The Good The Bad & The Ugly: The Spa Koh Chang

After 12 months circumnavigating the globe we decided to book ourselves in for a bit of a detox. Now to reassure Adams Dad this is not the same as booking ourselves into rehab or the priory. The aim of the game here is to flush out the system of any harmful toxins or parasites living inside of you.

The Good

Koh Chang is one of Thailands most beautiful islands. Being located in the Gulf of Thailand right by the Cambodia border it's right in our direction. As with the above detoxifying, this is all about wellness and healthy living. We did a 3.5 day fast, this included over 60 herbal supplements, daily carrot juice, coconut water, vegetable broth, and liver flush drinks (these consisted of olive oil, ginger, garlic and cayenne pepper - suprisingly tasty). Throw in the swimming pool, herbal sauna and thai massage and all this must add up to one healthy body.

The Bad

This was a 3.5 day FAST. That means no eating. At all. Nothing. Nada. This was certainly a challenge, especially the first day and half.  After this it starts to get easier, maybe you learn not to fight it, or maybe you’re just full from all the liquids.  Also bad, the liver flush drinks, although these are the closest thing to food (you can really taste the garlic and cayenne pepper) there are a few side effects from these.  After drinking you can get a headache or start to feeling quite achy and nauseous, this is supposedly normal and means that you really needed that liver flush.  The big bad though, daily enema’s....

The Ugly

The enema really needs to go under ugly.  For anyone that doesn’t know what this is, you are probably better not knowing, and for anyone that does you will appreciate why this needs to go under both Bad and Ugly.  The less said here the better.

All in this was an experience, a chance to flush ourselves out after a year of eating good but not necessarily ‘good for you’ food.  We’ve made it through the other side feeling a lot better, and knowing the health benefits should put us in good stead for the next few years.

We are now back in Bangkok.  We are fast approaching the end of our trip, as I write this we have around 12 hours before we will be heading to the airport for our return flight to London.  Just enough time to check out Bangkok’s lively weekend market, the largest market in Thailand, and get some souvenirs and that final pad thai and fresh coconut.

See you soon!

Cambodia

Our first stop in Cambodia had us arriving late in the evening into the capital, Phnom Penh.  The usual hustle and bustle of ‘VIP’ tourist transport in Asia meant we left our accommodation in Laos at 8am, and arrived in Phnom Penh around 10pm.  Fourteen hours for around seven hours of travel means you spend half your time just waiting around.  We’ve got pretty use to this slow moving tourist transport now, but it still grates on you when you are forced to arrive three hours early and hang around overpriced (and likely under-hygiened) food stalls.

We had a few days in Phnom Penh and after the laid back surroundings of Laos and especially the Four Thousand Islands it took a while to adjust.  One of the main reasons for rapid adjustment is the tuktuk to tourist ratio, it must be about 10:1 here at the moment.  You physically cannot step outside a building or walk down the street without being accosted and hollered at. 

While in town we took a must do visit down to the Killing Fields.  Thirteen kilometres outside of town this is where the brutal Khmer Rouge regime would... well, i’m sure you can work it out from the name.  The Khmer Rouge were in power and at their worst as recently as the late 1970s, and have been accredited with killing one in four of their own population.  In fact one of the sayings they lived by was ‘it’s better to kill an innocent than let a guilty man live’.  This of course led to mass genocide on an immensely vast scale.  For a country decimated by such travesties only a generation ago it is however very much a country in transition.  There is a growing youth culture where fashion, music and funky hairstyles are at the forefront.  There is a lot of poverty around still, but in a city like Phnom Penh there are opportunities for those people whose parents had none.

On a brighter note we also got around to visiting a few of the temples, national museum, and of course the markets.  In the space of a matter of minutes we experienced the most scorching sun and sweltering heat, to an unprecedented downpour that was filling the streets and flooding the pavements.  We also had some of the best noodle soup in town, which got a lot better once we had worked out how to order it with normal meat, and no pigs organs!

From Phnom Penh we made our way across country and around the largest lake in SE Asia, the Tonle Sap Lake, to Siem Reap.  At just 8km, Siem Reap is the closest town to the Angkor Archaeological Park, home to Angkor Wat and numerous other capitals of the Khmer Empire.  The site is much more than just Angkor Wat itself and is spread over 400sq km.  With this in mind we bargained ourselves a tuktuk and a three day ticket.  Angkor Wat is the biggest hindu temple in the world, and a large part of the countries identity, so much so that it even features on the Cambodian flag.

We got up early on our first day and were in the park by 5.30am to check out Angkor Wat at sunrise.  However with this being the wet season the classic sunrise didn’t actually appear, but it did give us a good chance to have a good look before all the crowds arrived.  The temple is on a pretty immense scale and is surprisingly well preserved.

The same however cannot be said for a lot of the other structures around.  This however really adds to their allure.  In a lot of places you can see a slow but epic struggle between nature and stone with tree’s and vegetation spurting out from any available crevices.  For us our favourites were Bayon which dominates a lot of the styles, its recognizable by the many faces decorating all sides of the temple walls.  The much famed tomb raider temple, Ta Prohm, was also incredible to see, especially just after a Cambodian downpour.  Over our three days we saw upward of 20 different ancient Angkor temples in many different styles, conditions, and of course weather conditions.  Too many to list here, but the 500 odd photographs we’ve been left with are evidence of an awesome archaeological site.

  

From Siem Reap we followed our way further round the Tonle Sap Lake to Battambang.  After all the tuktuks of Phnom Penh and souvenir sellers of Siem Reap it was a welcome relief to have a bit more of a relaxed Cambodian experience.  No shouts of ‘tuktuk’ or ‘one dollar’ meant we were able to take a couple of bikes and head out into the countryside.  We got to see a lot more of village life here, and saw the families drying rice paper and shrimp in the sun outside their houses.  We have only had the time and money to do three places in Cambodia, but it has been a great experience in a country with such a rich but tragic history.

Laos PDR

Laos PDR.  PDR stands for ‘Peoples Democratic Republic’, however around here they say it means ‘Laos - Please Don’t Rush’.  In order to adopt this approach we decided to start our journey across country with the appropriately named ‘Slow Boat’.

First up was a relatively straight forward border cross.  A short five minute trip across the Mekong River and we were in Laos.  We got our visas here at the border and didn’t have to pay the obligatory one dollar passport stamp ‘fee’.  This put us in the small town of Huay Xai.  There’s really not much here, but it was a chance for us to stock up on some supplies for our two day slow boat trip down river to the city of Luang Prabang.  This sounds a lot harder than it is, although at the time it did feel a bit torturous every now and again.  The boat is not dissimilar in size to a canal boat, but is fitted with rows of minibus seats for comfort, and like the canal boats the family live on board at the back.  Day one took about six hours and day two around seven hours, we stopped at a tiny village to sleep overnight.  The boat itself affords not much in terms of entertainment except for the Mekong itself, local riverboats and fisherman and some smiling waving Laos children.  Two days is probably enough though before everything starts to look the same, it would quite literally be hours between seeing the slightest form of civilization, which at best would attend to a small selection of wooden shacks.

At around 4pm on the second day however we arrived at the city of Luang Prabang, the former capital of Laos, Unesco world heritage site and a town heavily influenced by the French Indochine occupation.  After two days on a boat and two nights spent at small sleepy riverside towns this was our first real taste of Laos living.  The town itself is centred around a daily night market which sells all manner of wares and has food stalls where you can pile up your plate with as much as you can carry/eat for just 10,000 KIP (80p) or enjoy some grilled Mekong fish and other local delicacies.  Although around here local delicacies can include a skewer of barbequed frogs.  Whilst in town we decided to check out the other local traditions.  This included a visit to a local Laos silk weaving centre, a skill which looks almost impossible to master yet they accomplish with such guile and accuracy.  We followed this up with a visit to the local evening herbal sauna where we found ourselves crammed in a 90⁰c shoebox sized sauna with a dozen Lao.  This was a very interesting experience to say the least, but was especially nice to cool off outside in the rains whilst sipping on the local tea.

From here we made our way south along an almost impassable route through the mountains to the very small town of Vang Vieng.  Although very small it’s very much on the circuit here as it plays host to the infamous tubing.  Take a big rubber tube and float down the river stopping at whichever bar you wish whilst consuming the relatively safe option of BeerLao, or the not so safe choice of anything served in a bucket.  Local spirits are cheaper than the mixer so whatever they put in there serves a means to an end.  If you’re not feeling entertained enough or have overdone it with the Dutch courage there’s plenty of rope swings where you launch yourself into the murky depths  and whatever may lie beneath.  We won’t go into much detail, partly as it has been lost to inebriation, but the sun shone, we met some awesome people and survived (just).  The town itself is a little unique in that it is geared up to deal with hungover backpackers so all the bars play Friends or Family Guy on loop all through the day.

We left Vang Vieng and continued south several hours to the capital of Laos, Vientiane.  This could quite possibly be the smallest capital city on the planet, but it was a pleasant enough place for us to spend a couple of nights.  Like most places in Laos the city is situated on the banks of the Mekong.  The more we see of Laos, the more we see of the Mekong.  It’s like the heart of the country running from top to bottom and provides food, irrigation and transport in a country where not many sealed roads exist.  Vientiane is home to some impressive temples and for something a little bit different we visited one which is home to the largest collection of Buddha statues in Laos.  It claims to be home to over two thousand, we didn’t hang around to count but there was definitely a lot.

Laos is a country which has taken its fair share of bruising in recent history and none so much as the recent Vietnam War.  Laos is the most bombed country per capita in the world.  Over a nine year period the US ran 580,000 bombing missions over Laos a country they were not even at war with. Thirty percent of the bombs dropped in this time failed to explode and still litter the countryside today.  We visited an organisation called COPE who help the locals (most of whom are children) that have been harmed by these explosives in whatever way they can.  We met a young Lao guy there who had lost his sight and both hands, he is now volunteering at the organisation and learning English from talking to visitors.  The way in which he can try to carve himself a new life after having had so much taken away from him for what are essentially war crimes committed before he was even born is a truly courageous and brave story.  For anyone whose interested there’s a very informative and moving documentary you can find online called ‘Bomb Harvest’ which follows the struggle between the fight to educate versus the value of the bombs as scrap metal, whilst struggling against a lack of trained personnel in the country.

To continue our route further south we took an overnight sleeper bus 600km further down the Mekong.  This was a new form of travel for us as the bus is equipped with no chairs just beds, and you’re provided with a pillow and blanket for you to try and get a good night’s sleep.  A pretty novel idea but the beds are very much ‘Asian size’ so you don’t exactly get ample amounts of space.

It did however serve its purpose and has got us down to Si Phan Don, where the Mekong stretches to over 14km wide.  This stretch of the river however is full of islands of varying size, so many so that Si Phan Don quite literally translates as ‘Four Thousand Islands’.  We’ve made a little home on one of the islands where we are staying in a bungalow with a couple of hammocks out front.  It’s a beautifully local place where we share the surroundings with a few roaming cattle, plenty of little roaming chicks, cats, dogs and little Lao children running around chasing all of the above and plenty of rice fields.  There’s not much to do but watch the real Laos world go by.  We’ve been adventurous enough to venture around some of the islands by bike including crossing the old Pont Francais. 

 
However for now we are happy to embrace the culture enough not to rush, to just put our feet up, and watch the sun go down over the Mekong, before we make our way across the border and into Cambodia.

Chiang Chiang Chiang

From Koh Koh Koh to Chiang Chiang Chiang.  The next step of our journey takes us away from the tropical islands and up to the temple towns of the north.  First though we had to make our way up to Bangkok via ferry and bus.  Here we were meeting Lorna, someone we meet (what feels like) a long time ago back in South America.  We both had just 36 hours or so in Bangkok before moving on.  We tucked into a few beers and then spent the following day trawling Bangkok’s markets, malls and temples.  An evening spent exploring China Town had us racing round the streets in the back of a tuktuk that was close to rolling over a few times but certainly made short work of the streets as it sped through the traffic (and several red lights) just for fun.

The next morning we were off in our separate directions and for us that meant the 14 hour train ride up to Chiang Mai.  We booked ourselves a couple of sleeper berth tickets for 500 BHT (£10), which meant that during the day we had seats facing each other and in the evening someone would come along and transform them into a set of bunk beds.  We were scheduled to arrive at 4am, but fortunately this is Thai public rail and we were a few hours late meaning we arrived at 7am after a good few hours extra sleep.

By now we're on August the fourth, Adams birthday, and ten months since we left the UK. A short tuktuk ride took us to our guesthouse, a chance to dump our bags, have some breakfast and catch a breathe before checking out the city. Chiang Mai is a reasonably sized city by Thai standards and the original old city is based on a perfect square with a moat running round the edge and in a few places the remains of the old city walls.  Quite nice but still quite big.

The food in the north of Thailands a bit different from what we've been tucking into over the last few weeks. However as it was Adams birthday we tucked into the biggest cheeseburger and all the trimmings we could find.

The following day we had enrolled for a Thai cooking course. We started at the local market inspecting the raw ingredients we were going to be using, then deciding which meals we wanted to make. We made seven courses and choose different meals for each so had 14 to make, nearly enough to open our own restaurant. Our seven courses included some spicy soups, papaya salad, fried drunken noodles, pad thai, spring rolls, a selection of curries, and of course some sweet sticky rice for desert. What we couldn't eat on the day we took away with us and were still eating it the following evening. We cooked up some of the best Thai food we've eaten, and we've now got the recipe book and experience, so if we can reproduce food half as good it'll be a great achievement.

Looking for some more action we made our way the following day to an elephant camp outside of town. Here we were welcomed by a couple of inquisitive elephants who immediately stuck their trunks in the back of our pickup and in our faces to sniff out what food we'd brought with us.

We started off learning the words required to guide the elephants. Not that this really helped much as they only really seemed to respond to the Burmese mahouts who looked after them. After a quick solo practice on one of the smaller elephants it was time to sit astride one of the larger mammals. No seat, no mats, no handles, just two tonnes of elephant to straddle and hold on to. There is no elegant way to mount an elephant but once your on the feeling of being atop these immensely sized but incredibly graceful creatures is amazing. The elephants are so surefooted even when traipsing through two foot thick mud, across a river or up and down hill that there's no worry of them falling, but still probably a good chance of sliding off yourself if your not paying attention.

Luckily for us though we made it to lunchtime and this meant for both us and our elephants.  We tucked into noodles and spring rolls before feeding the elephants banana's and sugarcane. The way they extend their trunks and hold the food is slightly strange.  After lunch it was time to cool off a bit, as we rode the elephants to a waterfall and proceeded to give them a scrub and a wash. This was however more a chance for them to spray us with water than anything else!

This was an awesome day, and a great experience to get upclose and personal with such incredible animals especially under such authentic conditions.

Leaving Chiang Mai, we made edged our way closer to the Thai/Laos border with a few days in Chiang Rai. Here we had a chance to do a bit of temple hopping and made a tour of  the small town getting to half a dozen or so temples. You do start to get the feeling that once you've seen one you've seen them all. Then they build something like the White Temple and you're left breathless again. The White Temple is a hugely extravagant structure that we were lucky to see it at it's best with a beautiful blue sky and blazing sunshine.

It is however rainy season here, and although we've so far been unaffected by it we got our first real taste of it that evening. Whilst out for dinner the rains came and after a half hour of waiting it out we decided to brave the downpour to get back to our guesthouse. Fortunately we left when we did as the rains didn't subside for quite sometime and yet we still found ourselves wading ankle dip in our flip-flops down the street.


The next morning you wouldn't have known it had rained at all, the streets that the previous night had been overflowing were dry as we made our way to our third Chiang, Chaing Kong, border town for entry into Laos.