Pattaya is apparently one of the best party towns in Thailand...and I would agree with that IF you are a middle aged/old western guy looking for a Thai Bride, gay, a ladyboy, or just looking for a Thai prostitute to hire for the night (and that's not even an exaggeration!!). We arrived here on Sunday, and immediately liked the look of the beach, but after a few hours of being hassled by every single person on the beach to buy something, and when looking around seeing couples of white guys with Thai girls, we started to realise it was not quite what we were expecting! To add to it, as all the Thai girls are taken, the Thai men seem to be extremely interested in us and attempted to take photos of us whilst lying on the beach! Don't worry we showed them who's boss (by running away).
That evening we decided to investigate Walking Street which is supposed to be lined with restaurants, bars and clubs, in the hope that we may find some other travellers...no such luck. We sat in the most decent bar we could find which happened to be opposite a group of men advertising "Sexy Girls" and watched several groups of men (both young and older) being taken up an alley by these guys and returning hand in hand with Thai girls! After walking around a bit trying to find a "normal" group of people we decided to give up and just head back to the hotel! We only stayed one more day to sunbathe on the beach and then headed down the coast a bit to a smaller place called Hat Jomtien.
Hat Jomtien is much nicer, cleaner beach and far less hassle from people! We've even seen some normal travellers too! It's nice to be somewhere that's more like a holiday place, so we can sunbathe and go to the beach etc. Went to a water park today, and will venture out to the bars this evening hopefully with a little more success than in Pattaya! Staying here tomorrow as well and then will head back to Bangkok for Thursday, ready to meet our fellow volunteers on Friday.
Ciao for now xxx
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Laos!
Hey everyone!
So we arrived in Laos after a looong 16 hour journey. The minibus was meant for 12 passengers, but they decided it would be more cost-efficient to try and fit 13 people in, which meant this poor english guy was stuck in the middle at the front with literally no legroom for the whole journey, because he was being a "gentleman" and offered to switch places with a French girl moaning! So after that experience me and Sarah have decided never to get on an overnight minibus again, and we'll be travelling by sleeper trains or planes from now on!
Once we finally arrived in Laos, we checked into the first hotel we could find, which turned out to be the dirtiest too, but for only 1.50 pounds a night we thought we'd try it, and headed down to the river to check out the tubing. For those of you who don't know what tubing is, it's basically a bunch of young travellers sitting in rubber tubes to go down a river, and stopping at various bars along the way to get rather wasted! The first day we got here, we swam down it instead of getting tubes (as it was already pretty late and they fine you if you give the tubes back after 6) but yesterday we did it properly and hired tubes for the day. The atmosphere was awesome, it's all so chilled out and everyone's so friendly. They have swings, slides and zip wires at each bar, and although there have been a few horror stories of various health and safety issues, after quite a lot of dutch courage and peer pressure everyone had a go at them!
The partying then continues on into the night around the bars in Vang Vieng, then people are up around lunch time the next day to do it all again!
I always hear stories of people meeting other people travelling who they know from back home, and randomly that happened to me yesterday!! I was in one of the bars down the river when I bumped in to a Senior Physio who I was on placement with at one of the hospitals in Birmingham last December, who was also with one of the other physios from that hospital! So we spent most of the day and evening with them and they're off to Cambodia today.
We decided to stay here an extra day than planned as we're enjoying it all so much, although it means I am literally getting eaten alive by mosquitos! They all seem to love me no matter how much repellent I use. But we will be leaving tomorrow to get a sleeper train to Bangkok, and then down to some beaches in Pattaya. Those who have me on facebook, I'm currently uploading a few photos from Thailand so far, so you can check those out, otherwise I'll see if I can put some up on here.
Anna xxx
So we arrived in Laos after a looong 16 hour journey. The minibus was meant for 12 passengers, but they decided it would be more cost-efficient to try and fit 13 people in, which meant this poor english guy was stuck in the middle at the front with literally no legroom for the whole journey, because he was being a "gentleman" and offered to switch places with a French girl moaning! So after that experience me and Sarah have decided never to get on an overnight minibus again, and we'll be travelling by sleeper trains or planes from now on!
Once we finally arrived in Laos, we checked into the first hotel we could find, which turned out to be the dirtiest too, but for only 1.50 pounds a night we thought we'd try it, and headed down to the river to check out the tubing. For those of you who don't know what tubing is, it's basically a bunch of young travellers sitting in rubber tubes to go down a river, and stopping at various bars along the way to get rather wasted! The first day we got here, we swam down it instead of getting tubes (as it was already pretty late and they fine you if you give the tubes back after 6) but yesterday we did it properly and hired tubes for the day. The atmosphere was awesome, it's all so chilled out and everyone's so friendly. They have swings, slides and zip wires at each bar, and although there have been a few horror stories of various health and safety issues, after quite a lot of dutch courage and peer pressure everyone had a go at them!
The partying then continues on into the night around the bars in Vang Vieng, then people are up around lunch time the next day to do it all again!
I always hear stories of people meeting other people travelling who they know from back home, and randomly that happened to me yesterday!! I was in one of the bars down the river when I bumped in to a Senior Physio who I was on placement with at one of the hospitals in Birmingham last December, who was also with one of the other physios from that hospital! So we spent most of the day and evening with them and they're off to Cambodia today.
We decided to stay here an extra day than planned as we're enjoying it all so much, although it means I am literally getting eaten alive by mosquitos! They all seem to love me no matter how much repellent I use. But we will be leaving tomorrow to get a sleeper train to Bangkok, and then down to some beaches in Pattaya. Those who have me on facebook, I'm currently uploading a few photos from Thailand so far, so you can check those out, otherwise I'll see if I can put some up on here.
Anna xxx
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Chiang Mai - Trek and Zip Wiring
The 2 day trek up the mountain was amazing. Me and Sarah were initially in a group with 3 French girls and 3 German guys, who all spoke very good English and we got on with them well. The trek only involved a few hours of walking each day (luckily!) but everyone was still knackered because of the heat! Then we did some elephant riding and saw/swam in a few waterfalls, one of which was 10m away from our hut which we stayed in overnight, playing drinking games around a camp fire etc.
The next morning we were separated from the rest of our group as they were doing a 3 day trek, and we went off with our guide to do another few hours walking. After lunch we were then put in a group with 4 guys (3 English and 1 Canadian) to do bamboo rafting. That was awesome and involved a lot of falling/pushing into the dirty river!
We had our first proper night out in Thailand last night with the 4 guys from the bamboo rafting, which meant our 6 o clock start this morning for zip wiring in a jungle was not great! The zip wiring itself was fun, although not quite high or fast enough for me, and we're off to Laos tonight on an overnight (14 hour) minibus journey! We're hoping to do tubing over the next few days and then move on to Pattaya for some beaches.
The next morning we were separated from the rest of our group as they were doing a 3 day trek, and we went off with our guide to do another few hours walking. After lunch we were then put in a group with 4 guys (3 English and 1 Canadian) to do bamboo rafting. That was awesome and involved a lot of falling/pushing into the dirty river!
We had our first proper night out in Thailand last night with the 4 guys from the bamboo rafting, which meant our 6 o clock start this morning for zip wiring in a jungle was not great! The zip wiring itself was fun, although not quite high or fast enough for me, and we're off to Laos tonight on an overnight (14 hour) minibus journey! We're hoping to do tubing over the next few days and then move on to Pattaya for some beaches.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Bangkok - Chiang Mai
Just a short one...
So we arrived into Bangkok after a few long, but easy (and not delayed!) flights at around lunchtime. Managed to get a bus straight to the train station and sorted our sleeper trains up to Chiang Mai for that evening. Found some typical Thai food at the station (noodles and rice) for only 35B which is about 70p! Then just waited around in the station for the train. We made friends with a lovely old Thai man called "John", who has requested we send him postcards from London, Birmingham, Newcastle and Southampton once we're home, and says we can't forget as we are now "best friends forever!!" The Thai people here are all so lovely and friendly!
Spent the night on a 15 hour first class (more like 5th class - you should have seen the state of the toilet! But meant we got a lockable door) sleeper train up to Chiang Mai where we are now. We've had a look around the town and have now got our bearings a bit, and managed to see about 4 temples already just this morning. We're staying at a nice hotel with a pool for tonight, then have booked a 2 day Trek up to the mountains for the next 2 days, which involves waterfalls, elephant riding and bamboo rafting!
Will update soon,
Anna xxx
So we arrived into Bangkok after a few long, but easy (and not delayed!) flights at around lunchtime. Managed to get a bus straight to the train station and sorted our sleeper trains up to Chiang Mai for that evening. Found some typical Thai food at the station (noodles and rice) for only 35B which is about 70p! Then just waited around in the station for the train. We made friends with a lovely old Thai man called "John", who has requested we send him postcards from London, Birmingham, Newcastle and Southampton once we're home, and says we can't forget as we are now "best friends forever!!" The Thai people here are all so lovely and friendly!
Spent the night on a 15 hour first class (more like 5th class - you should have seen the state of the toilet! But meant we got a lockable door) sleeper train up to Chiang Mai where we are now. We've had a look around the town and have now got our bearings a bit, and managed to see about 4 temples already just this morning. We're staying at a nice hotel with a pool for tonight, then have booked a 2 day Trek up to the mountains for the next 2 days, which involves waterfalls, elephant riding and bamboo rafting!
Will update soon,
Anna xxx
Monday, September 14, 2009
3 Days to go!
Hey Guys,
I'm sure most of you already know, but for those who don't, I leave for Thailand with Sarah, a friend from uni, on Thursday 17th Sept for a few months and return on Christmas eve (just in time for a stocking from Santa!). I've started this blog so you can follow what I'm doing/leave me messages etc.
We're doing a combination of travelling and 8 weeks of volunteer physiotherapy/child care. For the first couple of weeks before our placement we'll be travelling the North of Thailand and tubing in Laos, then once our placement is complete we'll have just over 3 weeks to do the beaches/South islands of Thailand. Our placements, based in Surin, consist of 4 days working and 3 day weekends which means we can do weekend trips away to places like Cambodia or local temples, or just enjoy the Elephant festival which takes place in Surin!
Only 3 days to go now and luckily I have Mike here to help me pack. Hopefully I'll have pretty regular access to the internet out there so can update this when possible, but if anyone wants to get hold of me you can either email me at a.jones99@hotmail.com, or text/call me on 07906476087.
The next post will hopefully be once I'm in Thailand, so I'll update you all then!
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