Back to Bangkok

We just arrived to our hotel in Bangkok - A night train from Chiang Mai was pleasent with a nice dinner served on board as well. Unfortunately  we still need to wait a while before we get a key to our room, but that should happen shortly and then we are ready to enjoy last few days of our holiday. It really seems that this long holiday is about to end - what a shame. But in fact one starts to miss few things from back home - Who could have guessed...

Merry christmas

For everyone from a bit warmer temperatures than back home. Christmas is very present also in Chiang Mai but definetely this is quite different to traditional stuffs. So everyone have a safe and happy christmas!

Sweet condensed milk

In ice coffee in Chiang Rai is very refreshing. After succesful entry to Thailand a day to take it slow was a necessity. We did not remember incorrectly thai cooking skills :-) they make clearly best food in the region - curries, pad thais and cheese cakes are delicious. Unfortunate for traveller S that she cannot enjoy cakes but at least I can tell her about how good it tastes ;-) she claims that it is not sufficient. Only thing to complain is weather. Just 25 and sunny feels so cold for us - I wonder how we can survive in Finland... Luckily our Starbright hotel is very japanese. Rock hard mattress and tiny room but extremely clean = very good. Additionally day was suprisingly good for birding or maybe my judgement is not appropriate to thailand as these people dont eat everything in sight as obviously was happening in poorer countries. Anyway tomorrow plan is to reach Doi Inthanon national park for which we managed to book a room as well. So probably next update will not happen until thursday when we are supposed to be in Chiang Mai.

to thailand

It is time to start moving towards Thailand in order to be there by christmas. So today plan is to take bus to Huay xai and possibly cross the border. Lets see if it succeeds...

to thailand

It is time to start moving towards Thailand in order to be there by christmas. So today plan is to take bus to Huay xai and possibly cross the border. Lets see if it succeeds...

Birthday petanque

Thanks everyone for birthday wishes. There were not internet available in Nong Khiew so the answer is a bit late. Most important thing was to find my first lao petanque game and I succeeded! At the local bus station group of men were playing doubles and after a while watching they invited me to the game. Great. So we played doubles and I was playing as a placer (not sure if this is english word for a player trying to place the ball as close as possible to target ball). Well it took a while to understand each other as they did not speak english and I did not master lao. Eventually roles were sorted out and I did decent play but eventually we lost by couple points. Damn. But to our defence local guys were truly magnificent at shooting - I assume that in this small town bus station people have lots of free time :-) Now I am already looking forward for new games. Hopefully we find some from Luamg Nam Tha which is next destination from Oudomxai where we are now staying.

Relax

We are still in LPB :-) now relaxing with the papaya drink by the mekong river (turn your head to see picture correctly). Life is good when you dont need to work. It seems that we are stuck (intentionally) here for a bit longer than expected but no problem we still have 2+ weeks to reach thailand.

Imdepedemce day

Great Imdepemce day to all back im Finlad! We are spemdimg it i Laos this time as our travels have takem us to Luamg Prabamg ( n - key does ot work so text will be replaced with m ). Bus jourmey from Viemtiame was lomg but rewardimg. This city is really very mice amd relaxed. We will stayimg here for few days at least amd at some poimt headimg to morth - we meed to be in Chiag Mai (Thailamd) at 23rd December as we just booked a hotel there to spemd christmas by the swimmimg pool.

Lao Time

We arrived yesterday evening to Laos namely the captital Vientiane. More to come later when internet works a bit better than in this 'high speed' place...

Halong bay

Now we have returned from halong bay cruise (2 nights). It was wonderful altough very touristic. Soon we are taking night train to Sapa which lies in the mountains.

I'll post some pictures when I have access to computer.

On the coast again

After Dalat we headed for BMT (Bien My Thuot or something) and spend a night there. First thing in the morning we headed for Kon Tum - Or basicly first to Pleiku because we ran out of money and did not have enough for bus tickets all the way to Kon Tum. But no problem - ATM was found quickly and case solved. After a brief stop in Pleiku we continued all the way to Kon Tum which was rather peculiar city. It seemed to have lots of restaurants and services but no people - Probably there is some tourist season for Vietnamese, but not at this point of time. But nevertheless it was very pleasent small town with nice walking and good cafes. But next morning were then already on the way to Hoi An via highway 14 - absolutely fabulous scenery - also referred to Ho Chi Minh trail in Lonely Planets for some reason... So now we are in Hoi An and staying here for couple days and then we will head for north.

Dalat birding

This morning I did some birding trip to mountains near Dalat - It got rainy (really rainy) and I had to stop it to short, but nevertheless I managed to find some interesting birds (for me) like viatnamese crossbills and greenfinches and many unrecognized ones. I really wonder how can one actually recognise all the birds (or even most of them) - to me it is mission impossible to recognise all the voices or looks of the birds by seeing them second or two. Regardless of this I really enjoyed this wet birding trip....

Dalat

We have moved now from Cat Tien to Dalat, which is on the 1500m high plateau. This is very nice city and even weather is quite OK i.e. around 22 degrees of warmth and only slight drizzle every now and then (so like a Finnish summer) I have done some birding here as well with quite pleasant results as well - nothing special from birding community point of view but many new acquisitions for me... We probably stay here for few days and then either to the beach or even to higher altitudes. Only time will tell what happens next

Mekong Delta



Cruising on the Mekong Delta

 For last few days we were spending time in the Mekong Delta region - namely in the Ben Tre city. Very pleasent place with nice cafes, river cruise and beatiful countryside. One day we hired a boat and toured the canals in the delta, which was very pleasent way of spending our time. But probably best was just town itself which was small and very pleasent place with nice cafes and not so touristy - especially on days when we were biking the country side people seemed to be very 'happy' about our tandem bike and two white people. So far this has been by far the best place - hopefully we encounter as pleasent experiences in future as well.

Adjusting seats of our Tandem bike

The update is coming from Saigon as we did not find (or wanted to find) internet connection in Ben Tre. So now staying here for a night and tomorrow plan is to reach Cat Tien National Park.

War of Vietnam

Only real tourist site we wanted to see was checked today - War Remnants museum which showed some unpleasent thruths (although maybe put with a propagandistic view) about civilian losses caused by the horrible Vietnam war. Probably most worrying part was to see that Agent Orange chemical weapon used to destroy forests to make the hiding of Vietkong troops more difficult is still causing major birth defects (on both US and Vietnam side) - Pictures and 'bottles' showing those were not too pleasent experience, but definetely worth seeing

Birding in Ho Chi Minh

In the morning walk closeby our hotel we encountered interesting birding option of inspecting birds in vietnamese bird cages - Maybe not most pleasent way to see birds. In the park there were tens of people gathered with bird cages with various type of birds - It was left as a mystery why cages were moved all the time. First I thought every now and then someone wanted to move birds into a shade to avoid 'overheating', but it was not clear if this is really the case...

Good Morning Vietnam

We got a bit tired of laying down on the beach and decided to start enjoy some megapolis in Vietnam. We arrived to Ho Chi Minh with 'direct' bus from Sihanoukville which took whopping 14 hours. Luckily the bus was not full so that I was able to get whole row of seats for myself. I managed get good night sleep prior entering the border around 6AM (journey started 8PM)and now this update for the blog is done almost immediately after exiting the bus (we needed internet to check if our hotel reservation was succesful - it was). More to come later and hopefully with pictures then.

Beach life

For last few days we have been just laying down, eating and enjoying nice sunsets. And we also enjoyed very nice two days snorkelling and staying in very secluded island pf Bamboo island. If you happen to be here in Sihanoukville or around I would recommend changing the location to Bamboo Island if you want nice beach without people selling manicure, pedicure, sunglasses etc... all the time. Travelling there should be easy - just reserve the accomadation and they will come and pick you up from the mainland. In case you are interested in birding there should be something to see as well e.g. flock of 30 oriental pied hornbills, which were first for me to encounter.

Time to leave Phnom Penh

Yesterday (Tuesday) was interesting day of walking around Phnom Penh and following local life here. Other not so happy thing was to enter Tuol Sleng-museum which showcased some cruel and sad genocide activities by Rouge Khmer lead by Pol Pot. Very interesting but saddening experience to see what human beings are capable of doing each other.

Otherwise the day went nicely and we managed to even get good food made by Khmer people - Tacos :-)

Currently we are waiting for a pick-up service to take us to the bus station and start our jorney towards beaches of Sihanoukville:


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Mekongolous at Mekong finally

We managed to arrive to Kompong Cham by the Mekong river on Sunday afternoon. And we found quite awful hotel room, but very very cheap as well. The choice of hotels in this small town was not best and we did not find any Hilton hotels in the neighborhood. But luckily the town itself was quite nice and relaxed with also some interesting evening activities like Aerobics by the Mekong  (we did not attend) and some rowing competition with very big rowing boats probably each accommodating around 30 rowers. And in the Monday morning we had very nice morning biking in the small island on Mekong river where we saw probably quite authentic rural country life without cars or wired electricity (although there seemed to be some car batteries used as electricity source in some homes). It was really nice biking with lots of kids saying 'Hello' to us strange white people - although by the time it started to get bit annoying after 100+ greetings.

After that we started to head for Phnom Penh by a bus, which was quite tiring


In Phnom Penh we had pleasurable evening stroll and excellent dinner at Friends-restaurant. Highly recommended anyone being in this part of the world especially as it is run by former street kids (tought by this place being waitress/cooks) and helping new kids all the time.

And again we managed to see Mekong - This time even bigger as it was joining with another big river Tonle Sap.

Angkor Watsons

Angkor Wat silhouette in the background - Photo by fellow traveller

Now we have been watching piles of rocks for 2 (and half) days and starting to feel that there is enough of everything. We enjoyed funny Remork (sort of Tuk-Tuk) for 40$ for almost 3 days. Probably expensive, but he was good one and did not complain any our weird requests to start trips at 5AM - Traveller S had some (very little requested from chair beside me)  complaints what so ever... Even if these temples are wonderful but weary traveler needs to experience something else as well. So probably it is time tomorrow to go somewhere else and leave Siem Reap for some more "relaxing" location, although we probably will stress hell out of ourselves before we find this kind of place. So probably it takes a while I make any updates to this blog.

Greetings from land of Khmers

So yesterday we traveled from Bangkok to border town of Aranyaprathet by train - It was pleasurable and hot 3rd class train ride. Well it was the only class available so no choice here. We also found OK bed to sleep for 1/10th of price of hotel in Bangkok. But there was a reason for that :-)

 And today morning the border crossing to Cambodia town of Poipet went very easily. Visa was easily obtained without any queues for 20$. Only thing you needed to do was to say NO to anyone starting to "help"you. Of course somebody screwed us as we paid 10$ for 2 hour A/C taxi drive to Siem Reap, but we were too tired to start haggling too much.

Now staying in very nice Angkor Pearl Hotel, which is bargain for 17$ as our room is huge and very nice. So probably staying Siem Reap for quite a few days now as hotel looks so nice. So next is time to visit temples of Angkor. Hopefully they even closely match reputation they have gathered. So probably next update has some pictures of temples to prove our visiting here...

Lumphini Park Monster

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! What a monster tried to eat us at the heart of Bangkok. Luckily we managed to escape this time, but maybe next time we are not so lucky.

Although I feel there might more challenging times to come to fight Tuk-Tuk drivers or trying to avoid too eager salesmen trying to sell you some fancy new must have toy. Nevertheless Lumphini Park was nice to relax in this very hectic city. Throughly recommended... (BTW in case you are interested in this monster - Google for Lumphini Lizard).

And as an update as a request from the photographer of this image the link to other blog probably having quite similar stories or at least from similar places... sannapi.blogspot.com

First beer of the holiday

Fabulous dinner in the heart of Bangkok was delicious and thirst removing. It was a good day of wandering around Bangkok. Just people watching and good food - Of course also some swimming in the hotel pool was refreshing. Only thing to worry about is a bit flooding Chao Phraya (river) which is close to our hotel. Then tomorrow it is time to leave this horrendous but so interesting city for couple of months. Hopefully meanwhile there is some nice places and people to see... But more of those then later

Last update of first holiday

It is expected that amount of updates will not be this high in future. But nevertheless here is the picture of our hotel lobby bar, which serves as well as computer corner.

Travel Quizz

Because I cannot add RAW format images in fancy Apple computer (which is btw very difficult to use) then I added image from the last evening from back home. It is setup of famous movie...  but which movie?

Sawasdee

Now arrived to our hotel - Our backpacking seems to start with quite a style. The hotel looks like 5 star place (or better). Later hopefully more news from here, but now to check the room after the welcoming drink :-)

At lounge

Helsinki Lounge area. Flight delayed for 30min. How can 30min make you so nervous if you are staying 10 weeks? Human mind /am I/ is so interesting....

Leaving home

Finally day of departure. Dull airport view but on day like this it looks more welcoming than normally when I am here for business reasons. It is a bit of better feeling to leave home for a holiday. Especially if you are not returning to work until next year. So lets see how things develope from here but so far everything going well and enjoying lounge services.... So probably next update is then from somewhere from Bangkok or at least from Thailand. Depending on the flood situation in the country.

Holiday here I come!!!

Holiday is really getting to become something true instead of just a dream we have had for so many years. Next sunday the plane will leave and hopefully we find ourselves in the center of Bangkok on monday afternoon enjoying some refreshing beer and Tom Yum. So final organizations are ongoing like getting the people to watch the house, watering flowers and paying bills :-) - Well maybe I have to pay them myself. I don't have good enough friends to take care of all my domestic costs while abroad ;-) - But Luckily I have good friends taking care of the house.

Passports are back

Finally Visas arrived and first test packaging done.

Seems that we can survive ten weeks with two small backpacks. Only difficult thing to resolve is to waht camera equiopment to take with you - Canon S90 or Canon 40D or Canon 350D or multiple cameras - And of course which lenses to choose will be difficult to decide as well. Decisions - always so difficult as it would be terribe to carry on huge pile of stuff around 35 degrees of celcius.

It  also seems that one would need to pay phone bills by himself (bad employer...) so probably the updates to this blog will be limited to places where we can get decent internet booths. But I trust that those should be available all around the Mekong region. But that is to be seen in only 3 weeks. Really waiting to get out of darkness and work for whole ten weeks. It should be more than enjoyable.

Visa application posting

Finally I got enough energy to collect all the needed documents for the Visa application to Thailand: bank account statement to prove that I have enough money to live in Thailand, e-tickets, copy of passport name page, visa application document, couple passport photos and of course the passport itself.

So I should have my Visa sometime end of next week or so. Then I can start checking maybe the first night hotel in Bangkok... Should I start with something semi-good quality or just stick to those cheap hotels...

Visa application for Thailand

OK - Now I got back my passport from Visa application for china - unfortunately due to work related traveling. Now it is time to apply for Thailand Visa as flight back is further away than 30 days from landing into the country. Hopefully I'll get the visa soon... And no one messes as I'm running out of pages in my passport - only 5 double page(s) left and as I need visa to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia & Vietnam. There is not really too much safety margin for errors...

Luckily at least I should get those Visas to Laos, Cambodia & Vietnam at the land border control stations - No need to hassle those already back home.

Trip planning ongoing

Now it is time to start some random writing about my coming travel to Mekong region. I already have flight tickets to Bangkok - Now just need to apply for a visa as I'm supposed to stay quite a bit longer than I'm allowed without one... Whole ten weeks of hopefully pure enjoyment, adventure and nice weather. As I have experienced Thailand couple times already now the main intention is to get to see other countries in the region - Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam - Be prepared I'm coming there.

Find below a map from the region I'm intended to go:

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