After a week in Chiang Mai I went to Singapore and Graham stayed in Thailand to travel around the islands. I was going to Singapore to meet Paul, my partner in final-year-Chemistry-crime. Paul and his Dad met me at Changi airport and we went to stay with his Dad and his wife Jo at their house for the next four nights. In the car on the way there Paul casually asked if I was allergic to dogs, as there were three huge ones in the house. A bit late….but luckily…read more
We haven’t really visited any art galleries or museums so far, so we decided to go ‘highbrow’ and visit a 3D art gallery to ponder perspective and optical illusions…. There’s not much more to say on this one, just enjoy the photos below!
Being the attentive, supportive kind of person I am, the first thing I did when I heard that Kylie had another scary dentist’s appointment was to sign myself up for a whole day of mountain biking. After dithering about which route would be a suitable difficulty for me, I opted for one of the intermediate downhill routes. It turned out to be just about right – although I confess to wimping out of a couple of the more ‘interesting’ sections. I can thoroughly recommend Mountain Biking Chiang Mai – they’re…read more
In the last four months we have been cycling, trekking, caving, kite surfing, we have done a safari and visited a chimpanzee orphanage. We have sampled more types of cuisine than I can possibly list, we have probably accidentally eaten several ants and Graham has even knowingly eaten caterpillars. But we have not done very much cooking at all. Today we signed up for a Thai Cooking School and it was amazing! The Tom Yum Thai Cooking school is run by Oun and Kae from their home in Chiang Mai….read more
a short play Act 1 [Graham and Kylie have just crossed the border from Laos and are waiting for their night bus in Nongkhai. Graham is sent off to find some ‘bus food’ while Kylie watches the bags.] GRAHAM: ‘OK – that market stall looks just right. I hope they speak English’ [strolls confidently over to the stall] GRAHAM: “Hello” [gives the old lady at the stall a winning smile] “Fried rice?” OLD LADY 1: “สิ่งที่” GRAHAM: “Er…yes…ok. English?” OLD LADY 2: [to Old Lady 1] ” แกล้งคุณ ไม่พูดภาษาอังกฤษ” OLD…read more
Vang Vieng used to be the party capital of Laos, with tubing, opium cocktails, and death slides being the activities of choice. A few years ago, after several tourist deaths, the government clamped down and closed most of the bars. The town is re-establishing itself as a centre for outdoor pursuits such as rock climbing and mountain biking. Tubing is also making a comeback, and a few river side bars have re-opened. I arrived in Vang Vieng by myself, with Graham following a couple days behind. I booked into the…read more
Graham’s aunty, Sheila, lives in the East of Laos, near the Plain of Jars, where she is an English teacher. To visit her, we took a 7 hour minibus from journey Luang Prabang. As I’m sure we have mentioned previously, the drivers here seem to only go at one speed, with the accelerator jammed to the floor. This is scary at the best of times, but when you are snaking up a mountain with sheer drops on one side, it is completely terrifying. This particular driver would happily go around…read more
The day after a tremendous storm and torrential downpours, in the middle of the rainy season, we signed up for a two day trek from Luang Prabang. We only have 8 kilos of luggage with us and Grahams ‘trekking’ outfit is exactly the same as his ‘going to a posh bar’ outfit, but we convinced ourselves that there is very little you can do to protect yourself from a tropical downpour so you may as well wear light summer clothes and embrace the rain. We started day one with a…read more
