our journey around the world

It’s hard to write about our visit to the Elephant Nature Park just  because it was so amazing and so it’s hard to describe.  The park has evolved from the work of a woman nicknamed “Lek” meaning small (and she really is tiny!).

She grew up in a tribal village where elephants were a part of the family and later when she saw them being mistreated, felt she had to do something to rescue them and with the help of benefactors has been rescuing elephants ever since. [Read more →]

So finally we came to the day the kids have been looking forward to since we first left Australia – Tiger Kingdom!  Why you ask?  Well because at Tiger Kingdom you don’t just sit in the grand stand or watch from behind glass or mesh – you get to go inside with the tigers! 

Your choices are – smallest 3-6 months old; medium 6-12 months old and big cats, which turned out to be just over 12 months old. 

We did see this huge male tiger in a cage next to the babies and he was massive!  I have seen quite a few tigers in zoos etc but never one this big.  It’s hard to see just how big he was in our photos but take it from me, if you saw him while you were walking in the jungle you would soon be sprinting in the opposite direction!

If you don’t buy a pass to go in with the tigers you cannot enter the tiger areas so Paul reluctantly bought a pass to the big cats because it was cheaper.  Otherwise, he would have had to sit outside while we went in for a play with the tiger cubs.  (Those of you who know him, know that animals are not a special interest!)

Typically, when we got to our turn to go in with the cubs, the keepers ushered all 6 of us in, so Paul got to do both babies and later went in with the big cats!  All the rest of us were crying foul – how totally unfair! [Read more →]

One of the great things about travelling is that you meet some fascinating people – usually other travellers. 

So far we have met Irene & Daniel – a French couple from Bordeaux – when we were at Krabi.  Their son is a pilot  for Air France so every few months they get to go off on some sort of trip.  Luckily for us, Daniel is a physiotherapist and as Paul had done something to his shoulder on the first day of our trip, it was perfect timing when he very quickly adjusted Paul and the next day he was fine!  We hope we’ll meet again when we’re in France.

When we went to the Lake House in Khao Sok, we met Sven & Susi – also fascinating.  They have to have the best jobs in the world.  They work for a German travel company who places their guides in various places in the world to help coordinate package tours etc for German travellers.  Sven has been one of these guides for 10 years and Susi 5, which is how they met.  They have spent the last 20 months working in the Canary Islands and return to Germany next month to get their next assignment.  As a result, they speak multiple languages and have travelled all over the place.

Most recently here in Chiang Mai we had the good fortune to spark up conversation with Matt and his wife Jessica and their friends Joshua and Jennifer.  These guys are from the US and are in Chiang Mai to attend a conference.  They have spent the last 5 months in Mongolia where they are teaching English.  They all plan to spend 2 years in Mongolia, before returning to the States.

It was incredibly interesting to hear all about what they are doing there, how they have been learning Mongolian and about the country – not the least that the temperature was -40C when they left!

We all had a few meals together and enjoyed their company immensely and hope that we’ll run into them again some day.  Hopefully I will have a link to their own blogs soon which I will pass onto you.

We have only been travelling for a month, so who knows what other people will we meet along the way.

We arrived in Chiang Mai, which is the 2nd biggest city in Thailand, on Saturday night – after a marathon 13 hour train journey.

Since then we have moved hotels, done a bit of homework and just chilled out, as all of us, particularly Paul & myself, have head colds.  Probably picked up on the train, where the air conditioning was set at sub-zero temperatures.

I also had a really bad dose of tonsillitis while we were in Koh Samui, which put a dampener on my beach retreat there, however, I didn’t eat for 3 days so did wonders for my diet!

The hotel we are staying at provides a shuttle bus every night into the night markets (on Sundays there is also a once a week market which has additional shops).  So we have been into both of these markets to get something to eat over the last 2 nights. [Read more →]

An interesting thing I learnt about the Bridge is that it wasn’t actually built over the River Kwai!  The river is really the Mae Klong but because of the popularity of the book/movie the Thai Government decided to rename that stretch of the river to Kwai (which is nearby).

Kanchanaburi is quite a nice town and naturally there is a tourist district which caters mainly to the Australian, British and Dutch travellers who come to pay their respects and see the famous bridge.

On our first afternoon we went to the Thailand-Burma Railway Centre which had a very good display starting with information about the Japanese history and politics that lead to their entry into the War and then their expansion into the South Pacific.  For those of you who don’t know – here’s the history lesson:-

The Japanese had always had ambitions to take over those areas of the Pacific held by colonial powers, namely Britain, France, Holland and the USA in the Phillippines.  They already held significant parts of China and the allies had imposed trade embargoes, subsequently restricting Japan from accessing natural resources such as rubber.  In December 1942, Japan invaded Malaya (and attacked Pearl Harbour) and by February held all of Indo-China, Malaya, Singapore, Phillippines and was working through Indonesia en route for Australia. [Read more →]

Bangkok is a typical city – it has typical Thai traffic – tuk tuks, taxis and mini buses all flying around all over the place together with the normal people on their scooters and motor bikes.  The streets are filled with people and street side market stalls selling all sorts of bizarre things – some we could identify (kids loved the deep fried chicken feet just sitting on a plate!) and plenty we couldn’t.

That’s the thing we found about Bangkok – it is sort of a mixture between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in that it’s a really modern city with skyscrapers and 5star hotels and these incredibly big, clean and shiny shopping malls but you step outside and you’re straight in a street market selling anything and everything with rubbish all over the place and you’re back in Asia again. [Read more →]

The whacky activities of Michael on tour…

1. While trying to work out how the spray comes out, sprayed himself directly in the eyes with mosquito spray.
2. Walked off the floating footpath at the lake house, while not looking where he was going.
3. Fell down the stairs at Ko Samui, while not looking where he was going.
4. Lost his thongs because he takes his shoes off every time he sits down.
5. Needed a change of shorts when a mini chihuahua dressed in a Burberry suit jumped up out of a shopping trolley and barked at him in a Bangkok shopping centre food court.
6. While bent over digging in the sand, Georgie and Caitlin secretly filled his pants full of sand so that when he stood up his pants fell down.
7.  Locking the key in the room in three separate hotels.
8. While staying in a bungalow with only one toilet, the wait became too great and even though Georgie attempted to help by holding his butt cheeks together, a catastrophe could not be averted!!!
9. When we arrived in Bangkok at 5am, Ashlea was beside herself because she could not get her sandals to go on and couldn’t see in the dark as to the cause.  When we got off the bus we discovered the problem – Michael had 2 left sandals on – one of his own and the other a pretty purple belonging to his sister!
10. Being cuddled and stroked by a variety of strange men at bus stops and numerous other places.

Stay tuned, it is only early in the trip!

Ok, so we didn’t actually take a plane or a train but getting to Bangkok was just one of those trips that you can brag about in travel folklore. 

We did lots of research into the best way to get from Samui to Bangkok.  We could take the easy option – ie about 45 mins of flying for about $90 each; or we could do a combined ticket which includes a pickup from the hotel in a minibus, ferry to the mainland, bus back to the bus station and then coach or train to Bangkok.  We decided to go with the coach as it would end up costing about $20 each for the whole combined ticket (hey don’t act surprised – we might not be accountants any more but we still add every little thing up!!) [Read more →]

Most people come to Koh Samui for a romantic getaway or on their honeymoon. There are some unbelievable 5 star resorts here where you can achieve that sort of luxurious lifestyle.  For example, the resort next to us – which we have dubbed The Angus Resort – because it’s just “a little bit fancy”!  The staff get up super early in the morning and go out and sweep the sand of their private beach (yes I did say sweep) and put out the towels on all the beach loungers etc.  The pool is about as big as a football field and some of the bungalows have their own plunge pool or jacuzzi. [Read more →]

On our second day at the lake, after breakfast, our guide asked us who was coming on the trek.  It was going to be about 3 hours and would involve swimming through a cave and crossing creeks.

The girls immediately said “What!  Are you nuts?  Why would we want to walk up mountains for 3 hours?”  So it looked like it would be just me and Susi & Sven, until at the last minute Michael decided he wanted to come as well.

I thought I would probably end up having to carry him but I really wanted some member of the family to come with me and as I am ALWAYS up for a physical (Amanda:  crazy!!) challenge I decided to take him.

The long tail boat took us 15 minutes down an inlet and within a minute of getting out, we were already deep into the jungle. We walked inland and steadily upwards for about an hour & a half.  The jungle was incredibly thick and most of the time you couldn’t see the sun.  Some parts were steep with boulders we had to climb over.  Michael was pleasantly suprising me already, he hadn’t complained once, he was really enjoying the adventure.

After almost two hours of constant hiking, we arrived at the entrance to the cave.  This was where we had to make the decision, if we go into the cave, it would take about an hour of walking / climbing with torches & also the last part of the cave included having to swim (about 2 metres deep) for about 100 metres. We all discussed it, and Michael was keen (surprise, surprise!) –  the Thai guide thought it would be ok – so we headed on in.

Within seconds it was just the five of us in pitch black except for our torches. We came across numerous spiders, some were as big as Michael’s hand (and were yellow he says to remind me) and when we were about a half hour into the cave the guide pointed his torch to the cave ceiling, and there were literally hundreds of bats sleeping there.  Michael was just loving it!

After almost an hour in the cave, the stream of water we had been trudging through started to get deeper and harder to traverse, (I must admit, at this stage I was starting to think to myself, perhaps this wasn’t my smartest decsion), yet when I asked Michael, you ok?, he said “I’m fine”, and kept ploughing on in front of me.

Last hurdle was coming. You could hear the water was getting louder in the distance, now it was getting alot harder to go forwards, then all of a sudden Michael was faced with hanging onto a rope, and lowering himself downwards, to the cave stream below (my heart was starting to race now!), The Thai guide was great, he went in front and helped lower Michael down. I quickly followed behind.

Next we were dragging ourselves hand over hand along a rope that was fixed to the ceiling of the cave.  The water was up to our necks and there was no floor.  I was running on adrenaline more worrying about Michael and just thinking about getting to the end (and no my claustrophobia was fine) but then my torch went out.  Luckily I could see the other headlamps in front of me and tried to keep up. Finally after over an hour in the cave, we made it to the other side.

After a quick drink stop,  we continued on trekking out of the jungle and after almost three an a half hours we made it back to the boat.  It was an amazing experience, and all the more special to share it with my five year old son, (who normally back in Perth, can’t walk five minutes without either saying “I’m tired, can you carry me” or “I’m hungry”) who didnt complain once or even mention the words….I’m hungry!