and welcome to the first of my Indochina blogs. Bangtidy.
I am amazed at what we have done so far in such short a time. Our flight over from London was fine. No tears there at all. We landed in Bangkok and hung around the airport for 5 hours before boarding our Air Asia flight to Chiang Mai.
Due to timing, we arrived in Chiang Mai a day prior to our Intrepid tour kicking off. To fill in time we made our way out into the wilderness and visited a tiger sanctuary. We decided to pay a little extra and get into the pen of the 1-2 month old tigers, although you could get in with the full grown adults if you so wished to have your face clawed off. These little guys were soooo .................... I'm not going to say cute.... just sooooo........ little.
Pebbles was way bigger than them.
Pebbles would have kicked their ass.
They were just learning to walk and open their eyes. We played with them for a good quarter of an hour before walking around the rest of the sanctuary. It all seemed fairly well kept and they were really well looked after so I was happy. Usually I don't like these sorts of places due to the treatment of the animals.
After that we drove out to the old town of Chiang Mai and ate Pad Thai while watching the scooters pass by.
Our tour started the day after and were taken straight to a Thai cooking class where I loaded up my soup with enough chili's to kill a small Asian army. We made a heap of dishes and knocked them all back effortlessly. Our group consists of Kiwis, Aussies, Canadians and Americans, 9 in total and ranging from 22-60 years old. A good size.
The following day we were taken out to an elephant conservation area and rode elephants through the Thai jungle. It was epic. They took us through deep rivers and over steep outcrops, all with the finesse of a cat. Not like Pebbles.
Afterwards we were taken to an elephant hospital and were shocked to see the elephants with limbs missing due to land mine explosions.
We visited a temple at dusk which overlooked the city of Chinag Mai. I started hitting my strides with the new camera.
Fortunately for us, at the time we were in Chiang Mai, a huge festival was in procession. Fireworks and fire lanterns filled the skies and we sat in an open beer garden and drank to the occasion. We ate a few silk worms, which tasted worse than shit, and lit a lantern of our own to send into the sky. Lovely.
The partying continued on through the night and trying to sleep was akin to being left in the middle of Afghanistan during war time. From what I gather. The fireworks were more like bombs.
We made a river crossing across the border into Laos the next day and nearly died from Salmonella poisoning whilst sampling their idea of a BBQ. No sizzlers there!
A boat awaited us on the harbour the next day which took us for two days down the mighty Mekong delta. I stood at the helm like Rambo, guarding the crew with my guile and hand gestures. Tight-fist-to-point means that 'Charlie is in the trees'. The trip down the river, in a longboat, was extremely pleasant and we visited really small tribal villages along the way where we could interact with the locals and talk with the small children. So different to Europe.
Right now, I am in Luang Prabang, a great little city. We are visiting a waterfall tomorrow which is also home to Asian black bears. This trip is like an Asian safari.
Stay tuned.