mijn reis

last night we checked in in a nice hotel with airco and a hot shower! It's a little bit more expensive but 7.5 euro each including breakfast is still ok considered what you pay in belgium. We planned a day at the beach and so this morning we went: we were looking for a bicycle or motorbike rental but apparently there are none around here so we took a motorbike taxi to a bicycle shop. He didn't understand us correctly that we want to hire one, not buy. At least it was on the way to the beach so we started walking there, after about 45 min we finally reached the sea and well it is worth it: we got our private bounty beach! After a little swim we bought a small plastic ball to enjoy ourselves with. I'm better at it than Kevin, seriously kicked his ass!!! Then we went for lunch but the restaurants nearby were really expensive... So we kept on walking for again about half an hour until we found a local restaurant. We had 2 delicious grilled fish and some white rice, actually 2 giant bowls of white rice, I couldn't even finish it... Kevin liked the fish more than the ones he ate at home, he said: 'it tastes a bit like rice'. This kind of made me upset and I told him to stop eating, it tastes way better than rice!!! This was fresh fish from the sea, unbelievable.

We went back to our beach since the other beaches were pretty dirty: Thai people just throw their trash away on the beach. It's something they will have to change if they want to keep the environment beautiful. We again had a nice swim but Kevin was afraid of a jellyfish that he though he saw so he stayed close to the beach, until his legs were almost completely under water... Kevin found a stick and wanted to play baseball, it didn't go so well: he missed a few times. So I tried and with my second strike the ball was broken... I'm way too strong :D it's probably the workout from a few days ago... Kevin took the ball away from me and started playing golf with it (again missed 10 times more than he hit the ball).

we hitchiked to our hotel again where we are now changing to go out to eat: in two directions: I'll go to the local restaurant while Kevin wants to go to the KFC. It's my mistake: on the way back I saw one and pointed it to Kevin, I should have never done that but at least he ate some fish today.

today we had a transport day: we went from chanthaburi to rayong. First we had to return the motorbike :( it served us well! Then we had to pick up Kevins laundry and have breakfast. I had a spicy breakfast this morning, it didn't look spicy when I pointed at it, but gosh I was happy that there was rice and water available. Kevin went for french bread with jam...

At the bus station it took us quite a while to explain that we wanted to go and explore the caves on the road so we wanted to get off somewhere half way. There we got on a Songthaew and got dropped of at the national park, there was nobody there... After exploring the area we found someone and he gave us rubber boots and a flashlight. We left our luggage there and off we went into the jungle. The first cave was one full of bats and that you could smell from far away!!! When we went in, we also started to hear it and the further we went, the noisier it became. When we looked up, we saw them moving and there were many of them and just two of us... The noise became a bit too loud and we headed back out of the cave towards the next one. At the next cave there was water and there were also flying animals, however smaller this time: musquitoes. We tried to get through the water, but it was to deep for our boots and we had to go another way: a smaller one where we did fit in and we could go 10 meter further. It was a very nice cave to look at! Kevin started feeling ill so we headed back to the rangers office. After a rest of half an hour we walked to the bigger road and hitchiked to the highway: we got a fast ride (130 km an hour on the wrong side of the road and he couldn't see 100 m before him because of the hill) quite crazy if you ask me but it was comfortable :P the songthaew took us more than half an hour while this ride was there in about 10 minutes. We bought our bus ticket and went to Rayong, a big busy city where English is no problem. We found ourselves a nice room and tomorrow there is a breakfast included so we can enjoy american breakfast again! In the evening we still went to an evening market where Kevin found french fries! The potatoes here aren't as tasty but the frying procedure was good and so we enjoyed! After a weird shake we went back to our hotel where we are writing this lovely post while listening to some Thai Karaoke music.

the last two days we spent in chanthaburi: saturday morning we started with a breakfast in our guesthouse and then we went to the motorbike rental to hire a motorbike for the day. It took quite a while before they understood that they had to teach me how to drive... After a class of 1 minute we left for muang sing, a national park at the beach to go snorkling there. We started very slow and stopped after 10 km at a waterfall of 30 meter high. We didn't have to pay the usual entree fee of 200 baht so we were happy and started to walk the nature trail: a slippery path through the jungle with some signs on the road teaching us the way of the jungle. We saw a lot of bamboo, rocks, lianas, big trees, musquito and a big waterfall! The water around the waterfall is full of fish, it's an attraction to feed these fish whith long green beans while standing/ swimming in the water. The fish are so 'hungry' that they swim on top of eachother to catch the beans. After the nature trail we went to look on a hilltop to get a nice view of chanthaburi province and the sea.

We went back on our motorbike and drove towards Laem Sing Beach, about 20 km further. At the beach we noticed that we wanted to be at the other side of the beach but with our best thai and the tourist informations best english we managed to hire a boat to go snorkling. A 30 minutes boat trip brought us to a coral reef where we could swim with the fish. I had some trouble with breathing but Kevin became one with the sea (although he is slightly more red and white). He also saw a very big fish that according to him was at least 1 meter long... After 15 minutes I had enough trouble breathing and went back to the boat to relax and enjoy the view. Kevin stayed for almost an hour looking for different colors/ big fish...

By the time we came back ashore it was already quite late so we had to hire the motorbikes till monday... Kevin felt a bit ill so we went to relax some more at the beach before driving back to our guesthouse. The way back was either shorter or we drove a (little) faster, I believe it was the latter since I was getting hungry... :p In the evening we still went for a long relaxing massage by female hands...

Saturday was a nice day, we did about half of what Kevin planned to do here in Thailand: jungle trekking, waterfall, snorkling/ diving, motorbike and massage.

Some more things to do include: elephant riding, kayakking, floating market and shopping.

Today we took an easy day with a late breakfast/ brunch and then off to a small road so that Kevin could learn how to drive a motorbike. He is still alive and in one piece... :D The rest of the day he mostly spent in bed except for an evening walk towards the festival that is still going on. He feels a little ill... I went for a city walk and to do fitness in the park. The fitness was quite interesting: they have a lot of different metal constructions but the guidelines are in Thai. So I just followed someone else and did the same thing, my arms hurt a bit now, I guess he was in better shape :( I did kick his ass in leg exercises :p. Now I just got back from some concerts and dance acts, the festival still goes on!

the text from the previous days is in attachment,

today we went to a fort, the gem mines, fruit plantations, a temple and a chedi on a hill with a wonderfull view. We got there on foot and trough hitchhiking. The maps here are not really on scale so we started to walk but when we asked the way after 5 km, she said still more than 3 km :s. So we started hitchhiking, I think the 20th car that passed took us with him and dropped us off at the fort. The people were soo friendly and gave us some fruit, Kevin was really happy with it and it was yumm! We took a stroll and a small photoshoot there before we went to the temple, Kevin wanted to stay in the temple: he said that it wasn't that interesting but it was cool :D I think the paintings on the wall and the ceiling were nice, but anyway we went back to the fort and left for a chedi on top of a hill. According to the map it's right across the street, in reality it was more than 5 km away so we hitchhiked again. A space engineer (who works for an oil company, pretty strange carreer path...) in a nice old-timer mercedes took us with and dropped us at the stairs on the hill. The stairs were being cleaned by some schoolgirls who were giggling when we passed and one of them even dared to talk to us, it wasn't much of a conversation but these small things make your day! On top of the hill we did get a magnificent view: we could see the beach (which is about 25 km away) and some hills/ islands, we could also see the gem mines and the fruit plantations. We went down again and looked at the mining, however we couldn't get inside. There was also a rubber plantation... The way back we got one long ride in the back of a pick-up. A day full of experiences!

Next morning we went to complain to the hotel owner and he told us that this is normal, but offered us a nicer room and a discount so I guess it was ok. We went out to see the temples, they were different than the once we had seen until now (trust me, I have seen quite a lot of temples so far) but these where colourful (chinese influence), less maintained (grass and dirt everywhere, which was the result of the very poor people that live here) and they had the strict laws of the birmese tradition. We walked quite far and we didn't want to walk back from the last temple so we asked a group of college students if we could ride with them to the city center. They didn't speak a lot of English but it seemed like they understood and they even shared us some of their snacks.

A nice day to end our trip in Myanmar!

the pictures below are some pictures of the typical transport in Myanmar

the last two nights of my parents' trip was spent in luxuary, thanks to the mother of Patchara and Supinya we could stay in a 6 and 5 star hotel. The best hotel we've ever had and an even better breakfast (3 star michelin chef), this translated in some specially designed dishes: an eye-opener (a very tasty strawberry mix with some extra's to prepare your mouth for breakfast), smoked salmon with cheese and a sauce, mached been roll, ... and of course a very big buffet. We spent 2 hours enjoying the breakfast so that we didn't need lunch and I wasn't even that hungry for dinner. I had an amazing dinner as well, the first time I met the father of Supinya and Patchara, we went to Lin Fa restaurant inside Siam City hotel (the five star hotel we stayed at). We had Peking Duck and Hongkong steak and some other dishes, the Hongkong steak was amazing: I've never had a steak that was that soft and tasty, hmm!

we've also visited the weekend market, a crowded market full of souvenirs, clothes, drinks,... My mom enjoyed buying things while my dad's wallet became thinner and thinner... :P Then it was time to say goodbye and move to the appartment in the house of the family Piampongsant, not that big a change in matter of luxuary. In the morning the cook prepares a nice breakfast, after that we can go to a museum or to an activity in town and in the evening there is again a royal meal to enjoy! The days flew by and we visited Vimanmek Mansion in the rain, which was nice and refreshing, next day we went to suan Pakkard Palace and Jim Thompson's House, the day after that we went biking in a park with a nice butterfly garden, thursday I took Patchara to old town via the subway and then we walked past some temples (where there was a funeral going on) through the gun street to old siam shopping center followed by a walk to the golden mountain with a stop at two other temples which were pretty interesting, then we went to the beach of Cha-am and Hua Hin where we went swimming in a pool in a very nice hotel, saterday we stayed at home and tryed to cook (it didn't turn out as it's supposed to be but the taste was great and that's the most important), sunday I could go with to a cousins' cousins'

buddhist ceremony and then there was a family reunion. The last day we spent at Bang pa in, a palace close to ayutthaya: the weather was great so time for a photoshoot!

in the attachment you can find my experiences in Bagan for the second day (in dutch) we went by bicycle to some less known ruins but they had some fascinating frescoes and murals inside! so enjoy...

the next day we got up very early since there was a slight chance that we could go on the morning flight, we got picked up from the hotel at 6.15 but before we reached the airport we got a phonecall that it was not necessary because the plane was full. We would have to take the evening flight. Since we had an entire day, we planned a trip to mount popa: a monastry with a lot of monkeys on a high peak near an extinct vulcano. On the way there we stopped at a local factory where they made oil from peanuts, however this time no motors were used, just manpower and a cow! It was very interesting to see the difference with a few days ago. They also artisanly made palm sugar, palm wine, palm alcohol,... A nice stop! We continued the road and on the way we could see the desert-like landscape change towards a tropical forest, it gave amazing views.

Mount popa itself was more a thing that is nice to see, but not really something incredible. It is nice to think about how they got all the bricks and building material up the rock and whether they first build the staircase or the monastry...

In the evening we took the plane to Yangon and got a taxi to Bago.

since we didn't make it to Mingun the previous day, we got up early and tried to get there today. It is a site where they have the largest uncracked bell in the world, something worth to see, no? Another attraction of Mingun is the unfinished Pagoda, only the square base was finished and that one is already 70 meter high! Now it's a ruin since it was severely damaged by an earthquake and despite there is nothing really buddhist about it, you have to climb it barefooted. This is more painfull than it looks: it's very hot and the red stones are just burning your feet, I was 'lucky' since I sprained my anckle an hour before we were climbing this pagoda. I could wear one shoe so that it wouldn't hurt that much. Getting up there was still painful, I can tell you, but the view that you get up there is definately worth it! The surrounding landscape is flat with some hills at one side and the river at the other side. My parents were able to walk around on the top while resting on some leaves from time to time. It is the only way to cool down your feet on these burning rocks!

we didn't do much for the rest of the day until we went for the train to go to bagan, the train was another experience. We had a ticket for a first class sleeper, but it didn't really turn out to be a sleeper, it was more a big cinema seat which was rather comfortable. The train was not that comfortable, the rails here are not flat so it was a bumpy ride! The sunrise from the train was amazing, there were some very small long clouds that were changing color every few minutes from blue to red to yellow, just amazing to see this sky above the dry landscape. Before the sunrise the farmers were already working the field since it was getting way too hot during the day.

Since we didn't sleep a lot, we rented a horse cart and went to the temples of Bangan, for me the best cultural heritage from our trip! It was soo worth it, our guide stopped at the temples that I asked him to go to and even added some interesting ones to the trip. Not only the temples stick out of the desert here though, everywhere you go, you see souvenir salesmen, women and children trying to get you to buy from them. We bought several paintings and some postcards, while we were enjoying the temples. I do have to admit that they have a nice selling technique here: they first guide you around the temple and explain some things about it, after that they ask you to take a look at their shop. I think it's a nice way of selling things, at least you learn something!

An interesting but exhausting day!

so the third day in Mandalay we tried to go to Mingun, another ancient city. To go there you have to take a boat across the river, we decided to walk there and see if we could hire a private boat since the government boat already left (it only goes once a day). On the road we saw a factory that made oil from peanuts, a factory might be a bit exaggerated: there were some rusty motors and cilinders and it kind of worked so I guess that's a factory. It was pretty interesting to see... We continued our path towards the harbour where we asked for a private boat, this was a bit too expensive so we decided to do something else and go to Mingun the next day.

In the lonely planet we found that there were some nice teak monastries in the neighbourhood so we hired a trishaw (a bicycle with two extra seats on the side). They took us to the first one, it looked marvellous: dark wood with impressing carvings everywhere. It was a really nice one! After this temple we walked to a buddhist university and after that we tried to find another teak monastry. This one was pretty well hidden, we kind of got lost so we asked directions in a temple. The one we asked directions to, didn't speak a word of english so he gestured to wait while he was going to get someone else. It took quite a while before he came back, but he was alone, he gestured to follow him, so we did. Then he stopped somewhere and gestured that we had to wait again, it was pretty weird. About 15 minutes later a monk showed up who could speak a little english, they had to wake him up from his nap... He decided to come with us and show us around at the temple we wanted to visit, it was good that he did because it was very difficult to find this one. But it was all worth it, an old monk opened the door and showed us around, there were golden statues, teak woodcarvings, some ancient books and even bamboo scrolls with the teachings of buddha on them. The spiderwebbs were everywhere and that made it only a bit more mysterious!

We walked home through some streets where they made jade bracelets, again with some old motors and for the rest they used their skills. We didn't get to see Mingun today, but it was still very interesting!!!

I'm still enjoying the hospitality of the family Piampongsant and will make use of their internet to post some more about myanmar, the second destination in myanmar was Mandalay, a big city in the central/north of Myanmar. The city is a famous tourist attraction because it is surrounded by ancient cities: Sagaing, Ava, Amarapura and Mingun are the four that we visited.

We arrived in Mandalay at 5 am so we tried to find a hotel/ guesthouse where we would be able to sleep a bit and spend the next night. A blue taxi (a very small mazda pickup where we barely fit) brought us around to see a few of them. We took the nicest one however it was very humid and the room smelled. After the bumpy busride everything was ok for us and it didn't take long before we were all sleeping, at 10 we woke up again and took a walk through the city. The city has a relatively easy structure, the streets are numbered and everything is square just like a chessboard. In the middle there is a gigantic palace, but the government asks 10 dollar entrance fee which is going straight into the pockets of the military so we didn't go. Instead we went to Mandalay hill, a mountain with quite a few pagoda's and on top an incredible view. We were joined by a novice whose name resembled Toontje, with such a name it can't go wrong and soon we reached the top while it was raining heavily. On the top there indeed was a very nice view over the Ayeyarwaddi river, the palace and the rest of the city. We went down from the west side, which is way less touristy, downstairs we ended up in a dirty poor suburb where they didn't meet a lot of foreigners: a big contrast with the southern entrance which is royally ornamented and where a lot of people are trying to sell things.

We were getting tired again and our belly was not fully recovered from the food we had in Inle lake so we took a blue car to our hotel and went for dinner and straight to bed.

right now I'm also going to bed

I've been in Bangkok (Thailand) again for a few days now but finally I get some time to update my blog. It's been such a nice time here that I preferred to do other things, so for them who were getting impatient, I'm sorry Wink

so about my trip in Myanmar: The plan was to visit Inle-lake, Mandalay, Bagan and the region around Yangon. We first landed in Yangon, but the city is very ugly, noisy and smelly. It seemed like we went back in time for about 50 years, the cars and busses almost fall apart, most transport is on foot, by bicycle or trishaw. It wasnt that pleasant to visit and it was shocking to see how these people live. We went to the Shwedagon Paya at night, it was a piece of beauty not far from the centre, it has a lot of diamonds, gold, silver and whatever you want It is a true masterpiece and the most impressing pagoda Ive visited, trust me there are a lot of pagodas around here.

But its the only thing really worth visiting, the next day we took the bus to the centre and did the city walk suggested in Lonely Planet, taking the bus here is a true adventure, there are 60 bus routes and the people from the bus are shouting where they are going and trying to get you on board. We managed to get to there and we saw a lot of big buildings but they are all occupied by the government and even these buildings are not maintained. They are just standing there and nature is taking its toll. We took a flight in the afternoon to Inle-lake and it was completely different, Nyaungshwe is a small city where the people are always smiling and the nature around it is beautiful. We did a trek in the mountains towards a monastery in a cave and another meditation cave, after that we went to a hill tribe village where we had some tea. We were looking at how they dried the leaves to roll cigars and the old lady that lived there invited us in for tea. We continued are walk through the hills and went to another village, this time close to the lake. We saw a biological farm and a bit further a tree which had a lot of mangoes, when we tried to take a picture the woman came out and offered us some. To have an excuse and to not want to profit from her we said that we dont like the green ones that much. She went inside and got us a bag with 3 yellow mangoes just for nothing. People here are living in wooden and straw huts but still they share what they have On the way back, we saw a gigantic meditating Buddha statue in a differnt style than any other we'd seen before. We were a bit too tired to really appreciate this piece of art and continued our tour to the hotel.

The next morning we rented bicycles and went through the countryside on the east side of the lake to a market. The ride started on a nice road, but soon this changed into a dirt track and about an hour later it changed in a road that was used for ox carts... After getting of and on the bike for about 20 times, we reached the market: it was totally worth it! The market was very busy, there were a lot of people wearing the traditional hilltribe outfits and the side of the lake was covered by at least a hundred small boats who had to go through a maze if they wanted to leave. My dad was not feeling well so it was the perfect time for a fotoshoot! The ride back went a lot easier and we noticed that there had been quite a lot of wind, so we were home in no time and decided to stop somewhere for a fresh beer. We went to the lake resort 2, the view was amazing, a quiet lake with green everywhere (the lake is not very deep so the plants just grow whereever).

Our last day at the inle-lake we rented a boat since we hadn't seen the main attraction yet: floating gardens. People there make small long islands in the lake and then grow tomatoes, peas,... on it. They maintain it from their proa, really amazing to see them pull out the weed while balancing on such a small boat. We also saw the famous leg-rowers: the fisherman here row with one arm and one leg while holding the net in the other hand and balancing on the other foot. Again an unbelievable way of balancing! We had to catch our bus, so we went back to our hotel...

this was our first stop in Myanmar, soon more will folow

today (17th of july) we are going to try to get to Myanmar again!

I am now at the airport in Bangkok where I am enjoying the free goodies in the Bangkok airways lounge!

so yesterday we went to doi suthep, a temple on the top of a mountain where acoording to legend the elephant of the king died. It's quite a beautiful temple and there is an extraordinnary view over the city of chiang mai! Climbing the stairs was not really a challenge, acoording to the book you need to be in good shape, but I don't think so. They even built an elevator for less active people :o.

After wandering around at the top of the temple we went back to chiang mai and had a relaxing meal and fruit shake before we took the night bus to Bangkok. The night bus was not that nice and we didn't get a lot of sleep, but we'll manage and we are excited about going to the next country!

Myanmar here we come!

the past three days we've spent around chiang mai, the 13th and the 14th in a nature reserve (doi ithanon) in Ban Phra Mon, a small Karen hilltribe. I wrote in my previous post that I had very high expectations, I can tell you now that it was even better than that!

Our guide Surasit (or just Sit) was a great guy, at about 35 years old but he acted as if he just turned 20 so it was great to have someone from my age around. We first went to the top of Thailand: approximately 2565 meter above sea level. He told us that we would have a great view up there, but the weather gods didn't want us to see anything... It was very cloudy, but still the feeling of being on the highest place of a country is pretty nice. So now I can add Thailand to the list (after Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Great Brittan, ...)

Up on that mountain there is a nice path made for the queen to walk around in the jungle and I have to say it was really nice: a good road and a perfect smell of fresh air while Sit was teaching us the way of the Karen. However again the weather Gods didn't like us and it started to rain pretty heavily so back to the truck. After visiting 2 pagoda's with beautiful gardens, we could enjoy a very nice meal and a walk through a royal project garden. There were all kinds of flowers, verns, flesh-eating plants, fish,... All in perfect condition and I have to say that the greenhouses looked nicer than the 'koninklijke serres in Meise'.

Enough of the touristy visits and towards the pure nature! we followed a small trail amids the jungle and learned about herbs and which plants we could eat as many as we want and which plants that we can only eat once... Sit loosened up a little and he started making a lot of jokes, every time he saw a mango tree, he yelled at me: 'banana tree', he pointed to some strange formations in the rock and told it was because of the tsunami and that he had to glue the rock together again... There are way more jokes, but that could become a little bit boring :D

we started hearing some water and a bit later we came passed a very wide waterfall, it was great as you can see in the pictures. (check introduction post) we went down next to the river and saw some more waterfalls (it almost sounds like it's not special anymore, but I can tell you every waterfall is different and you never stop liking it!) about an hour later we arrived at some rice farms from a hilltribe. If you ever get to see rice fields in the mountains, really do, the view is amazing! The young rice is a little bit flashy green, the mountains make it seem like you are totally away from civilisation but then the houses and the people give some other color to the landscape and then to make it perfect there is a blue sky!

we drunk some hilltribe coffee, damn that was strong and then we took off to Sit's hometown where we would have dinner (prepared on a wooden fire in the middle of the house) and sleep in the house of Sit's sister.

Next day we went mountainbiking, with very steep parts where I even had to get off from my bike. Going up I only had to get off ones since there was a lot of mud but in the way down I walked quite a bit. My rear brake was not working and I am quite afraid when I go downhill without a rear brake...

Today we had a relaxing day here in Chiang Mai and visit some temples, so beautiful but nothing as exciting as the previous days

tomorrow we go back to Bangkok so that we can finally get into myanmar...

we didn't make it to myanmar after all, the border is closed so we booked a plane from Bangkok to Yangon on the 17th. Meanwhile we went to Chiang Mai to do some adventure trekking and visit a non-touristy hilltribe. I am really excited about tomorrow!!!

right now we are staying in a 'hippy' guesthouse, it's great, but I hope we can get some sleep in the middle of the Jamaican music and everything that belongs with it...

P.S.: since we are sleeping in a homestay in a hilltribe we won't have electricity nor internet tomorrow.

P.P.S: pictures have been added: see 'introduction' post

what should have been a quite travelday with a small trekking into some great nature in the afternoon, turned out completely different. It started in the morning, we had to get up at 7 to catch the first bus, however the monks decided different: at 5 am they started their music which woke me up and I couldn't get to sleep again. Luckily we had a nice guesthouse with a very pretty garden, so I could walk around a bit and catch up with some e-mails. Then after an almost perfect breakfast of pineaple pancake we left for the bus. To our surprise we had a very good busdriver, he drove fast without always accelerating and breaking. In less than an hour we reached Tak for our transfer to the next bus. The next driver was a bit less good, but the road was going through the mountains, a hell of a view. We had booked an hotel that should have been in the middle of these mountains, but turned out to be in the outer parts of a big city :( . The hotel itself is nice though, it's a 4 star ranking :D, they have a swimming pool which is great! Tomorrow we are going to a different one located in the center where they don't speak a word of english.

it is possible that I won't have time to update this blog in the comming days since we are going to Myanmar and people say it's completely different there and internet is not that wide spread.