Stranded on Koh Tao

Another 762 bends and we were back in Chiang Mai with Alex and met with her friend Bee. Only a night was spent there before we said goodbye to them both as we headed to Koh Tao down south, north of Koh Phangan. One 12 hour bus journey to Bangkok was enough to ake our skin crawl with sweat and stickyness, so at 4:30am when we were dropped off on Koh San Road, we found a hostel to sleep in and finally have a SHOWER!!!! Another 12 hour bus journey later and we were waiting at 3am on Chumphon pier for the ferry to Koh Tao which left at 7. A final 3 hours later and we had arrived!!!! Diving was so close. We went and got a place with Crystal Dive (recommend to anyone, they're freaking great there) just as it started to rain... AGAIN. The next day we started our course (cost us 10,000 each, so around 210 pounds, cheapest place in the world to do it) in the classroom doing some theory. The second day was spent doing a it more theory, then a 50 question exam that no one stayed with us for... so it was more of a discussion of what answers everyone had... and then 3 sessions in the pool DIVING! Well both never forget the first time we started breathing through the regulator underwater. it's a facinating feeling, knowing that usually you'd be chocking, but somehow this feels normal. We went through some excercises underwater such as mask removal, blind swimming, out of air procedure, fin pivots, equalizing etc. This went fine, the funny highlight being Tim, who after cleaning his mask with fairy liquid (stops it steaming up) he didnt quite rinse it well enough, and so whilst underwater... as you do, he let out air through his nose... creating bubbles. At first it was fine, just a few bubbles, then it got a bit ridiculous with the whole mask filled with bubbles. I didnt know if I should go up and clear it because I didnt want the instructors to worry I was drowning or anything, so I just stayed there until they came to me to do the regulator removal exercise and then they just laughed. A lot. Sighhhh. The next day we were hitting the big blue ocean. Excitement!
Okay so no hitting the Ocean. A massive storm came and flooded the island. Waves were 4m high out at sea so no boats came or left for 3 days. The island ran low on eggs and beer. Tragic! So yeah, we didnt dive for 3 days. It rained, solidly, and very hard. Luckily our hut was on a slope so we had no trouble with leakages or flooding, but other parts of the island were hit badly. And indeed a navy warship came on day 2 to take stranded people off the island who needed to get off. We had a dive course to finish so we stayed, and headed to see the helicopters that were airlifting people to the warship out at sea. It was really cool. Apparently the news hit back home in the UK – flooding devastates Thailand, Koh Tao specifically was mentioned as being badly hit and that people had died and were stuck on the Island, apparently the british embassy had issued a message telling all tourists to get off the island. This was not the case. Indeed there was some flooding further north of us, no one died, they did on the mainland but not with us, people were not stuck, they;d been taken off by the warship if they needed to, and the embassy ahd said no such thing they'd said if you have to get off, get on the warship. When the island got internet back on the night of day 3, Tim had a few erratic and intense skyping sessions with his rents who'd been in contact with the embassy back home and been very worried as we'd had no way of contacting them. Bloody british news exaggerating everything!!!

Pai

3 hours in a hot minibus and 762 bends later we arrived in Pai. A lovely small town North of Chiang Mai – a proper getaway. We rented out a Bamboo cottage and settled in for a fantastic few days in the sunshine. A day was spent looking at the town and finding out that hiring mopeds cost only 100 baht a day.. two pounds!The next Alex came up to see us. It was great having another person we knew from back home stay with us for a few days. A lot of fun was had on the mopeds. We headed out to some local waterfalls 8km away and spent the day sunbathing and jumping off the rocks into the pool below. We have a cracking photo of Zintl in her pink moped helmet climbing up the steep rocks, see facebook soon.
When we decided we'd had enough sun, we hopped back on to go and explore the surrounding roads of Pai. Zooming around we discovered helmets were annoying and didnt fit very well, in fact fell off if you went over 50kmph. Soooo after a bit of egging and a few races... we found some open roads and rather bravely/stupidly, in flip flops, t-shirt and shorts, no helmet we sped along and, Mother dont read this, managed to hit 100kmph!!!
One awesome thing about Pai was breakfast. Big's Little Cafe is a must if anyone is in the area. He whipped us up home made sausages (to die for), bacon, eggs and toast for a modest two pounds. Honestly the best sausages I have had. That might be influenced by the fact I havent had any sausages since we left over two months ago.
A great highlight of Pai was in bed with Alex (whey). We both decided to annoy her big time by spontaniously singing and meditating throughout the night. Much fun was had.

Chiang Mai

After booking our train to Chiang Mai, we were both rather interested as to how decent second class would be, especially just coming from 5* accommodation we were somewhat sceptical. However, after arriving at the station and grabbing a quick bite to eat complete with a very outrageous dunkin' doughnut, we walked down the platfom to our carriage. It was fab! Everything was clean and tidy, the seats were leather and comfy and when th beds finally got put down, they were more than adequate. A 15 hour journey got us to Chiang Mai which was very easy and shot past. Unfortunately however we arrived to pouring rain, which seemed to dampen our excitement. Stepping outside to find a taxi, we were approached by a woman who said she could drive us to the guest house, we were naturally sceptical. Despite this we ran to her truck, piled in, however she ran off... After waiting for 5 minutes we realised that she was being a nob especially when we saw her drive away in another car. GREAT! Soo, after a right kerfuffel we found a tuk tuk to drive us. She broke down. FANTASTIC! So there we were stranded at the side of the road with a broken tuk tuk and getting soaked by the english weather. After 10 minutes of waiting, a taxi driver took pity and stopped and after negotiating a price he drove us to Julie's Guesthouse. Paying the driver the 20 baht we had greed on seemed to go down bady as apparently he was asking for 20 each... cheeky sod! After arguing with him, the driver gave james a deathstare which we laughed at, before going on his way. Julie's was awesome, a backpackers haven full of foreigners trading in stories with stupidly cheap beer (around 60 baht or 1.20) for a litre! The room itself was basic, but clean so we were both happy :)

The first day in Chiang Mai was a bit of a washout, raining all day, so we spent the time playing pool at Julie's and heading into town to find a coffee house, a lazy day. The next morning we headed to the numerous temples in the city, feeling the need to do something cultural. The first temple Wat Phra Singh is the most popular temple in Chiang Mai due to it holding the most revered Buddha image, the lion Buddha. The temple was impressive, however, after visiting several temples in Bangkok, we realised that they seemed to be all roughly the same. What was interesting is that the monks were sitting in the chapel, eating communially while the public were walking through them and tourists taking photos. Very bizarre... Our temple hunt continued for about an hour, visiting a couple smaller and less popular temples, before we decided to head for coffee.
That evening we ventured to the night market, a bustling area fiilled with hundreds of stalls stretching from inside a large complex onto the sides of the roads. The market was vast and filled with everything you could possibly think of, yet, with no money to spend it was an anticlimax.
The next day it was raining AGAIN. Apparently caused by the earthquake near Japan. We wanted to make the best of Chiang Mai so after a good few games of Pool, we ventured out to see what the shops had, and to go to the Black Canyon Coffee House again (best one we've ever been to!) We managed to stumble across a Tailor's shop... intrigued we asked the price of two, three piece suits. After a starting price of 7000 baht each (150 pounds) we got him down to 5000 each (solid 100 pounds). We then shopped around to make sure we werent being ripped off and indeed he had offered us a very reasonable price. We went back and after a bit more chit chat we had 2, three piece bespoke suits, with 4 silk ties and 2 hankerchiefs all for a modest 10,000 baht. Materials were chosen – italian cashmere, grey for Tim, blue for James. Tim chose a grey suit with blue and white striped silk linings. James chose a blue suit with red and white striped silk linings. We visited later on to be measured up and set him the task of making them by the tme we got back from Pai 4 days later.

Bangkok

This was a pretty sweet start to Thailand. Tim's parents put us up in 5* accommodation – The Metropolitan Hotel – which was just the most amazing hotel either of us have ever been to. We made the best of it for sure – Tim wrote a list of trains and flights and activities to research, then gave it to the receptionists to do for him! Cheeky bugger. They did a fantastic job though. For the 4 days we were there we went and did a number of thngs. Firstly the Long-tail boat trips – these were incredible. It was like being in a Bond movie, shooting down the River Kwai with a fat Vsomethng engne behind us. We also went to see a few temples, which now we have realised are all roughly the same in Thailand. Big dragons at the front, stairs leading up to a temle with a golden Buddah iniside and on top of the temples large finger shaped objects poining up to the sky. Oh and they all have stain glass walls or some other object. A really good part of Bangkok was taking bikes out and doing a 22km route in 37 degree heat around the backstreets of Bangkok, seeing the “real” Bangkok – see photos on fb. Finally we spent a fair amount of time making good use of the facilities at the Metropolitan. Swimming Pool, massive jacuzzi, steam room, complimentary EVERYTHING, massive rooms and beds and oh the pillows.. the pillows were sublime. In the end we did drag ourselves away and went to Chiang Mai.

Kathmandu

Okay havent blogged in a while... so thinking back to Kathmandu.. Another beastly bus journey there to finally arrive in Paraknajol (North Thamel, Kathmandu). Thamel was actually really cool, had a massive array of shops selling all sorts of stuff, most of which we had already seen in Pokhara (and bought!). Tim did get a ridiculously cool fruit bowl (!?) that has a sort of spiralling cut in the flat part, meaning it falls out slightly at the bottom creating a bowl instead of a plate! A couple more pure pashmina and cashmere scarves were bought too.. What did we do in Kathandu... not a huge amount really as we only had 2 days there. We met up with the Danish guys again for a Kareoke night which was hilarious, and painful as all the girs were into old crappy Britney Spears songs. Which James loved. The next night we once again hit the clubs of Kathmandu which was a bit of a fail really, seeing as the Nepalese have a curfew at 11pm and after this the police come round all the pubs and bars to kick everyone home. We sought refuge in this quiet back-alley pub until 2am – we werent actually allowed out for a while because the police were outside as they knew the pub owners had customers upstairs! Finally the next day we flew to Thailand!!! EXCITEMENT!

Chitwan National Park

After pre-booking a package tour (turns out much cheaper in low season) we headed to Chitwan via another dreaded bus journey. It only took 5 hours or so and was cnosiderably easier on the bum than the previous Sinauli – Pokhara bus. We're staying at the Gorkha Hamlet Resort in Sauraha right on the edge of the National Park. On the evening of the first day here, we went out for a jungle walk and, as luck would have it, saw our first One Horned Rhino which is extremely rare to see as they are so few. It was a great experience because there was the suspense the whole time due to the fact that there could e any number of dangerous creatures and animals around, hidden in the bushes and grassland. The next day we got up super early at 05:30 to be out for a jeep safari at 6. This started off badly as our jeep ran out of fuel halfway to the park, great! However it wasnt long before we were off again towards the jungle. We went along at a laisurely pace, giving us time to try and spot any wildlife that was lurking in the bushes/trees. First spotted were some Monkays, leaping around in the tree canopy above us. Then there was a few Eagles, which close up are absolutely massive, having a wingspan of around 2m. Deer were a common sight, spotted and brown, however the most interesting time was when we thought we saw a leopard stalking a group of deer, but after watching for a few minutes we realised the “leopard” would have attacked by then, so we moved on. Our guide stopped the jeep deep in the jungle for us to get out and go for a short walk across the river to the marshlands to see some Marsh Mugger Crocodiles, the most viscious crocs found in Nepal. We have to say, we were glad they were at least 50m away. Apart from these animals there were a range of birds from cuckatoo's to kingfishers, and a Wild Boar. We came back to the room, had a quick breakfast and headed out to the activity that both of us have most enjoyed (apart from Paragliding) so far. Elephant Bathing! Being able to sit bareback ontop of an elephant while it uses its trunk to spray you with water, and lies down sideways throwing you off its back so it can wallow underwater, was pretty special. Later on that afternoon we once again met with the eleahnts for an elephant safari, to roam through the jungle ontop of another elephant, trying to spot some more wildlife with our guide Jumangi, who pointed out the animals to us the most interesting being the feared and famous Jungle Chicken. The highlight of this ride came about an hour into the trip as we spotted two One Horned Rhinos, Mother and Baby, in the clearing ahead of us, Due to the fact that we were ontop of elephants, the Rhino's were not bothered by us and thus we could get really close, probably about 3m away at the closest point – Tim has video evidence. We then moved on through the forest to the end of the trip. That evening we went to see the Tharu tribe who live in the village nearby and performed a series of traditional stick-dances, including fire whirling, ladyboys, and stickfighting. This was pretty cool in itself but what made the night for us was the fact that they invited the audience to partake in the stckdance, and thus being us, we did! After a large cheer from the audience for volunteering we danced with the tribe, flapping our arms and legs looking like idiots, but who cares, you only live once. We also met a group of very friendly Danish people who are around our age and can speak English! The rest of the evening was spent getting to know them and their Danish ways of life.
Today we got up early again, and went off with the Danes for a canoe ride down the river to try and spot some crocs. We did, but it was a baby marsh mugger, however we knew its mother was around somewhere so it kept the suspence high! Although we didnt see any major wildlife we werent disheartened as we had seen most of it the day before and we were in good company. Due to the fact there are only two of us, our itinerary got swapped around a bit and we had nothing to do until 3, so we went and joined the Danes with the elephant bathing again, it was even more fun the second time around as we knew the elephants behaved and knew when we were going to be thrown in the water!!

Paragliding the Himalayas+last of Pokhara

We woke relatively early. We had to be at the centre by 11 so this was early for us. A good breakfast of honey porridge, a bottle of water and we went on our way. As soon as we reached the centre we waited 15 minutes before being thrown in a jeep to be taken to Sarangkot, the take-off zone. The journey took half an hour, half an hour too long if you ask us, we were so excited! Driving up to the take-off spot made us appreciate how perfect the conditins were, almost clear skies, enaling us to see the snow-capped mountains of the Annapurna Massif (Himalayas). Upon arrival our parachutes were laid out, we were fitted into our harnesses and before we knew it the kite was up, we were running and the ground was no longer beneath our feet. This was an experience that just cannot be described unless you have done it before. After flying around in thermals to gain a decent height (1900m) we headed across the ridge gazing at the views (will be uploaded) and following the birds of prey to get the best thermals. To cut an hours flight short, we did this for 50 mins or so before heading back down over the Phewa Tal to the landing spot. Now, we had set each other the challenge of who could get the guide to do the best stunt. Typically they did the same one. Once over the water each of our guides made sharp turns until we were spiralling, at what seemed out of control, towards the ground raising the G-force to ridiculous levels. Landing was simple and straightforward, and also came wth a slight relief that we were back on terra firma.
That evening we went to an amazing restaurant called Once Upon A Time. It was really chilled, they gave us free popcorn, and they had a massive tele which we were able to watch the England-India cricket match, cracking stuff!
Th last night we intended to be a nice, friendly evenng with the guys at Peace Eye Guesthouse, however this was somehow quashed by the fact that our hotel had told us we could pay by card for the room and upon trying to pay with non-embossed STA travel cards, they pulled out an old-school card imprinter, instead of the chip and pin machine we were expecting. So after telling them that we couldnt pay because we had no other cards or money (we did but they were being arsey so we decided to be difficult too) they started to get a bit aggressive which naturally we were having non of, and put them in their place by telling them how the customer is always right, and how their incompetance and obnoxious service would not get them anywhere in the future. Also being a new establishment directly opposite the LPs top rated hotel, they didnt stand a chance of gaining any customers in the future. After that was sorted (Tim paid by a magically appearing spare debit card) we resumed our evening back at Peace Eye Guesthouse where Chiran (the manager and chef) served us up some of his freshly made vegetable and tofu soup, followed by the best hot chocolate Nepalise can make, all on the house. Lad.