Friday, November 28, 2008

Colourful Nepal

Today is the end of my 4th day in Nepal. I've just gotten back to Kathmandu after 2 days of white water rafting in the hills. Yes, i AM crazy enough to go white water rafting in Nepal, in WINTER. hahaha. Despite the cold it was a whole lot of fun :D 

Last night we camped right by the river and mingled with the locals. There were only 2 of us camping so it meant we could have a really good chat to the people living in the area. The lady who made us dinner was really excited about having interactions with a western female (i'm presuming) and after a drink or 2 decided that she should dress me in a sari and teach me how to dance, haha. A very random but fun night...lots of photos to follow eventually. It was really good to be able to meet people out of the city!

This morning we hitched a ride back to the starting point (with our guide) with all of our gear - raft, paddles, helmets etc. yes, hitched...on the roof of a truck.... soooo cold! but fun cos you see the locals doing it all the time. I also had my first experience of jumping out of a moving bus once i got back to kathmandu. Directly after which i realised i had no idea where i was (they said something about a connection bus but nothing about which one). Entrusting my life on a random taxi driver i was taken around all the back streets until we were both completely lost and he kept asking for directions....only a little bit of me thought i was going to die...haha

Tomorrow i'm meeting up with the intrepid group and heading up to base camp :D

Also i'm not sure if i've been receiving notes from people (or if you're all just slack) so if you've sent me one and i havn't replied copy and paste it to axeweildingfairy@gmail.com and i'll get back to you in 2 weeks when i'm back in the land of the living.

xxx

Monday, November 24, 2008

last of Thailand... including THE bus ride....

My last day in Chiang Mai was really good. About 6 of us from green tulip did a cooking course at siam rice. The guy took us around the markets first and showed us where to buy each of the ingredients.... He kept handing them around all of us then putting them back on the stall, including the jelly mushroom he put on my face :S not very big on cleanliness at the markets.... 
I made Pad Thai, Spicy soup, noodle salad, curry paste (from scratch), curry, stir fry and banana coconut desert.... we were all sooooo full when we left! We bought some lanterns to release into the sky before Peter and i left but we were told back at the hostel that it's not allowed before 11pm :( instead Celine made us a mini one from a tea bag so we didn't completely miss out - she's sooo sweet.

So last night Peter (a guy from the Green tulip crew) and I took the night bus down from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. When we saw the bus Peter mentioned to me that this bus looked dodgy....a lot dodgier than the one he had caught up to Chiang Mai. But we figured we'd already paid for the bus and maybe it was just a bit old and hopped aboard without much thought.

The first bit was fine, watched part of the Hulk and fell asleep after a few hours - thanks to the use of ear plugs (the ones we got at Infected aaaaaages ago nita). At about 330 i woke up to the sound of a girl arguing with the driver (well one of 4 of them) - telling him to turn the light on. She kept yelling and yelling at him but he would not do it. Having being woken up by this i wasn't entirely amused but after it continued for ages the bus stopped for 2 minutes and then continued to drive still with all the inside lights off.

10 mins later the bus stopped again and one of the 'drivers' ran across the highway. 3 of the boys on the bus chased after him and eventually caught up with him. It was only then that the people on the back of the bus (like me) found out what was going on. A lot of the people in the front of the bus had had their passports and money stolen as well as other personal items. The closest being about 3 seats away from me. 

After arguing with the driver that ran away the boys managed to drag him back to the bus, however it turned out he had nothing on him. After much more arguing the first girl who had been arguing with the driver said she was calling the police. As soon as the word police was mentioned the remaining drivers ran from the bus. Leaving us there on the side of the highway - somewhere about an hour away from bangkok - in the bus wondering what to do next. 

The baggage compartment was open so we decided to check it out. Upon inspection (using the torch i was given -Thanks mum) we discovered that all of our bags had been gone though - yet still had the locks on them! I was very lucky and had nothing stolen (but i also really didn't leave anything valuable in my bag) though everything inside of it was moved. Other people had cameras, DS's, wallets, money and other items stolen. :S 5 large bags of white, flour like powder was also found by another girl in the drivers cabin.

About 1.5 hours later the police arrived and took some photos and said that they'd drive us to the police station. The first person that tried couldn't seem to get it to work, and they ended up having to call someone else in.... who also seemed to have a lot of trouble - but at least we were moving! 

At the police station we all double checked our bags to make sure nothing had been planted in them and people who had things stolen filed reports with the police. The police said they'd called a mini bus for us - but after an hour we asked again about them, and they said the bus company wasn't open yet but they'd left a message. Hearing this 12 of us decided we'd take taxis to the closest bus station, but after lots of negotiations with taxi drivers they'd figured out a deal that they'd drive us to Bangkok for 400 baht per taxi. 

After that everything went smoothly and we arrived in Bangkok around 10am - instead of 6am like we were supposed to. 

So that was that eventful ride. I got off very lightly indeed, with more of an inconvenience than anything else. But certainly a reminder to keep my wits (and belongings) about me. 

I'm staying in a dingy broom closet tonight (really was spoiled at the tulip) but it's cheap and i leave early in the morning so at least it is a place to sleep. I've had no luck trying to get my visa for vietnam so i'm trying to get it online (and hoping it's not a scam!).

I'm flying to Nepal tomorrow for a whole new adventure. Will be good to escape the heat for a while! 
That's all i can think of for now. Hope all is great back home :D

Thursday, November 20, 2008

The beginnings

So i realise it is still very early in my trip....some may think too early to already be telling people of my grand adventures. But i'm going to be using this as much as an online travel journal, as as a way to keep in touch.

The flight over was relatively uneventful. I slept for the entire thing except for when food came out and the lovely lady beside me woke me up for it. Just before landing we had a huge chat, and it came up in conversation that i hadn't actually changed over any money yet. Just before i got off the plane she gave me 500baht -around $20- (and when i say gave i mean she shoved it in my bag when i kept refusing) so that i wouldn't have to change my money over at the airport (and thus get a better rate somewhere else). And flat out refused that i pay her the Australian equivalent. So that started me out on a very good note about people in general.

I didn't really want to hang about Bangkok so i booked a train ticket to Chiang Mai and took the overnight train there that night. On the train i met this awesome girl called Monique. We're now sharing a room at this fantastic hostel in the centre of the old city. It's so clean and colourful and CHEAP! The staff are amazingly friendly and greet us by name everytime they see us. Unfortunately this means anywhere else i stay from now on is going to fall under harsh comparison!

Yesterday we went on a tour that lasted about 12 hours! We went white water rafting, elephant riding, forest walking, swimming under waterfalls, bamboo boat riding and hill tribe and orchid farm visiting. Sooooooooooo much fun! We were going to watch Thai boxing last night but we were so exhausted from the day we decided to have a quiet one instead.

I was going to make my way down to Kanchanaburi (2 hours south of Bangkok) over the next few days to visit the tiger temple. But after making that plan i found out that the monks there have been drugging the tigers to keep them docile - which i really don't want to support. So instead i'm going to hang round here a bit longer, apparently there is a tiger temple around here somewhere so i might check it out. 

Today i'm going to have a lazy day. Get a massage and work out how to get my visa for Vietnam.

I'll fill you in on more stuff later. Hope the Brisbane weather is clearing up.
xxxx