Sharon and Andy's World Tour 2006

On Tuesday morning (28 Feb) the guides gave us a hearty hangover-relieving breakfast of boiled eggs, toast and pineapple (but no bees). We found out that the other members of our group had opted for a two-day trek only (wimps!) and so it was just Sharon, me and our two guides who set off on the next leg of our trek to a hill village inhabited by members of the ancient Karen tribe.

If anything, the heat was even more fierce today, and every uphill stretch was greeted with a chorus of groans from us. Nevertheless, the scenery once again kept us motivated. We noticed that the pathways were dotted with huge termite mounds, and Pon obligingly offered to show us the inside of a newly constructed mound by braking a large chunk off with his hand. To his surprise, a large and enraged termite attached itself to Pon's thumb, drawing blood. Stifling our sniggers, Sharon offered a plaster.

After three-and-a-half hours walking, we reached the Karen village, a collection of basic bamboo houses which are home to nine families - 52 people in total.

The Karen way of life is as far removed from modern western living as you can imagine; there is no electricity here and the people live off the land, hunting with home-made rifles. The only real concession to modern life is the presence of a couple of motorbikes used for occasional sorties to the nearest town for provisions.

A bamboo dormitory again tonight, but at least we had it to ourselves.

As evening fell we were treated to another cracking (and huge) meal by Pon and Phim and then it was entertainment time...!

The Karen people are extremely friendly and convivial, and seem to relish visits from 'farang' (foreigners), taking a genuine interest in us. For the willingly accepted cost of a couple of beers we were treated to an evening of brain teasing puzzles constructed from nothing more than simple bamboo sticks, and to beautiful songs played on traditional instruments.

Curiously, as the night drew on and we sampled the locally-distilled rice whisky (moonshine) and banana-leaf cigarettes(!) we descended into a mellow silliness, with our new-found musician friend singing us what he called the 'Lovvly Jubbly Song' - a random string of comical English phrases sung in a wobbly falsetto and punctuated with outbursts of hysterical laughter... you had to be there.

Thankfully, Pon and Phim's plentiful and recuperative breakfast the next morning helped to prepare us for the final day of the trek.

On Monday 27 Feb we set off early to begin our trek, an hour-and-a-half's ride away in the back of a roofed flat-bed truck (locally called a 'songthaew'). Apart from our two Thai guides, Pon and Phim, we were accompanied by a Japanese student called Do-Hai, a young bloke called Tony from Harrogate and his Thai girlfriend Boiya (no idea if I've spelt these correctly; apologies).

Our first stop was by a river to partake in a very pleasureable ride on a bamboo raft.

Thankfully, we're visiting during the 'dry' season and so white-water shenanigans were minimal, although there were a couple of 'interesting' moments negotiating rocky parts of the river!

After the gentle introduction, we started the trek proper with a two-and-a-half-hour uphill hike to our destination for the evening, the Waterfall Camp.

The hike took us through beautiful scenery such as the paddy fields and Lychee groves seen here:

and on up through forested hillside and sun-dappled glades (poetic, innit?), past rocky streams and pools teaming with fish. It sounds idyllic, and it was apart from the heat which meant that we had to stop regularly to catch our breath, take down litres of water, and admire each other's sweat sodden attire.

And so it was with great relief that we reached the Waterfall Camp. By this time everyone was dying to take a cool shower, and -guess what? - here it is!:

Our accommodation for the night was a large dormitory on stilts constructed from wood and bamboo, and provisioned with bedding rolls, blankets and mosquito nets.

We shared the camp with another group of trekkers, with all the guides taking care of the catering, and rustling up a pretty good meal of soup, fried rice and pineapple. Our guide Pon provided a little extra snack... he'd found a honeycomb which contained some fully grown but dormant bees and invited us to eat one each! It was too much for Sharon, but I thought "why not?" and dutifully ate my bee (and yes, I did chew it!) It was a bit crunchy, but not particularly tasty.

Heartened by this, Pon then produced some bee larvae for us to eat; this was a step too far for all of us but Do-Hai - he ate the lot (but then, he'd already eaten a whole scorpion at a restaurant in Vietnam and proudly showed us the photo).

The evening was rounded off with copious amounts of SamSong Thai rum sitting around a roaring camp fire in pitch darkness...

February 26th

After Kanchanaburi we made a brief return to Bangkok in order to book rail tickets to our next destination, Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai is a good thirteen hours away from Bangkok by train and so we booked the overnight sleeper. As all the first-class berths had gone we settled for second-class (train travel is cheap here!)

Unfortunately, 'sleeper' is a bit misleading in this context; imagine a dormitory of 16 people speaking simultaneously in different languages, coupled with the noise, heat and motion of a fairly aged train, plus the constant to-ing and fro-ing of various train staff (conductors, police, caterers) and you get the idea. We managed about two hours sleep each, but it's the experience that counts...!

So, Chiang Mai. The guide books accurately sum the place up as 'a city that feels like a village', and despite a mind-boggling one-way traffic system, Chiang Mai is pretty fantastic.

The older, more traditional 'villagey' part of the city where we were staying is surrounded by a huge moat beyond which lies the more commercial 'Starbucks - shopping mall - hotel complex' type stuff.

Our accommodation an absolutely terrific hostel called the Seven Suns. I highly recommend this place to anyone; clean air-conditioned rooms and really friendly, accommodating staff. Oh, and great chefs!

We'd come to Chiang Mai in the hope of taking a three-day trek into the surrounding hills, which also offers the chance to spend a night with one of the indigenous hill-tribes. As luck would have it, we were quickly able to book one which left the next day.

As you have probably noticed by now, we like to stay 'refreshed' during our travels, and in Kanchanaburi our watering hole of choice was the imaginatively titled 'Pool Bar' (imaginative because it had neither a pool table nor a swimming pool). However, the food was good, the beer was cheap and the staff were very friendly. Plus, they showed different movies every night. We watched a 'thriller' called Red Eye (don't bother) and, oddly, a film called 'To End All Wars' about the construction of the Death Railway!

Another 'must-see' for us whilst we were here was the Erawan Waterfall, situated in the nearby Erawan National Park. The waterfall drops 1500 meters over seven levels, the first six levels being reached by a relatively quickly ascending track through the forested cliff sides, and the seventh by a final bit of rock scrambling!

If waterfalls are your thing (and when it's this hot, they're definitely ours!) here are a couple of piccies:

Our final trip was to a place called Wat Paluangtabua Yannasampanno, better known as the Tiger Temple, a tiger conservation project run by a Buddhist monk.

Whilst there is no doubt that the salvation of tigers is a good cause, we had mixed feelings regarding our need to pose with and stroke the chained animals for the sake of a 'photo opportunity' and decided to take our few snaps from a distance instead.

Week commencing Monday 21 February

Monday gave us our first taste of train travel in Thailand. Kanchanaburi is a three hour journey from Bangkok and, setting off early we were filled with excited anticipation.

The train was fairly ancient with wooden seats, and ceiling fans for 'air conditioning' but the windows wer huge and all opened fully allowing us to take in the changing landscape as we passed through villages, towns and countryside.

Our enthusiasm waned slightly after about two hours; sitting on a hard wooden seat really can take its toll!

Anyway, we were due to stay in Kanchanaburi for four nights, and on arrival we were whisked by tuk-tuk (indigenous Thai taxi, not unlike a cross between a rickshaw and a motorbike) to our guest house. We stayed at Sam's River Guest House, our digs being an air-conditioned bamboo hut (en-suite!) standing on the River Kwai.

Kanchanaburi is a small, friendly town famous for being the site of the Bridge on the River Kwai:

and the Death Railway, carved by PoWs and enforced labourers at the hands of the Japanese army through the rocks and jungle leading to Burma.

The moving history of Kanchanaburi's heritage is well documented via a number of war museums, but a visit to Hellfire Pass gives a more 'tangible' sensation of what the PoWs and labourers had to endure.

Originally called the Konyu Cutting, Hellfire Pass earned it's nickname from the flaming fires and torches by which the prisoners were forced to work by night. 110 meters long and 17 meters deep, the Pass was carved from solid granite using crude picks, dynamite and by hand.

Walking through the Pass today, some original sleepers and other artefacts remain, and in the 35' heat it is hard to imagine the suffering attributable to the construction of the Death Railway.

Hellfire Pass