9hrs 15mins from Sydney to Bankok

Arrival : 15th February 2004

Departure :15th March 2004

17th February 2004

Bankok

Nicola writes... we arrived late at night and caught a bus to Khao San Road which is the main tourist haunt and super cheap. It was sheer madness when we arrived. The street was filled with farrang, street vendors, motor bikes weaving in and out of the crowds, and odd looking travellers mingled with Thais everywhere. Just such an alien image. The air was still really hot and sticky and you can taste the pollution. A lady with a huge canopy of coloured balloons was walking in the centre of it all and the imagery was practically psychedellic. Had I been slipped some opium on the plane? Better be careful of that! We found ourselves a cheap bed for the night in a room above one of the bars on the road and fell deeply asleep pretty quickly after hours of travelling.

Yesterday we moved to a slightly nicer guesthouse just off the main street. We got hair cuts at a little shop in Banglamphoo and it looks so much better. My hair is in good condition again even if it still doesn't have much shape. In the afternoon we took a Tuk Tuk (a crazy carriage device that is trailed on a motorbike-type vehicle) to some temples and a Tourist Information Office. The driver took us to a load of Thai clothes makers but we ducked out of all the selling tricks. Weaving in between the traffic was quite a dramatic experience in itself and we really feel ourselves to have started an adventure now. In the evening we got dropped off at a proper Thai restaurant on the Mekong river that a local had recommended to us. We were the only westerners there which was fabulous, although the meal was more pricey (still only 5 pounds though for both of us including milkshakes and pudding!) The place was full of Thai families, the sun was setting in Bangkok and me and Rachel felt rather happy with ourselves. We are in heaven with the cheap food and rooms and clothes. After our cultured experience we headed back to Khao San Road to do some shopping and bought a few cheap CDs from vendors.

Today we are heading out to the Grand Palace, the Wat with the emerald buddha and maybe we will take a songthaew up the river a little. Tomorrow is the National Museum and other sights and the next day we will probably leave Bangkok. Maybe head north to Chiang Mai to take a course in something or do a trek. I really have no idea yet. At the moment we are quite dazed by the new environment and really need to find our feet. You get bombarded by calls in the street and really have to keep your wits about you. Needless to say, I'll keep you posted, but we are playing safe and have already ordered our visas for Cambodia. Aren't we sensible girls?

23rd February 2004

Rachel writes... We have entered Thailand and it is all change. The last week has definitely been eventful. We spent the first few days in Bangkok, the hub of Thailand. It is surrounded in a permanent smog haze and is awake 24/7. Tuk tuk drivers try to get you to go with them to see all the sites and it is manic everywhere. Ko Siam road is the main place for westerners and is full of everything you could ever want or need for ridiculously cheap prices. We are just trying to pace ourselves as everthing is so cheap here.

People have a habit of telling you something is closed when it is not as they get commision on tuktuks so if you ever come here watch out for that! We visited a lot of Wats and Buddha statues, the reclining Buddha (A seriously large Buddha), the emerald buddha (that is neither large nor emerald !?!) And a massive 40 ft standing Buddha. We thought we better find out a bit more about Buddhism and went to the National Museum but our guide was an unenthusiastic woman from Surrey, England ironically, who looked like she might die of fatigue at any moment!

Elephants

We took a sleeper train to Chang Mai which was a whole new experience but I slept pretty well. Then we were off on a three day trek to meet the Karan people of the hill tribes. There were nine of us, 5 German, 2 Dutch and us and we started with an elephant ride which took a turn for the worst and ended up being the scariest moment of the trip so far. These creatures are beautiful and really are HUGE. We sat on top and it wasn't bumpy at all as they move along at their extreme leisurely pace. We were slightly concerned about the way some of the elephants were treated but will find out at an elephant hospital this week.

We were riding along when one of our group spotted a dust cyclone in one of the paddy fields ahead of us, not unlike something you would expect to see gliding across the plains of Texas! It died and reassembled itself twice but the third time it reformed 100 metres away from us and sent the elephants into panic. They can really move when they are scared and went straight into the bamboo forest. Our guide tried to break the bamboo branches before they went slamming into us and we just held on for dear life. Two of our group were knocked off their elephants and the others were told to jump but it all happened so quickly that we could barely see what was going on. Nic and I faired the best out of our group coming away with just a few scratches and bruises but two members of the group were taken to hospital.

Luckily no one was seriously injured but understandibly they did not want to continue with the trek. Our group was now down to 6. We took the afternoon slowly after the eventful morning and the rest of the trek involved walking through step fields and meeting the Karen people. The men of the village had built a house for the oldest woman of the village in just one day! We also met a witch doctor who was there to make sure that no evil spirits entered the house.

The children sang for us in the evening and we had to sing something back. Unfortunatly the only thing that we europeans could all sing together was "We will rock you". The noise seemed to amuse the kids though. On the last day we went bamboo rafting which is basically punting except in Thailand the women sit down while the men do all the work- excellent. we passed elephants and dragonflies and butterflies and it was one of those dreamlike moments of the trip. That was until the little Thai children, little monsters, decided that we were too dry and decided soak us!

The trek was excellent and tomorrow we are doing a cookery course in Thai food which should be good. Then we are off to a national park before doing our diving course.

Time is going so quickly and it doesn't seem like 5 months since we left home!

27th February 2004

Nicola writes... Thailand continues to get better and easier by the day and I'm deliriously happy. The people are so friendly and despite being totally ignorant to their language, and only managing a goofy smile, we have been met with immeasurable kindness. We went to the Elephant Conservation Centre in Lampang and that was a great day. The elephants there are well looked after and they make paper from elephant dung as a fundraiser which I loved. 100% dung paper, the only place in the world with such a claim. Met a really nice English girl who has worked there for 2 years and has spent the last 9 months nursing a paralysed elephant by sleeping alongside it every night and massaging it. She was just gapping in Asia and fell in love with the elephants. It was really heart warming and rekindled all my ideas of Dian Fossey and other childhood heroines. Don't fear - we only spent the day there!

Before we left Chiang Mai we checked out it's night bazaar which is just vast - half a mile of stalls stretching alongside both sides of the street. Unsurprisingly me and Rachel are appalling at haggling and bartering. I hate it. They would say a price, then when we walked away uninterested they would shout "what you pay?" and me and Rachel would err rather awkwardly, faltering "um, I don't know". We didn't like to offend them with too low a price and I didn't like to bargain if I wasn't sure that I even wanted to buy from them at any price. After much foolish difficulty for much of the night we did end up with a couple of items at well-bartered prices. Normally because we were walking away at speed, only I was too weak to actually leave when they shouted a really low price at me. So I now own a floaty, cool, casual skirt. Of course I now realise that in bartering you can't falter - just be direct. Say plainly the maximum that you would pay from your own position, if that isn't realistic for them then you will be able to walk away if they can't sell it to you for that price. It was a long and painful learning process.

We are now in Ayuthuya (Thailand's second capital) and will explore a little tomorrow before we head for a National Park in the East, and then to the islands from there. Phew. I'm feeling a little under the weather at the moment, just a common cold, but it's annoying.

We spent the last couple of nights in Sukhothai which was Thailand's first capital. We hired bikes (for 28p a day!!!) and cycled all round the old city. It was incredible. We just got lost in the ruins of all these old wats and chedis and images of the buddha. It was a long and hot day of cycling, but it was like drifting through a dusty, mystic past and I loved every minute.

Think that's all for now. Rather tired after a long days travel on cramped Thai trains, in 3rd class with lots of smiling foreign people who look at me as a completely naive, idiotic simpleton. We are going to try and pick up a little more basic Thai!

5th March 2004

Nicola writes... Ayuthuya was a short stay and involved cycling around more ruins. It was beautiful, we saw more wats, met an interesting monk and cycled rather close to death in the dodgems of Thai traffic - at one point careering between a Tuk Tuk and an elephant whilst approaching a roundabout!

Then we were at Khoa Yai national park for some more jungle trekking. We saw a python, wild elephants and gibbons. It was thrilling to see monkeys in the wild.

Now, after some hellish travelling we are relaxing on the islands. The last few days were spent sunning ourselves on the beach at Koh Phi Phi and today we arrived on Ko Samui. Tomorrow night is the full moon party, and then after another excursion to the marine park we are going to do the PADI scuba diving course for one week on Koh Toa. All go and very exciting. It's nice just to relax and sun-worship after all the hectic sight-seeing and trekking. Also reading lots which I love!

The time is flying by very quickly now. Thailand is wonderful, cheap and we live like Kings. No worries there.

13th March 2004

Scuba Diving

Nicola writes... Wahooooo!!!! What a buzz scuba diving is. I really don't know why human beings bother with drugs - diving is the biggest trip you could ever take. We can fly, but in water, we can be weightless like in space but under water. I decided to do some extra dives after the PADI course finished. Rachel has been feeling quite ill so gave it a miss, but this morning I did two more dives which were to 30m. Deep diving means I'm allowed to go to 30m with an instructor anywhere in the world. Inevitably after the high of this morning comes a bit of a low. When will I dive again? Today was the best dive yet as I was so relaxed. We did a freefall descent down to 30m, and in a group of 8 we formed a circle, lay flat like sky divers and slowly sank to the bottom. Bouyancy control is incredible. When you breathe in and hold a breath you float up and when you exhale you sink. You can sit in the middle of the sea and meditate, going nowhere. It's so chilled. All our fellow divers are a lovely bunch and we palled up with some nice Swedish girls for our first dives. Today I was out with an Irish instructor who looks like a pirate as he always wears his bandanna. I was buddyed up with a really nice Swedish guy and he looked after me throughout the dive. Because we went so deep today we had to do a test to see if we were affected by nitrogen narcosis (can create foolish behavious akin to drunkenness). We were told, while kneeling on the ocean floor at 30m, to write our names from back to front on a underwater board. I wrote my name but couldn't tremember how to spell Sarah. Anyway, at the time this seemed perfectly normal and when we later surfaced I didn't think that the nitrogen had affected me at all. Then i looked at my retarded writing on the board and I'd spelt sarah - 'arahas'. what on earth! I was the most affected of the group and felt very silly. It was a laugh though and very interesting.

Today we saw so many types of fish, swam through scoles and found a friendly large tropical fish that we could stroke and play with. Just amazing. So many beautiful colours, especially from the coral and sea urchins. More than anything, the sensation of being underwater and exploring that world is just mind-boggling. i will miss the dive resort and the friendly instructors - mostly tatooed, bleached-blonde hair and with London accents. It's a fun environment. They made a video of our final dive on the open water course and me and rachel have bought it. it's very good. they filmed us from the start of the day, kitting up, and the underwater stuff. They had us take off our masks, don some sun shades and dance for the camera underwater and stuff like that. So you can see it all for real eventually.

Admittedly I was quite nervous before the first dive, being so deep but you just have to relax and think ratuionally by the text book. You can't rely on your instincts because they are all wrong.

The only way I can really describe the breathing/bouyancy - think 'Charlie and the chocolate factory' when Charlie and Grandpa Jo drink the lemonade and fly up in that chamber. When they breathe in they float up and they burp to go down. Perhaps not a great example but it keeps coming to mind!

[Nicola and Rachel dived with Crystal Dive, they have been very helpful in providing copies of the dive tapes after a problem with the tapes sent back home]