Saturday 22 March 2008
Tuesday 18 March 2008
families are like chocolate some have a few nuts in them.......
So Melbourne from the start.
Travel day was long, when you thought you have flown pretty much half way round the world (Thailand) Australia can't be that much further. How wrong were we, its almost as far down as it was around!! 24 hour trip to Melbourne and we meet lizzie, as we were waiting we were having a little guessing game as to what lizzie would look like and how we'd spot her, should have know better as she's got the standard Loughran look and we spoted her in the car coming from a mile off (slight exaggeration, with my eyes) Actually could have been mistaken for Gem, scary. As we said lizzie was amazing had tone's planned and loads of recommendations for us so we just about held out through the day chatting (and drinking lots of tea and coffee) when we were finally hit by the travel and crashed out at about 8 o'clock, nice early night ready for the first big day in Melbourne.
Oh yeah before we go any further i would like to let you all in on a little secret. The brave miss Pike who had given up her hairdryer and straighteners for a life on the road had a lasted a whole month (all very proud) in Thailand had then used Lizzie's for the first time and in and instant we had gone to the shop and back again sporting some of Remington's finest. The Hair-doing strike was over. Curls no more.
So up bright and early for breckie with lizzie and her sister Genny (my second aunty, I think) and then into the car heading south of Melbourne to Phillip Island, Pretty famous for Penguins and Surfing and the Moto GP (Impressed DadofLea?) All very excited we drive over the bridge and get suckerd in to the first place we come across. FREE CHOCOLATE SAMPLES. Practically running into the chocolate factory we soon realised we had been sold a massive con (Thailand wiseness had worn off already) 1 free sample, but what seemed like a showroom for chocolate, needless to say we bought afew bags. Onwards,Firstly we stopped at the Woolami Beach, very famous for surfing, I could feel the bug building inside me instantly and wanted to learn. So we sat and watched the surfers and had a little pick-nick (im leaving that spelling in of "picnic" because lea says its too funny not to share!!). We head south of the island to a spot which is renowed for seals, Unfortunately we didn't see any, but we did see tons of penguins. All very cute, and soooooo funny, Also lots of fantastic scenery of the island. Heading north again, we stopped at Cowes for some fish and chips, I had Shark, lea had Snapper, was so good to eat some proper chips, gonna have to try hard not to live off them as they were lush. Headed back south to the penguin night show. This was hilarious, After sunset all the penguins come in from the sea and find places in the bushes to sleep. So you basically sit there and watch, but the best bit was the walk back up from the beach. All the penguins were walking along side us in little groups. We particularly like the little fat one's who had to keep up with the group but kept falling over at the back. Very enjoyable. Oh yeah missed something funny off this little story, when we arrived at the beach (due to conservation we were quite a bit back from the sea) so as we arrived late (naturally) we were like (well mostly blind me) " wow look at them all just standing around waiting" after watching them in awe from a couple of minutes on of them fly's away. We were shocked to say the least, "I didn't realise penguins could fly" Leanne looks at me, Those are seagull's. Do'h
With plans to head into Melbourne for the morning, we were unfortunately too lazy (mostly just enjoying the comfy bed and hot shower, God i sound like we have been in prison) So we just woke up late and strolled down to the beach by lizzie's house. Stunning beach again (think it's a pretty common thing that all the beaches are picture perfect) And we chill out, even venture into the water. Nice relaxing morning. It's the biggie coming up though. The family get together. So we come back from the beach and everyone is already there. (Late again) So here goes........... Me, Lea, Ruth, Dennis, Lizzie, Sharron, Gloria, Alison, Locky, Genny couldn't be there but her daughter and grand-daughter were there. Very cute little girl. Oh yeah and Elwood lizzie's dog. Good food and a few drinks (and more tea). Will have to fill you in on the family details when we get back, but needless to say everyone looked the same.
Today we hit the city, up early and into Melbourne city for the first time. Moomba, is a massive festival that happens in the city in march (i think it's for the close of summer, leanne said thats not true matt you just made that up - the word moomba means get up and have a good time - its an old aberigini word. check her out bill bryson!) So loads and loads for us to do. Firstly on a geeky note, so many skyscrapers, Melbourne is a massive city built up city so me and lea were kind of holding our breath ready for the pollution to kick in, it didn't. It was a little surreal, it's like being in the centre of london with on a couple of cars on the road and hardly anyone around. Very strange. So we made our way down to the river (again similar to london) on the tram which was cool. As we walked along the southbank river (again similar to london) we decided to cut through the Crown Casino (it was huge) to get to the festival, i was worried as we had flip flops on and might not be allowed in, i should however have been more worried about the giant woman security gaurd who used her gigantic arm as a barrier blocking entry to lea - quizzing her on the spot for a date of birth. gutted as we had no ID (for young leanne) on us. so retreating away from the lesbian looking woMAN on a powertrip (obviously secretly fancying leanne!?) we walked round. We had decided to treat ourselfs to a little tourist type thing and went up in the Eureka tower (landmark skyscraper for Melbourne). Hopped in the elevator and wizzed up to the 88th floor, (took 30 seconds and my ears poped twice) at about 170 meters we could see right across the city and suburbs. Obviously both of being architecture geeks we loved it. We then continued our trip towards moomba. Festival was really cool, loads of food and stuff to do, lea chickened out of the reverse bungee thing (where you are in a ball and they fire you up, secretly i was relieved) We pretty much just spent the whole day watching water skiing, skatebording, vollyball and some serious people watching. Ended the day with an amazing firework show but we were both really gutted as we had an amazing spot on the river to watch them but our camera had gone flat. So i'm afraid you guys will never get to see them!!
Up bright and early again (not getting the usual lazy lie-in's here) Ruth and Dennis came to pick us up and we headed into the hills to the Heale wildlife sanctuary. Ruth (alot like grandad) is comparatively quiet to Dennis and we had a real tour on our hand today. Ruth led the way with the picnic when we got there chicken drumsticks, bread and salad followed by beer and wine (11:45 am i'll let you know) was really tasty little surprise as we skipped breakfast for extra sleep time, (also lea not to be rude even ate chicken straight off the bone, wonders never cease) So entering the place Dennis quickly grabbed a volunteer and gently persuaded him to give us a private tour. We spent about four or five hours going round this place and it was amazing, we saw every type of Australian animal and bird possible all but the Tasmanian Devil (oh yeah its a real animal, not just a cartoon). We even got to stroke a Rock Wallabie that was just wandering around, very cute. As a little souvenir we bought a little Koala (teddy not a real one) he is gonna be our lucky charm for the road trip. We aptly called him "Kenny the Koala" (for those of you that dont know......lea has a teddy she has had her whole life called "Lenny the Lion", unfortunately due do lenny's old age we could not get him insurance so he had to stay home. So lea needed a new teddy in her life, However lenny if you read this you have not been replaced, you just have a friend). We went to Sharron's for dinner and boy did she feed us, we had a fantastic mixture of curries, the family was very impressed as lea quite happily applied a spoonfull of the old family chillie pickle to her dinner, didn't even break a sweat. Good job. I got a Little freaked out as one of sharrons kids Dan had a school photo on the wall and mum it was almost identical to the one in your lounge. Scary
So the big day finally arrived..........................We bought a Nintendo DS (had to give it straight to lizzie to charge as we didn't have a plug socket in the van, talk about your all time anti climax's of buying something), oh yeah and we picked up our van!!! Its at first we were torn between tears of joy and sadness. The 10 year old van pulls up to the front of the hire place and we are like cool look at that, big graffiti of Shazam (cartoon) on the side and a really hippy retro look to it (just old, not done intentionally) We head over to have a closer look (note down all the dents and chips with the hire guy) her shows around the inside................. So theres the sink, front seats, bed/backseats, oh and heres the engine. Sweet, Sweet. All sorted a little shock as it is pretty ropey but we told ourselves it will be fine, its cute........(and the turn around of opinion began) So we head straight to Torquay start-ish of the Great Ocean Road (tipped off there were some wicked surf shops there) we pretty much drive all the way down the GOR we were one major town from the end. Stopped at some nice little spots on the way, finally pulling into Port Campbell for the night. Just got there in time to see the 12 Apostles at sunset, very pretty but we were sure there aren't 12 anymore. So our first night in Shazam and this is where we were really converted from being a little freaked out by how small it was to thinking, you know what it's cute. Everything we needed so close. We headed out into the town for some food after the long day driving to be met with a tumble weed and some swinging saloon doors. Pretty much the whole town was closed (at 9pm) we managed to sneak a pizza in (mind you they locked up whilst we still in there).
First day and night done in Shazam, we were loving it. Up bright and early and back on the road we basically just drove back the way we came (going back to lizzies in Melbourne suburbs for a night). Today though we had alot more time to stop at the nice places we saw the day before. After making little stops at remote beaches we made two discoveries 1- The beaches were so empty, we stopped at more than one that we were the only people on 2- and i quote "The sea is so massive, i can't get my head round it" (more leanne's than mine). Arrived late at Melbourne, but got to drive round the city at night which was cool, very excited to have our first go on the new black DS when we got in but pretty much crashed. Little 2 day round trip in Shazam = 650km. Man this is gonna be a long drive.
Stocked up the van with all the essentials the next morning and parted ways with lizzie ( p.s thanks for everything) and hit the road again. Headed straight to Lake's entrance, recommended by Dennis for a night stop over (driving over here isn't helped by the fact they drive so bloody slow strict 60/70 mile an hour) Saw amazing views of the lake from the top of the hill. Tonight was our first proper night as campers, we made dinner on the gas stove and everything. Check us out,
Mum and Dad (Loughran) you might wanna hide the keys when we get back, we've got the camping bug!!
Next stop Merimbula to learn to surf.........................
Pictures coming soon
love you all
Travel day was long, when you thought you have flown pretty much half way round the world (Thailand) Australia can't be that much further. How wrong were we, its almost as far down as it was around!! 24 hour trip to Melbourne and we meet lizzie, as we were waiting we were having a little guessing game as to what lizzie would look like and how we'd spot her, should have know better as she's got the standard Loughran look and we spoted her in the car coming from a mile off (slight exaggeration, with my eyes) Actually could have been mistaken for Gem, scary. As we said lizzie was amazing had tone's planned and loads of recommendations for us so we just about held out through the day chatting (and drinking lots of tea and coffee) when we were finally hit by the travel and crashed out at about 8 o'clock, nice early night ready for the first big day in Melbourne.
Oh yeah before we go any further i would like to let you all in on a little secret. The brave miss Pike who had given up her hairdryer and straighteners for a life on the road had a lasted a whole month (all very proud) in Thailand had then used Lizzie's for the first time and in and instant we had gone to the shop and back again sporting some of Remington's finest. The Hair-doing strike was over. Curls no more.
So up bright and early for breckie with lizzie and her sister Genny (my second aunty, I think) and then into the car heading south of Melbourne to Phillip Island, Pretty famous for Penguins and Surfing and the Moto GP (Impressed DadofLea?) All very excited we drive over the bridge and get suckerd in to the first place we come across. FREE CHOCOLATE SAMPLES. Practically running into the chocolate factory we soon realised we had been sold a massive con (Thailand wiseness had worn off already) 1 free sample, but what seemed like a showroom for chocolate, needless to say we bought afew bags. Onwards,Firstly we stopped at the Woolami Beach, very famous for surfing, I could feel the bug building inside me instantly and wanted to learn. So we sat and watched the surfers and had a little pick-nick (im leaving that spelling in of "picnic" because lea says its too funny not to share!!). We head south of the island to a spot which is renowed for seals, Unfortunately we didn't see any, but we did see tons of penguins. All very cute, and soooooo funny, Also lots of fantastic scenery of the island. Heading north again, we stopped at Cowes for some fish and chips, I had Shark, lea had Snapper, was so good to eat some proper chips, gonna have to try hard not to live off them as they were lush. Headed back south to the penguin night show. This was hilarious, After sunset all the penguins come in from the sea and find places in the bushes to sleep. So you basically sit there and watch, but the best bit was the walk back up from the beach. All the penguins were walking along side us in little groups. We particularly like the little fat one's who had to keep up with the group but kept falling over at the back. Very enjoyable. Oh yeah missed something funny off this little story, when we arrived at the beach (due to conservation we were quite a bit back from the sea) so as we arrived late (naturally) we were like (well mostly blind me) " wow look at them all just standing around waiting" after watching them in awe from a couple of minutes on of them fly's away. We were shocked to say the least, "I didn't realise penguins could fly" Leanne looks at me, Those are seagull's. Do'h
With plans to head into Melbourne for the morning, we were unfortunately too lazy (mostly just enjoying the comfy bed and hot shower, God i sound like we have been in prison) So we just woke up late and strolled down to the beach by lizzie's house. Stunning beach again (think it's a pretty common thing that all the beaches are picture perfect) And we chill out, even venture into the water. Nice relaxing morning. It's the biggie coming up though. The family get together. So we come back from the beach and everyone is already there. (Late again) So here goes........... Me, Lea, Ruth, Dennis, Lizzie, Sharron, Gloria, Alison, Locky, Genny couldn't be there but her daughter and grand-daughter were there. Very cute little girl. Oh yeah and Elwood lizzie's dog. Good food and a few drinks (and more tea). Will have to fill you in on the family details when we get back, but needless to say everyone looked the same.
Today we hit the city, up early and into Melbourne city for the first time. Moomba, is a massive festival that happens in the city in march (i think it's for the close of summer, leanne said thats not true matt you just made that up - the word moomba means get up and have a good time - its an old aberigini word. check her out bill bryson!) So loads and loads for us to do. Firstly on a geeky note, so many skyscrapers, Melbourne is a massive city built up city so me and lea were kind of holding our breath ready for the pollution to kick in, it didn't. It was a little surreal, it's like being in the centre of london with on a couple of cars on the road and hardly anyone around. Very strange. So we made our way down to the river (again similar to london) on the tram which was cool. As we walked along the southbank river (again similar to london) we decided to cut through the Crown Casino (it was huge) to get to the festival, i was worried as we had flip flops on and might not be allowed in, i should however have been more worried about the giant woman security gaurd who used her gigantic arm as a barrier blocking entry to lea - quizzing her on the spot for a date of birth. gutted as we had no ID (for young leanne) on us. so retreating away from the lesbian looking woMAN on a powertrip (obviously secretly fancying leanne!?) we walked round. We had decided to treat ourselfs to a little tourist type thing and went up in the Eureka tower (landmark skyscraper for Melbourne). Hopped in the elevator and wizzed up to the 88th floor, (took 30 seconds and my ears poped twice) at about 170 meters we could see right across the city and suburbs. Obviously both of being architecture geeks we loved it. We then continued our trip towards moomba. Festival was really cool, loads of food and stuff to do, lea chickened out of the reverse bungee thing (where you are in a ball and they fire you up, secretly i was relieved) We pretty much just spent the whole day watching water skiing, skatebording, vollyball and some serious people watching. Ended the day with an amazing firework show but we were both really gutted as we had an amazing spot on the river to watch them but our camera had gone flat. So i'm afraid you guys will never get to see them!!
Up bright and early again (not getting the usual lazy lie-in's here) Ruth and Dennis came to pick us up and we headed into the hills to the Heale wildlife sanctuary. Ruth (alot like grandad) is comparatively quiet to Dennis and we had a real tour on our hand today. Ruth led the way with the picnic when we got there chicken drumsticks, bread and salad followed by beer and wine (11:45 am i'll let you know) was really tasty little surprise as we skipped breakfast for extra sleep time, (also lea not to be rude even ate chicken straight off the bone, wonders never cease) So entering the place Dennis quickly grabbed a volunteer and gently persuaded him to give us a private tour. We spent about four or five hours going round this place and it was amazing, we saw every type of Australian animal and bird possible all but the Tasmanian Devil (oh yeah its a real animal, not just a cartoon). We even got to stroke a Rock Wallabie that was just wandering around, very cute. As a little souvenir we bought a little Koala (teddy not a real one) he is gonna be our lucky charm for the road trip. We aptly called him "Kenny the Koala" (for those of you that dont know......lea has a teddy she has had her whole life called "Lenny the Lion", unfortunately due do lenny's old age we could not get him insurance so he had to stay home. So lea needed a new teddy in her life, However lenny if you read this you have not been replaced, you just have a friend). We went to Sharron's for dinner and boy did she feed us, we had a fantastic mixture of curries, the family was very impressed as lea quite happily applied a spoonfull of the old family chillie pickle to her dinner, didn't even break a sweat. Good job. I got a Little freaked out as one of sharrons kids Dan had a school photo on the wall and mum it was almost identical to the one in your lounge. Scary
So the big day finally arrived..........................We bought a Nintendo DS (had to give it straight to lizzie to charge as we didn't have a plug socket in the van, talk about your all time anti climax's of buying something), oh yeah and we picked up our van!!! Its at first we were torn between tears of joy and sadness. The 10 year old van pulls up to the front of the hire place and we are like cool look at that, big graffiti of Shazam (cartoon) on the side and a really hippy retro look to it (just old, not done intentionally) We head over to have a closer look (note down all the dents and chips with the hire guy) her shows around the inside................. So theres the sink, front seats, bed/backseats, oh and heres the engine. Sweet, Sweet. All sorted a little shock as it is pretty ropey but we told ourselves it will be fine, its cute........(and the turn around of opinion began) So we head straight to Torquay start-ish of the Great Ocean Road (tipped off there were some wicked surf shops there) we pretty much drive all the way down the GOR we were one major town from the end. Stopped at some nice little spots on the way, finally pulling into Port Campbell for the night. Just got there in time to see the 12 Apostles at sunset, very pretty but we were sure there aren't 12 anymore. So our first night in Shazam and this is where we were really converted from being a little freaked out by how small it was to thinking, you know what it's cute. Everything we needed so close. We headed out into the town for some food after the long day driving to be met with a tumble weed and some swinging saloon doors. Pretty much the whole town was closed (at 9pm) we managed to sneak a pizza in (mind you they locked up whilst we still in there).
First day and night done in Shazam, we were loving it. Up bright and early and back on the road we basically just drove back the way we came (going back to lizzies in Melbourne suburbs for a night). Today though we had alot more time to stop at the nice places we saw the day before. After making little stops at remote beaches we made two discoveries 1- The beaches were so empty, we stopped at more than one that we were the only people on 2- and i quote "The sea is so massive, i can't get my head round it" (more leanne's than mine). Arrived late at Melbourne, but got to drive round the city at night which was cool, very excited to have our first go on the new black DS when we got in but pretty much crashed. Little 2 day round trip in Shazam = 650km. Man this is gonna be a long drive.
Stocked up the van with all the essentials the next morning and parted ways with lizzie ( p.s thanks for everything) and hit the road again. Headed straight to Lake's entrance, recommended by Dennis for a night stop over (driving over here isn't helped by the fact they drive so bloody slow strict 60/70 mile an hour) Saw amazing views of the lake from the top of the hill. Tonight was our first proper night as campers, we made dinner on the gas stove and everything. Check us out,
Mum and Dad (Loughran) you might wanna hide the keys when we get back, we've got the camping bug!!
Next stop Merimbula to learn to surf.........................
Pictures coming soon
love you all
Tuesday 11 March 2008
Chiang Mai charm......
me and my 250 with an audience
matt chilling in the park
lea involved with the monks
matt "amonkst"
lea carefully feeds the hungry ellie!!
this naughty munk pushed in and gave the elephant the bunch of bannanas rather than my one at a time!!!!
lea takes on chiang mai
matt peering over the viewpoint (quad day)
us and our two latest additions!
DONT LAUGH!!!
matt looks like he was worshipping BUT he wasnt he was making fun of me taking a pic (its all about perspective!!)
the perspective!!! (doi suithep!)
how cute!!
matt and the elephant.....
matt and the panda.......
matt and the tiger........
this is a re-enactment of when we walked up to this STUFFED animal i didnt see it and matt gasped and i got so scared i thought it was a real on...............ooops.
but then fed a lepoard!
so did matt......
matt after a bite of the leaf!!!!
me pre leaf!
amazing!
it took us ages to get this shot - please comment below.
matt bombing!!!!!
this photo should be at the end - this is us on our first day in oz (just thought we'd stick it in!)
chiang mai zoo's latest attraction!
tired leanne?
look how light my bag is people!!!
matt isnt impressed!!!!the pics above are in a really random order so sorry if it gets confusing......
The big days traveling Phi Phi - Phuket - Bangkok - Chiang Mai
So from Phi Phi (which by the way i was still calling Fii Fii not Pee Pee – the correct way to say it this caused confused looks from locals and frustrated looks from lea) early morning ferry to Phuket (which by the way i was still calling Fu-ket not Pu-ket. It hasn’t clicked the Thai’s don’t have an fffff for ph).
Pretty crazy sea journey as the ferry was so busy it was a joke, another great example of the Thai organisation four boats tied together going to separate places, so you had to queue up in one queue to clamber (carrying back-packs an all) across the ferry's to get to the right one, we were luckily on the first ferry, no clambering for us! So we pull up to Phuket (exactly the same spot as we left from) the boat men just start chucking all the bags blocking the exit off the boat!! Never fear an Aussie woman who had just stepped out of her power suit stepped in to save the day, barking orders that everyone completely ignored and just hurdled past the bags and the Thai guys just kept making the pile higher. With an hour and a half to spare we hoped in a taxi and headed to the airport. In a vague attempt to try and surge some urgency into the the Lazy old Thai taxi driver i dropped in that our flight left in and hour and we were in a hurry – I forgot to mention to lea my evil plan as when I said to him “flight leave hour” lea loudly went nooooo it doesn’t matt it leaves at….. !!, We must have caught him on a good day as he floored it. At the point that we thought the car was going turn into a ball of sparks and leave fire streaks in the road (Back to the future style) the man turned round mumbling in mixed english-thai about how "he over took a 2 litre car in his old banger" and "how she was still a good girl and juice left in her" arrived at the airport to find a que out the door!!!So we acted like rude European’s and pushed straight to the front. On the plane and into Bangkok in less time than it took to board the ferry. Landed in Bangkok and then had a little time to kill before boarding to Chiang Mai. This flight was really quick we were sure by the time the plane had reached its flying height it had to come back down again. With not much planning done for CM (what i am going to call it as the whole name is a pain to type) we suddenly found ourselves grabbing every leaflet the airport had to offer (a lot). Jumped in another taxi and went off on our way, It was a nice surprise to say the name of a hostel and the driver to actually know it! Check in was all smoothe (;-), we got “suspended” from work for that last time i typed that, oooo bitchie) Was the cheapest hostel we had stayed in so far, but to our surprise it was nice, pool, hot shower, TV and cheap beer in the fridge (new fav’s chang for me and singha for the mrs), Awesome, And SLEEP.....................
Day 1 in CM
So we must have been pretty excited as we both woke up early and headed straight out, Into the streets of CM a little apprehensive as it was a big city and the nightmare of Bangkok was still haunting us. But we actually smiled, the air was clean, the traffic was non existent and the people smiled. Sweet, so we pretty much bounced to the nearest coffee shop (no restaurant at the hostel) only stopping to look at a funky blue scooter.
The city is a perfect square with an old wall the gates the corners and any entrance’s into the square and tones of little street and paths through the center part, Heading towards our first old temple, perfect blue skies and it was getting pretty warm and then as the pavement wall dropped the brightness almost hits you as this gold painted reflective building blinds you, eyes adjusted we enter in through the gate and start to get pretty excitable as we see monks milling around and so much to look at, more importantly to us, so much to photograph. Camera in hand we start to make our way round the sights of this relatively small temple (god what were going to be like in a big one) Bit of restoration work going on inside but on the whole was very interesting place to look around, learning new rules of the Thai religion, You must never touch a person's head it's like the rudest thing you can do, Luckily we hadn't been touching heads so we were clear! Flip flops back on and back on the road to the next sight, another temple. We had a wander through a couple more temples and kept trying to secretly photograph monks, doing fake poses and other such staged event to try and catch them. Then we stumbled across the last temple in the inner city, by chance we had walked into a monk school on a meeting in the main hall, we nearly fell over at the sight of a 100ft room filled with monks sat on there knees, literally hundreds of them! After a couple of photographs we started to feel a bit rude and made our way towards round to the back to look at the rest of the buildings, FU#KING HOT.............Some man had just come over and shouted that to us, as we kind of got ourselves together he had already started another line of conversation, he was a Thai man who had lived in Melbourne for about 15 years (so his english was pretty good, especially the f word) he then went on to quiz us about what we were doing where we heading and stuff, went mental at the fact we were flying to Melbourne next and pretty much tried to sell us tickets to his Thai boxing school in OZ, He was with this little girl who was his niece, but she had literally covered her face with ice cream and he didn't have any idea. We were then quizzed about why we weren't married and had kids, leanne was quite abruptly rubbed on the tummy by the strange man!!! So we parted our ways with a slightly scared smile and a faster pace than normal. Sitting opposite a big puddle for a rest on the curb (proper travelers now) Lea started to try and catch shot of the day (mini photo competition between us) of a monk walking past the puddle with the temple in the background, all very nice, after what must have been 45 mins i am starting to get itchy feet and wanting too move on, so as we get up and start to walk away the most unbelievable sight hit us, a wash of orange as the hall was literally spilling out monks, we scrambled for the camera and began snapping we were officially the only western people amonkst (best punn ever, i will take credit without hearing the laughter) over 500 monks, Well it was quite surreal. We then stopped at the inner city park which was amazing, perfectly groomed and very relaxing, lazy lounging for a while. We headed into the market, pretty much sunday market stuff really lots and lots of nik-naks that would be great if we didn't have to carry them round for 3 more months, so we zipped through as we didn't really get grabbed by much, Until lea spotted something from afar. Like a dart we headed across the market and back into the food stall's (most of which by the way are like a B&Q metal BBQ welded onto the side of a 125 moped, with, if the driver is proper mental, gas bottles strapped to the back) So as lea made her bee line towards this one stand i started to stumble in shock as the girl who "felt sick at the sight and smell of street meat" Was happily ordering from a food cart. One corn on the cob (ok so its not a street meat Thai soup) later and lea was a very happy, naturally i finished it off. But how proud was i leanne had ordered and eaten something off the street vendors. Enlightened i think so. Went out for dinner and we again gob smacked at how much cheaper it was than in the south, Like a meal and drinks for 2 was about 4 quid, smiles all round.
Day 2
Whilst sifting through the brochures at breakfast (how very civilized) the day before we had decided to book onto a Quad biking (after such a good experience in Egypt). So the transfer bus come to get. All excited we hop in and on our way up out of the city and towards the mountains. After a windy trip up to the bike place we arrive and have the “safety talk” Consisted pretty much of “read this, but don’t worry about all of it points 5 and 6 are the only one’s you really need to worry about” good sign there! So as we are experienced riders now (three hours in Egypt don’t ya know) we opted for the 250cc (hoping we can really tear around in them). So we head out onto the road. Thumbs pressed half way in (accelerator) we motor up the windy mountain roads. Thumbs still pressed half way in and we are still making our way up the windy roads just now about 25km away from anything. By this time the engine is getting pretty hot and blowing some very hot air out onto our legs! Maybe 35km up into the mountain road the “guide” (used in the loosest term possible, he spent the whole journey so far going ridiculously slow and chatting on his mobile) pulled us over, told us to switch to the up hill gear and off we went again (with a little excitement that we were going to endure some off road action). Maybe another 10km up the road we finally head off onto a dirt track. Very steep gravel and mud roads and even a few big puddles to splash through. After maybe 15 mins of crawling through these step verges of mud (pretty fun while it lasted although we prefer going fast more) we stop for a break, not from the aching thumb (it’s like pressing the clutch of a car down with your thumb for two hours) but more from the burnt legs, which was getting pretty worrying now! Though we were now at the top of the mountain and it was high, the only problem was that it was such a hot dusty city when we got to the main attraction, the high viewpoint, you couldn’t see much at all! Just miles of haze. So pressing on, back on the quad for another 20mins more of off road adventure…….then we came back on the normal roads for the next hour. Bit of a money grabbing rip off. (this is leanne writing from here our little baby feet matt has got writers block) when we pulled into the quad shed the family who ran it all started cheering us!! We thought this was there welcome back they gave everyone! then they told us it was because I (lea) had finished the course!!! The cheek I thought!! But then they explained that a woman has never completed the course on a 250 before!!! Hehe so then I was well chuffed for the rest of the day. When matt was complaining it was a rip off I was defending my thai quad biking title – bit gutted there wasn’t a certificate? Or trophy ceremony? Ok end of quad biking day. We went home crashed lazed by the pool then on the night went people watching and ate spicy curries. We love chiang mai.
Day three
Im going to be quick now as I type this im in lizzies (matts dads cousins house in oz) and shocked at how behind we are in the blog! So day three today we mounted (oh yes I have an action leap) the scooter – matt pulled the visor down (this means he’s concentrating I think? Another words shhhhh!) and we headed up to the top of a mountain looking over chiang mai – at the top there was a temple – a biggy! This one was called Doi suithep. So we made it after a smoothe ;-) trip to the top – fed an elephant at the bottom of the 300 steps to the temple - as you do. A monk pushed in front of us for the feeding experience by the way!!! The temple was cool although I was stopped on the doors of entry by a boy thai bouncer – I sinned!!! My skirt was above knee level so wasn’t allowed entry I had to rent some trousers! – nice. Although I was really embarrassed and thought Buddha would hate me – then a thai girl got told off too so I felt a bit better!! This made us laugh a lot well matt mainly laughing at me wearing a shawl and some size 30plus trousers! Moving on. Temple was amazing very bling. Then we scootered on down to chiang mai zoo. Which was cool – although was spaced out over about 5 miles so lots of walking. Oh yeh and by today I had a flu?! Very random but sickness seems to follow us this hol! So got pretty worn out walking around in the heat! Saw lots of animals from tigers to koalas!! Cant remember what we did on the night? Must have been a good one!
Day four
we started off by doing a bit of a matt and leanne thing........mmmm. we saw on a map we have that there was a 700 year old stadium on the out skirts of chiang mai - matt really wanted to see this as we thought it would be like that one u went to see last year in Greece (mum and dad of lea)! anyways we did think it was odd that there was no tourist tours to this stadium - but never the less we thought we had just been clever. we asked a man how to get there - didnt click he was shocked we wanted to go and see it as he said - theres nothing to see - anyways off we went on the baby blue scooter like harry and lloyd! to find it was a new sports centre complex. oooops. so that deserved a day by the pool! then we went and sat in the park and had an ice cream followed by some bargain shopping - i bought some FAKE yes believe it i went there! - FAKE diesel jeans for 10 pounds!!!! bargain - you cant tell they are fake - and i bought a fake chloe bag anyways cost me 20 quid!! (abi and gem we have posted yours too ;-) ). Matt bought some jeans too (little bit of a bargain rivalry between us at the min!) so all very nice and happy and the budgie bargains (cheap cheap!) we have posted them back to matts mums (will arrive in a month – we hope!!). on the night we had a lush meal - our last authentic thai meal!! we went all out and went with what the waiter man recommended as a starter! now people are you sat down here - we ate leaves!!! we wrapped all sorts of spices and chilies and sauce inside a leaf and ate it!! it was so nice!!!! i think i have definitely widened my taste horizons here (lea!) we got a bit drunk off the beer or maybe the leaves? Anyway when the waiter was cleaning away our plates and asked how it was matt still had a leaf across his tooth, looked up to him, smiled, and said in a very strange voice cause some food was still going down – “I made a mess” haha I couldn’t stop laughing and poor matt the waiter giggled too. So matt doesn’t know why he said that – as it was true he had made a mess but the food was amazing so maybe all senses were confused? Hummm. So yeh I got drunk and had a wicked last day!!
Day six
Today we left for oz – we leave Thailand totally more wizened to the Asian culture! From finding Bangkok crazy and too much, to loving the relaxed southern islands! We loved chiang mai and wished we had a few more days in the city to experience a bit more. Matt will leave Thailand amazed at how green everything is and I will leave with a few kids I hope to come back and adopt (joke parents!) both of us have amazing memories from the land of smiles!! What a month! Can’t wait for the next stop down under………… (Im writing this already in oz – so quick note to family – arrived safe and loving Melbourne been doing so much! Met all the Loughrans and its scary how much you all look alike!! Staying with Lizzie (Ruth’s daughter) who has been amazing to us and is making our stay sooooo comfortable! – will write a lot more in the next one but just wanted to say something about Melbourne xx)
So from Phi Phi (which by the way i was still calling Fii Fii not Pee Pee – the correct way to say it this caused confused looks from locals and frustrated looks from lea) early morning ferry to Phuket (which by the way i was still calling Fu-ket not Pu-ket. It hasn’t clicked the Thai’s don’t have an fffff for ph).
Pretty crazy sea journey as the ferry was so busy it was a joke, another great example of the Thai organisation four boats tied together going to separate places, so you had to queue up in one queue to clamber (carrying back-packs an all) across the ferry's to get to the right one, we were luckily on the first ferry, no clambering for us! So we pull up to Phuket (exactly the same spot as we left from) the boat men just start chucking all the bags blocking the exit off the boat!! Never fear an Aussie woman who had just stepped out of her power suit stepped in to save the day, barking orders that everyone completely ignored and just hurdled past the bags and the Thai guys just kept making the pile higher. With an hour and a half to spare we hoped in a taxi and headed to the airport. In a vague attempt to try and surge some urgency into the the Lazy old Thai taxi driver i dropped in that our flight left in and hour and we were in a hurry – I forgot to mention to lea my evil plan as when I said to him “flight leave hour” lea loudly went nooooo it doesn’t matt it leaves at….. !!, We must have caught him on a good day as he floored it. At the point that we thought the car was going turn into a ball of sparks and leave fire streaks in the road (Back to the future style) the man turned round mumbling in mixed english-thai about how "he over took a 2 litre car in his old banger" and "how she was still a good girl and juice left in her" arrived at the airport to find a que out the door!!!So we acted like rude European’s and pushed straight to the front. On the plane and into Bangkok in less time than it took to board the ferry. Landed in Bangkok and then had a little time to kill before boarding to Chiang Mai. This flight was really quick we were sure by the time the plane had reached its flying height it had to come back down again. With not much planning done for CM (what i am going to call it as the whole name is a pain to type) we suddenly found ourselves grabbing every leaflet the airport had to offer (a lot). Jumped in another taxi and went off on our way, It was a nice surprise to say the name of a hostel and the driver to actually know it! Check in was all smoothe (;-), we got “suspended” from work for that last time i typed that, oooo bitchie) Was the cheapest hostel we had stayed in so far, but to our surprise it was nice, pool, hot shower, TV and cheap beer in the fridge (new fav’s chang for me and singha for the mrs), Awesome, And SLEEP.....................
Day 1 in CM
So we must have been pretty excited as we both woke up early and headed straight out, Into the streets of CM a little apprehensive as it was a big city and the nightmare of Bangkok was still haunting us. But we actually smiled, the air was clean, the traffic was non existent and the people smiled. Sweet, so we pretty much bounced to the nearest coffee shop (no restaurant at the hostel) only stopping to look at a funky blue scooter.
The city is a perfect square with an old wall the gates the corners and any entrance’s into the square and tones of little street and paths through the center part, Heading towards our first old temple, perfect blue skies and it was getting pretty warm and then as the pavement wall dropped the brightness almost hits you as this gold painted reflective building blinds you, eyes adjusted we enter in through the gate and start to get pretty excitable as we see monks milling around and so much to look at, more importantly to us, so much to photograph. Camera in hand we start to make our way round the sights of this relatively small temple (god what were going to be like in a big one) Bit of restoration work going on inside but on the whole was very interesting place to look around, learning new rules of the Thai religion, You must never touch a person's head it's like the rudest thing you can do, Luckily we hadn't been touching heads so we were clear! Flip flops back on and back on the road to the next sight, another temple. We had a wander through a couple more temples and kept trying to secretly photograph monks, doing fake poses and other such staged event to try and catch them. Then we stumbled across the last temple in the inner city, by chance we had walked into a monk school on a meeting in the main hall, we nearly fell over at the sight of a 100ft room filled with monks sat on there knees, literally hundreds of them! After a couple of photographs we started to feel a bit rude and made our way towards round to the back to look at the rest of the buildings, FU#KING HOT.............Some man had just come over and shouted that to us, as we kind of got ourselves together he had already started another line of conversation, he was a Thai man who had lived in Melbourne for about 15 years (so his english was pretty good, especially the f word) he then went on to quiz us about what we were doing where we heading and stuff, went mental at the fact we were flying to Melbourne next and pretty much tried to sell us tickets to his Thai boxing school in OZ, He was with this little girl who was his niece, but she had literally covered her face with ice cream and he didn't have any idea. We were then quizzed about why we weren't married and had kids, leanne was quite abruptly rubbed on the tummy by the strange man!!! So we parted our ways with a slightly scared smile and a faster pace than normal. Sitting opposite a big puddle for a rest on the curb (proper travelers now) Lea started to try and catch shot of the day (mini photo competition between us) of a monk walking past the puddle with the temple in the background, all very nice, after what must have been 45 mins i am starting to get itchy feet and wanting too move on, so as we get up and start to walk away the most unbelievable sight hit us, a wash of orange as the hall was literally spilling out monks, we scrambled for the camera and began snapping we were officially the only western people amonkst (best punn ever, i will take credit without hearing the laughter) over 500 monks, Well it was quite surreal. We then stopped at the inner city park which was amazing, perfectly groomed and very relaxing, lazy lounging for a while. We headed into the market, pretty much sunday market stuff really lots and lots of nik-naks that would be great if we didn't have to carry them round for 3 more months, so we zipped through as we didn't really get grabbed by much, Until lea spotted something from afar. Like a dart we headed across the market and back into the food stall's (most of which by the way are like a B&Q metal BBQ welded onto the side of a 125 moped, with, if the driver is proper mental, gas bottles strapped to the back) So as lea made her bee line towards this one stand i started to stumble in shock as the girl who "felt sick at the sight and smell of street meat" Was happily ordering from a food cart. One corn on the cob (ok so its not a street meat Thai soup) later and lea was a very happy, naturally i finished it off. But how proud was i leanne had ordered and eaten something off the street vendors. Enlightened i think so. Went out for dinner and we again gob smacked at how much cheaper it was than in the south, Like a meal and drinks for 2 was about 4 quid, smiles all round.
Day 2
Whilst sifting through the brochures at breakfast (how very civilized) the day before we had decided to book onto a Quad biking (after such a good experience in Egypt). So the transfer bus come to get. All excited we hop in and on our way up out of the city and towards the mountains. After a windy trip up to the bike place we arrive and have the “safety talk” Consisted pretty much of “read this, but don’t worry about all of it points 5 and 6 are the only one’s you really need to worry about” good sign there! So as we are experienced riders now (three hours in Egypt don’t ya know) we opted for the 250cc (hoping we can really tear around in them). So we head out onto the road. Thumbs pressed half way in (accelerator) we motor up the windy mountain roads. Thumbs still pressed half way in and we are still making our way up the windy roads just now about 25km away from anything. By this time the engine is getting pretty hot and blowing some very hot air out onto our legs! Maybe 35km up into the mountain road the “guide” (used in the loosest term possible, he spent the whole journey so far going ridiculously slow and chatting on his mobile) pulled us over, told us to switch to the up hill gear and off we went again (with a little excitement that we were going to endure some off road action). Maybe another 10km up the road we finally head off onto a dirt track. Very steep gravel and mud roads and even a few big puddles to splash through. After maybe 15 mins of crawling through these step verges of mud (pretty fun while it lasted although we prefer going fast more) we stop for a break, not from the aching thumb (it’s like pressing the clutch of a car down with your thumb for two hours) but more from the burnt legs, which was getting pretty worrying now! Though we were now at the top of the mountain and it was high, the only problem was that it was such a hot dusty city when we got to the main attraction, the high viewpoint, you couldn’t see much at all! Just miles of haze. So pressing on, back on the quad for another 20mins more of off road adventure…….then we came back on the normal roads for the next hour. Bit of a money grabbing rip off. (this is leanne writing from here our little baby feet matt has got writers block) when we pulled into the quad shed the family who ran it all started cheering us!! We thought this was there welcome back they gave everyone! then they told us it was because I (lea) had finished the course!!! The cheek I thought!! But then they explained that a woman has never completed the course on a 250 before!!! Hehe so then I was well chuffed for the rest of the day. When matt was complaining it was a rip off I was defending my thai quad biking title – bit gutted there wasn’t a certificate? Or trophy ceremony? Ok end of quad biking day. We went home crashed lazed by the pool then on the night went people watching and ate spicy curries. We love chiang mai.
Day three
Im going to be quick now as I type this im in lizzies (matts dads cousins house in oz) and shocked at how behind we are in the blog! So day three today we mounted (oh yes I have an action leap) the scooter – matt pulled the visor down (this means he’s concentrating I think? Another words shhhhh!) and we headed up to the top of a mountain looking over chiang mai – at the top there was a temple – a biggy! This one was called Doi suithep. So we made it after a smoothe ;-) trip to the top – fed an elephant at the bottom of the 300 steps to the temple - as you do. A monk pushed in front of us for the feeding experience by the way!!! The temple was cool although I was stopped on the doors of entry by a boy thai bouncer – I sinned!!! My skirt was above knee level so wasn’t allowed entry I had to rent some trousers! – nice. Although I was really embarrassed and thought Buddha would hate me – then a thai girl got told off too so I felt a bit better!! This made us laugh a lot well matt mainly laughing at me wearing a shawl and some size 30plus trousers! Moving on. Temple was amazing very bling. Then we scootered on down to chiang mai zoo. Which was cool – although was spaced out over about 5 miles so lots of walking. Oh yeh and by today I had a flu?! Very random but sickness seems to follow us this hol! So got pretty worn out walking around in the heat! Saw lots of animals from tigers to koalas!! Cant remember what we did on the night? Must have been a good one!
Day four
we started off by doing a bit of a matt and leanne thing........mmmm. we saw on a map we have that there was a 700 year old stadium on the out skirts of chiang mai - matt really wanted to see this as we thought it would be like that one u went to see last year in Greece (mum and dad of lea)! anyways we did think it was odd that there was no tourist tours to this stadium - but never the less we thought we had just been clever. we asked a man how to get there - didnt click he was shocked we wanted to go and see it as he said - theres nothing to see - anyways off we went on the baby blue scooter like harry and lloyd! to find it was a new sports centre complex. oooops. so that deserved a day by the pool! then we went and sat in the park and had an ice cream followed by some bargain shopping - i bought some FAKE yes believe it i went there! - FAKE diesel jeans for 10 pounds!!!! bargain - you cant tell they are fake - and i bought a fake chloe bag anyways cost me 20 quid!! (abi and gem we have posted yours too ;-) ). Matt bought some jeans too (little bit of a bargain rivalry between us at the min!) so all very nice and happy and the budgie bargains (cheap cheap!) we have posted them back to matts mums (will arrive in a month – we hope!!). on the night we had a lush meal - our last authentic thai meal!! we went all out and went with what the waiter man recommended as a starter! now people are you sat down here - we ate leaves!!! we wrapped all sorts of spices and chilies and sauce inside a leaf and ate it!! it was so nice!!!! i think i have definitely widened my taste horizons here (lea!) we got a bit drunk off the beer or maybe the leaves? Anyway when the waiter was cleaning away our plates and asked how it was matt still had a leaf across his tooth, looked up to him, smiled, and said in a very strange voice cause some food was still going down – “I made a mess” haha I couldn’t stop laughing and poor matt the waiter giggled too. So matt doesn’t know why he said that – as it was true he had made a mess but the food was amazing so maybe all senses were confused? Hummm. So yeh I got drunk and had a wicked last day!!
Day six
Today we left for oz – we leave Thailand totally more wizened to the Asian culture! From finding Bangkok crazy and too much, to loving the relaxed southern islands! We loved chiang mai and wished we had a few more days in the city to experience a bit more. Matt will leave Thailand amazed at how green everything is and I will leave with a few kids I hope to come back and adopt (joke parents!) both of us have amazing memories from the land of smiles!! What a month! Can’t wait for the next stop down under………… (Im writing this already in oz – so quick note to family – arrived safe and loving Melbourne been doing so much! Met all the Loughrans and its scary how much you all look alike!! Staying with Lizzie (Ruth’s daughter) who has been amazing to us and is making our stay sooooo comfortable! – will write a lot more in the next one but just wanted to say something about Melbourne xx)
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