Village life on the Thai-Burma-Lao border (the Golden Triangle!)

To start with, thanks friends, schoolmates and family for comments on our blog - we are really missing everyone believe it or not, and looking forward to getting back to school!  Here's a pic to show Room 2 that 'yes', elephants really can paint (she's in the process of signing her name - 'Suda')! 

Also sorry Room 6, but Harry might get in trouble if he tried to smuggle a baby panda or elephant home in his backpack, but he does have another treat (?!) in store for the class!  And Miss Gray,  Sophie unfortunately hasn't done a Thai massage course so can't give you a professional foot massage on her return, but she has done a full day Thai cooking course and she and Jessie now know how to make a fantastic range of treats including spring rolls, massaman curry, and chicken with vegies and cashew nuts.  See below...

Dad cooking up a storm, and Jess carving vegies at the Thai cooking course. First we went to a market to buy the ingredients then we made about 8 delicious meals and got a cookbook at the end of the day... cool fun.



Last weekend we had 3 days in the mountainous far North of Thailand, in the region of the famous 'golden triangle' where Burma, Thailand and Laos meet at a junction of the Mekong River...

Hanging out at the borders of Thailand, Burma and Laos. That is Burma on the left of the Mekong River, Laos on the right and we're standing in Thailand. They used to grow opium here.

We stayed in two different villages up near Mae Salong. One with Akha people and another with Lahu people (minority groups).  They have amazing traditional costumes which they wear for special ceremonies.  They took us on an exhausting 3 hr walk up and down hillsides of rice, corn, and beans and including 3 river crossings, and later taught us some cool crafts like how to make bracelets decorated with dried seeds:

Harry with the mum of our host family, Aba

Exploring rice fields around the village, and trying not to step on snakes (we only saw a dried up one on the road!. Dad asked our hosts if they see many snakes but they said no, they stay away because we like to eat them - they taste good, like chicken!

Jaboosee village, where we stayed for one night and had a great game of soccer with the local kids!

Here's what we enjoyed about the village stays:
- staying in houses on stilts made of bamboo... you can see through the floors, walls and roof.
- playing soccer with the local kids (who had really good skills)
- exploring the village with the little kids, who followed us everywhere
- playing with cute puppies, and seeing baby piglets and chicks running around everywhere
- the effort the families went to, to cook us a range of local food - breakfast one morning was mountain rice, roasted peanuts, omelette, eggplant cooked with chilli, and pumpkin and garlic.  A bit of a change from weetbix!
- how friendly and welcoming everyone was to us!

Dinner, laid out on banana leaves, with the Akha family

Harry playing with one of the 4 puppies...there were chicks and piglets galore running around as well!

The girls join in a Lahu traditional dance around a bonfire at night

Jessie receives a blessing from a Lahu Shaman (spiritual leader) before leaving the village

Here's some things that weren't so great about staying in the village:
- being woken at 4.30am....then 5am...then 5.30am...etc by dozens of really loud roosters (one was right underneath the bamboo floor where we were trying to sleep!)
- the toilets were ummmm... a little basic...let's just say we all had to improve our squatting technique...nothing to sit on here!
- some of the local 'delicacies' served up to us by our very generous hosts e.g. these grubs breed inside bamboo and are only available at this time of year - some people eat them raw but they cooked them for us so they were a bit crispy...only Mum and Dad were willing to try them though!

Sophie looking very skeptical about the fried grubs placed in front of her!!

Chiang Mai - temples, tuktuks and wildlife!

Sawadee from the northern city of Chiang Mai, where we'll be for the next two weeks! We've left the beaches behind (sob, sob!) but have a pool at our apartment where we practice our bombs and flips on a daily basis, so that's ok.

 

Highlights of Chiang Mai city:

• amazing temples and ancient architecture.
• the night bazaar - a collection of 100s of outdoor stalls where you can buy cheap fake versions of everything from billabong t-shirts to new release DVDs, as well as cool Thai handicrafts etc... Harry likes the cheap English Premier League soccer strips, the girls like heaps of things... the tops, the pretty flower soaps, the pretty lights.
• the Zoo and aquarium (see nosey panda below)
• zooming around the streets in tuktuks...kind of like a motorbike with a cab at the back which can fit our whole family, at a squeeze!... yep, Mum and Dad fit in there as well... somehow.

• the whole family getting a meal and a massage (just a foot massage for the kids - Harry looked like he was in heaven! - and more strenuous for the adults!) from the inmates at Chiang Mai Women's Prison, as part of their rehabilitation programme.

"What you looking at punk?"

Very relaxed after our foot massage at the women's prison!

Highlights outside of the city which we explored today on a tour:

• bamboo rafting down the river... a bit tame for Uncle Hen though.
• riding elephants
• elephants that can paint pictures, play soccer, slam dunk basketballs, and the babies are so cute!

Harry the mahout (elephant trainer) leads us into the jungle...

The girls attempt to train their elephants

The baby elephant tries to see if Harry is ticklish

And the one enduring thing that doesn't go away... the heat... whether its cloudy, sunny, raining or whatever... its always warm... often stuffy and sometimes too much... but better than the weather we left behind... although... I don't think Harry, Jessie and Sophie could always be convinced of that after walking around in the heat for an hour or two.

The island where 'The Beach' is... looks mysterious doesn't it.

Wednesday

Today we explored the town while Mum did some work at home. First we went to a Mini Golf course. This was cool, as there were models of dinosaurs, a jungle atmosphere and cool holes-there was even a cave one. Us kids reckoned that it was the best Mini Golf course we had ever been to.

Next we went to Kata town and did some shopping. We looked around and bargained some things, {Jess and Soph don't really like it when people follow you around the shops!}We then went back to the hotel and had our daily swim, {this normally takes about an hour and a half!!!} 

Thursday

Today we went to Phang Nga Bay, it took us 1 hour and a half to get there. We hired a long boat and went around the islands in it.

We went to a village called Panyee that is built on stilts over sea and is connected to an island and built totally over water although Phang Nga Bay is a fairly sheltered area and not far from the coast.

We also went to an island that they call James Bond Island where his movie The Man With The Golden Gun was filmed.  The island was where the bad guy's base was.  Here is Harry standing by a longtail boat on James Bond Island:

The scenery was really cool with these huge limestone rocks that looked like small islands coming out of the sea.

We also saw some mangrove swamp where a large lizard lives that is almost as big as the Komodo Dragon and is part of that family of lizards.

Friday

On Friday we travelled from Phuket to the Phi Phi Islands.  We went down to the Phuket Town wharf and waited for our boat.  We met Mum's research assistant, Mor there because he came with us to help Mum with some questions for the people on Phi Phi Don Island.

The main town on Phi Phi Don Island is built on at isthmus between two large islands that look like hills... see below... it was a bit of haul up to the viewpoint but the view was worth it.

The room where we are staying at Garden Home is really cool, it is in a natural setting with lots of plants and trees.  The room we're staying in is the honeymoon suite and it has a water feature in the bathroom, a screen made of shells and lots more.

"The best thing I've ever done" (Jessie)

We went on a half day trip to Phi Phi Lay Island.  We got to saw a Viking Cave where there were old drawings (actually by the Chinese and not the Vikings), went snorkelling and got to visit the bay where 'The Beach' was filmed - lots of tourists go there!...

Jessie said that going snorkelling was the best thing she has ever done because the fish that we saw were like all the ones on Finding Nemo except for the clown fish which is the Nemo fish.

'The Beach' beach was really picturesque but wasn't enclosed with a lagoon like in the movie but was an open bay... those movie people are pretty tricky.

This photo is of the sun setting at the right hand side of Ko Phi Phi Lay as we cruised back to Ko Phi Phi Don.  Today we got the boat back to Phuket ready for the next part of our adventure up north in Chiang Mai. We're looking forward to our time in the North because it is a mountainous area so should be quite different scenery.

The photo below is of a street in the main town on Ko Phi Phi Don, Ton Sae Village.  This is as wide as the streets get so there are no cars or motorbikes, the only vehicles are bicycles that act as the cars and trolleys that act as the trucks.  It is really busy here and we are so glad that we are here at low season and not at high season.  Apparently in high season they get traffic jams from the trolleys carrying tourists' luggage and food and building materials and other stuff they need to transport around. One of the stalls had these cool little soaps that the lady had carved flowers into... we got one for Nan... she'll like the nice smell.

On the day we left we got heaps of rain and the little streets next to where we were staying were like little rivers that we had to wade through.

The photo above is of the first stop on our half day cruise where we stopped at Monkey Bay to see the monkeys.  One of the little monkeys in the background came up to Sophie and grabbed her on the leg and Sophie wondered if it was Dad playing a trick on her... but it wasn't.  It was quite cool getting to Monkey Bay because Sophie and Mum got to dive off the boat and swim 150 metres into shore and got to swim through little fishies on the way in.

The last photo is of Mum and the girls swimming in 'The Beach'... step aside Leonardo... we've got some new stars emerging... the water was really warm like it has been for all of the beaches over here... you just don't want to get out of the water because you're not freezing your noonoos off like back home.

More busy days in Phuket

Monday - This picture is of Jessie and Harry jumping into the pool where we are staying and is taken from the verandah of the room we're in.

In the morning we went to Little Kata beach (Kata Noi) which is one bay south of main Kata Beach where we are staying.

We had a swim and the waves were crashing down... we had great fun... but got smashed a few times.

On the way to Little Kata, Mum got us lost but luckily we ended up at a great viewpoint looking back over the two Kata Beaches and Karon Beach.  This is the view in the photo below, beautiful picture isn't it. The first bay is Kata Noi and the second one is where we are staying at Kata.  The big building is at Karon Beach.  You could check out where they are in your atlas or on Google Earth.

 A man had two very large sea eagles and one of them perched on Sophie's arm... gee it was heavy... but Mum didn't want to get a photo because she felt sorry that the birds weren't free flying around.

In the afternoon we went to the Aquarium and saw some cool tropical fish but the aquarium was a bit small and Harry was disappointed because there were no sharks, dolphins or whales.  Hopefully we'll see some if we go snorkelling on Ko Phi Phi.

Tuesday

Mum hired a guide today who could speak English and Thai and he came with us in our car to Kamala Beach which is north of where we are staying and was the worst hit when the tsunami struck in 2004.

Mum and Mor (the guide) spoke to business people such as people who give massages and who hire out seats on the beaches etc to find out how they were affected by the tsunami.  One lady had lost her 3 year old son.  We also went to a temple that had been hit by the tsunami and learnt that the wave had come up to the roof of the temple... when we looked up we could see that this was way, way over our heads.

Check out our photo to see how high the wave would have been.  It also wiped out the local school and they've had to rebuild it in stone instead of wood.

Mor also took us up the highest hill in Phuket to the Big Buddha statue and it was huge... about 30 metres high. It also had great panoramic views over Phuket Town and the surrounding islands and coastline.

At night we went into Phuket Town and our guide took us to a place where the locals eat and we had more delicious Thai food.

Ka Kite Ano.

Kata Beach

Our first full day in Thailand - cool, but hot, oh so very very hot!

Highlights

• A swim before breakfast at Kata beach, our first time ever in the Indian Ocean!  The water was surprisingly warm and the waves were fun to play.  The sand was really white and there were hotels dotting the hills surrounding the bay.  There were hundreds of deck chairs laid out on the beach but you have to pay to use them.
• Great food!  Harry, Jess and Sophie had fruit smoothies and spring rolls for breakfast. "we may never eat weetbix again".  Dad had chilli chicken and vegies (for brekkie?!) which Jessie liked too - Dad reckons he's not eating any western-style meals while we're here - we'll keep you posted, especially as he has a chippie addiction!
• Quotes on highlights:
• "Doing flips into the pool" - Harry
• "The beach is the warmest I've ever been to!" - Jessie
• "The beach and the pool" - Sophie

What Dad reckons

• I'm not normally a beach person (Waitarere or Himatangi)... much to my wife's dismay... but these beaches are fantastic and if you bring me to these beaches I'm converted.
• Thai food rocks... I can't wait for my next meal, delicious and a bargain.
• Thank goodness for doing some research on where to stay before we came over.  We ventured to Patong Beach today and it is just over run like being in the middle of a big dirty, noisey city.  Kata Beach where we are is much more peaceful and laid back.  Although, even quiet over here is like Palmy on a very busy day.
• What a fantastic experience this is seeing such a different way of life... I can cope with long air plane travel to get to places like this and sample the sights, sounds and smells of the World.

Lowlights
Ok friends in NZ, we can't say it's all great.  Here's a few things that haven't been so fab:

• The heat!!!  Yes we know we've been craving sunshine, but this photo of a dog sprawled out on the footpath taken at 9am on our way to the beach shows exactly how exhausted we felt!

• Going to 3 different shopping malls and not finding many bargains - we'll stick to the markets and little stalls near the beach from now on.
• The busy streets and crazy traffic.  We saw 2 car crashes within 5 minutes of each other!

What we learned today

• 'Papomka' is how to say thank you if you are female. 'Papomkop' if you are male.  Well that is what they sound like to us anyway.
• That even though rambutans look strange (they are red with soft spikes), they have a delicious soft white fruit inside that is quite nice.
• That Thai people working in the little shops on the way to the beach - selling clothes, shoes, tatoos, braiding, massages etc - are very friendly to foreigners!  But it is a bit awkward when they come up to you all the time asking 'where are you from, what is your name' etc. 
• Photo below Harry asks "Dad, can I please get an Arsenal tatoo"?

A long, long, journey

Well we didn't leave Auckland until 2.30am so that was a pretty late night for all of us!  The first half of the flight was great as we loved the games, movies, and kid's meals.  We also got some sleep.  But the novelty wore off after about 6 hours and that wasn't even half way to Phuket! We flew over the mountainous, jungle covered island of Borneo and landed for a short time in Brunei.  The cool thing they have here is the rare Proboscis monkey....weird nose aye?!

Next stop was Bangkok where is was 33 degrees celcius!  It was a huge airport with 7 levels each one of them packed with people.  Jess and Sophie loved going up and down the escalators and travelators all over the airport.  Finally we boarded our last flight to the island of Phuket and when we made it to our hotel the first thing we did, at about 6pm Thai time (we're 5 hrs behind NZ) we jumped into the pool!


We had dinner at a great little open air restaurant across the busy road - noodles (yum!) with chicken and vegies for 40 baht (about $2).  Harry also had a tooth with his dinner...he somehow lost his first baby tooth and didn't even notice until after he'd finished eating!  We think the tooth fairy will have a hard time finding that one!

What Dad reckons

• I will never get used to those airplane seats in economy class... I don't know which is worse for getting a sore butt... cycling or airplane seats on a long journey.
• Thank goodness for tv screens in the back of seats for relieving boredom and keeping 7 year old boys occupied.

Bon Voyage !

Friday 24 September  8:30pm, after celebrating Oma's 50 years in New Zealand with fish and chips and chocolate cake, we check into Palmerston North airport ready to begin our Thailand adventure!