Laos - Maekong River Slow Boat

After leaving Thailand through Huangxai we bought a couple of tickets for the slow boat, a two day trip on the river Maekong to Luang Prabang. 7 hours of boating on the first day and 8 hours on the second. There was close to 100 people on the boat and they served beer which is always a welcome surprise. The scenery was stunning, traveling down the river through jungle and local villages made entirely of bamboo. Great way to relax and read a book with a beer, followed by a nap on the car seats that were placed on the boat.

Thailand

We may have stayed in Bangkok for too long, just over two weeks in total but after India and Nepal, this place was just so comfortable. The guesthouse we stayed in was great, it had everything you could need, including an HD projector for movie and pizza nights. It was situated deep into the city boundaries, we were never more than 15 minutes away from anywhere of interest via the sky train. It was a Thai part of town, unknown really to backpackers, so our guest house of about 15 people represented all the westerners in that part of the city. We were maybe 5 minutes walk from a food street, anything you could ever want to eat was on this street. I usually went for the crispy pork and fried rice with a fried egg on top, I had this every day for 15 days and still enjoyed it as much as the first time. Managed to go to a professional Muay Thai fight televised live across Asia, probably the second time I've been on TV during this trip, the atmosphere was great. The guy who ran the guesthouse was good friends with a guy who ran a moonshine bar off of Khaosan Road (probably the most famous road in Asia). We drank beer and homemade whiskey and rice liquor, made with some 30 spices apparently, very tasty. I was a bit rubbish at taking pictures in Bangkok and most of the pictures below are of Chang Mai ruins. The picture of the washing line is just outside the guesthouse where I stayed for two weeks. Had my first encounter with elephants in Chiang Mai and I can honestly say they scared the bejesus out of me, they are huge. Though I did stroke a baby elephant on the head in Chiang Rai at a local market but alas, I forgot my camera, again.

Thailand - The White Temple

We went to visit The White Temple in Chiang Rai, a contemporary take on the usually bright and colourful Buddha temples of Southeast Asia.

 

Nepal - Pokhara

Nepal is a beautiful country and unlike India you can eat steak, which I did, a lot. India will do that to you, not eating red meat for 6 weeks really sets you up for a steak binge. And burgers, lots of burgers. The people were friendly and I purchased so many steaks at this one restaurant that I was being treated like a member of the family, hugs all around. We stayed at a great hotel, made hilarious by the fact that the hotel manager had a crush on my traveling buddy Sam, which made him considerably awkward as the manager was a 50 year old man with wife and kids. Reaching Pokhara was no easy task and by easy I mean enjoyable and comfortable. It is probably the second worst bus journey I have ever experienced. I was recovering from quite a bad case of food poisoning when I had to catch a 10 hour government bus to the border, I left my arm hanging out of the window which got quite badly sunburned. We turned up at the border near nightfall and spent the next couple of hours moving from building to building trying to get our visas sorted out. The next day we had to take a 10 hour overnight bus to Pokhara and that journey clinches the number 1 spot for worst bus journey ever. I didn't fit in the seat and had to sit sideways, the floor was lined with people sitting down or standing up. Got no sleep, which wasn't so bad because at one point the bus hit a pair of potholes so big, everyone that was asleep assumed we had driven off a cliff and were about to die. It shouldn't have but this made me smile, teach them for falling asleep on an uncomfortable bus. It was worth it though as Pokhara was a great city. We did some trekking which was fun but I had no clue as to how hard it was going to be. Staying in tea houses suspended over cliffs at cloud level was an experience I won't forget anytime soon. At one point I jumped into the restaurant area, a tad overzealous due to my growling stomach, and the whole room swayed to the left and right.

Taj Mahal, Agra

At first sight, the Taj Mahal doesn't look as big as you'd hoped it to be, in fact it looks a bit tiny to be one of the 'Wonders of the World'. Seems to be an illusion though as it takes a long time to walk to it. By the time you get to the front door, it's quite impressive. Final resting place of some Sultans wife, never found out the name (not paying for a guide!). The towers around the outside of the Taj are built leaning away from it, so when they eventually fall over they don't land on the palace. Had to get up at 5am to avoid the crowds but it was definitely worth it. There's even a picture of me somewhere sitting where Princess Diana was in that famous phone (I'm not as photogenic as she was, however).