Escaping the monkeys in Lopburi

From Sukhothai we made our way south to Lopburi. A town which is mostly known for its monkeys, which I hate, but it served as a practical stopover. In fact, we've been very lucky with our transportation, the bus and train were just about to depart when we arrived at the station so we had like zero waiting time.

Luckily, not all of Lopburi is infested by monkeys, they concentrate mainly on an old temple ruin and the neighboring streets. But here they are a real pest. They jump on people's backs, steal every loose item, be it on cars, motorbikes or backpacks and worst of all, they attack when you try to chase them off, they are really nasty!

I took hardly any pictures, too afraid they might snatch the phone from my hands.

Thanks god we also found some nice corners in Lopburi.

In order to escape all that monkey business we hired a scooter and escaped to see some temples and more buddhas.

Eva did all the driving through the mad traffic and I desperately latched onto the scooter and we survived. We first went to a lake where we sat on a terrace over the water enjoying the fresh wind and watching the locals. Even though it was a weekday many families were around, swimming fully clothed in the lake. 

After that we further explored the surroundings of Lopburi during sunset

 

 

This is the entrance gate to one of the temples: 

 

But the best part of the whole day is that we accidentally ran into a huge bazaar-like market with an abundance of food. For several hours we roamed the aisles tried various dishes and enjoyed the loud and busy atmosphere. For once it was no tourist market, we were almost the only westerners and English knowledge of the people was rather poor. With the help of me picture dictionary I could make sure that I don't accidentally try something fishy... This is my face after trying a deep-fried alga dish... not too bad!

But I have to say, it was all so greasy! You think Thai food is so healthy, because of all the good ingredients, but in reality they love grease, they deep-fry as much as possible and it was hard to find anything un-greasy...

However, we left the market being absolutely full and thrilled by the experience.

Buddha-tour in Sukhothai

Initially we wanted to stay a little longer in Chiang Mai, but it was seriously raining ALL DAY! I didn't know that this kind of weather existed in paradise... There was no point in visiting temples or climbing hills not to mention renting a scooter in this rain. So we made our way south by bus to the ancient town of Sukhothai with lots and lots of excavations of temples, buddha statues and shrines.

But first when we arrived we stumbled over a Buddhist festival held on full moon. Lots of food stalls were set up and cloth stalls and dart games stalls etc. The whole town seemed to be on its feet after dark with loud music and entertainment. We wandered around being almost the only western people and soaked up the athmosphere, the different smells, the lights and hustle & bustle. We had some excellent street food and tried various deserts and felt like we had witnessed a really local event, not artificially set up for tourists.

The next day we rented bicycles and cruised around the excavation site for the whole day, visiting numerous buddha statues, be it sitting, standing, with open eyes or closed, smiling or in deep thought... It's hard to describe but there is something about this guy... 

 

Do you have any idea how hard it is to do a self-timer photo on bicycles with only 10 seconds time???

Someone crossed our path:

Being really hungry after an exhausting sightseeing tour we tried "hot pot". A restaurant where you get a pot of boiling Veggie broth and you cook you meet, vegetables and noodles in it... Yummy!

Jungle Trekking in the north

We took the plane from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and were picked up by Chan who would be our guide for the next 3 days.

But first we explored the charming little city, checked out the night bazaar, an arts and crafts market that opens every night at 6 p.m. with an amazing selection of really well-made furniture, accessoires, paintings... enough to furnish several houses, tasteful and special... luckily I don't have a house to furnish at the moment, otherwise it would have been really hard to decide.

On our way back we accidentally passed through Loi Kroh Road where various massage salons offered their service. Business was going slow (it's still pre-season here) and most salons looked a bit dodgey and we doubted their intentions... However, only later we found out that this was the city's red light district... no wonder the girls wore skimpy outfits and massages were done in darkened rooms...

The next morning we were picked up by Chan's brother and together with another German couple we started our trip to the jungle, northwest of Chiang Mai.

On our way we passed a local market to look at half-alive fish in plastic bags, pig heads and various unidentifiable foods, but nobody was really hungry.

Then we entered the National Park where we could swim at the bottom of a waterfall. The water pressure was quite rough and as romantic as it sounds, it's not really fun to stand under water falling several ten meters high... Luckily we were the first group enjoying the dip, after us the small pool got quite crowded with other trekking groups.

Back on the road we stopped along the road to try local food (sticky rice cooked in bamboo sticks)

And then it was time to get active. We shouldered our backpacks with our stuff for the next 3 days and off we went through dense, green forest. Chan guided us along a path that didn't look well worn, he stopped here and there to explain us about some plants and fruits.

 

By the end of the day we arrived in the village Bong Noi which consists of 49 people. In fact, the youngest inhabitant was just a few months old and had the nick name Fortynine. We also met Fortyeight and Fortyseven who were slightly older.

 The villagers were quite shy and because of the language barrier they preferred not to communicate with us. But we still enjoyed their hospitality in their simple wood huts and Chan cooked great green curry for us.
The next morning we walked through the village and witnessed daily routine of the village life. Pigs had to be fed, cows to be milked, rice to be peeled, chicken to be released and much more. All done by the women. Men we only saw sitting relaxed in front of their house or on the way to the field.

After another few hours of hiking we arrived at the elephant camp, where we had a dip in the river to cool off and then we were sitting on benches on the elephants back for the rest of the trek, which was really wabbly and unstable and I wished for seatbelts... It was again amazing to be so close to these giants and great to watch how the mahout guides them only with his voice (which sound like "huh" to us) and the elephants so patiently obeyed every signal. No mocking around, no testing the boundaries, if only the elephant knew that he is stronger...
 

 

All in all it was a special experience but I think I will never enjoy elephant riding as much as I do horse-riding...

 

The following night we spent in another village, which is only called Lahu-village, because the Lahu a Chinese minority are living here. Unfortunately many tourists were coming through that village (even though we didn't see any), but almost every woman was trying to sell us souvenirs which they had probably bought from the big Chiang Mai markets. It was hard to send them away and I regretted that they couldn't offer anything selfmade, well I regretted that they needed to sell stuff to tourists at all.

Our hosts (we never got their name, Chan did all the talking) entertained us with traditional music by the fireplace on the terrace overlooking the river, which created a nice atmosphere had I only not broken the toilet and flooded the whole place... It looked like in order to host tourists it was required to provide a toilet connected to a pipe-system (even in Switzerland on the mountain huts the simple latrine did the job) and of course the plastic pipes failed eventually...

However, the issue was solved pragmatically.

The next morning we had the pleasure to try local deep fried maggots which looked disgusting as long as they lived, but deep fried they tasted like nothing else but grease and were as crunchy as chips.

 

 

The highlight of our jungle tour was yet to come. Whatever I thought "bamboo rafting" would be, I didn't expect it literally. It was a raft consisting of a few bamboo logs, tied together with some leaves. We all had to stand on it, of course water came through the gaps, so wet feet guaranteed. After we all stood on it Chan decided to extend the width by adding 2 logs which was done within minutes. Nobody of us was really confident, that this thing should safely transport us through the rapids of the river.

After the luggage was "safely stored" (see pic) we took off for 90 minutes rafting. Chan stood on the tip of the raft with a long bamboo pole poking the rocks left and right to keep us on track, our host from last night stood in the back and did the same. It started to rain, we had wet feet, we couldn't sit and couldn't hold tight anywhere... and then the first rapid came... The raft went underwater, tipped sideways, scratched some rocks... it was so much fun! Once we had confidence in Chan's rafting abilities it couldn't be wild enough. Okay, the rain was annoying and we were freezing, but the whole action was so far away from any safety standards that you are used to in Europe, it was thrilling! One little step to the wrong side, loosing the balance a bit or not ducking down under a tree and you would drown in between the rocks of the fast flowing water... I think I classify this as one of the last real adventures one can do on this world.

However, after 90minutes standing and getting drenched we've had enough and were happy to get ashore for nice padthai lunch and some dry cloths.

On our way back to Chiang Mai we stopped at another local market where more insects were on offer but we refused. We also visited a butterfly and orchid farm, but all this was just tame finish of some great jungle adventure!

3 nights in Bangkok

After a short night on the plane, where I was lucky enough to have 3 seats for myself, I arrived in Bangkok early morning. High season is about to start in Thailand so there was a huge queue at the passport control despite the ungodly hour. But I was not in a hurry knowing that I can't check into my hotel anyway. I even treated myself to a long-missed Chai Latte & muffin of my favourite coffeehouse chain ;-) While sitting there watching the hustle & bustle of the airport a sudden feeling of happiness overcame me. I was happy to have arrived in a country where everybody is smiling at you, where friendliness is key and nobody tries to scam you. I realized that suddenly women are allowed to dress nicely be it with super short skirts, short tops, or just with the latest fashion. I instantly felt soooo comfortable and welcome in this country. It's not that I hadn't enjoyed India, but this constant concern about what to wear in order not to offend or to attract anybody can become quite annoying over time. 

And now Thailand touched me right at my soft spot and I fell for it... it started at the airport and it increased over the course of the upcoming 3 weeks.

When I jumped out of the taxi in front of the 5star-hotel that my friend Eva booked for us I couldn't believe this luxury with water running down the walls, nicely groomed ponds and statues everywhere. 

And when I finally checked in into our riverview-suite on the 17th floor I wanted to dance and scream! 

What have I done the last 5 months if THIS is so beautiful???

After a shower I treated myself to a 90minutes facial treatment, had some lunch, a granny nap and then it was about time to pick-up Eva from the airport. 

The hotel has it's own boat shuttle to the next skytrain station and even though I had to change trains 2 times I was surprised and excited how easy it is to get around. How friendly everybody is, how helpful... and how modern!

Unfortunately I missed Eva at the airport, waited 2,5 hours and finally went back to the hotel just to find her stuff in the room already. After another half an hour we finally met and started our 3weeks-vacation together with a glass of white wine...

The next morning we enjoyed the huge breakfast buffet and went off along the river Chao Praya to visit the most famous sights like Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn), the Grand Palace and the Temple with the lying Buddha.

Even though it was hot and exhausting to walk around all day and as usual we forgot to take regular rests or just to eat something, we somehow still found the energy to go out to famous Khao San Road at night, where we enjoyed drinks, food, massages, watching tourists chasing souvenirs, and live music.

The next day we headed to the weekend market Chatuchak with an abundance of souvenir stalls, which is impossible to screen within one day (maybe that's why it's called weekend market ;-)
Luckily the shops not offering the usual cheap tourist t-shirts and souvenirs were fewer, and we got us some nice memories for ourselves.
Over a coconut for lunch we decided to go to the other end of the shopping scale next, which is the enormous Siam Paragon Shopping Mall.

The best thing of this mall is the food court and the aquarium, as we still can't afford Gucci handbags and Jimmy Choo shoes.

The exhausting element of these Bangkok days is pretty much the constant swaps between oven-hot and freezing cold whenever you enter or leave the mall, the skytrain, the hotel etc. So always bring a cardigan or you will get sick soon.
So another day finished and we enjoyed sunset from the river, admiring our hotel (the rightest tower) and the views from our balcony.

On our last half day we boarded a longtail boat to roam the canals, passing more temples, the cute shrines in front of every house, witnessing daily life along the water and visiting the orchid farm.
It's amazing that even though the water is brackish-brown and lots of rubbish is floating along, it somehow still is full of life. We saw a monitor lizard, tons of fish and birds. And we saw people including "their" canals into every aspect of daily life, be it washing dishes, washing cloths, washing themselves, cooking, tooth brushing or simply as a kids' playground... and these are just the things we have seen...

I can't point at a certain fact why I love Bangkok. I guess I'm just so emotional about it because the contrast to Africa and India is so big. Whatever it is, this is the most livable city I've seen in a long time. You can find everything in here: bargains and luxury, Padthai for 20Baht and Kobe Steak for 1000Baht, you can dress well for less and you can find all the international designers, you find stray dogs in the rubbish bins of the street kitchens and super clean train stations, the Thais know how to entertain tourists, they are helpful and friendly and they always, always smile... Is there any reason why not to love that city???

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Goa with the boys

After my organized trip through South India I had about 5 days gap until I had to leave India. During the trip I met Amin, an Aussie with Indian roots. Together with him and his friend Sandeep, an Indian living in Australia I bumbled my days away in Goa. Is there a better to learn about a country but by hanging out with the locals? Luckily, the boys had a car and a holiday house in a resort with pool. Also luckily the rain stopped, so we worked on our jumping skills by the pool...

 We caught up for beach party:

But we also appreciated the culture in Old Goa (where you could see the big influence the Christian Portuguese had on a mainly Hindu country back in the days)

And we didn't forget about enjoying nature's beauty at Miramar Beach in Panjim.

 My expectations of Goa were totally different to what I experienced. I thought in this world-famous party place I could easily get lost amongst many travelers even without getting high on some drugs. However, the truth is firstly, that it was off-season, which was good as the western tourists were still outnumbered by the locals. Secondly, Goa is a small state with villages and resorts and restaurants and shops scattered around, there is no real center and a private transport is essential to get around. The place where I first stayed was Baga Beach, which is known as the party beach. But party beach also means, that accomodation is only for budget travelers available and budget travelers are mainly younger people. Yes, even though, I am the backpacker, I still feel too old to mingle with the 20years-old hippies and wannabe-dropouts. And thirdly, Baga Beach was full of young Indian men on stag parties. from what I've learnt about Indian society and their separation of men and women, a country where even for lunch break amongst colleagues the genders are strictly separated, where they need to have separate women's carriages on the train and where women can't get to local festivals out of fear to get raped, I figured it is not such a good idea to hang out at a beach where young Indian men get drunk... The one time I tried walking along the beach I was hustled every few meters by someone asking to take a picture of me or by someone just taking a video of me or by someone with some other questions which I didn't even listen to... it was simply no fun! 

But I couldn't resist going out in one of the most famous night clubs. So I gathered Amin & Sandeep around me, made sure they didn't leave my side and so I could enjoy a little bit of dancing and looking around in "Tito's". About 1/4 of the guests were female but never alone, never in a group of girls but always, always with male company. There were special ladies corners and floors where ladies could only get access when they weren't accompanied by more than 1 man, so I couldn't go. The majority of the men was left to getting overly drunk (free alcohol included in entrance fee) and dance to their favourite Bollywood-music.

So I decided Baga Beach is not the right place for me and found a new hotel centrally located in Panjim, Goa's capital. This was heaps more relaxing! I could walk around freely, I could organize a few things (laundry, malaria tablets etc.) and I could benefit from the boys' car with which we took rides to Old Goa, where they have lots of old churches, monuments and museums, to Miramar, the posh hang-out place for Goans, or another beach in the North where they have famous sunset trance parties (but only in high season) and tried Goan food in as many places as possible.

And so my last days in India flew by and I had to say goodbye to an astonishing country aspiring to be a world leader but still stuck in their very special traditions, a country with a problem of the differences between men and women, but also a country so rich in resources, so divers in landscape and so full of life... and I have only seen the south part so far...!

Lazy Goa