Into the jungle

We have finally made it to Chiang Mai! A bit later than planned, but we were there and wanted to make the most of our time. The possibilities in this city can really give you a headache. Everywhere you look you see a tourist agency or trekking center, all offering endless number of trips and activities, making the choice much more complicated. Walking, biking, climbing, elephant rides, rafting, kayaking, dancing, cooking, meditation, yoga... The list seems to have no end. And even of you know exactly what you want to do, there is still a whole bunch of companies to choose from, so that making your mind up may be quite a tricky process. But it's worth it, as many of them will do everything they can to turn your visit in Thailand into an unforgettable experience (one way or another).

We were lucky enough to make a reservation at the Julie Guest House, which is famous not only for its cozy rooms and great atmosphere, but also for the amazing trips they organize for their guests. They took their time to understand what we wanted and I have to say the offers they made us where a perfect match. Before we noticed we had a whole plan worked out and we couldn't wait for it all to start happening.

But it's not only the trips that makes this area worth visiting. The city itself has much to offer too. It is a typical tourist location, with bars and hostels on every corner, but it is also a lovely town, full of nice buildings and wonderful temples. After all the stone ruins we have seen in the last two cities we were up for gold and shiny again and this time we have found it much more impressive than in Bangkok. Although we could not quite understand why anybody would put a Donald Duck in front of one of the most significant old temples in town, but we just guessed they had their reasons. All in all we liked Chiang Mai a lot. I especially fell in love with all the second hand bookstores the city was filled with. They were just the way I liked them most, huge spaces filled up to the ceiling with great books for little money. I don't even want to know how much time I spent running between the shelves and choosing the perfect titles, if it wasn't for the trips we had already booked, I am not sure David would have been able to ever drag me out of them. All I can say is that I could hardly close my backpack afterwards and it was far above the 10 kg weight I used to be so proud of.

The first activity on our list was the cooking class. We are both huge fans of Thai cuisine and wanted to do it for a long time now. The decision was not easy, as the competition in this area is huge, but we finally choose Sammy's Organic Farm and I have to say it was a perfect choice. Although it was not too far from the city it felt like a different world, full of plants, flowers and animals, with a fantastic familiar atmosphere. We felt at home at once. And cooking with Sammy was a real fun. He not only showed us how to prepare the dishes, but also told us a lot about Thai food and culture. And his sense of humor and brilliant stories made it all a highly enjoyable experience. But the real highlight was the food! Each of us could choose 5 different dishes which we were preparing on our own, guided by Sam and his wife. And the results definitely exceeded my expectations. I would have never thought I can cook something as good as that! At the end of the day we were all tired, proud and so full we could hardly move. It was a great day!

We had no time to rest as the next day was already fully planned. We have booked a short trekking trip through the jungle, water rafting and what was most important, an elephant ride. I was so excited I could hardly sleep! It was over an hour drive from the city and we were all squeezed into a truck that was just slightly too small for this amount of people, so that one of us was always hanging a bit outside of it, but we managed to survive the ride without any serious injuries. On the way we stopped at the famous orchid farm, which turned out to be just a bigger garden with more tourist than flowers, so that it was quite hard to take a photo without other people on it. I guess it is simply the first stop for all the trips from Chiang Mai.

It was the second stop we were all waiting for, the elephant camp. We had to wait a bit till it was our turn to ride, which left us some time to feed and have some fun with the elephants standing around. They truly are amazing creatures. I will never be able to understand how something so huge can move so elegantly, without making even the slightest noise. And though they are dying to get the banana or sugar cane out of your hand they are as gentle as you can only imagine. For me it was love from first sight.

As our guide told us we were missing an elephant and would have to create groups of three (meaning two on the little bench and one on the neck) to make it work, I protested without thinking. I could share an elephant with David, but I was not having any other people on it! I was waiting far too long for this trip and there was just no way I was going to make any compromises, even if it left me looking like a spoiled kid. And I guess they took my words seriously, as we got not only an elephant for us two, but also an additional mini version. We were riding through the jungle on a big mama, with the baby running all around us, creating quite an impressive chaos, but making the whole trip even more amazing. We enjoyed every minute of it and when the ride was over, we were both sure, that was not our last meeting with those marvelous animals. We needed more!

However, we have enjoyed the rest or our trip nearly as much as we did the elephants. The jungle turned out to be pretty crowded with tourists, but it didn't change the fact, that the nature in this area was simply beautiful. Although we are traveling in the dry season the north of Thailand seemed to be as green as ever. I really found it hard to imagine, that it can get even greener as soon as the rainy months come. It felt great just to be walking among banana leaves and bamboos trees. I only hope we will be able to repeat it in a less touristic place, even if the trek would be much harder then. We were a bit worried that the white water rafting part would be a bit boring, as the river was at quite at low level at that moment. We regretted not being able to come back later this year when the rain starts. And I guess someone up there heard us complaining, because before we even noticed a storm started coming up. A real nice tropical storm, with drops of cool rain coming down on us, making us wish we had something more to wear than our swimsuits. We were all wet before we even got to our boats and it was a bit freezing too. Well we wanted more water and we got it... It proved to be enough for a short trip. It was not exactly an adrenalin kick, but it was fun anyway and it gave our amazing day a perfect ending. We came back to our hotel dead on our feet and slept better than ever, which was good, as a day after we took a minibus to head to another country on our list. It was time for Laos!

The queen of cities

It felt good to be back in Thailand. So far we have only spent a few days in the capital, but somehow it still felt like coming back home. We decided to take a train to Ayutthaya, an ancient city 60 km north from Bangkok. Although the train was over an hour delayed, we decided not to complain, since the tickets were a ridiculous 25 cents each. We liked the city from the moment we have reached it, but we were not planning to stay for long. A day or two we thought. And that was exactly what we said when our new bungalow-neighbour, asked us how long we wanted to stay. He told us not to make too many plans, as we may end up spending much more time in the queen of all cities, as he called it. Back then we had no idea how right he was.

Being back in Thailand had one huge advantage, we were back to high accommodation standards for little money, so we rented a lovely bungalow about a minute walk from the ruins we were looking forward to explore. So far our idea of local temples and palaces was like all the newly renovated, shiny golden buildings we have seen in Bangkok. Now we were eager to see the really old, stone ones. And we were not disappointed. There was nothing new or shiny about them, which was exactly what made them so impressive. The city seemed to be packed with magnificent stone constructions and we were told it is only a small part of the whole complex.

But it was not the temples I remembered best from our sightseeing trip. It was the elephants. Unfortunately they did not look too happy. Don't get me wrong, as far as I can tell their owners were taking good care of them and they did look healthy and all, but they were still made to run up and down the city center in some ridiculous clothes carrying tourists around. I believe it is not a life you wish for as an elephant and it's not my idea of a nice elephant ride neither. But I was still impressed by the elegance and carefulness with which they moved. I expected them to be walking heavily, making a lot of noise, but what I saw was exactly the opposite. They were amazing! And I was sure I want to get to know those creatures better and try riding one myself, but I decided to put it off until we could do it in a nicer environment.

Unfortunately, David was not getting better. My cold was gone and forgotten, but his seemed only to be getting worse. It actually got so bad, that we decided to skip all plans we had for his birthday and spend the day visiting the local private hospital. The place was very nice and we got a good medical advice and all the medicines we needed, but David still ended up spending his birthday in bed with antibiotics instead of a birthday cake. And the diagnosis was clear, we should not travel, especially on air conditioned buses as long as he's not better again. We ended up stuck in the queen of cities for a whole week.

Being sick sucks, no matter where you are, but Ayutthaya was not the worst city to get stuck in. We had a nice and comfortable bungalow, our own terrace and enough books to keep us occupied. We also had a few restaurants around, serving absolutely amazing local dishes, which I ended up eating for breakfast and dinner every day, not wanting to waste my time on eggs and toasts. And we had the neighbours who knew the town by heart and were always ready to help. They also wanted to make sure we would try all the fresh fruits the city had to offer. And trust me, they were delicious! All other plans were put on hold, David was concentrating on getting better and I was dividing my time between reading, enjoying various massages and shopping on the local market. It was not the way we have planned it, but I believe we really needed such rest. Our bodies had a lot to cope with for the last few months. We were constantly changing countries and climates not really giving them much time to reset, not even during Christmas. It was time to sit down and relax. It was not easy, as there was still so much we wanted to see and do, but it all had to wait.

We were both really happy and relieved when David finally got better, but leaving the city was still not an easy decision. We have never stay anywhere for so long and I have to admit it felt nice. But we were also eager to move on. We absolutely loved Thailand and wanted to see more of it. We were especially looking forward to visit Chiang Mai, where we had some serious plans, including our two new passions, Thai food and elephants. We were even thinking about heading there immediately, but fortunately, our neighbours advised us against it, convincing us to make at least a short stop in Sukhothai. And I have to say I'm really glad they did.

The second of the ancient cities was just as magnificent as we had imagined it to be. One stony temple after another, spread all over the green hills of the area they all made an amazing impression. Instead of taking a bicycle or a motorbike as most tourist do we decided to go for an extra long walk. We did enough sitting in Ayutthaya, so or bodies were ready for action again. At the end of the long day we were dead tired, but happy and satisfied. We were back on track again and it felt great!

Photos from Myanmar

Myanmar 23 January 2013

Myanmar 30 January 2013

Bagan, the temple city

I have to admit that so far Myanmar was somehow not really working well for us. We were still not quite sure whether we liked the country or not and if it wasn't bad enough we both got sick. At the beginning we though it would only be a small simple cold, but it turned out to be more stubborn than we could have expected, making us miss home more than ever before. We have spent nearly two days in bed in Inle Lake, but we were both still far from OK. Still we didn't want to stay there any longer than necessary. The region was definitely not our favorite one and we were really looking forward to our next stop, the famous Bagan. Our expectations were high, as we never heard anything bad about this particular place. Even people who were generally not very happy in Myanmar agreed, that it was an absolute highlight of the trip. We wanted to see it for ourselves.

Bagan is an extraordinary place to be sure. The city itself is quite small, but still it's home to more than 2.000 temples in all different shapes and sizes. No matter where you look you are likely to spot a few of them and it truly is a magnificent view. Of course, the place is more touristic than any other part of the country and the prices are skyrocketing at the moment. Taking a taxi actually costs more than in Germany! But there still seem to be more temples than people, so that you may get a nice spot or even a few all to yourself. Your chances get better if you rent a bike and get off the bitten track, which is exactly what we did. And we loved it, even if biking through the sand while having a bad cold is not the easiest things to do. But it was worth every drop of sweat. And this time we did some serious research and checked dozens of bike rentals until we found two bikes that were actually big enough for us and even had some gears to change! It made the whole experience much more enjoyable.

However, it was mostly the view, not the cold, that was taking our breath away all the time. It was simply amazing. I guess I was expecting all those temples to be pretty similar to one another, like two thousand copies spread over the area. But it was nothing of that kind. Each of them was unique and beautiful in its own special way, each worth a closer glance and a short visit. But it was the way they were all gathered together at this limited space that impressed me most. The view was unforgettable! It was one of the most beautiful things we have seen on our entire journey. It made us forget about coughing, the skyrocketing prices and all the other things we had on our minds. We found an abandoned temple with a terrace and just sat there enjoying the view. We could not have enough of it. We woke up early the next day and although our cold did not get much better and in addition we had some sore muscle from our first ride we jumped on the bikes without thinking and spend another lovely day visiting one temple after another. I was afraid we may find it a bit boring with time, but the view was impressive even after hours of biking and sightseeing. I guess you just can not get tired of it.

Unfortunately, we didn't have the time to visit even half of the temples. There were just too many of them and our return flight was already booked and we still had to get to Mandalay. This time we decided against the bus, since the night rides were pretty boring and the strong air conditioning was not doing us much good. We went for a more expensive, but also much more enjoyable option, the boat. It took us several long hours, but we were rewarded with lovely views all along the way and a magnificent sunset on Irrawaddy River.

Our cold must have enjoyed the ride as well as it definitely decided to stick to us for good. Mine was at least getting better, but David had some really hard times, so that we had to skip our plans for Mandalay and surroundings and focus on getting better as quickly as possible. It was a pity, as the city was quite pretty and I'm sure it had much more to offer. Well, we will have a reason to come back here one day and maybe see for ourselves the results of all changes that are bound to take place in the next couple of years in Myanmar. Whatever happens I hope the local people will still stay as open and friendly as the are now, as they were they truly were the real highlight, no matter where we went.  

To late for Myanmar?

I can remember when David read the first article about Myanmar. The country, which was closed for foreigners for quite a long time was slowly opening to tourism. The first reports were overwhelming. “A hidden treasure”, “untouched and authentic”, “the most beautiful and authentic country in the region”. We wanted to see it! As soon as we knew the second part of our journey would take us to Southeast Asia it was obvious, we would go to Myanmar too. Moreover, we decided to make it our first destination, just because we could hardly wait to go there.

There are still some restrictions you have to live with if you want to visit Myanmar. Although we were already in Bangkok, we couldn't take a bus or a train, but needed to fly into the country instead, which is not the most (eco)logical thing to do. But we booked some Air Asia tickets to Yangon and decided to spend the first few days in Bangkok, trying to get the mandatory Myanmar visa. I have to admit we did worry a bit, because we have already gathered some bad visa experiences and felt a bit uneasy buying the tickets without having the necessary documents ready. Fortunately, it was one of the easiest visa procedure we have seen so far. The queue was huge, but it all went much faster than expected and since we already bought the tickets we had the right to ask for a same day visa, which we received without any problems. We were ready to go in no time.

Traveling through Central Asia with Karossi, we have never really bothered to book a hotel room. We only needed one from time to time anyway and the hotels were hardly ever full. But since we were backpackers now and our plane was landing in the evening, we decided to go for a safe option. I tried making an on-line reservation somewhere in Yangon, but I never really got an answer to any of my emails, so we decided to make a few phone calls. We soon found out booking a hotel room in the former capital of Myanmar is quite a challenge. The entire town seemed to be fully booked! For weeks in advance! When we have finally reached the Cherry Guesthouse the owner himself seemed surprised when he told us he actually still had one more room to offer, since someone just canceled the reservation. We took it without thinking, even though 38 USD seemed expensive compared to what our guidebook suggested. But the room was really nice and the breakfast good, so we didn't worry about it much.

We were ignorant enough to expect Myanmar to be similar to Thailand, but it was a different world. It was extraordinary green. Even though Yangon is a big industrial city, you could see trees and plants on every corner. The temperatures were a bit lower too. But the most extraordinary thing about Myanmar were the people. No matter if men, running around in longyis (men-skirts) or women with funny yellow spots on their faces to protect them from the sun, they were all smiling and weaving, being as friendly as one could possibly imagine. Children were running out of their houses just to say hello to us. It was absolutely amazing.

We were a bit surprised to see the number of foreign tourists when we reached the Shwedagon Pagoda, but then again, we were at the most famous tourist attraction in the biggest city of the country, so we could not really hope to have it all to ourselves. And we liked the place anyway. It was not exactly pretty, not unless you like tones of gold and Buddhas with bright neon lights around their heads, but it was definitely interesting and worth visiting. And it gave us a chance to find out that we were both born on Monday, which was apparently a very good sign for our future.

Unfortunately times when Myanmar was not touristic at all seem to be long gone. Now English signs are spread all over the city and an entry fee was being collected in every possible place, including parks, even the smallest ones, so that we soon found ourselves avoiding every green spot on the map. We didn't want to support the local government if we could avoid it. We thought the problem only concerned Yangon, which is a big, pretty international city and can therefore be a bit expensive and overcrowded. Back then we didn't know it will turn out to be the cheapest city we would visit in Myanmar.

We have booked a bus to Inle Lake, to see a bit of a countryside. The 20 USD tickets didn't really seem cheap, considering the fact, that we were driving an old bus with no toilet and although we took our warmest clothes, the air conditioning quickly turned it in into a moving fridge. Moreover, the bus made only one single stop during 14 long hours. Trust me when I say it (as I do have some considerable bus experience) it was not the most pleasant drive. And if it wasn't enough we ended up coming at 4 o'clock in the morning only to find out all the hotels and restaurants were closed, so that we had nothing else to do but to walk around waiting for the sunrise. It was actually a very nice experience to see the entire village waking up to life and the sunrise itself was worth staying awake too.

We had a reservation in Teakwood Guesthouse, which remained the only accommodation in Myanmar I have managed to book through an email. It seemed quite expensive too, but since we were coming early in the morning, we decided we would have some time to check the situation and change a hotel if we manage to find something better. We didn't. We met some people who had no reservations yet and they spent quite some time looking for an available room, ending up paying over 40 USD for places that were not even worth a quarter of this price. We were really glad we did the booking, especially that Teakwood turned out to be a really lovely place run by an extremely friendly family, who made us feel at home from the very first day of our stay.

It turns out, that even though our guidebook was published in 2012 the prices included in it are no longer up to date. They actually doubled or in some cases even tripled over the last twelve months. One lady actually offered us a tiny wooden cupboard in the middle of a garage, with nothing but a wooden bench in it and expected to get 45 USD for it. We didn't know if we should laugh or cry. More and more tourists are coming to the country and since there are simply not enough places to stay, the hotels can rise their prices to a ridiculous level and still get fully booked. At least so far, as I'm pretty sure this strategy will not work well in long term. We were not the only ones shocked by the local price level. How can it be that in a country where a teacher is supposed to earn around 70 USD a month I am asked to pay 40-60 USD for a night in a shabby room and should then pay another 10 USD for a taxi to the nearby bus station? It just doesn't seem right. And it gets only worse when you think what kind of standard you could get for this price in the neighboring Thailand.

All in all Inle Lake turned out to be the biggest disappointment of our trip for many different reasons. We were hoping to get some rest in a nice countryside, but ended up in the middle of in the touristic capital of the region. The locals were totally outnumbered! Every second building was a hotel and the rest was divided between restaurants and tourist agencies, all offering the same expensive boat trips. It was a nightmare. In our last attempt to escape this nasty place we decided to rent a bike and get off the bitten track. I do not know if local bikes were simply not made for people of our size or if we were just too late and all the good bikes were gone, but we ended up riding over 30 km on bikes, that were half the necessary size. It was a nice experience, though a little painful one. But it did not really allow us to see much of the countryside neither. Even when we left the village, the road was still full of Coca Cola stands and souvenir shops. Only the guesthouses disappeared to make place for Spa & Welness Resorts. But the people we met on the way were as friendly as ever. Even though they had all the right to be fed up with tourist, they were still smiling and waving, as if we were the first foreigners they have seen in weeks.

I do believe we simply came a bit too late. We met people who visited Myanmar 2 or 3 years before and could not recognize it. They came back to see the “hidden treasure” but ended up shortening their trip not to ruin their budget and previous impressions of the country. Some also claimed we came too early. The place is only opening now and the tourist industry is simply not ready yet to handle all the people wanting to come here. But that is definitely going to change. The only question is, will it really do Myanmar good? Well, the time will show, but I'm afraid the “hidden treasure”, the way people could see it few years ago, is irrevocably lost.