Trang: 1 al 3 de Septiembre de 2008
Tras una horita de barco ponemos pie en Tailandia. Hemos rejuvencecido una hora pero no quita que tenemos ya un poco de hambre. Yo acabare tirandome en las rodillas la cajita de arroz y pollo que me habia comprado en la estacion de bus...

Trang: 1- 3 September 2008
After getting the boat directly from Langkawi to Satun we passed the immigration checks and took our first steps in Thailand. It was evident from the start that a large number of tourists visit Thailand as before we even left the immigration building we had people trying to herd us on to a bus in the direction of Phuket! We stood our ground though and managed to eventually get some discount and a bus to Trang. Not wanting to travel too much that day and not wanting to head straight for the beach, we decided to spend two nights in Trang. It is a small, typical Thai town, since it does'nt have much to see it has'nt been invaded by tourists so it gave us a more authentic vision of Thailand. However the downside of visiting a non touristy town is that the choice of hotels is very limited. We found somewhere for the four of us, and thankfully there were four of us as it looked like an old abandoned boarding school! Not somewhere you would want to wander around alone at night! We did do some sightseeing there, (even though it was roasting hot), and we visited a Thai temple, a Chinese temple and the town park. The highlight though was the night market where we went for dinner both nights. It was a large market full of tiny stands and selling all types of Thai food imaginable, a great way to be able to taste a bit of everything. On our third day in Thailand we decided that it was time to hit the coast and see what all the fuss was about regarding Thai beaches. So with our bikinis at the ready we got a bus further north to Krabi and then a very comfortable, air-conditioned private minibus, which took us over land and two ferry crossings to arrive at the island of Ko Lanta. Traveling in style I hear you say, well believe me we did try to find the local bus and ferry to cross over to the island but it was impossible. When they see our tourist heads coming they immediately try to sell us the most expensive mode of transport and thanks to our lack of Thai language sometimes you just have to give in. We did do our best to bargain though so hopefully we didn't get ripped off too badly! 

Ko Lanta: 3 - 5 September 2008

Once we arrived at Ko Lanta we started bargaining once again and managed to get a good deal on somewhere to stay. (A course on bargaining would come in handy for anyone considering visiting Thailand as it is your main survival weapon!) We stayed at a place called Lanta New Beach Resort and had our very own wooden cabin for two, just a stone throw from the beach and wait for it… for just 6 euro a night! Plus the resort had a swimming pool! It wasn't the Ritz but with the beach and a pool within jumping distance from my room I was more than happy.  In Thailand and especially on the islands the main method of transport is by scooter, so in keeping with the locals we rented two scooters for the four of us for a few days. However one of the days we were there we got a real taste of what a monsoon rain can be like. We set out in the morning under blue skies to visit the other side of the island. Around mid morning we stopped at a looked out point and decided to have a coffee while taking in the amazing views. All was well, the sun was shining, the weather was roasting, we were dressed in beach wear and sipping our iced coffees. However within the space of 10 minutes the sun disappeared and the heavens opened up. Even a rain expert like myself from Ireland had never seen so much water fall from the sky! However not expecting it to last long ( as I the rain expert from Ireland assured everyone heavy rain like that can only last for half hour) we decided to stay in the restaurant, sip slower on our coffees and sit it out. After an hour it was still raining, almost heavier than before (even though we thought that was impossible) and thanks to a nice light breeze we were getting wet and cold inside the open restaurant. It seemed it wasn't a day for beach wear after all! After another half hour and the arrival of more drenched tourists we decided to order lunch and crossed our fingers that it would have cleared up after we ate. However as we waited on our Pad-Thai noodles (one of our stable foods over here!) the rain got so bad that the staff moved us downstairs and made us sit on tablecloths on the floor of the kitchen! The kitchen turned out to be the only place with a bit of shelter so there we sat on the floor watching the locals make our lunch. It turned out to be a lot more interesting and fun than sitting in the dining room! Eventually a while after lunch the rain started to ease off and we decided to make a run for the scooters and head back to the hotel. However we didn't get far as the road back was blocked with severe flooding. It was crazy to see houses under water, just the tips of coconut trees above the surface, locals swimming to get to their houses, people stranded on rooftops with flood water all around them etc, on a road that was as dry as anything a few hours beforehand. The road had literally turned into a river. After some standing around speculating with the locals we got on our scooters and tried to find another roundabout road back to the hotel. As we were on the scooters it started to rain again but we found an alternative route and had only about 12 km to go when Ant and I's scooter stopped dead! Yes water had got into the motor and it was lights out! After some standing in the rain and getting soaked Antoine asked a local man for some rope and he tied our scooter on to the back of Veri and Mat's. None of us were too sure it would work but thankfully it did and Veri and Mat towed us the whole way back to the hotel. Since we were already soaking wet, the first thing we did when we got back to the hotel was go for a dip in the pool to heat ourselves up. We were all quite hyper after all the drama of the afternoon so swimming in the rain was a good way to end a monsoon day in Thailand. However given that the next day was also a bit rainy we decided to pack up, leave the island and head further north.  

Rai Leh: 6 al 9 de Septiembre de 2008
Le habia echado el ojo a una zona de la peninsula cerca de Krabi llamada Rai Leh (lo han traducido como Raylee para los anglosajones), reputada por las vias de escalada de la zona, paredes calcareas que dominan aguas turquesas, playas de arena blanca y palmeras a perdida de vista... En serio, solo hace falta que le echeis un vistazo a las fotos... Una pena que no estuviera el sol para darle el toque final. Aun asi nos lo pasamos dde miedo. Estabamos hospedados cerca de la playa de Ao Nang , pero fuimos pateando ha las diferentes playas de la zona. Entre Ao Nang y Raic Leh Est se puede ir por las rocas a marea baja, sino se tarda una media hora caminando por la jungla. Tanto las vias de escala de la zona de Phra Nang como sus playas son impresionantes. Hay un mirado al final de la playa al que merece la pena ir. La mayoria de los peñones disponen de vias de escalada de hasta un centenar de metros. Uno puede ir hasta la zona del mirador y subir hasta la cueva mediante unas escaleras de bamboo. Desde luego, me hubiera quedado unas semanas para escalar y aprovechar de la naturaleza de la zona. La lluvia varias veces al dia y todos los dias sin falta bastaron para nos fueramos despues de unos dias. Decidimos tirar hacia el Norte para escapar de la lluvia, con posibilidad a volver despues a finales de Septiembre para ir a Ko Samui y otras islas. Ya veremos como iremos de tiempo. Todavia tenemos muchas cosas por ver...

Rai Leh: 6 - 9  September  2008
Once Antoine read in our Lonely Planet about a place called Rai Leh, renowned for being one of the best rock climbing places in the world, there was no way he was going to miss it. Although the description in the guide book also talked about its turquoise waters, white sand beaches and amazing scenery, so we were all in favor of going there. Our guide book actually went as far as saying that it had some of the nicest beaches in Thailand…there was no way we could miss that! As it turned out Rai Leh is on mainland Thailand but because it is trapped between the Andaman Sea and a mountain range, the only way to access it is by longboat. So we got a longboat from Ao Nang to the famous beaches of Rai Leh. Once you arrive by boat you can actually walk to four beaches, Ton Sai (where we stayed), Rai Leh West, Rai Leh East and Phra Nang. The whole area is pretty amazing; it is like being left in a paradise of sandy beaches, coconut trees, monkeys, jungle and high climbing walls. We heard of people who had visited there and stayed for 7 months, I'm not surprised. The weather was roasting hot when we were there but we didn't get the blue skies we would have liked so I'm afraid our photos don't even do it justice. You guys will just have to go see it for yourselves! We chilled out there for a few days, went for jungle walks, drank beer on the beach at night and of course hired out gear to do some climbing. Antoine choose some climbing walls with incredible views over the sea and beaches, so we spent a great afternoon there climbing and being entertained by some local monkeys. I think the monkeys stuck around to show off how well they could climb compared to us! We still had a lot of Thailand to see so eventually the time came to move on, but both Ant and I agreed that we would come back here again some year on holidays. Yes disgraceful I know, we have been traveling for almost a year and before we finish we are already planning future holidays!!!!
Las fotos de los alrededores de Rai Leh:

Las fotos de la sesion de escalada:

Bangkok: 10 al 16 de Septiembre de 2008
Despues de pasar la noche en el bus, llegamos tempranito a Bangkok. Lo primero que hicimos fue tomarnos un buen desayuno y elegir a donde ibamos a hospedarnos. Descartamos la zona super turistica de Khaosan Road y optamos por la zona de Siam Square. Para ir hasta ahi pillamos un tuk tuk (motillo/cochecito de tres ruedas) en el que nos subimos los 4 con los 4 macutos y las mochilillas...ibamos hasta arriba pero llegamos sanos y salvos al hostel. Con la vueltecilla en el tuk tuk ya pudimos darnos cuenta del cambio radical entre lo que habiamos visto de Tailanda y la capital. Bangkok tiene la fama de ser caotica y super contaminada pero al fin y al cabo tampoco es para tanto. Kuala Lumpur nos parecio mas mega-capital.
Nos tomamos el primer dia con relax visto que tampoco habiamos dormido mucho. El segundo dia pillamos un tuk tuk para que nos llevara en el meollo de los Wat (templos budistas) y pudimos comprobar la reputacion que tienen los conductores de tuk tuk de Bangkok: Es casi imposible que te lleven donde les dices. Muchos de ellos cobran comision si llevan turistas a tiendas o embarcaderos de los que salen barcos turisticos asi que al final te llevan mas o menos en la direccion que les has pedido pero no exactamente donde les has dicho... Enfin, tuvimos que cambiar nuestros planes y empezamos por patear hasta China Town y comer por ahi. Por la tarde fuimos a visitar el templo de Pho en que hay una estatua de un Buda de 46 metros de largo. Bastante impresionante... Aunque no acostumbramos a hacerlo, pillamos un guia local que debia de pasar de los 50 tacos pero el tio se debia de meter ginseng en vena porque tenia una energia de caracter de manga...
Al dia siguiente fuimos al palacio real y estuvimos andando por el mercado de los amuletos. Fuimos a Khaosan Road por la tarde para ver al menos como es y Math aprovecho para hacerse unas rastillas. Cuando estabamos pateando por la calle ohi a alguien pronunciar mi nombre. En un primer momento pense que era una palabra en Thai que debia de sonar parecido pero lo ohi de nuevo asi que me gire y ahi estaba Bruno, un conocido de Madrid, del Icai. Mira que el mundo es un pañuelo...
El sabado fuimos al mercado de Chatuchak y nos lo pasamos a lo grande. Pillamos el Sky Train por la mañana y llegamos ahi sobre las 10h. Nos fuimos por la noche despues de cenar... Os cuento, el sitio es enorme, como el rastro pero repartido sobre varias filas y hay todo tipo de tiendecillas. Se puede comprar de todo, animales domesticos, ropa, cosas para la casa... y los mejor de todo son los precios. Yo me pille unos pantalones, unos bermudas, unas chanclas, unos pantalones pesqueros y todo esto me costo 13 euros... Estuvimos trasteando todo tipo de cacharos que no tenemos en Europa. Comimos brochetillas de los puestecillos y hasta acabamos por la tarde con un masaje de cabeza, cuello y espalda. De vuelta al hostal estabamos contentos con nuestro dia de "shopping". Hablando de compras, con Veri nos fuimos a un centro comercial de 4 plantas solo para electronica. Sobre todo ordenadores pero tambien algo de fotografia y software. Se llama Pratinum center y merece la pena ir si tienes en mente comprarte software pirata, todo lo que quieras por 3 euros el Dvd.
Para viajar hacia el Norte de Tailandia hemos hecho la estimacion del coste en transporte para los 4 y vimos cuanto nos costaba alquilar un coche para los 15 dias y segun nuestros calculos valia la pena. Asi que pillamos un coche y salimos de Bangkok con rumbo hacia el Norte. 

Bangkok: 10 -16 September  2008

Initially after leaving the climbing heaven of Rai Leh our plan was to do more island hopping and visit Ko Phi Phi , Phuket, Ko Samui, Ko Tao etc.  However given that the weather was a tad overcast we decided to move further north and perhaps return to the islands again later in the month when the weather picks up. So our next stop was Bangkok. I was rather excited about arriving in Bangkok as I had heard so many awful stories and I wanted to find out myself if it was all true. We arrived off the night bus and went straight for breakfast before then thinking about finding somewhere to stay. You gotta have your priorities right, food always comes first! We opted not to stay in THE tourist street Khaosan Road, and instead found a reasonably nice hotel near Siam Square. We got a tuk tuk (local motorbike taxi-see photos) to take us to the hotel and what a laugh it was. The guy managed to fit the four of us and our 8 bags into his small motorbike tuk tuk!!!! We later visited Khaosan Road and were very glad we hadn't decided to stay there. It is like the Benidorm of Bangkok only worse! When we got to the hotel and opened our backpacks we found out that both Antoine and Mat's bags had been opened and gone through on the bus. Thankfully though nothing was taken as they had all their valuables with them in their small bags inside the bus. Just shows though that you can never be careful enough! We spent five days in total visiting the city and we all came away with a good impression of Bangkok. There are numerous temples around the city which we visited and we also spent a full 9 hour day at the huge Bangkok outdoor market (Chatuchak). I don't know if it was due to 11 months of traveling and being deprived of shopping, or just the immense variety of things to buy, or the cheap prices, or the massage afterwards to ease our tired feet, but we all loved every minute of our shopping spree. We all treated ourselves to more than a few things but given that everything was so cheap we spent very little! I for example got two dresses for 11 euro and I guarantee that you wouldn't find the same dresses in Europe for less than 80-90 euro each!!!  Anyone who likes shopping would adore this outdoor market, its huge and has every type of thing you can imagine. Even Antoine who isn't a big shopper bought himself trousers, shorts, shoes etc etc and all for a grand total of 13 euro! As I said I was excited to finally get to Bangkok to see for myself if everything I had been told was true. To sum up in a few words what Id been told, it was that Bangkok was over-polluted, super sleazy, crazily busy and scary. I didn't find any of that to be true, yes its big, yes its polluted, yes there are lots of people, but no more than any other big city we have visited. As for being scary, we did see a woman getting her bag taken from her by two guys on a motorbike, but that same day Antoine's Mum got her handbag robbed in a shopping center car park in Madrid, so its no worse than our own capitals. Plus when compared to places we have visited in Latin America, Bangkok is a walk in the park. Re sleazy, yes if you look for it you will find it, but what city doesn't have a strip club? As you can probably tell I give Bangkok the thumbs up! However even though we all liked Bangkok the time came to move on, after dreaming of having our own car to go where we want when we want without depending on buses, we rented a car for a 15 day road trip north. We had seen the south of Thailand and the capital; it was now time to see what the north had to offer.  

Sukhothai: 17 y 18 de Septiembre de 2008
La ciudad de Sukhothai pertenecia al imperio Khmer hasta 1238, año en el que los Thailandeses la conquistaron. El casco antiguo que se situa a unos 12km al Norte de la ciudad actual, esta compuesto de las ruinas de la antigua ciudad y de los templos budistas. Alquilamos unas bicicletas para circulas por el parque historico. Habiamos salido con los chubasqueros pero al final salio el sol y tuvimos un dia estupendo. La ruinas son espectaculares, tuvimos la suerte de asistir a un espectaculo por la noche y ver las ruinas iluminadas, con fuegos artificiales y gente vestida como en la epoca. De todo el parque historico nos gusto especialmente Phra Achana en el templo de Si Chum. Una figura sentada de unos 10 metros, encerrado en un templo con arquitectura un tanto peculiar. Aparece en nuestras fotos.
Dejamos Sukhothai para seguir hacia el Norte. De camino nos paramos a unos 50 kilometros mas alla de Sukhothai para visitar las ruinas de Satchanalai, considerada la ciudad gemela de S.

Sukhothai: 17-18 September

After two days driving, a quick visit to Kanchanaburi and a night spent in a ranch style place in the middle of the countryside, we arrived at Sukhothai, 350km north from Bangkok. This small town was once the royal capital of Thailand and is now famous for its numerous temples and ancient city ruins. After a good nights sleep in TR Bed & Breakfast and a yummy western breakfast of muesli next door (I don't think Id ever be able to handle a Thai breakfast of fried noodles and chicken even if I stayed here for 10 years!) we set out to visit the historical park on the outskirts of town. Thankfully the sun was shining and even though it was very warm we rented some bikes and spent the best part of the day cycling around the park visiting the numerous temples and statues. The temples varied in style, size and condition, but they were all very impressive. On finding out that the temples are illuminated at night we went back to the hotel late in the afternoon for some down time and a much needed shower, before going back again around 8pm to see them again all lit up. We were expecting the sight of the temples all lit up to be something else but were delighted when we arrived and saw something that was way better than any of our expectations. By pure luck we arrived to see a special Thai ceremony being carried out by the town for an important judge who had come up on a visit from Bangkok. We don't know exactly who this special judge was but he must have been a powerful man as the show was out of this world. There were hundreds of local Thais all dressed up and carrying out, what seemed like a theatrical piece, in front of the intimidating lit up Buddhist temples. The backdrop of ancient temples would give any Hollywood scene a run for it's money and the whole show came to an end with a lively firework demonstration. The firework show was ended by one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen, large white lampshade type things were filled with a lit flame and sent floating off into the night sky. Needless to say we couldnt believe our luck at stumbling upon all that!

Fotos de Sukhothai:

Chiang Mai: 18 al 24 de Septiembre de 2008
Llegamos a Chiang Mai justo al atardecer. Nos costo decidirnos por un hotel ya que al ser la capital del Norte de Tailandia y muy muy turistico, hay una cantidad increible de hoteles. Lo bueno de tener el coche de alquiler es que estuvimos conduciendo de hotel en hotel hasta que en la cuarta opcion nos parecio un buen compromiso entre precio y calidad.Chiang Mai centro es como un cuadrado con vestigios de muralla que marcan el limite, rodeado por agua. Dentro de esta parte se cuentan un gran numero de templos. Tambien hay bastantes en el resto de la ciudad fuera de las murallas y mas alla de la ciudad repartidos en diferentes puntos. Nos dimos un buen paseo por los templos del centro y nos llevamos unas sorpresas en un par de ellos. La primera anecdota es que nos cruzamos con un monje budista en un templo y se ve que queria practicar un poco su ingles y llevarse una foto de recuerdo (si a priori nos resulto un tanto extraño que tuviera una camara de fotos en su saco). Asi que nos pidio si podiamos posar con el en la foto y amablemente, le pidio a Annemarie que sacara la foto ya que como iba en pantalones cortos, era indecente para su foto. Ademas no podia pasarle la camara dirrectamente a ella asi que se la dio a Veri para que el se la pasara a Annemarie...Que cosas... Al dia siguiente, fuimos a visitar otro templo y cuando llegamos al recinto, un monje se acerco y despues de charlas 2 minutos nos propuso visitar una parte del templo que normalmente no pueden acceder los turistas. Accedimos asi que fue a buscar la llave y fuimos al templo. El monje se sento enfrente de nosotros y estuvimos hablando un buen par de horas sobre el budismo y los habitos de los monjes, asi como los beneficios de la meditacion y su importancia para ellos. Incluso nos dio una clase introductoria sobre meditacion. El joven monje de 22 años supo transmitirnos su calma y serenidad porque cuando salimos de ahi los cuantro nos sentiamos felices y relajados, no se, un sentimiento de plenitud.Al dia siguiente fuimos a visitar otro templos que se encuentra fuera de la ciudad. Doi Suthep es impresionante tanto por su grandeza como por sus vistas sobre Chiang Mai. Para acceder hasta el templo hay que subir 300 escalones. Los muros que delimitan las escaleras son dos dragones, unos a cada lado, cuyos cuerpos empezan arriba en el templo y acaban abajo del todo con la cabeza de estos. El stupa del templo esta completamente recubierto de oro pero desgraciadamente lo estaban restaurando por lo que habia un andamio al rededor. Dentro del templo esta un centro de estudios Budista donde uno puede ir a informarse sobre la religion. Nos acercamos a ver y vimos que proponian "clases introductorias" a la meditacion. La escuela que ofrecia estos cursos es de tipo meditacion Vipassana que es una rama bastante extrema de meditacion. Como principiantes podriamos haber empezado por 3 dias de meditacion para aprender los conceptos basicos. Una vez realizado este curso, la siguiente etapa son pasar 9 o 21 dias retirados en un centro de meditacion. Siendo 21 dias lo recomendado. Ha, no he mencionado que en Vipassana los hombres y las mujeres estan separados y que no se puede hablar. Solo comer y meditar... Nos llama bastante la atencion hacer un "curso de meditacion" pero no de este tipo. A priori consideraremos hacer algo en el Norte de la India. Ya veremos.Chiang Mai es famoso tambien por los numerosos cursos dirigidos a los turistas. Tanto de masage Tailandes como de fabricacion de joyas pasando por clases de cocina. Nosotros optamos por esta ultima opcion. La clase empezaba a las 9:30 de la mañana, hora en la que nos reunimos en el centro de la escuela Baan Thai. Despues de elegir los platos que ibamos a aprender a cocinar fuimos todos al mercado a hacer la compra. Luego nos pasamos el dia cocinando y comiendo los platos que habiamos preparado. Entre los cuatro nos habiamos repartido los platos para poder aprender un maximo de platos posibles. Annemarie es una jefa del Pad Thai y yo del Pollo con nueces. Tambien nos enseñaros a hacer nuestro propio curry. La verdad es que yo ni siquiera sabia que el curry se prepara moliendo cantidad de ingredientes... Cuando ibamos camino de vuelta al hotel sobre las 4 de la tarde, ibamos todos encantados y hasta arriba de comida, ni siquiera cenamos esa noche...
En defenitiva nos gusto bastante Chiang Mai, vimos bastantes actividades que se podian hacer que tenian muy buena pinta pero por temas de presupuesto optamos por no hacerlas. Me se de una que le hubiese gustado ir a dar una vuelta en elefante por la jungla. Eso ya lo haremos en Cambodia o Laos...


Chang Mai, the capital of northern Thailand, situated more than 700km from Bangkok, is one of the most impressive cities in the whole country. With over 300 temples it has culture overflowing from it's ancient city walls, and thanks to the thousands of tourists who flock there every year, it is also quite modern and cosmopolitan. The surrounding countryside is pretty impressive too with its hilly landscape and hidden local villages. Once we arrived there we checked out a few hotels before picking a nice central one which allowed us to park the car inside. There are literally hundreds of hotels in Chang Mai so you will never be stuck! Even just walking around the city is an interesting way to spend a few hours as you see such a mixture of Thai culture and Western influence living side by side, or hand in hand as the case may be when its old Western men with pretty young Thai girls! (I wont even go there, let me just say that all the rumours are true!). No the mix of culture and foreign influence that Im referring to here is for example the sight of a local Buddhist monk in his orange dress with his head shaved stopped along the street talking to his friend with a big Mc Donalds golden arch hovering behind him. Then a few blocks further down perhaps youll spot the ruins of an ancient temple with a Starbucks just around the corner. It just doesnt seem right somehow?! One of the fun parts of travelling is that you always find yourself in random situations and you wonder how you got there!! This happened to us one of the days in Chang Mai when we decided to have a relaxing morning and just go for a walk around the town to take a few photos of some of the temples, within half an hour of leaving the hotel we found ourselves sitting in a special temple, which is not usually open for tourists, and deep in conversation with a Buddhist monk. As you do?! The monk, who must have either liked the look of us or taken pity on us, came up to us and invited us into a special temple which is normally under lock and key. We waited as he got the key and then we followed him in for what turned out to be a 2 hour converstaion and a short introductory class of meditation. Needless to say the whole situation was quite surreal and very very interesting. He shared with us his views on different topics and explained to us about Buddism, his life etc. We all enjoyed the meditation as well and have looked in to doing a course. However the courses are pretty hardcore, the one you really need to take to be able to properly meditate afterwards lasts for 21 days, and wait for it..in silence! I for one know I am not capable of being silent for 21 days, honestly I dont know if i could manage one full day! Anyways we have found a compromise, we are planning to do a yoga/meditation course in India instead. The monk was very open with us and we even got to ask him about how he handles his sexual desires...I told you he was open with us! Although we had already got an insight into how they handle the issue of women the previous day as one monk who stopped us on the street and asked to get his picture taken with us refused to let me be in his photo, he said my shorts were too short! Yes the shame of it all I know!!!! So it turned out that I had to take the picture of the monk with Antoine, Mat and Veri (Mat was wearing more respectable shorts than me apparently, so she was allowed in the photo). Then when I went to give the camera back to him I had to first pass it to Veri, who then passed it to the monk, as they are not allowed any contact with people of the opposite sex, at least I know it wasnt anything personal! As well as learning about Buddism and meditation in Chang Mai we also did a day cookery course, if you have ever tasted Thai food you will understand why. The cooking course started at 9.30am with a quick explanation of everything and picking of our menu for the day. After we had each picked which dishes we wanted to learn, we were given little baskets and directed to the farmers market to get our fresh ingredients. The market was great as we got to see the local people selling their produce and we also got to find out about fruits etc that we had never seen before. Once the ingredients were bought, it was back to the cooking school for a day of slicing, chopping, mixing, stirring, peeling, sweating over the stove and of course..EATING! We made 6 dishes each, including dessert, and yes folks we ate every single one of them. The whole day was alot of fun, very tasty and we actually learned lots too, which was an added bonus. By the end of the day we were all very proud of ourselves and waddled back to our hotel with our recipe books under our arms and rubbing our tummies!!! Staying on the topic of food, early into our stay in Chang Mai we found the town's night market, for anyone who hasnt been to a night market in Thailand, it is a huge maze of stalls, selling everything from fruit juices to fisherman pance (very comfy Thai trousers). Most of our nights were spent there checking out all the lovely stuff we would love to have bought and eating some very cheap local dinners. For anyone who likes shopping, night markets are heaven and also rather dangerous!!! However not all our nights were spent giving in to our consumerism as Veri found a very nice salon that offered...wait for it....a 2 hour Thai massage for 5 euro!!! We obviously didnt think twice about taking up that offer! Actually the fact that you can get a 2 hour massage for 5 euro is a good enough reason in itself for me to come to Chang Mai! Thanks to us having the car we were also able to get out of the city a bit and visit the surrounding countryside and villages. So all in all we had a very tasty and relaxing stay in Chang Mai :-) 

Lop Buri: 25 y 26 de Septiembre de 2008
Bajando desde Chiang Mai hacia Lop Buri, nos paramos a pasar la noche en Kamphang Phet. Llegamos cuando se hacia de noche y el homestay donde paramos era bastante simpatico. El dueño, un Tai catolico, se encapricho con nosotros y nos trato casi como sus hijos. Salimos temprano por la mañana para aprovechar del dia en Lop Buri.
En nuestra guia de viaje advierten que Lop Buri esta placada de monos y pudimos, nada mas llegar, comprobar que es verdad. Ahi consideran que los monos son los hijos de un dios Hindu por lo que matarlos o echarlos seria un kharma malo para ellos. Resulta raro andar por la calle y ver los monos paseando por el tendido electrico, saltar de coche en coche y andar entre los perros. Supongo que es inutil mencionar que a nuestra colega la Irlandesa no le molaba ni un pelo...
Por otro lado, hay ruinas simpaticas dentro de la ciudad. Si uno ha estado en gemela de Sukothai o Ayuthaya entonces no creo que merezca la pena venir hasta aqui pero aun asi disfrutamos de la visita del palacio real y de sus antiguos establos para elefantes.
Por la noche, vimos en el parque al lado de nuestro hotelillo, un partido de Takraw, deporte nacional aqui. Consiste en tres jugadores en cada equipo que juegan en un terreno como el de badminton y una pelota de paja trenzada. Las reglas son parecidas al volley ball pero sin las manos. Pasabamos por ahi y cuando vimos las acrobacias que hacian los jugadores, nos plantamos ahi un rato para verlos. El jugador que esta pegado a la red recibe la pelota que ha recuperado alguien de su equipo y hace una especia de mortal hacia adelante para hacer el remate en terreno del adversario. En serio, es digno de los dibujos animados de Oliver y Tom. En algunas de las fotos se puede apreciar las piruetas...

Lop Buri - 25 - 26 September 2008
After traveling from Chang Mai to Kamphang Phet we found a really nice hostel there to spend the night. The owner was a super friendly Thai man who entertained us with photos of his farm and fed up fresh fruit from his garden. One of the fruit that he gave us was a Thai kiwi, its looks like our version of a kiwi except brown, however the taste is completely different, its like a mix of figs and something else which I just couldnt put my finger on. Def prefer our western kiwis! The following day we left our friendly Thai man behind and headed to Lop Buri. Lop Buri is known for two things, ancient temple ruins which are scattered throughout the town and hundreds of monkeys everywhere you look. Both are true and although the ruins are pretty nice its the fact that there are monkeys everywhere that really makes Lop Buri worth a quick visit. None of us had seen anything like this before, there are literally monkeys everywhere, climbing along the telefone wires, sitting on the dustbins, peaking out of the back of parked pick up trucks etc. You would almost think you were watching some sort of scary film where monkeys are taking over a city, at the start we wondered why the locals let them run riot like they do, especially since they seem to have no fear of humans and in fact seem quite aggressive. However we got our answer, apparently the locals believe that the monkeys are the sons of a Hindu god and therefore to get rid of them would be bad karma. So the result is a town were humans live side by side with hundreds of monkeys, allowing them to steal their food, grab their jewellery and do pretty much whatever they want. Im so glad I got to see the monkey madness but I wouldnt have wanted to stay more than a night there as the whole monkeys everywhere thing made the town seem quite dirty, this was confirmed when I saw the biggest rat Ive ever seen in my life cross the road in front of me. Since Lop Buri isnt very touristy we got to get a closer look at real Thai life. As you will see in the photos we saw what a real Thai massage is like and we also watched a game of Takraw, one of Thailand's national sports. There are three people in each team and it is played on something similar to a badminton court. The ball is  made of a type of hard weaved material and it is similar to volleyball except that the players use their feet instead of their hands! Yes these guys sure know how to jump and give a high kick as you will see below.