The following day we were again rather rudely awaken by the pigs and roosters, who seemed to be having some sort of barn party around 5 am. Although we were used to this from our stay at Naga Hill, it still baffles me that the village tribe don't get sick of the din which they have to put up with every day. The family woke up around 6 am and thankfully Jahe didn't need us to get up until 8. Sleepily we headed down for our cold showers and wandered into the kitchen, where breakfast (rice,vegetables and fried fish) was already waiting for us on the table. Now I am rather used to having nasi lemak in Malaysia for breakfast every now and then, but these guys have the same thing every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It makes you really think about how lucky we are to have the choice of steak on one day and pasta the next!
We packed up our things and said our goodbyes before heading up to 'The viewpoint', which is a little hut up in the hills about a half hour walk from the village and the view from up there is spectacular. What you get is a panoramic view of never ending forest and blue sky, and the only sound you can hear is the running fresh water that they directed down from a source in the hills, so that they can go up there and cook a meal and chill out. We sat there and took in the view, had a snooze and then got to work.
Jahe and his friend started chopping up bamboo and in about 5 minutes they made some bamboo cups to drink our water and tea from. They then chopped up longer pieces of bamboo and lined them with banana leaves, then instructed Leon and I to fill these with rice and some water. This was to make sticky rice, and Jahe used another bit of bamboo to make an egg dish (basically an omelet but steamed inside a bit of bamboo). Leon then attempted to make a couple more cups- the first one was a little small but he soon got the hang of it and made a perfect one the second time. We then made some chop sticks out of bamboo, whilst Jahe got to work on making the soup. By the time lunch was ready we were all starving and the food was amazing! The thais love to eat a chilli paste/salsa with every meal, and they brought some along to add some more flavour to the meal. After lunch and some washing up, we sat outside the hut and had a mid afternoon nap. Definitely an afternoon that we will never forget.
Having awoken from our post lunch nap, it was time to leave our scenic hill top view point and begin our trek to the next village. The walk through the hill side wasn't too tough and as the main heat of the day had subsided it was much more pleasant than the ascent to the viewpoint. Having slowly climbed the hills for the duration of our walk , we had a perfect panoramic view of the Akha tribe as we descended to the village. We had been given an overview of what to expect in terms of village differences by the Mirror Art Group the previous day, and even before we entered the village you could see quite a marked difference. The Lafu are pretty much fully self sustained whereas the Akha are farmers second and trading entrepreneurs first. This in turn means the Akha are more affluent. The majority of the buildings in in the Akha village were made of timber ( apart from one bamboo hut near the entrance) with corrugated iron roofs whereas in the Lahu, they were all made from bamboo.
As we entered the village , you could immediately feel that the inhabitants were very used to tourists and Alicia and didn't get a very "authentic" feeling compared with our previous days experience. That being said, we remained open minded as we made our way to the center of the Village. Having left us on our own for a few minutes, Jahe returned and lead us off to our evenings dwelling. It did take me somewhat by surprise when we started making our way back to the village entrance and noticing that there were many many tourists staying I half expected they might be full and that we would be spending the night in the forest....Thankfully this was not the case and Jahe introduced us to our hostess for the evening who Alicia and I slightly unfairly named "Crazy Auntie Anne". Anne lived in the one bamboo building in the village near the entrance to the village I referred to earlier. Tonight Alicia and wouldn't be spending our evening in Anne's house, but in the quarters that had been assigned for visitors next to the house. The sleeping shack can only be compared to a garden shed and had a feel to it a similar to what I imagine a solitary confinement cell in a Japanese prisoner of war camp might be like....Again here I am being a bit mean, but the we had become used to the relatively luxurious accommodation of the night before. We then had a meal of fish, vegetables, chili salsa rice and tea followed by a display of traditional Akha dancing by the women of the tribe. Anne insisted Alicia and I dress up as one of the locals for the evening which was also fun...We then retired for an evening of restless none sleeping.
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Hill Trek Day 1: Elephants and Ban Yafu 20th Jan
After a rather relaxing stay at Naga Hill, Leon and I were feeling a little sad when we checked into the Mirror Art Guesthouse, which was 4 times cheaper but you could certainly tell by the room! Nonetheless, we were more excited about going on our 2 day hill trek the next day, so took a deep breath and made the most of our last day in Chiang Rai. The following morning we were up bright and early, and were greeted by Jahe, who was to be our guide for the entire trip. He initially came across as a quiet man, but as we got to know him we found his English to be a lot better than most guides, but he was just a bit shy about using it. Jahe is from the Lahu tribe, and we found out that we would be staying in his village that evening, and he was extremely excited to be taking us to see his home.
So off we went in the sawng thaew (open back van, pretty comfy although you can really feel/taste the dust when you're driving around!) and after being shown around a wet market and another Wat (which we had already seen), they took us about 45 minutes outside of Chiang Rai towards the more remote hillside.
That was where the Mirror Art Foundation was based and this was where we had our induction for the trip. The Mirror Art Group are an NGO (one of many in Chiang Rai) whose main aim is to protect the heritage of local hill tribes and help them to cope with the changing world around them. Alot of tribes are being forced to move out of the hills and towards the main city centre, thus taking away their self-sustaining way of life and forcing them to go mainstream i.e.sell their handicraft in the markets but a lot of them find this extremely difficult and also upsetting. We met Thellie, a Brit who has lived in Chiang Rai and worked for Mirror Art for the last 3 years, and he gave us a great insight into the work they have been doing and also the etiquette that needs to be practised when going to stay with these families. They don't like girls and boys to hold hands, kiss or touch at all really - all fairly different from the way of life back in the UK! However, of course we were more than happy to abide by the rules... which a lot of other tourists seem to break!
We were dropped off at the Elephant village, took a few photos of a MASSIVE snake that lived in a cage, just by a cafe (very random), and then faced our 2 hour elephant ride to the Lahu village. Our Elephant guide called How - was a funny man who looked about 45 but was actually Leon's age, and our lovely elephant was called Haiti. Haiti, we were told, was 39 years old and seemed like a lovely elephant. We weren't too sure about the bumpy 2 hour ride we were about to go on, and seeing that we would be doing some steep uphill and down hill elephant riding, I have to say both Leon and I were quite relieved when we reached the Lahu village (called Ban Yafu) both fully intact.
The Yafu village is fairly remote compared to others, as there isn't a road near by (the closest one is about an hour or so away), and because of this the village itself is pretty poor. We could sense this from the very basic bamboo houses, but most if not all houses had electricity for some part of the day and clean water, which I imagine some even poorer village tribes do not have. The place was full of life, with lots of chickens running around and LOTS of pigs and dogs (I stayed well away!)because each family keeps these animals, who live happily under their houses.
We were quite fortunate in that Jahe had arranged for us to stay with the village teacher, who was evidently the wealthiest out of the lot as he and his wife had the most modern house (built of concrete blocks as opposed to wooden ones) and they had a separate kitchen, whereas most families had their kitchen in the house. When I say kitchen what they really have is a big fire place in the middle of the house, almost like an indoor barbecue, which also helps to keep the termites away! As it was nearing sunset, we sat on the verandah of the teachers house, sipped on some Chang and took in the breathtaking view of the hills.
I was then taken to the kitchen where I dutifully helped the teacher's wife chop some vegetables and make dinner, whilst Leon sat and played with Naneh, Jahe's very adorable and energetic 3 year old daughter. This was the start of our education on the Yafu, who stick to the tradition that women cook, clean and weave, whereas the men build and chop things up! Dinner consisted of steamed white rice, vegetable soup and vegetable stir fry, which was all very delicious, and having had a tiring day we watched some thai tv version of The Bold and the Beautiful before putting our heads down to sleep around 9 pm. To our surprise, our host (the teacher) came out of his room with a massive rifle, only to inform us that he was off out to go hunting for some chickens! Leon was keen to go along but I pursuaded him to stay (phew!) and we dozed off to bed whilst the other men in the village went off on their hunt. Day one in Ban Yafu was extremely interesting and although we were told that this particular tribe were very shy and reserved, we really found them to be very welcoming and were very grateful to stay with such gracious people.
So off we went in the sawng thaew (open back van, pretty comfy although you can really feel/taste the dust when you're driving around!) and after being shown around a wet market and another Wat (which we had already seen), they took us about 45 minutes outside of Chiang Rai towards the more remote hillside.
That was where the Mirror Art Foundation was based and this was where we had our induction for the trip. The Mirror Art Group are an NGO (one of many in Chiang Rai) whose main aim is to protect the heritage of local hill tribes and help them to cope with the changing world around them. Alot of tribes are being forced to move out of the hills and towards the main city centre, thus taking away their self-sustaining way of life and forcing them to go mainstream i.e.sell their handicraft in the markets but a lot of them find this extremely difficult and also upsetting. We met Thellie, a Brit who has lived in Chiang Rai and worked for Mirror Art for the last 3 years, and he gave us a great insight into the work they have been doing and also the etiquette that needs to be practised when going to stay with these families. They don't like girls and boys to hold hands, kiss or touch at all really - all fairly different from the way of life back in the UK! However, of course we were more than happy to abide by the rules... which a lot of other tourists seem to break!
We were dropped off at the Elephant village, took a few photos of a MASSIVE snake that lived in a cage, just by a cafe (very random), and then faced our 2 hour elephant ride to the Lahu village. Our Elephant guide called How - was a funny man who looked about 45 but was actually Leon's age, and our lovely elephant was called Haiti. Haiti, we were told, was 39 years old and seemed like a lovely elephant. We weren't too sure about the bumpy 2 hour ride we were about to go on, and seeing that we would be doing some steep uphill and down hill elephant riding, I have to say both Leon and I were quite relieved when we reached the Lahu village (called Ban Yafu) both fully intact.
The Yafu village is fairly remote compared to others, as there isn't a road near by (the closest one is about an hour or so away), and because of this the village itself is pretty poor. We could sense this from the very basic bamboo houses, but most if not all houses had electricity for some part of the day and clean water, which I imagine some even poorer village tribes do not have. The place was full of life, with lots of chickens running around and LOTS of pigs and dogs (I stayed well away!)because each family keeps these animals, who live happily under their houses.
We were quite fortunate in that Jahe had arranged for us to stay with the village teacher, who was evidently the wealthiest out of the lot as he and his wife had the most modern house (built of concrete blocks as opposed to wooden ones) and they had a separate kitchen, whereas most families had their kitchen in the house. When I say kitchen what they really have is a big fire place in the middle of the house, almost like an indoor barbecue, which also helps to keep the termites away! As it was nearing sunset, we sat on the verandah of the teachers house, sipped on some Chang and took in the breathtaking view of the hills.
I was then taken to the kitchen where I dutifully helped the teacher's wife chop some vegetables and make dinner, whilst Leon sat and played with Naneh, Jahe's very adorable and energetic 3 year old daughter. This was the start of our education on the Yafu, who stick to the tradition that women cook, clean and weave, whereas the men build and chop things up! Dinner consisted of steamed white rice, vegetable soup and vegetable stir fry, which was all very delicious, and having had a tiring day we watched some thai tv version of The Bold and the Beautiful before putting our heads down to sleep around 9 pm. To our surprise, our host (the teacher) came out of his room with a massive rifle, only to inform us that he was off out to go hunting for some chickens! Leon was keen to go along but I pursuaded him to stay (phew!) and we dozed off to bed whilst the other men in the village went off on their hunt. Day one in Ban Yafu was extremely interesting and although we were told that this particular tribe were very shy and reserved, we really found them to be very welcoming and were very grateful to stay with such gracious people.
Monday, 18 January 2010
13th - 18th Jan: Naga Hill Retreat
Naga Hill Retreat is only 15 minutes away from the centre of Chiang Rai but it is situated right next to a large, beautiful lake with a University and park perched at the other side of the lake. When we arrived at Naga hill we were stunned - it was so peaceful, and all the bungalows were far enough from one another that it felt like you were staying there on your own. We were greeted by Tri, who is such a smiley, welcoming Thai lady with a little 2 month old daughter and lovely husband. She showed us around the main grounds (salt water pool that was 25 m long and faced the hills, amazing! and chilled restaurant bar area) before showing us to our bungalow. It had a large double bed, fan, and out door bathroom and bath tub, which looked extremely inviting. To top it all off, there was a hammock outside our front door for lazing about.... we were in heaven. Having not been in a pool since Malaysia, Leon and I quickly dashed off and made it to the pool side in about 20 seconds after dumping our stuff. I kid you not when I say it was probably 2 degrees centigrade in that pool, but after a while you get used to it! And so it began, our routine of swimming, reading, sunbathing, eating and making new friends. We ventured out during our stay there to the hot springs (not worth the trek, just a number of big bath tubs in the middle of nowhere) and attempted to go fishing in the lake. Fishing was hilarious in hindsight, and we had to go to some local fisher men to help us untangle our line! No fish were caught and we barely got the line in the water... if someone can give some tips on casting off, then please share!! We were woken up every morning by the darn roosters (around 5 am) and many mosquitos were cursed and killed, but overall it was such a relaxing 5 days.... We made friends with Kaew who is a 29 year old Thai guy who works there and is hilarious... he wants to set up his own resort by the sea someday and we'll definitely go and visit him once it is done. Tonight, now we are back in Chiang Rai, we'll be meeting up with Nicolas and Paul, 2 lovely Austrian men who are there on business and pleasure and told many tales about their 'Journeys to the end of the world'. So far we are having a wonderful time, but of course are missing all our friends and family at the same time.
Chiang Rai: White Temples and Night Bazaars
Chiang Rai, as Leon rightly put it, is a sleepy town (a bit like the area around TMC in Bangsar) but still with it's fair share of young backpackers and older tourists... lots of Thai women trying to entice poor Leon into their Lair to get a backrub, whilst throwing some evils over to me because they thought I was his Thai girlfriend (a theme that I think I'm going to have to get used to for the next 3 months!) Highlights of our time exploring this town have been the night bazaar which sells the usual trinkets and woolly hats, but also a place where everyone seems to go to for their evening meal. We had a really tasty hotpot with veg and seafood (100 Baht, so under 2 quid) and some tempura which was the best that I've ever had! We did a day of site seeing as well which included the White temple, which is a modern buddhist temple that has murals of the twin towers (NY), keanu reeves and star trek as opposed to your usual olden day murals... Then up to the Monkey caves (which was literally a cave with lots of monkeys around it). We made it to the Golden Triangle which was where the main trading between Burma, Laos and Thailand took place, and apparently a lot of opium being produced still across the waters in Burma. Then off to the Opium Museum to brush up on our history, then down to another temple before we drove back to our guesthouse for more night bazaar fun! That evening we played our first gig in the Cat bar, where Sam (the husband of Cat, who owns the bar) invites people to Jam With Sam (or for Sam, as we soon discovered) and sing your heart out. This was a dream come true, and whilst Leon strummed away on the guitar with one-toothed Sam, I belted out a few numbers including Hotel California, Yellow and Under The Bridge. I knew I'd manage to get my karaoke fix, one way or another!After stumbling back home to bed at 2 am, we were ready for our next part of the trip... Naga Hill Retreat...
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Sat 9th - Sun 10th Jan - Khaosan to Chaing Rai
Having departed on our trip woefully underpreparred in some respects (thinking that 5 pairs of underwear and a matching number set of socks would suffice as well as one pair of shorts) and not being allowed to purchase any of the goods I so desperatley needed, and I quote what I have heard on sooooooo many occasions from Alicia, "it will eb cheaper in Thailand." , today was my opportunity to indulge in some retail therapy, Thai style. With this in miond we headed off earlyish to the infamous Khaosan Road, a haven for European Backpackers offering cheap accomodation, even cheaper booze and row upon row of stalls selling the same tshirts, shorts, sun glasses etc etc.... Following lots of haggling, which became tiremsome quickly, we hot footed it away with plastic bags full of all cheap garments agreeing never to return......
On returning to the Thewat for a quick nap, we made our way by skytrain to the centre of town for dinner at Cabbages and Condoms, http://www.pda.or.th/restaurant/. The restaurant was conceptualized in part to promote better understanding and acceptance of family planning and to generate income to support various development activities of the Population and Community Development Association (PDA) within Thailand. Despite tere not being an Asian face dining in the restaurant, we found service and food were excellent and the setting, including several action figures made entirley out of different coloured condoms fun and quirky.
From here we grabbed a taxi and headed off to meet Alicoa's school frined Jolanda for drinks in a retro bar not far away. En route home, we were pulled over and frisked by the Thai police, which wasnt much fun, although I beleive we may have been questioned more thoroughly had I not told the lead officer I was from Manchester, upon which he decied I was a Manchester United fan which just so happend to be his favourite team!!
With the arrival of Sunday 10th Jan came the chance to escape the big cities which have been our home for the last month or so and we jetted off with trusty Air Asia to a town at the North Eastern point of Thailand , Chang Rai. Campared to Bangkok this place is a sleepy place, although it still has a tourist feel to it given it is the main spring board point to Laos as well as being the home to hill trekking and home stays with local tribes. We checked in to our clean and roomy guest house and headed off to familiarise ourselves with the new surroundings.......
On returning to the Thewat for a quick nap, we made our way by skytrain to the centre of town for dinner at Cabbages and Condoms, http://www.pda.or.th/restaurant/. The restaurant was conceptualized in part to promote better understanding and acceptance of family planning and to generate income to support various development activities of the Population and Community Development Association (PDA) within Thailand. Despite tere not being an Asian face dining in the restaurant, we found service and food were excellent and the setting, including several action figures made entirley out of different coloured condoms fun and quirky.
From here we grabbed a taxi and headed off to meet Alicoa's school frined Jolanda for drinks in a retro bar not far away. En route home, we were pulled over and frisked by the Thai police, which wasnt much fun, although I beleive we may have been questioned more thoroughly had I not told the lead officer I was from Manchester, upon which he decied I was a Manchester United fan which just so happend to be his favourite team!!
With the arrival of Sunday 10th Jan came the chance to escape the big cities which have been our home for the last month or so and we jetted off with trusty Air Asia to a town at the North Eastern point of Thailand , Chang Rai. Campared to Bangkok this place is a sleepy place, although it still has a tourist feel to it given it is the main spring board point to Laos as well as being the home to hill trekking and home stays with local tribes. We checked in to our clean and roomy guest house and headed off to familiarise ourselves with the new surroundings.......
Friday, 8 January 2010
Friday 8th Jan, 2010: Make like a Tourist in BKK
Friday was the day of Tourism Bangkok, 2010. We put on our comfy shoes and tuk tuk-ed it down to the Grand Palace on this sweltering day. I figured that since we only had 3 nights in Bangkok, Leon ought to see some of the major sites and really tick them off his list of must sees. The Grand Palace was very packed on Friday and to make matters worse, Leon was not wearing the appropriate clothing to visit the Palace so he had to rent some long, bright blue trousers which made him look like he had escaped from a Bangkok prison - I have photos to keep this memory alive, and trust me I shall be sharing these with everyone!
We made our way around and took lots of snap shots including the mini angkor wat model, the emerald buddha (from the outside, no photography of said buddha allowed from inside the wat) and having lost a lot of minerals and water through sweat (again), we decided to stroll down the street and see where it would take us. The traffic was as immense and noisy as ever, and I couldn't believe that it was actually ten times worse than in KL... never again will I say a bad word against my country's traffic jams. We arrived at a market, wolfed down some freshly made fish cakes, and decided to increase the 'tourist factor' by 5 and take a river trip for an hour. Although a bit of a rip off, it was a beautiful day and we got a speedy boat to ourselves down the river, where we could take in the cityscape and see how Thais lived along the riverbank. It was really sweet actually seeing lots of people sat at home in their living room watching tele, even though they were really only a couple of inches above water and were being held up by some not-so-sturdy looking stilts!
We breezed on down the river past Wat Arun which housed the infamous Reclining Buddha but having had enough of the bouncy boat, decided to direct our driver back to shore and set off on foot again down to Sam Phrang market. Now this was quite a distance and I think we really did work out those quads, but eventually we made it there! The market was full baskets and trays full of flowers (my mum would have had a field day), chillis, fresh veg and the usual clothes and trinkets. Luck would have it that we stumbled across a shopping mall that was like an air conditioned Little India, and went up to the food court for some lunch and a little time to reflect on our busy day.
In the evening, after a quick power nap as it rained cats and dogs outside, we ventured down to Sukhumvit Road via taxi and Skytrain and had a lovely meal at Cabbages and Condoms, which is a famous restaurant that gives proceeds to AIDS research, and afterwards met my friend Jolanda, her sister and some of their friends for a few drinks in a retro bar where the locals all frequent. All in all it has been a busy time for us in Bangkok, and we are both looking forward to a little quiet time in Chiang Rai....
We made our way around and took lots of snap shots including the mini angkor wat model, the emerald buddha (from the outside, no photography of said buddha allowed from inside the wat) and having lost a lot of minerals and water through sweat (again), we decided to stroll down the street and see where it would take us. The traffic was as immense and noisy as ever, and I couldn't believe that it was actually ten times worse than in KL... never again will I say a bad word against my country's traffic jams. We arrived at a market, wolfed down some freshly made fish cakes, and decided to increase the 'tourist factor' by 5 and take a river trip for an hour. Although a bit of a rip off, it was a beautiful day and we got a speedy boat to ourselves down the river, where we could take in the cityscape and see how Thais lived along the riverbank. It was really sweet actually seeing lots of people sat at home in their living room watching tele, even though they were really only a couple of inches above water and were being held up by some not-so-sturdy looking stilts!
We breezed on down the river past Wat Arun which housed the infamous Reclining Buddha but having had enough of the bouncy boat, decided to direct our driver back to shore and set off on foot again down to Sam Phrang market. Now this was quite a distance and I think we really did work out those quads, but eventually we made it there! The market was full baskets and trays full of flowers (my mum would have had a field day), chillis, fresh veg and the usual clothes and trinkets. Luck would have it that we stumbled across a shopping mall that was like an air conditioned Little India, and went up to the food court for some lunch and a little time to reflect on our busy day.
In the evening, after a quick power nap as it rained cats and dogs outside, we ventured down to Sukhumvit Road via taxi and Skytrain and had a lovely meal at Cabbages and Condoms, which is a famous restaurant that gives proceeds to AIDS research, and afterwards met my friend Jolanda, her sister and some of their friends for a few drinks in a retro bar where the locals all frequent. All in all it has been a busy time for us in Bangkok, and we are both looking forward to a little quiet time in Chiang Rai....
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