30th – 31st – Return to Bangkok and flying home

It was a gentle not too early morning when we checked out of the hotel and packed the bus for the final time. The drive across the border to Thailand and from there to Bangkok was fairly uneventful. 

The border crossing was something else, though. Everybody crossing the border were herded into a large area with an escalator in one end, and every 10-ish minutes a guard let through a large number of people, moving the gathered group of people slowly forward. There weren’t many there when we arrived so we didn’t have to wait long before we were let though. Perfect – short wait at the border! We arrived at the top of the escalator – and found ourselves in a large room, maybe 30x30 meters. And here there was a queue, tightly snaking its way through to the immigration booths in the other end. What I had expected to be a short wait turned out to be a more than 2 hours queueing.

We all eventually got through in an orderly fashion, and coming out on the other side we had a quick lunch before we got back onto the bus and continued the journey.

Arriving in Bangkok we checked in and had a few drinks at the hotel bar before leaving for a farewell dinner in a restaurant close by. The menu was quite expansive, both local and more western food so everyone was happy.

Sunset over Bangkok seen from the bar.

Returning to the hotel it was nicely timed with when I was to leave, so I said goodbye to the rest of the group, grabbed my bags and took the train to the airport. There I checked in, enjoyed a non-existing queue at the priority security check and immigration, spent some time in a nice but crowded lounge before boarding and flying non-stop home.  I managed to get some sleep on the flight so I only had time to watch The Meg, King of Thieves and the first episode of The Gifted.

And with that another trip was successfully completed. Like my previous trip to Thailand, Laos and Vietnam this trip was a bit out of the ordinary from what I am used to, but my last trip made me want to come back, and hearing stories from my previous travel companions about how the rest of their tour went I just knew I had to come back. Unfortunately I didn’t feel the synergy in the group this time was as good as before (probably also has something to do with me arriving into a group that has had a lot of time to get to know each other) but in the end things went well and nobody ended up killing each other, so that was a success. And apparently on the first night my roommate got so annoyed (and sounding offended) by me allegedly snoring, so instead of poking me to get me to roll over for the entire trip he got his own room. I was a bit taken back by this nuclear option, but having a room by myself made my attempts at getting him to save his money very negligible.

Big thanks to Britt, Brian, Ben, Kimberly, Jane, Lee, Tracy and everyone else I’ve forgotten, our guide Sovann and the numerous local guides and drivers we met along the way. Hope we all get to meet again some time!

Full album can be found here.

Impulsive return to Southeast Asia

So… This was not planned just a few days ago. I blame the rest of the group from my most recent trip as they kept posting photos from their continued travelling after I was gone. It has absolutely totally nothing to do with my lack of self-control when it comes to travelling whenever I have a few days off at some point. Or… 11 days off in a row by only having to take 3 vacation days.

It’ll be a long flight (again) but Cambodia just looks too damn inviting, and going during the end of the year means that I will be there in the dry season, hopefully avoiding rain. Travelling during Christmas will be a first for me but having the holidays line up just perfect it was difficult not to take advantage of it.

Anyways – on to the itinerary.

21^st – 23^rd of December

Flying out to Ho Chi Minh City where I will arrive the day before the tour starts, giving me a night and almost a full day in the city to explorer by myself before meeting with the rest of the group.

24^th – 25^th of December

We spend a day in Ho Chi Minh City before we on the second day drive west-wards and leave Vietnam and enter Cambodia, ending up in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh.

26^th – 27^th of December

Spending a day touring Phnom Penh and being all tourist-like before going north and driving to Siem Reap.

28^th – 29^th of December

Spending time in Siem Reap, with Angkor Wat being the main attraction. There will be plenty of time sightseeing at the temple complex, seeing floating villages, museums or otherwise just exploration and relaxation.

30^th of December

After these few days we will be leaving Siem Reap and heading further west, now leaving Cambodia and crossing the border into Thailand and ending up in Bangkok.

31^st of December

Got a flight just past midnight so I’ll probably have to cut the departure evening short. It means, though, that I will be coming home the 31^st early morning, letting me celebrate New Year’s at home (if I don’t fall asleep before).

As an added bonus, when I was looking into flights I realized that by just paying a bit extra for the flight down I’d be able to upgrade myself from economy to plus, giving me bigger seats, more legroom, larger monitor and better food. It was hard not to do. On the way back the price was almost double for the upgrade though the economy was fairly cheap – so after a short deliberation I decided I’d be allowed to also upgrade this flight. It is only Christmas once a year, after all!

27th – I'm on a boat!

We left the hotel around 0730 to drive 10-ish minutes to the Thai border where we all went through without issues and got onto a bus, drove a few minutes through no man’s land until we reached the Lao border and immigration. As I was the only one in the group not needing a visa I could skip the visa papers, fill out my arrival form, exchange all by baht to kip, use the ATM and go through the short immigration queue without worry.

When we were all once again gathered, now in Laos, a new pair of minibuses picked us up and took us to the Mekong River and a longboat, our mode of transport the next 2 days.

We took off at around 1000 and the following 6 hours we made our way down the Mekong River. Lunch was served but apart from that we tried doing as little as possible; relaxing, playing cards and just seeing the world pass slowly by.

We arrived at Pak Beng where we checked in at a simple but cosy hotel; no AC but with a view of the river from the rooms. Also – on arrival there was no power. When we later started our small walk in town we were told that a log or branch had dropped onto some powerlines interrupting power to the entire area. During our walk where we got to see the market (in the late afternoon, shortly before they closed, we were probably in a lot of people’s way) we did luckily see power coming back on around us so the damage was limited.

"But why do you bring all that camera equipment with you? Isn't it heavy?"

This is why.

At the market. Notice the dried squirrel just above the spring onions - apparently it's used to keep flies away(?).

Well, if you can't find anything else to use as a stable pillar you might as well utilize a bomb casing from the war.

We had dinner and afterwards we ended up in a bar next to our hotel, so when I a couple of drinks later went home, among the first, it was quick and easy getting back. Going into our bathroom I did meet a bigger than average spider sitting on the wall; a tile wide so 15-20 cm would be a good guess. That did wake me up to be honest.

26th – White and... death-y

Right before my roommate passed out cold on his bed last night he said he’d do first shower in the morning. When the alarm went off 4 hours later he hadn’t moved and was still dress and lying on top of the covers. I took my shower and coming back into the room he had now moved – under the covers. When I was done he had slowly gotten himself out of bed and when I had him confirm he knew what time it was I grabbed my stuff and left for breakfast.

At 0745, after breakfast and meeting a few hungover people, we left to go and do a 2-ish hour relaxing bike ride around the outskirts of Chiang Mai. The gentle pace resulted in a comfortable breeze in the heat and humidity. On the way we also stopped for lunch to have some delicious noodle soup.

We stopped by a small temple on the way.

Returning to the hotel at 1300 we had half an hour before leaving for Chiang Khong, 5-ish hours away. On the way we stopped at the White Temple which was absolutely beautiful and very different from any other temple we have seen. Due to fucky traffic, though, we got there only 10-ish minutes before they closed at 1700 so we had top rush a bit – and those who stayed behind to listen to our local guide missed getting inside. I don’t think they missed much, though, as the interior was quite an anti-climax compared to the expectations you’d get when seeing the exterior.

After this slightly shortened visit we returned to the bus and continued our journey towards our destination.

Without further ado we arrived around 1900 at a nice-looking slightly rough around the edges hotel. We got our rooms and moments later we went down the street for dinner before returning and tucking in for the night.

As there is an uneven number of guys travelling alone versus rooms available until Hanoi we did a quick random lottery to let randomness decide where each of us would have a room by ourselves. I ended up with 2 nights in Hanoi which I am not unhappy about.

25th – To snip-snip or not to snip-snip

At around 0630-0700 a stern staffer walking down the aisle yelling “Good morning! 2 stops Chiang Mai!” over and over again functioned as an alarm clock. I had found that if I laid diagonally I could just stretch, so I had had a fairly good night’s sleep. Others had not, either due to the bed, rumbling, noise or the fact that the lights never were turned off in the cabin.

When people woke up and had gotten themselves out of the bunks the same staff member started going through the car and collected the used linen and packing the beds away so it would be ready for a trip back to Bangkok during the daytime after arriving in Chiang Mai, which we did on time at around 0845. From here we drove to our hotel where we got to check in and have 1½ hours’ break before continuing. My room mate and I got a room that hadn’t been cleaned so we left our bags, notified the staff and waited for half an hour in the lobby before returning; the room was still messy and now our bags were missing. So back down to the lobby and when informed their reaction was basically “oh yeah, we should have told you” and gave us a new key where we found a clean room – and our bags.

At 1030 10 of us left for a cooking class where a sweet old lady picked us up at the hotel and brought us to the market to shop for the groceries needed for the class. From here she brought us to her home where she had a whole Master Chef-like setup for up to 20 people at a time. We were given vegetables to chop followed by us cooking at our stations, adding ingredients by her command while she walked around adding coconut milk, oils and other liquids as needed. “Now add the [ingredient] and stir! Stir until boiling and wait! Turn down on medium! This is coconut cream, now stir! STIR!” etc. We ended up with red and green curry, pad thai, mango & coconut rice and morning glory as sides (yes, it is called that, and yes, it is a vegetable).

Cooking class.

Very full and happy we returned to the hotel at 1400 with a certificate and cook book.

At 1600 we left the hotel again to go up to a temple view a view over Chiang Mai – if it hadn’t been covered in clouds. We had a walk around and saw the monks when they started their scheduled chanting at 1800. Soon after we returned to the town centre where we had an hour and a bit for shopping or at a food court before meeting up again at 2045 to go see the local ladyboy show.

Chanting/praying on schedule.

Despite what one might think I thought it was surprisingly fun and entertaining. A cabaret or dance theatre. It was also obvious that many of the participants didn’t take it too seriously, either. They basically “just” mimed to various songs but put on a great stage performance. Among many other performances there was a Tina Turner, a Whitney Houston from her later years (which did have an amount of humour to it, involving among other things a… butt rose) and a near perfect Rihanna.

Tina Turner.

Rihanna has taken an innocent bystander up onto the stage.

After a few hours of amazing entertainment we left and 7 of us decided to stay behind for a few drinks until midnight. Which of course meant that we didn’t leave at midnight but didn’t return to the hotel until around 0200. While a bit tipsy I know I won’t be suffering nearly as much as some others in the group tomorrow.

24th – Training to sleep

We left the hotel at 0830 after a breakfast that was mostly Thai food which gave us a selection of several dishes involving rice combined with a few western dishes. We had a local guide who led us through Chinatown and a morning market before reaching the river where we boarded a longboat and had a 1-hour tour on the river before reaching our destination, Wat Pho. 

Wat Arun Ratchawaram Ratchaworamawihan (or just Wat Arun).

Here our guide took us around for a few hours, and among some beautifully painted buildings we saw the Reclining Buddha; 15 meters tall and 46 meters long. Too bad the building, while intricately painted, was narrow with multiple columns making it impossible to get a good view of the entire statue. We had a walk around on the temple grounds where there were multiple Buddha statues and stupas.

When leaving some of us were referred to another guide who then spent a few hours taking us through the Royal Temple grounds. Some absolutely astonishing buildings with walls and statues covered in sparkling stone and gold (or probably “gold” in most cases). It was quite a sight. There is a quite strict dress code here; covered shoulders and ankles. We had been warned beforehand and were therefore prepared, but many tourists coming alone seemed to not be aware of this so as soon as they came inside the ground walls a guard had them go to a small clothing shop that had the required outfits.

The Royal Temple itself.

From there we looked for a place to have lunch. We ended up deciding going back to the hotel and the place we had dinner at yesterday (deemed safe by our guide) and while talking and looking at a map deciding on taxis a local guy said we would be idiots taking taxis there; instead he brought our attention to a bus coming around the corner at that very moment. There were no problem using that and it stopped close to the hotel – and instead of paying 100 baht for a taxi we each ended up paying 9 baht.

We had (late) lunch and returned to the hotel to relax and shower at the spa. At around 1830 we were all present and were quickly briefed before gathering our luggage and walking 5 minutes to the railway station where we located our train and sleeper car and boarded. On schedule, at 1935, the train departed northbound.

While it does look a bit narrow the seats/beds were wide enough to not be completely uncomfortable.

Soon after a staff member passed through and converted our seats to beds which sent some of us down to the cafeteria until we got kicked out around 2200 when they closed. Back in our bunks we did what the rest had already done – went to rest as much as possible, trying to ignore the very short beds.

22nd – 23rd – The British Connection

One of the reasons I enjoy travelling the way I do is because I manage to avoid the busiest travel periods and travelling outside these usually have a positive effect on price, crowds and stress.  Today, though, was a busy travel day at the airport. It was chaotic and crowded. A plus was that I was bumped to the fast lane in security when they realized I was alone, so that was a plus. 

The plane was completely full and we left on time, but it still took the crew more than two hours to disable the parental lock that had for some reason had been engaged on my monitor. But it was finally done which let me watch The Commuter, Pacific Rim: Uprising, Tomb Raider (2017) and Isle of Dogs.

We arrived on time in Bangkok and a quick walk through immigration later I was out and got picked up and driven to the hotel. Unfortunately, due to the lack of sleep on the flight, I ended up nodding off towards the hotel. The 1-hour nap did feel good, though. Despite arriving at the hotel around 0830 I was able to check in immediately, likely because the guy I am to share the room with had been here since yesterday, but entering the room I found he had already left for the day, giving me some relaxing time on my own.

A shower and short break later I felt like a new person and around 1000 I left to go for a walk and get my bearings. The map in the Lonely Planet book was very not detailed and the offline map in Google Maps likewise so I ended up wandering keeping track of how I got where I was currently located. On the way I was stopped by a tuk-tuk driver who wanted to drive me to the Standing Buddha, Lucky Buddha and the Marble Temple. Apparently, because it’s Buddha day and Government Day today gas is free and the round trip would only cost me 20 baht.

Reluctantly I agreed (I would have preferred walking by my own pace) and he swiftly drove me to the three locations. After the second I was suggested to see a Thai Factory where they made and sell clothes. I was not interested but I was assured I could just have a look and not buy anything. Fair enough, assuming it was a factory in normal sense where you’d get to see them working on cutting, sewing etc. on a larger scale, I was surprised – and a bit disappointed – when realizing that he had taken me to a shop for custom clothing. Surprise! I had a quick look inside, told them I wasn’t surprised (it did seem like good quality, though I wasn’t interested) and returned outside to the tuk-tuk.

The Standing Buddha. Didn't feel so impressive being wrapped up.

Lucky Buddha.

My driver suggested another “factory” which I declined. He was stubborn, though, and I should just have given him the 20 baht and left there and then, but tired from the lack of sleep and wanting to get it over with I finally relented. Surprise – it was the exact same thing.

He finally took me to the Marble Temple, and despite constantly trying to convince me he had nothing to do with the “factories”, the moment I got out of the tuk-tuk he left in a huff. The agreement was that he was supposed to get me back to the hotel which was now out the window. He also left before getting any payment. Shame.

The Marble Temple.

From the temple I started walking back to the hotel by myself. Bangkok is confusing, especially when you have two sets of maps that aren’t very useful, but I manged to return at around 1500 with a quick stop at The Golden Mount.

View from The Golden Mount.

Out hotel room doesn’t have any windows so when I entered the lobby to do a short walk before meeting the rest of the group I was surprised to see it absolutely pouring down. I waited a bit for it to subside, and my walk ended up being a quick trip to the 7-11 around the corner to get some water.

As per usual the group met at 1800 where our guide presented himself and we went around the table to quickly introduce ourselves before going out for dinner 5 minutes’ walk away. If it felt dangerous crossing the streets during daytime it got far more… interesting when it had gotten dark and there were no streetlights.  After dinner some of us when to the hotel bar for a few drinks before going to bed.

View from the bar.

We are 2 Aussies, 2 Americans, 1 Dane and 10 Brits. There are usually a few Brits on these tours but this must be a record so far.

Going east!

My interest for travelling to Asia has been on a low if it didn't involve some kind of trekking or climbing. This view has started to shift a bit in recent years as this part of the world is probably soon the only part I haven't visited yet and it being very different than what I am used to, I am starting to feel if I am missing something.

Because of this I have been thinking whether to do something about it. 

And it helps when finding out that Laos has removed visa requirements for Scandinavians this year. So...

22^nd – 23^rd of July

Flight from Copenhagen to Bangkok, Thailand. Arriving early in the morning which will give me time to roam the streets and do some sightseeing. And when I mean sightseeing I mean eating.

24^th – 25^th of July

Going on a tour of Bangkok before getting on an overnight train to Chiang Mai. When arriving the next day we will be getting a guided tour of the Doi Suthep temple before having the rest of the day off for relaxation or other activities.

26^th of July

Today we will leave Chiang Mai and head towards Chiang Khong via Wat Rong Khun where we will get a view of the Mekong river.

27^th – 28^th of July

Crossing the border into Laos and then getting into traditional boats on the Mekong and travelling to Luang Prabang. On the way we will get a guided tour of the Pak Ou caves.

29^th – 30^th of July

Spend time in Luang Prabang where it will be possible to go on tour in some of the local museums and see the Kuang Si waterfalls. Apart from that it’s free time open for relaxation or whatever activities that might be located and catch your interest.

31^st of July – 1^st of August

Travel to Vang Veng where we will have free time and spend one of the nights in a local village where we will get to see how to eat and live like a local.

2^nd of August

Travel to Vientiane, the capitol of Laos.

3^rd of August

Fly out to Hanoi, Vietnam.

4^th – 6^th of August

Spend a day in Hanoi of sightseeing before leaving late the 5^th and coming home the following day.