Due South

Pick of the week: Guesthouse, Malacca

Style: Western sit

Atmosphere: Tropical

Extras: This loo should have felt a bit much. It was outside, there were weeds growing in the cubicle, but as it was it was awesome. The plant life against the whitewashed walls worked beautifully, the sun was always shining on this throne and the little transistor radio playing just outside added distraction if you had foolishly forgotten your book.

07/08/13 to 20/08/13 Koh Phi Phi, Krabi, Penang, Cameron Highlands, Kuala Lumpur and Malacca

**NOTE: Photos and the final post will be added when we land, not long now**

It seems that the sun was only shining for Vi's dads sake and almostthe moment the longtail boat disappeared around the headland it started spitting. This drizzle built to a steady monsoonal session for the next 3 days. This combined with the revelation we were now operating on the credit cards (not unexpected) meant we had 3 days eating little and doing even less in the rain. We managed a little more exploring in breaks in the weather while some others managed to base jump from the towers which was pretty inspiring.

We ummed and ahhed about the next course of action and decided to suck it up and head to the island of Koh Phi Phi (which is famed for its proximity to "The Beach") and after a bit of stress (and being fairly horrified by the antics of the tourists on the 'bad' side of the island) found a fantastic woodland/beach set up with a bungalow in the trees but with a wonderful beach view. An old friend of Vi's is living out there running a dive outfit with her boyfriend so we headed over to 'their' beach later that day and had a few drinks. A lovely evening was had and we were introduced to Fi's gorgeous little rescue doggy who bravely saved us from all passing Thai people.

The next day we borrowed some awesome snorkelling kit from my friends and had a day of toasting ourselves on the beach and intermittently popping into the (slightly) cooler water for a bit of mingling with the fish. That evening we headed into town to experiment with the local nightlife. We were mortified on behalf of all westerners when we found people walking down the main street in nothing but a bikini/short swimming shorts while the call to prayer was sounding overhead- they are apparently oblivious not only to local custom but to all sense of style and good taste (not to mention dusk is also when the mozzies start their feeding frenzy so maximum exposed skin seems a little daft). However, a lovely meal was had and we managed to make it all the way home without giving in to the urge to purchase a sarong and wrap it around a total stranger whilst making grandmothery tut-tutting sounds.

The next day we woke to find the apocalypse had started early. In 3 hours it rained so hard that the ground floor toilets were 5 inches underwater. We gave up on our previous plans of snorkelling with sharks (little, non-bitey ones) and yet again spent a day watching the water pour from the sky like someone upstairs had turned on a tap. We caught a long tail to the main harbor and had a terrifying journey across to Krabi on a boat that rocked and rolled heavily and actually managed to stall in the pitching waves once.

Once in Krabi we checked into a cute little guesthouse that we were delighted to find had hot water and rather guiltily tucked into a couple of delicious pasta dishes from the little Italian across the road (we really do eat local most of the time!)

Then all of a sudden it was time to Malaysia before we ran out of time so we caught the bus to Penang just in time for a 2 day bank holiday where everything shut down completely. We stayed in a great guesthouse which was brand new and therefore super clean as well as really central which was handy. Penang is a beautiful old port town whose main town is called 'Georgetown' and the next town just across the water is called 'Butterworth' so you can kind of tell we British have been there a little while. As most things from shops and museums were shut we spent most of our days having a leisurely breakfast at a lovely little cafe that did bagels and coffee and wandering round the old town (a UNESCO world heritage site!) which had beautifully intricate tiled walkways and shuttered shopfronts. Thankfully most of 'little India' was still open for business where we got some delicious tandoori chicken, curries, nan breads and rotis. It was also the site of a strange little moment as we took a night time stroll- we came across a big stage that had been set up in the middle of the street on one of the side streets in little India where a singer was entertaining crowds by singing various songs in Chinese which, oddly enough, included 'Delilah' by Tom Jones.

From Penang we broke up our quest south with a stop in the old British hill station of the Cameron Highlands. This area is up at between 1000m and 2000m, covered in Tea plantations and is much much cooler. We were in trousers and long sleeve tops for the first time in months! It gets as cool as 12oC here! With this in mind it is no surprise that the British based the administration for their whole Malacca Straits outfit here.

On our first day we wandered out into the forest for a short walk and somehow ended up a fair old distance from town the resulting walk back up the road to town showed us that Malaysians are as keen on walking as most asian tourists as we were gawked at the whole way home.

The next day we wandered back to a tea plantation we had stumbled on the previous day and had a little wander once again getting lost but this time wandering into a local village which was a world away from the skyscrapers we had seen on the coast. Also, any romantic notions we had of locals hand picking tender tea-leaves to throw into a bag carried over their backs were soon dispelled as we watched the tea plantation workers  manhandle what was the essentially an enormous strimmer and raze the top off every tea bush in the vicinity.

We hopped from here to Kuala Lumpur. We had not expected good things but it was a totally different class of city. Like the rainforest which seems to permeate it, making it impressively green, it is ultra modern and new up top in the skyscrapers but down at street level the vibe is totally different with a lot of old architecture and building remaining especially in china town. We met up with one of my (Vi's) friends from work and were taken for a lovely drive round the town centre and then for an authentic Malaysian family lunch which was delicious (Ben was particularly excited as since Eid had just passed there were tons of sweets, chocolates and cakes to be had). We went along to the national museum which had a great anthropological section and passed by some beautiful mosques. We also got a little bit of sightseeing in at the petronas towers and wistfully window-shopped at the very posh mall underneath it. All in all and excellent time was head.

Next on the agenda was the old port town of Malacca which was yet another unesco world heritage site. The streets are all beautiful little windy alleyways with tiny little arty shops and gorgeous shutters and mosaic tiles everywhere. As it was the weekend the weekend 'walking street' was in town and we got to sample the delights of 'popiahs' which are like giant really tasty spring rolls. We also got some of the local palm sugar called gulu Melaka which looks disturbingly like raw heroin so fingers crossed for getting it home. We spent a philosophical little moment contemplating the success of our trip while sitting by the shore of the straits of Malacca and generally had a chilled out and happy time enjoying our last few days of freedom as all too soon it was time to do the final land border crossing into Singapore.

Island life

Pick of the week: Our little bungalow, Koh Tao

Style: Western sit

Atmosphere: Sporty

Extras: A bouldering wall. What more could you want. After 7 months of searching we have found a pretty good loo. I mean the facilities themselves were rough, but.... it has a wall!

21/07/13 to 07/08/13: Koh Tao, Koh Phanghan and Hat Ton Sai (Rai ley)

***DISCLAIMER: So our little netbook has died, or the chinese have spywared the **** out of it and it no longer works. So this is typed in a rush and so may not include so much detail.... (Yay i hear you cry), also the pictures were on it......***

We caught the overnight train from Bangkok to the port town of Chumplon with the aim of catching a connecting catamaran to Koh Tao and arriving in time to beat the majority of the crowds to the accommodation as we had failed to find any online. The train ride itself was lovely and comfortable if a little chilly what with the air conditioning being turned up to arctic winter. However we were supposed to pull into the station at 5am- which came and went with us still trundling along in the dark at approximately 4mph. We arrived, nerves rattling, at 8am- a full 3 hours late and with a sense of foreboding for what this meant for our little boat trip. We were not wrong- we missed the boat. We finally arrived in Koh Tao at around 5pm, after pretty much every other tourist on the entire island and ended up walking almost the full length of the island fully loaded and cursing the fact that I had a Laos tapestry, Thai cleaver, full set of Cambodian silk cushion covers and a Mongolian snuff bottle adding to the weight of my bag.

You're gonna see a lot of underwater shots as i can only access the go pro 

Perved on a this girl a bit

The accommodation we found was spectacular though- a set of little wooden bungalows set on stilts above a rocky bay called shark bay which was where all the snorkeling trips tipped their punters out for the best marine life. Apparently the waves were too loud for Dad- can't please everyone. We were very pleased indeed by our toilet though (see above).

We decided to spend our first day exploring the island by scooter which is a great idea if you have an off road bike (we didn't). The roads are extremely steep, narrow and generally not paved in any way. On one particularly steep hill our bike started really, really struggling and slowed to the top speed of your average sloth. Ben started shouting at me to jump off the back so that it didn't actually start rolling backwards but neglected the remember that it's almost impossible to jump off the back of a motorbike that's not actually stationary. We stopped, I got off and Ben had the throttle stuck in the 'maximum' position so promptly zoomed off, lost control, careened off the bit of concrete that was the road and into the jungle beyond. Thankfully neither he nor the bike were injured and after a bit of fiddling we managed to get it started again.

Don't step on the coral. Mainly coz it bloody hurts!

Post belly flop

This time we decided that I should sit side saddle (more common than you'd think for women in southeast asia) so that if the bike threatened to bottle it again on an uphill I could nimbly hop off and the bike wouldn't lose momentum. What was not agreed was Ben taking a vicious speed bump at 30mph resulting in both of us and the bike suddenly becoming airborne. As I was on the back I got about an extra foot of lift out of the seat and side-saddle as I was I had no grip whatsoever to anything. The air turned blue and I think the locals may have learnt a few new english swear-word combinations. The general view of the jungle and beaches were, however, beautiful.

Coral

Getting sunburn the fun way

We spent the next day snorkeling around the beach and bay which was amazing as the coral reef was beautiful and there were shoals of fish that I never thought I would see in real life. We saw hundreds of fish in various hues of electric blue/yellow/pink as well as parrot fish and even an octopus. It was amazing and only a little marred by the fact that spending the day face down in tropical water resulted in us all being so sunburnt that even breathing hurt. Ben went from cooked lobster to horrifically blistered so leprous over the course of about 4 days. Oh, and Dad managed to get heat stroke which in actual fact was a relief as when it was happening we thought he might be having a proper stroke (collapsing after having slurred speech and dragging one leg are terrifying things to see when you are about 48 hours from a decent medical facility).

Shark bay, our bungalow was just to the right of shot

Leaving Koh tao

All too soon it was time to move on to Koh Phangan where we stayed at Shambala guesthouse in a 'sala'- read bamboo tent. The facility also boasted a beautiful white sand beach, delicious restaurant and 5 dogs which the owners proudly claimed were racist against Thai people (startlingly true!) who kept our stuff safe in our tent. As we were still recovering from 3rd degree sunburn we spent most of the next two days hiding in the shade catching up on some reading. On our last day we hired out some kayaks and headed out to an island across the bay and had a bit of fun exploring a sand spit and a few abandoned shacks along the deserted beaches before paddling inland into a spooky mangrove swamp where the bats were calling really really loudly from their little hidey holes. That evening was the weekend 'walking street' in town and we popped along to sample the delights of local cuisine which included really good satay (5baht a stick!) and some tasty little pork filled rice pancakes.

Our Sala, behind a view of the beach. Sweet.

What every man wants; an engine for his kayak

Posing

Next on our coastal adventures we headed to the Andaman coast to Hat Ton Sai which is one of the beaches on a peninsula collectively known as Railay. The beaches here are known to be beautiful and therefore expensive so we headed to Ton Sai where the climbing bums hang out for the cheapest rooms we could find. They did not disappoint at 100 baht/night although they were probably also the worst rooms we had stayed in in the whole of Thailand. They consisted of bamboo shacks (no fan or air con) with a bathroom built onto the back out of glass bottles mounted in concrete. The bathrooms had not been cleaned in living memory and stank of sewage at all times. We didn't dare shower in there for fear of either coming out dirtier or catching an awful disease.We evicted 3 cockroaches from our mattress before going to sleep and in the middle of the night a rat crawled across the top of the door frame. Oh and apparently our porch was the local goat's sleeping spot and he rocked the whole structure every time he got up to go for a wee/munch on a rag. Overall, not the best.

Great conversationalists on long journeys

The area was known to have some of the best (or at least best-known) rock climbing in the world and was the whole reason we brought our rock shoes so far so the next day we hired all the necessary kit and got cracking. Surprisingly the rock was pretty good if a little polished and even more surprisingly both Ben and I managed to flash a (very short) 6b! Dad had fun getting to grips with the complexities of sport climbing and all in all a very good day was had. Until we had to return to the shack. However Dad was leaving the next day and we resolved to find something with a lower chance of giving us either hepatitis or fleas. There was an emotional farewell (not least because the sea was pretty rough and the longtail boat we put dad in didn't look terribly robust so we weren't sure that we weren't sending him to a watery doom) and another section of the trip was over.

Onwards

Making it Falang spicy

Pick of the week: The elephant training centre, Nr Lampang

Style: Squat

Atmosphere: Tiled

Extras: Sometimes you have to focus on the positives. There was a door AND loo paper. Some days you win all round.

14/07/13 to 21/07/13: Chang Mai, Lampang and Bangkok

Having successfully collected Dad from the airport we went back to our lovely teak guesthouse complete with evil grey cat to rest a while before heading back out with Lee and Linda to a local restaurant for a slap up dinner that included a delicious whole steamed fish, tom yum soup, pad thai and countless other classics.

The next day Lee and Linda headed back to Nan and as Dad was a little jet lagged we took an easy day walking around Chiang Mai taking in the sights. We saw quite a few wats decorated in gold, coloured glass and sculptures and one that was beautifully made of teak. We also popped into the (*museum*) for a bit of culture in between stop offs for refreshing fruit shakes (blended ice and fruit- tasty in hot weather). As luck would have it there is a big walking market every Sunday in Chiang Mai and so as evening fell we hit the streets again for a look around. The market was (until we saw one in Bangkok) the biggest that any of us had ever seen stretching for miles down the longest streets in the city. The street sellers sold every kind of tourist tat imaginable and quite a few that would never have occurred to us in our maddest dreams. They also had lots and lots of very cheap food and drink. Ben managed to get a plateful of his favourite wide rice noodles in soy sauce for 15 baht (around 30p) and Dad and I got delicious Pad Thai wrapped in an omelette for 30 baht. There were also lemongrass stuffed sausages, tiny quiches cooked in a banana leaf on a barbeque, bowls of fried quails eggs, and the ubiquitous mystery meat on sticks. All in all a great evening of browsing and grazing was had with a little stop over for a beer when the evening rains hit (it is monsoon season after all).

The main Wat in Chang Mai is twinned with one in.... Runcorn. Who knew!?

Pretty weird

Omelette in banana leaf

The next day we decided to get a bit of a bird’s eye view of the city by hiring scooters and heading out into the hills. In retrospect putting Dad onto a scooter in a large Thai city on his third day in Thailand was possibly not the best idea, especially since we failed to explain to him the fact that in Thailand you can turn left at red lights and there is an unwritten rule that scooters are only marginally higher up the pecking order than pedestrians who are themselves at fault if they manage to get themselves squashed by a motorised vehicle while crossing the road. Cue Dad enraging truckers and car drivers alike by driving down the centre of the overtaking lane at maximum scooter speed like crazy frog on amphetamines. We did manage to make it up the hills to get a great view of Chiang Mai town and then carried on up to the Wat at the top of the hill. This was most impressive not just because of the sheer number of worshipers there but also because the central stupa was for once not painted gold but rather covered in a layer of beaten solid gold. Given that the stupa was several metres high there was a very serious amount of gold that had gone into it. We carried on to a nature reserve and followed signs through the woodland/jungle for the viewpoint summit, thinking we would just pop up and have a look. We hadn’t realised that the trail was several km long along a barely visible path that was infested with leeches. Added to that was the fact that trees obscured any view that the summit might have once had- needless to say we were not sure that the locals or even visiting Thais cared much for trekking through jungle.

Only when mad

Proper gold this time

Some view!

Our final day in Chiang Mai was taken up by a full day Thai cooking class. We were picked up early in the morning and taken to the school where we met up with the 5 people from Texas and a family of 4 from Denver that constituted our classmates. We were able to choose what we would like to cook out of a variety of classic Thai dishes including chicken satay, tom yum soup, yellow, green and panang curries and Thai pancakes. We started by making a couple of dishes (fairly proud of my crispy spring rolls if I say so myself) and then while they were happily digesting (you obviously eat everything you make) we headed down to the market for a lesson in Thai produce. There we learnt about the different vegetables, fruits and spices that are used in Thai cooking and finally learnt why some of the eggs we had seen in the supermarkets were pink. Turns out that in the pre-fridge era Thai people preserved eggs by boiling them in a kind of flavoured broth and then burying them for 100 days. The result is an egg that is cooked, ready to eat and, as far as we can tell, everlasting. They are painted pink to differentiate them from uncooked eggs and the inside is a rather terrifying black colour. They taste pretty much like a pre-salted boiled egg, if a little more sulphury than most. Back at the ranch and we learnt to make curry pastes from scratch (check us out!) as well as super tasty prawn soup and pad Thai. We finally made a load of Thai desserts of which the sticky rice with mango was my personal favourite although baked banana pudding and banana and coconut pancakes were a close joint second. We also had a little tasting lesson in Thai fruits including the dreaded durian which tasted less foul second time round by I still think I would rather eat my own week old socks. Finally we were rolled out of the doors with our little recipe books and sent on our way. 

Rice. Comes in many varieties

Best curry ever made.

Curry shot

We caught the bus to Lampang the next day and aimed to have a chilled out day wandering around and not doing a lot which was just as well since Dad promptly vomited as soon as we stepped off the bus. Dad had a bit of a sleepathon while we did a bit of organising for onward travel and then we all headed out to our favourite ‘one baht’ restaurant. The next day we headed to the elephant conservation centre for which Lampang is famous. It is a huge site that has a nursery and hospital which cares for sick and injured elephants throughout the north of Thailand for free. They have an elephant ‘show’ where they demonstrate the relationship that a mahout and his elephant have together and show how for hundreds of years the elephants were used to move and stack logs in the big wooded plantations. Lastly the elephants are given an easel, paintbrush and pot of paint and amazingly actually produce recognisable pictures of plants, trees and even themselves. We tried to pay a visit to the hospital but they seemed a bit busy with new arrivals so we went to the nursery where two adorable baby elephants were with their mothers, running around and playing football with their keepers (definitely could out skill me, given that trunks are allowed). We also got a ride on the adult elephants through their bathing pool and out into the wooded jungle. It was amazing to be up on top of these huge beasts (a long way from the ground!) gently strolling along as the mahoots guide them with the gentlest touch. There was actually a mahout training course that we could have done but sadly they were booked up months in advance so a project for the future.

Better than what I could produce

Going Tiger hunting

Surprisingly strong little bugger

Goes mental for bananas

We got our first overnight VIP bus to Bangkok which was a bit of a revelation as it was comfy, air conditioned and even came with a fleecy blanket and a cup of bright red fizzy drink that may or may not have been intended to give you a rosier view of the transport than you would have otherwise had.

On our first day (having arrived at the crack of dawn and sat outside our hostel waiting for it to open for a while) in Bangkok we had to go on a bit of a shopping trip as the case for our go pro had been thoroughly eaten by rampaging DEET. We also discovered a bit of a problem as none of dad’s bank cards were working in the ATMs (since he didn’t tell the bank he was coming to Thailand!) so this all took a fair bit of sorting out before we managed to do any sightseeing which consisted of a failed trip to the royal palace (which was shutting 30 mins after we arrived and at 500 baht a head seemed a little on the steep side) followed by a trip to (*which*) wat which was astoundingly steep sided and very resourcefully decorated as it was covered in broken bits of chinese pottery making up beautiful mosaics. All of these were accessed by the remarkably handy riverboat ferry which also turned out to be pretty cheap once we realised we didn’t have to pay for the special tourist ticket. That night we went to the most famous pad thai place in the whole of Bangkok which probably means the whole of Thailand and ergo we have eaten the best pad thai in the world. It may or may not have given Ben food poisoning but I thought it was very tasty.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Steep.

Looking back over the ChaoPraya at old town Bangkok

The next day was a Saturday so we went to Chatcuchac market which is one of the biggest markets in southeast asia and it is indeed huge. It is superficially divided into sections such as ‘pottery’ or ‘gardening’ but these might as well read as ‘random tourist tat plus some other things’. There is an entire section devoted to pets and their accessories and the dwarf rabbits were incredibly cute although whether the kittens and puppies were old enough to be separated from their mothers was dubious. Ben managed to get some pretty awesome t-shirts though so all was not lost. That night we went along to the national stadium and got some ringside seats to watch muay thai boxing which is basically a cross between normal boxing and kung fu except far more vicious than either. There were 9 matches, each 5 rounds long with the outcome being decided by 4 judges. However 4 of the competitors never made it to the 5^th round with one exiting due to a leg injury and the other 3 being knocked out. One of the matches was an American versus a Thai university student (who seemed to be the only guy who could come close to the American’s weight). It was not a pretty sight. You could virtually feel every punch hitting the mark and the poor Thai guy was on the floor with his eyes rolling before the end of the first round. The main event lasted a little longer but still ended with the loser having to be semi-carried off by his team. What the long-term effects of such damage to your head are I dread to think.

Game over

Stacking up the roses ready for the evening flower market

Ben and I got up at the crack of dawn the next day to see the Nothamburi morning market (a much more local affair) which was fascinating and mighty tasty and then we crawled back into bed for a few hours sleep before getting up again to go and see the old palace gardens. These were fairly pretty but also actually just a nice quiet place that felt a little out of the city. We also saw the biggest monitor lizard I have ever seen up close there. It was happily sat by a drainage ditch, sunning itself and was at least 4ft long nose to tail. I dread to think what they eat but thankfully it was not me.

Mega beans. Everything grows bigger in the jungle

Then it was time for an overnight air-conditioned train trip down to go visit the famous islands of the Gulf of Thailand and progress southwards.

Northern wanderings

Pick of the Day: Our hotel (i forget, its been weeks!), Phare

Style: Western Sit

Atmosphere: Oven

Extras: This bathroom appears to be a separate room. It isn't. It is the same size as the bedroom and separated from said bathroom by a wall half way to the ceiling. It was a very high ceiling. The room was cooking and this was no better. The toilet outflow also seemed to flow out over the floor. Fun.

01/07/13 to 13/07/13: Chang Rai, Lampang, Phare and Nan

With the arrival of Vi’s dad into Chang Mai in two weeks, we had some time to get in deep and see some of Northern Thailand. In March of this year my (ben) mums cousin, therefore my 2^nd cousin(?) had moved to the northern town of Nan and they very graciously welcomed us for a week prior to heading to Chang Mai. We thus spent the week before this hopping towards Nan enjoying some of the lesser visited towns.

First up was Chang Rai; only a relatively short bus ride from the border this town houses a number of Wats and a pretty feisty night market. We spent a couple of days seeing the sights with one day around town and the second taking a trip out to the “White temple”. Our day around town had the highlight of the tribal museum which was actually more of a “how to” guide on opium as the area was once a major grower of poppies. The museum itself is situated over an affiliated restaurant/bar called “Condoms and Cabbages”. 

Whilst not quiet causing a surge in appetite, it is actually so named due it being part of the sex education charity running in the area. It is fantastically decorated in condoms however.

Shame

The “White temple” conforms surprisingly closely to advertising for Thailand. It is a modern take on a wat, with impressive designs formed from concrete and clay. The inside of the temple is an altogether more surreal experience. Many wats have murals inside, but this one being modern has a modern twist. Along with all the classic deities we also spotted Michael Jackson, Darth Vader, Harry Potter and the twin towers being crashed into. Buddhists eh?

Knock these cones down at your peril

The White temple. A bit weird

The night market or Bazaar as it was called was fantastic. Hundreds of stalls selling all the tat you thought you’d missed in China and its own food court. All of the food stalls were arranged around a big courtyard which was filled with tables and chairs and faced a stage area. To the best of our knowledge this stage appeared to host a nightly talent show as the variety and quality of act was random at best. Vi did get her first ladyboy viewing though so she was delighted.

The Papaya salad obsession continues

Our next stop on the northern tour was the town of Lampang. This was really a reccon trip for when Vi’s dad arrived as there is a nearby Elephant conservation centre we wanted to visit with him. Lampang proved fantastic for two reasons. 1. We found a great place to stay in the Riverside guest house and 2. Round the corner is perhaps the nicest, fastest, cheapest restaurant in Thailand!

The guesthouse is a compound of teak buildings set along the river bank with plenty of seating and gardens to make it feel perfectly private. The restaurant is heaving with locals (always a good sign) and meal for 2 was under £2. We spent a cursory day wandering the town, but really just wanted to relax with our books at the guest house.

Sunset in Lampang

Taking us a step closer to Nan was the old walled city of Phare. Our first issue was in getting there as nobody had a clue what we meant. Lonely Planet had decided the pronunciation should be written in Roman as Phrae, whilst the real way was Phare (also Thais pronounce ‘ph’ as ‘p’ rather than ‘f’ which just adds to the confusion). However, we did make it there and checked into a cheapy just outside the walls.

Possibly the best loo sign yet

We had opted for the LP recommendation of a room at the back of the hotel to avoid the noise of the road. Unfortunately this meant that the room was solar heated all through the day to the point that when you went to bed it was hotter than it had ever been outside in the day! It cooled down around 6am. Those were hard nights.

The town itself was nice quiet and rambling. We spent our time wandering the streets finding some good coffee and a dog in a nappy. The night market was another chance for cheap Pad Thai. All in all the people in these northern towns had proved remarkable friendly and welcoming, if a little confused as to why we were here. Evidently not many tourists make it out of Chang Mai.

Waiting for Pad Thai, Phare

We made it to Nan easily enough and were thankfully picked up at the bus station by Linda who is a Canadian married to an American who was originally Thai. Between the 4 of us we pretty much made up all of the nationalities that Nan had to offer (being 4 of the approximately 8 ‘falangs’ in town). We were whisked off to their beautiful teak-on-stilts home on the outskirts of town set among rice paddies that were just being flooded ready for planting as we arrived.

A view from the house, planting the rice

Their house is perfectly designed to take account of the Thai climate, with the cooking and eating taking place downstairs which is mostly open and the upstairs having shutters to allow the breeze to pass through.

The second floor and view

We were welcomed just in time for a weekly family feast with Lee’s family, and so began a fantastic five days of seeing a slice of real Thailand. Being very much off the tourist trail, Nan has more of the friendliness and shyness that seems natural to Thai people but the absence of which makes the tourist centres so intimidating.

Representing

Linda and Lee were incredibly welcoming and generous hosts. We spent most of our days exploring the area around Nan by motorbike with Lee. He had just bought a big sports bike, and we used his scooter. It was great fun trying to keep up with something so fast on the little Honda which had about a sixth of the power!

Lee, a village chief/mayor, and Vi. This guy tell us shelter under his tree. Which was nice.

Lee, and his green monster. Note the detached wing mirror. Oops.

Nan. Its not Bangkok thats for sure. Thank god!

Linda has a job teaching English at the local school, and we took the opportunity to pop in one afternoon for two of her classes. I was totally unprepared for how intimidating this would be. Thai schools are huge and each year is split into ~9 classes in two tiers. The first tier is I guess like a 1^st class compartment and is composed of three ranked classes. These classes contain kids whose parents can pay for their education and so the kids are taught in air conditioned rooms with facilities that would I am sure rival a British school and are certainly better than a classroom I remember! The next 6 classes are more the 2^nd class coach load, non (or less?) fee paying. Within the tiers the classes are ranked according to ability at an early age with no real possibility of moving up set through the years. Can you honestly say you cared about your academic future as much at 11 as you did at 16? We met a class from each tier with the air con group not appearing far different from a class in the UK. The group from what I called 2^nd class couldn’t have been more different. Housed in a temporary (temporary for a whole school year), this class was a thin sheet of ply board from the class next door, the result of which was the kids at the back could hear the teacher next door more clearly! The kids formed a mixture of those who didn’t care, those who pretended they didn’t care but clearly did and those who really did care but where held back by the others.

A non fee paying class room

This is a scene of buddist hell. They bring school kids here from the age of 5. You think they'd work hard after that...

It was an odd system to see and I have a lot of admiration for Linda and the other teachers at going in everyday and not being more frustrated. I could imagine the effect of a school in the UK which had fee paying and non-fee paying sections and the effect this would have on the children.

As the price of food is so cheap (even for locals), we often ate out save for one night when Vi and I cooked, buyingin a kilo of tiger prawns for about £4. Bargain.

One of the town falangs is a brit and he makes his own sausages. They would win awards at home.

When it came time to meet Vi’s dad in Chang Mai, a good 6hrs away, Linda and Lee drove us over which was great and also gave Lee the chance to get some protective gear for his bike and pimp it out a bit too!

In true style, though I concede not his fault, Vi’s dad was late and so began the next leg.