Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to Laos we go

Yet again there was no time to rest as the next morning we were straight off to Laos. I would have liked an extra day in Chiang Mai to relax and explore the town more as it was such a nice place with lots to do, but as we'd booked a package this was not an option! 

We hopped on another mini bus only to be told that the first stop was Chiang Rai, the white temple! It would have been nice to have been told this prior to booking the day trip to Chiang Rai, especially as I asked if we could go straight from Chiang Rai to the Laos border to be told no, when quite clearly we could have! 

But hey ho, I'm learning that over here people just give answers even if they're not the right ones! So instead we spent our time at the temple sipping a (delicious) fruit shake and shopping instead! 

After about 6 hours travelling we arrived at a really nice guest house... with a pool! My first swimming pool since travelling (apart from when teaching the special needs children) so of course we jumped straight in (despite there being no sun, as per usual). After a while I lay lounging by the pool to suddenly hear Kate shout 'Lizzie!' and I looked up to see our friend from our uni course! Small small world. 

Sleepover club! 

The next day we set off with a group of about 15 to the boat that we'd be travelling on for 2 days. One of the guys from Australia (who was quite literally the Aussie version of our friend Daisy from uni) suggested getting beers for the boat so we ended up with about 6 crates of beer. We then rearranged the entire back of the boat so that we were sat in a circle (7 hours on the boat wasn't going to be bad after all!) 

We chatted and played drinking games and Kate and I felt we were becoming fully fledged beer drinkers (our aim of the trip). The views along the river were also really nice, although the river itself was SO brown! 

That night we stayed at a random hostel on an island and then continued another 8 hours on the boat the next day (this time with not such enthusiasm for the beer... apparently beers give me hangovers! We might not get on..). 

Finally we got to Laos which was really green and less built up, far more like Sri Lanka. The town itself was quite pretty and very quiet! There was even very little hustle and bustle at the night market. 

Unexpectedly we stumbled across a bar and restaurant called Utopia which we almost turned away from as it was so far down several alley ways. Thank goodness we didn't as the place was so cool! Located right on the Mekong river, it had a hippy vibe with cushions to lie down on on the floor and a (very strange, very I love nature, save the world) women singing. There was about 150 people there, clearly we'd found where all the tourists go! 

The next day we went to Kuangsi Waterfall Park with our friends from the boat. I expected to see a waterfall like the many we'd already seen, but it was so much more! 

Firstly there was a bear rescue park which was really cool as I hadn't seen bears before! With no disrespect to them (as they might eat me) they all looked really dumb with 'slow expressions'. 

The waterfall was amazing, it went on and on and on so there were were several waterfalls and pools made up from the one biggest. 

We climbed up to the very top of the waterfall (which was far higher than what you can see) which felt like an extreme version of the trek all over again! 

We found a quiet waterfall along the way which we swam in and jumped off from which was lovely and refreshing after the hill climb! 

Kate and I in front of one of the small waterfalls. 

There was also a really cool rope swimming that a few of us jumped from. After watching almost everyone belly flop I actually found myself feeling quite nervous (makes a change for me) but it was so much fun!

In the evening we headed to Utopia again and I had a mammoth burger that I'd been craving! We also took a break from beer to enjoy some giant sized cocktails.

Because of curfew, we had to be out of the bar by 11:30 and the only place open later is bowling (and yes I do mean normal bowling). So a load of us crammed into a tuktuk (4 on the roof and 2 dangling off the side, forget health and safety) and headed to the bowling alley. 

When we arrived it was so surreal! It felt like we were turning up at a kids party - bright white lights, music you could hardly hear above the chatter and people bowling! 

It was so much fun though and a nice change than usually clubbing as it felt more sociable and easier to chat to people. Still very strange! 

Alcohol does not make bowling easier... although I do look like a bit of a pro.

I love beer so much that I got a beerlao tat. 

With love from Laos...X 

No rest for the wicked

After we got back from the trek, there was no time to rest as we'd booked to go on a day trip to Chiang Rai early the next morning. 

We set off in a mini bus with three girls from New York (who sounded like J-Lo) and about 4 Chinese people. 

Little did we know we were in for a lot of driving... 

First stop was a hot spring in Chiang Rai. Kate's face represents the heat...

There was also a foot spa (basically just hot water). I thought it was best not to share my infected foot with the rest of Chiang Rai so have it a miss. 

Next stop was the White Temple, our main reason for the trip. It was built in white to represent purity - I expected it to be similar to the white temples in Sri Lanka but it was far more spectacular! 

Everything was outlined with little silver mirrors to make it glitter in the light. 

Inside there was a Buddha that we took a large amount of time working out whether it was a real person. I had to restrain myself from dancing in front of him to catch his eye. Probably frowned upon....probably. 

There was also artwork covering the walls inside which were so strange!...

Cartoony images of character like batman and The Matrix, but also images of world events such as the twin towers. We believe it was meant to represent everything polluting the world. 

Afterwards we made wishes in the wishing well and wrote on a heart that then gets hung up on a tree like structure. 

'cos we're the 3 best friends that anyone could have... 

Afterwards we journeyed further to the long neck Karen tribe. As the name of the tribe describes... They have long necks. 

Every 5 years from aged five they had gold rings to their neck until their fifty something. It's seen by them to be very beautiful. This woman had the highest number of rings she would wear and will never remove them, ultimately be buried still wearing the neck rings. I don't know how they do it, I wore a half neck for a couple of minutes and found it so uncomfortable! 

This little girl was even younger than five but has begun wearing the necks already so that she is 'beautiful'. She also had a lot of makeup on and pencilled on eyebrows! Her mum doesn't wear the neck rings, as instead she has humongous flesh holes on her ears with silver rings. This is apparently another option. 

They also wear rings just below their knees. 

Despite travelling for about 8 out of the 12 hours, it was a really interesting trip and we spent our time travelling charting to the American girls and planning out next trip! (Road trip in the US fingers crossed...). 

Bye x

When they said trek they meant trek

As I write this I am sat in an extremely mellow bar in Laos hungover so I'll warn you now, the creative writing is not flowing! 

Last Wednesday we set off to do a 3 day elephant trek in Chiang Mai in a group of 9 (2 Canadians, 1 American and 3 Belgians). 

Once we got to the edge of the jungle we settled down for a bite to eat. Tasty rice served in a leaf!

We had a crazy (in a good way) guide with us (they all seem to be) and he showed us how to blow bubbles through the stem of a lead. Really cool! I tried... and failed. 

Turns out when they called it a trek, they really did mean a trek! Little naive old us thought we'd be casually riding an elephant and doing a light bit of walking from place to place. How wrong were we! Who needs boot camp!? 

Amidst the balancing across trees and climbing up and down the jungle terrain we stopped at some really beautiful waterfalls and took the opportunity to jump in to cool down! 

At one of the waterfalls we decided it would be cool to follow the adventurous Canadian couple in our group and venture up to the next level of the waterfall. This resulted in the 'three best friends' almost becoming two when Nathan went tumbling back down to level one taking my waterproof camera with him! After some panicking and fumbling about in the water thankfully it was found and the friendship remains! 

That night we set up camp in a little bamboo hut which actually turned out to be one of my comfiest beds yet! That being said... I have been sleeping on what would better be described as slabs of wood... 

The next day it was back to trekking. An entire day of trekking... My oh my that is not what we signed up for! Finally we made it to our new camp in a local village and had a much needed chilled out night singing songs under candle light whilst one of the boys from the village played his guitar. Perfectly cliche! 

The next day it was elephant time! This time with seats so it was a far comfier ride! 

 

 

We then went on bamboo rafts down the river which was a lovely relaxing way to finish the trip! 

Despite our occasional losing the will to live whilst trekking, we actually had a really good time and spent 3 days with a lovely group of people! 

That evening we all rewarded ourselves with a much needed western meal and spent the evening together in Chiang Mai. It's such a nice place, I could have definitely spent more time there!  

But on to the next...

Ciao for now x

What a Start to Chiang Mai!

After spending the night in our £3.50 a night room in Chiang Mai (a poxy fan and mattress (debatable) on the floor) you get what you paid for.... I spent my first moments of Chiang Mai where I feel at home most. The hospital! 

As most of you will know, in the past few years I've been a regular at several A&E's  all for the oddest reasons, so I couldn't come to Thailand and not check out the facilities here! Basically, I have a strange bite on my foot that has become infected and very swollen and yucky looking. Fingers crossed all will be ok now I'm dosed up on pills... 

Moving swiftly on, today we visited Tiger Kingdom. On the way we walked through a really nice park close to where we're staying. 

Chiang Mai is a really nice place, far cleaner, prettier and quieter than Bangkok! 

At Tiger Kingdom,  we decided we wanted our picture taken with the biggest Tigers, so I psyched myself up to enter their compound. As you can see, as with the Elephant's in Sri Lanka, I was an absolute natural!....

...not!! It was way more scary than I thought! It doesn't help that we're warned to not touch their paws then here's the tiger just tapping away at my leg with his paw! I think I'll stick with babies rather than animals.... 

Although I did become slightly braver during my time in there and even tackled three tigers! 

We also saw some one month old baby tigers who were SO cute!!! I think I could have dealt with them far better. I did feel sorry for the tigers though, having so many shut away in cages. But most of them seemed happy enough, playing around with each other in the water. 

In the evening we went to a night market (I'm getting good at this bargaining!) then had a meal at a really cute restaurant. 

The food here is usually about £2-£3 for a meal and it's delicious! A welcomed change after a month of spicy curry. 

Tomorrow I'm off on a 3 day elephant trek! Wish me (and my bite) luck!! 

Bye x

Bangkok has me now!

After my 7 hour wait in the car park, we decided to take a train instead of a taxi then hop onto a tuk tuk to keep things cheap. What a mistake... The tuk tuk dropped us god knows where, we then took a million more trains and boat rides... finally resorting to a taxi having spent more than it would have originally cost! 4 hours later (it should have taken 30 mins) we made it to Khan San Road where loads of backpackers stay. Hopefully this was not a sign of things to come... 

It was now late at night so we caught some sleep in our £10 a night hostel and woke up bright and early the next day to start exploring. 

We visited many temples which were so beautiful and detailed. They had much more intricate detail and glitz than the ones I'd seen in Sri Lanka. At Wat Benchamabophut (catchy name) there was a giant gold Buddha. 

I also decided to copy another tourist and sit in the door way of the temple. Well a local woman was not happy with that! I got an old school telling off. A word of warning to future travellers... 

We also went on a canal boat ride and fed the fishes for 'good luck' (any excuse for money). They were manic and their must have been thousands and thousands of them! 

That night after having some dinner we made a visit to Pat Pong to see what these famous ping pong shows were all about. WOW did we get more than we bargained for!!!! Interesting and never again is all I can say! 

The next day we visited Wat Prakaeo, or in English... the Grand Palace. I dressed in what I thought were appropriate clothes, but was told that my leggings were too 'sexy sexy' so I had to rent a skirt. I quite enjoyed my Indian look...

Inside the palace was manic. There were Chinese people running around frantically taking pictures EVERYWHERE! The whole palace was so amazing though, the detail was incredible, like nothing I've seen before. I can't even imagine the length of time it took to build and decorate so many buildings, each with such different detail and design. 

....I just thought he was cute...

...the little boys ok too. 

In the evening we got a 10 hour VIP bus ride up to Chiang Mai. I'm getting used to these long journeys! It wasn't bad at all, with air con, curtains, blankets and reclining seats. After hearing that the buses sometimes get hijacked, Kate and I took things to the extreme and chained our bags to the seats and hid our valuables down different parts of our clothes! 

You'll be happy to hear that all went well and I am now continuing to live the dream in Chiang Mai

X

Time to Reflect

When I first wrote this post (and the previous) I was sat in Bangkok airport waiting 7 hours for my uni friends Kate and Nathan to arrive. This is take two as both got deleted! (Thanks blogspot). 

I can't believe my time in Sri Lanka has come to an end. I had such an incredible time, met inspirational and amazing people and truly got to experience the country (which I'll definitely be visiting again!). 

Sad to go! 

For me my favourite project was the orphanage. It was the most challenging, enjoyable, emotional, frustrating and rewarding of them all (emotional roller coaster). They were all such incredible babies and little children and it was a joy to be around them, I couldn't help but get attached! 

Unfortunately my last afternoon at the project wasn't a nice experience. There was only Rachel and I volunteering which is less than usual, so the staff immediately took advantage of this by stealing at least 20 of the 30 nappies that we brought (apparently they do this a lot then sell them on). This meant that almost all of the smallest babies had to have the cotton tie up nappies that fall off, resulting in wee and poo covering the beds, floors and Rachel's top! 

As Rachel and I struggled to keep at least 12 agitated (and many poorly, one of which clearly had a bad fever and wasn't being treated) babies happy, all of the staff sat having tea, occasionally getting up to unnecessarily herd the older babies with a stick.

Too many babs too many many babs! At least they have loads of toys...

When we got home and told Janaka, a whole can of worms were opened. We learnt how corrupt the entire orphanage is, including the commissioner and matron. The orphanage receives thousands and thousands of pounds of funding each year from charities and yet most if it 'disappears' into thin air meaning that the poor babies see none of the benefits. 

They receive bundles and bundles of clothes and toys, yet the babies have no toys and the toddlers have toys that should only be touched with gloves and a mask. And the clothes... there aren't even enough to go around and the clothes that are there have to go through the smell test. If I think they smell of wee, they're clean, if they stink, they're not. Something's not right there...

But worse of all, to keep the 70 babies asleep all night, so that the 2 members of night staff have a peaceful sleep, the babies are fed overdoses of cough syrup.. or worse.. au de cologne! It's sickening and the worst part is, it's not going to change. 

All that can be done is for volunteers to actually spend their time there, trying to make it a better place for the babies and interacting with them so that they get some kind of stimulation. They literally only cry to be held, they can be so hungry that they're picking tiny crumbs off of my trousers or so thirsty that they're licking urine off the floor... yet their only cries are for a cuddle. It's unbelievably sad. 

Their smiles make it all worth while 

One of the rare occasions I saw them get water. It was almost boiling hot and shared between about 12 babies... But nonetheless, it was water! 

Sad goodbyes... 

I also really enjoyed my time at the street kids project. The children are the loveliest most well behaved children I have ever met. The teacher is amazing and you can see how much she loves them and how much they love her. The project does so much for them, it's hard to get my head around that when they leave they're going back to a street not a home. 

Music time! 

I also loved helping at the nurses school. It was so different to the other projects and challenged me in a different way. It was nice to chat and form friendships with the nurses, with them being around my age. You really feel appreciated and welcomed which is so lovely.

The whole experience has really brought me out of my perfect little bubble that I live in and I hope has changed me for the better. What Janaka is doing with these projects is really inspiring and I feel privileged to have been a part of it, if only for a short while. 

Right now... The journey continues. Next stop, Bangkok! 

X