Favourite Place:
Paul – Pan Beach, Krabi.
Amanda – Kanchanaburi
Caitlin – Pan Beach Bungalows.
Georgie – Pan Beach.
Ashlea – Pan Beach Bungalows.
Michael – Kanchanaburi
Most disliked:
Paul – The driver who took us to the seafood restaurant in Bangkok.
Amanda – Being stopped for photos & strangers hugging & kissing the kids.
Caitlin – Thai food.
Georgie – People touching us all the time.
Ashlea – Ladies who kissed me at the temple.
Michael – Frog ladies (tribal ladies selling wooden frogs)

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.  There are only about 3000 elephants left in Thailand – only 1500 in the wild.  Ironically, the domestic elephant trained in logging helped to decimate its own forest habitat.  In 1988, the Government imposed a total logging ban after monsoons created unprecedented flooding and landslides.  Some bright spark finally realised that cutting down all the trees was not going to improve things(!)  This was great news for wild elephants and other forest animals but very bad news for domesticated elephants and their handlers (mahouts) who were suddenly out of a job.

Some elephants were abandoned, some have been taken into the cities to beg, most have been turned into tourist trekking elephants.  The domestic elephant population has plummeted and horrific stories of abuse, malnutrition and accidents abound.  This is mainly because elephants are livestock and therefore have no more rights than cattle.  Their owners can do whatever they want with them.

Lek knows that the future of the elephant has to be tourism, however she would like to see eco-tourism, such as in Africa where you go to see the animals in their natural state, rather than trekking on them all day every day, often cared for by keepers with no knowledge or worse, no care.

We had a fantastic day learning all about the 33 elephants currently at the Park.  All, except the babies born here, have horrible stories of abuse to tell, but thankfully are living a much better life now.  They have formed into “family” groups and have started displaying natural elephant behaviour.  To read all about the elephant herd visit the website.

We got to touch and pat them, feed them fruit including bananas & watermelon (which they really crunch on) and then go in the river with them.  We were allocated to Jokia & Mae Perm  in the river.  Jokia is blind after having rocks slingshot into her eyes and so Mae Perm guides her wherever they go and she feels her way along with her trunk.  As a result, she doesn’t spend very long in the river and seems fairly unsure about the whole thing.  Mae Perm is very protective of her, which we witnessed when Jokia was frightened on the way to the river and Mae Perm turned around and trumpeted and started charging back towards her.  Luckily we were quite a way away!

The little babies were very cute and sometimes very naughty – they are actually 6 and 9 months old – but the lifespan of elephants is similar to people, living up to around 85 if well cared for.  (Mae Perm is 89!)

It was a great day for the kids as they not only got to do some fun stuff but also learned a lot about conservation and unfortunately more about human cruelty.  Please check out our photos and some more video on Youtube.

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!

There were 2 cubs and when we first went in, one was asleep and had absolutely no intention of waking up so we turned our attention to the livelier one.  The keepers told us that we were not to run or make any sudden movements and you also are not to touch their heads or make like you are playing – only because when the tigers try to play, they get a bit rough.  This is particularly the case with the bigger ones.

They won’t allow small children in with the big cats because they like to play with them apparently (sounds like a good story!).  When we were standing on the other side of the fence when Paul went in (very slowly I might add!), the tigers immediately locked onto Michael and just kept looking at him (I think they thought maybe it was lunch time?)  Anyway, the keepers said to us to stand back from the fence as the tigers will jump at the kids.  He had only just said this, when one of the tigers right in front of us suddently jumped right up the fence from lying down!  Scared the wits out of us!

It was quite funny while we stood there watching them – one in particular who had locked onto Michael, acted exactly the same as our cat at home.  Let’s just say that her and Michael do not have a friendly relationship (ie she will attack him whenever he gets close enough!)  Michael was chatting away to the tiger who was only centimetres away through the mesh – I said to him -look out, he’s got his ears back just like Puddy does when she’s going to attack you – the words were barely out my mouth when the tiger launched itself straight at him!  Michael has decided that cats are not good pets and he would like a snake!

Previously, he thought crabs would be good because there are crabs everywhere all over the beaches here and he spent hours following them and investigating them.  On the way out of Tiger Kingdom, there were 2 men promoting tours to the Snake Farm which is nearby.  They had a baby Siam Python which we had draped all over us.  I’ve seen 100’s of snakes before and have never been particularly interested to be honest, but he was kind of cute and they do feel nice to touch.

So we are gradually ticking off our wildlife ventures.  Up next – the Elephant Nature Park.

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.

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.

The problem with these markets is that we really can’t buy anything because we can’t carry it and there are millions of people – you really can’t move – which none of us like.  I imagine that’s particularly not fun when you’re 5 and stuck amongst all these legs!  Michael very soon tired of wandering aimlessly amongst stalls selling tribal jewellery and clothes and carvings, plastic junk and tribal dancers and musicians etc etc etc.  Not to mention the countless foot massage places and food stalls (we did actually try a spring roll – yes I know very adventurous! – for only 5 Baht – we haven’t dropped dead yet, so I think that has spurred Paul on to try some more street food). 

Last night we bought a lot of dried fruit and I had a banana shake from a street vendor and it was all very nice.

Our favourite stall was definately the doggy shop, which sold all manner of dog clothes and accessories including neck ties, raincoats, hats… etc.  The 2 doggy models just sat on the table looking elegant in their outfits, not worried about the countless people who did double takes to make sure they were real and then pat them and take photos.

Tonight we head back to the night bazaar for dinner, although this time, under a new system we have set up due to whinging – each of us will have one night of picking what we eat.  Rules being it must be Thai except for one night a week when we can have something Western.  Tonight is Caitlin’s turn and she is very excited – although I’m not sure why, as all the Thai menus are the same.  I think it’s just a power thing!

Tomorrow, we get more interesting – we’re off to Tiger Kingdom to play with the tigers and then Friday, we’re having the whole day with elephants at an elephant rescue park.

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.

Now they had the resources and the power they wanted and their next challenge was to invade India.  They had troops in Burma fighting the British on their way to this but had no way of supplying them – hence the Burma-Thailand railway was proposed.

Japanese engineers proposed that the 400 odd km of railway (including numerous bridges and cuttings through mountains and on cliff sides, through uncleared jungle) would take about 5 years, however the army chiefs declared that with the huge supply of POW labour available from their other Pacific victories, a goal was set for 12 months.

About 60,000 allied POW’s and countless 100’s of 1000’s of forced Asian labourers were sent to build the railway in horrifying conditions but did manage to finish the railway in 16 months.  In some camps, the death toll was 50%.

We went to Hellfire Pass, which is a cutting through solid rock built on the side of a mountain.  The Japanese didn’t have the ability to tunnel so removing the rock was the preferred method.  The workers didn’t have proper tools and used hand picks, sledge hammers and bamboo baskets to haul out the rock.  They worked 18 hour days and completed it in 12 weeks. 

 I can tell you it was an amazing feat for men who were sick and had not had a decent meal in however long.  We were here in winter and it was boiling – it is not jungle here but straggly, prickly, bamboo scrub and over the edge is a long drop down the mountainside.  We were all dehydrated and sweating after about 20 minutes in the cutting. 

The Australian Government has erected a memorial museum at Hellfire Pass and it is very good – they do war memorials extremely well I must admit.

It was very moving for Paul and I and hopefully the kids have had a good history lesson.

Please check out the photos on Flickr.

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.

We had a couple of things we wanted to see while we were here which were both temples – Wat Phra Keow (temple of the emerald Buddha) and Wat Pho (temple of the reclining Buddha).  I knew that dress had to be respectable and that pants should be below the knee so I wore pants that were mid shin. 

When we arrived at Wat Phra Keow you have to walk through the uniformed “fashion police” who check to see if you’re ok.  We walked through fine and lined up to buy tickets.  The ticket seller told us that all the children would be free, gave us the tickets and off we went. 

Then we ran into problems.  We had the second line of defence in the fashion police – they took their jobs very seriously we discovered.  They were not happy with the length of my pants and made me stand next to the “pants length measuring stick” which had the acceptable length marked on it in red – I was a about 2cm too short (I seriously considered unbuttoning my pants and pulling them down and just pulling my shirt down to cover the top to make up the extra 2cm!)  Anyway, I was told to go back to the entrance and get a sarong – free they said. 

Paul stayed with the kids while I went back and joined the sarong queue.  Half way along this I saw a sign that said that I would be required to deposit 100 baht for the sarong.  Typically I had no money, so I had to go back to Paul and get the 100 B.   He meanwhile, had been told by the fashion police that there was no way that Caitlin was free and he should go back and pay for another ticket (he was rather happy by this stage!)

I took my 100B back to the queue and this time got inside the door before I saw another handwritten sign on the door that said that the deposit had recently been increased to 200B!  I trudged back to Paul to get another 100B but he only had a 500B note – so I took that and went back into the queue – again..

Luckily, it was fairly short this time and I made it to the counter only to discover that they don’t give change but were more than happy to take my 500B.

I marched back to Paul and the kids and we lined up once again for the fashion police – just daring them to find something wrong with us this time! 

The kids had been standing around this whole time so you can imagine they were completely over the whole temple thing before we’d even gotten through the entrance gate, so we followed the signs immediately to the emerald buddha, ignoring the other palace halls etc.

We were a little bit culturally challenged at this point you might say, so when we took off our shoes and put them with the other million at the door to the temple and finally made it inside to be greeted by this tiny little Buddha on a pedestal – there were comments like – “Is that it?” and “We waited all this time for that?”

At least it broke our dark moods, as we made our way outside we were all giggling about how it would have been handy to have a telescope!

We spent a little bit more time looking around the grounds but pretty much called it quits on our day out at Wat Phra Keow.

We left it a couple of days before attempting our next temple outing to Wat Pho.  We went by river ferry, which was an excursion all on its own.  The temple was the complete opposite to Wat Phra Keow.  This time I had come prepared with a bag full of zip off pants legs etc for all of us, however when we got there, the admission was half the price and although there were signs reminding us to “dress appropriately” there were no police to enforce whatever that actually meant.

We walked straight in to see the reclining buddha which was absolutely huge and we were also allowed to take photos.  We all had a much better experience and the kids were suitably impressed by the giant buddha which had mother of pearl art on its feet.

We didn’t do any other sight seeing, just made our way around various parts of the city, including Kao San Road which is the backpacking capital of Bangkok and the Siam Centre which is made up of 3 giant multi-storey shopping malls.

Our hotel was near one of the canals that runs through the city and we caught one of the canal taxis that runs up and down between the shopping precinct and our end of town which was a government area.  We had experienced plenty of crazy tuk tuk and mini bus drivers but these guys have attended the Evel Kenevel school of boat handling! 

The canals are only about 20m wide and buildings are built right off the side.  They roar up and down at full speed, only slowing down when another canal boat comes from the opposite direction – and then both boats get flung about in each other’s wakes.  Each boat has 2 ticket attendents and when they fly into a stop, one of these communicates with the driver with a whistle while he throws a rope over a peg and then whistles when all the people have got on and off.  You have about 1 minute to get on and off and at peak hour, these boats are standing room only so getting 4 kids off a tossing boat was really interesting!

The canals also run under a series of bridges and we discovered about 2 minutes after we got on our first boat, that the driver lowers the roof to go under the bridge, so when we were standing casually on the boat, recovering from throwing the kids aboard without anyone falling in, suddenly the roof was collapsing!

We went on the canals a number of times so got a little bit used to it in the end but it was still pretty scary!  I hoped to get some video of them at peak hour as they really have to be seen to be believed but so far have run out of time.  I will let you know if I manage to get it recorded.

We are glad we’re now heading off back to the country to Kanchanaburi.

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!

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!!)

So, as were to discover, once they have your money you are there’s and there is no escape and a lesson in patience is delivered!  The minibus part went ok – he dropped us off at the pier and we were waved in the general direction of the sea along with about 100 other backpackers (ie the real type – about 20, some with dreadlocks etc).  Eventually herded onto the boat which wasn’t very big and off we went.  The last few days had been stormy and so it was pretty rough – although none of us managed to get sick thank goodness – I was extemely glad to get off though.  Once we got off the fun started.  We were herded into groups (Lonely Planet does make reference to this being such a well-worn backpackers track that it is like cattle) for the airport, for train and then for Phuket bus and Bangkok bus.  They didn’t explain this all at once though – we all stood around completely bewildered and whenever a coach turned up, a man would yell “Airport!  Airport!  Get on bus!” and so on and so forth until there were only a few of us left.  About an hour later the Bangkok bus turned up and we got on, praying that this wasn’t the bus we would be spending the night on as it was disgusting!  Paul quickly asked and they said no we would be changing buses.

We were starting to wonder how this was all going to work out – when we bought the ticket they told us that it would take 17 hours from Samui all the way to Bangkok.  We now knew that some of those hours were going to be sitting around wondering what the heck was going on!  Little did we know!

Firstly, we were deposited at a sort of bus station (and I use that term very loosely because none of us can think of a term to describe it).  It was basically just out in the bush where they had a shop and seating where you had no option but to buy their food and wait around (and pay to use their toilets or if you were really keen pay 15B “You have bath”).  Umm – Yuck!  I have taken some photos – all that was missing were some chooks to run around in the dirt around our feet!

So we waited here for about an hour & a half and then they were yelling at us to get back on the same bus.  Once again, Paul checked that we were definately not going to Bangkok on this bus.  No, no not this one.

We drove for about 10 minutes and were dumped at yet another cafe type place – this one a real cafe.  By this stage, us and all the other backpackers were wondering what the heck was going on and there were a few disgruntled punters I can tell you!  We were all sick of hauling our backpacks on and off the bus.  So we all dumped them down again – the guy from the cafe tried to get us to buy food but everyone had already eaten at the other place – so he busied himself with making sure we all had little Bangkok stickers.  Some people had white stickers and fewer, like us had red.  Nobody had any idea what the difference was.  Paul asked this guy what time the bus was going to leave and he said 7pm.   On our ticket it said 6pm. 

7pm came and went and it started raining, so everyone hauled their backpacks in under cover – several were laughing by now because it was just so ridiculous!

A couple of minibuses turned up and our ticketing guy picked out several people to go on them – we still don’t know where they went to.  One of the other backpackers asked what time the bus was coming – he was told 8pm!  We were pretty sure if it didn’t come at 8 there was going to be a lynching!

So, eventually about another hour later, this double coach turns up.  The ticketing guy says “Only white stickers get on bus”.  We had red so we weren’t sure what was going on.  He kept yelling about only white stickers but a whole bunch of backpackers just jammed straight for the bus and the last thing we heard him yelling was “Ok everybody on bus”!

It didn’t seem to matter, we all had seats and we settled in for the trip ahead – finally.  Once we got started it was fairly uneventful – just your typical vertical sleep in a chair.  Not something I’m a huge fan of but not really any different from a plane.  Paul actually slept in the aisle because we were in the back row so he had quite a good night.

The interesting thing was that we arrived in Bangkok at the time stated on the ticket at 5am.  So obviously, they make allowances for dumping you off at all their friends’ establishments to make sure you buy drinks, smoke cigarettes and generally spend money while you sit around waiting. 

Commerce at it’s best!

Yes, we did bite and ask the age old question that tourists ask in this country – How much?  Probably quite affordable if you were just doing a little 7 day soujourn at $350-$400 a night but what you can expect when the sand has no footprints!

We decided to stay on our side of the fence and continue to pay our measley $100 a day for a 2 bedroom bungalow about 10 metres from the waves.  Really it’s not too shabby and we pay 40 Baht (ie abt $1.05) for fried rice while over at the Angus the patrons are shelling out 250 B.

So, there’s not much to do here which is exactly the idea.  After a couple of days in the jungle and at the lake, we had worn virtually every piece of clothing we owned and we spent our first morning washing. 

The kids loved their classmates soooo much that they had to bring a little bit of Regent College with them and we have been battling headlice ever since we finished school and have lathered them up yet again this morning!

Last night we decided to head over to Chaweng Beach, which is the “touristy” side of the island.  We’re actually on what Lonely Planet refers to as the “quiet, family” area.  So Chaweng – it reminded me an awful lot of Kuta in Bali.  The main street is filled with touts and stalls selling the Billabong ripoffs, bags and bikinis etc.  Then there’s the exciting stuff – 2 McDonalds, a Burger King, Haagen Daaz and Pizza Hut!  We allowed the kids a drink and some fries to quell their McDonalds cravings, prompting Caitlin to plead for spaghetti bolognese for dinner – “Please, pleeeeease no more rice”!

Chaweng beach is promoted as being beautiful and the best beach on the island.  Well I’m going to disagree with Lonely Planet here – yes ok the sand is powder fine, but the water is not beautiful and clear where we are here at Mae Nam Beach.  There are also about 2 million more people all riding jet skis it seems, so our side is definately more quiet.

The restaurants are all on the sand and when the lights are all lit it’s very pretty.  The normal beach vendors come by with the laser lights, ice creams, massage etc.  The one I fell for was the man with the baby monkey.  He draped it over Ashlea, who couldn’t get the smile off her face, and then asked for 200 B to take a photo with his own camera.  If I took it with my own camera he would drop it to 100 B ($3).  So we did it and immediately I regretted it thinking about how many monkeys had been stolen from their mothers to get tourist dollars.  This was further demonstrated when we saw at least 2 other “monkey men” and the last one back on the main street who had his poor monkey smoking cigarettes for tourist photos.

I am having a lot of trouble getting our photos to upload here so please check them out on Flickr at a later date – particularly the one of the monkey so at least it may have been a little bit worth it.