June 2008 – The Art of Misadventure

I had been looking forward to getting into Bangkok (BKK) as I always love big cities but was a little apprehensive as some Canadians told me BKK almost made them loose there faith in mankind. After a day I loved it and realised that I haven’t really had faith in humanity for a while so it didn’t bother me. Got a bit over excited and spent 4 days and too much money in the shopping malls and learning the bus and transport systems. After meeting up with Beth and a few nights in BKK I made my way to Cambodia to meet my parents for their two week holiday. I decided not to take the packages from Khao San road known as the scam bus but instead do it independently, slightly more expensive but more comfortable, less scams, less hassle and you actually get into Siem Reap in time to pick your one hotel. With one night before my parents arrived I checked into a guest house where Bry and Tish were staying (friends from London), spent the night with them and then checked into my parents hotel and awaited there arrival in the gym. When they arrived we had a good meal out and spent the next 3 days exploring Angkor Wat which is truly amazing but you can’t help but think how much more amazing is was when it was discover by the French. Rather than go to the beaches in Cambodia as they are not meant to be all that, we decided we would go to southern Lao instead. We headed to Phnom Penh to get our Lao visas and for the obligatory trip to the killing fields. I was shocked at how little I new of such recent history. As other people said the fields them selves were not that powerful but the museum was tough, just standing there looking into the eyes of endless photos of children, men and women and seeing fear, confusion or defiance. With our visas in hand we started out on our trip towards the Lao border. First day of traveling was a long one with the bus taking an extra 6 hours than planed due to a stuck truck ahead.

The next day we got up early to go take a boat trip a little way up the Mekong to see the rare fresh water Irrawaddy dolphins. I was a little skeptical we would see any but I was wrong and we watched them for over half an hour. After lunch we got a bus to the next town which we left early the next morning to get a mini bus to the border and them on to the 4000 islands. We arrived on Don Det the busiest of the islands (back packer wise) hired bikes and cycles to the less busy Dong Khon where we stayed for 2 nights in floating houses, cycling around the islands looking at big rapids and trying not to get washed away by the current. Moving on we headed by boat to the bigger but still very quiet Dong Khong, where we stayed for the night before heading for the Bolaven Plateua. We made it to the waterfall resort in good time. We got a villa at the resort with views of the top of the water fall. We spent the next day walking between waterfalls and attempting to swim in them. We had one more night at the resort and head to Pakse by pick up truck with the locals the next morning. In Pakse I had a decision to make; back to Thailand or stay in Lao for a bit to avoided another Thai visa run. After hearing that the monsoon had hit I realised that I needed to get to south Thailand fast so took up my parents offer to fly me with them back to BKK, wouldn’t have taken them up for connivance alone but it meant I got to spend two more full days with them. So I took the first flight of the trip, it seamed wrong but as I had already made it to Bangkok by land the trip is not really broken. For a treat we had our last night at the Millennium Hilton which was stunning. Seeing my parents off, giving them all my cold weather stuff and flying had made the trip shift in my mind from traveling to a holiday and I was looking forward to my last 2 months relaxing and partying. I was sad to see them go and half expecting to get on the flight with them to return home, I decided I should do one weekend night in Bangkok and after checking in to my guest house I got ready and headed into town.

Had a great nigh out and met some Thais that took me out the next few nights as well. Now writing this up on Ko Tao the first proper beach stop of my trip.

Once again an update is well over due. On arrival in Chang Mai who would be sitting Reading at the guest house but Jasper. Turned out that we were both planning the same motorcycle loop up north, so we rented dirt bikes and determined to actually finish a loop we headed out a few days later. Starting badly we lost each other in the one way system after getting gas. After spending ages in the one way system looking for each other (we only had each others Lao numbers) we gave up and headed for our first nights stop, but with no guide I headed back via the hostel to pick mine up. I was happy to hear my name shouted when I was stopped at the main cross roads in Pia, bus less glad to hear that Jaspers bags had come loose on his bike and he had lost one bag and the other had got jammed in his rear wheel causing a crash. His knee was bashed up and the front forks bent but he wanted to keep going and the repair shop said they could straighten the forks by the end of play the next day. Four nights later with the bike eventually back we headed out at 5.30 am, we had worked out that by extending the hire by just one day and missing out some sights we could still make it back by 9am. With hind sight fitting 3 days driving into one day and one morning was a mistake. The day went well and we made good progress to the long neck village where we stopped for a bit and then pushed on stopping at the next major town for lunch.

Continuing after lunch the weather turned bad and the long day of hair pin bends took it’s toll and on a wet sharp down hill bend I lost control of the back of my bike and in recovering it drove off the rode. Jasper came round the corner 30 sec later and helped me out from under the bike, slightly sore but mainly angry with my self for crashing we got my bike upright having lost a fare bit of gas from the ill fitting petrol cap. After a short recovery I jumped back on the bike but was less than pleased to discover that the bike had no power, hoping it was just a fuse I took the side of the bike off searching for it hoping I could bypass it, to no avail. With no kick start I had to resort to rolling it down the hill and bump starting it, fine on the hill but a bit of a problem when we stopped in the next valley to replace the petrol I lost. We continued on our way very slowly me with my confidence shatters and an out of alignment front wheel over more mountains until we reached our town to stop in for the night. The next morning after a good nights sleep and shower we headed out at 6am, as the town was in a valley I had to push my bike for a bit and then up a hill to try and get it started. With the cool mountain weather it took four attempts down the hill and when it eventually started and I gave it some gas I realised that my throttle cable was no longer connected to the carburetor, sweating quite a bit from all the up hill pushing and fearing I had snapped the cable I was relived to find that that the cable had not snapped but just come off the carburetor. I managed to fix it by which point the engine had stopped and I had to push it up the hill one last time. Once going we drove all the way home without stopping and got in just before 10am. Jasper ended up paying quite a bit for some new front forks and I got away with a busted mirror. Spent 1 night in Chang Mai and saw the big Wot on the hill before getting the night bus to Bangkok.

The Art of Misadventure

Kim's travel blog

Month: June 2008

LON to BKK – Bangkok, Cambodia & Lao with my parents

LON to BKK – Chang Mai Loop

Archives

Categories

Meta