London - day 104 - THE END

We arrived at London Heathrow at 4h45. Pierre had to fly onwards to Bordeaux from Gatwick and Nat to Amsterdam from terminal 5. We parted ways at the exit of the plane. We both arrived safely in Bordeaux and Amsterdam, where our families awaited our return...

The trip was amazing! We are both incredibly happy that we went through with it!

A big thank you to all those of you who followed our blog and left comments on it!

WE WISH YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!


Nat & Pierre

Singapore - day 103

We woke up late, then packed our bags and headed out to Chinatown. We got a bit lost on the way, but eventually we got to where we wanted to be. For lunch we had some delicious springrolls and curry puffs, accompanied by some fresh mango shakes. We walked around Chinatown for a while, looking at all the little shops. Then we walked to a place called Funan Digitalife which is a big shopping mall that's specialized in electronics. We went to the top floor and worked our way down through all the shops to find the one where they sold the cheapest external hard drives. After the shopping we went to a Starbucks to rest our feet for a bit. We were surprised to see that although the place was nearly full, we were the only tourists there. All the other people in that Starbucks were business men in suits having important conversations and typing away on their laptops... We walked around to find a toilet somewhere and ended up in another shopping mall. Nat finally found a Swatch shop and managed to get her watch fixed after more than 2 months of useless attempts to get the battery changed! We took the metro back to our B&B and then tried to copy the pictures onto the external harddrive and USB sticks... unfortunately the computer was full of virusses, meaning that every one of our memory cards got infected... We also found out that one of the cameras is missing. Luckily it's the broken one, but it did have a memory chip in it with our Japan pictures... it's still a big mystery how that camera could have disappeared! Around 20h we took a taxi to the airport. We checked-in and had some sushi for dinner. At 23h we were on the plane flying back home. We flew over Kuala Lumpur and had an amazing view over the city by night. The Petronas towers were incredibly bright, making it a pretty awesome sight. The flight to London took about 13,5 hours, which we spent half sleeping half watching movies.

Weather: warm and cloudy

Singapore - day 102

We got up very early and took a taxi to the airport in the north of Phuket. After checking-in, we got all our money back from Air Asia for the flight that had been cancelled due to the Bangkok airport situation on the 1st of december. From Phuket we flew to Singapore with Air Asia, an asian low cost airline. From the plane we had a nice view over the Thai islands and at the end over the Singapore bay. We were picked up and brought to our hostel (this turned out to be a big rip-off! the pick-up service was A LOT more expensive than a regular taxi). We were staying in a bed and breakfast place in a penthouse in some tall building. The view over Singapore was quite nice. Not long after getting there, a friend of Nat's father came to pick us up and show us around the city. He drove us to Faber Park from where we had a nice overview of the city; then he took us to the old Parliament buildings, the cricket pitch, Clarke Quay, the CBD, Chinatown, Arab Street, Little India, etc. He taught us a lot about the city! He dropped us off at Orchard Street where we went shopping without buying anything. Orchard Street is a concentration of very expensive shopping malls and hotels like the Marriott. Everything was decorated for Christmas: lots of Christmas trees and lights everywhere. For dinner we went to a place called Newton Circus, which is basically a food court where they have all kinds of food. Nat's father's friend joined us and ordered a whole bunch of typical dishes, including some prawns, beef and chicken satay, a peppered crab, duck-noodle soup, carrot cake (like an omelet with prawns in it) and more. Most of it was really good. After dinner we were dropped off at the B&B.

Weather: warm and cloudy, a bit of rain in the evening

Koh Phuket - day 101

We spent the entire day on the beach. It was very sunny and very hot, so we spent quite some time in the water, which was beautifully blue and refreshing. We walked all the way up and down the beach in an attempt to find some of Nat's friends from the South of France who might or might not have been there... anyway, we never actually found them. Since it was our last day on the beach, we stayed as long as we could, and were one of the last one's there when they'd already put away all the other sunbeds and umbrellas. After a good shower, we went back to the pedestrian street and sheltered from the sudden rain in a covered shopping area. The rain was amazing; A LOT of water in a very short time, but it didn't last very long. We had dinner at a little local restaurant that was very busy and turned out to be very cheap, but very good! After dinner, we returned to the Blue Lotus bar where we'd spent the previous night, and sat down at the same table, only this time the couple on the other side turned out to be two Australians on their honeymoon. They were very friendly and we had lots of fun with them cause they had been counting the number of "old-guy-young-thai" couples that had walked down the street since they sat down at the bar. We joined in around number 31... but by the time we left the bar, we had seen more than 100 different "old-guy-young-thai" couples!! An insane number if you think about it! Most of them walk hand in hand, but the weirdest thing of all is that some of these girls are clearly guys (although incredibly sexy ones) and you can't help but wonder whether the tourist at his side knows about this or is just too blind to see the obvious... We spent a good deal of the night staring at a ladyboy that should have been dancing in a FAME musical. He was incredible! Even when the rain started pouring down again, he just kept on dancing and looked like he was having the time of his life. I think he made just about every woman in the street jealous of him, not only due to his dancing skills, but also because of his body! He attracted a very big crowd and several people started giving him money and placing it under a strap attached to his thigh... I guess it was a good night for that ladyboy!

Weather: very warm and sunny

Koh Phi Phi - Koh Phuket - day 100

After checking out and leaving our luggage at the hotel, we walked around on Koh Phi Phi for a while, ending up on a beach we hadn't been to yet. It was a wonderful spot from where we could enjoy the beautiful scenery of the steep cliffs and turquoise water, as well as an unobstructed view of Koh Phi Phi Ley. We were wondering why the hell we were leaving this island and thinking about maybe moving there to start a diveshop or something... :-P Unfortunately we had a boat to catch that would take us to Koh Phuket, one of Thailand's biggest islands and probably one of the most touristically developped ones as well. On arrival at the ferry pier, we were told Patong Beach was the place to go, so that's where we went. We were dropped off in the centre of it and walked around until we found an affordable guesthouse on the beach. After getting rid of our heavy bags, we walked around the pedestrian street of Patong. It was lined with bars and more bars and a few souvenir shops. We ended up having dinner at a Dutch restaurant cause Nat was really tempted by a good "kroket met friet en mayonnaise" and she hadn't seen a Dutch restaurant in a very very long time!! We walked back to our hostel, got changed and then went back out to sit at a table on the terrace of a bar overlooking the pedestrian street right in front of it. We had the best time ever! We laughed so much because we spent several hours just people-watching... and Phuket really does attract some of the worst people!! We were amazed by the amount of ugly fat white guys walking around hand in hand with young thai girls. Another thing that's amazing about Patong is the amount of "ping pong shows" on offer. You can't walk down the street without being invited to watch at least 20 different ping pong shows! Also, the "ladyboys" in Patong are amazing! Some of them were dancing on a little stage in front of our bar all night long. Most of them wore sexy dresses or fancy feathers. From where we were sitting, we could see about 5 girls (actually, they may have been guys...) dancing around poles on the balcony of one bar and at the same time we had a view over another pole dance at a bar on the other side... We saw a girl (or guy??) walk around in what were definitely the shortest shorts EVER: her thong was in plain sight and the shorts were more like a belt worn low around the bottom of her ass... This same street is also a place where families walk by and where the kids look up in a shy way cause they're not sure whether they're actually allowed to look at any of it... Anyway, at our table, there was another couple, a guy from Norway and a Thai woman... they started talking to us and it was just weird... she was asking questions that suggested that Pierre had found Nat in the street somewhere and had hooked up with her for the night! I guess she didn't quite understand the concept of people being together without paying for it...

Weather: sunny and warm

Koh Phi Phi - day 97,98,99

We stayed on Koh Phi Phi for another three days because we fell in love with the diving around Koh Phi Phi Ley! We managed to find a cheaper hotel for the rest of our stay; unfortunately it was right next to a nightclub that played very loud music until 2am every night... not the best thing when you have to wake up at 6h30 to go diving! We did 4 dives around Koh Phi Phi; we went to Koh Bida Noi, Koh Bida Nok, Palong North and Maya Corner. The visibility was great and the marine life even better!! We saw a leopard shark, which we got very close to (look at the picture of Pierre next to it!), we saw so many blacktip reef sharks that we lost track of how many we saw! They are very shy sharks, but really beautiful and impressive! We also saw three turtles that we got very close to and an endless number of angelfish, parrotfish, butterflyfish, pufferfish, porcupinefish, etc. We saw a frogfish (very rare!!), a few lionfish (poisonous), lots of moray eels, a few scorpionfish (nearly impossible to see; poisonous as well), a sea horse, fighting trumpetfish and lots more! Diving here exceeded all our expectations! We passed by the beach where "The Beach" (with Leonardo di Caprio) was filmed and were amazed by the number of speedboats that rush to get loads of tourists there. It is a beautiful spot (it's called Maya Bay), but it is also the most crowded place around Koh Phi Phi! When we weren't diving, we were relaxing on the beach or walking through town. The water is incredibly clear and blue; this place really is paradise on earth! We really loved Koh Phi Phi and wouldn't mind to come back!!

Weather: warm and sunny every day!!

Koh Phi Phi - diving pictures

Koh Samui - Koh Phi Phi Don - day 96

We were picked up at 6h30 from our hotel by a minivan driven by a madman. He drove us to Nathon where we got on a big bus. The bus took us to a pier where we got onto the ferry that took us to Don Sak on the mainland. After 1h30 on the ferry, we got back on the bus and were driven to Surat Thani. They dropped us off in the middle of the street and told us to get into a pick-up truck. They took us to a tiny restaurant type place where we found out that they had gone through our bags that were in the bus while we were on the top deck of the ferry... They didn't take anything though cause we knew that would happen! It still isn't nice to know that they went through our stuff! After having lunch, we got onto another big but very old bus that took 2h20 to get us to the ferry pier in Krabi. From there we took a boat to Koh Phi Phi Don, which took another 1h45. We finally set foot on Koh Phi Phi at 17h! We thought the people from the hotel would pick us up by car, but it turns out that there are no cars and no roads on the island. For the first night we stayed at the Chao Koh Phi Phi Hotel, which was way overpriced. It did have a pool, although the water smelled and tasted like pee... We walked around town, saw lots of rooms in different guesthouses and went into an endless number of diveshops to find out about diving offers around the island. We had dinner at a busy restaurant and ended up getting a full body oil massage before walking back to our hotel. Koh Phi Phi Don is pretty small; the good news is that there is only one taylorshop and the vendor doesn't actually come out of it! The rest of the shops are diving schools or souvenir selling stands.

Weather: cloudy but very warm

Koh Samui - day 95

The breakfast at the resort was a delicious buffet. After that we booked our tickets to get to Koh Phi Phi on the other side of Thailand, in the Andaman Gulf. We spent the morning on the beach, had lunch in town and then enjoyed a very relaxing foot massage on the beach. In the evening we went back into town, got very annoyed by all the taylorshop vendors and ended up having dinner at the same restaurant as the day before. We walked around for a bit after dinner and then went back to our resort. Koh Samui wasn't really as good as we thought it would be, so we decided to go elsewhere a.s.a.p. We decided Koh Phi Phi would be our next destination cause the waiter in the restaurant told us it was really nice there...

Weather: cloudy but warm

Koh Samui - day 94

This morning we took the catamaran from Koh Tao to Koh Samui, stopping briefly at Koh Phangan. When we got off the boat, we were given a free ride to wherever we wanted to go. We decided to be taken to Lamai beach, on the south-eastern coast of Koh Samui. Next to Koh Tao, Koh Samui felt like being in a city... there are more roads, lots of cars, lots of international resorts and they even have McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Tesco, KFC, etc. We got out of the car and went into several resorts, trying to decide which one to stay in. In the end we chose to stay at the Golden Sand Resort cause it was cheap, it was on the beach, had a swimming pool and included a good buffet breakfast! We had lunch on a terrace on the beach and then relaxed on the stretchers in the sand. We went for a walk along the beach and then came back through the town centre. Every other shop in Lamai is either a taylor shop or a travel agency. The guys that work in the taylor shops are the most annoying ever! As you walk by, they keep their hand outstretched so you will shake it and then they won't let go while they ask you where you're from, how long you're here for, where you've been, etc. until they finally get to the point and try to get you into their shop! As the amount of taylor shops in the street is out of proportion, this happens nearly every 30 meters, making it incredibly tiring to walk down the road... Apart from that, Lamai also has an "International Walking Street" where they set up a night market where they sell all kinds of fake stuff. The rest of the town is made up of restaurants and bars. Especially bars! It's clearly the low season cause everything is empty and the resorts and shops all give 30 or 50% off... but Koh Samui must be insane in the high season! After getting changed, we went out for dinner. We went to a restaurant that looked pretty nice and had some thai food, it was delicious! After dinner we just walked around and then went back to our resort.

Weather: very cloudy, but still warm

Koh Tao - day 89,90,91,92,93

We ended up staying on Koh Tao for nearly a week. It was great! We loved it! We went diving nearly every day, sometimes even three times a day! Pierre passed his PADI Open Water course and continued on with the Advanced Open Water course right away. Nat passed her Advanced Open Water course and then went fun diving as Pierre's buddy when he passed his Advanced course. Even though the visibility wasn't amazing, we did see an incredible amount of fish! We also saw a blue-spotted sting ray, a titan trigger fish (they will attack you if you trespass on their territory!), a lot of white eyed moray eels, some barracudas, a goat fish, tons of anemonefish (nemos), some crabs and lots of parrotfish, soldierfish, angelfish, sergeant majorfish, sea urchins, etc. We even did some night dives during which we saw bioluminescent plancton! Apart from the diving, we loved Koh Tao because it is a tiny island. It isn't as developed as any of the other islands, there is only one road for cars and a tiny path for mopeds, and the shopkeepers aren't trying to pull you into their shops all day long. There was one cabaret type bar for which there were lots of "he-shes" handing out flyers. They look like beautiful women, dress very sexy (they wear lingerie or sexy dresses) and you can't tell they are men until they start talking to you! Anyway, Koh Tao was also great because we were there in the low season, meaning that it wasn't busy at all and we stayed in a very nice resort for a very low price! We ate in a different restaurant every day! One day we walked up and down the hills to the north-western point of the island where we had a beautiful view over Koh Nang Yuan (three tiny islands off the coast). They are building a very nice resort over there, said to be opening in 6 days... although we highly doubt that since the construction works didn't look anywhere near being finished! To anyone thinking about diving in Thailand, definitely go to Koh Tao! It's the cheapest place to pass your PADI and the island is great!

Weather: we were lucky cause it was sunny nearly every day! only the last day it was very cloudy, but we didn't have a single drop of rain (although we were told it would rain every day before we got there!)

Koh Tao - day 88

From the pier we took a super-fast catamaran to Koh Tao, an island in the South East of Thailand. There was so much wind and the waves were so high that the entire crossing turned into an endless rollercoaster ride. We had barely left the pier, when people were already dragging themselves to the back of the boat to throw up. It was supposed to last 1h30, but it turned into 2 neverending hours... We spent the entire time trying not to throw up, which was nearly impossible given the fact that at least 3/4 of the boat where already throwing up in the most noisy way imaginable! Pierre made it til the end without giving in... Nat on the other hand wasn't so successful... We must say that the service aboard was great, there were stewards everywhere ensuring everyone had a clean bag as soon as they'd used one, they also provided tissues... clearly this must happen every time they cross over to Koh Tao! Anyway, we got to the island, hopped on to the back of a pick-up truck and were driven to Ban's Diving Resort. We booked our diving courses (Open Water PADI for Pierre and Advanced Open Water for Nat) and a nice deluxe room with TV, DVD player, fridge, safe, a big double bed, a bathroom and a nice balcony! All that for only 20 euros per night... a lot cheaper than most of the hostels we stayed in so far (outside of Thailand of course)!! We unpacked everything in our bags for the first time since we left and brought half of it away to the laundry service. We had lunch at a little restaurant with a terrace on the beach. This is the Thailand we had been waiting for! After lunch we walked to town and had a drink at Cafe del Sol. After that we walked back to our resort and Pierre went to check-in for his diving course. The first part consists of watching a DVD and doing some quizzes... The beach our resort is on is surrounded by restaurants and little shops. For dinner we'll probably have some Mexican food.

Weather: sunny and delightfully warm

For those who are worried about the situation in Bangkok: we are now far from Bangkok, on a tiny island; since we are not actually trying to get out of Thailand, we are not concerned by all the disaster stories that are being spread by the media about tourists desperately trying to get flights back home. As far as we've noticed, the Thai people aren't aiming at the tourists in any way, if anything, they are helpful or just joke about the situation, telling us that now we'll have to live in Thailand permanently... :-P

Bangkok - day 87

The bus ride to Bangkok exceeded all our expectations! There were only 8 rows of seats on the bus, meaning there was lots of space for our legs. On top of that, all the seats were business-class reclining massage seats!! We got a blanket and a movie to watch on TV (Untraceable, a Hollywood movie, though unfortunately in Thai...). There was even a steward who brought us drinks and sandwiches and chips (with sushi flavour) and soy milk in the morning. The service was great! We even arrived in Bangkok slightly ahead of schedule. European and Australian bus companies could learn a lot from this service!! From the bus station we took a taxi to the hostel, picked up our luggage, found out the buses to the south were full and took another taxi to Hua Lamphong station. We managed to book two beds on the 19h30 night train to Chumphon. We left our luggage at the station, took a tuk-tuk to the MBK mall, enjoyed a nice frappucino at Starbucks, did some shopping, then headed through all the other malls to the Siam Paragon mall. There we had lunch at a good Japanese restaurant and then went to the last floor to watch Fly Me to the Moon in the 3D iMax movie theater. The movie was actually a cartoon about some flies and it turned out to be aimed ONLY at children. Pierre had the idea of going to see that... That ought to forgive Nat of all the crap movies she ever made him watch!! Anyway, we got some sandwiches to eat on the train, took a tuk-tuk back to the station and enjoyed a 1 hour long Thai foot massage (for only 4 euros!). That was the best decision ever! It was incredibly relaxing and even included a short back, shoulder and neck massage. Our train was delayed by 2 hours, which might sound bad, but it was great news for us. It meant that we got to sleep 2 hours longer and get off the train in Chumphon at 6h and right away get on the bus that took us to the ferry pier where we arrived at 7h.

Weather: warm and polluted

Jungle trek - day 84,85,86

After being picked up from our hostel and taken to see the tourist police (a place where they keep a copy of your passport when you go into the jungle), we were driven to a local market and then a little place in the hills where we had a nice lunch. From there we started our trek through the jungle. We walked for a good 4 hours, going up the hill through the bamboo jungle. Our group consisted of 12 people, 9 french and 3 dutch! Our guides were P (he was a famous singer in Thailand a few years ago! he was awesome! we had such good laughs with him... he kept on saying "I'm a Rambo" and swooshing around cutting bamboos with his machete!!), Noom and Nikki. There was also a stray dog that followed us all the way from the very first day. The first night we slept in a camp belonging to one of the hill tribes. Dinner was very good and we spent the evening around a campfire watching our guides do some "white magic" tricks. We all slept in one big room made of bamboo and not exactly wind or water tight... the matresses were very thin and the temperature dropped so much that even with 6 blankets we were cold! The second day we walked through the jungle again and went elephant riding for a bit. After that we split up and there were only 6 of us left. Our lunch were some very good noodles wrapped up in a banana leaf, which we ate with some bamboo chopsticks that P cut for us. We walked some more in the afternoon and saw a farm (we tried some very good pomelos) and a church. We stayed in the village of the Lahu people, another hill tribe. We saw a dead pig being prepared for a dinner feast and then headed to our own little hut. There was no electricity in the village, so we had to do everything with candlelight. Dinner was very good again. We spent the evening around some candles, listening to P sing and play some of his songs on a guitar. We slept on some very thin matresses again and had lots of blankets, except it was so incredibly cold that we didn't sleep well at all... The next morning we started walking again until we got to a little restaurant where we had a good lunch. There was a karaoke box there, so we saw P on TV! There were lots of his songs that you could sing a long to on that karaoke box! After lunch we were taken to the river by a pick-up truck and after getting changed, we got into a raft and rafted down the river. The water was very very cold, but it was good fun! After a while we switched from the normal raft to a bamboo raft... it was a fun experience! The bamboo raft is kind of submerged so you're sitting in the water and it has a tendency to sink on the left side and then the right side and back again, so you spend your time trying to balance it out! After that we were brought back to Chiang Mai by pick-up truck. We are at the Spicythai hostel now, waiting for our bus to Bangkok. It is supposed to leave at 22h and arrive around 7h tomorrow morning. We are gonna go to Soi 1 Guesthouse in Bangkok to pick up our luggage and then find a way out of Bangkok that does not involve a plane...

Weather: bloody hot during the day and freezing cold at night

Chiang Mai - day 83

We arrived at Chiang Mai station around 11h30 and took a minibus to our hostel, Spicythai Backpackers. The hostel is amazing for its price: only 5 euros per person per night, including free internet and breakfast! And the staff is very helpful and friendly. Anyway, we had lunch near the hostel and took a “taxi” to Doi Suthep, a temple up on a hill (1600 meters altitude) about 15 kilometers outside Chiang Mai. If we’d have known the actual state the car was in, we probably wouldn’t have taken that taxi: the tires were too big for the car and the suspension was crap, so each time there was a bend in the road (and there were lots!), the tire would touch the car and we’d just pray that the tire wouldn’t explode! On top of that, on the way down, the driver let the car roll down the hill to “roll-start” it (obviously after removing the stone that was blocking the tire while the car was parked so it wouldn’t roll down hill)!! Oh well, the temple up on the hill was nice, but the central piece of interest was surrounded by scaffolding. Like so many temples in Thailand, the predominant color to be seen was gold. The view over the city was great; it made us realize how big the city actually is… After getting back to town, we went back to the hostel to get changed and check some things on internet and then headed back out again. We took a taxi (= the back of a pick-up truck with a broken exhaust pipe) all the way to the Tiger Kingdom and were amazed to find a place that looked like a luxurious resort. By the time we got there, it was already dark and the tigers were too active to pose for any pictures with us, but we did go and see the baby tigers (2 months old). We got to spend some time with them alone in their cage which was just incredible! They are so cute and playful... and Pierre agreed... until one of them bit him in the arm… after that, Pierre just wanted to throw the damn thing against the wall… so Pierre has now officially been bitten by a tiger and will probably keep a lasting souvenir of it! In the meantime, Nat was getting sexually harassed by the tiger since it jumped on her and started licking his way up to her face... at which point Nat was just praying it wouldn’t bite her in the throat and cause her instant death while Pierre was getting everything on video... After the baby tigers, we went over to have a look at their parents... they were both huge and very aggressive! One of them actually barked at us (I know you wouldn’t think tigers bark, but that one very clearly barked in a dog kind of way!) and was staring at us like we were some prey or some kind of food. We saw some more tigers, some only 4 months old, others 1 year old. They were all beautiful animals and we enjoyed a nice dinner on the terrace of the restaurant overlooking their playing area. Overall it was an unforgettable and unique experience!

Weather: very hot, sunny and for the first time, a blue sky!

New Zealand - more pictures

Thailand - pictures

Bangkok - day 82

We got up late, packed our bags, left the big backpacks at the hostel and took two little bags with us for our trip to the north. We took the skytrain to Siam and walked into a very nice shopping mall. The contrast between luxury and poverty in Bangkok is insane. All the nice shopping malls around this area have metal detectors at the entrance, as well as security guards. We went up to the 5th floor, where the cinema was supposed to be... and walked into what must be one of the biggest cinemas we've ever seen! We thought we would walk right into the ticketbooth, but no, we walked into a huge hall with a bowling alley and a Starbucks and an Imax and a bunch of escalators and lots of ticketbooths... We wanted to see the new James Bond movie; just to give you an idea of how many cinema rooms they have in this place, there was a 007 movie starting every 40 minutes! We thought it would probably be very expensive, but it only cost 2,50 euros per person! After going through three more metal detectors, we finally got to the right room. The screen was incredibly big and the sound was amazing, but best of all were the seats: reclining ones!! The movie plot was crap, but the special effects were great, so overall it was entertaining and definitely worth the price!! We spent the rest of the afternoon walking through that mall and the next and the one after that... One of the most surprising floors was the 2nd floor of the cinema mall cause it only had car dealers on it; they had everything from Ferrari to Lamborghini, to Maserati to Aston Martin, to BMW and Mini and even Spyker and Lotus. They each had a whole bunch of cars in their "shop windows" although we have absolutely no idea as to how they got them there! The last mall we went into was called MBK and is known for being where the local youth goes shopping. Apart from having normal shops, they have an impressive area dedicated to fake items. It looked a lot like the Silk Market in Beijing, except that the vendors don't talk to you unless you ask them something and when you ask for the price, they give you such a low price you don't even dare to negotiate it! Nothing like China!! A much more relaxed way of shopping for sure! From the mall we walked along Chinatown all the way to Hua Lamphong train station where we waited for our 19h35 night train to Chiang Mai. We had booked a 2nd class sleeper ticket and were disappointed to find that what we got were just two regular seats... until after departure... that's when they started pulling out tables and serving dinner (if you wanted any) and a bit later they came by and turned the seats into full sized beds! They even had sheets and pillows and privacy curtains and little reading lights... In the morning they came by to serve breakfast and clean up the beds again. Great service for only 15 euros per person for a train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai (750 kilometers)!

Weather: hot as usual

Bangkok - day 81

We got up at 5h40 this morning and after stopping about 5 taxis, we finally found one that knew the station we wanted to go to. From the Thonburi train station we took a 3rd class very old train to Kanchanaburi. On the way we stopped next to the Oriental Express train and wished we were on that one instead. We got off the train at the Bridge over River Kwai, which is a very famous historically important place in the west of Thailand. There were lots of tourists there, but it was still nice (and quick) to see. We walked over the bridge and train rails, trying not to fall into the water through the holes in the wood! Then we took a taxi (= the back of a pick-up truck) and then a scooter with a little iron structure attached to the side of it. It took us a good hour on that little scooter thing to get to the Tiger Temple. We were glad to have a good driver cause we went over the highway and passed a bunch of cows on the road and it could have been a lot scarier, especially seeing the state of the actual scooter (it was actually torn down the front...). Anyway, at the Tiger Temple they had a sign that said "If you are wearing red, pink or orange, you are not allowed inside the temple"... three guesses as to what Nat was wearing... yep, orange shorts and a bright pink polo! So we had to get the worst pair of pants ever and an ok souvenir-like bright blue polo to get in. When we got to the tigers, it was all worth it! We got up close and petted a whole bunch of tigers. We could even hold on to their tail and lift their paws! We saw some really big tigers, but also some 7-week old cubs! As well as 4 and 6 month old cubs. They were the cutest ever!! Getting so close to them was amazing! After walking around and seeing some buffaloes and wild pigs and camels, etc., we took the scooter-thing back to Kanchanaburi (another hour) and then a bus back to Bangkok which took us about 2,5 hours. From the bus station we took a taxi and got stuck in a massive non-moving traffic jam and decided to walk the rest of the way to the hostel. After getting changed, some friend's of Nat's (that she met 8 years ago in Egypt...) came to pick us up and took us to Patpong. Patpong is the equivalent of the red light district and is also home to a big street market where they sell lots of fake stuff. We had dinner in the area and tried some very good Thai specialties. Then we walked around the market and bought some stuff, before having a drink at Radio City bar. The night ended with a visit to a very typical Thai sex show. We would never have gone in there if it weren't for the fact that we were with Nat's friends who know the area very well... anyway, the show was... interesting... The girls where all overweight and completely naked, not making it a very pretty sight... The highlight must have been one of the girls popping out pingpong balls from between her thighs and aiming them at two poor tourists that quickly got up and left the building with tears in their eyes! Believe us, it was an unforgettable experience!

Weather: still hot and sunny

(Tomorrow night we are taking a night train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and from there we are going on a 3 day 2 night jungle trek, so don't expect us to have internet access up there!)

Bangkok - day 80

Our first stop this morning was the Hua Lamphong train station to book our train to Chiang Mai for the 25th of November. We got the train we wanted to book for the way there, but the return train didn't correspond, so I guess we'll see about that later... From there we took the metro and then the skytrain to Mo-Chit, which is where the world's biggest market is held every weekend. It is pretty damn big and sells everything from clothes to pets (they have hundreds of underage puppies and some very weird turtles and snakes and birds) to furniture to food and antiques! The only thing they don't sell is electronics... Anyway, we spent quite some time walking around and got fed up with the heat and the people pretty fast. Also, we were disappointed cause we didn't find any christmas presents at all... the only thing we ended up buying were 3 polos. Late in the afternoon we took the skytrain back to our hostel and relaxed there for a bit. For dinner we went to an Indian restaurant called Akbar and had some good chicken korma. We're planning a day trip to Kanchanburi tomorrow so we're going to bed early tonight!

Weather: very hot

Bangkok - day 79

When we arrived in Bangkok last night, we were surprised by the amazing modernity and cleanliness of the new international airport. We took a taxi to our hostel and avoided getting ripped off! yay! Anyway, this morning we slept in and then tried to make up our mind about what to do with the day. We decided to follow the suggestion of a tour around the main temples and Grand Palace. We were promised we would get around all day spending less than 80 baht each on transport... We walked to the canal from our hostel and waited for a boat-bus to pass. When it finally came, it turned out to be like a giant canoe type boat with nearly a hundred Thai people sticking out from everywhere! We managed to jump on board (they barely even stop...) and after a little confusion made it to the final stop of that boat-bus. From there we walked around, went into a temple we didn't know (and still aren't sure which one it was) and then followed the main road until we finally found a big square with lots and lots of people on it. It seemed to be some kind of exposition about a member of the royal family and must have been the number one activity to do on a saturday for the entire Thai population! We got tired of the crowd really fast and just wanted to get out of there. So we walked around looking for the entrance to the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo temple. We actually walked all around the outer walls (about 2 km) until we nearly got back to where we'd started and found the entrance right there where we hadn't looked! The temple was very nice; very impressive; lots of gold everywhere and also a lot of people... Unfortunately to visit the temples, you have to wear long trousers and therefore melt in the exhausting heat! Anyway, after seeing everything we wanted to see, we walked back out to the street and into a little food market place. We bought some pork satay sticks that looked pretty good and had that for lunch. We visited one last temple, the Wat Pho, where we saw a huge 46-meter long Buddha lying down. The rest of the temple was also very nice. From there we took a boat over the Chao Praya river up to where we could catch the skytrain (like a metro above ground) back to our hostel. For dinner we went to a little street food court and had some kind of curry chicken that turned out to be insanely spicy, but very good! We're both hoping our stomachs can cope with it...

Weather: very hot, kind of sunny, but it looked cloudy due to the air pollution...

Christchurch - Auckland - Bangkok - days 66 to 78

As you may have noticed, the updates haven't been posted as regularly as we would have liked to, so due to lack of time and internet access, we will sum it all up in one post.

When we left Christchurch, we got to Kaikoura, a small town on the coast known for its whale watching; so that is what we did. We saw a bunch of sperm whales, a seal, lots of birds and some amazing Dusky dolphins that were having a lot of fun just jumping around. After spending the night in Kaikoura, we went on to Picton where we took the ferry back to Wellington. We stayed in Wellington for the night and then took the Magicbus to Napier. On the way we stopped at Mount Bruce Wildlife Centre where we saw some kiwis (the birds) and some tuataras (dinosaur-like lizards)! Napier is known as the art deco capital of New Zealand and you can definitely tell by the style of their buildings! After spending the night in Napier, we moved on to Taupo. Although we had stopped here on the way down, we hadn't done the Tongariro Crossing (supposedly the world's best one-day trek!) due to the bad weather. In the afternoon we went on a sailing boat to see the Maori rock carvings on Lake Taupo, it was fantastic and very relaxing! The next morning we got up at 5h45 and took the shuttle bus to the departure point of the Tongariro Crossing. We walked for a long time over rather flat paths and then got to the steep part of the walk; it was exhausting!! When we got to the top, the view was incredible! There was still a lot of snow on the volcanoes; the walk took us around Mount Doom (a.k.a. Mount Nguroaroe) and Mount Tongariro and Mount Ruapehu. We saw the Red Crater (definitely deserves its name) and the Emerald Lakes. We had lunch by the Blue Lake and enjoyed the scenery. From there we walked down through some forest paths. In total the walk took us 7 hours... but it was definitely worth it cause the weather was amazing! From Taupo we took the bus to Rotorua, where we decided to stop to do some more activities. In the afternoon we went up the hill to do some luge, which was great fun!! At night we went to the Tamaki Maori Culture Show. It was impressive and taught us a lot about Maori culture, but there were so many tourists that it kind of felt like a tourist trap... (comparable to Chez Ali for those who have been there!). At the end of the show we got a traditional dinner that was cooked/steamed in a hole in the ground. The taste is interesting, but after about two or three bites you just wish that not every single thing had that smoky rotten egg taste! The next morning we went rafting on the Kaitiaki river. It included the world's highest commercially raftable waterfall (7 meters!!) and was really great!! From there we went to Mount Maunganui (surfing paradise of New Zealand) and spent the afternoon on the beach. The next morning we took the bus to Auckland and visited the city in the afternoon. It was rather disappointing; a big city like any other, without any special interest (apart from volcano craters sticking out everywhere). The next day we took the bus to the Bay of Islands; we stayed in a nice hostel in Paihia for three days during which we went on a day trip to Cape Reinga (most northerly point of New Zealand), drove over 90-mile beach and enjoyed sandboarding down an 85 meter high sand dune. It was awesome!! The last day we went for a swim with some wild dolphins, also a great experience! (although the water was very very cold and resulted in Pierre getting sick...) From Paihia we took the bus back to Auckland, passing through Opononi and the Waipoua Forest where we saw Tane Mahuta, the Lord of the Forest, a 2000 year old massive Kauri tree! We spent the night in Auckland and didn't do much. The next morning we took the airport shuttle at 6 a.m. and got to the aiport in time for our Qantas flight to Sydney. The descent and landing were very rough... Now we are stuck in the airport until our next flight (to Bangkok) departs at 17h30 (local time). Once we get to Bangkok, the time difference will only be 6 hours (instead of 12!!).

Weather: we've had everything over the last few days from rain to sunshine and from freezing cold to bloody hot...

New Zealand - pictures part 3