks stuck together over millions of years and looked very different to Kings Canyon. 

It was definitly my favourite place we went to on the tour. After this we went to a look out place and got some great views. 

We set off to go to the Uluru cultural centre. All tour visitors have to go to this before they can go to Uluru. It explains about it's significance to the aboriginal people and explains why you shouldn't climb it and asks you not to. We were then allowed to go to Uluru! Our guide took us the Mala walk and told us some stories about Uluru. After this raced off to a lookout point for dinner (terrible) to watch the sun set over Uluru. 

We went back to camp for the night and slept under the stars again. We were up early to have breakfast at the same look out to watch the sun rise over Uluru. Unfortunately my camera took all the sunrise photos looking the same!

After the sun had risen we drove to Uluru and did the 10km base walk around it. 

There were lots of areas in which you can't take photos but they were so badly signposted that I think I might have accidentally taken some in these areas. 

We walked past so many people climbing it, I was so surprised! I'm not sure if there was a lot as it was Easter weekend or just lots of people like to ignore the please don't climb sign at the bottom. 

After this we made the forever drive back to Alice Springs. We stopped off on the way back to ride camels. I though this sounded cool so we paid our $7 and lined up for our rides. It was literally a lap around a paddock, one half walking and one half trotting. The biggest waste of $7 ever! 

Just as we got back into town we stopped of to get out photo taken on the Alice Springs sign! Kat (a kiwi nurse working in the Alice hospital) said it was the lesbian capital of Australia so I had to straddle it. Haha! There are no decent men so you leave a lesbian. 

We had a tour night out that night and had a great time. Ended up with the nurses and the other English girl Eloise in the casino, serious lack of night life in Alice. It was cool as I spent the next day with these girls at their house and they were so friendly! Went to the pool and cooked us breakfast. Also my eye is better!! Went to the opticians who came in just to see me and my ulcer is pretty much gone! Just need to take the anti inflammatories for the next three weeks. Yay! :) Now to Asia!!