Chiang Mai - Northern Thailand

Monday 24th Feb.

Our flight to Chiang Mai was at 12pm, only 50 min. in the air.
We had a hard time finding a decent place to stay in Chiang Mai. A lot of budget hotels, but hard to find availbility on the more expensive once (Helle & Jan payed for our accomodation, so we were looking for hot showers and air-con rooms... ;-) Not our normal standards, but well apprciated!).
A few hours went by with finding the right place, and then we all went for a nap. Booked train tickets back to Bangkok, for monday the following week (531 bath per ticket).The night went by with checking out the city and enjoying some nice and spicy food.

Tuesday 25th Feb.

We did a city walk around some of the most famous temples in Chiang Mai (Wat Chedi Luang and Wat Pra Singh). We booked two different tours through a travel agency. First day a sightseeing tour, in a 4x4 truck with private driver, and second day a whole day in an elephant park.
Helle really wanted to try the fish spa (40 bath per person for 15 min), so we all went there and got our dirty feets cleaned by the fishes. It's almost unbearable and tickles like crazy, but it feels nice afterwards. We really had some easy going days, so we were looking forward to do something productive the following days.

Wat Pra Singh

Boring day..?

Young monks enjoying snacks

Wat Chedi Luang

Fish spa, and me telling stories.....

Wednesday 26th Feb.

Finally Erik got over his fever, and it was easy to tell, cause now he started picking on me again... So yeah, he was definitely feeling a lot better!
We got picked up by our driver at 8.30am and started driving up hill, up to Doi Suthep Temple.
On good days it has a very nice view over the city, but every village is burning their gabbage, so there goes the visibility. We got blessed by a monk, and got a bracelet for good luck, which lasts for 3 days. Went to see Mae Sa waterfall, sadly we weren't allowed to swim there, but we had a little walk in the burning sun. After that we went to a monkey show, which was quite impressing actually, so despite that their living conditions weren't the best in the world, it was an okay experience. It was lunch time, and what's better than Pha Thai, with chicken and tofu.
Helle & Jan went to a snake show. We didn't bother seeing another, we saw one in Bangkok last time we were there. The last thing on the schedule were to watch a crocodile show. We got to feed some of them with rare chicken. Not all of them were hungry, that's in some way is a good sign. Then a crazy thai guy was playing around with the crocodiles, teasing them and dragging them around their enclosure, in and out of the water. We couldn't help laughing at him, he was seriously out of his mind. Normally we are very skeptical about things where animals is envolved, but these places looked alright from the outside, and on the other hand, it's Thailand and that's how it is here, we can't change that only the 2 of us. For this whole day we payed 1287 bath per person, for driver and all entrances.
All though we didn't do much exercise, we were all lazy in the afternoon. Just went out to grap some mexican dinner and then we were off to bed.

Doi Suthep temple

Doi Suthep temple, and Helle & Jan

Poor monkey

Poor crocodile

Even more poor crocodile

Monkey School

Croc show

 

Thursday 27th Feb.

I'm sure that we were all pretty excited about this day. We got picked up at our hotel 6.30am, and got transferred to Baan Chang Elephant park. Here we would learn how to be a Mahout (elephant caretaker). There's 36 elephants in the park, they eat 250-300 kg of food everyday, they're all rescued from logging, and from people mistreathing them. For obvious reasons they're kept in chains in the park, but they get on the walking tours several times a day and get 3 showers everyday aswell. First we got some usefull information about the thai elephants, then we got to feed them with sugarcanes and bananas. We walked around the big animals, and tried to get use to them. They were really greedy so if we walked by some with bananas in our hands, that big trunk came out and tried to grap them. I really tested my limits with walking in between these big creatures, and i think Helle did as well.
The next part was practising getting up on the elephants neck, guiding them and being comfortable with the whole situation. Terrifying to begin with, and even worse when they began walking.
Helle barely got up the elephant, before it rised up. She got a bit concerned that next time, when we were going on the real trek, she wouldn't get up proberly, and then might fall... The guide was kind and gave Helle and Jan (We were 2 persons with one elephant) their "limosine" elephant, so she shouldn't worry about it anymore. She sat on the elephants back, which was more comfortable. So off we went on the elephant trek. Erik & I switched place half way, i dunno which place I prefer, on the back the elephants thick hair scratches your legs and on the neck it's really lively, specially walking up and down hill.
We took the elephants to the river and got some skills in bathing and washing the them. Then it was time to say goodbye to this incredible huge animal. This was such an unreal experience, and they seem unbelieveable big when you stand right next to them (watch me being a chicken in the video). We all had a amazing time with the elephants, and it's definitely a day that we will never forget, and always look back at with a big smile on our faces. This whole experience was only 2400 bath per person. We were all exhausted when we got back to the hotel, so we had a little relaxing time.
At night we went out to watch Muay Thai boxing. Something that you HAVE to see, while in Thailand, and it's great fun. The funniest thing was the surprise round, where 6 guys got in the ring, blindfolded, and then started fighting against each other. The most stupid thing we've ever seen.. And still we couldn't stop laughing of them. They really used all their power and hit each other in some serious dangeous places.. Oh my buddha it was as scary and funny as it gets.
Went straight to bed after a perfect day with lots of excitement and lots of fun.

Guess an animal....

Enjoying the cold river

Baan Chang Elephant Park

Muay Thai Boxing

Bangkok part 2 - Family visiting

Thursday 20th Feb.

The night in the airport went smoother than expected, although it had been quite cold during the night, due to the air condition. We waited for Helle & Jan to arrive, and eventually they came. A great reunion. We had been very excited and had been looking forward to well known company. After all It was good to see some familiar faces again. 

We all took the skytrain to the city, and after loading a tuk-tuk with 4 times luggage and four western people (we barely fitted), we found a good valued hotel (Patumwan) in the heart of Bangkok. Helle & Jan insisted to pay all hotel bills the next two weeks, it's was really overwhelming, but much appreciated.

We got an apartment, with two huge bedrooms, kitchen, livingroom and hot water (first hot water shower in almost a month). The day went by with relaxing, and catching up. We got some nice gifts from home, like danish dark bread and candy. When we went out at night we realized that we had located usselves, not only in the heart of Bangkok, but also in the heart of the demonstrations. Several of the mainroads in Bangkok is closed, due to the demonstrations. It's actually a calm affair. A lot of people have put up tents and are living on the streets, there's big market along the streets, it reminds me most of a festival. Lots of stalls, most of them selling accessories with the Thailand flag printed on. It's really not as bad as the news makes it seem like. They just want the current goverment to resign, so they can get a less corrupt country. Their motto: Shutdown Bangkok, and restart Thailand. We walked by all this and eventhough Helle had seemed quite skeptical before, she remained calm and relaxed. Later we took the BTS train to the Sukhumvit area. Erik and I had been dreaming about the food from one of the food stalls in Soi 11. So we just HAD to go back. This place makes the best fried noodles in Asia (as far as we know).

We walked around the area and ended up in Soi 4, in the middle of the big "meat" market with thai girls and ladyboys. And just as last time, a lot of old western men, and curious tourists. We sat at a bar, had a drink and did our favorite occupation: people watching! Good entertainment. Helle & Jan was just as shocked and outraged as we were the first time we went here.

We went home with a cab later, and I really haven't missed all this bargaining with the prices, it takes so much energy, but when we're four persons it's cheaper to take a cap than the train.

Sleeping in the airport

The two tuk-tuk virgins..!

Sweeeeeet..!

The best gifts we could get.

Demonstrations

Demonstrations, calm right???

Food at Soi 11

Friday 21st Feb.

Temple day... We went with the BTS down to Phraya river, and then took the public boat north, to visit the grand palace temple and Wat Arun (the temple of dawn). Stupid as we are, we forgot everything about dressing proberly (apparently it's only the women who needs to be covered), really annoying, but luckily we could rent some clothes at the temples entrances. 

We were impressed of the stunning temples, and the carvings, but but but it also gets kind of boring to see the same gold decorations over and over again, specially when we're not into the history. But it's still something you have to see when you're in Bangkok. After several arguments with tuk-tuk drivers, we found one that drove us to Khao San road, for a reasonable price. It's hard to get a good price, and tuk-tuks overcharge most of the tourists, but we kind of know the prices by now, so it's all about being patience and waiting for the right one to come by, and it's not always easy, but most of the times we get it, to our suggested price. We ate lunch and did some more people watching on Khao san road, then shopped around, had a massge and a few drinks, before we headed back to our nice hotel.

Our visitors in front of Wat Arun

Ahem ahem.. Who's the most ugly??

 Grand Palace Temples

 Lying Buddha

Drinks and shisha at Khao San road

 Saturday 22rd Feb.

We were going to Asias biggest market, the Chatuchak weekend market outside of Bangkok.
We got there early enough to have some space around us, walked around a few hours before it started to get packed with people. It's a massive market, and it's easy to get lost. Lonely planet is right when they write "if you see something you like - buy it - because you'll never find the same shop again". After wearing the same 6-7 sets of clothes for almost 6 months, we really needed some new clothes, and this was the perfect place to find some. Indeed I was happy that I was "allowed" to shop a bit this day. In the afternoon when more and more people showed up on the market, we decided to leave, we were all easily annoyed and tired of walking around in the hot weather. It didn't get better when we got dropped off near our hotel, had to walk through the demonstration area, and it was hard to get around the crowd there aswell. We struggled our way through and when we reached our hotel, we all needed to cool down and relax after a stressfull afternoon.
Sadly Erik got sick already the day before (after the airport night), with a cold and fever, so when he was in bed, he was hard to drag out of it again. We enjoyed dinner at the restaurant belonging to the hotel. We didn't notice that Helle ordered green curry (one of Thailands most spicy dishes), and she really had a hard time finishing her food. It's a tough dish to get through, if you're not use to the spices. Opsi..! Just relaxing in the evening.

Poor dogs

Demonstations at National Stadium

Sunday 23rd Feb.

Erik didn't feel any better. None of us had been sick for 5 months (except for food poison in China), so off cause now when we had visitors from home, one of us is sick.. Typical! We stayed in and had a quiet and calm morning. We booked flight tickets to Chiang Mai (5000 bath for two), for the next day. 
After noon we took a cab to Taling Chan "floating market". A disappointing experience, and not really a floating market, but a small pier with food and souvenirs. We went on a boat tour down the river, but still didn't see any floating markets. Somewhere along the river we got dropped off, and were dragged into a puppet show.. Oh my Buddha, that's the weirdest thing we have seen in a while, sadly a tourist trap like this, isn't hard to find in Asia. We left the show in the very beginning, we all agreed that our life was too short for that crap. After the show the boat took us back to the pier, and we took a cab home to our hotel to finish packing and getting ready for next days travels.

Krung Thon bridge

Floating village

Floating village

Sticky rice with beans.. Different

 Bangkok with family (video)

  

Diving with sharks and loving the life on the Philippines

Thursday 13th Feb.

We left Panagsama beach in the morning, and we felt quite short on time, since we wanted to make it the whole way to Malapascua Island. It was gonna be a day full of travelling, and our concerns was mostly about catching a bangka to Malapascua, before they stop operating. A lot of different transportation was ahead of us first tricycle to Moalboal, then bus to Cebu south bus terminal, taxi from south to north bus terminal, bus to Maya and then a bangka to Malapascua.
Travelling in the busses this day was convenient due to the free wifi on board. We had some waiting time before the bangka left to Malapascua, think we catched the last boat sailing that afternoon. So we were lucky that we made it. Arriving at Malapascua was a challenge cause of the low tides, so we had to be transfered in smaller boats into the beach. Here a guide welcomed us to the island, and asked if he should show us some places to stay, we told him we didn't want to pay him anything for doing it, but despite that, he walked around with us. Showed us some of the accomodation options, either they were too expensive or fully booked. We ended up finding a very cheap place (300 pesos), but the room was tiny and the shared bathroom was without toiletseat and quite dirty, so we agreed to only stay one night there, and look for another place next day.
This island has a divesite were you're almost guaranteed to see thresher sharks, and that's the main reason why we went here. We shopped around the different diveshops to find the cheapest, and Dan's dives was apparently the best we could find. The equipment was maybe a bit old and in bad conditions, but as long as we do our body checks, we agreed that it would be all right.
We decided to dine at a danish owned restaurant with beachview and very nice food. It was a bit over our budget, but we saved some money on the room this night, so it was okay.
 

Transfer to the big boat sailing to Malapascua Island

Friday 14th Feb.

Met up at Dan's dives at 4.45am, turned out there was two danish guys in our group (& an american girl). We have met more danish people in the Philippines than anywhere else on our journey, actually the last 4 destinations we have met and talked to danish people. I would have thought that Thailand were more packed with danish tourists, but nope!
Anyway, the boatride to the divesite was pitch black, and the sun barely rised before we went diving. This is the best time to spot the thresher sharks, cause they come to the shallow water in the morning, and get cleaned by smaller fishes. There's 5 different cleaning stations, so if you don't spot them on the first station, you swim to the next. We went down a wall to 30 meters depth, and waited for the sharks to come by. We were just looking into the darkblue water, and waiting, and then out of nowhere there came a shark. Swimming along the wall, like 6-8 meters from us. Wauw what a feeling, so amazing. We swimmed a little further and saw more of them. One of them got really close to us, and was swimming right in our direction. That made both of us a little nervous, but we also knew that there had never been an accident around this island. Thresher sharks isn't interested in humans, they're just curious about us. To actually be in the water with the sharks, and being that close to them was the coolest feeling. Sadly both of the danish guys in our group had bad air consumptions, so we had to ascend quickly again. We saw 4 sharks and were very satified with that.
We reached the island again and searched for another place to stay. We wanted to be able to cook our own food (save money), and Villa Sandra was perfect for this, it had a good atmosphere and in general a nice place, with hammocks on the porch and a nice hang-out area, and off cause other backpackers. So we felt like home! Enjoyed the beach during the day, feels like a good life we're living! It's gonna be hard to get back to the normal life again. We have become big fans of this lifestyle, no worries, no rush, no responsibilities etc.
We bumped into a dutch couple (Nienke & Marleen), several times on this island already, so when we met them in the afternoon and talked back and forth with them, we decided to go diving together. We had come to this island without thinking, cause we didn't bring enough money, and there isn't any ATM's on the island. So we could only afford one more dive, but then these to sweet human beings offered us to lend money of them. That ment that we could do more dives. Who can reject that offer?? That was soo sweet of them. We shopped around several diveshops, but none of us could take a decision. Maybe a dinner together would make it easier, then we could find out what we wanted and how much we wanted to pay. Decision made - we would walk around tomorrow again and find the best offer. One thing was sure, we wanted to dive around Gato Island, where there is big opportunities to see white tipped reef sharks. Oh yeah that's what we wanted!
I was knackered, when we finally were on our way home. As we got closer and closer to Villa Sandra, some music and party people got louder and louder. It came from the elementary schools outdoor basket ball court, where a big Valentines party was going on. I could tell that the music would keep me awake most of the night, people from our guetshouse were in party mood, and actually on their way to celebrate this overexagerrated day at the school. I was annoyed to begin with, cause I just wanted to sleep, but concidering the noise, Erik got me convinced to go and check the party out. Apparently it was the whole island gathered together, daughters, moms, grandpa's, aunties, uncles... rich tourists, backpackers etc. Everyone was there, drinking beers like someone would steel it from them, dancing to the crazy party beat, laughing, smiling and having a good time. See that's another way to celebrate Valentines day. We liked it! So off cause we mingled in and partied the philippino way. Actually a really good experience. When we got home we fell asleep easily. Alcohol: the cause of, and solution to all of life's problem. 

A so called bangka (a small version though)

Stunning beach

Making "home"made food

Saturday 15th Feb.

Had a heavy head when waking up, but felt allright and ready for a new day on this beautiful island. After a few hours walking around with Nienke and Marleen we found a diveshop, who could arrange a trip to Gato island for us. It would just be the four of us, so it was perfect. After booking the 2 dives for the next day, we went on a snorkeling trip together.
The weather was unbearable hot on the island, so a boattrip and some wind in our hair was a relief. We weren't overwhelmed by the snorkeling and sealife, and we can tell that we're really hard to impress. Well, we had a good time anyway. We cooked our own food at night. There's no supermarket on the island, but a lot of small kiosks. Shopping was quite interesting and they don't have a lot of food supplies, so we had to be creative and go to 4-5 different kiosks before we got the different stuff we needed. We were both knackered after last night, so a nap in the afternoon was appreciated, and to be honest we didn't wake up before the next morning. A true beauty sleep.

Snoekeling trip with Nienke & Marleen

No it's not red coke, it's fuel transportation

Free laundry self-service

Sunday 16th Feb.

Met at Sun & Fun, set up our gear and went out with one of the many bangkas in the bay. First dive at Gato island was a reef dive, with strong current. The divemaster took us in between two big rocks, in a little narrow places. He tried to show us something inside a small cave, I didn't see it, because it got a bit claustrofobic for me, so I swimmed away. Erik saw "it", and showed me the shark sign and pointed towards the rocks. I didn't quite believe it, but went in there again to look the second time.. And there it was.. two big white tipped reef sharks, sleeping underneath the rocks... Amazing. The divemaster had a flash light and one of the big creatures got annoyed from the light and moved away. A bit terrifying. Two smaller ones were sleeping in front of them. We couldn't all fit in the narrow place at the same time, but all of us went down and watched the sharks several times. What a crazy experience. You just don't believe your own eyes.
On the second dive we had to dive through a 30 meter long tunnel under water, with bad visibility and only the light from our torches. We saw a small bamboo shark sleeping underneath a rock in the cave. From the cave we looked out in the light, and saw big white tipped reef sharks cirkeling around. Sometimes they're in the cave aswell, so it was both exciting and terrifying to know that you could actually swim next to a shark, without noticing it. We stopped in the caves month and just watched the sharks from there. A big shark was lying just a few meters from us, and almost gave us a heart attack when it moved and swam away. Undescribleable experience, time seemed to go by so fast, you don't think about your breathing, or that you're 20 meters underneath the surface. All we thought about was staying there as long as possible. This was a once in a life time experience, and to be able to do this was just unbelieveable and unreal. We left the cave and dived right out where we saw the sharks just a few minutes ago, a bit scary, but at the same time a very cool feeling.
At our ascending I had a close up experience with a banned seasnake. I didn't see it, but apparently it attacked my tank (not a clever choice). Our divemaster saw it, and it almost gave him a heartattack. He seemed more scared than me (probably because i didn't see the attack). I turned around and that snake was quite big, but I survived. Quite ironic that it was a snake attack, that spiced up this whole experience. They can in worst cases kill you, if you don't get the anti-venom quick enough, but no harm done. After this amazing dive, the small fishes and small things are so last year.
Sadly we didn't have our own camera when we dived with the sharks, but Nienke & Marleen had one, so we were lucky to borrow it, and share the videos. At night we couldn't help celebrating our big diving day, with rum & coke... and pity drinking with the people from our guesthouse, who sadly had their valuables stolen during the night. Some philippinos had walked into their rooms during last night and stolen their Ipads and wallets. I can't help thinking that it's people who have become to comfortable with the backpacker life and basically forget to take their precautions. When it comes to that, we're still really carefull and always lock our things together. Worst thing is the passports, heard from several people that it's a nightmare to get a new one.
Anyway, we meet up with Nienke and Marleen and shared our good memories from the dives. Got excited for the next morning, where another dive with thresher sharks was on the schedule.

Just woke up this beauty with our torch (white tipped reef sharks) 

Trying to kill time, in our surface interval

Monday 17th Feb.

Woke up at the same time as all the damn roosters, and went to the diveshop. Everything was set up already, our equipment got carried to the boat and off we went, on a big bangka with outtriggers, as most boats here on the Philppines.
We dived down the same wall as first time, this time it felt more like a tourist attraction. There were plenty of people down there, holding onto the rope, waiting for the big sharks to come by. We found a free spot and mingled in. Such a weird feeling to sit there on 30 meters depth, looking into the blue water for dark shadows of sharks. It took a while before one showed up, they're looking so harmless and beautiful with that long tail. We felt so alive, and it's really a cool feeling to watch these animals move around, in their home environment, while they get cleaned by the smaller fishes.
We saw one shark for a long time, then we dived to another cleaning station, but sadly we didn't see more sharks on this dive. We were happy that we saw one, and during the last four days, we have seen a lot of sharks, so we're not complaining.
We left the island with Nienke & Marleen a few hours after the dive. One hour boatride to the mainland and then a bus to Cebu City. Cebu is mostly a transfer city, everyone goes here at least once, to change bus or flight, but the city itself is uncharming, dirty and chaotic. We decided to stay outside the city center, around the business area, which is the safest place in the city.
There isn't a lot of tourist attractions in Cebu. We actually just wanted to update our blog, and be near the airport for our departure in two days. We went to a big shopping mall with N & M, and shopped around for local cheap food. After 4 days with no internet access, we were all burried in our Iphones & laptops while eating dinner. It's such a time stealing invention, and I actually prefer the places with no wifi, it's more relaxed and social. We payed our loan back to the girls, and seperated from them.

 Shark encounters

Tuesday 18th Feb.

Our working day, and most of the time we spend in the mall, with free wifi. For breakfast we found a perfect copy of danish bread (rundstykker). Just eating that with butter was the best we have had in a long time. Erik searched around some of the big shopping malls, for a new Gopro camera (the old one got a water damage after a dive at Apo Island). It took ages before he returned, and by that time I had been hanging around the food court in the mall all day, and was sick and tired of watching and listening to people eat. So when Erik finally found his way back we ate some food, and walked back to our hotel. 

Piggy feets, after a footscrub

Wednesday 19th Feb.

We went to buy the Gopro hero3+ Black/Surf Edition camera. Had to rush back to our hotel to check out before 12pm. Our flight to Manila was in the early afternoon, so we left the hotel straight away, towards Cebu airport. Nearly one hour flight. Then from Manila to Bangkok. We arrived in Bangkok around 10pm, and decided long time ago, that we would spend the night in the airport.. Waiting for Helle & Jan (Erik's mom and her husband) to arrive the next morning. We found a free spot where we both had 5 seats to make ourselves comfortable on, and then we tried our best to get some sleep.

Danish bread for breakfast.. Yummi.

Loading up a jeepney

Manila by night

Transportation in the Philippines