A pretty rough start…

I made it to Nepal!  Hooray…  The journey has begun!  To be honest it’s been off to a pretty rough start… 

While in Bangkok I thought it would be a good idea to get my eyebrows waxed just before going to the airport.  Well… that was a freakn disaster.   Seriously, I cried.  They are that bad, the woman butchered them and my eyebrow is still sore 24hrs later.   I’m going to have to grow them out and deal with a mono brow for a while before finding somewhere good (aka very expensive) in India to get them fixed up.

To make it worse the woman took 40 mins and by the time they got someone else to try and fix them up I was running VERY late for the plane.  So late I thought I would miss it.  But the gods of Royal Nepal Airlines were shining on me, little did I know that this airline is known for being unreliable… So the flight scheduled for 1.30 was delayed till 4pm, then 6pm… then we left at 7.30pm.   

I got the privilege of sitting next to a group of smelly men one of which who took his shoes off to add to the stink and then stared at me the whole way.   It was horrible, they told me to bring ear plugs – nose plugs would have been a better idea.

Oh, to make that flight even better – the plane was about 100 years old (ok, slight exaggeration) and I was sitting by the emergency exit door which wasn’t shut properly.  I spent the whole flight waiting for it to tear open, suck me out and splatter me on to Mt Everest or something.    I really shouldn’t have watched ‘how not to die’ last week.

So I have arrived… spent the day being harassed by trekking guides and wandering around a bit disorientated.   AND I have already been scammed – I knew what was going on and when I out witted him the little bugger nicked $10usd from me… Grrr…    You live and learn.  

I did score a free lunch though from one of the touts wanting me to book an overpriced tour, he took me to a Nepalese place and I had my first meal sans cutlery…  I can still smell the curry on my fingers… give me a spoon any day!

So…  I’ve got a few days before meeting my tour group, I’m thinking getting out of Katmandu and into the country side is a good idea.   Watch this space… I will post photos in the next few days…   I just wanted to let you know I got here ok.

The Samutprakarn Sauna

I arrived safely in Bangkok despite some VERY scary turbulence over Australia where I thought the plane might actually break in two! I was a bit worried about problems on arrival due to the lack of visa and an outward ticket … but the woman at customs flipped through my passport and stamped me in without a worry. Eek… my poor passport is looking dodgier and dodgier by the day with all the Asian stamps!

Anyways… Life in Samutprakarn is fine… It’s hot, raining a lot (like a sauna) and I am working from home so my tan has not improved one iota. Oh well, I will have to wait for India before I work on my tan. Hmm… I am not sure how that will work given I have been told to cover up in India to avoid being continually harassed by Indian men who think all western women are up for it.

So, I’m starting to get a mix of emotions about my upcoming trip… I am VERY very excited and a tad nervous. I’ve travelled by myself before but only for a couple of weeks at a time… I’m expecting a few ‘character building’ experiences and am really hoping I won’t be harassed and ripped off too much. Eeek… it is exciting stuff!

All good things must come to an end…

Being cheap and disorganised all 4 siblings went to New Zealand on different flights… Mike was first to go, then Tony… followed by Jane and I.   The plan was for all of us to meet in Auckland and drive down to Whangamata to surprise mum for her 60th birthday.

So, alas – our holiday in Thailand had to come to an end.   As did the bottle of Jamisons that Jane bought over…

Chatuchak Market

Once we got back to Bangkok the girls (Jane and I) and 3 priorities… shopping, shopping and then some more shopping!!!     Luckily there was a weekend before our flights to New Zealand so we went to the wonderful Chatuchak Market.  

While we were there, a HUGE storm hit – it was so exciting watching everyone get drenched… Check out the clouds!

Dad and Tony

Rain clouds

Beer o’clock at the market

 

A visit to the hot springs

The bonus of having the van is that we had the ability to go off and explore.    So, explore we did.    One of the places we went to was a thermal spring – somewhere north (I think) of Chiang Mai.   

Even though it seems totally ridiculous that one would want to visit a hot spring when it’s over 35 degrees – the hot springs are a nice place to chill out, relax and boil an egg.  

Cooking Eggs

Eggs

A thermal shower

Danger!

Jane, Mike and Tony

Kob

Heng and Nat

Pat

Tony

Its a sign

Jane and Kob and the egg sculpture

The herbal medicine shop

Outside the cave complex (see post below) there was a market selling traditional herbal medicine.    Jane is studying traditional Chinese medicine so she loved wandering around the stalls checking out the potions and lotions…  here are some photos she took to show her friends at school:

Cure all of pocks and swamps

Indication Lucky

To relieve being limp and skinny

Something for everyone!

A selection of goodies

Protection from black magic

Potions and Lotions

A visit to the Chiang Dao Caves

As I said in my previous post, the Chiang Dao Caves are definitely worth a visit.  The cave complex is huge!    Its part of a temple complex so there are lots of Buddha images in the caves, especially at the start of the cave.   It’s a really beautiful place.

Once you get a few meters into the cave there are two options – you can either go for a wander down the lit walkway which can be done without a guide.  Or, you can hire a lantern and a guide and go exploring in the unlit caves.

We hired a guide to explore the unlit caves.  WOW – it was so cool.  I think our tour must have been about 25-30mins, we saw so many different caves and formations… many of which looked like animals.   A photographer followed us around and took lots of group photos – I thought this was a bit odd given the lighting was so poor.    

Here are some photos (from my camera) from the caves.