The Art of Misadventure

Kim's travel blog

Author: user (Page 3 of 4)

LON to BKK – The Loop (Lao)

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On May 7, 2008

In London to Thailand 2008 (Train & Bus)

The Loop is a 4 day motor bike road trip based out of Thakek, or at least it should be. I arrived in Thakek at the guest house which was meant to have the most travellers. Joined up with 4 other people heading out the following day so all going to plan. We set off at 9:00 the following morning on the only bikes available; 110cc Chinese step through semi automatics, with which according to the LP would most likely suffer a blow out or need the shocks replacing while on route. Before I go any further I just want everyone to know I am 100% ok. So we headed out slowly as most of the group had very little or no previous experience riding. A couple of hours in and every ones confidence was up as we drove in tight formation riding down the empty roads, all was going well until a pice of the bike two in front of me fell of and one of the girls (Karen) in front of me put on her breaks to pick it up with out checking her mirrors, traveling a little two close behind I slammed on the breaks and managed to slow down a fair bit before I rear ended her (all happened within 3 seconds). As I said I am fine, Karen came off with a couple of cuts on her legs, I came off with a graze on my shoulder and one on my ankle, my bike came off worse and had to be taken to the next village for an oil change and a bit of straightening up. Two hours later after we had patched our selves up with our first aid kits and had some lunch we were back on the road.

We headed north and then east until we came to a 40km dirt road which lead to a the village we were heading for, with our slow progress on the very rocky road and the 2 hour delay from the crash it soon became dark two people dropped there bikes but no injuries just a few busted wing mirrors. We arrived at the village at 20:00 and managed to find two home stays, had our dinner an joined the locals at what appeared to be mobile disco off the back of a cart. The following morning we walked down to a cave that stretched 7km through a mountain to the other side (the reason we visited the village in first place) we spent 3-hours going through the cave and back by boat and returned to our home stays for lunch. After which the plan being to head back up the hard road and then on east to the next stop, unfortunately Karen had lost her key! It was decided that we would give her a lift to the top of the dirt road where we herd she could arrange a pick up truck to take he and the bike back to Thakek for only 15$, on arriving back at the main road we found it would cost a lot more than that. Getting late we found a guest house and me Jasper and Jason (all three of us had had to share a bed due to cost) set out early the following morning on two bikes to collect Karen’s bike. We managed to get down to the village and back with me hot wiring the bike in under three hours, not bad!!

Back at the main road we had a new lock fitted for only 3.50$. As we were all including our bikes a little broken (I failed to mention the front break just fell off Jason’s bike) we decided to head for home, saving a couple days bike hire to pay for the repairs. Had a nearly ok ride home with some amazing view, with the only problems being running out of gas.

We arrived home safe a little after dark. The following day we went to see some cave south of Thakek we would have seen at the end of the loop, by tuck tuck (much safer).

After lunch we split with 2 going south and me Karen and Jasper heading north to Vientiane. Second photo byJasper Wolleswinkel, Third photo by unknown Dutch girl.

LON to BKK – Vietnam

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On May 7, 2008

In London to Thailand 2008 (Train & Bus)

Ok yet again it has been quite a while since I updated this, I am now in Laos but we will get to that later on. First where we left off… after leaving Mt Emei I made my way back to Chengdu where I stayed for a couple of nights to chill out and eat the good veggie food at the Buddhist monastery. While in Chengdu I heard that the Chinese were going to re open tibet on the first of May, which was a bit of a shock as I had accepted that I wouldn’t be going, just incase it did open I decided to leave the country so I could reenter in May (just incase). So I headed down on the night train to Kunming to meet up with Beth and Nick (who I had perversely spent time with in Beijing) who were heading to Vietnam. Spent a couple of days in Kunming sorting out visas and headed for the border by sleeper bus, nowhere near as nice as the sleeper trains but it got us there and only broke down twice. Got into a town in the north (Sapa) which is meant to be a travelers haven but was a little disappointed as it all seemed a little fake and staged, maybe if we had gone trekking we might have found something a little more real. Spent two nights there but after me boasting all day about how I have never had food poisoning I spent the night throwing up and the following day in bed. After Sapa we headed south to Hanoi a lovely old city which we immediately got lost on arrival at 5am and walked for an hour in the wrong direction. Spent a few days sitting around Nick’s pool (as he was stating at a posh hotel) and then me and Nick set of on a 3 day tour to Halong bay.

Moving on south by bus (cheaper and quicker than the train) with Beth to the sea side town of Hoi An and my first beach of the trip. First night we hitched a ride with some Germans on mopeds down to the beach for the sunset and had a great swim. Spent 4 nights there swimming, partying and hanging by the pool.
At this point I discovered that Tibet would not be opening and aranged to meet my mum and dad in Cambodia in June so insted of heading south to Ho Chi Minh city, I travle west into Laos. Beth wanted to make it to Thailand asap so accompanied me as far as Savannakhet

LON to BKK – China 2

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On April 3, 2008

In London to Thailand 2008 (Train & Bus)

Currently sat alone writing this in a dorm room in a Buddhist Monastery
at 2070m up Mt Emei, so got I have a bit of time to write some stuff down.

My family may be imagining it like the one we stayed in in
Japan, at £2.85 they would be wrong, I am currently very happy I carried
my down jacket up here and dreading my next trip to the toilet (must
not drink any more water).

Anyway had 2 nights in Xian and saw the terracotta army, I have
always found the history of the army very interesting but as I
expected seeing it in real life did not add anything.

Booked a ticket to Chongqing with the intention of getting a cruse
down the Yangzi but after looking at the dates realized that it would
be a bit tight to get my visa extension after the cruse so changed my
ticket for one to Chengdu, extensions in Chengdu take five days but in
Leshan they only take 2, so jumped straight on a coach on arrival at
Chengdu; plus it meant I got to see the grand Buddha (71m tall carved
into a cliff).

Stayed a couple of days in Leshan and got my visa done in 4 hours-!! On
the second day I took a trip to a local village with a 70+ year old
Chinese man and 4 Chinese students. Was really great to get off the
tourist trail and spend a day chatting to young and old Chinese people.

Back in my hotel reading the LP I realised that Mt Emei was only 40min
by bus so here I am. (For my dad, over 2000m height gain today all by
steps, summit tomorrow morning 3077m)

No idea where I will go next, how exciting.

Update:
Got mugged by a monkey today, he got my bottle of coke but not my cookies-!!

Lon to BKK – China 1

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On March 29, 2008

In London to Thailand 2008 (Train & Bus)

So it has been a while since my last post, but that is what happens when you are busy having fun.

Basically I have had a great 2 weeks and done far too much to put on here so below is an outline.
I spent a few days in Shanghai before heading out into the mountains, Shanghai is a cool city but not very Chinese and I didn’t feel as at home as in Beijing, my main complaint was that I got hassled a lot more by street sellers and scamming “students”.

After 3 days I took the night train to Huanh Shan (The Yellow Mountains) which are some beautiful and often misty mountains south west of Shanghai, on arrival it was a bit to misty but I got up the mountain by-cable car and then started the trek to my hotel with my big bag, what I hadn’t realized was that-it was an hour walk from the cable car to my hotel which with my bag and all the steps was a bit of a trek. Woke early the next day with all the Chinese tourists to watch the sun rise over the “North see of clouds” from the Refreshing Terrace” . I had two nights booked so my plan was to walk the long way down and then walk the short way up. The views were amazing but the 1200m of decent by steps killed me and at the bottom a mistake on a bus left me lost and wandering the streets of the town below. Luckily the friendly owner of a local restaurant came by on his motor bike and gave me a lift to his restaurant and then back to the mountain.

Headed back to Beijing via Shanghai and stayed for a little over a week, where I met up with a load of people I had met in Russia and Mongolia, so lots of fun and games (literally games). Did the sights as well of course, well some of them.

With Tibet off the cards for the near future I have headed down the west side of China and am currently spending a few nights in Xi’an (pronounced Shian)

 

LON to BKK – UB to Beijing and on to Shanghai

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On March 10, 2008

In London to Thailand 2008 (Train & Bus)

Train from UB to Beijing was a 1 day 1 night  affair with a not too painful 5 hour border crossing in to China. I was sharing with a farther and daughter who were travelling to buy rubber and zips for there army book company and a man with boxes full of sample plastic bottles. On day one we passed through the Gobi desert and awoke the following day to more hilly landscape of northern china (a little late to see the wall).

We pulled into Beijing just after lunch, after checking in a had walk around town and went to buy my next train ticket. It was a pleasant 20 degrees c and I had a great walk around the busy Market streets where my hostel was located and around the eminence and sanitized T square. First impressions were good and I immediately felt at home. Had a brilliant night out with a load of people from the hosts on the first night, and had a good chilled out day in the hostel the following day. I am now in Shanghai for a few days before I head out into the country side and then back to Beijing

LON to BKK – Ulaanbaatar

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On March 4, 2008

In London to Thailand 2008 (Train & Bus)

Just a quick one.

Ulaanbaatar seams a really cool place and the people seam on face value friendly and welcoming.

Only managed to get out of the city once which was to the national park north east of the city. I took a one night trip with two girls where we got driven out to the park and stayed with a family in a ger (traditional felt tent) for a night. The land scape was pretty cool and I managed to take a quick walk up to a little col before our horse riding. Our ger was heated by a wood burner which when on heated the ger to 38 degrees c and when off left you shivering. Well as you would expect the fire went out during the night an having gone to bed in my underwear only and with no blanket I woke up at 2am freezing, after bumping around in the pitch black ger I managed to find another bed with a blanket and crawled underneath; waking up half an hour later still just as cold I managed to get my sleeping bag out and and climbed into the bottom of it. On returning from the national park I tired to get train tickets to Beijing for the 2nd of March but could only get one for the 6th, not a huge issue as it gave me a few extra days to shift the cold I had picked up from trying to sleep in a ger at -16 without any clothes or a blanket.

LON to BKK – Irkutsk to Ulaanbaatar

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On February 24, 2008

In London to Thailand 2008 (Train & Bus)

Ulaanbaatar mile 5519

The short journey of 700 miles to Ulaanbaatar some how takes 34 hours, but that is only 2 nights and one day so very manageable compared with my last journey of over 70 hours. The train departed at 20:45 local time so I had the day to cook lots of food for the journey (look at me making a packed lunch for the first time ever), on finding my cabin I was confronted by my Mongolian room mate asking me to pretend here bags were mine as she was over here baggage weight. I made it clear that how I did not mind putting here bags under my seat as I had room I was no way going to pretend they were mine at customs. After we had set off she gave some of here baggage to some other Mongolians in the next compartment. She came back in and we chatted about the deference in out cultures and at what age you are expected to be married by, and she gave me a cup of Mongolian tea which is tea with milk and salt!! I can only assume that someone was playing a trick on the Mongolians along time ago and they switched the salt and the sugar bowl.

On the trains the Provodnista is in charge of keeping every one in check, the place clean, the heater stoked up with coal and making sure you are awake up in time for your stop also plays here music over the Tony system, you can turn it off in your cabin but someone next door had theirs turned up full blast, the first night we were subject to what appeared to be the full Mamma Mia sound track in Russian and the second day a mix of Russian pop and hip hop.

We arrived at the Russian border town of Naushki at 13:00 which is when I started to understand why 700 miles would take so long. My Mongolian cabin mate enplaned that we would now sit at the station unlit customs arrived at 17:00. Passport control arrived at 16:30 and we were stamped out of Russia and customs arrived at 17:00, we eventually got moving at 18:00. After the short crossing into Mongolia we stoped at the Mongolian border town of Sukhbaatar where we went through the same process and then had to sit on the train until we were linked up to the 21:20 train to UB. The whole process tool a little over 8 hours. On arrival at Sukhbaatar all the Mongolians got off the train as apparently it is cheaper to buy a new ticket for the same train here, leaving only the unknowing Brits, Australians and Danes on the train.
We arrived in UB at just after 6am and I was grateful that my guest house had a free station pick up service.

So far along the way I keep bumping in to the same people, not surprising as there are only so many hostels along the route; but today I met a girl from the year below me at school!!! Talk about a small world. All together now “it’s a small word after all, it’s a small world after all, it’s a small, small world…”

P.S. My new phone dose not work here so please use my old number until I leave Mongolia.

LON to SIN – Lake Baikal

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On February 23, 2008

In London to Thailand 2008 (Train & Bus)

Arriving at a mild -20 me and Ben who happened to have booked the same hostel, made our way slightly over dressed into town to find the “down town hostel”, after ringing the bell 5 times we eventually got in to the small apartment with 2 dorms. With 6 hours to kill before we were aloud to check in I seeped on the sofa until day break and then went for a walk along the river and into town. Irkutsk is fairly dull city and in an hour or so I had seen all there was to see. On returning back to the hostel I decided to bring forward my trip to Listvyanka and head down the following day with Ben and 3 other people from the hostel, Listvyanka is on the shore of lake Baikal which is quite a sight, 636km north to south, 60km wide and 1637m deep, making it the deepest lake in the world. What makes it even more impressive in the winter is the lake is fully frozen, even thick enough to drive across in some places. Imagine a very very very big glacier but perfectly flat. We arrived early by mini bus and immediately ran out onto the ice, with always being told as a kid never to walk onto a frozen lake it was a strange experience, even with all the cars on the ice I still felt slightly uneasy. We spent the day playing on the ice and watching the rich Russians driving around on the ice with a few hand brake turns thrown in for good measure. The following day I managed to miss the last bus to Irkutskas as the time table showed the town that the busses left from on and not the destination! Resulting in a rather expensive taxi back to the city.

The following day I took an early train to a small Ski resort called Baikalask also on the shores of the lake. Arriving at mid day I was presented with lots of small wooden houses, a little train station and a small shop. I was expecting more… I was hoping to be able to wander around the town until I found a cheep hotel or something, there was one bus an hour to somewhere but where I could not be sure. After unsuccessfully trying to phone the only hotel listed in the lonely planet (LP) and a local travel agent I sat in the train waiting room contemplating my next move. Luckily the ticket lady who must have seen I was looking a bit lost came over to me and I tried to explain I was looking for a hotel by pointing to words in the back of the LP and tried to ask if the bus at 2pm would take me to hotels, she didn’t quite understand but did phone a local hotel with a member of English speaking staff, a room and a taxi were arranged, all quite a relief. I spent the next two days skiing the small resort with great views of the lake/ the runs were good and the resort was so empty that I was able to play around and practice my carving. Unfortunately the runs got a bit icy towards the end of the day and my rental skis were not maintained very well which made it almost impossible to hold an edge in the ice.

The only disappointment has been the weather which has been 10-15 degrees warmer than it should be. Some day it has been as warm as -4!!

LON to BKK – Moscow to Irkutsk

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On February 16, 2008

In London to Thailand 2008 (Train & Bus)

Irkutsk: Mile 4819

On Tuesday night I headed out with 5 other people from my hostel to the station for the first leg of the Trans-Siberian railway. Leaving Moscow at 21:35 and arriving at Irkutsk a little over 3 days later. Traveling second class you get 4 beds per cabin with the bottom bunk doubling as seats, I was sharing with an English guy who was traveling to Irkutsk like me and a Russian man and woman who were getting of at earlier stations. They were both very friendly, with the man (apparently an officer in the Russian army) very keen on English football, unfortunately neither myself or Ben (my cabin mate) know much about English football players so much of the first night passed with us agreeing that the players he liked were very good?. They both shared their food and drink with us and the lady gave me a horn from a buffalo that had been turned into a cup. As the train traveled through the Urals and into Siberia, we spent our time watching the world go buy, eating pot noodles, buying food from the locals at the station, drinking vodka and playing cards. The time passed quickly with our Provodnitsa making sure we were back on the train after stops, keeping our cabin clean and keeping the carriage heated to an overly warm 27 degrees (by shoveling coal into the boiler 24 hours a day). The view was a mix of snow, trees and industry. We pulled into Irkutsk at 5am local time which is Moscow + 5 (GMT +8), things must have gotten warmer as it was only -20 degrees centigrade.

LON to BKK – Moscow (Update)

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On February 12, 2008

In London to Thailand 2008 (Train & Bus)

Moscow – A short update
Today is my last day in Moscow as I get the 3 day train to Irkutsk tonight at 21:30. Currently trying to work out how much food to take and how much to buy on board. I have had a great time in Moscow and met loads of cool people in my hostel. Seen lost of cool architecture and yesterday we went to a Russian bath house (a banya) which is like a sauna but hotter and lots of beating with twigs.

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