30/5/11
We decided that we needed to approach the heat in a different manner. Sleeping in until 10am and then getting up just as things began to get hot was killing us. So LuLu plan was unleashed. We would go to bed earlier for the next three days and get up at 7.30 (negotiated to 7.45 by James) and enjoy Thailand when it was slightly cooler. Resting in the middle of the day and then going out again.
At the allotted time we rolled out of bed for breakfast, headed to the beach for some pilates, then for a swim which was cut short as we both felt a stinging sensation on our bodies. After our morning of activity we reclined by the pool before having our afternoon nap. The evening was spent wandering down the hill to the local town and having a massage. Oh yes we never learn. We have had erotic, S&M, and now extremely painful but very good. Both of us were pounded into submission and stretched, pulled, and rubbed into all sorts of pain. James’ masseuse was also extremely intrigued by James’ belly fur and his shear length of body - attributes not normally bestowed on local Thais.
Upon leaving the lady in charge warned us ominously ‘you will be in pain tomorrow but it will be good for you’ … deep joy - what will the morning behold?
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Mini buses, trains and ferries…
28/5/11
We set off back towards Bangkok but having vowed never to go on THAT train again we opted for an air conditioned mini bus. Our relief was tampered with fear as the mini bus failed to show up at the allotted time and we knew we had to be in Bangkok as James had booked us tickets for the overnight train. After presenting ourselves at the booking officer to register our concern we were met with general indifference as the bus was only 20 minutes late and it would come. Another case of Asia time me thinks. Anyway the bus did turn up and we did get to the overnight train in time and we climbed aboard.
Oversized chimpisam struck once again as James did not fit on the sleeper beds as he was just too tall. That said there was nothing to be done other than sawing off his legs so we settled in for the night. James did sleep but decided that the trains could offer a farang (foreigner in Thai) supplement and make the beds a little longer for the longer suffering tall westerners….
29/5/11
After a night on the train we stumbled off and onto the platform around 9am. Bo travel services (oh how I love them) had organized a bus pick up to take us to the ferry port for our next trip over to Koh Samui. On route the conductor had the audacity to ask if James needed a taxi to the hotel once he disembarked from the ferry. James knowing all the overpriced scams declined and the conductor was taken aback as everyone needs a taxi. James said we had a hotel pick up but the conductor did not believe this and asked where we were going. James said silver beech and the conductor said ‘oh they never pick up I know them well’ Meer mortals may have capitulated then but James said we are not staying there to which the conductor asked where we were staying. James said he would not tell him as we knew the response would be the same. Sensing defeat the conductor slunk off leaving James and I considerably better off.
Upon or arrival at the resort James again amazed me with his planning. For some ridiculously low price we had an air conditioned room opposite a pool with an almost private beach and breakfast. How he does it I will never know…. Well maybe it was that year of sitting on the sofa every night planning whilst I cooked tea. Well it has certainly paid off.
We set off back towards Bangkok but having vowed never to go on THAT train again we opted for an air conditioned mini bus. Our relief was tampered with fear as the mini bus failed to show up at the allotted time and we knew we had to be in Bangkok as James had booked us tickets for the overnight train. After presenting ourselves at the booking officer to register our concern we were met with general indifference as the bus was only 20 minutes late and it would come. Another case of Asia time me thinks. Anyway the bus did turn up and we did get to the overnight train in time and we climbed aboard.
Oversized chimpisam struck once again as James did not fit on the sleeper beds as he was just too tall. That said there was nothing to be done other than sawing off his legs so we settled in for the night. James did sleep but decided that the trains could offer a farang (foreigner in Thai) supplement and make the beds a little longer for the longer suffering tall westerners….
29/5/11
After a night on the train we stumbled off and onto the platform around 9am. Bo travel services (oh how I love them) had organized a bus pick up to take us to the ferry port for our next trip over to Koh Samui. On route the conductor had the audacity to ask if James needed a taxi to the hotel once he disembarked from the ferry. James knowing all the overpriced scams declined and the conductor was taken aback as everyone needs a taxi. James said we had a hotel pick up but the conductor did not believe this and asked where we were going. James said silver beech and the conductor said ‘oh they never pick up I know them well’ Meer mortals may have capitulated then but James said we are not staying there to which the conductor asked where we were staying. James said he would not tell him as we knew the response would be the same. Sensing defeat the conductor slunk off leaving James and I considerably better off.
Upon or arrival at the resort James again amazed me with his planning. For some ridiculously low price we had an air conditioned room opposite a pool with an almost private beach and breakfast. How he does it I will never know…. Well maybe it was that year of sitting on the sofa every night planning whilst I cooked tea. Well it has certainly paid off.
Job interviews and rip off merchants
26.5.11
James and I rose early as he had a phone interview with New Zealand. Remember the last job he went for... well they offered it to him but he could not start any earlier so they suggested that he apply for a management position that was coming up. The position is like a ward manger of a day cases unit specialising in cancer and chemotherapy and other day case like stuff. James was of course reticent about applying as he had not had enough time to think about being a manager but after much procrastination he agreed to put in an application. Low and behold he was shortlisted-as his greatest fan I thought he would be that combined with him being asked to apply!
At 9am we went to a local bar that we had agreed would act as landline provider- yes we 1) like to save money and b) like to plan ahead. 10 minutes late the phone rang and the interview began. James answered the questions but felt it was much #harder interview that all the others he had ever had. Only time will tell as now they will ask for references (yes we contacted his old work to put them on high alert) and from then they will make their decsio0n.
In a hot climate this was about 10 times more that we had been used to doing so the rest of the day was spent in the pool or avoiding sunlight!
27/5/11
We hired mopeds today and headed out to a war cemetery on behalf of Elspeth one of mum’s friends who collates pictures of all of the fallen soldiers from Sedbergh. There were rows and rows of headstones and again we found ourselves thinking what a waste and in the same thought how nice it was that the men and women were honoured in such lovely surroundings. One can only hope that the war graves commission will continue to receive funding to keep the cemeteries in such good order. It would be a crime to let such sacrifice dim with the passage of time.
One our return trip (well rather circular trip as we got lost) we stopped at the monkey training school. The book told us that this was a rescue centre but upon reflection we are not sure how much rescuing was going on. It was a bit like planet of the apes but with the humans watching the monkeys doing tricks including riding a bicycle, slam dunking a basket ball and diving into water to retrieve a watch. Not sure about the ethics or standards of the place we left pretty sharpish but not before a thought passing though my mine @those monkeys were very well behaved do you think they could teach James some new tricks?’
Upon our return to the moped shop we handed over the bikes and the keys. Unfortunately the key ring had broken off my bike key. This of course was the end of the world and would be very costly. Normally I would have no truck with such outrageous claims but as they had my passport we entered into a protracted standoff. We stated be discussing the matter and a figure of 150bhat (3gbp) was suggested as a suitable compensatio0n. As we had only paid 130 BHAT to hire the bikes and the fact that there was no negligence on my part and the fact they were obviously scamming bastards I stood my ground and refused to pay. After a period of time the conversation entered the shouting phase but still I stood my ground. The next trick was a call on the owners mobile from the ‘tourist police’ This did not shake me as they had to call them outside and the voice did not sound very confident. After a period of 15 minutes the owner headed off on his bike to get the tourist police. Fearing this may be a by word for a big chap or a corrupt officer I began to negotiate and we settled on 80bhat.
With the passport duly returned we left. Walking back to the hotel James did remind me that it was rather stupid to leave ones passport and that in the future we would not be doing that again. Agreeing with him we set out sights on exacting our revenge and agreed to start an internet travellers website hate campaign.... oh they will rue the day they ever tried to #take our cash said the Yorkshire man!
James and I rose early as he had a phone interview with New Zealand. Remember the last job he went for... well they offered it to him but he could not start any earlier so they suggested that he apply for a management position that was coming up. The position is like a ward manger of a day cases unit specialising in cancer and chemotherapy and other day case like stuff. James was of course reticent about applying as he had not had enough time to think about being a manager but after much procrastination he agreed to put in an application. Low and behold he was shortlisted-as his greatest fan I thought he would be that combined with him being asked to apply!
At 9am we went to a local bar that we had agreed would act as landline provider- yes we 1) like to save money and b) like to plan ahead. 10 minutes late the phone rang and the interview began. James answered the questions but felt it was much #harder interview that all the others he had ever had. Only time will tell as now they will ask for references (yes we contacted his old work to put them on high alert) and from then they will make their decsio0n.
In a hot climate this was about 10 times more that we had been used to doing so the rest of the day was spent in the pool or avoiding sunlight!
27/5/11
We hired mopeds today and headed out to a war cemetery on behalf of Elspeth one of mum’s friends who collates pictures of all of the fallen soldiers from Sedbergh. There were rows and rows of headstones and again we found ourselves thinking what a waste and in the same thought how nice it was that the men and women were honoured in such lovely surroundings. One can only hope that the war graves commission will continue to receive funding to keep the cemeteries in such good order. It would be a crime to let such sacrifice dim with the passage of time.
One our return trip (well rather circular trip as we got lost) we stopped at the monkey training school. The book told us that this was a rescue centre but upon reflection we are not sure how much rescuing was going on. It was a bit like planet of the apes but with the humans watching the monkeys doing tricks including riding a bicycle, slam dunking a basket ball and diving into water to retrieve a watch. Not sure about the ethics or standards of the place we left pretty sharpish but not before a thought passing though my mine @those monkeys were very well behaved do you think they could teach James some new tricks?’
Upon our return to the moped shop we handed over the bikes and the keys. Unfortunately the key ring had broken off my bike key. This of course was the end of the world and would be very costly. Normally I would have no truck with such outrageous claims but as they had my passport we entered into a protracted standoff. We stated be discussing the matter and a figure of 150bhat (3gbp) was suggested as a suitable compensatio0n. As we had only paid 130 BHAT to hire the bikes and the fact that there was no negligence on my part and the fact they were obviously scamming bastards I stood my ground and refused to pay. After a period of time the conversation entered the shouting phase but still I stood my ground. The next trick was a call on the owners mobile from the ‘tourist police’ This did not shake me as they had to call them outside and the voice did not sound very confident. After a period of 15 minutes the owner headed off on his bike to get the tourist police. Fearing this may be a by word for a big chap or a corrupt officer I began to negotiate and we settled on 80bhat.
With the passport duly returned we left. Walking back to the hotel James did remind me that it was rather stupid to leave ones passport and that in the future we would not be doing that again. Agreeing with him we set out sights on exacting our revenge and agreed to start an internet travellers website hate campaign.... oh they will rue the day they ever tried to #take our cash said the Yorkshire man!
Wednesday, 25 May 2011
Hellfire pass
25/5/11
We woke to a cool and overcast day and were overjoyed. That said James did enquire as to why I thought he was not going browner and whether I though his malaria pills were causing this. With as much tack and diplomacy that I could muster I suggested that the cause of the none browning was that we have spent the last month avoiding the sun and UV light is a important ingredient when trying to get a sun tan. This predictably was not the answer he wanted as it was not a medicalised response but en environmental cause. Moving swiftly on…
So despite the original tour office being closed yesterday we had managed to book ourselves onto an organized tour with a nice AC bus. Our first stop was a set of waterfalls that can only be described as underwhelming but as we were only allotted 30 minutes at this attraction we were not to dismayed.
1 hour later we arrived at the hellfire pass memorial museum which commemorates those who lost their life constructing the Burma- Thailand railway. The 100 KM railway line claimed the lives of 12399 allied prisoners of war and some 90,000 civilians which essentially equates to one death per meter of the track. The museum/ memorial center was a sobering place and detailed the human misery encounter by those who worked to connect Thailand to Burma. We spent one hour walking along a stretch of track and after that felt like we had heat exhaustion. One cannot imagine having to dig by had a pass though the rock or construct bridges using only the most rudimentary hand tools. If ever there was a case for adhering to the Geneva Convention this was it as this kind of forced labor is outlawed.
After this sobering visit it was lunch time and being on a tour we had 30 minutes for lunch and despite the fact that most of us had not finished chewing our last mouthful of food we were instructed to go to the toilet and then get back in the mini bus. Oh the joys or organized tours. That said it was incredible value and air conditioned so there can’t be too much moaning!
Our post lunch activity was a tip to a natural hot spa were we lounged in incredibly hot water for an hour. One pool was as hot as a bath I we would have at home. As James is pining for his bath also know as his seconded sofa he was in heaven.
Our next stop was a section of elevated tract that had been built by hand. We walked along this amazing structure marveling at how it was possible to construct something as large as this without cranes ore many tools. We wondered if the modem British person would be able to cope with such conditions or whether the British psyche would see people just lay down and die. We thought that if it came down to a option of being killed or beaten savagely our nation would probably rise to the challenge but how long we would survive was questionable.
On the matter of surviving the bridge nearly had two more facilities- us. As we were walking along the raised section down the middle of the tracks I began to think what would happen if the train that we were due to catch was early and we were on the tracks. Low and behold the train was in fact early and a casual observer would have seen us have a double take and look a little concerned. Fortunately we were not in the middle of a long section of elevated track and were able to get to the side of the track and out of harm’s way before the (admittedly very slowly moving train passed by) but even so the incident did make us think about those horrific videos that the transport police show to children to warn them about the dangers of playing on the tracks!
Once safely back at the station we boarded said train and set off along the track that claimed a life per meter. Again very sobering and a huge advertisement for pacifism and human rights.
We woke to a cool and overcast day and were overjoyed. That said James did enquire as to why I thought he was not going browner and whether I though his malaria pills were causing this. With as much tack and diplomacy that I could muster I suggested that the cause of the none browning was that we have spent the last month avoiding the sun and UV light is a important ingredient when trying to get a sun tan. This predictably was not the answer he wanted as it was not a medicalised response but en environmental cause. Moving swiftly on…
So despite the original tour office being closed yesterday we had managed to book ourselves onto an organized tour with a nice AC bus. Our first stop was a set of waterfalls that can only be described as underwhelming but as we were only allotted 30 minutes at this attraction we were not to dismayed.
1 hour later we arrived at the hellfire pass memorial museum which commemorates those who lost their life constructing the Burma- Thailand railway. The 100 KM railway line claimed the lives of 12399 allied prisoners of war and some 90,000 civilians which essentially equates to one death per meter of the track. The museum/ memorial center was a sobering place and detailed the human misery encounter by those who worked to connect Thailand to Burma. We spent one hour walking along a stretch of track and after that felt like we had heat exhaustion. One cannot imagine having to dig by had a pass though the rock or construct bridges using only the most rudimentary hand tools. If ever there was a case for adhering to the Geneva Convention this was it as this kind of forced labor is outlawed.
After this sobering visit it was lunch time and being on a tour we had 30 minutes for lunch and despite the fact that most of us had not finished chewing our last mouthful of food we were instructed to go to the toilet and then get back in the mini bus. Oh the joys or organized tours. That said it was incredible value and air conditioned so there can’t be too much moaning!
Our post lunch activity was a tip to a natural hot spa were we lounged in incredibly hot water for an hour. One pool was as hot as a bath I we would have at home. As James is pining for his bath also know as his seconded sofa he was in heaven.
Our next stop was a section of elevated tract that had been built by hand. We walked along this amazing structure marveling at how it was possible to construct something as large as this without cranes ore many tools. We wondered if the modem British person would be able to cope with such conditions or whether the British psyche would see people just lay down and die. We thought that if it came down to a option of being killed or beaten savagely our nation would probably rise to the challenge but how long we would survive was questionable.
On the matter of surviving the bridge nearly had two more facilities- us. As we were walking along the raised section down the middle of the tracks I began to think what would happen if the train that we were due to catch was early and we were on the tracks. Low and behold the train was in fact early and a casual observer would have seen us have a double take and look a little concerned. Fortunately we were not in the middle of a long section of elevated track and were able to get to the side of the track and out of harm’s way before the (admittedly very slowly moving train passed by) but even so the incident did make us think about those horrific videos that the transport police show to children to warn them about the dangers of playing on the tracks!
Once safely back at the station we boarded said train and set off along the track that claimed a life per meter. Again very sobering and a huge advertisement for pacifism and human rights.
Oh my its hot
24/5/11
Today was so hot. We thought we had been hot but evidently we have not. Simple tasks like walking for 5 minutes become unbearable and you become very wet with sweat very quickly. Standing in front of the fan offers limited relief as it feels like you are standing in front of a fan assisted oven with the door open. Yes there is a breeze but it’s very warm and not pleasant.
It was to this heat we woke. We spent a few hours in the pool and then the mid day sun came and even this was untenable so we walked to a café and had some lunch and a drink with lots of ice. Sitting without air conditioning was soon also untenable so I delivered James to an air conditioned internet café whilst I set off in search of a tour agency to organize the next day’s activity. After 25 minutes of walking round in a large circle I found the place I was looking for… it was CLOSED and I was very very hot and my clothes soaked. I trudged back to the internet café and hid with James until it went dark. At 10 baht per hour (20pence) we felt we could afford to stay for a while.
Once sunset came there was some relief but as James neck was hurting he curled up on the bed and played with his IPod. I headed out to a bar for a beer and got chatting to the bad lady. Had a Thai speaking lesion and retuned with takeaway food for us both. This also included a full set of cutlery plates and bowls
Today was so hot. We thought we had been hot but evidently we have not. Simple tasks like walking for 5 minutes become unbearable and you become very wet with sweat very quickly. Standing in front of the fan offers limited relief as it feels like you are standing in front of a fan assisted oven with the door open. Yes there is a breeze but it’s very warm and not pleasant.
It was to this heat we woke. We spent a few hours in the pool and then the mid day sun came and even this was untenable so we walked to a café and had some lunch and a drink with lots of ice. Sitting without air conditioning was soon also untenable so I delivered James to an air conditioned internet café whilst I set off in search of a tour agency to organize the next day’s activity. After 25 minutes of walking round in a large circle I found the place I was looking for… it was CLOSED and I was very very hot and my clothes soaked. I trudged back to the internet café and hid with James until it went dark. At 10 baht per hour (20pence) we felt we could afford to stay for a while.
Once sunset came there was some relief but as James neck was hurting he curled up on the bed and played with his IPod. I headed out to a bar for a beer and got chatting to the bad lady. Had a Thai speaking lesion and retuned with takeaway food for us both. This also included a full set of cutlery plates and bowls
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Horrid trains but relief in the form of BO travel planning services…
23/5/11
The heat combined with the humidity is killing us. We are both inexplicably tired all of the time. We don’t do very much each day but never the less by lunchtime need a nap. Today there would be no napping as we boarded a train what can only be described as the most uncomfortable train ride of our trip. An accolade indeed which you consider that we have been on a lot of trains including a fair selection in Eastern Europe in our travels part one. Ok to set the scene its hot -37 degrees Celsius with a high humidity, the train has no AC and the benches are hard upright wooden affairs. We did what any sensible travel would do- bought a bag of ice and boarded the train selecting the side in the shade. That said the train journey was still awful. The ice kept us cool but melted on my crotch so I looked like I had wet myself. The track had been built by prisoners of war so was somewhat rickety. The trains were aged and the seats collapsed periodically causing some amusement on my part when James ended up on the floor.
We arrived 4 hours later half a stone lighter, dehydrated and smelly. We were of course approached by a number of tuk tuk drivers but even they could see we were not in the mood to be messed with so left us alone sharpish. We call our hotel and were mercifully collected within 10 minutes why a strange motorbike side car contraption. Think motorbike with a steel frame on wheels welded to its side the safety of which was questionable but as the moped had an engine akin to a lawnmower we were not destined to get above 15 mph. After a short journey we arrived at the hotel and James had excelled in his travel planning. A clean large room with private bathroom in a complex with a pool overlooking the river and all for 12gbp a night. Bliss. Thank goodness for Bo Travel planning services.
The heat combined with the humidity is killing us. We are both inexplicably tired all of the time. We don’t do very much each day but never the less by lunchtime need a nap. Today there would be no napping as we boarded a train what can only be described as the most uncomfortable train ride of our trip. An accolade indeed which you consider that we have been on a lot of trains including a fair selection in Eastern Europe in our travels part one. Ok to set the scene its hot -37 degrees Celsius with a high humidity, the train has no AC and the benches are hard upright wooden affairs. We did what any sensible travel would do- bought a bag of ice and boarded the train selecting the side in the shade. That said the train journey was still awful. The ice kept us cool but melted on my crotch so I looked like I had wet myself. The track had been built by prisoners of war so was somewhat rickety. The trains were aged and the seats collapsed periodically causing some amusement on my part when James ended up on the floor.
We arrived 4 hours later half a stone lighter, dehydrated and smelly. We were of course approached by a number of tuk tuk drivers but even they could see we were not in the mood to be messed with so left us alone sharpish. We call our hotel and were mercifully collected within 10 minutes why a strange motorbike side car contraption. Think motorbike with a steel frame on wheels welded to its side the safety of which was questionable but as the moped had an engine akin to a lawnmower we were not destined to get above 15 mph. After a short journey we arrived at the hotel and James had excelled in his travel planning. A clean large room with private bathroom in a complex with a pool overlooking the river and all for 12gbp a night. Bliss. Thank goodness for Bo Travel planning services.
Thai boxing- brutal and homoerotic.
22/5/11
We woke with a general malaise made up of a late night, too much booze and the incredible heat. We had great plans to do something cultural but instead opted to sit, play chess, nap and do laundry.
About 6pm we pulled ourselves together and hailed a cab to the Thai boxing arena. We got front row seats and settled in for the nine fights. The event was a cross between our previous night out -lots of nearly naked lithe lads dancing about a ring crossed with a significant amount of animalistic violence. Having never been to a like fight before we were both somewhat surprised by the sounds that emanated form the ring combined with the sweat that would occasionally fly in our direction. The fighters aged 14-20 punched, kicked and kneed each other until one either fell down and could not get up or five founds were over and the judges decided who had won. In between each fight the fighters would stand into a metal basin and be rubbed down with cold water and for some inexplicable reason have water sprayed down their shorts. This was followed by a quick rub a stretch of the legs up to the ears a bend over the ropes and then back to the ring for the next bout.
So to describe Thai boxing- brutal and homoerotic. But in all we concluded that we would not like to meet any of the fighters in a dark alley nor would we like to take part in even the training sessions.- even if everyone is half naked
We woke with a general malaise made up of a late night, too much booze and the incredible heat. We had great plans to do something cultural but instead opted to sit, play chess, nap and do laundry.
About 6pm we pulled ourselves together and hailed a cab to the Thai boxing arena. We got front row seats and settled in for the nine fights. The event was a cross between our previous night out -lots of nearly naked lithe lads dancing about a ring crossed with a significant amount of animalistic violence. Having never been to a like fight before we were both somewhat surprised by the sounds that emanated form the ring combined with the sweat that would occasionally fly in our direction. The fighters aged 14-20 punched, kicked and kneed each other until one either fell down and could not get up or five founds were over and the judges decided who had won. In between each fight the fighters would stand into a metal basin and be rubbed down with cold water and for some inexplicable reason have water sprayed down their shorts. This was followed by a quick rub a stretch of the legs up to the ears a bend over the ropes and then back to the ring for the next bout.
So to describe Thai boxing- brutal and homoerotic. But in all we concluded that we would not like to meet any of the fighters in a dark alley nor would we like to take part in even the training sessions.- even if everyone is half naked
Sunday, 22 May 2011
Shopping and sex
21/5/11
As we are in a big city it was time to track down a chiropractor and make an appointment. We boarded the lovely air condoned sky train and walked through a terribly middle class area with police me on every street corner most of whom were sheltering in a hut designed the shape of a police mans hat. Fairly heavily armed men standing under a oversized hat was a some what incongruous sight…
Upon arrival at the chiropractic center James was taken cracked, massaged and attached to a 1960 tens machine. Whilst this was taking place I hit the local restaurants trying to buy some ice for him to apply to his neck after the treatment. Explaining the my friend had burnt himself and needed ice elicited a number of concerned or quizzical looks but no ice- although one restaurant did give me some cold after dinner wipes. Never to be beaten I carried out and tracked down a small supermarket and purchased some ice. Upon retuning to the center the lady behind the counter gave me a strange look and then she pieced together what the foreigner had been asking her for and went over to the freezer and pulled out an ice pack that James could use!
After a quick street food lunch we headed to Thailand’s largest wholesale clothes market. The first 10 minutes were spent trying to work out where we were in this 6 floor two building complex. Next we had to work out how to get to where we wanted to be and eventually we found men’s clothes. We spent 3 hours wandering round looking at clothes and making a number of purchases which sounds easier that it was.
Firstly we had to work out the price as one item was a different price to buying 2 3 or 10 items.
Secondly we had to work out what size we were. In the UK I am a medium and James is a small so long as the garment its long (tight and missshapen??J). Here in Thailand the land of the skinny the shopping assistants thought we were deluded when we asked for small or medium. They obliged of course but we soon discovered that James was large and I was extra large or beyond the scale. One was not impressed. How could we have gone from average to huge by just changing continents. We knew the time zone and the temperature was different but our body size too?
Thirdly we had to ascertain if we could try on the clothes (sometimes yes and some times no) and if yes where we should try them on. The options were in the middle of the shop concealed within a ladies skirt to preserve ones modesty or in the middle of the shop with nothing to conserve ones modesty. James was amazingly brave (or was he just desperate for some new clothes) and at one point was just standing in his underpants trying on a variety of clothes.
After 3 hours I declared that I was all shopped out and I headed outside for a coffee. James had 6 new tops, and two pairs of shorts but needed some new canvas shoes so he headed to the shoe section (building 1 floor 5 zone 3) and I headed out with my two new tea shirts. After another half hour we both emerged into a humid down town Bangkok and headed back to the accommodation to prepare for Bangkok’s other favorite pastime… a big sleazy night out
Parental warning: The following text contains details of a sexual nature. If your are easily shocked please turn off the computer and turn into BBC radio three for some nice soothing music.
OK our sleazy night out consisted of visiting the gay bars of Bangkok where we encounter some of the campest and some of the hottest men we have ever met. Our first waiter was the epitome of everything we dislike about gay men. He was over the top, sexually graphic told extremely tall stories and his conversation revolved around his ass his latest sexual conquest and cocks. He took quite a liking to James and his hands roved freely but upon discovering that neither James or I wanted to fuck him he recovered from the shock and enquired as to why not. Learning that we were married he produced an out of order sign and placed it on our table. Fortunately he then got bored with us and we got talking to another bar man who was lovely. He told us about the local gay scene and the local area and the best male go go bar to frequent. Again we felt somewhat like atiller the hun as gey men in the UK have a propensity to be slim and ware tight clothes and Bangkok is no exception apart from the fact that waist lines are about the size of most British peoples left leg!
After a fortifying meal at MacDonald’s (I told you it was a proper sleazy night out) we headed passed the many live female ping pong shows/ massage/ sex show areas to the gay male version. We headed into BBB (best boys Bangkok) and after eliciting the price list (one does not like to be ripped off) settled in for the show. Well we were rewarded with a beauty parade of 20 something hunks in unfeasibly small underpants, dancing some of which was amazing, lots and lots of nudity including a nude acrobat and some rather raunchy shows which appeared to deify the bounds of human anatomy…the details of which are available upon request!
At midnight we transferred to the basement for some more shows and we got talking to the owner who had retired 14 years ago but got bored with that and now aged 70 owns two go go bars and a nightclub. He employs over 100 hunks and an assortment of waiting staff many of whom are go go boys that have been put out to pasture “well they cant go on for ever can they. ”
As we are in a big city it was time to track down a chiropractor and make an appointment. We boarded the lovely air condoned sky train and walked through a terribly middle class area with police me on every street corner most of whom were sheltering in a hut designed the shape of a police mans hat. Fairly heavily armed men standing under a oversized hat was a some what incongruous sight…
Upon arrival at the chiropractic center James was taken cracked, massaged and attached to a 1960 tens machine. Whilst this was taking place I hit the local restaurants trying to buy some ice for him to apply to his neck after the treatment. Explaining the my friend had burnt himself and needed ice elicited a number of concerned or quizzical looks but no ice- although one restaurant did give me some cold after dinner wipes. Never to be beaten I carried out and tracked down a small supermarket and purchased some ice. Upon retuning to the center the lady behind the counter gave me a strange look and then she pieced together what the foreigner had been asking her for and went over to the freezer and pulled out an ice pack that James could use!
After a quick street food lunch we headed to Thailand’s largest wholesale clothes market. The first 10 minutes were spent trying to work out where we were in this 6 floor two building complex. Next we had to work out how to get to where we wanted to be and eventually we found men’s clothes. We spent 3 hours wandering round looking at clothes and making a number of purchases which sounds easier that it was.
Firstly we had to work out the price as one item was a different price to buying 2 3 or 10 items.
Secondly we had to work out what size we were. In the UK I am a medium and James is a small so long as the garment its long (tight and missshapen??J). Here in Thailand the land of the skinny the shopping assistants thought we were deluded when we asked for small or medium. They obliged of course but we soon discovered that James was large and I was extra large or beyond the scale. One was not impressed. How could we have gone from average to huge by just changing continents. We knew the time zone and the temperature was different but our body size too?
Thirdly we had to ascertain if we could try on the clothes (sometimes yes and some times no) and if yes where we should try them on. The options were in the middle of the shop concealed within a ladies skirt to preserve ones modesty or in the middle of the shop with nothing to conserve ones modesty. James was amazingly brave (or was he just desperate for some new clothes) and at one point was just standing in his underpants trying on a variety of clothes.
After 3 hours I declared that I was all shopped out and I headed outside for a coffee. James had 6 new tops, and two pairs of shorts but needed some new canvas shoes so he headed to the shoe section (building 1 floor 5 zone 3) and I headed out with my two new tea shirts. After another half hour we both emerged into a humid down town Bangkok and headed back to the accommodation to prepare for Bangkok’s other favorite pastime… a big sleazy night out
Parental warning: The following text contains details of a sexual nature. If your are easily shocked please turn off the computer and turn into BBC radio three for some nice soothing music.
OK our sleazy night out consisted of visiting the gay bars of Bangkok where we encounter some of the campest and some of the hottest men we have ever met. Our first waiter was the epitome of everything we dislike about gay men. He was over the top, sexually graphic told extremely tall stories and his conversation revolved around his ass his latest sexual conquest and cocks. He took quite a liking to James and his hands roved freely but upon discovering that neither James or I wanted to fuck him he recovered from the shock and enquired as to why not. Learning that we were married he produced an out of order sign and placed it on our table. Fortunately he then got bored with us and we got talking to another bar man who was lovely. He told us about the local gay scene and the local area and the best male go go bar to frequent. Again we felt somewhat like atiller the hun as gey men in the UK have a propensity to be slim and ware tight clothes and Bangkok is no exception apart from the fact that waist lines are about the size of most British peoples left leg!
After a fortifying meal at MacDonald’s (I told you it was a proper sleazy night out) we headed passed the many live female ping pong shows/ massage/ sex show areas to the gay male version. We headed into BBB (best boys Bangkok) and after eliciting the price list (one does not like to be ripped off) settled in for the show. Well we were rewarded with a beauty parade of 20 something hunks in unfeasibly small underpants, dancing some of which was amazing, lots and lots of nudity including a nude acrobat and some rather raunchy shows which appeared to deify the bounds of human anatomy…the details of which are available upon request!
At midnight we transferred to the basement for some more shows and we got talking to the owner who had retired 14 years ago but got bored with that and now aged 70 owns two go go bars and a nightclub. He employs over 100 hunks and an assortment of waiting staff many of whom are go go boys that have been put out to pasture “well they cant go on for ever can they. ”
Shopping and sex
21/5/11
As we are in a big city it was time to track down a chiropractor and make an appointment. We boarded the lovely air condoned sky train and walked through a terribly middle class area with police me on every street corner most of whom were sheltering in a hut designed the shape of a police mans hat. Fairly heavily armed men standing under a oversized hat was a some what incongruous sight…
Upon arrival at the chiropractic center James was taken cracked, massaged and attached to a 1960 tens machine. Whilst this was taking place I hit the local restaurants trying to buy some ice for him to apply to his neck after the treatment. Explaining the my friend had burnt himself and needed ice elicited a number of concerned or quizzical looks but no ice- although one restaurant did give me some cold after dinner wipes. Never to be beaten I carried out and tracked down a small supermarket and purchased some ice. Upon retuning to the center the lady behind the counter gave me a strange look and then she pieced together what the foreigner had been asking her for and went over to the freezer and pulled out an ice pack that James could use!
After a quick street food lunch we headed to Thailand’s largest wholesale clothes market. The first 10 minutes were spent trying to work out where we were in this 6 floor two building complex. Next we had to work out how to get to where we wanted to be and eventually we found men’s clothes. We spent 3 hours wandering round looking at clothes and making a number of purchases which sounds easier that it was.
Firstly we had to work out the price as one item was a different price to buying 2 3 or 10 items.
Secondly we had to work out what size we were. In the UK I am a medium and James is a small so long as the garment its long (tight and missshapen??J). Here in Thailand the land of the skinny the shopping assistants thought we were deluded when we asked for small or medium. They obliged of course but we soon discovered that James was large and I was extra large or beyond the scale. One was not impressed. How could we have gone from average to huge by just changing continents. We knew the time zone and the temperature was different but our body size too?
Thirdly we had to ascertain if we could try on the clothes (sometimes yes and some times no) and if yes where we should try them on. The options were in the middle of the shop concealed within a ladies skirt to preserve ones modesty or in the middle of the shop with nothing to conserve ones modesty. James was amazingly brave (or was he just desperate for some new clothes) and at one point was just standing in his underpants trying on a variety of clothes.
After 3 hours I declared that I was all shopped out and I headed outside for a coffee. James had 6 new tops, and two pairs of shorts but needed some new canvas shoes so he headed to the shoe section (building 1 floor 5 zone 3) and I headed out with my two new tea shirts. After another half hour we both emerged into a humid down town Bangkok and headed back to the accommodation to prepare for Bangkok’s other favorite pastime… a big sleazy night out
Parental warning: The following text contains details of a sexual nature. If your are easily shocked please turn off the computer and turn into BBC radio three for some nice soothing music.
OK our sleazy night out consisted of visiting the gay bars of Bangkok where we encounter some of the campest and some of the hottest men we have ever met. Our first waiter was the epitome of everything we dislike about gay men. He was over the top, sexually graphic told extremely tall stories and his conversation revolved around his ass his latest sexual conquest and cocks. He took quite a liking to James and his hands roved freely but upon discovering that neither James or I wanted to fuck him he recovered from the shock and enquired as to why not. Learning that we were married he produced an out of order sign and placed it on our table. Fortunately he then got bored with us and we got talking to another bar man who was lovely. He told us about the local gay scene and the local area and the best male go go bar to frequent. Again we felt somewhat like atiller the hun as gey men in the UK have a propensity to be slim and ware tight clothes and Bangkok is no exception apart from the fact that waist lines are about the size of most British peoples left leg!
After a fortifying meal at MacDonald’s (I told you it was a proper sleazy night out) we headed passed the many live female ping pong shows/ massage/ sex show areas to the gay male version. We headed into BBB (best boys Bangkok) and after eliciting the price list (one does not like to be ripped off) settled in for the show. Well we were rewarded with a beauty parade of 20 something hunks in unfeasibly small underpants, dancing some of which was amazing, lots and lots of nudity including a nude acrobat and some rather raunchy shows which appeared to deify the bounds of human anatomy…the details of which are available upon request!
At midnight we transferred to the basement for some more shows and we got talking to the owner who had retired 14 years ago but got bored with that and now aged 70 owns two go go bars and a nightclub. He employs over 100 hunks and an assortment of waiting staff many of whom are go go boys that have been put out to pasture “well they cant go on for ever can they. ”
As we are in a big city it was time to track down a chiropractor and make an appointment. We boarded the lovely air condoned sky train and walked through a terribly middle class area with police me on every street corner most of whom were sheltering in a hut designed the shape of a police mans hat. Fairly heavily armed men standing under a oversized hat was a some what incongruous sight…
Upon arrival at the chiropractic center James was taken cracked, massaged and attached to a 1960 tens machine. Whilst this was taking place I hit the local restaurants trying to buy some ice for him to apply to his neck after the treatment. Explaining the my friend had burnt himself and needed ice elicited a number of concerned or quizzical looks but no ice- although one restaurant did give me some cold after dinner wipes. Never to be beaten I carried out and tracked down a small supermarket and purchased some ice. Upon retuning to the center the lady behind the counter gave me a strange look and then she pieced together what the foreigner had been asking her for and went over to the freezer and pulled out an ice pack that James could use!
After a quick street food lunch we headed to Thailand’s largest wholesale clothes market. The first 10 minutes were spent trying to work out where we were in this 6 floor two building complex. Next we had to work out how to get to where we wanted to be and eventually we found men’s clothes. We spent 3 hours wandering round looking at clothes and making a number of purchases which sounds easier that it was.
Firstly we had to work out the price as one item was a different price to buying 2 3 or 10 items.
Secondly we had to work out what size we were. In the UK I am a medium and James is a small so long as the garment its long (tight and missshapen??J). Here in Thailand the land of the skinny the shopping assistants thought we were deluded when we asked for small or medium. They obliged of course but we soon discovered that James was large and I was extra large or beyond the scale. One was not impressed. How could we have gone from average to huge by just changing continents. We knew the time zone and the temperature was different but our body size too?
Thirdly we had to ascertain if we could try on the clothes (sometimes yes and some times no) and if yes where we should try them on. The options were in the middle of the shop concealed within a ladies skirt to preserve ones modesty or in the middle of the shop with nothing to conserve ones modesty. James was amazingly brave (or was he just desperate for some new clothes) and at one point was just standing in his underpants trying on a variety of clothes.
After 3 hours I declared that I was all shopped out and I headed outside for a coffee. James had 6 new tops, and two pairs of shorts but needed some new canvas shoes so he headed to the shoe section (building 1 floor 5 zone 3) and I headed out with my two new tea shirts. After another half hour we both emerged into a humid down town Bangkok and headed back to the accommodation to prepare for Bangkok’s other favorite pastime… a big sleazy night out
Parental warning: The following text contains details of a sexual nature. If your are easily shocked please turn off the computer and turn into BBC radio three for some nice soothing music.
OK our sleazy night out consisted of visiting the gay bars of Bangkok where we encounter some of the campest and some of the hottest men we have ever met. Our first waiter was the epitome of everything we dislike about gay men. He was over the top, sexually graphic told extremely tall stories and his conversation revolved around his ass his latest sexual conquest and cocks. He took quite a liking to James and his hands roved freely but upon discovering that neither James or I wanted to fuck him he recovered from the shock and enquired as to why not. Learning that we were married he produced an out of order sign and placed it on our table. Fortunately he then got bored with us and we got talking to another bar man who was lovely. He told us about the local gay scene and the local area and the best male go go bar to frequent. Again we felt somewhat like atiller the hun as gey men in the UK have a propensity to be slim and ware tight clothes and Bangkok is no exception apart from the fact that waist lines are about the size of most British peoples left leg!
After a fortifying meal at MacDonald’s (I told you it was a proper sleazy night out) we headed passed the many live female ping pong shows/ massage/ sex show areas to the gay male version. We headed into BBB (best boys Bangkok) and after eliciting the price list (one does not like to be ripped off) settled in for the show. Well we were rewarded with a beauty parade of 20 something hunks in unfeasibly small underpants, dancing some of which was amazing, lots and lots of nudity including a nude acrobat and some rather raunchy shows which appeared to deify the bounds of human anatomy…the details of which are available upon request!
At midnight we transferred to the basement for some more shows and we got talking to the owner who had retired 14 years ago but got bored with that and now aged 70 owns two go go bars and a nightclub. He employs over 100 hunks and an assortment of waiting staff many of whom are go go boys that have been put out to pasture “well they cant go on for ever can they. ”
All hail consumerism
20/5/11
We have finally left Luang Probang. We jumped in a tuk tuk and headed to the airport well more shed with an air strip. All airports should be like this. One check in counter 5 flights a day no long waits, sit outside until its time to board your plane. This backwater feel was wash washed away upon arrival at Bangkok.
After a month in sleepy Laos Bangkok was a frenetic reintroduction to Aisa. This is the land of consumerism. Shopping centers connect to one another and for 3 sky train stops this is all you can see. Cars rule on the ground, sky walkways or trains take pedestrians and its hot so hot and sticky. We were told that there are only two types of weather here- outside and inside and AC building or train- I now know why people joked that we may just want to spend a day riding the sky train. Its cheep and its got sub artic air conditioning!
Being in the land of capitalism we decided we had better consume something. Liking to double up on our activities we decided to consume both finically and physically and headed to our local seven story shopping center for dinner. Think Trafford center but much bigger and connected to three more Trafford centers with every conceivable shop, cinema, activity you can imagine. You could have 10 meals a day, coffee on tap, a face life, foot spar, shop for a full wardrobe and house full of furniture and soft furnishings, have your teeth whitened and even have some surgery. The only limitation being money and time but don’t worry its open every day and there is a significant middle class here combined with lots of tourists to keep the cash registers ringing. From my tone you may assume I did not like it but amazingly it was ok. With such expanses of space combined with AC and a complete lack of shopping for three months it was ok. James on the other hand thought he was in heaven and decreed that the next day would be spent enjoying the Thai national pastime as he was board of his clothes… more on that later.
Anyway back to dinner. We found an all you can eat sushi type restaurant. We took out ticket and waited to be served. Our number was called but someone got in before us so we planted ourselves in the way until we were seated. The wait was worth it as we were shown to our seats given a pot of steaming water connected to a hot plat and allowed to consume for 1hr 15 minutes. All manor of food came round on the conveyor belt and we selected what we wanted, put it in our pot to cook it and then ate it with a whole range of condiments including the hottest wasabi paste I have ever eaten- a pin prick sized amount gave a strong physical reaction with your nose and mouth burning and eyes watering. Watered down with Soy sauce it was lovely but on its own lethal.
We have finally left Luang Probang. We jumped in a tuk tuk and headed to the airport well more shed with an air strip. All airports should be like this. One check in counter 5 flights a day no long waits, sit outside until its time to board your plane. This backwater feel was wash washed away upon arrival at Bangkok.
After a month in sleepy Laos Bangkok was a frenetic reintroduction to Aisa. This is the land of consumerism. Shopping centers connect to one another and for 3 sky train stops this is all you can see. Cars rule on the ground, sky walkways or trains take pedestrians and its hot so hot and sticky. We were told that there are only two types of weather here- outside and inside and AC building or train- I now know why people joked that we may just want to spend a day riding the sky train. Its cheep and its got sub artic air conditioning!
Being in the land of capitalism we decided we had better consume something. Liking to double up on our activities we decided to consume both finically and physically and headed to our local seven story shopping center for dinner. Think Trafford center but much bigger and connected to three more Trafford centers with every conceivable shop, cinema, activity you can imagine. You could have 10 meals a day, coffee on tap, a face life, foot spar, shop for a full wardrobe and house full of furniture and soft furnishings, have your teeth whitened and even have some surgery. The only limitation being money and time but don’t worry its open every day and there is a significant middle class here combined with lots of tourists to keep the cash registers ringing. From my tone you may assume I did not like it but amazingly it was ok. With such expanses of space combined with AC and a complete lack of shopping for three months it was ok. James on the other hand thought he was in heaven and decreed that the next day would be spent enjoying the Thai national pastime as he was board of his clothes… more on that later.
Anyway back to dinner. We found an all you can eat sushi type restaurant. We took out ticket and waited to be served. Our number was called but someone got in before us so we planted ourselves in the way until we were seated. The wait was worth it as we were shown to our seats given a pot of steaming water connected to a hot plat and allowed to consume for 1hr 15 minutes. All manor of food came round on the conveyor belt and we selected what we wanted, put it in our pot to cook it and then ate it with a whole range of condiments including the hottest wasabi paste I have ever eaten- a pin prick sized amount gave a strong physical reaction with your nose and mouth burning and eyes watering. Watered down with Soy sauce it was lovely but on its own lethal.
Friday, 20 May 2011
Our last day in Luang Prabang
Our last day in Luang Prabang our last day as guest house managers is hear. With no breakfasts to cook I headed to a charity called big brother mouse. Here Laos 16-25 year olds come to practice there English with English language speaking tourists.
I met with a 21 year old student and talked for two hours whilst James caught up on his beauty sleep. During the conversation we discussed the need for hay. It took some time for the young man to comprehend that the grass does not grow in the winter in the UK and that the leaves fall of the trees for 45 months of the year. “So no sun he asked” to which I gave him that British knowing smile shook my head, looked mournful and told him it rained for 200 days of the year back home. He was aghast and enquired how it could possibly rain that much for everywhere would be flooded. Again for that resigned British look and the response “ it only rains enough to ruin your day not enough to fill up the reservoirs.” After an hour of chatting he then read aloud to me from a Paddington bear book. Not the easiest choice as it was written in 1953 so I found my self explaining what opera gasses where how something could be enclosed herewith within an envelope and the difference between envelope and envelope . The English language has certainly moved on in the last half decade or so!
The afternoon saw James and I begin to pack. What a shock to the system. Its been 4 weeks since we have packed up so consequently things were strewn about the guest house. It was a mammoth task retrieving our items from the kitchen, living room dining room bathroom and bedroom. We had forgotten what it was like to live somewhere with so many rooms. We have been condoned to living within a 10ft by 10 ft box with a bed and that’s pretty much it.
A little later Yoxa and Brad turned up. They had been roped into guest house management at the last minute and where given a three hour baptism of fire. We also counted the money and came to the realization that if we were ever to become millionaires we certainly would not want to keep it in cash as counting 6,000,000 took a fair bit of time.
Dinner was with Yaxa, Brad and Christina followed by a visit to the local gay bar. Well we were not too upset that we had missed out on the gay bar of Luang Prabang as it was somewhat underwhelming. Of course it had the required uniform of glitter balls, suggestively named cocktails and boys in tight tee-shirts but it lacked a certain jena sa qua as there we few people in there and there were a number of older western men with younger Loas lads. Love I am sure….
I met with a 21 year old student and talked for two hours whilst James caught up on his beauty sleep. During the conversation we discussed the need for hay. It took some time for the young man to comprehend that the grass does not grow in the winter in the UK and that the leaves fall of the trees for 45 months of the year. “So no sun he asked” to which I gave him that British knowing smile shook my head, looked mournful and told him it rained for 200 days of the year back home. He was aghast and enquired how it could possibly rain that much for everywhere would be flooded. Again for that resigned British look and the response “ it only rains enough to ruin your day not enough to fill up the reservoirs.” After an hour of chatting he then read aloud to me from a Paddington bear book. Not the easiest choice as it was written in 1953 so I found my self explaining what opera gasses where how something could be enclosed herewith within an envelope and the difference between envelope and envelope . The English language has certainly moved on in the last half decade or so!
The afternoon saw James and I begin to pack. What a shock to the system. Its been 4 weeks since we have packed up so consequently things were strewn about the guest house. It was a mammoth task retrieving our items from the kitchen, living room dining room bathroom and bedroom. We had forgotten what it was like to live somewhere with so many rooms. We have been condoned to living within a 10ft by 10 ft box with a bed and that’s pretty much it.
A little later Yoxa and Brad turned up. They had been roped into guest house management at the last minute and where given a three hour baptism of fire. We also counted the money and came to the realization that if we were ever to become millionaires we certainly would not want to keep it in cash as counting 6,000,000 took a fair bit of time.
Dinner was with Yaxa, Brad and Christina followed by a visit to the local gay bar. Well we were not too upset that we had missed out on the gay bar of Luang Prabang as it was somewhat underwhelming. Of course it had the required uniform of glitter balls, suggestively named cocktails and boys in tight tee-shirts but it lacked a certain jena sa qua as there we few people in there and there were a number of older western men with younger Loas lads. Love I am sure….
Thursday, 19 May 2011
Re-introduction to society program
18/5/11
Well the end is in sight and we are staring to get jittery about going into the big bad world. Its so quite here. We have a house keeper who collects food, guests who keep me entertained and we need never leave the guest house. Will we survive the transition from sleepy Luang Prabang and manic Bancock or will it be lake the start of our travels all over a again. Will this sleepy little town soften us up to much and will the beeping busy metropolis scare us? Only time will tell.
As part of our re-introduction to society program we set off on a bike ride and then to the pool. It was on this ride I discovered a difference between James and my interpretation of a bike ride.
Luke: bike ride is for fun with 30 minutes of cycling on the way to the swimming pool
James: bike ride is the means of transport to the pool which is five minutes away.
As such James was less then impressed when we crossed the river twice as he sensed that somehow we had not taken the direct route. Once at the pool we reacted with some shock as all the other pool dwellers were teenagers with not an ounce of body fat between them. My god we both felt old and in my case fat. Is the the curse of getting older what will it be like when we hit 30, 40, 50... Will my metal age increase in direct proportion to my physical age? Will i have the mind of a 80 year old when I am 40 combined with a mental age of 15 when it comes to playing out?
Upon our return to the guest house we revived a call from Channapha to say she could not make it back the next day to take over. Was this fate taking over. Would we in fact have to stay for a few more days. Our air tickets said no but was the reality shaping up to be something different. Well fortunately Channapha had organized for some of her friends to look after the place for a few days until Alex could come and take over.
Dinner we shared with Christina who has become part of our daily lives over the last week or so. To begin with she shocked me with he liberal talking about sex but that was short lived and now I give as good as I get. Its like being a student again as everything is a double entondra. Over dinner (oh I just love to cook for others so it took the opportunity to go wild on the presentation front) we hatched a plan to snare Christina a man but the picking were rather slim. As such we decided that a number of the monks look quite hot (they are half naked after all) so we would try and kidnap/ lure one of them back to room 9...
Well the end is in sight and we are staring to get jittery about going into the big bad world. Its so quite here. We have a house keeper who collects food, guests who keep me entertained and we need never leave the guest house. Will we survive the transition from sleepy Luang Prabang and manic Bancock or will it be lake the start of our travels all over a again. Will this sleepy little town soften us up to much and will the beeping busy metropolis scare us? Only time will tell.
As part of our re-introduction to society program we set off on a bike ride and then to the pool. It was on this ride I discovered a difference between James and my interpretation of a bike ride.
Luke: bike ride is for fun with 30 minutes of cycling on the way to the swimming pool
James: bike ride is the means of transport to the pool which is five minutes away.
As such James was less then impressed when we crossed the river twice as he sensed that somehow we had not taken the direct route. Once at the pool we reacted with some shock as all the other pool dwellers were teenagers with not an ounce of body fat between them. My god we both felt old and in my case fat. Is the the curse of getting older what will it be like when we hit 30, 40, 50... Will my metal age increase in direct proportion to my physical age? Will i have the mind of a 80 year old when I am 40 combined with a mental age of 15 when it comes to playing out?
Upon our return to the guest house we revived a call from Channapha to say she could not make it back the next day to take over. Was this fate taking over. Would we in fact have to stay for a few more days. Our air tickets said no but was the reality shaping up to be something different. Well fortunately Channapha had organized for some of her friends to look after the place for a few days until Alex could come and take over.
Dinner we shared with Christina who has become part of our daily lives over the last week or so. To begin with she shocked me with he liberal talking about sex but that was short lived and now I give as good as I get. Its like being a student again as everything is a double entondra. Over dinner (oh I just love to cook for others so it took the opportunity to go wild on the presentation front) we hatched a plan to snare Christina a man but the picking were rather slim. As such we decided that a number of the monks look quite hot (they are half naked after all) so we would try and kidnap/ lure one of them back to room 9...
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
Observations from the guest house
15/5/11
Once more we decided to venture into the big bad hot world of Luang Prabang. We went in search of sofas to relax upon. We found two such venues but both only opened in the evening. After 20 minutes of walking we were once again somewhat hot so we opted for a little cafe. We whiled away a few hours drinking white wine and eating lunch whilst playing cards. Unusually I won but we will never know the score as somehow the score card spontaneously combusted when James began to add up the points. However did that happen???
The afternoon saw more guests arrive so once again we were full. Enjoying the kitchen facilities James cooked a tea loaf and dinner was a hodge podge of leftovers. Rather nice if I do say myself!
16/5/11
We have met so many interesting people during our stint as guest house managers. One morning we had three professors sitting round the table discussing post modem theories. We have Christensen an alternative American from Hawaii who has become our writer in residence and general scandalizer. We have had a Swiss lawyer, an lady who has worded for the BBC world service, someone who has worked all over the world with refugees, two people who work for the US state department and have served in Afghanistan and a who host of Germans who work as teachers to IT boffins. As you can imagine the conversation is wide and varied and it has allowed me to observe a number of interesting things
1) Europeans all speak English as a matter of course even to each other when there is another majority language shared between them.
2) Americans are loud and after a number of discussions it transpires that the the common trend is that the loudest person at the table is the most important and most effective at getting his or her point across.
3) The British apologie all of the time and precede most sentences with "I am sorry" or could i trouble you too."
4) when compared to Americans I am shy and retiring and easily shocked. Christean takes great pleasure in saying shocking things an watching me go slightly red.
5) So many travelers now have blogs and James and I have featured in two this week alone.
6) Everyone seams to have an I phone, I pad, or laptop and are continually hooked up to the web. Technology is great- how did we ever travel when there was only post cards and land lines. Well partly we communicated less and we made proper plans. Its amusing to observe people meet at breakfast and organize to meet up in the evening but instead of making firm plans agree to call each other at 6.30. So in essence a plan has been formed and they will meet up probably 30 minutes after the call but in our IT world with our inability to make proper plans the phone company also takes a cut. Ah capitalism at its best!
17/5/11
Apart from observing the world we spent lots of time with the housekeepers son who came to work with her today. Quite what his name was and why he was not at school remains a mystery but we did learn that he can count to 10 in English. We spent a large portion of the day cooking with the boy. First he made pancakes for James, his mother and himself, then we made banana bread followed by pancake enchalarders for our evening meal.
The evening should hold a massage and a trip to the night markets but on our past form there is only a 50% chance of us making it there. Lethargy combined with the heat, the ease of sitting chatting and the ever present potential for rain may mean we make it no further than the front gates. Only time will tell and on that note I am off for my afternoon nap...
Once more we decided to venture into the big bad hot world of Luang Prabang. We went in search of sofas to relax upon. We found two such venues but both only opened in the evening. After 20 minutes of walking we were once again somewhat hot so we opted for a little cafe. We whiled away a few hours drinking white wine and eating lunch whilst playing cards. Unusually I won but we will never know the score as somehow the score card spontaneously combusted when James began to add up the points. However did that happen???
The afternoon saw more guests arrive so once again we were full. Enjoying the kitchen facilities James cooked a tea loaf and dinner was a hodge podge of leftovers. Rather nice if I do say myself!
16/5/11
We have met so many interesting people during our stint as guest house managers. One morning we had three professors sitting round the table discussing post modem theories. We have Christensen an alternative American from Hawaii who has become our writer in residence and general scandalizer. We have had a Swiss lawyer, an lady who has worded for the BBC world service, someone who has worked all over the world with refugees, two people who work for the US state department and have served in Afghanistan and a who host of Germans who work as teachers to IT boffins. As you can imagine the conversation is wide and varied and it has allowed me to observe a number of interesting things
1) Europeans all speak English as a matter of course even to each other when there is another majority language shared between them.
2) Americans are loud and after a number of discussions it transpires that the the common trend is that the loudest person at the table is the most important and most effective at getting his or her point across.
3) The British apologie all of the time and precede most sentences with "I am sorry" or could i trouble you too."
4) when compared to Americans I am shy and retiring and easily shocked. Christean takes great pleasure in saying shocking things an watching me go slightly red.
5) So many travelers now have blogs and James and I have featured in two this week alone.
6) Everyone seams to have an I phone, I pad, or laptop and are continually hooked up to the web. Technology is great- how did we ever travel when there was only post cards and land lines. Well partly we communicated less and we made proper plans. Its amusing to observe people meet at breakfast and organize to meet up in the evening but instead of making firm plans agree to call each other at 6.30. So in essence a plan has been formed and they will meet up probably 30 minutes after the call but in our IT world with our inability to make proper plans the phone company also takes a cut. Ah capitalism at its best!
17/5/11
Apart from observing the world we spent lots of time with the housekeepers son who came to work with her today. Quite what his name was and why he was not at school remains a mystery but we did learn that he can count to 10 in English. We spent a large portion of the day cooking with the boy. First he made pancakes for James, his mother and himself, then we made banana bread followed by pancake enchalarders for our evening meal.
The evening should hold a massage and a trip to the night markets but on our past form there is only a 50% chance of us making it there. Lethargy combined with the heat, the ease of sitting chatting and the ever present potential for rain may mean we make it no further than the front gates. Only time will tell and on that note I am off for my afternoon nap...
Saturday, 14 May 2011
Guest house management continues....
10/5/11
Going a bit stir crazy being confined to the hostel we took the opportunity to spend a few hours away as all the guests were up and out early and were not scheduled to return until 4pm. With this in mind we set of with great intentions of seeing things but the heat and the humidity soon turned us into a sweating melting me. It was that uncomfortable that James uttered three sentences that I have never heard in the decade that we have been together
1) Can we walk on the shady side of the street
2) Can we walk a bit slower
3) Oh I wish it were a bit cooler
Once recovered form this shock we decided to cross a very rickety bridge and spend our time our reclining in the shade. When James suggested a game of monopoly it was my turn to surprised him we a responsive very rarely uttered in 10 yeas- yes! I soon regretted it despite playing with rules that sped the game up. Why of who do I never learn?
11/5/11
We have refined our communication with the house keeper who speaks no english and does not read or write Loas (originally I was going to translate things on the computer when I wanted to comunicate). My broken Laos phrases for airport/ bus station/ waterfalls tuck tuck pick up / drop off is vaguely understandable. I have realized that writing numbers on the board to show amounts or time is fruitless as Laos numbers are different so consequently I either point to the clock or money from my wallet. That said the house keeper still regards us with a certainly level of pained disdain as we never quite do things the right way. To begin with this was off putting but upon closer inspection we have found that Seng gives this look to most people who cross her path.
Chenapa acted as translator and we discovered that Seng was not having next Sunday off as "everything was a bit disorganized when she came back" (James face was a picture even though Chenapa assured him she was not being mean) that she considered us to be good workers (praise indeed) and that the yogurt that I made was of a good standard!
12/5/11
Working in a guest house is certainly harder then we expected and any quaint notions of opening such a venture in the UK have been well and truly quashed. Don't get us wrong we are enjoying ourselves and enjoying saving some money and earning commissions but by heck there are easier ways to earn money even if we were taking all the profit! Today was a particularly long day with 8 breakfasts 2 checkouts and check ins and two room moves combined with blazing sun, two trips to the bus station to buy tickets for gusts , preparation of bills, purchasing provisions and preparation for breakfast the next day. By the end of the day we were pooped and we hid in our room and wathced a DVD in air conditioned bliss.
13/5/11
Today was a sad day as 6 rooms worth of people checked out. You may think that this is not unusall for a guest house but these people had been a constant in our time here at Manichan Guesthouse. Most had not intedned to stay for so long but had remaided due to the layed back nature of the town and country if compared with its neighbors, the communal seating area of the guest house, a well sotceked honest fridge and the 5 star breakfast at $5 prices. From 7.30 in the morning a procession of tuck tucks ferried our guests away. Most ran smoothly but one driver have a very Laos approach to time keeping and required 5 phone calls and was unaware of the concept of a western minute (60 seconds) and worked only with Laos minutes (240 seconds).
As guests had left early and the one booked in new guest had already arrived (walk in guest only arrive between 3-5 pm when the boats/buses arrive) we set off for some more time in the town. We had learnet from our previos overestimation of our heat tolarance and headed streagth to a resturant for a spot of lunc, some wine and a game of cards. Upon our return we had a nap, well I did and JAmes played on his Ipod.
By five PM we have no walk in guests so sensing an opportunity to utilize the kitchen in peace I decided to make some scones ( yes yes you can take the British out of Briton and all that). This was of course the que for three groups of backpackers to turn up simultaneously and esquire about rooms. Having been in this situation before (and James having a well developed scene of fairness) we worked stickily on a first come first served basis. The only problem being that no one told the guests so they all clammered to see the rooms and reverser there spot. Once this was over and a could left disappointed as we could not accommodate them I returned to my cooking and turned out dinner including my scones and my first ever home made chips.
14/5/11
Today Liz left and clemants booked bus tickets for the follwoing day. James and I were unsere as to wether this day would ever come. Both had only intended to saty for a few days and indeed Clemants did leave for one day before ringing early then next day to enquire about a room. Both had only intneded to stay a few days but stayed of atleast 7 and both were much fun and shared many a an hour with us talking about a miirad of things. Both were to be gone within 24 hours of each other. The constants in our life were over!
Going a bit stir crazy being confined to the hostel we took the opportunity to spend a few hours away as all the guests were up and out early and were not scheduled to return until 4pm. With this in mind we set of with great intentions of seeing things but the heat and the humidity soon turned us into a sweating melting me. It was that uncomfortable that James uttered three sentences that I have never heard in the decade that we have been together
1) Can we walk on the shady side of the street
2) Can we walk a bit slower
3) Oh I wish it were a bit cooler
Once recovered form this shock we decided to cross a very rickety bridge and spend our time our reclining in the shade. When James suggested a game of monopoly it was my turn to surprised him we a responsive very rarely uttered in 10 yeas- yes! I soon regretted it despite playing with rules that sped the game up. Why of who do I never learn?
11/5/11
We have refined our communication with the house keeper who speaks no english and does not read or write Loas (originally I was going to translate things on the computer when I wanted to comunicate). My broken Laos phrases for airport/ bus station/ waterfalls tuck tuck pick up / drop off is vaguely understandable. I have realized that writing numbers on the board to show amounts or time is fruitless as Laos numbers are different so consequently I either point to the clock or money from my wallet. That said the house keeper still regards us with a certainly level of pained disdain as we never quite do things the right way. To begin with this was off putting but upon closer inspection we have found that Seng gives this look to most people who cross her path.
Chenapa acted as translator and we discovered that Seng was not having next Sunday off as "everything was a bit disorganized when she came back" (James face was a picture even though Chenapa assured him she was not being mean) that she considered us to be good workers (praise indeed) and that the yogurt that I made was of a good standard!
12/5/11
Working in a guest house is certainly harder then we expected and any quaint notions of opening such a venture in the UK have been well and truly quashed. Don't get us wrong we are enjoying ourselves and enjoying saving some money and earning commissions but by heck there are easier ways to earn money even if we were taking all the profit! Today was a particularly long day with 8 breakfasts 2 checkouts and check ins and two room moves combined with blazing sun, two trips to the bus station to buy tickets for gusts , preparation of bills, purchasing provisions and preparation for breakfast the next day. By the end of the day we were pooped and we hid in our room and wathced a DVD in air conditioned bliss.
13/5/11
Today was a sad day as 6 rooms worth of people checked out. You may think that this is not unusall for a guest house but these people had been a constant in our time here at Manichan Guesthouse. Most had not intedned to stay for so long but had remaided due to the layed back nature of the town and country if compared with its neighbors, the communal seating area of the guest house, a well sotceked honest fridge and the 5 star breakfast at $5 prices. From 7.30 in the morning a procession of tuck tucks ferried our guests away. Most ran smoothly but one driver have a very Laos approach to time keeping and required 5 phone calls and was unaware of the concept of a western minute (60 seconds) and worked only with Laos minutes (240 seconds).
As guests had left early and the one booked in new guest had already arrived (walk in guest only arrive between 3-5 pm when the boats/buses arrive) we set off for some more time in the town. We had learnet from our previos overestimation of our heat tolarance and headed streagth to a resturant for a spot of lunc, some wine and a game of cards. Upon our return we had a nap, well I did and JAmes played on his Ipod.
By five PM we have no walk in guests so sensing an opportunity to utilize the kitchen in peace I decided to make some scones ( yes yes you can take the British out of Briton and all that). This was of course the que for three groups of backpackers to turn up simultaneously and esquire about rooms. Having been in this situation before (and James having a well developed scene of fairness) we worked stickily on a first come first served basis. The only problem being that no one told the guests so they all clammered to see the rooms and reverser there spot. Once this was over and a could left disappointed as we could not accommodate them I returned to my cooking and turned out dinner including my scones and my first ever home made chips.
14/5/11
Today Liz left and clemants booked bus tickets for the follwoing day. James and I were unsere as to wether this day would ever come. Both had only intended to saty for a few days and indeed Clemants did leave for one day before ringing early then next day to enquire about a room. Both had only intneded to stay a few days but stayed of atleast 7 and both were much fun and shared many a an hour with us talking about a miirad of things. Both were to be gone within 24 hours of each other. The constants in our life were over!
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
Monk's, hair cuts and sweat
10/5/11
I awoke to find a monk in the kitchen! He was dressed in the customary orange and helping himself to breakfast. Is this a self service form are alms giving? Do the monk mafia just come and help themselves? Well not liking the monk in the kitchen as i neeed to cook i politly (we as politly as you can when speaking no Laos) usshered him out. Thinking that was the end of it i later descovered that he wa sitting on the front parch with 5 bags somoking a cigarette. He looked like he was set to stay so i thought i best offer him a coffee. Mid way though brekafast Chenapa turned up and it transpired that he was the "owners monk" and oftern poped in and would be staying for the day...
After lunch and a nap James held the fort and I headed out for a hair cut. Alighting on a hair salon I climbed into a chair was wrapped in a plastic show curtain and promptly began to seat profusely. The cause of this could have been the heat or it could have been the fear I have of having my hair cut abroad. In the end it was both as indeed it was humid even more so when wrapped up like a chicken fillet. The other cause for concern was the approach of hair clippers without a guard. Was the hair dresser going to give me an all over bare blade head shave? In then end she just cut the hair around my neck short and attacked the rest of my hair with scissors akin to thinning shears. Predictably I was not overly happy with the end result but with 15 minutes of judicious self cutting upon my return I had a fairly passable hair cut.
Despite having the full sign up we had two walk in guests arrive at 4pm. They inquired about a room and wanted to stay for 3 days so never one to pass up money (even if its someone elses) we gathered our possessions in two big sheets and moved from our room into the owners bedroom. James cleaned producing a fine sweat and near heat exhaustion.
The evening was spent watching a DVD in bed- bliss. It was almost like being at home... well apart from the 18 guests outside.
I awoke to find a monk in the kitchen! He was dressed in the customary orange and helping himself to breakfast. Is this a self service form are alms giving? Do the monk mafia just come and help themselves? Well not liking the monk in the kitchen as i neeed to cook i politly (we as politly as you can when speaking no Laos) usshered him out. Thinking that was the end of it i later descovered that he wa sitting on the front parch with 5 bags somoking a cigarette. He looked like he was set to stay so i thought i best offer him a coffee. Mid way though brekafast Chenapa turned up and it transpired that he was the "owners monk" and oftern poped in and would be staying for the day...
After lunch and a nap James held the fort and I headed out for a hair cut. Alighting on a hair salon I climbed into a chair was wrapped in a plastic show curtain and promptly began to seat profusely. The cause of this could have been the heat or it could have been the fear I have of having my hair cut abroad. In the end it was both as indeed it was humid even more so when wrapped up like a chicken fillet. The other cause for concern was the approach of hair clippers without a guard. Was the hair dresser going to give me an all over bare blade head shave? In then end she just cut the hair around my neck short and attacked the rest of my hair with scissors akin to thinning shears. Predictably I was not overly happy with the end result but with 15 minutes of judicious self cutting upon my return I had a fairly passable hair cut.
Despite having the full sign up we had two walk in guests arrive at 4pm. They inquired about a room and wanted to stay for 3 days so never one to pass up money (even if its someone elses) we gathered our possessions in two big sheets and moved from our room into the owners bedroom. James cleaned producing a fine sweat and near heat exhaustion.
The evening was spent watching a DVD in bed- bliss. It was almost like being at home... well apart from the 18 guests outside.
We may be getting the hand of this guest house...
9/5/11
We have got into the routine of this guest house lark. I rise at 6.30 prepare breakfast. By 7am the coffee is ready and from 7.30-9.30 I cook for the guests. Normally they come in twos but today all seven arrived at once so that was a challenge. Around 9.30 James joins me and we bring the accounts up to date and then we assess who is checking in and out. If its a quite day we few guest moments we are free to explore but if not we potter around until lunch time. Lunch is a home made affair (the joys of having a kitchen) and then its a nap for me. The early afternoon heralds a trip to the bakers before the four o'clock walk in guests arrive (this is when the boat and the bus arrives in the town). By 6pm we are sitting chatting with the gusts then its dinner and some wine before locking up and heading to bed -often having maybe had a bit too much wine!
Today Chenapa our Laos speaking friend came for dinner. We have savory pancakes with tomato, onion, garlic and chick peas topped with cheese. Yum yum and whats more it was mainly made with leftovers so free! During the evening we discovered that the town is a hot bed of homos with 2 gay owned bars and lots of local and tourist gayers. its not what we expected but then getting to know the locals always provides an insight to local life. Me thinks a night out may be coming
We have got into the routine of this guest house lark. I rise at 6.30 prepare breakfast. By 7am the coffee is ready and from 7.30-9.30 I cook for the guests. Normally they come in twos but today all seven arrived at once so that was a challenge. Around 9.30 James joins me and we bring the accounts up to date and then we assess who is checking in and out. If its a quite day we few guest moments we are free to explore but if not we potter around until lunch time. Lunch is a home made affair (the joys of having a kitchen) and then its a nap for me. The early afternoon heralds a trip to the bakers before the four o'clock walk in guests arrive (this is when the boat and the bus arrives in the town). By 6pm we are sitting chatting with the gusts then its dinner and some wine before locking up and heading to bed -often having maybe had a bit too much wine!
Today Chenapa our Laos speaking friend came for dinner. We have savory pancakes with tomato, onion, garlic and chick peas topped with cheese. Yum yum and whats more it was mainly made with leftovers so free! During the evening we discovered that the town is a hot bed of homos with 2 gay owned bars and lots of local and tourist gayers. its not what we expected but then getting to know the locals always provides an insight to local life. Me thinks a night out may be coming
Sunday, 8 May 2011
Oh God the house keeper has a day off...
8/5/11
I woke at 6.30 to prepare for breakfast and serve it as I had kindly agreed to allow James to sleep in...the compensation being I did not have to do as much cleaning in the absence of the house keeper. When peter told us that the House keeper was going to have a day off we were still under the impression that we would not be busy so may just have to clean one or two rooms. As it happens we had 4 rooms check out and 4 rooms that required turning down... James got into the cleaning with great gusto in his vest to allow venting as it by got its feels even hotter when you actually have to work as opposed to just sitting in the sun.
James led the charge on turning down the rooms whilst I cleaned up after breakfast and I really appreciate the house keeper not as I did not realizes how much there was to clean in the kitchen! I was dispatched to make the odd bed but as James has exacting standards this was all I was allowed to do but James was suitably pleased that the Kitchen kept me busy. James did not go off lightly as there was mopping, washing sheets, towels, guest laundry and cleaning rooms to be done. By 11.30 I was back in bed listening to the BBC world service and James was finishing off. Over lunch we again remarked that running a guest house was hard but I might be OK so long as we had a receptionist, cleaning, chef and night porter. We would quite enjoy taking the cash and chatting to the guests!
I woke at 6.30 to prepare for breakfast and serve it as I had kindly agreed to allow James to sleep in...the compensation being I did not have to do as much cleaning in the absence of the house keeper. When peter told us that the House keeper was going to have a day off we were still under the impression that we would not be busy so may just have to clean one or two rooms. As it happens we had 4 rooms check out and 4 rooms that required turning down... James got into the cleaning with great gusto in his vest to allow venting as it by got its feels even hotter when you actually have to work as opposed to just sitting in the sun.
James led the charge on turning down the rooms whilst I cleaned up after breakfast and I really appreciate the house keeper not as I did not realizes how much there was to clean in the kitchen! I was dispatched to make the odd bed but as James has exacting standards this was all I was allowed to do but James was suitably pleased that the Kitchen kept me busy. James did not go off lightly as there was mopping, washing sheets, towels, guest laundry and cleaning rooms to be done. By 11.30 I was back in bed listening to the BBC world service and James was finishing off. Over lunch we again remarked that running a guest house was hard but I might be OK so long as we had a receptionist, cleaning, chef and night porter. We would quite enjoy taking the cash and chatting to the guests!
Guest house management....
6/5/11
I rose at 6.30 to commence breakfast service for 15 people. The first hour is devoted to making the egg mixture, pancake mixture, shopping fruit for the fruit salad and preparing tomato, onions and garlic for the omelets. Peter stood back and let me get on with the work and there were no major disasters. After successfully completing breakfast peter pottered around for a bit, handed over the keys and his sim card, gave us the cash float and set off to Belgium. His parting words were have fun I doubt you will be busy!
3 hours later we were almost full. At one point we had guests queuing to select rooms. What happened to low season? Anyway we rose to the challenge and had a fab time checking people in, explaining how things works and welcoming guests.
7/5/11
Good god running a hostel is harder than it looks even with a house keeper who does the cleaning. There is so much to do,- breakfast, check out, check in shopping, bookings... That said breakfast went without a hitch but alas we ran out of food so a trip to the market was required. As a falang I can expect falang prices (essentially 1/3 to 1/2 more expensive) so I was re-leaved when Chenapa turned up halfway through breakfast and asked if I wanted to join her on a trip to the market. Chenapa is a Laos native who emigrated to the US so speaks fluently in both languages. So once we had finished breakfast and sorted things out we set off to the pussy market (not spelled this way but pronounced like pussy). We completed out trip successfully if not rather sweatily as it was hot.
Upon our return we all cooked lunch (essentially left overs from breakfast) and proceeded to make sangria for Chenipas party. The next time we looked up it was 4pm and walk in guests began to arrive again meaning we were almost full. As the day progressed we realized that running a guest house is not all that easy and James remarked that maybe we would need staff should we take this up full time!
I rose at 6.30 to commence breakfast service for 15 people. The first hour is devoted to making the egg mixture, pancake mixture, shopping fruit for the fruit salad and preparing tomato, onions and garlic for the omelets. Peter stood back and let me get on with the work and there were no major disasters. After successfully completing breakfast peter pottered around for a bit, handed over the keys and his sim card, gave us the cash float and set off to Belgium. His parting words were have fun I doubt you will be busy!
3 hours later we were almost full. At one point we had guests queuing to select rooms. What happened to low season? Anyway we rose to the challenge and had a fab time checking people in, explaining how things works and welcoming guests.
7/5/11
Good god running a hostel is harder than it looks even with a house keeper who does the cleaning. There is so much to do,- breakfast, check out, check in shopping, bookings... That said breakfast went without a hitch but alas we ran out of food so a trip to the market was required. As a falang I can expect falang prices (essentially 1/3 to 1/2 more expensive) so I was re-leaved when Chenapa turned up halfway through breakfast and asked if I wanted to join her on a trip to the market. Chenapa is a Laos native who emigrated to the US so speaks fluently in both languages. So once we had finished breakfast and sorted things out we set off to the pussy market (not spelled this way but pronounced like pussy). We completed out trip successfully if not rather sweatily as it was hot.
Upon our return we all cooked lunch (essentially left overs from breakfast) and proceeded to make sangria for Chenipas party. The next time we looked up it was 4pm and walk in guests began to arrive again meaning we were almost full. As the day progressed we realized that running a guest house is not all that easy and James remarked that maybe we would need staff should we take this up full time!
elephants continued...
5/5/11
We awoke at 6am after a very fitful nights sleep. Bugs bugs bugs may be lurking! We then set off to collect the elephants from the overnight resting place. All of them we dirty but Adam's was covered from head to toe in wet mud. The Mahout would not ride it but Adam gamely climbed aboard. Upon arriving at the water the elephants waded into the the middle with us sitting atop. We there scrubbed, brushed and cleaned the elephants who would obligingly sink under the water upon request (well the Mahouts request anyway). We discovered that washing an elephant is a mammoth task as they are rather big. You would think they were clean and then it would stand up a little bit and there would be a whole unwashed expanse still to be tended to!
After a thoroughly fab time washing the elephants we then got to feed them bananas. Some opened there moths and you put a banana on its tong, Some waited for you to put a food on there trunk and two in particular just waved there trunks around seeking out food from any passer buy. It was again amazing and there were plenty of laughs, shrieks and photos.
After breakfast we set off on our kayaks back to town. After successfully negotiating the rapids and eating lunch on the kayak pout of banana leafs we arrived home somewhat hot and sweaty. After a brief shower we set about reviving further instruction from peter before retiring to bed before our first day as hostel managers!
We awoke at 6am after a very fitful nights sleep. Bugs bugs bugs may be lurking! We then set off to collect the elephants from the overnight resting place. All of them we dirty but Adam's was covered from head to toe in wet mud. The Mahout would not ride it but Adam gamely climbed aboard. Upon arriving at the water the elephants waded into the the middle with us sitting atop. We there scrubbed, brushed and cleaned the elephants who would obligingly sink under the water upon request (well the Mahouts request anyway). We discovered that washing an elephant is a mammoth task as they are rather big. You would think they were clean and then it would stand up a little bit and there would be a whole unwashed expanse still to be tended to!
After a thoroughly fab time washing the elephants we then got to feed them bananas. Some opened there moths and you put a banana on its tong, Some waited for you to put a food on there trunk and two in particular just waved there trunks around seeking out food from any passer buy. It was again amazing and there were plenty of laughs, shrieks and photos.
After breakfast we set off on our kayaks back to town. After successfully negotiating the rapids and eating lunch on the kayak pout of banana leafs we arrived home somewhat hot and sweaty. After a brief shower we set about reviving further instruction from peter before retiring to bed before our first day as hostel managers!
Saturday, 7 May 2011
elephants
4/5/11
After rising at 6.30 to continue my kitchen training We set off to the elephant camp. Upon arrival we go talking to Karen and Adam who were to be our companions for the two days we would spend with the elephants. After checking into to our accommodation which was a short boat ride away we were ready. One problem- no one told the whether. The rain was coming down by the bucket load but we persevered and boarded the motorized kayak back to the main camp. After the 4 minute journey we were all sopping wet but the joys of a tropical climate meant we were dry within 15 minutes of the rain stopping.
We amassed at the elephant induction area when the training elephant was led over to us. We were asked who wanted to go first which essentially meant climbing onto the elephant by standing on its raised front leg, pulling on its ear and clambering onto her back. Funnily no of us were forthcoming so James kindly volunteered me. I approached this huge animal with some trepidation, climbed aboard inelegantly and set off with the Mahout sitting behind me. After being told to shuffle forwards, bring my knees up to her ears and hold onto her head we set off. We got as far as the first tree and the elephant decided to have a good rub. The pictures show a terrified Luke sitting perilously atop the elephant wondering what he had signed up to for the next two days.
After surviving my initial ride James climbed aboard and in the process kicked the Mahout in the balls. Its one of the many downsides of James having long legs!. After a short interlude we climbed about another elephant and sat on a garden bench strapped to its back and set off for an hours round trip. Again it was an amazing if not scary experience. The animals are so huge and lumbering but so gental (although I would not like to be on the business end of an angry or poorly trained elephant!)
After lunch we took the elephants out to the forest for the evening. Again more riding and as our confidence had improved 3 of the 4 elephants engaged in a bit of a race. Somewhat surprisingly I was not involved as my elephant only had one speed!
We then retired to the pool for a few hours and had dinner before being transported back to our lodge. We were some what surprised when the guide jumped back on the boat and said he would be back in the morning to pick up up. Well the four of us looked at one another with some trepidation. We were alone in the middle of the forest 5 minutes by boat along a fast flowing river from civilization. It was pitch black and there was some scary sounding noises.
never wanting to wimp out and more to the point having no choice as the guide had left we ascended the steps to our accommodation and cracked open a beer. The first sound we heard was scrabbling along the roof which we attributed to rats or monkeys. Then there was the inevitable assortment of bugs and unidentified noises. at the heady time of 9.30pm James went to bed and I agreed to follow in 10 minutes. As he was leaving I had a bet with Adam that we would either hear James scream when entering the room or I would be called to deal with some bug. I won the bet as 3 minutes went by before I heard a plaintive "Luke can you come up" emerge from our room. I attended the room expecting to find a tiny spider but what greeted me was a huge spider sitting on the bed. Even I was a little worried and my first attempt to catch it was thwarted when it jumped out of the way and the next attempt to kill it was successful (i thought) but I could not find the body... After a thorougher search of the bed and a good tucking in of the mosquito net we settled in for somewhat of a fitful nights sleep.
After rising at 6.30 to continue my kitchen training We set off to the elephant camp. Upon arrival we go talking to Karen and Adam who were to be our companions for the two days we would spend with the elephants. After checking into to our accommodation which was a short boat ride away we were ready. One problem- no one told the whether. The rain was coming down by the bucket load but we persevered and boarded the motorized kayak back to the main camp. After the 4 minute journey we were all sopping wet but the joys of a tropical climate meant we were dry within 15 minutes of the rain stopping.
We amassed at the elephant induction area when the training elephant was led over to us. We were asked who wanted to go first which essentially meant climbing onto the elephant by standing on its raised front leg, pulling on its ear and clambering onto her back. Funnily no of us were forthcoming so James kindly volunteered me. I approached this huge animal with some trepidation, climbed aboard inelegantly and set off with the Mahout sitting behind me. After being told to shuffle forwards, bring my knees up to her ears and hold onto her head we set off. We got as far as the first tree and the elephant decided to have a good rub. The pictures show a terrified Luke sitting perilously atop the elephant wondering what he had signed up to for the next two days.
After surviving my initial ride James climbed aboard and in the process kicked the Mahout in the balls. Its one of the many downsides of James having long legs!. After a short interlude we climbed about another elephant and sat on a garden bench strapped to its back and set off for an hours round trip. Again it was an amazing if not scary experience. The animals are so huge and lumbering but so gental (although I would not like to be on the business end of an angry or poorly trained elephant!)
After lunch we took the elephants out to the forest for the evening. Again more riding and as our confidence had improved 3 of the 4 elephants engaged in a bit of a race. Somewhat surprisingly I was not involved as my elephant only had one speed!
We then retired to the pool for a few hours and had dinner before being transported back to our lodge. We were some what surprised when the guide jumped back on the boat and said he would be back in the morning to pick up up. Well the four of us looked at one another with some trepidation. We were alone in the middle of the forest 5 minutes by boat along a fast flowing river from civilization. It was pitch black and there was some scary sounding noises.
never wanting to wimp out and more to the point having no choice as the guide had left we ascended the steps to our accommodation and cracked open a beer. The first sound we heard was scrabbling along the roof which we attributed to rats or monkeys. Then there was the inevitable assortment of bugs and unidentified noises. at the heady time of 9.30pm James went to bed and I agreed to follow in 10 minutes. As he was leaving I had a bet with Adam that we would either hear James scream when entering the room or I would be called to deal with some bug. I won the bet as 3 minutes went by before I heard a plaintive "Luke can you come up" emerge from our room. I attended the room expecting to find a tiny spider but what greeted me was a huge spider sitting on the bed. Even I was a little worried and my first attempt to catch it was thwarted when it jumped out of the way and the next attempt to kill it was successful (i thought) but I could not find the body... After a thorougher search of the bed and a good tucking in of the mosquito net we settled in for somewhat of a fitful nights sleep.
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Never one to miss an opportunity
1/5/11
James work up with the runs and I felt decidedly unwell. As such we did not leave the room during the day. Around 6pm we ventured to the hostel courtyard and played a game called Sat. It is essentially a shape and color matching card game. It was rater addictive and kept the attention of 5 guests and the hostel owner for over 4 hours.
During this time we got talking to Peter the hostel owner and it emerged that he was going home for 6 weeks. For four of the weeks he had another traveler managing the hostel but for two weeks he was short. I jokingly suggested that he should let James and I manager the place for two weeks. Almost off handily he said we could if we wanted to...
2/5/11
The next morning James and I discussed the possibility of running a guest house for two weeks. There were an number of appealing features we thought would accompany such a venture... free accommodation, food and potentially a little bit of cash. All these combined with the general fun we thought we could have it sounded like a good opportunity to save a significant amount of our daily budget for two weeks whilst not depriving ourselves of the sun. This opportunity would mean we would have to extend our stay by one week and change a few activities for the preceding week along with our flights but most things are possible...
I mentioned to Peter that if he was interested we would like to manager the hostel for the two weeks he was away. He said he would think about it and we set off to a hotel with a swimming pool for a day of relaxing and roasting by the poolside. Upon our return Peter had not made up his mind as there would be three days where there was no cover as whilst we could extend our stay by a week James had bookings from the 20th of May onwards in Thailand. Peter eventually resolved to sleep on it and let us know in the morning.
3/5/11
At 7am I hear a knock at the door. Peter has decided that he would like us to manger the hostel and he wants to teach me how to do breakfast. Five minutes later I am in the kitchen with peter who turns our 5 star breakfast and traveler prices. Peter has owned and run a restaurant and cooked for private clients on posh boats.As such I find myself taking copious notes on his omelet preparation, egg frying technique and pancake making skills. A fried egg requires a pinch of salt and chilly to be added to the oil first. Now I like to cook but i felt a little incompetent with Peter hovering at my shoulder but over the course of the morning things got better and by the time James emerged from the room I was in full swing to which James commented "were staying then!"
After a baptism of cooking we headed off to our pre booked cooking classes. We spent the day shaping at the market, preparing two courses for lunch and three for dinner which we packed up and took back to the accommodation for a supper... Oh what a day
James work up with the runs and I felt decidedly unwell. As such we did not leave the room during the day. Around 6pm we ventured to the hostel courtyard and played a game called Sat. It is essentially a shape and color matching card game. It was rater addictive and kept the attention of 5 guests and the hostel owner for over 4 hours.
During this time we got talking to Peter the hostel owner and it emerged that he was going home for 6 weeks. For four of the weeks he had another traveler managing the hostel but for two weeks he was short. I jokingly suggested that he should let James and I manager the place for two weeks. Almost off handily he said we could if we wanted to...
2/5/11
The next morning James and I discussed the possibility of running a guest house for two weeks. There were an number of appealing features we thought would accompany such a venture... free accommodation, food and potentially a little bit of cash. All these combined with the general fun we thought we could have it sounded like a good opportunity to save a significant amount of our daily budget for two weeks whilst not depriving ourselves of the sun. This opportunity would mean we would have to extend our stay by one week and change a few activities for the preceding week along with our flights but most things are possible...
I mentioned to Peter that if he was interested we would like to manager the hostel for the two weeks he was away. He said he would think about it and we set off to a hotel with a swimming pool for a day of relaxing and roasting by the poolside. Upon our return Peter had not made up his mind as there would be three days where there was no cover as whilst we could extend our stay by a week James had bookings from the 20th of May onwards in Thailand. Peter eventually resolved to sleep on it and let us know in the morning.
3/5/11
At 7am I hear a knock at the door. Peter has decided that he would like us to manger the hostel and he wants to teach me how to do breakfast. Five minutes later I am in the kitchen with peter who turns our 5 star breakfast and traveler prices. Peter has owned and run a restaurant and cooked for private clients on posh boats.As such I find myself taking copious notes on his omelet preparation, egg frying technique and pancake making skills. A fried egg requires a pinch of salt and chilly to be added to the oil first. Now I like to cook but i felt a little incompetent with Peter hovering at my shoulder but over the course of the morning things got better and by the time James emerged from the room I was in full swing to which James commented "were staying then!"
After a baptism of cooking we headed off to our pre booked cooking classes. We spent the day shaping at the market, preparing two courses for lunch and three for dinner which we packed up and took back to the accommodation for a supper... Oh what a day
We had never encountered a leech before
30/4/11
Being cost concious (the marking term for tight gits) we had been asking all guestes at the guest hours wether they planned to go to the waterfalls. This was not an act of generiousity or designed to ensure they got the most out of their trip but pure economics...six people sharing the cost of a tuck tuck is far cheaper then two sharing!
So on the morning of the 30th we had amassed a group of five people and set off towards the caves. Fortunately on of our fellow tuck tuck travelers had a GPS machine and became aware that we were traveling in the opposite direction of the waterfall. With a luck of dread and embarrassment (not something that often afflicts me) I realized that I had asked for and negotiated a price to the caves and not the waterfalls. I tried to explain to the driver that we wanted to go to the waterfalls using the international hand gestures for waterfall as he spoke no English. Evidently he did not understand hand gestures either as he turn round and took us back to the tuck tuck station.
After a quick swap of tuck tuck and a re-negotiation of price we were off again this time in the right direction. Despire our clality we were still some of the first to arrive at the waterfalls and what a spectacualr saigh they were. I have posted a phot but it does not do it justice. The water was turquoise, the trees luch and green and the leaches black and wiggley.
Yes leeches. We had never encountered a leech before but when a small black thing attached its self to my leg i was in no doubt that it was a leech. After the first attack I pulled my socks up to the level of my 3/4 length shorts and proceeded in the fashion. James had no socks to pull up but was some what reticent about the presence of leeches. That said none attacked him whilst four made there way onto my legs and one into my underpants. All together not a pleasant experience.
After an hours walk we reached the top of the waterfall. In order to go down on the other side we had to cross 50meters on calf deep water. James looked decidedly unsure but as we were with a group and never wanting to miss out I gamely agreed to carry James on my back across the water. It was worth it for the hilarity and photos it caused and to know that I am James knight in shiny armer (I even resisted the temptation to drop him in the water?!!!
Being cost concious (the marking term for tight gits) we had been asking all guestes at the guest hours wether they planned to go to the waterfalls. This was not an act of generiousity or designed to ensure they got the most out of their trip but pure economics...six people sharing the cost of a tuck tuck is far cheaper then two sharing!
So on the morning of the 30th we had amassed a group of five people and set off towards the caves. Fortunately on of our fellow tuck tuck travelers had a GPS machine and became aware that we were traveling in the opposite direction of the waterfall. With a luck of dread and embarrassment (not something that often afflicts me) I realized that I had asked for and negotiated a price to the caves and not the waterfalls. I tried to explain to the driver that we wanted to go to the waterfalls using the international hand gestures for waterfall as he spoke no English. Evidently he did not understand hand gestures either as he turn round and took us back to the tuck tuck station.
After a quick swap of tuck tuck and a re-negotiation of price we were off again this time in the right direction. Despire our clality we were still some of the first to arrive at the waterfalls and what a spectacualr saigh they were. I have posted a phot but it does not do it justice. The water was turquoise, the trees luch and green and the leaches black and wiggley.
Yes leeches. We had never encountered a leech before but when a small black thing attached its self to my leg i was in no doubt that it was a leech. After the first attack I pulled my socks up to the level of my 3/4 length shorts and proceeded in the fashion. James had no socks to pull up but was some what reticent about the presence of leeches. That said none attacked him whilst four made there way onto my legs and one into my underpants. All together not a pleasant experience.
After an hours walk we reached the top of the waterfall. In order to go down on the other side we had to cross 50meters on calf deep water. James looked decidedly unsure but as we were with a group and never wanting to miss out I gamely agreed to carry James on my back across the water. It was worth it for the hilarity and photos it caused and to know that I am James knight in shiny armer (I even resisted the temptation to drop him in the water?!!!
Kayaking
29/4/11
We rose early to go kayaking to find that the tropical rain was in abundance. Not being deterred we set off to the pick up point and were driven in a flat bed truck/cum tuck tuck to the start point. Along the way we began to think this was going to be one of those days we would always remember. The rain was coming down sideways, it was windy and we could only imagine what the conditions would be like on the water...
One minute before we arrived the rain stooped and as we emerged into the river I said "I think I had better put some sun tan lotion on" to which James replayed "don't be ridiculous its overcast."... more on that later.
On the five hour kayaking session we were joined by a mischievous German couple and a Ozzy/Irish couple of girls. We set of down the riven and immediately started to splash one another with our paddles. We may all be adults but as soon as you put us into a kayak we revered to children. I was seated t the back of the Kayak which meant i could set the direction of the kayak. Of course this mean heading to the fastest section of the rapids each time we approached them. As I said big children.
Lunchtime was on a small patch of sane where the guides presented food on some banana leaves and we sat down to eat. Surrounding us were 15 children aged from 3 -11 who had many an exciting game and were very adapt at using there large knife one of them was carrying. As our meal progressed the children came closer and closer and soon we realized they were waiting for the leftovers. Once we were finished the masses rushed in and devoured what was left over. The youngest child managing to get a potion of sticky rice roughly the same size as his head.
After a few games in the sane we set off for the afternoon part of our trip after I had applied some sun screen. Alas is was too late as by the time we emerged from the water I had Brits abroad tee shirt tan lines combined with lobster red arms, legs, feet and neck... damn that James!
We rose early to go kayaking to find that the tropical rain was in abundance. Not being deterred we set off to the pick up point and were driven in a flat bed truck/cum tuck tuck to the start point. Along the way we began to think this was going to be one of those days we would always remember. The rain was coming down sideways, it was windy and we could only imagine what the conditions would be like on the water...
One minute before we arrived the rain stooped and as we emerged into the river I said "I think I had better put some sun tan lotion on" to which James replayed "don't be ridiculous its overcast."... more on that later.
On the five hour kayaking session we were joined by a mischievous German couple and a Ozzy/Irish couple of girls. We set of down the riven and immediately started to splash one another with our paddles. We may all be adults but as soon as you put us into a kayak we revered to children. I was seated t the back of the Kayak which meant i could set the direction of the kayak. Of course this mean heading to the fastest section of the rapids each time we approached them. As I said big children.
Lunchtime was on a small patch of sane where the guides presented food on some banana leaves and we sat down to eat. Surrounding us were 15 children aged from 3 -11 who had many an exciting game and were very adapt at using there large knife one of them was carrying. As our meal progressed the children came closer and closer and soon we realized they were waiting for the leftovers. Once we were finished the masses rushed in and devoured what was left over. The youngest child managing to get a potion of sticky rice roughly the same size as his head.
After a few games in the sane we set off for the afternoon part of our trip after I had applied some sun screen. Alas is was too late as by the time we emerged from the water I had Brits abroad tee shirt tan lines combined with lobster red arms, legs, feet and neck... damn that James!
Monk mafia
28/4/11
The Buddhist monks have it all sown up here. They operate like a mafia. At 5 am they wake each other (and the whole town) by banging a drum for 15 minutes. This is the signal for the locals to prepare for the monks daily round. At precisely 6am the monk mafia emerge onto pre defined streets and releave the worshipers of there daily offerings. Women must not touch them , no one can show there feat and everyone has to ware a length of materiel across there shoulders. It's akin to doing the rounds for protection money only the form of protection is less physical more spiritual.
So as any good tourist we were up at 2 minutes to six to watch the procession of 30 monks of verious ages troupe along the street reviving there gifts. It was during this time we realized that James looks quite similar to a monk with his shaven head and slender frame. who knows if Camaron has completely dismantlement the NHS upon our return this could be an ideal area opportunity???
After retuning to bed for a few hours we spent the day exploring the town, tucking into another 10,000kip sandwich and avoiding the rain and my goodness is can rain. One moment its sunny the next overcast and then the rain pours down. This combined with the complete lack of guttering and a propensity to use sheet metal for a roof transforms the street into a waterfall combined with a drumming a festival band would be proud of.
The Buddhist monks have it all sown up here. They operate like a mafia. At 5 am they wake each other (and the whole town) by banging a drum for 15 minutes. This is the signal for the locals to prepare for the monks daily round. At precisely 6am the monk mafia emerge onto pre defined streets and releave the worshipers of there daily offerings. Women must not touch them , no one can show there feat and everyone has to ware a length of materiel across there shoulders. It's akin to doing the rounds for protection money only the form of protection is less physical more spiritual.
So as any good tourist we were up at 2 minutes to six to watch the procession of 30 monks of verious ages troupe along the street reviving there gifts. It was during this time we realized that James looks quite similar to a monk with his shaven head and slender frame. who knows if Camaron has completely dismantlement the NHS upon our return this could be an ideal area opportunity???
After retuning to bed for a few hours we spent the day exploring the town, tucking into another 10,000kip sandwich and avoiding the rain and my goodness is can rain. One moment its sunny the next overcast and then the rain pours down. This combined with the complete lack of guttering and a propensity to use sheet metal for a roof transforms the street into a waterfall combined with a drumming a festival band would be proud of.
Sunday, 1 May 2011
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