Very Big Adventures

Our Itinerary

Thursday 16^th June, 2022          

 Newcastle to Sydney

Mark is working today but it’s my day off which is lucky as I can do last-minute packing. Lauren drives us to Broadmeadow station at two o’clock to catch the 2.18 pm train before she picks the dollies up from school. We’re lucky to get the XPT train to Sydney’s Central Station – only $15 each – where we find the escalator to take us down to the light rail and then on to Wynyard. From here we walk to the old Grand Hotel, very cheap tonight at only $94. Even though we have a shared bathroom we have a very cute room – the hotel has been recently redecorated by the Merivale Group. 

On the top floor we have a drink in the Knot Bar then walk down to Circular Quay to see Vivid – it’s busily exciting down here and a clear still night. We wander through the Rocks then to the Bridge where all the buildings are lit up with coloured lights, projections and installations. Especially impressive is the Opera House with changing aboriginal art work every few minutes. 

Dinner is pork rolls and chips (horrible) from one of the many street stalls then we head back to the Grand Hotel after a couple of hours. More drinks at the very busy Knot Bar – good people watching – before an early night.

Friday 17^th June, 2022          

 Sydney to Bangkok

Our alarm wakes us at 5:30 am then we catch an Uber ($36) to the International Airport because there are no trains running this early. At the check-in counter we show our Thai Pass and travel insurance, get bag labels and check them in. That over with, we have our usual McDonald’s which takes an hour to order because there’s so many people here. We hang out on comfy lounge chairs by the window to watch planes coming and going.

We’re very excited to be flying international for the first time in three years after being locked in with Covid although it’s still mandatory to wear masks, to be double vaxed and to carry the Thai Pass. We buy duty free Bacardi then Mark splurges on an underwater watch – Citizen for $450. 

We board on time at 9:15 am but then sit on the plane for forty five minutes waiting for connecting passages. The plane already looks full but eventually fifty more people board. This means every seat is taken so no luck with our usual spare seat in the middle this time. We watch movies – The House of Gucci, The Duke, Blind Ambition and After Love – have lunch, snacks and afternoon tea but it still feels a very loooong  flight although only the usual nine and a half hours. 

Finally at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport we don’t know what to expect as we’ve been told that it could take ages to get through. Some sites say that there is a rule that you have to stay in a hotel close to the airport until your Thai Pass is accepted but instead we show our Thai pass, go through immigration and we’re done within an hour. 

Outside is hot and steamy as usual which we always love. We catch a taxi to Banglamphu $36 and head straight to Villa Cha Cha where we’ve stayed before. It’s an atmospheric guesthouse right on Thanon Rambutri and only $24. Our room is pleasant, decorated Thai style with an aqua tiled bathroom and even a pool downstairs. We change straight into our thongs and summer clothes and head out into the street which is dark by now. 

As we expected, Covid has changed things. The streets are much quieter than they have ever been since we started coming here 25 years ago and only a few places are open along Thanon Rambutri compared to the string of cafes and bars on either side that are usually buzzing.

We walk down to Soi Rambutri and are thrilled to see that Pink is open. Pink is our favourite massage place in all of Bangkok, all the world actually. We have welcome-back cuddles from the girls and promise to come back after we have something to eat.  Dinner is in the laneway opposite Madam Masur’s – beers, margaritas, satay chicken, chicken wings and Tom Yum Goon. Heaven to be back in our beloved Bangkok. 

Back at Pink, we have foot and leg massages on laid-back chairs in the laneway with On and Bong. All the girls are happy as Pink only re-opened two weeks ago after closing because of Covid for the last two and a half years. We drink beers and margaritas then walk to the bar around the corner.  

This is packed with young Thai people – no Western tourists at all which was always the case before Covid. I have an Angel cocktail for Angie but it taste like shit – ha ha, Ange. Walking back to Thanon Rambutri, a guy is playing guitar and singing in a Bob Marley bar but we only have one drink then sit around the pool at Villa Cha Cha. After a swim we’re in bed by 10 o’clock. A great time already. 

Saturday 18^th June, 2022          

 Bangkok

At 6.30am I’m out looking to buy water and end up with fresh orange juice and fresh passionfruit juice squeezed right on the sidewalk. I notice that all the locals are wearing masks and I need to wear a mask as well before entering the 711 to buy water. I don’t have one on me but a kind lady outside selling Thai desserts hands me one – I give her 30 Baht.

Back in the room we both have showers and book an overnight train for tonight at the Villa Cha Cha desk. The girl is so sweet “thank you for coming back to Thailand”, she says. Like the girls from Pink, she’s only been working back here for a month after two and a half years of no work at all. While we’re here we also get her to book a room at Baan Boo Loo in Chiang Mai for the 20th.

Now we want to check out Khao San Road and walking around the corner opposite the temple we find it absolutely dead, literally a ghost town. We can’t stand to stay so find a small laneway instead and order prawn Pad Thai sitting at plastic tables on the footpath – our favourite thing to do in Thailand.

From here we pass Lackshimi House where we stayed last time when we were on our way to Myanmar in 2019. 

The humidity and heat are over the top as always so we make our way to the temple to sit in the cool prayer hall sitting in front of the big Buddha. In outer halls, monks are reciting lessons in Sanskrit and white robed nuns with shaven heads prepare food in the outdoor kitchen.

Later we climb the Drum Tower then walk through to Soi Rambutri via the back entrance of the temple. To cool down, we buy fresh lime sodas before having one-hour oil massages upstairs at Pink with On and Bong – fantastic basic atmosphere up here with little wonkey windows overlooking the soi and the temple. Next we both have pedicures then a manicure for me with Ni.

Even though it’s sweltering hot we decide to go for a walk through Banglamphu where we come across a street cart near the Fort – chicken drumsticks plus fresh orange and passionfruit juices once again.

Back at Villa Cha Cha we sit next to the pool but soon leave after listening to a pain-in-the-arse American arguing and swearing at a Thai girl and her friends – they’re all drunk. Upstairs we have a nanna nap in the air conditioning then up at 3:30pm for a swim.

Next we wander around to Pink for me to have my hair washed and blow dried (big mistake) while Mark buys T-shirts before both having lime sodas plus fresh fruit and papaya salad.

Now we head back to our room to pack, check out and catch a tuktuk to Hualampong Station. Hualampong will be closed next year when the horrible new Bang Sue Grand Station is supposed to be finished. This is to service the high speed trains which we never want to catch – much prefer the dear old rattlers.

Mark buys food upstairs on a mezzanine level overlooking all the action including my favourite – groups of monks. Before boarding we eat ham and cheese croissants and lovely blueberry smoothies. On the train at 7 o’clock, our bunks have already been made up. The carriage is nearly empty as no Western tourists again. We’re both in bed by 8 o’clock and have a great sleep after many stops as the train leaves Bangkok. The air conditioning is a bit cool at times but lots of blankets keep us cozy.

Sunday 19^th June, 2022          

Bangkok to Lampang

I’m awake at 5:30 am and love watching the countryside go by in this soft early morning light. I wake Mark at 6 o’clock when we pack, ready to pull into Lampang Station fifteen minutes later. We’re the only ones getting off the train which goes straight through to Chiang Mai where most passengers will disembark.

In the carpark outside, we find a songthaew to take us to the Riverside Guesthouse where a friendly girl opens the gate and shows us two rooms – we take the cheaper one for only $40. We prefer it anyway as it’s upstairs overlooking the laneway with bougainvillea and pretty teak houses opposite. Two walls are lined with multi-coloured glass windows and all the furniture is teak as well. 

Downstairs for breakfast, Mark orders conchee then accidentally eats my omelette as well – I’m happy with fresh fruit and tea anyway.

Since it’s Sunday, and early anyway, nothing much will be open just yet so we decide to rest till 10 o’clock. Mark then organises for a horse and cart to meet us out in the laneway at 10:15. This way of getting around town with horse drawn carriages is one of the main reasons I wanted to come to Lampang as it’s unique to this little town in northern Thailand.

Our horse man is a sweetie with a big smile and we set off along the laneway in front of the Riverside guesthouse. We slowly clip clop our way to the first wat of the day, Wat Si Rong Mueang, a Shan teak temple built in 1900. A monk tells us that because it’s completely made of wood we’re not allowed to light candles or incense in case the whole thing goes up in smoke. Inside is very elaborate with a wide richly decorated verandah where we spent quite a while looking all the beautiful decorations.

Wat Si Rong Muang was actually built by Burmese immigrants at the start of the 20^th century. They came to Lampang to work in the teak industry and brought with them their own ideas about temple construction – hence the Burmese Shan style.

On the way we’d passed more horse and carts. I think it’s cute that all the other horses are whinnying at our horse. The same thing happens when we enter the grounds of the next place. I say to Mark “look they’re saying hello to each other”. Mark says “no he’s a boy and our’s is a girl” just as I notice the other horse has a massive hard on – gross!!! Our girl must be on heat! 

Past the clock tower we pass more horses with more whinnying and more hard-ons – ha ha. 

Along lovely shaded laneways in the forestry area of Lampang, we pull into the leafy grounds of Baan Louis. Louis was the son of Anna Leonowen who was the British tutor to the children of King Rama IV and became famous as Anna through the musical and movie, The King and I.

As for Louis himself, he became heavily involved in a teak trade which this whole area is known for. In 1905 he founded his own company and so the construction started on Louis House as his own home – completely made of teak, what else?

Back in the cart we make our way along more shady laneways with traditional teak houses on both sides crossing small streams and the wider Rachadapisek Bridge. We visit another pretty wat then head back to the guesthouse. 

As we always like to do when we’re in Asia, we want to hire a motorbike to head out into the countryside by ourselves. Nothing is available at our guesthouse but we’re told there are a few places further along the road where we can hire one. We walk for miles but because it’s Sunday nothing is open so we give up and go back to the Riverside for lunch – club sandwiches and croissants for me and a Thai lunch for Mark. While we think about it, we ask the French lady owner to book a train for us for tomorrow morning to Chiang Mai plus a car to take us to the station as we’ll be leaving very early. We also ring Lauren and the dollies. They tell us that it’s freezing at home! 

Because we’re still a bit jet lagged and it’s sweltering by now we sleep till 3pm under the fan in our room. After cold showers we set out to look for a massage place we’ve heard about but it’s closed as well – Sunday again! 

An upside of it being Sunday though is that the Kad Kongta Night Market is on tonight. It only happens on Saturday and Sunday nights so we’re lucky to be here at the right time. We’re also lucky that the market is being held in the same street as ours. This is Walking Street which just means that it’s blocked off to traffic for the duration of the market. Stalls are already being set up on either side of the road. We stop to wander through a couple of interesting museums and art galleries then have lime sodas at Papa Gallery. Papa sees that I’m overly hot so he hurries over with a fan for each of us. He’s a tiny, trendy local man who makes the pottery himself. The gallery is super trendy as well and even the lime sodas are a work of art – crushed ice over slices of orange and lime and tiny edible flowers – I take photos!  

Really overheating by now, we walk back to the Riverside to sit in the air conditioning then sleep till 6.30pm before heading back up to Walking Street and the night market. 

The street itself is wonderful, lined with lovely century-old wooden shop-houses, a mix of Western, Burmese, Chinese and Thai styles. I’ve read that this was what Chiang Mai was once like. 

Just near the entrance to the market, we hear loud music coming from a wat down a short laneway on the left. Here, six ladies are dancing in ceremonial costume with beaming smiles. After one of the dances finish they call us over to have lots of photos while posing in funny shapes with our arms – so sweet!

By now the market is packed with locals, no Westerners at all. The market is very unique with most things locally made – no wooden frogs, if you know what I mean. 

We walk to the bridge at the end of the market where I buy pants and two tops – all very hilltribe. We both buy chicken drumsticks and Mark has pork skewers and spicy fishcakes. He can’t stop eating – there’s so much fabulous food here. I even buy a bug and eat it – a bucket list thing. Ewwww!! 

Now we go in search of ‘party’ street but seem to walk miles in the darkness until we eventually find a group of bars not far from our own guesthouse. The first bar we come across is very cute, all lined with teak and lots of silk Chinese lanterns hanging from the vaulted ceiling. We choose a cozy corner for drinks and then buy peanuts from a little boy who comes in off the street. The next bar is called the Riverside Bar with a deck overlooking the water. A band is playing behind a huge glass screen, to protect them from Covid we suppose. The first few songs are in Thai but because we’re the only people here and because we’re Westerners they actually play Country Roads, my favourite karaoke song. Thank god I haven’t had enough drinks to get up. I do sing along loudly though. 

The water is mirror calm on the river and the bridge is lit up with coloured lights – Lampang Vivid?? – while rows of fountains dance in front of us. The bar next door has more people but we don’t like the band so we head back to our guest house, falling into bed after a great day. 

Monday 20^th June, 2022          

Lampang to Chiang Mai

Our alarm wakes us at 5:30 am before we meet our driver in the laneway fifteen minutes later. He charges 300 Baht because he had to get up so early – okay, fair enough. It’s an absolutely gorgeous morning, warm with a clear blue sky and quiet streets.

Outside the station is lovely. We sit at a local lady’s street cart in the shade and buy coffee and Chinese tea. I ask what she has to eat and she points to an egg. I think it might be hard boiled but I get a raw egg swimming in a cup of something hot and milky. She shows me how to add salt and pepper and soy – yuck, still can’t eat it. From another cart, Mark buys pork skewers which are much more edible. An old monk in orange robes is standing behind us holding his alms bowl but soon leaves when none of the stallholders give him anything to eat. They’ve probably already given heaps of food to other old dears. 

Later we walk over to the station, looking pretty with topiary trees and other plants. Again we’re the only people here. Lampang is definitely not on the tourist trail. 

The Bangkok to Chiang Mai train arrives at 6:40 am and we’re soon chugging through the open countryside. Today we have long padded bench seats facing each other and wide open windows. This is always our favourite thing about train travel in Thailand.

The trip to Chiang Mai will take about two hours passing rice paddies, banana trees, small villages, a big white Buddha on a distant hill and lots of small stations where ladies hop on selling roast chicken, sticky rice and water.

Passing through the Khintan Tunnel, we find Mark’s favourite railway station that we saw on our way back from Chiang Mai four years ago. Half an hour before we reach Chiang Mai we travel through the small town of Lamphun where we might stay on the way back to Bangkok in a week or so.

At 8.45 am we pull into Chiang Mai station and actually see a few young western backpackers get off the train – a good sign. 

A lady who introduces herself as Phun approaches us outside and jumps into the back of a songthaew with us. She tries to sell us tours but we tell her that we’ve been here many times before and have truly seen everything she wants to show us. 

We’re off to Baan Boo Loo, the guest house that we’d booked in Bangkok two days ago. We’d actually tried to book it online through booking.com but it said there weren’t any rooms left so we asked the girl at the desk to ring direct and supposedly they do have a room for us – will see! 

Leaving the station we head into the old city surrounded by a moat and even part of the old wall that originally surrounded it. Amongst the little laneways of the old city we finally pull up at Baan Boo Loo. We came across this gorgeous place four years ago on our way back from Laos but at that time they didn’t have any rooms at all so we always vowed to come back again one day.

The only thing is, I feel disoriented because there are two gates facing each other on either side of the laneway and I’m sure last time we entered through the opposite gate to the one which is now being opened for us by a young man in traditional dress.

Apparently this is the smaller part which is now being used because of Covid and less travellers. There’s no disappointment though as it’s just as wonderful as the side we’d seen before. I think I’d describe it as elegantly rustic and full of Thai character. My heart seriously soars. 

Inside the gate, the young man carries our bags – he can’t pull them because the ground is rough pebbles, no crappy cement here. He leads us upstairs to an open-sided pavilion where we meet the lovely female hostess called Lamai and, joy of joys, yes we do have a room! Under a vaulted beamed roof we sit at a long wooden table covered in a woven ethnic cloth surrounded by potted palms and flowers. The young man now brings us fresh juice, iced water, tea and coffee and watermelon while beautiful Thai music plays in the background. Next is chrysanthemum tea – oh my god I’m in heaven! Now we’re shown to our room by Lamai’s brother. “I am Gai” he says and we think “yes you are”! Little cutie!

Our room is downstairs next to a rocky pond filled with goldfish and inside we have wooden floors and ceiling, air conditioning, a huge stand-alone bath, a daybed, a king size bed, a fridge and the whole place dripping in Thai culture. The only downside is a mosquito zapper that keeps scaring the shit out of me so we turn it off. We have hill tribe jackets to wear so we do.

Now we’re ready to take on Chiang Mai so we head off through the alleyways and walk for about a kilometre till we come across a massage place called Calm. This is definitely calm and thankfully also cool because we’re sweltering by now. First we’re given cold tea before having our feet washed and changing into loose tops and pants. We both have an excellent massage for 350 Baht each which is about $14 – not so cheap here. Before leaving they give us green tea and an unusual Thai sweet – strangely it’s coloured grey and tastes smoky. 

Off now to Wororot Market in a tuktuk. Wororot is the most well-known and biggest market in northern Thailand. It’s huge and sells everything from local food to ceramics, flowers, embroidery and clothing. Besides this one part of the alleyway market is set up with Hmong and Chinese local products and we even come across a small Chinese temple. 

At each entrance a guard sits to take our temperature and make sure that we wear a mask before going inside. In the vast food hall we sit at a stall where I order fish balls in noodles and Mark orders something indescribable – what the hell is he eating now??!! We also buy an interesting cold blackberry drink. 

I’m looking for a straw hat but no luck although I do buy two necklaces. In the seafood section we watch live fish and tiny turtles swimming around in plastic buckets, pink eggs and very stinky dried fish. 

There’s a very weird toilet in here – I pay 4 Baht then pass through a hot pink roundabout gate in a cage. Once inside it’s squat toilets only – my first experience for this trip.

From here we catch a tuktuk to the bus station to ask about getting to Chiang Dao tomorrow. Apparently we just turn up in the morning and buy our tickets then.

For now we want to see the forest temple that Lauren and I had visited in 2010. Mark didn’t come that day because he’d been sick and stayed in the room. So, in the same tuktuk we drive twenty minutes out of town to Wat Umong where we jump out at the forest entrance. 

Wat Umong is a 700 year old Buddhist temple set within fifteen acres of woodland. Up and down pathways we pass the monastery then come across a large pond where we feed ducks, turtles and hideous catfish. Swarms of pigeons are trying to pinch the fish food and are scaring a group of squealing Thai tourists. Next we explore the ancient tunnels that run beneath the Chedi. The story goes that the tunnels were built to keep a crazy old monk occupied so he wouldn’t keep running away. Apparently true.  

Back in Chiang Mai, we look for Johns Place, our old favourite and a local institution. Sadly it’s gone – probably another victim of Covid. Instead we buy ice creams and drinks from the 711 then walk back to Baan Boo Loo. We hang out here till 6.30pm and have a cool bath together in our luxurious bathtub.

Walking back down to the main street we find a tuktuk to take us to the night market. This is a great disappointment – another victim of Covid.  All that’s left at the moment it’s just a few stalls in the street. I do find a straw hat though and we buy toy kittens on blankets for the dollies.

Ready for alcohol, we take a tuktuk back to the bar area that we discovered a few years ago with Frank from Holland who’d been on our longtail boat in northern Laos. 

Loi Kron Road is the touristy, girly bar area with strings of bars and cafes on both sides of the narrow road. It seems innocent enough on the outside and we just want a drink anyway. In one bar we buy chicken wings and spring rolls while Mark has a beer. One of the girls working here is making everyone laugh by mimicking a guy who’d been drunk earlier. As usual a creepy pervert is lurking around the girls and lots more are walking past – all ugly old bald expats.

Crossing to the tiny bar opposite, we chat with three ladies and ‘woohoo’ they sell Bacardi – although I’ve brought my own as usual. Country music is playing and when Alan Jackson’s “Remember When” comes on it makes me sad. I actually get very drunk stumbling all over the place Mark tells me later – not a great look for an almost 70 year granny. Oh well! Wobble to bed but can’t sleep. 

Tuesday 21st June, 2022           

Chiang Mai to Chiang Dao

This morning where off to Chiang Dao which is the exciting part of our trip because it’s somewhere we’ve never been before and part of the loop we plan to do which will bring us back to Chiang Mai in a week’s time. That’s the rough plan anyway.

At 6:30 we’re up to shower, pack and head upstairs for breakfast in Baan Boo Loo’s stunning dining area. How do I describe this place? It’s really something special. Overhung with trees, vines and plants we feel like we’re in our own treehouse. Everything is made of wood or other natural materials – you won’t find any plastic here!  Hot breakfast food is offered in a row of clay pots displayed on a long antique carved cupboard. Ceramic jars of all shapes and sizes hold dried purple and white flowers while vignettes of Thai carvings, alms bowls, bronze and brass wear fill the space with atmosphere. To top it off, all the crockery is celadron, that wonderful pale green that’s always been my favourite ceramic. 

Breakfast is warm croissants, chrysanthemum tea, coffee, watermelon and fresh pineapple. Gai rings for a tuktuk driver to pick us up in the laneway. It’s a beautiful morning once again with the sun shining through the trees overhanging the gate. A quick drive to the bus station and we soon have our tickets on the Chiang Mai to Thaton bus which will drop us off in Chiang Dao on the way.

The bus leaves at 8 o’clock on the dot with everyone wearing masks – we even have monks up the back and I sneak photos. The best thing about these old buses to out-of-the-way places is that there’s no air conditioning so, once again, we have open windows. We pass lots of small towns until the last forty minutes or so where it’s just open rice paddies and mountains ahead. It’s great to be out of the city. 

At 10 o’clock we arrive in Chiang Dao which is basically just one long street with businesses and shops on either side – nothing too appealing here but we knew that all the gorgeous stuff is just out of town. What we have lucked on, is that it’s the Tuesday Morning Market so getting off the bus we store our bags and then walk up to the market.

It’s busy as all local markets are and we stalk some hill tribe ladies in traditional dress.  We hope to see more hill tribes further north. I buy a singlet top but there’s nothing much else I’m interested in. Mark again buys something indescribable to eat – balls of something on a stick which he burps up for the rest of the day. 

Back at the bus station, the sweet guy on the desk rings Nest Guesthouse for us – this gets good reviews on booking.com but there’s no answer – “you have no booking?”,  he says – “no, but we’ll just go there anyway” – he’s confused! 

While we wait, Mark buys a steamed bun while I buy a watermelon ice block and keep myself occupied by checking out an old monk who seems to be lost. Soon a tiny smiling man arrives and introduces himself as Ton. He’s very proud of his bright yellow songthaew. Throwing all our gear into the back we bounce along rough tracks for a few kilometres. Even on this short distance Ton stops four times to jump out and run around the back to ask us a question – do we want to stay here, do we want to go there? – so sweet!

Soon we turn onto a paved road for a few kilometres then onto another small road leading into the jungle. Unfortunately we find that Nest is now only open on weekends because of Covid so Ton suggests we try Marlee’s Nature Bungalows and we’re so glad he did. It’s set in a peaceful tropical garden at the base of Doi Chang Dao, Thailand’s third highest mountain.

It’s a family run business with Marlee herself coming out to greet us with open arms and a beaming smile. We never cease to be amazed by how friendly and genuine Thai people are.

Marlee give us a tour of the gardens on the way to show us two bungalows. We choose the 1000 Baht (AUD$40 a night) the biggest one – it’s upstairs with a balcony all-round and lovely views of the thick jungle beneath. She proudly shows us all the colourful plants she’s grown as well as lots of orchids, “my husband” she says. 

We’ve already arranged with Ton to spend the rest of the afternoon with him visiting all the local sites so we leave straight away.

First is Chiang Dao Cave only a few hundred metres from Marlee’s along a dirt track. The complex also includes Wat Chiang Dao (not a lot of imagination naming things around here) plus a pavilion and other outer buildings. At the entrance near a pretty pond, we feed the temple catfish then pay 55 Baht each to visit the cave because this is a national park. Masks must be worn, so the skeleton at the entrance tells us – a skeleton we suppose to scare the Covid pants off everyone! The cave is large and impressive with Buddha statues plus stalagmites and stalactites. Back outside behind the new wat we find the ruins of earlier temples almost swallowed up by the jungle vegetation. 

The rain has started but it’s fun riding in the back of the songthaew with the tropical rain pouring down around us. Later Ton stops for lunch on the main road – a tuna salad for me and Tom Yum for Mark. The heat and humidity is over the top so we have two soda waters each plus a strawberry shake and a pineapple shake. 

From here it’s a forty minute drive to Srisungwan Waterfalls. The rain has stopped by now so we make our way through the forest down to the first waterfall. I wear a sarong to cover my swimmers then we both make our way to the bottom of the falls before following Ton down to level four for another swim.

Heading fifteen minutes back towards Chiang Dao, we stop at Pong Arne Hot Springs situated in a pretty park. The natural hot springs are super hot so we don’t stay in too long and follow it up with a cold shower – once more we’re the only ones here. Covid is really affecting this area badly.

Now we’re not sure what else is on the agenda but Ton wants to keep taking us to more and more places. He points to a temple on the top of a hill. At first we say no but he talks us into it. Actually it’s really worth it with a Burmese paya and golden rock just like the huge one we saw in Myanmar last year. The views are spectacular as we can see the whole surrounding countryside plus Doi Chiang Dao far into the distance. 

Before winding our way back down the mountain, Ton talks Mark into sitting in the front cabin with him – I think he wants someone to talk to – I’d rather stay in the back – I hate air conditioning. In the first town we come to, Ton pulls over to chat with some friends then because it’s so hot we buy drinks and ice creams for us all. Just when we think we’re on our way back home he turns off the road again to stop at King Nerasuan Stupa in Mueang Ngai village. The stupa was built by the villagers to honour the King’s victory over the Burmese in 1604. Okay, we get that but what’s with all the roosters? Some say that it’s because he won Ayutthaya’s freedom from the Prince of Burma in a single cockfight but in Thailand the rooster also symbolises wealth and good fortune so we don’t know. Anyway there’s roosters everywhere – thousands of big ones, little ones and giant ones. 

I’m melting by now so I agree to sit in the front with Mark and Ton. Ton hasn’t drawn breath for hours and even now while he’s driving he’s reading out the doctor’s notes about his appointment in Chiang Mai tomorrow. 

We say “let’s get back to Marlee’s” – over it by now. “You want to go top of mountain?” Ton asks hopefully making one last ditch effort to keep going. “Nooo!” 

Then not far from Marlee’s we see an elephant camp and ask if we can go tomorrow. Ton says he’ll organise something for the morning before we catch the bus to Thaton. This will be fantastic as we thought we’d miss out on elephant riding this trip. 

We spend the afternoon resting in our room under the fan – no aircon here – listening to the rain falling on our roof. It stops about 6.30pm so we set off to find a restaurant somewhere near here that Marlee has recommended. She doesn’t have enough guests at the moment to make it worth her while to cook. She gives us directions to Jin’s place which is about a ten minute walk through the forest.

With it being just on dark this is all very lovely except for a bunch of scary barking dogs that chase us down the road – hate dogs! There’s nothing else around here just forest and a couple of odd places like Marlee’s, Jin’s and a bar not far away. 

Jin’s is run by Jin and her western husband John. They’re both in a flap with seven customers! Ha ha. Jin is in the kitchen trying to cook three pizzas and pops out every now and again wearing a white coat and a tall white chef’s hat while John is stressing and sweating like a pig – Fawlty Towers eat your heart out. Despite the long menu John tells us we can only have pizza then later on announces that we can have ravioli – whatever, just give us something! This is hilarious then becomes even funnier as more people turn up in cars. There’s nowhere else to eat around here. John turns them away. Meanwhile we chat with a friendly Pommy guy with his Thai girlfriend who can’t believe the circus around us either.

Of course I’ve brought along my Bacardi but they don’t have Coke – surprise, surprise – so I end up having a wine. I only have a couple of sips and give the rest to Mark. If the service and food are a disaster, the atmosphere isn’t. Jin’s sits at the bottom of a tree covered cliff face and we’re sitting in the garden under the stars on this hot still night.

After dinner we walk down the road to a place called Cave Bar. And guess what – they have Bacardi and Coke! A pretty Thai girl is serving and we spent an hour talking to her and to Robert and Elizabeth from Seattle. We have so much in common it’s a shame we’re moving on in the morning.

With a busy day tomorrow we head home walking back through the pitch dark forest. Mark finds a huge stick to fight off the dogs. I’m almost wetting my pants laughing, with the horrible dogs still following and barking like maniacs.

As we pass Jin’s we find her out the front directing traffic in her cook’s hat – there’s only one car and no traffic on the road anyway – so funny – you had to be there. Back at Marlee’s we sit on our verandah for more drinks that we don’t need.  More pants wetting as Mark does a nudie run through the bushes below – ha ha. A fantastic day!  

Wednesday 22nd June, 2022          

Chiang Dao to Thaton

Waking again at 7:30am to another perfect day we can hear birds singing and those funny insects that sound like little chainsaws. Humid already, Mark has a dip in the pool but I’m busy getting ready. Breakfast is in the timber-lined dining area which is open on all sides and decorated with a Buddha statue and fountain. We’re the only guests. 

Marlee comes out to talk to us. She brings her home-made bread and mango jam, scrambled eggs, orange juice plus tea and coffee. Marlee is married to Kurt from Switzerland and has one son studying in New Zealand. They haven’t seen him for three years because of Covid. 

She gives us the local gossip. Poor Ton is sick because of stress because he hasn’t any money due to Covid. He’s not married and lives by himself and yet he’s always laughing and smiling – brave little man. On a funnier side she then tells us that Jin “angry when many customers” then “she very stress – go south for two months but still angry”. Hard not to laugh! 

Marlee is such a sweetheart and we become Facebook friends. We’ve already packed so Ton picks us up at 8:30. We give a warm goodbye to Marlee and Kurt before being waved off. The elephant camp is only fifteen minutes away. At the moment they only have two girls, Boona and Hona, and we meet their mahouts and another man who seems to be the camp owner. To reach the basket on the elephant’s back we climb a ladder to a wooden platform. As we set off the heat is unbearable with zero shade. But here comes Ton running after us with an umbrella, yelling out “hot sun, hot sun!”

I don’t know what we’d have done without it. Boona plods along with us on her back for about forty minutes passing cultivated fields, village houses and ponds with a standing Buddha and a  golden paya in the distance and Doi Chiang Dao rising up behind. Boona picks grass to eat on the way and reaches back with her trunk to take the little bananas that we give her. As we return to Ton’s songthaew, we see Hona throwing dirt all over herself. After photos taken with both of them and feeding them more bananas, we’re ready to leave for the bus station.

But typically, Ton drives us straight to the standing Buddha – there’s always a side track – before dropping us at the Chiang Dao. Goodbye little Ton, we hope you’re not too unwell and hope business picks up for you soon. We pay him well.

At the bus station we talk to the same friendly guy that we met yesterday. He tells us that there’s a bus to Thaton at 12 o’clock but we can catch the 11am bus to Fang then get a songthaew to Thaton from there. This will save us hanging around here for an hour plus give us a bit of time to check out Fang.

In the meantime, Mark walks back up to the market to buy pineapple (no burpy balls on sticks please, darling) while I lie on a bench with my head on our pillow bag and watch monks walking past – I’m more than happy. 

The Chiang Mai / Fang bus arrives right on time at 11 am. We manage to get a window seat each, open windows of course, and again we pass through small towns over winding mountain roads loving the green, green vegetation, temples and schools until we arrive at Fang one and a half hours later.

Here, excited motorcycle taxi drivers are ready to whisk us away to the market on the other side of town. We jump on the back of a bike each while the drivers balance our big packs across their knees. Dangerous? Hell yes, but great fun! We haven’t done this motorcycle taxi thing for years and we love passing each other through town.

The minute we pull into the market these funny guys thrown our packs straight into the back of a waiting songthaew which takes off almost before we can get our bums inside. So much for having time to check out Fang! Ha ha.

We have three local ladies in the back with us. They all have mountains of bags filled with things that they’ve obviously picked up from the market. We smile and wave but because we all have to wear masks it’s a bit hard to make friends. At least there’s not the usual waiting around when we have to be full to bursting before we can leave. Wrong! 

We only drive a few hundred metres and stop again in the middle of town. Two more ladies finally turn up then we only wait another half an hour before eventually setting off. We’re kept amused on the half hour trip by one of the ladies who never stops talking at the top of her voice even though we can’t understand a word she says. 

In Thaton we’re dropped off in the main street but really have no idea where we are or where to stay. The first thing we need is a toilet and something to eat so we find a nice little cafe run by a friendly lady called Joy. She only has one tooth. After using the squat toilets, we order chicken with fried noodles and lime sodas. Joy is a good cook and speaks good English as well. Luckily she has Wi-Fi so we use it to look up booking.com and decide to stay in a resort tonight. Very unlike us but there doesn’t seem to be anywhere very interesting around here otherwise.

Joy says “I ring hotel – you pack – you buy water”. Ha ha, she’s very bossy. Soon a truck arrives to take us to the Maekok River Village Resort where we can get a bungalow for only 1500 Baht or AUD$60. It’s on the opposite side of the Kok River so we cross the Thaton Bridge, prettily overlooked by a hill covered in palms and golden temples. We find the resort set in flowering gardens and trees with an arched bridge spanning a small pond. Our bungalow is five star with a verandah that walks straight out to the pond and the pool beside us. Mark goes for a walk to check out the grounds then we both have a swim.

We’ve been told that we’re the only ones here again. The resort has just reopened after a couple years of Covid shut down and they’re hoping that once the Thailand Pass finishes in the next few weeks that tourists will start to turn up – so many places doing it tough. It’s a problem even in these big resorts because they hire local people like the young girl on the desk who said that she had to go back to her village and work in the fields and has only just got her job back. 

At 3:30pm a massage lady from the village comes to our room who we’d organised from the front desk. Mark has a one hour Thai massage and I have a head and shoulders. All good but never really love having massages in our rooms – no atmosphere.

Our original plan was to head further north to Mae Salong and then do a loop to Chiang Mai stopping at Chang Rai on the way. But if we do this we’ll miss out on the four hour boat trip from Thaton direct to Chang Rai and, reading up on Mae Salong, I’m not sure if it’s worth the extra two days of travelling. At the check-in desk we’re told that there is no public boat tomorrow to Chiang Rai but we can hire a longtail for ourselves for 2200 Baht or AUD$90 so we’ll take it. We’re a huge fan of these river trips in Asia.

Back in the room we ring Lauren and then the dollies who are staying with Josh tonight so Lauren can go to work tomorrow. After a rest we get dressed in our posh clothes – I’m wearing my new $7 hilltribe top (very posh!!) and head over to the restaurant built over another big pond. Because we’re the only ones here we can have whatever table we want and sit overlooking the water where hungry fish are waiting below. I order a tuna salad while Mark has chicken soup and some spicy Thai dish. There are beers available for him but no Coke for me so I just settle with soda water and decide to have a no drinking night – my liver needs a rest anyway! The food is good which we eat while watching a bright pink sunset across the river – very romantic! 

Because I can’t drink and there’s nothing else to do anyway we head back to the room at 8:30. Mark has a few beers in bed then we both sleep well with air conditioning for a change. 

Thursday 23rd June, 2022          

Thaton to Chiang Rai

By 7.30am we’ve packed, showered and having breakfast back in the restaurant. This is the usual tea, coffee, juice, watermelon, pineapple, toast with home-made orange and mango jam and scrambled eggs – we feed the fish our leftovers. 

We follow a couple of the staff who take our bags on trolleys down to the river. Our captain is Tun (not Ton like our little mate from yesterday). We’re the only ones in our longtail and leave at 8:30am – hot under a cloudy sky but it looks like it’ll fine up soon. At this early hour it’s even a little bit cool on the river as we get moving.

Apparently, the public ferry isn’t running at the moment because it’s the dry season from May to July and the river levels are too low – no problem, though, for a longtail boat. Like the wonderful river trips we did in northern Laos a few years ago, this is another experience of a lifetime. 

We fly past haystacks, pagodas on a hill, sandmining, fisherman in the shallows and stands of bamboo growing all over the hills. The bamboo looks so pretty from this distance – soft and feathery. The sun has come out by now so colours are more vibrant – blue skies and brilliant green vegetation. 

As we round each bend, mountains appear ahead while we navigate the many rapids and slow down as the river narrows in places. Tiny huts appear on steep hills, small villages and towns, bamboo rafts pulled up onto the banks and banana trees. 

We’re surprised when Tun eventually pulls into the riverbank. He points to an overgrown dirt track leading uphill. We guess that this where we’ll hide in the bushes for a weewee stop. 

But, wow, we’ve walked  into a real bucket list surprise that’s come completely out of the blue. We’re actually in a hill tribe village – a real hill tribe village with no tourists at all! There’s not many villagers around, just a few little boys and a lady hanging embroidered fabrics on a line to fence off her garden. The timber homes are all weathered grey and built on stilts with corrugated roofs and dogs scratching around underneath as well as chickens and little baby chicks. Three little kids come giggling up to us, one proudly producing a baby bird that he’s cradling in his hands.  Mark takes a video and plays it back to them – great excitement! On a real high, we head back down the path to the river. 

Tun starts the boat up again and we’re soon on our way passing more fishermen, water buffalo and cows grazing by the river bank.

After an hour we stop again. Now we’ll change boats with another man who’ll take us from here to Chang Rai. We wave goodbye to Tun who again points to a village sitting above the riverbank – not a hill tribe village this time but a small place with a few cafes and shops and, best of all, there are elephants! We don’t have time for a ride this morning so we just buy bags of fruit and bamboo for 25 Baht and go round to feed each one. There’s about six of them here in grassy enclosures fenced off with bamboo. It’s a lovely setting but we’re starting to wonder about this elephant riding thing and whether it’s the right thing to do – probably not but they ARE fucking huge so does it really matter if someone sits on their back for half an hour? At least they’re getting looked after – that’s my story anyway. 

Just as we’re about to leave and head back down to the water, we stop to buy a drink at a little open-air shop. On the wall we see pictures of longneck women so I ask the owner who shows us some huts about 20 m away. An old lady wearing brass neck rings comes towards us and for 300Baht she takes us inside the tall fence that surrounds the village. Inside is a circle of bamboo and thatched huts where longneck women are weaving in their traditional way on their verandahs. Apparently they moved these villages a few years ago from down near Chiang Mai to up here in the less populated north. We can’t get away without having photos taken with fake brass rings around my neck which I’m not too happy about – it feels wrong but maybe this is how they make money to live – complicated because I know the dangers of putting our Western opinions on other cultures. It’s nice to sit with the girls though and I make up for the neck ring thing by buying brass rings (finger), bracelets, a scarf and a fridge magnet. 

Down at the river we change boats, another longtail and meet our new captain called Mr Zaw. The trip takes only forty minutes to Chang Rai when we pull into a pretty bank overhung with trees which is much nicer than a wharf which we’d expected. We carry our bags up the bank, well Mark does anyway, and ask a man hanging around for a lift into town. We haven’t booked anywhere so he just drives us to the backpacker area in Jetyod Road where we hang out in a rustic restaurant to have lunch.

We chat with the owner and her grandkids then I have chicken soup with warm bread and Mark has a papaya salad and we both have soda waters. We really like this backpacker area with lots of cafes and bars lining Jetyod Street.

Now it’s time to look for somewhere to stay so we walk down towards the temple to look at a few guesthouses but most of them are fan-only and the temperature has soared so we book into the air conditioned Orchid House for only 400 Baht AUD $16. After an afternoon rest we find a little massage place nearby but it’s the worst massage ever as we pay for an hour but only get 30 minutes. The girls are bored stiff and just seem to want to get back on their phones. I have a shower but Mark isn’t even offered one – he tells them how pathetic this place is and chucks them 500baht instead of the 600 they want – they’re lucky to get that! 

On dark we walk to the night market. There aren’t many stalls as we’ve come to expect during these Covid times. Mark does manage to buy a silk shirt for 300Baht – he looks gorgeous, of course. 

Back around in Jetyod Street we drink at O’Kane’s Irish Bar ordering a bacon and cheese baguette before walking down to the Clocktower which is all lit up at night with changing coloured lights. More drinks at the Cat Bar – cat decorations everywhere – where we play Connect Four and drink too much (I guess that’s me). We even have a singer and, guess what, he sings Country Roads with me serenading along – last drinks at O’Kane’s.

A wonderful adventurous day. 

Friday 24th June, 2022          

Chiang Rai

The plan today was to move on but we really like Chang Rai so we’ve decided to stay here another day and night and fly back to Bangkok tomorrow. 

Opposite the laneway to Orchid House laneway we have breakfast at Aw’s Place. She seems to be the same cook from O’Kane’s last night which means we get the same fabulous bacon and cheese baguette plus pineapple shakes and passionfruit shakes. 

After breakfast we hire a motorbike from a place down near the big wat and decide to look for the famous White Temple. From the map we picked up at Orchid, we’re sure we can find it but later realise that the map isn’t to scale. We become lost for two hours driving through open countryside, down little back alleyways, past rice paddies, tiny villages and even flying through the grounds of a big temple. Eventually we’re running low on petrol and give up – it’s been a great experience anyway.

Even though we’ve decided to stay in Chang Rai another night, of course we’re going to change guesthouses so we ride the bike back to check out of Orchid House and move into Baan Jaru just around the corner. The young man on the desk is super helpful and tells us that he can book a flight for us this afternoon. He also gives us the right directions to the White Temple which we’ll visit after lunch.

For this he recommends an expensive restaurant just a few streets away. I have chicken wings and Mark has drumsticks in a spicy curry – good people watching.

It seems that the White Temple is a lot further than we thought and because my bum is sore after this morning’s bike ride we decide to get a taxi out there. The first thing we see as we near the temple is tacky souvenir shops, cafes, fast food restaurants and lots of Thai tourists but then the temple itself comes into view. Wow this is amazing. We’ve seen pictures before but to see it in real life is next level. The strange thing is it’s not a true temple at all but a privately owned art exhibit. The artist who created it has a very very long name so I won’t go there. He built it out of white plaster (white to represent the spirit and the purity of Buddha) then inlaid it with thousands of glass mirrors which are now sparkling in the sun.

We wander inside the temple and around the grounds where we find an art gallery, an ordinance hall, a meditation hall and monks’ quarters – the whole place is dedicated to Buddhist teachings. Most unusual of all, is the over-the-top gold toilet building which is supposedly the fanciest in the world – gold to represent the body (or is it botty – toilet, get it?). We have to give it a go!

Afterwards we grab cold drinks before getting back in the taxi to arrive home about 4 o’clock. Here our guy on the desk books our flight to Bangkok in the morning – easy!

From our guesthouse we walk around to Monmueng Massage. And what a difference to the crappy place we went to yesterday. We usually prefer the really basic places but it’s nice to have something luxurious for a change. After soaking our feet in warm tubs of floating flowers and sliced lemons the young massage girls scrub our feet with salt and rub them with more lemons. Now they lead us into the back section – dark and moody with black walls and brass accents – so exotic for our one hour head, shoulders and neck massages. And unbelievably the same price as yesterday.

At Baan Jaru we both have cold showers then Mark walks over to O’Kane’s while I stop at a funny little hairdresser for a thirty minute hair wash and blow dry. For 100Baht I have my head shampooed and massaged for almost an hour – no kidding! I’ve been in here so long it’s dark by the time I leave and all the bars I pass walking up to O’Kane‘s are pumping with music and coloured lights. There are still a lot of places along here that aren’t open so we can imagine how much more lively it must have been before Covid hit – hopefully it’ll get back to what it once was one day. 

At O’Kane’s we order pizzas and drinks have a long chat with Bill, an expat from England. All these bars are full of expats – actually they’re the only Western people we’ve come across nearly the whole time we’ve been in Thailand.

Next we stop at the Peace Bar which is super cool but they don’t have any Coke zero so we find another tiny place for more drinks and then drinks back on our balcony. Go to bed!!

Saturday 25th June, 2022          

Chiang Rai to Bangkok

So this morning we’re flying back to Bangkok. The alarm has been set for 6 o’clock, we pack and have breakfast in the dining room and catch a taxi to the airport. We’re flying Lion Air and take off on time at 9 am arriving at Don Muang Airport fifty minutes later. Don Muang was once Bangkok’s international airport but for the last ten years or so it’s been domestic only since they built the massive Suvarnabhumi. Instead of a taxi, we catch a bus into the city and get dropped off at Khao San Road and head straight back to Villa Cha Cha – we even get our old room back. 

Breakfast/ lunch is at Madam Masur’s and we find that Khao San Road is much livelier today – what a difference a week has made!

We’ve decided to have a lazy day and have lunch in the street near Villa Cha Cha. On dark we head around to Pink for foot massages and have lots of photos taken with the girls. We’ve become close to them over the years. 

Dinner is back at Madam Masur’s which has become our favourite place around here this trip. To celebrate being back in Bangkok, I have margaritas and Mark has more beers. A young woman selling souvenirs from a tray around her neck comes over for a chat. Her name is Wat and we buy bracelets and have lots of fun – “where from?” – Australia – “ah g’day mate” she says, “the dingo’s got my baby” in a full-on Aussie accent – ha ha. 

From here we wander to the top of Soi Rambutri and watch break dancers in the street. Unbelievably Khao San Road is crazy tonight with loud doof doof music which seems to be what these crowds of young Thai people love – it’s unbearable! To escape the noise we find a quiet table opposite Sawadee House in the laneway. Mark buys dried squid from a guy who cooks it over hot coals on his cart. 

There’s so many more people around tonight compared to only last week. A weird white guy is annoying everyone with a puppet – he’s wearing a rainbow wig – good to see the freaks are back!  An early night.

Sunday 26th June, 2022          

Bangkok

Today we’re going to get off our arses and do some sightseeing. So at 9am we take a tuktuk to the Grand Palace which we haven’t visited since our very first visit to Thailand in 1997 when we were with the Intrepid group. At the busy entrance we pay 500 Baht or $20 each and I have to buy a T-shirt as well as my jacket is supposedly see-through – very strict dress rules here. First we stop at a cafe for Mark to have a coffee then visit the most sacred place inside the palace, Wat Phra Kaew, to see the Emerald Buddha. This is Thailand’s most revered religious icon – but it’s tiny (only 66cm high) compared to most huge Buddha statues in every other temple. Over the centuries it’s done the rounds all over Asia from India to Cambodia to Sri Lanka to Laos to different places in Thailand to finally end up here for the last two hundred years. Outside we both light candles for Angie and incense for Lauren, Abi and Elkie.  

It’s stinking hot so we try to find shade wherever we can. Just before leaving the Grand Palace we’re lucky to come across the changing of the guard, all very serious and looking immaculate in snowy white uniforms. 

Now another tuktuk ride to the 16th century Buddhist temple of Wat Po, a favourite that we’ve been visiting since that first time here in 1997 as well. As usual we get the tuktuk driver who wants to try and scam us – “Wat Po closed. I show you better”. Like a gem shop, perhaps?? We’ve been through this shit before so we dump him and find another driver. 

At Wat Po we head straight for the atmospheric Wat Po Massage School where we’ve been countless times and today we have a wonderful half-hour foot reflexology. This school is extra special as it’s known as the birthplace of traditional Thai massage. 

Later, wandering amongst the many pavilions we find a man doing a traditional dance to an audience of school kids, lots of monks and, of course, we must visit our old friend, the forty-six metre long Reclining Buddha. 

Back at Villa Cha Cha I look up other places to stay and find a wonderful place called Praya Palazzo. It’s on the opposite side of the river in Thonburi so we walk down to Pier Phra Ahtit where a private barge from the hotel will come to pick us up. This feels like luxury but it only costs $130 for the night – couldn’t get a shitty motel room in Australia for that. 

Praya Palazzo is a lovely old Italian-style mansion built in 1923 and is the only heritage hotel along the river. Painted a classic ochre colour, we can see it sitting majestic on the opposite bank of the Chao Praya River. As usual the river is busy with all sorts of watercraft – ferries going up and down, smaller ferries moving back and forth between Bangkok and Thonburi and the inevitable longtails.  We always find it exciting to be out on this busy river but different today on our cute little boat built to match the heritage style of the hotel. 

Pulling up at the small private Praya Palazza wharf, we’re helped ashore with our backpacks and greeted by a man in a maroon uniform – very formal. We follow him past the swimming pool then up a curved staircase to the first floor where he shows us our room. This leads off a wide airy veranda with arches overlooking the gardens and the river beyond. Our room is like the rest of the hotel, heritage and tastefully decorated with dark timber furniture and creaky wooden floors. 

After unpacking, we wander down to check out the hotel and to look for the dining room. This is another wow moment as we enter another world – a mix of Chinese, Thai and tropical colonial which is always my favourite mix of architecture and design. A dining area has smaller intimate rooms leading off and all painted a deep rich Chinese red with antique crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, timber floors and all the furniture a carved ebony with velvet upholstery in rich jewel colours. Instead of sitting in the dining room we choose to sit in one of the alcoves on a purple velvet chaise lounge. 

We order three classic Thai dishes but I don’t love any of them – I am the worst “foodie” in the world – so Mark can have it all. The presentation though is absolutely beautiful and I’m happy taking photos. I also love the old sepia photographs all along the entry walls showing early images of the building which was built as a family home (they had ten children!) then later a private school for girls. 

We’ve decided that we’ll go back over to Banglamphu today to get some food that I actually like and have our usual massages and do a bit of shopping.  Before that, though, we have a swim in the pool which faces the river with gardens of bougainvillea and frangipanis on the other three sides. 

The deal with the hotel barge is that they give us a mobile phone to call them whenever we want to come back. There’s no other way to get to the hotel at all except by boat. Love this!  So crossing the Chao Praya once more, we jump off at the Phra Ahtit pier and head straight for the laneways of Banglamphu. 

Mark wants to watch the State of Origin so we head up to the top of Soi Rambutri to look for a restaurant with a television. To get there we walk through the temple to that hypnotic sound of chanting monks. Mark finds a place to watch the game but I couldn’t care less so I cross to a little beauty parlour opposite for a facial for 400 Baht.  Later we buy chicken skewers in Tanee Road then head back down to Pink for foot massages while I have a long talk to Phin, the owner. She tells me that she’s had an Australian boyfriend for years who has taken her to lots of places all over Asia but she thinks he’s found somebody else as hasn’t come back since Covid finished. “I want him come back because I love him” – poor darling. We decide now to head back over to Praya Palazza so Mark rings them to send the barge back over to pick us up. Stopping at the 711 on the way to the wharf, we buy coke, beer and soda water. 

Crossing is so much fun as it’s starting to rain and we’re surrounded by the lights of the city and all the river craft. 

At the hotel we set ourselves up for drinks under an umbrella next to the pool and have a lovely night on our own watching the dinner boats slide past with bands playing on the top decks. Oh and there are huuuuge snails like the ones we saw in the Four Thousand Islands in 2013.

A lovely ending to our last full day in Thailand. 

Monday 27th June, 2022          

Bangkok to Sydney

This morning we sleep in till 8 o’clock then head downstairs for breakfast – eggs benedict, baked beans, tomatoes, hash browns, fruit and yoghurt. We take the hotel boat across the river and then walk down to the Mahatat Market – this is another old favourite where we always end up buying wonderful things that are heaps cheaper than the touristy shops. I buy a necklace then we bargain for two big ceramic ginger jars before tuktuking back to the pier and ring for the boat to pick us up once again. After showers and packing, we cross back one last to Banglamphu then catch a taxi to the airport.

The plane is late taking off at 7pm but no problem, we’re going home to our gorgeous girls after another wonderful trip in beautiful Thailand. 

Monday 28^th October, 2019

 Newcastle to Sydney

We both have a busy day at work (me at Aruma and Mark at JSA). Mark also has a late meeting so we can’t catch the train till after five o’clock arriving in Sydney at 8pm. We have dinner with Tam at Jillian and Michael’s then a few drinks before an early night.

Tuesday 29^th October, 2019

 Sydney to Bangkok

 After a 5.45am alarm we’re soon walking down to Museum Station under clear blue skies. The airport train gets us to the International Airport in fifteen minutes where we check in at Thai Airways. With the usual three hour wait, we buy Bacardi, eat McDonalds, use the massage chairs, ring Jackie and Facetime Lauren and the Dollies.

We have two squashed seats in the middle row and no leg room for the nine hour flight, but we’re off to Asia so we’re happy. Mark is extra happy watching Season 8 of Game of Thrones.

We land at 3pm at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport (which means ‘Golden Land’ by the way) and are speeding in a taxi towards the Old City in no time. We’ve booked a little guesthouse I saw online – because I loved the look of it – one of the old timber guesthouses that are quickly being replaced by high rise hotels. This is the Laksameenarai Guesthouse set in an alleyway behind Khao San Road. We’ve stayed all around this area of Banglamphu but not in this little laneway.

The Laksameenarai is an old teak house painted yellow and green with lots of lattice work and wooden shutters. Our room is off a shady side garden with our own tiny bathroom and even air-con for $45 AUD. Even better is that the garden opens onto the empty block next door overgrown with lush tropical plants. This is our heaven already!

After dumping our gear we cross over to Soi Rambutri, our favourite soi in all Bangkok. Not much has changed although it seems quieter than usual. Here is Sawadee House and here is Pink, our much-loved massage place. It’s painted a hot pink with laid back chairs outside so we settle in for foot massages with our old friends. We’ve been coming here for years! Someone races off to buy Mark a beer so we feel very spoilt.

Now we hang out at Madam Masur’s, a rustic café just along the soi. Mark has Tom Yum Goong and I have chicken satay skewers washed down with beers and Margaritas. Later we walk up to Thanon Rambutri and Khao San Road but it’s too crazy so we head back to our little laneway near the Laksameenarai.

Much more chilled here and we make camp at the open sided restaurant next door. This is run by a French guy so it’s popular with expats. At the moment it’s a peaceful escape from Khao San and even better when a sudden tropical downpour sends us moving further inside.

A perfect end to our first day. Bed at 9pm.

Wednesday 30^th October, 2019

 Bangkok to Yangon (Myanmar)

A really good sleep in our quiet little room then up early to make the most of our day in Bangkok before we fly out to Myanmar tonight. Crossing the very busy Thanon Chakrabongse in the bright sunshine, we find one of the tiny shaded alleyways that lead from here to Soi Rambutri. All along the alleyway local people have set up basic little stalls selling just a few dishes and all cooked right here in front of us.

We watch while a friendly lady makes us a bowl of chicken green curry for just 60Baht (about $3AUD). This is the Thailand we love the most. Mark works on his phone while I wander up to Sanam Luang then we both head for Soi Rambutri. The Wild Orchid is being renovated so we find a cute new bakery called Like Italy Cafe on Thanon Phra Arthit for Mark to have his morning coffee. On the bend near the Fort he has a haircut ($5) and a shave ($3) at his usual barber.

Mark still has a few work phone calls to make so we hang out in the park by the river – the Chao Praya. I come across a couple of trendy restaurants across a small arched bridge over the klong (canal). These are colourful places set up in old Thai teak houses and we know we’ll be back here for sure. We just hope that these tranquil, leafy pockets of traditional Bangkok don’t get swallowed up by new developments.  

We ask about getting a boat up the klong but we don’t have enough time and put it on the list for next time now that we know where to come. Instead we wander around the Soi 1 area where we’ve stayed many times before. This is a pretty local neighbourhood of shady trees and teak houses where everyone cooks on the footpath.

Popping back out onto Thanon Chakrabongse, we come across a funky little place painted in a rainbow of colours with almost every inch of the walls covered in travellers’ messages written in black texta. The crazy old owner hands us a pen and we add our own message that we’ll check out next time we’re back in Bangkok. She tells us that things are very quiet and she has ‘no money’ so she’s very happy that we order pineapple and mango shakes and promise to come back.

It’s time to check out of the Laksameenarai where we store our bags in the foyer till we leave for the airport later this afternoon. Now we have time for a massage upstairs at Pink then buy chicken skewers from a street cart in the temple grounds. This is all so familiar and feels like home.

We chat to a taxi driver in the laneway and arrange for him to pick us up at 4pm to drive us to the airport. Now because we’re just about melting from the heat and humidity we find an air-conditioned place where we order wanton soup and Mark has a beer and I have a watermelon shake. The Thais really know how to make a great shake. We’re entertained by the owner’s naughty, cheeky little girl – oh no, we miss our good Dollies already!

We still have time to be pampered at Pink – I have a hair wash and blow dry then we both have leg massages – all for a pittance!

At 4pm we meet our taxi driver and speed out to Suvarnabhumi Airport for our 7.30 pm Nok Air flight. It’s dark when we take off into a sky lit up by lightning – another tropical storm but all is well and the flight is only an hour and a half.

Myanmar is 30 minutes behind Bangkok so we wind back our watches. This also means that it’s only 8pm here in Yangon so plenty of time to head out for a drink. Mark withdraws money at the airport then we find a taxi to drive us into the city passing the brightly lit Shwedagon Pagoda that we’ll visit tomorrow.

We notice some changes that have happened in the capital since we were here fifteen years ago. The main street is lined with lots of modern buildings but the old Yangon still exists especially as we turn off into the backstreets where our guesthouse sits just around the corner from the famous Sule Paya which is glowing in the dark on a sort of giant roundabout.

And we love the Okinawa. It’s set in a narrow quiet street and has oodles of atmosphere – a vine covered entrance, dark wooden walls, Persian style carpets, a steep little staircase and cute coloured glass windows in our room – all for $15 a night with breakfast.

After booking in with the owner, who seems a bit clueless, we have a quick change then set off towards Sule Paya where we hail a taxi to take us to 50^th Street Bar and Grill. We’d been talking about this with Jillian and Tamara who’d been here years ago after we told them to check it out. It’s still the same upmarket place surrounded by rundown houses in a dirt laneway. We take photos to send to Jillian and order chicken wings and nachos. Mark drinks Mojitos and I have too many Margaritas. I’ve definitely have had too much to drink and nag the poor taxi driver to death all the way home about not having seatbelts. Sorry about that.  

A good sleep in out tiny air-conditioned room.

Thursday 31st October, 2019

 Yangon

At 8am we’re having breakfast outside on the street – fried eggs, sweet toast and powdered tea and coffee – pretty awful so we’ll eat somewhere else soon.

Our street is busy this morning with small stalls set up along the walls of the old buildings and people setting down baskets of vegetables that they’ve carried on the ends of bamboo poles balanced on their shoulders.

We plan to catch a train from here to Kinpun tomorrow and the word is that we need to book a couple of days in advance so we hope we can still buy our tickets today.

If there has been some modernization of Yangon in the last fifteen years, the Myanmar Railways Booking Office is still in the same appealing basic, shabby building as before. It’s more like a farm yard with chickens scratching around and there are no signs in English but a helpful local man soon comes to our aid. For a measly $2.40AUD each, we now have Luxury Class tickets for the five hour trip to Kyaikato (pronounced Chaido) leaving early tomorrow morning.  

We spend a pleasant hour drifting around the streets. Myanmar was a former British colony and is covered in traditional architecture that still looks gorgeous even if very rundown.

The plan now is to find Bogyoke Market but we get lost despite asking directions, and end up catching a taxi. The Bogyoke Aung San Market was once called the Scott Market by the British who actually built it in 1926 during the British colonial period – maybe named after a relative?  

Here we eat in a funny food hall sort of thing and buy our lunch from a shouting lady. Despite the shouting she’s really funny especially when she tries to get the fan to work to cool us down. A couple of men come to help and it’s all hilarious!  Lunch is only $5 for two fresh pineapple juices, a coke, spring rolls and rice plus hot and sour chicken.

I suddenly need to use the loo where I have to pay 20c to a lady who unlocks a cubicle for me. We wander around the market for a while before finding another taxi to take us to Shwedagon Pagoda. This is one of the most famous pagodas in the world and the most sacred site to Burmese Buddhists.

We visited here in 2004 with the only difference is that we tourists can now enter the dramatic northern covered walkway, bustling with merchants selling anything from flowers and incense to antiques and souvenirs. We buy flowers for offerings from a very funny lady sporting bright red lips and cheeks painted with the white thanaka that most Burmese people wear. We also have to hire a shawl for me and a longhi for Mark as we’re entering a sacred place.

At the top of the staircase we burst out into the heat and sunshine and our first glimpse of Shwedagon Paya. The Pagoda is 2,600 years old, making it the oldest pagoda in the world – apparently debatable.

Words can’t really describe how really beautiful it is. On top of the main gold-plated dome is a stupa containing over 7,000 diamonds, rubies, topaz and sapphires, topped by a massive emerald positioned to reflect the last rays of the setting sun.

 We do a slow lap of the whole complex then end up with a guide who explains what it all means. He shows us how to pour water over the Buddha statue at the station or “corner” that represents the day of our birth, and to ding a few deep tonal dongs out of a huge cast-iron bell.

Outside we cross the road to buy drinks in a simple café with a dirt floor then hightail it back to the coolness of our room at Okinawa. Of course we have a nanna nap before dressing up for a night on the town. We’re semi-presentable for a change as we plan to have drinks at the very posh Strand Hotel.

Walking up to Sule Paya (also 2,500 years old) we catch a taxi to the Strand where a doorman greets us and shows us to Sarkies Bar. This was named after the Sarkies brothers who built the hotel in 1901. Lined in rich dark panelling, the bar is set up in intimate lounge areas but still good for people watching. We pretend we’re staying here and not at the budget place down the road – ha. I have a Bloody Mary for Lauren and to celebrate Halloween which is actually today! I also have a Margarita while Mark has a beer then a Myanmar Sling (a take on the Singapore Sling made famous at that other Sarkies brothers hotel, Raffles.) Dinner is chicken caesar salad and fish and chips.

Mark has been googling other places to have a drink so we set off in another taxi to 7^th Street where we find a string of trendy bars all decorated in spider webs and hanging skeletons for Halloween. The staff are dressed up in black robes with white painted faces and we have a ball. First at the Bob Marley Bar then the Cuba Bar which has an excellent live band. The staff are super friendly and make us free Halloween drinks – bright blue with dry ice to give a ‘scary’ look.

But we don’t stay out too late, though, as we want to be good for our early start in the morning.

Friday 1^st November, 2019

Yangon to Kinpun

The alarm wakes us at 5.30am then after a quick pack we’re walking up to Sule Paya in the early morning light to catch a taxi to the railway station. Here we buy water and some snacks before settling in to our luxury compartment. ‘Luxury’ might be a bit of a stretch but it probably means that we have padded seats instead of the usual hard wooden benches. But it’s still wonderfully basic with no air-conditioning, just wide open windows. To make it even better our travel companions include a couple of monks and only local people – no Westerners here and we really feel like this is the start of our southern Myanmar adventure.

The train pulls out at 6am, slowly trundling past shacks built right up to the tracks where people live in the most basic of conditions.

Soon the city gives way to rice paddies and small thatched villages where we wave to the local kids. Behind pastures dotted with hay stacks and people ploughing the fields, golden payas shine in the morning sunshine. We see all kinds of animals – cows, ducks, chickens, goats, water buffalo and even oxen pulling carts.

This is truly my favourite thing about travel – chugging through the countryside watching local life go by through the open carriage windows.  Small wooden huts built along river banks, ponds covered in lily pads and pink flowering water lilies, bamboo fences, palm trees and vegetable gardens. All this while hawkers with baskets on their heads walk up and down the aisles selling birds eggs and other Burmese delicacies that I know I couldn’t stomach. We do buy mandarins and hot corn on the cob.

The atmosphere is so nice with local families, the monks and a man sitting opposite singing the whole way. Our seats also recline so Mark has a snooze as the green curtains billow in the breeze – did I say this is heaven?!

At 9.15am we pull into Bago where we spent two wonderful days all those years ago. We’re 45 minutes late and Mark makes a quick calculation that we’ve been averaging a speed of 30kph – ha. In Bago we buy watermelon and a sweet lady gives me a mandarin. We give her little girl a toy koala.

Off again we see kids riding pushbikes in immaculate school uniforms of white shirts and green longyis. They all have thanaka on their faces as do everyone else in this rural area. The scenery is still lovely with grains laid out to dry in the sun, small horses and lots of goats. More hawkers sell us fruit and water but we pass on the bugs.

As we approach Kyaiktho, we see a huge sitting Buddha in the distance then pull into the cute station around noon – only an hour longer than the scheduled five hours which apparently is pretty good going.

We’re not staying in Kyaiktho but heading for Kinpun which is the closest town to the Golden Rock – the reason we’re here! But more about that later.

Now we jump into the back of a truck with a group of ladies and a monk for the twenty minute ride to Kinpun. Here we unload our backpacks and ask directions to the Golden Sunrise Hotel. We find a lift with a guy riding a motorbike with a sort of homemade sidecar big enough to hold us and our bags.

And the hotel is a nice surprise considering how cheap it is. The reception is in a large thatched open sided building with the restaurant in another thatched area surrounded by gorgeous gardens of palms and pink bougainvillea. Our room is big with air-conditioning and set in a lovely bungalow with a verandah that has views of the Golden Rock way up on top of the mountain where we’ll be headed this afternoon.

But first we need to eat so I order fish and chips while Mark has a very spicy Thai chicken soup. With cold soda waters with fresh lime, friendly service and the lovely open-air restaurant, we’re more than happy here.

Later we walk into town to seek out the bus station where the trucks leave for Kyaiktiyo Pagoda (or The Golden Rock). It’s the only way to get up there as other traffic is banned on the narrow winding road.  I’ve read about these trucks and how they squeeze as many people in as they can. It’s true – we’re jammed into the front row which is not a good thing as we can’t see the road but are inches away from the truck’s cabin. The heat is stifling and it’s a crazy rollercoaster ride up the mountain. We stop somewhere to buy ice blocks that I put on my forehead to cool down. I feel horribly sick so when we stop at the cable car I have to get out.

Catching a cable car doesn’t exactly scream ‘adventure’ but throwing up in a truck full of people isn’t too appealing. The cable car is proudly advertised as Myanmar’s first and it must have cost a fortune. At the moment it appears to be a bit of a lemon as we’re the only customers.

We’re the only people in this massive empty building except the staff who appear grateful to have someone to point out where we have to go. At least the views are good but the cable car ends bloody miles from The Rock and I hate walking! At least there are lots of market stalls along the way and great people watching.

Hundreds of pilgrims visit this site every day and for most of them it’s a once-in-a–lifetime experience so most people are excitedly taking photos. Some even want us to be photographed with them.

We’ve already left our shoes at the bottom of the stairs and Mark hires a longyi to cover his bare legs.

All the while we can see the Golden Rock sitting precariously on the top edge of the mountain. It’s actually a giant boulder sitting at an impossible angle but according to Buddhist legend, it’s stopped from crashing down the hill by a strand of the Buddha’s hair.

And, yes, it’s gold! The whole rock as well as the pagoda that sits on top of it are entirely covered in gold leaf. But only male pilgrims can apply the gold leaf so Mark has a turn.

We’re actually 3,600 feet above sea level and the views stretch out before us with mountains as far as we can see. Families are here having picnics while lots of people are setting up for the night. Many pilgrims sleep on the ground near the pagoda and porters are carrying up family belongings in tall cane baskets.

We stop at the Mountain View Hotel then I have a photo taken in a sedan chair carried by four men who are happy when we give them $1 each. Back down in the cable car at 4pm because we’d stupidly bought Return tickets. Stupid because every truck going past has already been filled up at the top of the mountain! We hang out in an open area where a school bus soon drops off the village kids. Here are a row of simple shops and cafes so all we can do is to wait for one of the last buses to leave the top and will have some room left for us.

Finally two hours later at nearly six o’clock and just on dark, we’re picked up for the thirty minute drive down the mountain. A pretty pink sunset is ahead of us with an illuminated Sitting Buddha on a far mountain.  This is better than the ride up as it’s much cooler and we’re not so squashed but still bone-shaking and it’s a relief to reach Kinpun.

Walking through town there doesn’t seem to be anywhere interesting to eat so we decide to go back to the hotel where we know the food is good. Mark has beef in black bean while I have satay skewers with rice and fries. Mark drinks Mandalay beer while they actually sell coke and soda to drink with my smuggled in Bacardi.

More drinks in the gorgeous reception so we can use the wifi then bed at 10pm.

Saturday 2^nd November, 2019

Kinpun to Hpa-An

Wake at 7.30 am when we send Abi a photo of Mark wearing her pink satin sleep mask that we found in our backpack. It must have been left after our last holiday with them. She thinks it’s hilarious!

Breakfast comes with the price of our room – pancakes with honey, watermelon, bananas, tea and coffee, toast, cheese and fruit juice.

We’d arranged to have someone pick us up this morning to take us into Kyaiktho where we’ll then catch a bus to Hpa-An.

While we wait in Reception, we ring the Dollies – Abi says ‘Pa you stole my eye mask!’ Oh we love you Abi!

A songthaew arrives at 8.45am with some local ladies already on board and, of course, wearing thanaka on their cheeks, for the thirty minute drive into Kyaiktho. We actually aren’t sure if we’re going all the way to Hpa-An this way but we’re eventually dropped in town at a tiny travel agent. Apparently a bus will come but we don’t know when and no-one else seems to know as well.

But we’ve learnt after years of travel in Asia to just go with it and all will be well. Meanwhile, we just hang out on the pavement with a couple of German girls who are just as clueless as we are. I give money to a nun while Mark buys a coffee from a tiny café. We also buy a silver alms bowl, brass chimes and a maroon monk’s robe as souvenirs.

Finally the 9am bus arrives at 11am – it’s packed so we need to climb over the aisle jammed with boxes to reach the back seat –  a Burmese movie is playing on the overhead screen – apparently a comedy and very loud. We have a cute baby girl opposite so we give her a toy koala while we listen to a Casefile podcast to keep us occupied for the rest of the trip.

We arrive at Hpa-An (pronounced Pah-Ann) at 1.45pm. It’s a picturesque little town on the eastern bank of the Thanlwin River and with views of dramatic karst mountains that jut up out of the surrounding plains. We grab a tuktuk to take us to the Galaxy Hotel which has good reviews on Tripadvisor. Our room is very clean, big, simple and with air-con. We have single beds so Mark pushes them together. The staff is very helpful so we book a market tour for tonight.

But now we decide to checkout Hpa-An. In nearby Zayden Road in the centre of town, we find lots of teahouses and restaurants including Lucky 1 which apparently is the only place in Hpa-An that sells alcohol! We’ll be back later, but for now we eat at Khit Thit Restaurant across the street.

I’m very happy here but even happier when I see a group of shaven headed nuns on the opposite side of the road on their alms rounds. They all wear soft pink robes over an inner red robe and brown sashes over one shoulder.

We follow them through the market and they giggle shyly as they line up for photos. The market is very traditional with local fruit and vegetables for sale – flowers, bananas, tomatoes, watermelon, fish, meat and poultry – very smelly with lots of flies! Mark buys a longyi.

Later we rest in our Galaxy room then Mark dresses up in his monk robes – ha!

On dusk, we meet the German girls downstairs as they’re also booked in for the Night Market tour – only $10 each and all we can eat. At seven o’clock our guide, Veja, arrives. He’s a friendly young man who piles us into the Galaxy jumbo and drives us through the dark streets to the market situated on the edge of Kan Thar Yar Lake. Like all night markets, it’s very busy with loud music and lots of coloured lights and nice seeing all the happy local families.

Ladies sit on one side of a table surrounded by baskets and bowls of fresh ingredients which they whip up into their own special dish for customers who sit opposite on tiny plastic stools.

Veja stops at different stalls for us to try sticky rice in bamboo, quails’ eggs, barbeque chicken, sweet pancakes and fresh orange and pineapple juice. Everyone passes on the fried bugs but I can’t stomach anything except watermelon. I feel sick and desperate to find the public loo. Besides this, the German girls are annoyingly chirpy so we decide to head back into town.

We find a tuktuk and I feel better already as the breeze cools us down. Of course, we end up at Lucky 1. It’s like thousands of other no-frills local places all over Asia – painted cement walls, a wonky tiled floor, wooden tables covered in plastic floral cloths and mismatched plastic chairs – we love it! A couple of men have had a few too many and keep us amused while Mark downs three draught beers and me my Bacardi and coke.

By the time we walk home at 9.30pm, the street is totally deserted and all the lights are out – another early-to-bed little town.

Sunday 3rd November, 2019

Hpa-An to Mawlamyine  

We’ve set the alarm for 7am as we have a lot planned for this morning. Breakfast is in the sunny dining room downstairs with double wooden doors opening right onto the street. It’s quite a feast – a vegetable stewy things, sticky rice wrapped in leaves, milk tea, milk coffee, watermelon and pancakes. Mark eats it all but I only manage the watermelon. I wrap the pancakes up in serviettes to have as a snack for later.

Yesterday we’d booked a driver to take us on a half day tour – $45. Our driver, Jorme, meets us at 8am and we’re soon heading out of town into the beautiful countryside that Hpa-An is known for. It’s another glorious day without a cloud in the sky.

Forty five minutes later, our first stop is Kaw Ka Thaung Cave which i sa busy temple as well. Outside is very pretty with overhanging greenery, a colourful entrance, Asian music playing and ladies sitting on the ground under umbrellas. They coax us over to buy tiny turtles and fish in plastic bags. The deal is to set them free in the lake for good luck. We promise to come back after we visit the cave.

Kaw Ka Thaung Cave is spacious at first but narrows towards the back. Rows of sitting buddhas draped in yellow silky cloth sit either side of three larger buddhas where we light candles and incense for Angie – yes, our darling, you’re with us here too. We crawl through a low narrow tunnel to a smaller cave then explore the topiary gardens outside.

The ladies call us over and we buy a plastic bag of fish and one of turtles which we set free on the edge of the lake. Horrible when we see three monster eels appear out of the shadows lying in wait hoping to gobble up our poor little creatures.

Back in the car we pass the three hundred red monk statues that line the road then stop at a waterfall that runs into a little dam that devotees use for bathing. The pond is surrounded by shops and restaurants on wooden stilts – gorgeous!

From here we pass flooded rice paddies with limestone karsts in the distance. Rubber plantations soon line both sides of the road and we ask Jorme to stop so we can have a closer look. A family is working here and the old man offers to show us around. He shows us how they collect the rubber from the tree into tin cups which is then boiled and rolled into doormat sized blocks before being hung in the sun to dry. We give a donation to his wife.

Our destination now is Sadan Cave which is the biggest in the area. It must also be the most popular as we see lots of buses parked near the market at the entrance. Under tall spreading trees, thatched stalls sell mainly incense and other things for offerings as well as drinks and food. It seems to be favourite with families.

A long tiled staircase leads up to the beautiful entrance which opens into a gigantic cavern filled with buddhas and pagodas. This is huuuuge! Golden pagodas and standing buddhas covered in gold leaf are dwarfed by the vastness of the cave. We light candles and incense again for all the ones we love, here and gone.

The unique thing about Sadan Cave is that you can walk right through it under the mountain to the other side. Leaving the light filled entrance cave, we head into the gloom of the inner cave. A concrete trail, stairs and raised walkways pass huge stalactites and colonies of bats hanging from the roof. The floor is damp and slippery with bat poop but a great experience anyway.

After twenty minutes light pours in from the mouth of the cave opening onto the other side of the mountain. From the top of the stairs we can see a pretty mirror-calm lake with brightly coloured wooden canoes tied up to the little jetty. Lots of local people are hanging around with basic stalls selling fresh coconuts, drinks and food.

We hire one of the canoes to take us back to the main entrance instead of walking back through the cave. The canoe passes through a second cave so low that I think we’ll hit our heads on the roof. Inside, the cave walls are perfectly reflected on the water’s surface. Really lovely and more lovely out on the other side as we cross the lake passing canoes going the other way and a family of ducks. Beyond are more limestone karsts rising up behind emerald green rice paddies being irrigated with water from the lake through a series of small canals.

To get back to meet Jorme, it’s a short walk around the base of the mountain where mother hens and their chicks are running around. Back in the car we drive another half an hour to Kaw Ka Taung caves and pool. The temperature is sweltering by now so we can’t wait to get in the water.

But first we eat in one of the open-air restaurants next to the pool – noodles and fried rice – then change into our swimmers. Because there are lots of locals I wear a sarong as well then we both spend ages floating around in the cool water with a beautiful cliff covered in lush vegetation as a backdrop.

Our last place to visit is Kyauk Ka Lat Pagoda, a stunning limestone pinnacle topped with a golden stupa. This is set on a tiny tree-covered island in the middle of a man-made lake, itself surrounded by paddy fields. After dodging the noisy geese (I’m scared of geese), we cross a wooden foot bridge to the small island inhabited by a monastery then climb the wonky stairs to the viewpoint half way up. This place is really spectacular and a great end to our tour.

Now it’s time to race back to Hpa-An to grab our bags from the Galaxy and get down to the river to catch the local boat to Mawlamyine. The lady owner comes with us and waves us off.

We’re happy to see that it’s a simple wooden boat painted a bright blue with a roof but open sided. Hard wooden benches are sore on the arse so we’re grateful once again for our cushions we always bring with us. We use one as a pillow and share the other with the only other passengers – a friendly and very handsome Spanish couple.

The trip is only three hours and we enjoy every minute. The water is perfectly calm as we chug slowly downriver past golden temples that we can also see sparkling on the top of every ridge around us. Small boats drift by as well as an occasional noisy long-tail.

As we pull into the riverbank at Mawlamyine about 5pm, we jump out into the shallow water and almost straight into a waiting songthaew already full of people including a monk.  

The drive through town is lovely and it seems that Mawlamyine really does live up to its description as ‘the charming tropical capital of Mon State’. The British made Mawlamyine their first Burmese capital in the 1800s and many beautiful old colonial buildings still line the quiet streets.

 We’re dropped at the Golden Rose Guesthouse which looks cute from the outside but very ordinary inside with a messy foyer. The owner is sweet though and even gives us a lift to the night market.

This is situated on the bank of the Salween River with dimly lit stalls selling mainly things on skewers so we buy a few chicken ones as well as freshly made fruit juices. Most stalls seem to be run by pretty young Muslim girls with scarves covering their hair. Lots of tables and chairs have been set up next to the river so we settle in with the locals.

Later we hire a couple of guys on motor bikes to drive us to Olala Bar on Strand Road where Mark has Myanmar beer and I manage to have a couple of Margaritas. Back home on motor bikes.

Monday 4th November, 2019

Mawlamyine

Breakfast is in the top floor dining room with lovely views over the rooftops and the many tall trees and palms about town. With our usual tea and coffee we’re given watermelon and noodles with a fried egg on top.

Despite the sweet owner, I book a different hotel for tonight so we’re soon speeding off in a tuktuk to the Hotel Queen Jamadevi in the Myine Tharyar Quarter which is about three kilometres from the centre of Mawlamyine.  It’s a three star hotel which is three stars more than we’re used to but at only $40AUD a night it won’t break the bank. It’s set along a gravel road with open countryside opposite. The foyer is large and open on three sides with a vaulted ceiling lined in bamboo.

We have the choice of a room in the two storey building attached or one of the wooden bungalows in the garden. After checking out the bungalows, there’s no need to look any further. We have a wide verandah overhung by the thatched roof and the room is exotic. The bed is a thick mattress on a raised dais with a white mosquito net hung from the cathedral ceiling and the bathroom has a shower over a deep bath set into the stone floor.

The bungalow itself sits at the end of a dirt path that winds between vegetable gardens fenced off with bamboo. We really could hang out here all day but we need to meet our driver outside again as we’ve hired him to take us sight-seeing for the day.

Taking off in a tuktuk we head for Bilu Island also called ‘Ogre Island’. A new bridge crosses the Salween River to the island which is home to the Mon people, one of the many ethnic groups in Burma. The village people divide their time between farming and cottage industries which they sell to the wholesale market. There are 64 villages on Bilu so obviously we won’t have time to visit them all.

At Mu Doon village we stop at a family home to watch the husband making school slates. It takes me back and I can’t believe they’re still used in schools here. We buy one from his young wife and wonder what the hell we’re going to do with it.

The next village is the rubber band making village – no joke. This is fascinating! It takes about two days to boil the tree sap, dye it, dip it, dry it, peel it, dry it again, dice it, then hand-separate the thousands of rubber rings. We watch each step of the process all carried out by women with painted thanaka faces. The setting is lovely – under shady trees in the yard of a stilted timber house.

A few kilometres on, the next stop is to watch a family of men making scythes with wooden handles – all done by hand – no machinery here. Now we pass lily-ponds, a little lake with a pagoda in the centre and lots of market gardens. Next is the wood turning village which is really pretty consisting of houses on stilts, all built close together in laneways and amongst flowering gardens.

At one home we’re taken upstairs to watch a lady making wooden buttons. Green tea is brought out for us while we choose gifts to take home. A toothless smiling old man is sitting cross-legged on the floor near us and another lady is cooking something in the adjacent room. An elaborate family buddhist shrine is pretty with flickering candles and purple and orange flowers.

Later at another village, a lady is sitting on a cement floor making conical hats. Every material she uses is natural, all from bamboo actually – the brim plus the needles and thread. Pith helmets are also  look – ha ha. We’d like to visit more villages but we want to head back to Mawlamyine to see the sights in town.

So back through the green countryside of Bilu Island we head first to the Cinderella Restaurant for lunch. We choose to sit in the shady garden for an excellent lunch of prawn pasta, crumbed whole prawns and a salad – worth the price.

Now we’re off to the must-see Kyaikthanlan Pagoda. This is the ‘Old Moulmein Pagoda’ mentioned in Rudyard Kipling’s beautifully romantic poem ‘Mandalay’ that begins: “By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin’ lazy at the sea/ There’s a Burma girl a-settin’, and I know she thinks o’ me…”.  Awesome!

Kyaikthanlan Pagoda was built around 875 AD and said to be the home of Buddha’s hair relics. It’s the tallest structure in Mawmalyine and can be seen perched on a ridge high above the city. From the street we climb the many steep stairs to the top only to find there’s actually an elevator!

The main stupa is surrounded by 34 smaller stupas as well as prayer halls and we explore it all. From this high up, we have a panoramic view of the town plus the Gulf of Martaban, the majestic limestone mountains of Kayin State in the east and all the nearby islands and rivers.

Worn out by this stage, we tuktuk back to our hotel for a rest in our lovely bungalow. On dark we dress up and decide to just have dinner in the restaurant here tonight. Mark is happy with his whole grilled fish but my meal is raw and I don’t eat anything. Later we have a drink in the lobby then go for a walk in search of some loud Indian music playing somewhere close by. We set off in the dark but a couple of streets away we come across a pack of dogs who frankly scare the shit out of us so we hightail it back to our hotel.

Bed after Mark chases mosquitos around the room with a sort of butterfly net we found behind the door. Ha, ha.

Tuesday 5th November, 2019

Mawlamyine to Ye

Our plan today is to bus it to Ye at the southern end of Mon State. An early tuktuk is waiting in the laneway outside to take us to the bus station. We always love bus stations in these small Asian towns – so much to see with local vendors selling food to passengers for the trip ahead. Some have just a few apples and mandarins in a tray they carry on their heads while others sit on low plastic stools with a few vegetables displayed on the ground in front of them.

At 7am the bus pulls out and we start our journey down the National Highway. It’s not as grandas it sounds but we’ve been on much worse roads on our travels. The bus is perfect with open windows that let in the fresh air as we speed south towards our destination, the small town of Ye.

The National Highway is, of course, the main road that runs between Myanmar’s north and the far south on the narrow strip of land squeezed between the Andaman Sea and the Tanintharyi Hills, which form the border with Thailand.

It’s a picturesque drive with the endless pagodas popping up at almost every turn and thatched villages and roadside stalls selling drinks and lottery tickets. In one village we all pile out at a market shaded by spreading trees where we buy grapes and tiny apples. Directly behind is a restaurant where other passengers buy food in plastic bags. We also use the toilets – a hole in the ground but clean.

Back on the bus the villages become less frequent, replaced by rubber plantations, betel-nut and lots of coconut trees and other tropical palms. I never, ever get bored! The road has become narrower and more winding by this stage but improves as we reach the outskirts of the remote town of Ye.

At the bus stop we find a tuktuk to drive us to the Starlight Guesthouse which we read about on a traveller’s blog. The town is very pretty, nestled on a picturesque river bend with a tree-lined lake near its centre. This is where the Starlight Guesthouse used to be but we soon find out that it’s moved so we set off again. The new Starlight is on the edge of town but with the same owners who greet us warmly.

They’re David and Mimi, an American-Myanmar couple, who show us to our bungalow behind the main reception area. We don’t waste time hanging around and we’re soon jumping onto a motor bike that we’ve hired from David.

We head straight back into town, sharing the road with a family of goats and pass roughly timbered houses, golden temple gates, lots of motor bikes with the smell of wood fires permeating it all. And since it’s almost dark, the sunset just adds to the wonderful atmosphere of this sleepy little town. 

The Shwesandaw Paya is the main shrine in Ye so we pay a visit now while it’s quieter and cooler. Like all Buddhist temples, it glows with gold from the huge paya to the sitting Buddha statues to the elaborate carvings.

But we haven’t eaten for hours so we go in search of food. I’m okay with Burmese food but nowhere has anything printed in English so I just order off the photos in the menu. But the food is atrocious and I can’t eat anything. I really should be losing weight by now, but I’m not.

On dark we’re back on the bike and we’re very lucky to come across a wonderful Buddhist ceremony. Hundreds of children wearing longyis and white tops, carry flags and elaborate Buddhist umbrellas and file past us as they walk along the very long covered walkway to a pagoda in the centre of the lake. This is all accompanied by loud traditional music while everyone presses their palms together in prayer.

But we’re now in search of alcohol and end up at a dingy bar back towards the Starlight. This is a dimly lit place set back off the road called the Ko Kyaw Restaurant and Bar. Mark has a beer but they don’t even sell coke so I have to wait till we get back to the Starlight where we have a few drinks in the dining room. Bed at 10pm.

Wednesday 6th November, 2019

Ye to Dawei

Up early for a healthy breakfast of dragon fruit, watermelon, sweet pineapple and an omelette with green tea and coffee. After ringing Lauren we have a long chat with David about how to get out to Banana Mountain before we catch a bus this afternoon to Daweii.

Taking off on our bike we head north-east towards the Tenasserim Hills where Banana Mountain, or Ko Yin Lay, lies only about ten kilometres away. We travel at first along the highway back towards Mawlamyine then turn right along a red dirt road for a few kilometres. We finally come to a school where the children are in the playground performing their morning ritual of singing the National Anthem and raising the flag. They’re all immaculately dressed in royal blue longyis and snowy white shirts while they stand to attention. We stop to watch then pass through the village where people have laid out nuts and berries to dry in the sun on the side of the road.

Directly behind and looming over it all are the giant, imposing Buddhas of Ko Yin Lay – one reclining and four sitting. The monastery is in the foreground and it’s here that we park our bike. Nuns in maroon robes come and go with books in their hands – obviously coming from classes. Opposite the monastery is the nuns’ sleeping quarters in an ornate two storey building charmingly surrounded by trees and palms.

We want to visit the monastery when the nuns are called to lunch so we decide to visit the Buddhas first. The Reclining Buddha is massive and has a vast hall beneath where hundreds of thick and lavishly decorated columns hold up the roof and the Buddha above. Each column has an elephant head carved on each of its four sides and a large shrine dominates one end. Here we watch three young monks sitting in front of a chanting very old monk. The very old monk beckons us over and wraps coloured string around our wrists – ‘Thank you’ he beams, proud of his welcome in English.

Outside we run into lots of other young monks who want photos taken with us. This is my heaven!  From here we walk up to the Sitting Buddhas arranged in a square with their backs to each other. Inside is a wide staircase that winds up around inner religious chambers with each floor decorated differently. At the tower at the top we overlook the whole Ye Valley surrounded by the Tenasserim hills. From up here we’re able to appreciate the colossal scale of the whole complex.

Scorching hot now from the heat, the humidity and the climb we make our way back to the monastery. A group of local ladies in the kitchen are preparing lunch for the nuns. They call us in and find tiny wooden stools for us to sit on. The room is large with a high ceiling, a cement floor, cement block walls and big windows without glass. Around the walls are numerous open fires with a grate on the top holding blackened pots with something boiling away inside. No gas or electricity here to make things easier but I doubt they’d want it.

The ladies are all sitting together in a circle on the floor having a wow of a time laughing and joking as they peel and chop vegetables. They make us very welcome, smiling and waving then one of them brings over bowls of rice and four separate bowls of vegetable stews that I can’t recognize. This is one of those travel experiences that are not only unexpected but what we love the most. A true local experience and being amongst local people. This could be the highlight of our whole trip!

After eating we meet an ancient blind nun squatting on the floor threading flowers onto string then find the main hall. This is a cool dark room with black floor tiles and a polished wooden ceiling. Low round tables have been set up for lunch for the nuns who quietly file in. They pray at the Buddha shrine at the end of the room then more prayers at their table.

Wow! We’re on a total high, but need to get back to Ye as we want to visit the market in town before leaving for Dawei. The market is situated not far from the lake which looks picture postcard today. It’s lined by trees with a monastery on the opposite bank and the pagoda in the centre where we watched the Buddhist ceremony last night.

The market is mainly run by the Mon people who sell the usual fruits and vegetables found in most markets but, because Ye has a seaport, they also sell lots of fish and other seafood. Next door is the local Gold Market. Apparently gold has kept its value in Myanmar so many Burmese people prefer to put their savings into gold instead of anything else – makes sense.

Time now to ride back to the Starlight where we pack then wait for the bus with David. The bus is actually a van as we’re heading into less popular areas and no need for a big bus. For many years Southern Myanmar was off-limits to tourists, even to Burmese from other states, and has only recently opened up to tourism. We haven’t seen a western tourist for days!

The mini-van finally arrives and thankfully is only half full which means a much more comfortable trip than we would have expected. We snake our way over winding mountainous roads passing through small towns and at one stage stuck behind a very slow tuktuk carrying cows.

For the first time this trip, the skies open up and it begins to rain heavily at the top of the mountain. But by the time we reach Dawei in the late afternoon, the sky is blue once again.

Researching Dawei, we find that it has a long history of British rule with still lots of interesting colonial architecture – old wooden thatch-roofed bungalows and brick and stucco mansions.

From where the van stops in a market area, we catch a tuktuk to take us to the Hotel Dawei. It’s an old colonial building with tropical features of wide verandahs, louvred wooden shutters, multi-paned windows and pitched roof lines plus lush gardens. It even has a pool and we’re straight in after chucking our gear into our room.

Later we decide to have dinner here in the hotel so we dress up for a ‘posh’ night. We splurge on margaritas and Mark has a seafood platter while I’m happy with a pizza.

While we’re still having drinks we hear music coming from the street and we’re in time to see another Buddhist procession. This is much more extravagant than the one we saw last night in Ye. Everyone is dressed in white and groups of men carry floats holding large buddha statues, each one lit up like a Christmas tree. And, of course, loud Burmese music accompanies it all.

An early night after a wonderful day.

Thursday 7th November, 2019

Dawei to Maughmagan Beach

Today is Angie’s 40^th birthday. Happy birthday in heaven our darling. It won’t be a good day for us but I pray that you’re happy wrapped in the arms of Gra and Da. I hope so with all my heart. I’m happy that I dreamt about you last night, my angel. Lauren will be so sad today.

This morning we’re leaving Dawei for Maughmagan Beach only twelve kilometres east so it won’t be a long travel day.

Breakfast is a set affair – juice, tea, coffee, bacon, eggs, toast and croissants. Mark isn’t feeling too well so he doesn’t eat much for a change. We actually go back to our room for a doze to see if he feels a bit better afterwards.

At 11 o’clock we pack, pay our bill and order a taxi. The road to Maughmagan climbs then descends a big hill through dense tropical vegetation and rubber plantations to the village itself. This is typical of all small villages we’ve seen in southern Myanmar with the exception that here there are lots of guesthouses.

Our guesthouse is off the main street along a sandy track between simple houses. This is called Sweet Honey Bamboo Village where a friendly owner greets us and shows us our hut. This is very cute and lives up to its ‘bamboo’ name – everything is made of bamboo including the external and internal walls, the ceiling, the bed, chairs and side tables.

Sweet Honey is a small family-run place with a row of about ten tiny huts facing an open-sided hanging-out area where a few local guests are using their ipads – good to know they have wifi. We decide to head straight to the beach so we hire a motor-bike at the little front desk. The drive only takes a couple of minutes through the village.

We park our bike near the back of some shacks which turn out to be beachside restaurants. In fact, there must be a hundred of these all along the beach facing the water. These are basic to say the least and reminds us of Thailand. We really love the rustic feel of this place but there aren’t many people around considering all the places to eat here. And it’s a Sunday so where are all the local tourists! We never expected to see many western tourists – and we don’t – because, as we’ve already experienced, this southern part of Myanmar still isn’t on the tourist trail.

I read somewhere that Maughmagan may share the sea with Thailand’s Andaman Coast, but that’s where the similarity ends. Not touristy at all so then why ….? And all the restaurants are open!

There are also beach hawkers selling food, sarongs and trinkets. And shops selling souvenirs and clothes – I buy a pair of baggy pants for me and an outfit each for the Dollies.

Mark walks down to the water’s edge to take photos of fishing boats that have brought in their catch. They look like Viking boats. He also takes photos of circular patterns made on the sand by burrowing crabs. The tide is low so the water is miles away and I’m much too lazy to walk down there!

We walk along past all the family style restaurants and back to where we’d come across a wedding ceremony being set up. It’s hard to miss with music blaring all over the village. We’re dressed in our daggiest beach clothes but these beautifully dressed ladies pull us inside to join the wedding celebrations. They feed us ice cream and drinks then I’m taken out the back where a group of transvestites are applying makeup and thanaka to the female guests’ faces. The thanaka is made the traditional way by rubbing the root from the thanaka tree onto a whetstone. Now it’s my turn and I’m included in this brilliant experience.

Back outside the bride and groom have turned up. They’re so tiny and elaborately dressed, she in a big white wedding dress and he in a black suit – they look like those little plastic dolls you see on top of a wedding cake. We have lots of photos taken with them and the other guests. Bloody hell, we look totally feral and have no idea why they’d want us to be in their photos. Thank you, sweet people.

Further down we stop at one of the simple restaurants selling seafood.  A cheeky young guy at the front convinces us that his in the best place to eat and he’s not wrong. With Myanmar beer and lime sodas Mark has an excellent whole steamed fish and I have a prawn salad.

Time now for our afternoon rest, we ride back to Sweet Honey but then return again a couple of hours later. One place has music playing so we settle in for a couple of hours for more food and drinks.

Wonderful driving home on the bike in the warm dark air.

Off to Thailand tomorrow!!

Friday 8th November, 2019

Maughmagan Beach to Dawei to Kanchanburi (Thailand)

Under another clear blue sky, we leave Maughmagan very early. A tuktuk takes us to the bus station in Dawei which isn’t anything like a bus station but we unload our bags anyway. Soon a guy packs us into his rusty old truck which will definitely not be a comfy ride but we only travel a few kilometres when we’re told to move to a small van which will be heaps better on the long trip to the border.

To get into Thailand we need to do this five hour trip to the Htee Kee/Phunaron border crossing in the hills east of Dawei. I’ve read that the route is terrible so we’re pleasantly surprised with a relatively good road. For some reason, and this is no way unusual in Asia, we stop numerous times to drop things off and pick things up and random people get on and off despite the fact that we’ve paid for the van ourselves. No use caring so we just go with the flow.

At one stage, we pass yet another Buddhist ceremony with school children walking in single file along the edge of the road, some carrying temple umbrellas, big bunches of flowers, baskets of fruit and some beating drums. Small villages are picture perfect with backdrops of palm trees and flowering vines. In one village we even see a line of monks in maroon robes on their morning alms round.

If the road was okay at first it quickly deteriorates after an hour. The bitumen has given way to rough gravel and the remaining four hours are teeth-chattering as we bounce from pothole to pothole up and down hills. We hug fast flowing rivers, cross rickety one lane bridges, occasional villages but basically miles of nothingness. The trip seems to go on forever until we finally pull into the dusty border town of Htee Kee.

We’re dropped at a low wooden building where we receive our Myanmar exit stamps then back in the van for another age till we reach the Phu Nam Ron border in Thailand. As tourists we’re given free 30 day visas. Apparently there will be a bus to Kanchanaburi leaving soon so we head off down the road dragging our backpacks behind us past lots of bamboo cafes and market stalls. At last, a small and very flashy mini bus pulls up next to us and we’re off on the smooth, tarred roads of Thailand. Kanchanaburi is another two hours away but this is luxury compared to the previous five hours.

Both SE Asian countries, Myanmar and Thailand have lots of similarities but also lots of differences. They have similar climates and so similar food sources, similar coastal and mountainous regions and with both the primary religion is Theravada Buddhism. But there are differences as well and this is obvious even on this two hour drive from the Myanmar border.

I tried to read up on why this is. Myanmar had been cut off to the rest of the world for decades and so isn’t as modernized or progressive as Thailand. In a sense, Myanmar is still growing up. Mynamar (Burma) lost its identity when it was colonized by the British in 1824 then later when it fell under military rule. Suffering years of oppressive military rule has caused extensive poverty plus a terrible campaign of ethnic cleansing.  On the other hand, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country that hasn’t been colonized by a European power and so has managed to retain its independence. Whereas Thailand embraced capitalism and globalization, Myanmar has been held back by invasion and corruption. Complicated and lesson over!

Back to the bus. By four o’clock we arrive in Kanchanaburi where we catch a tuktuk to the backpacker area on the Mae Klong River. We stayed here four years ago at a couple of different places but found the Pong Pen Guesthouse really cheap – loads of atmosphere and even a pool. The food here is fabulous as well so after a dip in the pool we order fish, chips and salad. Back to the pool we float around drinking pineapple and mango shakes. Oh yes, we love you Thailand.

What we also love about Thailand is having a massage so just on dark we find one close by and settle in for a one hour full body for only $8AUD. Later we do a bar crawl of the street listening to local bands playing the Eagles, Van Morrison and my favourite, John Denver’s Country Roads.

Bed about ten o’clock.

Saturday 9th November, 2019

Kanchanburi to Bangkok

We’ve decided to hang out in Kanchanaburi this morning and catch the train to Bangkok later this afternoon. For breakfast at Pong Pen we sit at one of the little wooden tables in the laneway – banana pancakes, watermelon, pineapple and tea and coffee. Another swim then more pineapple shakes before hiring a motor bike to drive down to the Bridge.

This is the Bridge on the River Kwai which became famous all over the world, when it was featured in David Lean’s movie. Tourists flock here every day and, being a Saturday, it’s even busier with many more local day trippers. It’s a fun family atmosphere with lots of market stalls selling souvenirs and food. We buy clothes for the Dollies and lunch at an open-air place for good people watching.

At two o’clock we pack and catch a tuktuk to the railway station. Kanchanaburi’s station is picturesque despite its terrible history of being part of the Death Railway built by prisoners during World War II. Today it’s a peaceful pretty place with simple wooden buildings and lots of flower gardens and greenery.

And the train is wonderful – open windows once again to keep us cool and to watch the world go by on this three hour trip to Bangkok. We roll into Thonburi Railway Station as darkness falls. This station is frantically busy with hundreds of people boarding and getting off trains. The train stop is in the middle of a market with tuktuks buzzing around and hawkers calling out. We quickly catch a tuktuk to the Chao Praya as Thonburi is on the other side of the river to Banglamphu where we always stay.

We don’t have to wait long for an up-river ferry and joy of joys there are monks on board. I make sure I take a few selfies with them in the background.

At Banglamphu we jump out excited to be back ‘home’. We stay in a pretty place in Soi Rambutri and head out for food and drinks. All around here is very busy tonight especially Khao San Road where we buy a t-shirt for Steve with a photo of him wearing a blonde girl’s wig. Ha.

We think we’ll escape the crowds and call into the strange little place we visited a couple of weeks ago on Thanon Chakrabongse. The funny lady owner is here and someone has fallen asleep on a bench behind us. Later we find the Reggae Bar and hang out for ages listening to Bob Marley – the guys serving even have dreadlocks – very cool.

Sunday 10th November, 2019

Bangkok

This afternoon we plan to move to Chinatown for a change. I’ve found a wonderful place on booking.com and we hope it’s as good as it looks. This morning though we walk over past the Museum to Wat Mahatat. We’ve been here countless times and it’s our favourite wat in Bangkok. We light candles and incense for Angie then have lunch in one of the very basic restaurants at the Mahatat Market. This is something we do every time we come to Bangkok and always happy that nothing has changed.

Later we have a massage and I have a hair wash and blow dry at Pink in Soi Rambutri. Time then to grab our packs and a tuktuk to take us the short distance across the city to Chinatown and our hotel for tonight, Shanghai Mansion.

I’m in raptures from the moment we cross the red bridge with a giant mural of a Chinese girl on the facing wall. This is art deco class!

Google says that Shanghai Mansion began life in 1892 as a trading house, and in 1908, it was transformed into Bangkok’s first Chinese opera house frequented by members of Thailand’s Royal Family and other members of the aristocracy. Since then it’s been Thailand’s stock exchange, a textile trading center, a Chinese department store and now a beautiful boutique hotel.  

Inside the foyer we’re transported into the stylish mood of Shanghai during the 1930’s and where we’re  treated like royalty. We’re given cool wet hand towels to freshen up plus glasses of deep pink Rosella Juice.

Along with the room, we’ll be given a complimentary High Tea which we can have after we settle in.

Our room is stunning – a black carved four poster bed, vibrant purple velvet curtains, rich paint colors, wallpaper decorated with Chinese scenery, opulent fabrics and paper lanterns.  The whole hotel is just as magical and we explore every level.

Our High Tea is served in an alcove off the main bar which opens directly onto Yaowarat Street, Chinatown’s main thoroughfare. Fresh dragon fruit and pineapple, satay skewers, cakes and a few very exotic savoury things with prawns are washed down with green tea – we feel very spoilt. What a find!

Before we return to our lovely room for our usual afternoon siesta, we find a massage place around the corner – fantastic as always. The rest of the day is resting up then it’s time to eat again. And we don’t need to go far.

Yaoworat Road is in the center of Chinatown and becomes a food hotspot at night. Restaurants line the street in both directions and most set up tables and chairs on the pavement to cater for the thousands of people who come here every night.  These lively places specialize in seafood some even advertising the terrible Shark Fin Soup – shameful!

We check out side streets that are just as busy with lots of hole in the wall eateries but eventually we find a couple of empty plastic stools on the bustling main road. Mark of course has a whole fish while I order a prawn dish – both good and it comes out in seconds.

By now the crowds are even worse and I’m really getting a headache so we retreat to the oasis of tranquility which is Shanghai Mansion. Drinks in the Red Rose Bar before retiring to our oh, so comfy bed.

Monday 11th November, 2019

Bangkok

Today we return to Banglamphu as, not only do we want to spend our last night in our favourite area, but we’ve heard that the Festival of Lights will be happening down on the riverbank tonight.

We book into a lovely new place on Thanon Rambutri – must be getting soft but these places are so cheap! There’s even a swimming pool on the bottom floor near reception.

And since this is our last day, we return to the Mahatat Market and spend up big on vases, urns and ginger jars for home – cheap as chips, as they say. We have massages, manicures, hair washes, and do lots of eating and hanging out at Madam Masur’s in Soi Rambutri.

As darkness falls we follow the crowds heading for the Chao Praya for the Festival of Lights or Loy Krathong. During the Festival, people gather around lakes, rivers and canals to pay respects to the goddess of water by releasing beautiful lotus-shaped rafts, called krathongs, decorated with candles, incense and flowers onto the water.

These are made from all natural materials like banana leaves, banana tree bark, spider lily plants and bread and many varieties are sold along the way and we buy our own to place in the river. A man with a long pole lowers our offerings into the water and off they float with thousands of others, the flickering of candles drifting off into the distance.

 All the trees in Santichaiparakan Park have been strung with lights and lanterns and people gather as families on the grass but most wander around looking at all the decorations. Something exciting seems to be happening down near the Fort but there are so many people we can’t see anything and decide to escape the crowds and look for alcohol.

We’d come across some interesting restaurants across the nearby klong a couple of weeks ago so we aim for there now. Although this is just a stone’s throw from the park it’s completely peaceful. It has that hippie feel of Khao San Road twenty years ago and we feel very at home.

Still not wanting to take on the crowds we move on to a couple of tiny bars hidden away in the laneways between Khao San Road and Thanon Rambutri – we see the fattest man we’ve ever seen – just saying.

Bangkok

Tuesday 12th November, 2019

We spend today just hanging out, eating and having massages. Mark is the best packer and crams everything into our packs while I leave him to it. About 1pm we set off for the airport for our late afternoon flight.

Another awesome trip!

Wednesday 13th November, 2019

Sydney

Arrive early morning and catch the train home to our darlings.

Thursday 22^nd March, 2012

 Sydney to Darwin to Bali

Yesterday Lauren and Abi drove us to Hamilton station at 4pm. Abi loved the trains but then cried her little heart out when Mark and I waved her goodbye – dear little dolly. Mark and I cried, too, to see her so upset. We’ll miss Lauren and Abi so much. Mark said, “I don’t want to go to Sri Lanka now”.

The trip to Sydney was fast and peaceful then a change of trains at Central to St James Station. We walked over to Jillian’s in Woolloomooloo then all had pizza at the backpackers across the road. I started getting stomach cramps again – both of us have just gotten over Bali belly and we haven’t even left home yet! I went to bed early while Mark and Jillian stayed up drinking wine and talking.

Now this morning, we hang out with Jillian till she goes to work. After showers and breakfast, Mark works through his emails while I relax – spoilt! At eleven o’clock we walk over to St James Station to catch a City Circle train to Central then on to the Domestic Airport. Because we have to fly to Darwin first we’re not departing from the International Terminal – a bummer because at least Sydney International is mildly exciting while now all we have to look at is a lot of fat feral Australians. So many repulsive people I just want to close my eyes so I don’t have to look at them.

After checking through our bags, we have something to eat then fly out on Jetstar on time at two o’clock. We have a window seat and one in the middle – fairly squashed with a fat lady sitting next to me, but good for a cheap flight. The trip to Darwin is just over four hours which is an hour and a half behind Sydney then Bali is an hour and a half behind Darwin. We’ve got a 3 hour stop-over here then a two and a half hour flight to Bali (confused?).

Unlike every other time we’ve been to Bali, we’ve got no idea what to expect when we arrive.  And we only know this much because we received an email from the people at Sorga Bungalows where we luckily booked a room for tonight. They warned us of what is happening tomorrow – it’s Nyepe Day.

Apparently this is like the Balinese New Year which means today is New Year’s Eve. And according to what we’ve read, it’s supposed to be totally full on – huge monster looking dolls called ogoh-ogohs are carried through the streets then burnt on the beaches with lots of noise to scare away the evil spirits.

But because we don’t fly in till 9pm we’ll probably miss all the fun. Hopefully some of it will be still happening then again maybe everything will be quiet in readiness for Nypee Day. By the way, Nypee Day is also called the Day of Silence – bloody hell – Bali is shut for 24 hours from 6am Friday morning till 6am Saturday morning – no planes in or out, no transport, no leaving your hotel, no lights at night and for the Balinese, no leaving the house, no cooking, no eating, no talking! Total silence, so that when the evil spirits come back after being chased away today, they’ll look down on Bali and think that there’s no-one there and go away for another year. Bloody stupid but it’s their thing, bless them.

Anyway, at Darwin’s small airport we’re outside in minutes and decide to get a taxi into town. We’ve got a three hour stopover and our bags are going straight onto the next plane so we’ll only have to be back here an hour before we fly out. Our super friendly driver takes us on a guided tour of Darwin – Fanny Bay, Mindil Beach, the waterfront, all the official buildings, the aboriginal area and eventually drops us off in Mitchell Street, the main street. We have a drink at one of the many open air bars packed with mainly men. So bloody expensive – $17 for a beer and a cooler! Get us to Bali, quick!

Another taxi and another super friendly driver gets us back to the airport at five o’clock in plenty of time for our six o’clock flight.  Again we’re squashed into an aisle and a middle seat till I spy three empty seats towards the back. Now we can stretch out and even get a quick nap before we start to get ready to land. Seeing the lights of beautiful Bali below us makes us as excited as always.

Doing a fast dash through the airport and with a fast line at immigration we’re outside in half an hour. Now it’s time for Mark to go to the ATM while I mind the bags. Bad news – the ATMs have already been shut down for Nypee Day – wtf? We’ve got no cash at all so we can’t even get money from a money changer. No money means no transport into town. The taxi drivers say, ‘not far, you walk’ – six kilometers with all our backpacks? Awesome!

Out of the blue, an Aussie guy starts talking to us and then hands over 30,000 Rp so we can get a taxi as well as some food for tomorrow in case the kitchen in our hotel is closed. His name is Barney and he’s waiting for his girlfriend to come in on a plane from Jakarta. This is amazingly kind and we promise to get the money back to him as soon as we can.

Now it’s a race to get into Kuta as soon as we can before the stores close – we really need to stock up on supplies for tomorrow. Grabbing a taxi we’re soon tearing through the streets but have to get out way over near Kuta Square – all the inner streets and laneways have been blocked off for the celebrations so we’ll have a long hot walk to the hotel. It’s weird to see everything closed – all the big stores but also the markets, bars and cafes. The only people around are Balinese following the ogoh-ogohs that are still being paraded through the streets. The huge monster heads sit on bamboo platforms that groups of local men carry on their shoulders. All this is accompanied by deafening drumming and clanging instruments.

We race pass one procession near the Matahari while a lot more people are down on Jalan Pantaii, cheering and dancing around a massive ogoh-ogoh. I want to stop and take photos but Mark is making me hurry up as it’s right on ten o’clock when the Circle K stores are supposed to shut. We’ve seen a couple but they’re closed already. At last we find one just shutting the door and spend about $10 on chips, water and biscuits.  

Now we can relax a bit except that it’s starting to sprinkle and we still have to walk along Beach Road and up Poppies I to get to Sorga. A few locals are hanging around near the beach but basically it’s eerily quiet especially in Poppies which is usually buzzing with life and music. We think that there must be somewhere still open so we can have a drink – after all, Nypee isn’t supposed to start till 6am tomorrow morning – bastards!

Finally at Sorga, Mark asks the guys on the desk if they can advance us some money till the banks open on Saturday. We want to meet up with Barney tonight and give him his money back. No luck, apparently ‘owner go home’ and has taken all the cash with him.

Good news, though, that we can get an air-conditioned room on the bottom floor facing the garden – it’s a bit more expensive (like $10, big deal) but worth it. After throwing our gear in our room, we head off in search of a bar and Barney’s hotel which he told us is in Poppies I.

 Within seconds the skies have opened up and we’re totally drenched – love it. Running up Poppies towards Jalan Legian we find the good old Secret Garden Bar open – it’s our favourite – thatched roof, coloured lights, bamboo furniture and daggy music. Firstly we try to find Barney’s hotel but no-one seems to have heard of it so we make another dash through the rain back to the Secret Garden. Dripping all over the place we sit at the bar and order Bintangs and margaritas. Luckily we’ve got enough of Barney’s money left for two drinks each. We’re soooooo happy sitting here on our first night.

After our money has run out we make another saturating sprint down Poppies to Sorga where Mark orders a beer and I get out our duty free Bacardi. Sitting in the open-sided café next to the pool, we stay up till 2am in the warm night air while the rain teems down around us and till we’re the only ones left. 

Friday 23rd March, 2012

Bali (Kuta)

Nypee day – yippee!! Not!!  The day of silence. Can’t hear a bloody thing anywhere – not even the familiar sounds of motor bikes in the lane way and no music which you can always hear coming from somewhere. Probably a good thing that we can’t leave the hotel because we’ve both got hangovers and it’s still raining anyway. Very strange to wake up to rain in Bali. Even in the wet season it typically pours down in the late afternoon for a couple of hours and then it’s all over till the next afternoon. We never mind it that much though because it’s always warm – rain or shine.

Mark won’t get out of bed but I’m hungry so I keep annoying him till he does. Breakfast comes free with the room – juice, fruit, nasi goring, scrambled eggs and tea or coffee. Lovely eating it in the little open-air restaurant next to the pool. The rain is teeming so we hang around the room reading and sleeping till two o’clock when the sun comes out. Before swims we have lunch of satay chicken.

The rest of the day is same, same – reading, sleeping, diary writing and smoking on the verandah. Meanwhile the rain is back and continues to pelt down around us while the path and gardens in front of our room are knee-deep in water. To get to the restaurant for dinner we wear plastic bags on our heads and throw bath towels around our shoulders – very attractive and ‘we think it hilarious’.

Dinner is good and later we talk to two young Australian girls from Melbourne who are trying to help an old hippie-looking French guy work out what’s wrong with his computer. Poor girls, they’re fed up with him but are too nice to tell him to fuck off.

Saturday 24th March, 2012

Bali to Lombok (Sengiggi)

Hallelujah!! Nypee Day is over, the rain has stopped and blue skies are above – now we can really start our holiday. After an early breakfast we head out to find an ATM. Outside Sorga, the laneway is flooded and a crowd of people are trying to keep the water from creeping into their homes – all smiles.  

Everything is supposed to be back to normal after 6am this morning and now it’s 8am but of course the ATM’s still haven’t been turned back on. We try a few in Poppies I and even walk over to Poppies II but then are told that we’ll have to wait till ten o’clock. Until we get money we can’t do anything but there’s nothing we can do about it.

In the meantime, we organize a fight to Lombok for this afternoon ($43 AUD each) at the tiniest travel agent ever – not much bigger than a cupboard but the little owner is very efficient and we soon have air tickets as well as hiring a motor bike till two o’clock.

While I wait for all this to happen, Mark races back to Poppies I  to see if the ATM’s are on and is finally in luck. We pay the little travel agent, then back at Sorga, we organize for a bemo to take us to the airport at 2pm. Now we head straight to Legian via Jalan Bensari – wonderful to be riding along these laneways again in the heat and sunshine. At French Leather we find Matt who works for Ivan who isn’t here today. I get measured up for a green leather jacket and hand over one of Lauren’s old ones to get copied in a soft mauve. Also order a mini-me one for Abi.

Very happy to have that out the way, so we have cold lime sodas at Billy’s Cafe in Legian. Here Mark gets a message on his mobile from Bali Barney to say that he’s in a café on the beach road near the entrance to Poppies I. We jump back on the bike but, because of all the one way streets, it takes ages and he’s gone by the time we get there.

Now we spend the next few hours riding around Kuta and Legian and are shocked at the number and the size of new hotels going up especially around Poppies II. Progress sucks!  Except for a monstrocity on the corner of the beach road, at least Poppies I is still much the same and we’re happy having lunch at the Secret Garden – prawn cocktails and mie goreng. Later we have a great one hour massage in Jalan Bensari for just $5.50 each then a snack of spring rolls and calamari. At two o’clock we drop the bike off with our little travel agent man who’s stressing that we’re running late to get to the airport. No problem as we’re back at Sorga in minutes where our van is already waiting.

The trip to the airport is an easy fifteen minutes. We’re shocked to see that a massive new airport terminal is being built next door to the present one. And no wonder really – there are literally thousands of people coming and going. We’ve never seen Bali so busy and probably why so many new hotels are going up. Even though tourists bring in the money, this really can’t be a good thing for such a tiny island. For a start, how are they going to get rid of all the poo?

Anyway, because of all the airport construction happening, we can’t get anywhere close to the domestic terminal so we have a very long walk to check in. Afterwards, we wander around the shops and Mark actually finds a couple of t-shirts that fit him.  Our plane is a bit late but we finally take off on Wings about six o’clock.

The trip is a quick thirty minutes flying eastwards and we can soon see the Lombok coastline. Now, though, we think it’s a bit weird to be flying over so much land considering the airport is just near the capital, Mataram, which is right on the west coast.

Finally coming in to land, we can see that the airport is remote and obviously not the Mataram airport which would have been much better being so close to Sengiggi where we plan to stay tonight. Apparently this is Bandara Internasional, only opened last year which is why it’s not in our old Lonely Planet. Inside the massive and modern terminal (ugly as well), we ask about transport to Sengiggi.  A one and a half hour taxi ride, no less! And $25AUD! We wonder why they would build an airport out here in the middle of bloody nowhere? The good thing is that we’re not in a hurry and at least we’ll be able to see some of Lombok on the way. 

In the meantime, while Mark waits for the bags to come off the carousel, I go outside to have a cigarette. But then they won’t let Mark take our packs out of the terminal without our baggage tickets which happen to be in my daypack. He finally convinces them to let him through and we’re soon speeding towards the west coast. 

Lombok is almost the same size as Bali – about 80km long and 80 km wide – with lots of similarities – flooded rice paddies, coconut palms, mountains in the distance and even a volcano. I love driving through the dusk with the sun setting in a purple sky.

The road passes through lots of small towns and villages then becomes congested with traffic as we reach Mattaram. Here we turn right heading north along the coast and arrive in Sengiggi about eight o’clock. We’ve picked a guesthouse out of the Lonely Planet as we usually do.

Raja’s Bungalows are situated up a dirt laneway where we see lots of local people gathered near the entrance.  I jump out of the van to look for Raja’s which ends up being a hundred metres at the end of a tiny track. It’s sooo beautiful out here in the dark with thick gardens overhanging the path. No luck with a room but we like the look of Ziva Queen Guesthouse nearby and end up with an okay room for $10 AUD – very basic but perfect for one night.

We ask Ronnie, the owner, about getting to the Gili Islands tomorrow and he arranges for a shuttle van to pick us up at eight o’clock in the morning – 75,000Rp  each for the van to Bengsal then a boat to Gili Air. Now we head down into town to get something to eat and drink. The people at the end of the laneway are still here so we watch the ladies preparing food under bamboo shelters and families eating on the floors of the houses opposite. Apparently there is to be a wedding tomorrow so there will be a feast that everyone helps to prepare. All the women are wearing headscarves so this will be a Muslim wedding and different to the Hindu weddings of Bali.

I’ve read that although Lombok is Islamic,Islam here is very unique compared to other countries and apparently even compared to other parts of Indonesia. It’s actually a mixture of traditional beliefs and Hinduism so it’s a lot more tolerant.

Whether it’ a Muslim thing or not, this place definitely lacks the vibe of Bali – especially considering that Sengiggi is supposed to be the travellers’ place to stay. There are only a few almost-empty restaurants and bars along the main road but we find one that has a nice tropical atmosphere and where we can sit up at the bar. I order a Margarita that’s probably the worst ever but then I order another one. We also order a quick meal of mie goreng and fish before heading back for an early night.

Sunday 25th March, 2012

Lombok (Sengiggi) to Gili Air

Very excited to wake to a perfect, sunny day. At 7.30am, the humidity hasn’t hit yet so we decide to go for a walk and look for somewhere to have breakfast before our shuttle bus arrives. In the daylight we can see how cute our little guesthouse is, with flowering pink frangipani and overhanging trees. The sun is just peeping over the field opposite where cows are grazing under coconut palms – very lovely.

At the end of the laneway, the same ladies are still preparing food for the wedding – have they been up all night? Out on the main road, we pass a mosque and a few shops not yet open. We can’t find a way to get down to the beach so we head back towards Ziva Queen. On the way we stop for breakfast at a small warung called Cicak Warung – beautiful noodle soup for a dollar each cooked and served by a sweet man in a tiny shack. 

Back in the laneway we watch the wedding preparations again then grab our packs to wait for our shuttle bus at 8.30am. It arrives on time with a friendly Asian couple and their little boy the only other passengers. The forty minute drive along the northwest coast is beautiful especially as the road follows the shoreline and we can see Bali’s volcano, Mount Agung, in the distance. A lot to see – crystal clear bays, coconut groves, rice paddies, small villages, fishing boats and outriggers, smoke from wood fires, pretty streams and the Gili Islands just off the coast.

The Gilis consist of three coral-fringed islands – Gili Air, Gili Meno and Gili Trawangan. Today we’re heading for Gili Air and tomorrow we plan to go to Trewangan before heading back to the Lombok mainland. We’re looking forward to a slower pace of life than in Kuta but hope there’s still a few cafes and bars to keep us happy.

To get to Gili Air we need to catch a public boat from Bangsal where we arrive about 9.15am. It’s a small, interesting town and I wish we had more time to look around. But for now we’re dropped off at a café where lots of other travellers are hanging around with their backpacks – Israelis, Argentinians, French, Americans. The Gilis are obviously on the ‘cool places to go’ list so they should be good.

We need to wait for half an hour before we’re given the nod that we can either walk down to the water or catch a cidomo (pony cart). Besides not wanting to walk, I can’t wait to have a ride in one of these little horse-drawn carriages.

On the way we see farmers in conical hats working in flooded rice paddies while we pass other cidomos coming back and forth from the wharf. At the water there are many more cidomos waiting for passengers getting off the boats from the islands. Even though we’ve already paid for our boat, we have to go to an office to get a ticket which shows what number boat we’ll be on, depending on its colour.

Bad luck that we have a green one which means that the Asian family got the last white ticket for the first boat out. Our boat won’t leave until then are twelve passengers which could take five minutes or five hours. But we seriously couldn’t care less. It’s so nice here where we have to wait for the boat. Across a small stream we sit around under coconut trees while Mark reads and I talk to some of the locals. I give them my Australian coins and swap bracelets with one young guy. Later I walk over to a shade-covered stall selling fruit and drinks then watch men burning piles of dried leaves and rubbish.

The first boat leaving for Gili Air is being loaded with fruit, water and untold bags and boxes of provisions for the island. Obviously everything has to be brought over from Lombok so every passenger boat has to double as a supply boat as well.

After an hour, our boat is loaded and we have enough passengers so we wade out with packs above our heads to jump onto the back. The boat is actually a small outrigger with bench seats along the sides and all the goods in the middle and under our feet. I’m just about sitting on top of a basket of green bananas. I love watching the local ladies who are all wearing head scarves and the men wearing peci caps. Mark sits up on the gunwhale and we’re both loving this boat ride.

Gili Air looks wonderful as we approach the shore – thatched huts, white sand and coconut palms. By the way, ‘Gili’ means ‘little’ and Gili Air is the littlest of the three (just a baby) – apparently we can walk around it in two hours but that’s definitely not on my list of things to do.

As the boat pulls into the beach we jump off into the water then set off along the sandy path to look for somewhere to stay. The only way to get around the island is by cidomo or bicycle but we just want to walk so we can check out the accommodation.

We’re pleasantly surprised that there is plenty see here with lots of cafes, dive shops and guesthouses. And we’re also happy that, despite this, the island still has a lazy, rustic charm mainly because of the lack of cars and motorbikes. Another bonus is that there aren’t any hawkers here so we won’t get hassled to buy things every five seconds.

The Lonely Planet gives Sunrise Bungalows a good rap so we decide to go there first. We like the look of it straight away. The traditional bungalows look fantastic spread out through a thick tropical garden of coconut palms, bougainvillea, hibiscus, pandan, jasmine and frangipani.

At the open-air check-in counter we’re thrilled to find that we can get a gorgeous two-storey lumbung-style bungalow for only $28 AUD. It’s sooo beautiful with a big chill out area on the ground floor with hammocks and a day bed draped in a white mosquito net – no walls except for the bathroom at the back. Up a steeply scary set of stairs we have to climb up through a hatch to reach the top verandah and the bedroom – a very bizarre setup and we won’t be drinking too much in case we have to get down to the loo in the night. Mark says ‘no problem’ – he can just go over the side.

Now it’s time to explore and find a café for lunch.  Most of the cafes are open-air places right on the water so we find a chilled out place where we lie on huge pillows and eat from low bamboo tables. This is exactly what we’ve been after – Bintangs, lime sodas and sate chicken.

After lunch we swim in the shallows right in front of Sunrise. The water is crystal clear and the white sand scattered with pure white coral thrown up onto the shore from the reefs which surround the island. This would be perfect for Abi and we jealously watch a family with a little bubba about her age. One day we’ll bring all our darlings here.

Snorkelling and diving are the main things to do in the Gilis but we’ll just stick to snorkeling even though Mark did have diving lessons in the Philippines in 2010. All along the track are little places hiring flippers and snorkels so we’re soon swimming out over the reef. Haven‘t snorkelled since we were in Vanuatu last year and we love it as always.

Afterwards I meet an old man who asks me if I want a massage – yes please! We follow him to his house not far down the track where we have a one hour massage each lying on a raised bamboo platform with a thatched roof. We pay $15 each which is heaps more than Bali but then massages don’t seem to be the big thing here – probably because of the Islam religion.

Later we hang out on the bottom floor of our hut – Mark swinging in the hammock and me encased in a mosquito net on the daybed. Dozing off we’re jolted awake by the call to prayer – forgot about the bloody mosque!

At six o’clock we’re up and ready for a good night. The sun is setting and so lovely sitting on platforms over the water drinking beers and margaritas. We cross to a bar on the other side of the track to sit on bar stools and talk to the barman. He’s nice but very depressing and tells us all his problems. Sorry mate but we’re out of here.

Now we look for a new place – love moving around – while cidomos clip clop past us carrying tourist and locals. Directly across the water in front of us is the Lombok mainland with volcanic Mount Rinjani and a lower range of mountains rising up behind the palm fringed coastline. We love it here.

We soon find another cool place where we sit at the bar drinking margaritas and Mark orders the biggest shish kebab we’ve ever seen. For $4AUD he gets a foot long skewer jammed with huge hunks of fish, meat, chicken and vegetables as well as side salad and chips – enough for the two of us – although I’m pretty plastered by this stage and ‘have to go home now’.   

Monday 26th March, 2012

Gili Air to Gili Trewangan

Wake to a gorgeous day with the sun just rising over the trees outside our hut. We decide to have a swim before breakfast as we’ve got till eight o’clock when we need to walk down to the boat. We cross over to the beach opposite and have a lovely time floating around in the warm water. Breakfast comes with the room so we sit under trees next to the lane way for banana pancakes, pineapple shakes and tea and coffee – a typical island breakfast for us.

We wash ourselves in the outdoor shower before going back to our hut to pack. At eight o’clock we catch a cidomo down to the wharf.  It’s lovely here with shady trees, warungs and lots of people. A nearby boat is being loaded with a couple of cows! Soon our boat is called and we wade through the shallows to climb onto the back. There are about fifteen passengers, some tourists and some locals.

The trip is beautiful with the mountains of Lombok on one side and Bali’s Gunung Agung in front.  Amazing scenery. We stop first at the smaller island of Gili Mena to drop some people off then onto Gili Trewangan. Most of the accommodation is located on the south east of the island so again we’ll have the same magnificent view of Mount Rinjani.

Jumping off the boat into the water we’re right amongst all the guesthouses and cafes. Like on Gili Air, a dirt track runs along the water’s edge with all the accommodation on the opposite side to the water and lots of cafes sitting almost on the sand. The water is a clear turquoise blue with white soft sand scattered with coral. We look out for a guesthouse we’ve read about in the Lonely Planet but then find one we really love.

Flush is a colourful place set in overgrown gardens facing the water. Tall trees at the front shade a round, thatched platform with snorkeling gear for hire and a row of old pushbikes that we can use. We’re so lucky to get a hut here – another lumbung-style bungalow but this one single storied with an open-air bathroom at the back overhung with tall thick trees. We have a wooden verandah with bamboo furniture and a four poster bed again encased in a white mosquito net. The ceiling soars to a point in the traditional style.

 After booking in with a young guy who has learnt to say “how ya goin’ mate” to all the Aussies, we’re given a “welcome home” cup of coffee. 

After settling in, we check out the Turtle Hatchery, a local initiative set up to help the island’s turtle population. Once the eggs have hatched, the baby green and hawksbill turtles are placed in a tank and left to grow until they’re about six months old when they’re big enough to fend for themselves, then released into the sea. And they’re soooo cute. They come right up to the glass with their dear little faces.

From here we walk up and down the path for somewhere to buy a memory card for our video camera – no luck, so we’ll just have to do without till we get back to Lombok. Have lunch and drinks lying on big cushions at a beachside cafe then hire bicycles from our guesthouse – $2.50 each. We ride down to the far end where all the guesthouses stop.

 I see a sign for traditional massage and ask a man lying around on a raised bamboo platform. He calls out to his wife who is lying around on another platform – she drags herself up (too busy?) and I follow her to their little house opposite. She’s sweet and very pretty. Her name is Hilani and she points to her little tummy to tell me that she is pregnant – probably why she’s tired – now I feel mean.

Their hut is amazingly bare – just a mattress on the floor and a few clothes hanging from nails. There’s a little plastic box with a few pathetic toiletries and some makeup – very sad really. The massage is good as usual but a bit uncomfortable lying on the bare floor – poor me. 

Meanwhile Mark has gone for a long ride through the village and is now lounging around in a café opposite drinking bintangs. After a snack of seafood soup and soda waters we ride back home for a sleep.

Up at six o’clock looking for happy hour drinks. We order Margaritas and Caprioskas lying on mattresses down by the water. Soon the mossies attack so we take our drinks up into the cafe. Further down the laneway, we order fish and rice. Good music is playing all around us but not too loud – definitely not the dreaded ‘party island’ like we’d been warned about. Bed at nine o’clock.

Tuesday 27th March, 2012

Gili Trewangan

Wake at 5am to the call to prayer coming from the mosque. Very loud but not too long and we fall back to sleep. Mark gets up at six o’clock to watch the sun rise over Mount Rinjani and to go for a swim. I don’t wake till 7.30 and very happy to see that we have lots of photos of our Dolly come through on Mark’s phone. Breakfast is in our guesthouse on a raised platform overlooking the laneway – banana pancakes, fruit, pineapple shakes and tea.

Now we decide to go snorkelling – the water looks gorgeous. We hire the gear from the guys out front after Mark buys a packet of biscuits from the shop next door to feed the fish. This is a great move and we see hundreds of fish swimming around us to get their share – all amazing colours and large silver ones big enough to eat. I like the long skinny see-through ones that hover around the surface.

I hang around the shore for a while collecting coral while Mark goes back out. The strap on his goggles breaks so he swaps it for a new pair. Later we go out again together and see a huge puffer fish and more of the beautiful coloured ones that live on these coral reefs.

Back home for a shower then lunch in an upstairs cafe overlooking the lane way and the water beyond. I want to have a massage so we walk to a place we’d seen yesterday. A local guy rings the lady to come from her village but she doesn’t turn up. Further down near the turtle hatchery we see another massage sign. Now we have to wait for the massage man who’s apparently having lunch. Later we find him sleeping on the railing of the verandah – no-one seems to want to work around here. Anyway I have to have the massage in our room – good but $12 is expensive compared to Bali – while Mark swings in the hammock on our balcony.

Sleep and read with the call to prayer waking us at three o’clock. About six, we have drinks lying on lounges on the sand at the Extrablatt Café. Later a blackout leaves the whole island in darkness. We move for more drinks at the Fortuna Cafe further down towards the boat wharf. Dinner is baby chickens for Mark and tuna and egg salad for me. A Bob Marley type band is playing – good except that the electricity keeps going off. Next an excellent female singer. Bed about 10.30.

Wednesday 28th March, 2012

Gili Trewangan to Lombok to Bali (Padang Bai)

Woken at five again by the call to prayer then back to sleep till 6.30. We walk over to the beach to watch the sunrise then decide to go for a bicycle ride through the village. I love it in here. People are starting their day and kids are walking to school. Horseless buggies sit outside some houses while we can see the little horses being fed inside the yards.

Some of the lanes are roughly paved but most are rutted dirt which are actually easier to ride on. Besides family homes, the village is dotted with cheap homestays, little open-air shops and laundries. And all is beautifully overhung with flowering trees, palms and bougainvillea. 

Back at Flush to order breakfast while we have cold showers to cool us down after the ride. We pack then have our banana pancakes and tea and coffee next to the tiny kitchen. As we pay for the room the young guy tells us that the owner said we have to pay 200,000rp for the broken mask from yesterday. Mark says ‘no way’ but we end up giving him 100,000 rp anyway just to shut him up.

We need to walk quickly down to the boats now as our boat to Lombok is supposed to leave at eight o’clock. One pulls out just as we arrive but then we’re told that another boat will be leaving in five minutes. Of course this translates to thirty minutes and we finally pull out at 8.30am. The boat is an old tub with no perspex on the bow which means that we all get sprayed the whole way. The wind is up today and there’s quite a swell making it a slower ride – still really enjoy it anyway with the mountains of Lombok impressively shrouded with heavy dark clouds.

At Bangsal, Mark gets soaked when he jumps out of the boat into a deep bit then we’re whisked into a cidomo by two local men. We backtrack along the same road to the cafe that we left from three days ago. Here we wait with other travellers for a van to take us back to Sengiggi.

Mark and I grab the front seat for good views on the forty minute trip. In Sengiggi, we talk to a man in the street who says that he’ll drive us to Teluk Nara to catch the fast boat back to Bali at three o’clock. We agree to meet him at two. Now we walk down to the beach where lots of coloured fishing boats have been pulled up onto the sand and local women are selling freshly caught fish out of big cane baskets.

Not much else happening here so when we see the Santosa Resort we go in for some lunch. For only $10 we have excellent seafood pasta and pizza sitting by the pool. After a wander around the grounds, we head back out into the street that runs down to the beach. Here we have a massage for $7.50 each then hang out for an hour in a cafe on the main road while we wait for our driver to pick us up at two o’clock.

When he doesn’t turn up (must have found a better offer), we find another man who’ll take us for the same price. Teluk Nara is nearly as far as Bangsal, so it’s another forty minute drive. This is the third time we’ve done this trip in four days but we enjoy it each time – a perfect mix of coastline, islands, tropical vegetation and villages.

At Teluk Nara we find the ‘fast boat’ wharf – a short wooden pier in front of a thatched hut, open on three sides with toilets at one end. We sit on bamboo chairs to wait for our boat which will be leaving in fifteen minutes. Wrong! – not surprisingly, the boat is an hour and a quarter late. No-one seems to mind so we don’t either. By now the rain is pouring down but the air is calm and warm so we’re fine. Besides that, there are chickens running around on the sandy floor – perfect. Meanwhile, we’ve noticed a young German backpacker studying her Lonely Planet and now she asks us if we’ve been to Java as she’s going there next. It’s five years since we traveled to Java from Bali but I think we give her some good tips on transport and places to go.

At last the boat arrives at four fifteen. It’s come from Gili Trawangan so a few people are already on board – but even with us and the German girl, there’s still only about ten of us on the boat. The rain is still hammering down and we get drenched running from the hut to the boat. The wind is also up once we leave the coastline so the first hour is horrible – scary big waves and I’m feeling sick. We’re sitting on the side of the boat that’s copping all the wind and waves are hitting our window so I can’t open it to get some fresh air. Mark grabs a seat on the other side and I feel a bit better with the cool air on my face. Suddenly the wind drops and the rain is gone – all is calm and we can see sunshine over Bali – a good sign, of course. The next hour is lovely as we make our way along the Balinese coastline. We see outrigger fishing boats off the shore and we recognise Candi Dasa.

About six o’clock we pull into Padang Bai and make a quick decision to stay here tonight and get a driver to take us back to Kuta tomorrow. Once Padang Bai was just a transit point for travelers going to Lombok and back but it’s changed a lot from when we were here in 2003. Even with a lot more guesthouses and cafes, though, it’s still a laid back travellers’ scene that we love.

We walk along water then up small road leading uphill away from the beach to look for a cheap guesthouse. An old man called Nyoman stops on his bike and tells us he has a nice place with air-con and hot water. We follow him to his homestay called Bagus which means ‘good’ in Indonesian – very real, very Balinese and we love it. The entrance to his house is an elaborate gate carved out of black volcanic stone from Mount Agung that last erupted in 1963. The family compound has a number of separate buildings surrounded by pink and white frangipanis, ferns, palms, bougainvillea and orchids. Our room is lovely with an open-air bathroom, a big verandah with low cane chairs and table and all with views over the village – all for $10 as well as breakfast! He also tells us that he can take us back to Kuta at 8am in the morning. Everything is arranged in minutes!

Next door is the Ozone Bar – a trendy travellers’ place with raised ‘chill out’ areas covered with cushions. We order beers, mie goreng and fish satay. Next we make a dash across the car park in the rain to a tiny bar with a friendly barman. We stay for hours talking to him as well as to a Welsh expat and a man from Darwin. Drink too many Margaritas after a great time then to bed.

Thursday 29th March, 2012

Padang Bai to Legian

Wake at 6.30am to the sound of little voices coming from the school across the road. We watch them doing exercises to music that’s blaring through the whole village. After a bath in our little outdoor bathroom we wander down to the water.

Lots of colourful outriggers sit on the sandy shore while a big car ferry is being loaded at the pier at the other end of the bay. Despite being Bali’s main port, Padang Bai is still a tranquil fishing village that’s kept most of its traditional charm. Definitely coming back!

After the rain yesterday, we’re very happy to see a cloudless blue sky and a hot sun already burning us as we walk along the beachfront. Back at Bagus, Nyoman is eagerly waiting for us as he’s made our breakfast and set it up on our verandah – banana pancakes, fruit plates and tea and coffee.

With breakfast over he gives Mark a ride on the back of his motorbike to find an ATM. His brother, Made, arrives in a bemo soon after to drive us the one and a half hours to Kuta. The Beach Road is surprisingly busy especially as we reach the outskirts of Sanur.

Finally in Kuta, we get dropped off down near the beach and walk up Jalan Bensari to look for a place to stay. We love this area especially Un’s Hotel but think we might stay somewhere else for a change. We look at lots of hotels but end up back at Un’s where we’re lucky to get the last room. It just also happens to be a great room – right near the gate on the ground floor.

Before doing anything we must have a swim in the pool – so pretty here surrounded by tropical gardens and with flowering bougainvillea pouring over the top balconies. Our next job is to hire a motorbike from a guy just up the laneway so we can drive over to French Leather in Legian. Ivan is here with the jackets we ordered four days ago. They look great so I order two more – a dark purple one for me and a tan one for Lauren.

From here we drive around to the beach good surf then to Kopi Pot on Jalan Legion for lime sodas and chicken sate. Still hungry we drive over to Jalan Pentaii to another old favourie, Made’s Warung, for prawn cocktails. We come here every time we come to Bali and it’s always remained the same.

Down near the Art Market we’re very lucky to run into one of Bali’s religious festivals. Long lines of women in temple dress balancing baskets of offerings on their heads are followed by men playing gamelan instruments and wearing their own temple dress. Next is a tall gold tower decorated with coloured paper and carried on bamboo poles. The procession seems to be headed to the beach so maybe we’ll see some of it later.

Right now, though, we have shopping to do and spend ages buying clothes for our Dolly, shorts for Mark, pants for me and three batik sarong. Back to Un’s for a swim and a sleep.

On the bike about five o’clock, we ride down to beach which is crowded with feral westerners – probably Australians. We see Nicky and promise to come back when the sun gets lower, too hot now. Walking up past the temple near the art market, we eat at a traditional warung – noodle soup with chicken, coke and beer for $7.

From here we head along the beach towards Tuban – better here and much quieter. Here we also find where the procession ended up with lots of local people in temple dress hanging around. A gamelan band is playing on an elevated platform and a ceremony is happening down by the water. About fifty women and children in colourful temple clothes are sitting behind an old man dressed entirely in white who is tinkling a tiny bell. Yellow and white fringed Balinese umbrellas add to the pretty scene although we don’t have a clue what’s going on.

Now it’s back to Nicky and Sexy Hotdog – ‘still sexy’ she says but now she’s called Sexy Hotdog Big Bum. While we watch the sunset and drink beers and bacardis we have lots of fun with these old friends. I get a manicure and a pedicure – just nail painting really, with flowers, of course. Next I’m conned into a neck massage, buy bracelets and anklets for Dolly then Mark has to buy a bracelet from Nicky. ‘You need two’, she says shoving them into our bag – hilarious! Eight t-shirts and three dresses later for Lauren from Hotdog, this has cost us a fortune but we’ve loved every minute of it.

Up to Poppies I to Secret Garden for drinks then ride back to Un’s to dump the bike. From here we walk around the laneways nearby stopping at a little bar for a horrible Margarita then food at a cafe near Un’s. Bed.

Friday 30th March, 2012

Legian

Our last day in Bali and we’ve got lots to do. An early swim then off on the motor bike. We drive out past Jalan Legian where we find a local market partly outdoors and partly under cover. No tourists here which is always a bonus. Every stall has a little raised altar attached to a wooden pole. On top are little bowls of flowers and sticks of burning incense. We buy one for home as well as two pretty boxes that the Balinese use during religious festivals.

Now Mark decides he wants to have a surf before we leave so he hires a board in Jalan Bensari while I wander around the laneways doing some last minute shopping. He really enjoyed his surf just down off the beach with only him and a Balinese guy out.

Later, across from the Art Market I like the look of a lovely big open-air restaurant so we head over for lunch. Very posh sitting on cushioned lounges next to cool fountains but unbelievably cheap – a good find.

We have one more thing to do before we leave. Yesterday as soon as we got back to Kuta, we sent a text to Bali Barney about returning his $30. Unfortunately he’s back in Australia but he gave us the phone number of a Balinese friend and told us to give it to him. We couldn’t get hold of him yesterday and now today Mark’s phone won’t work. So Mark decides to give it to a little grandmother he’s seen in our laneway with a baby about the same age as our Abi.

We walk up to the market where he’d seen her earlier and Mark asks a guy in the stall if he knows her. It turns out that she is his mother and the baby is his own little girl. He calls out to her and she comes from the house behind. When Mark gives her the money she is sooo happy but doesn’t really understand what it’s all about. Soon we have other people bringing out their babies obviously hoping we’ll give them money as well. They don’t seem to mind that we don’t but we feel bad anyway.

Back at Un’s to start packing and get ready to leave. On dark we have our last frozen margaritas at Un’s Café overlooking the laneway. A lovely way to finish this wonderful holiday.

Get a bemo to the airport and eight o’clock and have a great flight home with three seats each.  

Saturday 31st March, 2012

Sydney

Jillian is going to Newcastle this morning and is picking us up from Central and will drive us home – very spoilt by our beautiful friend. We talk the whole way and the time flies. Thank you, Jillian.

Home to Lauren and Abi and my Daddy – yippee!

 Our Itinerary

Thursday 22nd October, 2020

 Newcastle to Sydney

After catching the train from Hamilton to Central Station in Sydney we walk up Oxford Street to Jillian and Michael’s apartment in Surry Hills. With Covid still happening, the streets are much quieter than we’ve ever seen before. Apparently lots of people are working from home and lots more have lost their jobs.

At seven o’clock we head up to the Courthouse Hotel for dinner. The lift is tiny so it’s a struggle for Michael to get his wheelchair inside but eventually we’re all in for drinks and dinner. Later we walk around to Tam’s apartment to meet her and Matt.      They meet us outside for a long chat then the four of us have more drinks at home.

Friday 23rd October, 2020

Sydney to Uluru

 At six thirty Mark and I are up, showered and ready to leave. Walking back to Central Station is exciting as always when we’re off to the airport. Only the Domestic this time as international travel is sadly non-existent. And it’s the reason we’re flying to Ayers Rock instead of Thailand or Bali or anywhere else overseas.

This Ayers Rock trip was booked in August but all flights were suspended after the Indigenous community closed the National Park. A plane load of tourists were virtually spun around and flown back to Brisbane on the 4^th August. The Mutitjulu Aboriginal community blockaded the gates to the park as they were rightly worried about the risk to locals from visitors flying in from interstate Covid-19 hotspots.

We’d planned to fly to Brisbane that day and then onto Ayers Rock so we made a quick change of plan and flew to Darwin instead. This ended up being a fantastic trip and now we’re still going to the Rock anyway. Things usually work out.

At Sydney Domestic we’re all stopped by police to be interviewed before getting into the boarding area. Not only do we have to show id and the Northern Territory Border Pass, but we have also have to show our bank statements to prove that we haven’t been in a hotspot in the last fourteen days. 

The terminal is weirdly quiet – we wear masks and social distancing is advised – but on the plane we’re all squashed in like sardines! The plane is so full that Mark and I haven’t even got seats next to each other but at least we’re across the aisle. Not a big issue on a three hour flight.

As we approach Uluru, people are cramming the windows to see the Rock below – we only get a glimpse from our aisle seats. But disembarking straight onto the scorching tarmac, we can see it sitting alone and majestic in the distance. Amazing!

So, should we say ‘Ayers Rock’ or ‘Uluru’? Officially, it’s both – actually ‘Uluru/Ayers Rock’. It was originally called Ayers Rock by William Gosse who was the first European to set eyes on it in 1873. He named it after the Chief Secretary of South Australia at the time – very boring – but then in 1993 the name was changed to Ayers Rock / Uluru, acknowledging the Aboriginal name. Even better, in 2002 the names were switched around to prioritise the Aboriginal name.

Another cool fact is that while the Rock has two names it also has two UNESCO World Heritage Listings. The first was in 1987 for its unique geology then in 1997 for its cultural significance to the Aboriginal people.

We wait in long socially distanced lines in the shade outside the terminal as only a certain number of people can be inside at the one time. Each person has to go through the whole border security process that we’d already done a few hours ago in Sydney. We don’t really care though as there’s a real holiday buzz despite everyone wearing face masks – bizarre!

Two hours later we’re all put on a series of buses headed for Yulara only ten minutes away. Yulara is the only settlement in this area and situated just outside Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.  Most of the town is made up of Ayers Rock Resort and the rest is where resort staff and tour guides live. It’s also the home of the National Indigenous Training Academy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Leaving the airport we see the vast semi-arid landscape which we really came to appreciate when we visited Katherine a few months ago. The red dirt is striking against a brilliant blue sky.

Turning into Yulara we drop people off at the Emu Walk Apartments and at the Lost Camel which are both budget accommodation options and where we would normally have stayed until I found an awesome deal on Luxury Escapes. So now we’re in the five-star Sails in the Desert resort, daaaarling! – we never stay anywhere five star! Instead of $600 a night we’re only paying $300 a night. This is still really, really expensive but we do get a buffet breakfast each day plus a Fields of Light tour tonight.

Now we pull into Sails so called because of the soaring white sails that overlap the resort. Inside we walk straight into a gallery and gift shop showcasing Aboriginal art then check in at Reception. All the staff are local people and are sooo friendly and funny. ‘Palya’ they say, which is a greeting in the Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara language. We’re given the rundown on the resort and all the activities they offer for free.

Our room isn’t ready just yet so we settle into the busy glass-walled bar and restaurant area for prawn nibblies and a glass of champagne each – welcome to Ayers Rock Resort – love it already.

Later we’re shown to our room with a wide balcony facing the pool. The room is big with all the things a five-star resort is supposed to have. After showers and a nap we head back to the reception area for our bus to The Field of Light experience which is part of our package.

On the way we drive around the Resort past the camping ground and the Pioneer Resort which is currently closed to tourists – Covid again – and is being used to house staff.  Ten minutes later we pull up at the bottom of a track that leads up to the viewing area. At the top of the dune, Ayers Rock is facing us in the distance with the installation in a broad field below. At this time of day there just appears to be a whitish glow and we’ll have to wait till dark when the 50,000 solar-powered stems light up.

So what is The Field of Light? It’s a light installation created by British artist Bruce Monroe who fell in love with the Red Centre in 1992. He said that he “wanted to create an illuminated field of stems that, like the dormant seed in a dry desert, would burst into bloom at dusk with gentle rhythms of light under a blazing blanket of stars”. He developed his idea over a decade then returned to Ayers Rock in 2016 to install it. It was only supposed to stay for a season but it’s still here and has now been extended for another seven years.

Before dark, we’re handed outback canapes and drink sparkling wine and beer. Mark is having a great time drinking my share as well. I just stick with a champagne and orange – hate wine and beer. As darkness falls, the glass spheres slowly come to life in brilliant reds, blues, purples, green and every other colour of the rainbow.

Late we all walk down to immerse ourselves amongst the lights. Pathways wind across the fields which seem much bigger at this level and seem to go on forever. It’s been a surprisingly fabulous experience.

Back on the bus we’re looking forward to drinks and something to eat. Driving back through the desert it’s very dark by now so the resort is like a little glowing oasis. We’re too late to have dinner at Sails so we head over to Town Square where the Gecko Bar is pumping with locals and a few tourists.

We order a pizza and have a fun night with beer and my smuggled in Bacardi. Bed about 9.30pm when the bar closes – early nights in the resort which suits us as well.

Saturday 24th October, 2020

 Uluru

Our plan today is to hang around here this morning then we’re booked on a sunset tour of Uluru starting about two o’clock this afternoon.

In the main dining room we find that our package includes a full breakfast which would cost us $45 each otherwise. It’s usually a buffet style but with COVID we all have to stay seated while the waiters come to our table. We can still eat as much as we like so we both order two meals each. We figure that a huge breakfast will mean we won’t need to buy lunch – pretty expensive here.

The resort also offers free cultural experiences like Bush Food Experience, Bush Yarns, Guided Garden Walks, Didgeridoo Workshop and more. So at 10 o’clock we wander over towards the grassy area near Town Square where the Bush Yarns are about to start at the Circle of Sand. A lovely Aboriginal man called Leon tells us about the weapons that the local people used for hunting, some still do but he says he stopped using them when he was given a rifle – ha ha. We learn a lot which is one of the things we love about travel – like, we thought all Aboriginal people used boomerangs – wrong! Leon also shows us women’s tools and techniques they use to gather bush tucker. We love it all!

Later, we hang out at Town Square and the Mingkiri Arts Gallery where we buy Indigenous crafts for us and for gifts. We’ve really fallen in love with Aboriginal artwork since our visit to Darwin a few months ago.

Now we decide to visit the Camel Farm which is on the other side of Yulara. We wait for the shuttle bus that comes about every half hour. A young Aboriginal woman chats to us at the stop. The small bus winds around the resort mainly dropping off workers at their accommodation near the camping area – we’re the only tourists. 

The Uluru Camel Farm is the largest working camel farm in Australia operating five tours per day and home to sixty working camels from the wilds of Australia. We stop to talk to a real camel cowboy then a camel cowgirl who tells us how much she loves the camels and how each one has a very distinct personality, so we wander around the series of large pens where the camels are held to say hello.

But camels aren’t indigenous to Australia and are now considered to be a pest. They were first introduced here in the 1840’s to assist in the exploration of inland Australia. Incredibly, between 1840 and 1907 around 20,000 camels were imported from India! At first they were domestic, but from the 1920s as people started using vehicles and the camels were just abandoned. Once they were released in the open, they became feral and started multiplying out of control. Today there’s about three million of them – Australia actually has the largest wild population of Arabian camels in the world!! More about this later.

We check out the rest of the Farm which has its own Saddlery, where they make and repair their own saddles, the Royal Mail Hotel and Old Tom’s Water Hole. While we wait for the shuttle to take us back to Sails, we buy drinks at the General Store.

At the Resort we head straight for Town Square to have lunch at the Gecko Bar. We sit outside in the shade near the fountain and share an excellent hamburger.

At 2.45pm we wait with a large group outside Sails – getting picked up for our Uluru Sunset Tour with SEIT Tours. This will be a five hour tour of the Rock costing $177 each. Our driver/guide is Barry again who is just as enthusiastic as he was last night. We’re looking forward to learning a lot more today – old farts!

It’s a short ten-minute drive to the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. At the entrance we show our passes although the park fee was included in our package and anyway, the fee has been waved during these COVID times – everything is being done to try to attract tourists.

Of course, we’ve already seen the Rock looming ahead of us – it’s HUUUGE! A giant red blob sitting alone on the flat desert plain. At 348 metres high, 3.6 kilometres long and 1.9 kilometres wide we can’t but be impressed. What’s even more impressive is when Barry tells us that the Rock extends six kilometres below ground – straight down – bloody hell!

After stopping a couple of times to get out of the bus to take photos, we drive around to the eastern side of the Rock, eventually pulling into the Kuniya carpark. From here we follow Barry to the base of Uluru. It’s surprising to see lots of tall trees – River Red Gums – compared to the low lying scrub of the rest of the landscape.

The track leads us to an overhang or small cave where ancient aboriginal art covers the ceiling and the walls. Barry explains what the different drawings mean, like a circle with concentric rings means a water hole and an empty circle means no water.

The paintings were made by the Mala people who were the ancestors of the Anangu people, the traditional owners. Barry tells us about Tjukurpa which is basically everything to do with Anangu spirituality and culture. He says this is not just an abstract idea but lives in the land and the people.

Further on, we reach the Mutitjulu waterhole at the base of the rock. Uluru receives around 300mm of rain on average each year which creates waterfalls and some flowing into Mutitjulu.  Looking up, the Rock is extremely beautiful with crevices and soft folds smoothed by wind and rain over millions of years.

More Barry info is that Uluru isn’t made up of red rock but is actually a grey sedimentary rock called arkose sandstone. This is high in iron which rusts when exposed to the air to form the beautiful red colour it’s famous for.

Back in the bus we drive around to the opposite side of the Rock where we start the Mala Walk. This is dotted with lots of traditional cultural sites and we find a cave where the ceiling is black with soot from ancient campfires.

We meet the bus at a carpark which was once the starting off point for climbing Uluru which was officially banned in 2019. We can see the trail which looks scarily steep especially the first section. Google says that ‘an estimated 37 people have died on Uluru since Western tourists began climbing the site in the middle of last century via a track so steep in parts that some scared visitors descend backward or on all fours. Some slipped on wet rock and fell to their deaths.’

The Anangu people always requested that visitors refrain from climbing the rock out of respect for their ancient culture. Aboriginal people have called Uluru home for over 30,000 years so I think they’ve got the right to stop these fuckwits wanting to climb it just for a thrill. Stats say that an average of 135 people a day climbed it – even English royalty like Prince Charles and Princess Diana who climbed it on their 1983 tour.

And you can’t think of Ayers Rock without remembering the terrible story of Azaria and Lindy Chamberlain. Azaria was only two months old when she was taken by a dingo from her parent’s tent in August 1980. Lindy was tried and convicted of murder on 29 October 1982 and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1986 when a climber fell tragically to his death, a piece of Azaria’s clothing was found near his body. This finding near numerous dingo lairs led to Lindy Chamberlain’s release from prison.

But now, as the sun starts to drop we drive to the Talinguru Nyakunytjaku viewing area to watch sunset over Uluru with Kata Tjuta in the distance. Barry sets up tables to serve drinks and nibblies and, as usual, when there’s food to be had, people swarm to grab as much as they can – pretty funny and they’re a really nice crew anyway.

With a glass of champagne each, we pose for photos with the sun setting behind Uluru then chat with some Asian ladies who are having a ball – love Asians.

Back at Sails we run into them in the restaurant and they ask us to sit with them. Lydia and Volet are from Canberra both originally from the Philippines and married to Australian diplomats plus Leta from Bali. We have a few drinks with them and plan to meet for dinner tomorrow night. They’re all hilarious and definitely out for a good time.

Bed about ten o’clock after a wonderful first day. 

Sunday 25th October, 2020

 Uluru

At 4.30am we’re up to get ready for our sunrise camel safari. Again we’re picked up outside Sails for the short drive to the Camel Farm. About twenty of us line up next to the camels which are tied together in a long row. John introduces himself as our guide then he and a young female cameleer called Lisa, decide which people will ride which camel – big person, big camel.

Our camel’s name is Khan but Nico is the camel directly behind us and I think she’s fallen in love with Mark. She keeps snuggling up to him and rubbing her face on his back. Leaving the Camel Farm we head out into the desert as the darkness slowly lifts. In the peace and coolness of the morning we ride over the rich red sand dunes while Lisa walks beside us telling us about the flora and fauna along the trail.

On top of a sand dune we stop to watch the sun rising over Uluru and Kata Tjuta which we’ll be exploring tomorrow morning. Before we came to Uluru I thought this camel thing might be a bit touristy but we’re here in the middle of the Australian outback riding a wild camel! Awesome!

After an hour and a half we plod our way back to the Camel Farm where we warm up in the General Store for a breakfast of warm beer baked damper and hot chocolate. A perfect end to a great experience.

Before leaving we all wander over to the baby animal pens where I feed a bottle of milk to a cute black calf and Mark finds a baby camel who loves up to him as well – Mark, ‘The Camel Whisperer’!

Back at Sails it’s still only early and we’re actually in time for breakfast. Today we order pancakes, bacon and eggs plus the usual fruit and croissants they give us anyway.

At eleven o’clock we walk over to the Amphitheatre for the free Bush Tucker Experience.  Volet and Lydia are here as well. Leon who we met yesterday when he told us bush yarns is with another Aboriginal man called Joseph and together they explain how the indigenous people hunted, gathered and prepared bush tucker from the local vegetation. Joseph then makes cookies from bush foods and we get to try some he’s ‘made earlier’.

Now we wander over to Town Square with Lydia and Volet where we hang out in the Mingkiri Arts Gallery. We all buy up big. I also find a fly-net at the general store. We’ve seen lots of people wearing these over their hats and thought it was hilarious but I’m up for it for our trip to Kata Tjuta in the morning. Mark says he’ll brave it.

Later we head back to the Arkani Theatre to watch Capturing the Cosmos. This shows the current research being carried out by astronomers in Australia and narrated by Geoffrey Rush – really worth watching.

Lydia and Volet are going to the Guided Garden Walk but Mark and I decide to skip it – need a nanna nap after our early start.  And besides Mark is feeling unwell – probably something to do with his diabetes.

By six thirty Mark is still feeling off so I walk down to meet the girls on my own. Luckily they’d remembered to book in at the restaurant as it’s packed already. I don’t know what they do when the whole resort is booked out in pre-COVID times. 

Dinner is not overly expensive and the desserts look amazing. We all get stuck into the alcohol except for Leta who, after a near death experience with a motorbike and a truck in Bali last year, is now alcohol free and is into meditation and all that stuff. She was actually running around Uluru on our tour yesterday in bare feet as she wanted to feel ‘at one with the earth’ – ha ha.  But she’s no wanker and has us laughing all night. And Lydia and Volet are just as funny making dry comments in their gorgeous Asian accents. I love these girls!! 

And being married to diplomats they’ve lived all over the world and travel somewhere big every year as well. They mainly do Europe on expensive trips but they love hearing about all the weird places that Mark and I go to. Could talk with them all night! 

Wobbling back to the room, Mark is a bit better so he should be good for the 4.30am alarm to wake us in time for our Kata Tjuta tour.

Monday 26th October, 2020

 Uluru to Kata Tjuta to Uluru

Like yesterday we wait in the dark outside Sails where we meet the small group who’ll be going to Kata Tjuta. They’re all friendly but it looks as if one woman might be a bit hyper.

Today our guide is John, a bent little old man decked out in khaki – he’s the real deal and just as passionate as Barry. As we head out of Yalara towards Kata Tjuta, he tells us about the cultural significance of the area to the Aboriginal people. Because this place is so sacred lots of dreamtime stories are told about it. One legend remembers the great snake king, Wanambi, who was thought to live at the top of Mount Olga and whose breath could turn a breeze into a hurricane to punish people who committed evil deeds.

After about half an hour we stop to walk up a track to a viewing area to watch the sun rise over Uluru thirty-five kilometres to the east. The horizon turns to gold then orange before the sun peeps above the horizon. Behind us is Kata Tjuta also known as The Olgas – remembering my old Social Studies days in primary school – so, two names like Uluru/Ayers Rock. The name The Olgas was given by an explorer in 1872 after the Russian Queen Olga but then given a second name Kata Tjuta later in the 1900’s to commemorate its Aboriginal meaning.

Besides the view, we love the Social Distancing sign. Instead of the usual ‘1.5 metres apart’ the Northern Territory version reads ‘2 Sand Goannas’ or ‘2 Digging Sticks’ or ‘4 Carrying Bowls.’ Not too practical because we have no idea about how big these things are but we get the message anyway.

From this distance we can see that Kata Tjuta isn’t one single rock like Uluru, but a collection of large domed rocks. Kata Tjuta means ‘many heads’ in the Aboriginal language which really says it all. There’s actually thirty-six domes with Mount Olga being the highest point at 1,066 metres which is two hundred metres higher than Uluru.

Now we head back down the track and set off to the western side of Kata Tjuta. Here John pulls into a picnic area which is just a couple of basic shelters set amongst dusty red dunes and patches of greenery. He’s really happy that we all jump in to help and he especially loves the chatty lady.

Mark cooks toast on a gas burner and we all make our own coffee and hot chocolate. We need hot drinks because did I say how cold it is! I’ve wrapped myself up in scarves so I look like a mummy. Oh, and how’s the flies! I’m super grateful for my fly net – I think Mark is eyeing it off but too late baby!

After clearing away breakfast, John gives us his geology lecture – love it! He tells us that the rocks are the remains of erosion that began around 500 million years ago. And, like Uluru, they’re just the visible tips of enormous slabs of rock that extend as far as six kilometres into the ground.

But now we’re ready for our walk through Walpa Gorge. The 2.6 kilometre rocky trail follows the natural creek between two of the tallest domes of Kata Tjuṯa. We’re right between the sheer red rugged walls that tower above us. It feels almost prehistoric. The Gorge is a refuge for plants and animals from the hot desert sun and we even come across a small stream, extremely important for native animals and the Aboriginal people as a source of drinking water. The problem is that wild camels often guzzle up and pollute not only this stream but lots of others in the area.

Every now and again John stops to give us more information. He tells us that Walpa means ‘windy’ – no shit! It’s blowing a gale! There’s another walk we could have done through the Valley of the Winds but thank God we gave that one a miss.

As we head back out of the Gorge, we have a spectacular, sweeping view of the desert plains stretching far into the distance towards South Australia. And, despite the cold, the wind and the flies it’s been amazing to experience this special place. 

By ten o’clock we’re back at Sails and luckily still in time for breakfast. Again we eat up big and enjoy being spoilt – this five-star thing is a real novelty but really appealing and I just hope we’re not getting soft!!!

After the very cold morning the weather is hot again so we decide to have a swim and hang around the pool for a while. Desert weather is so extreme – cold nights and hot days – and not much rain which means that nearly every day is clear blue skies and just how we love it.

At three o’clock we wander over to the Lawn Stage near the Town Square for a Didgeridoo Workshop. A local man explains how it works and demonstrates how to play it. A few people in the crowd have a go and they’re all hopeless. It’s the circular breathing technique that apparently takes ages to master. Anyway this guy is amazing!

Tonight we meet up with Lydia and Volet again. Leta has left this morning for her home in Brisbane so it’s just the four of us tonight. We meet at 6.30pm in the dining room for a posh dinner especially the beautiful desserts. I’m so impressed I even take photos.

We all have too many drinks with the girls keeping us entertained all night. They’re prolific travellers and Volet is already planning trips for us all to go on together – oh God, not a cruise! We’ll definitely visit Canberra early next year for a weekend to catch up and meet their husbands. We’re already Facebook friends so I can see what a big social life they have as well. Love them!

Tuesday 27th October, 2020

Uluru to Sydney to Newcastle

Today we go home – could really have stayed a few more days but at least we’ve experienced this wonderful place.

After breakfast we meet the girls outside to wait for the bus to the airport. Big hugs and photos before we board on the sweltering tarmac. We see Uluru for the last time as we head home but then actually fly over Lake Eyre, you know that massive dry salt lake in the middle of Australia – lucky!

Land in Sydney then through the eerily deserted Domestic Terminal to catch the train home.