Kathmandu…Part Two…..

Archive for the 23/4/2013

Today we needed to be at the Indian Embassy early to drop off our passports…
So up early… great its raining but not too hard, so armed with my brolly we set off to the Embassy, got in the small line, collected our ‘token’ ticket, handed in our passports and was told to collect them at 5pm the next day.

Next on our itinerary for the day was Paton Square…

a taxi pulled up beside us, we did a ‘deal’ and he took us to the square…
Thankfully the rain has eased.

WOW…. Kathmandu you have some amazing places here….

Paton Square you are stunning, amazing, this place is surreal, the only thing that spoils it are the ‘guides’ who can be quite persistent on wanting to show you around…. sorry but NO…. we like to do our own thing, doesn’t seen to put them off though!

Patan Durbar Square is about 7km from Thamel, it is considered the oldest of all three cities of Kathmandu valley.

Patan Durbar square is recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage site and has been described as one of the most picturesque collection of buildings.

Most of the monuments in the square date back to the 15th to 17th century, a golden era of Nepalese art and architecture.

Like Durbur Square there is plenty of unique craftsmanship in wood a feast for the eye…there are many wonderful shrines and sculptures scattered in and around the square…a visit will not disappoint.

After walking for hours and taking in all Paton Square has to offer…
We went up on a roof top cafe and admired the women doing all the heavy work while the men did the easy job of repairing the roof on one of the temples….

There were lots of colourful characters there, this guy was reading out loud some kind of mantra to himself for ages…

This girl liked posing for the camera….

Lots of pigeons….

There were lots of alleyways leading off the square all seemed to have stupas at the end….

we decide to head back to Thamel….

we start walking and hopefully get a cab on the way….

another place to get your teeth done….

Nepalese angry birds…

Lots of these pictures around?….

Eventually we hailed a cab… the driver ‘drove it like he stole it’….lol….
But then again they all drive like that here!
Before we head back into the hotel we stop off in one of the many ‘North Face’ stores to get a pair of Gortex waterproof (hope they are) trousers for the bike, the ones we have are only shower proof!
Back then to the hotel for a shower and some dinner…
well, well, well what a surprise the power is off… 5 flights of stairs is a lot when you’re tired!!!

The following morning we went to Narayanhiti Palace…..

This palace has a sad history, which only happened a few years ago…
A short brief on the Palace and what happened behind the high walls:

The palace is located about a 15 minute walk from Thamel its not the most beautiful Palace I have seen before, I would even go as far as saying its ugly!
The Palace is enclosed behind high brick walls and set upon 74 acres.
This Palace was built in 1970 replacing the original 1915 Palace, which had been destroyed in an earthquake…

The palace was also the scene of the June 2001 Nepalese Royal Massacre.
From what I have heard the heir to the throne Crown Prince Dipendra had been drinking heavily at a party because his parents apparently objected to his plans to marry local aristocrat Devyani Rana, his father King Birendra, told his son to leave the party.
His brother and cousin took Prince Dipendra to his room.

An hour or so later, Crown Prince Dipendra returned to the party armed with a gun and killed nine members his family and himself.
The kings less popular brother Prince Gyanendra, ascended the throne- to cut a long story short the new King made lots of unpopular choices one being controlling the media and placed politicians under arrest. 


On June 11, 2008, Gyanendra left the palace for a hunting lodge on Kathmandu’s outskirts, marking the final end to a royal lineage founded by his warrior ancestor Prithvi Narayan Shah, who conquered dozens of small kingdoms in the 18th century….
what a sad end for a Royal family…
The royal palace is now a public museum…which shortly opened after the country was declared a republic.

The palace has some great rooms and some fantastic pieces of furniture…. wasn’t at all keen on the once magnificent polar bear that now lies motionless on the floor at the entrance of the vast hallway and the two, that would have been amazing tigers that stand tall at the end of the grand stairs in the hall.
The grounds off the palace are untidy and in dire need of attention…
It’s a shame its not been kept up to the ‘Royal’ standard…
I my self would like to have seen what it would have been like to see how the ‘Royals’ saw it!

Back to the hotel to do some packing (we leave for Pokhara in the morning) Keeping an eye on the time, as we have to collect our passports from the Indian embassy today.

Taking a Nap…

Heading back to the Indian Embassy we collect our passports and are now set for India…whooo…but not before we explore some more of this amazing country Nepal.

Yep thats us….

Tibet Border and Back…..

Archive for the 18/4/2013

After Lodging our Indian visas, which we knew would take a week we decided to leave Kathmandu and travel along the road that would take us to the Tibet border at Tatopani and the friendship bridge and to have a look at the mountains and scenery along the way…..
It should only take about a day to get there…..

Reaching the outskirts of Kathmandu the air quality and the greenery got noticeably better as we started to rise in elevation….

After rounding one paticular ridge we both had a WOW.. moment as we could see the Himalayan snow capped mountains in the distance and I’m not ashamed to admit I had a lump in my throat…..
I have been waiting for this for so long to be riding my own motorbike on the roof of the world….

The roads were not to bad with the occasional bad section thrown in, that at one stage I could see the front fairing on the bike starting to get loose, so we pulled over when we found a suitable spot, so Chris could make a cup of tea while I tightened up the bolts at the front of the bike, one bolt in particular was hanging on by its last couple of threads…..

With in no time we had a group of boys watch us and the one who could speak English the best asked us lots of the usual questions, where were from , how much does the bike cost etc….

We ended up sharing some chocolate biscuits with them, I had to break them up evenly so they all had about half a biscuit each..they loved them…
With the tea over and the bike fixed we rode on, it was still very hot in the sun but as soon as you got some shade it was a lot cooler….

The scenery was amazing with deep gorges and high mountains and places where the road has been washed away in landslides which leaves a very bumpy road with rocks and gravel to transverse….

We got to the border town and found only one guest house that was just about okay. The room we had a awesome view of the Raging river below and snow capped mountains….

We then walked up through the town to the friendship bridge at the border crossing but just has we got there it started to rain hard , so we went back to the guest house and made a cup of tea with our camp stove on the balcony and watched a storm rolling around the valley.

We did get to use our North face jackets we bought in Burma as it was pretty cold, After having a dinner of tasty momos and spring rolls… we turned in to bed, sleeping in our clothes…thank goodness for our silk sleeping bags… as the bedding looked a bit suspect…
It turned out to be a beautiful morning so we walked up the border crossing for a photo…

The Chinese border guards that were posted on bridge were not to happy when I put one foot over the redline on the bridge into Tibet…..
They also followed us around making sure we did not take photos in the Tibet direction….
But I managed to get a few in…

People were desperate to get on the last bus out of town….lol….

We spotted a homeless guy camping in amongst the rocks…

Riding back the way we came we came across a large muddy section from all the rain last night.
Ploughing thorough I lost all momentum when a bus came the other way so Chris got off while I wrestled with the bike to transverse to the other side….

By pure coincidence we got the last two photos from a swiss couple that were staying in the same place as us on the Indian/Pakistan border at Amritsar and were on that bus way back in Nepal……it is a very small world….

Falling into the wet concrete looking mud did not inviting at all..

With the worst section over we started to take in the spectacular scenery and came to the town of Dhulkhel where we booked to stay a couple of nights…

The hotel was very grand perched on a side of a hill that looked out to the Himalaian range of mountains…(when the clouds were not covering them) we did get glimpse of them, but not the full length…

Dinners and breakfast were buffet style and were very good…The carrot pudding was so yummy….
Chris will be making this when we return home.
We took it easy for a couple of days here….

In the morning we rode out to another town not too far away from our hotel to see a giant Buddha, plus we wanted to stop and see Frank and Simone our German friends that we meet at a HUBB meet in Brisbane plus again in Laos…another case of a ‘small world’

After a cup of tea and a catch up we tried to go and see a Tibet monasteries in the next town over, but it was down a muddy track and was spitting with rain and getting heavier so we turned around….

That evening there was a storm and we woke in the morning to rain… we dragged our heels, packed up and left the hotel hoping the rain would abate….
We were soaked when we got back to Kathmandu only our riding jackets seem to work, but only just.
On parking our bike at our hotel we had left a few days ago they told us because of all the rain peoples planes have been delayed and so there were no room for us……
On seeing how wet and disappointed we were they did a bit of juggling and got our old room back….

Exploring Kathmandu……Part One….

Archive for the 20/4/2013

Arriving back in the late afternoon, from collecting our bike from customs, the day we did have planned was now stuffed….

We had originally planned two nights in Kathmandu.
But we decided to stay longer as this little town of Thamel has a great vibe….
So we checked the hotel site to see if we could extend our stay…
Bummer…. no rooms available, so with what little of the afternoon was left we went in search of a new hotel…
Bingo the first one we came too Access Hotel had a vacancy plus somewhere safe for the bike….

Breakfast wasn’t included but that’s fine and just to make the deal even sweeter they came down in price, plus the room was better and we had a large balcony with a view over looking some streets of Thamel….
Great we’ll be back in the morning, moving the bike early to avoid the traffic in the narrow streets….
We settled in to our top floor room feeling rather exhausted as the power was off so we had to walk up 5 flights!
Now Settled in to our new ‘home’, we decide to head off to check out Dubar Square.

Off we go in what we hope is the right direction!

Walking through the narrow streets are a challenge, it was really busy…so many people, so much traffic, so much dirt.

As you would expect the streets were filled with old buildings that have incredible personalities…..

The craftsmanship is fantastic…little archways between some buildings lead you into courtyards and you may even find some Stupas..

Finally we got to our destination.

First up you have to pay the entrance fee that is 750 NP each then you can enter the area.
UNESCO lists Durbar Square as one of the eight Cultural World Heritage sites…
It is a cluster of ancient temples, palaces, courtyards and streets that date back to the 12th and 18th centuries.

It is also home to a Palace and was the royal Nepalese residence until the 19th century. The palace is decorated with elaborately carved wooden windows and panels simply stunning
Not forgetting the other buildings, temples and monuments in variable architectural styles, which will engross you, the detail in the woodcarvings are outstanding.
The whole area is packed with traders, tourists, locals and pigeons…thankfully I was wearing my hat!

Nepalese Police lady….

On the way back to the hotel we went a slightly different way, the correct way…lol and to our amazement we came across the Tooth God…..

It’s located in old dental street and still has many old looking dental surgery’s there!
The Tooth Stone God is a small rock with countless nailed in coins…apparently the belief goes that if you have a toothache, you go there, nail in a coin and your pain will be gone!!!

We were looking for this Tooth God on our way to Dubar Square…see what happens when you go you the right way!
Heading back towards the hotel we passed an ice-cream trolley and two scruffy kids ran up to us and asked for an ice-cream-how could we refuse? They were about the same age as our two eldest grandchildren, the little buggers didn’t even say ‘Thank-you’ although they pose for a photo then ran off and showed their mum their ice-Creams…

The following morning…
After our chocolate croissant and coffee at the Pumpernickel café (this was a daily pattern until we left Thamel…. sound familiar?) we agreed a fair price with a rickshaw driver to take us to Swayambhunath or also known as the Monkey Temple as there are holy monkeys living at the temple!

The ride out of Thamel was pretty easy but the roads soon became broken up with massive potholes trying to dodge them and the rest of the traffic must have been a nightmare let alone having 2 fat westerners in his carriage!
Part of the journey was up hill the driver was really struggling and got off his bike to push us up the hill….
Clive felt bad so got off and helped him push!

Gee it was hot sitting in the rickshaw all on my own!!
We finally made it to up the Monkey temple after walking the 365 steps trying to avoid the monkeys that were running and jumping around……

some even watching to see what goodies you may be carrying…

Once at the top of the steps you are greeted a massive stupa, surrounded by prayer flags blowing in the gentle breeze….

The stupa has Buddha’s eyes and eyebrows painted on all 4 sides of the main stupa, which represent Wisdom and Compassion.
The area consists of a central stupa, several temples, shrines and a Tibetan monastery, this place is amazing a must see for anyone going to Nepal.

The next day was Monday so we needed to sort out our Visas…Indian first….

We thought we could go to the Chinese Embassy after Applying for the Indian visa…ha ha what a joke we didn’t get out of the Indian Visa office till after 12pm and the Chinese embassy closes its doors at 11.30am, Oh well tomorrow it will be…..

On the way back from the Indian Embassy we stopped in at The Garden Of Dreams…

Which is an historical garden, and just a short walk from Thamel, or a short walk from the Indian Embassy…..

The Garden is also known as the garden of Six Seasons, its Surrounded by a high brick wall, and was built by Field Marshal Kaiser Sumsher Rana (1892-1964).

Some time later It was abandoned and became overgrown and in ruin…

.

Austria provided money to restore about 3 of the original 6 acres…

It was only 200 NP entrance fee, and well worth it once inside the garden you forget all the noise and chaos that is happening outside the walls…
It was like a Secret Garden….

The following day we went to the Chinese Embassy to apply for our visas…it was quick and easy… We paid to get the visas done within 24 hours.

The next day after collecting our Chinese visas we spent the rest of the day getting ready for our four day trip towards the Tibetan border…

The next day we left some luggage at the hotel (just taking a few basics with us) as we were returning to the hotel in Thamel as we needed to be back to hand in our passports to the Indian Embassy.

NB- we have already done a blog on ‘Wordpress’ on how to get a Chinese and Indian visa

How to get your Indian Visa in Katmandu Nepal….2013…

How to get an Indian visa in Kathmandu, Nepal… April 2013

The Indian Visa Service Centre is located at House No.296, Kapurdhara Marg, Kathmandu
just a few meters from the Indian Embassy…about a 15 minute walk from Thamel…

You can only apply for visas from 9.30-12pm, Monday–Friday…

Not open public holidays, it’s also a good idea to check the website for Indian Holidays…

Don’t rock up and expect to apply for a visa at 11.30am as they close the gates at about that time!

1-The gates open at about 9.30am, so arrive early to be first on the queue…

2- Once the gates are opened and you already have your Visa forms filled out then head towards the seating area…
But don’t sit down as you need to take get a ‘token ticket’ from the ticket machine and wait for your number to come up…
Go to number 4 of this page if you ALREADY have forms filled out…

3- If you haven’t done the telex (online form) then go to the small office located next to the Indian visa office and for a fee of 300 NRP, they will fill out your forms for you while you wait…

Visa Service Office…

Take another ’token ticket’ as your number maybe called out while you are sorting out your visa form!

Once your form has been filled out the guy will then go through the form with you to make sure all details are correct.
The form will then be printed, you will to sign it and a *passport photo attached.
*Note the passport photo has to be 2×2

If you haven’t got a 2×2 passport photo, don’t worry you can also get them done at the same office for 200 NPR, you will be given 2 photos but only need one.

4- Go back to the waiting area and wait for your ‘token ticket’ number to be called out…

Be AWARE if you number is called out and you don’t hear it you may need to get another ticket! They call the numbers very fast so be alert a few numbers before yours is called.

5-Once your number has been called proceed to the ‘visa’ counter, the guy will go through your forms, note he will not take your visa form.

6- Go to the ‘Cash Payment’ counter…
Its located next to the ‘Visa’ counter, hand over your forms and 4000 NPR (cash only) and you will be given a receipt, with a date when to come back to hand in your passport.

You DO NOT hand in your passport yet…

You will be told when to come back…

(We went on a Monday and were told to come back the following Monday to hand in our passports) its usually between 5-7 working days…

So don’t books flights etc until you know when you will get your Visa back!
THEY DON’T DO AN EXPRESS VISA SERVICE…

7- On the day that you need to return with your passports…
Repeat steps 1 and 2…
You will be then told to return the next day.

We were told 5pm although their website says between 3-5pm- we got to the Visa Centre at about 3.30pm there were a couple of other people waiting to also collect their passports and were told 3pm!

An hour later an official looking Indian man drove in to the Visa Centre and then came out and asked us if we were waiting to collect passports…
He then told us we could go in now and collect them…
When we handed in our receipt to the guy at the ‘Payment’ counter he gave us our passports and told us to check them to make sure all the details were correct…

8- Enjoy India……

On Top of the World at Kathmandu….

Archive for the 13/4/2013

After a pleasant 3-hour plane trip with Thai Airlines….

we finally landed in Kathmandu…..

Soon everyone was piling off the plane and heading for the arrivals hall, most people is seems like us needed to get their visa on arrival (not all countries do this so check) the procedure was very simple and quick.

Off next to collect our luggage, then try and find the hotel taxi driver…but first we needed some Nepalese money (you can’t get it outside of Nepal) so we headed to the ATM…Hmmm the transaction seems to have gone through, but the machines making lots of peculiar noises and taking a while…then all of a sudden it spat my card out with no money…

Welcome to Nepal…

The ATM was empty!
The Hotel driver took us to his car, which looked like it shouldn’t be on the road, oh well this is Nepal!

As we drove out of the airport to be greeted by traffic going in all directions, no one following any road rules…do they have any? Not sure!
The driver took us down some roads looked like it had been bombed…the roads were broken, potholes consumed the ‘road’, it also looked like a rubbish tip…not a very good first impression, but wait there’s more… dust and plenty of it…

It was being kicked up by the wind and other passing vehicles it was choking! so much so that we had to do the windows up in the car, so instead of getting dusty we were now suffocating from the heat…

My first thoughts were, what the hell sort of place have we come to?
Shortly we soon came to some semi decent roads as we neared the tourist area-Thamel…

The streets are narrow roads and the roads full of all sorts of traffic with people, cows and dogs all trying to get to their destination!

The lane that leads to our guest house…

We arrived at a narrow tall building…our guest house…

Secure parking for the bike…

Our bathroom had a great sink and tap set…

We also got to experience the Nepalese power load shedding that happens up to three time a day lasting about three hours at a time…

After settling in we head off to explore the ‘tourist’ town…

There was lots on offer here….

Up on the roof we made a cup of tea to watch sun go down….

When you don’t have a clothes line to dry your shoe….

The following day we got up early, as we wanted to collect the bike from customs before the streets got too jam-packed with traffic.

The taxi dropped us at the Thai cargo office; there we had to sign all the relevant forms, before we could collect the bike from the customs dept…

Customs also informed us that the customs collection depot doesn’t open till 10am but they won’t ‘really’ open till 11am…

Bang goes our plan to get the bike back to the guest house before the roads get busy! Plus it was only 8.30am!

As we head out of the customs offices we were approached by two shady looking men and a lady wanting to ‘help’ us get the bike out from the customs dept..
How did they know we were there to collect our bike?

Fortunately Clive being smart!…had already read about the ‘Helpers’ from some other bikers that had got their bikes out a few days earlier, so we knew what ‘they’ were about and what was a good price for their help…

Basically you can go to customs dept. yourself but the language is a problem and it can also take longer without a ‘helper’… So after a while of hashing out ‘numbers’ we couldn’t agree…they were talking stupid amounts, so we walked away.

Seeing as we have a bit of time up our sleeves we thought we would get a SIM card.

There weren’t any coffee shops to while away the time, so we sat on a wall planning how we were going to get the bike out, as we were talking, the girl ‘helper’ approached us and said they agree to our price…

Next thing we know we are getting in an overcrowded taxi van and rode for a couple of minutes to the customs warehouse…there we met the main ‘helper’ and the girl left!

So we sat outside the warehouse doors for the next few hours with a few locals for company, they too were also waiting to collect their goods…

Sitting VERY close on the seat next to me made me feel a bit uneasy, suddenly I could feel I was being stared at when I turned to look at the young men they were just gawking at me, I thought it was my stunning beauty that kept them staring but I think it was my blue eyes that fascinated them really…

At least I hope it was my eyes!
After some time the roller doors of the warehouse opened…yippee… we were told to stay outside by our ‘helper’…he then wandered in to the warehouse to do the release paper work…

While he was inside a tiny old lady who worked at the customs warehouse… clearly known by all the waiting people proceeded to sing and dance and keep us entertained …she even sat in between Clive and myself and gave us both a kiss on the cheek… Lol

After a while of wondering what was going on we went in to the warehouse to check on procedures…
A whole lot of nothing was going on and plenty of it, so many people just wondering around the warehouse doing what I’m not sure…

There didn’t seem to be any sort of system…

Well not that we saw anyway… After what seemed like a few more hours the bike was eventually released and brought out on a forklift to an area in the warehouse where we could unpack it…

with many curious local helper’s! They couldn’t wait to see what was in the big crate..

Eventually the bike was put together and we were ready to roll out of the customs warehouse.

but not before it was checked over by the inspector, checking that the engine number on the bike matched the ones on his forms, also not forgetting we had to pay our ‘helper’ the grand amount of $60 that’s a lot of money for few hours work and in Nepal that’s a huge amount of money…

The helper counted the money then pulled out a massive wad of money from his pocket and combined all the notes together …
He is clearly doing alright out of this custom fixing…

With our helmets on we head off to battle the roads of Kathmandu and to get to the nearest petrol station to fill up…

Our clean bike is about to get a little dirty…on the road to Thamel!

Hope he has turned the power off….

Ten Nights in Bangkok……and the Worlds Our Oyster…..

Archive for the 10th April

Leaving a very hot Sukhothai we knew we were in for a hot sticky ride to Bangkok…

The roads weren’t too bad and the traffic pretty light as we decided to get off main highway and take the road that runs almost parallel to it …
We only stopped when it was time for a drink and something to eat.

It took over 6 hours to do the 500 something klms…
Which took us near to the International airport and the air cargo terminal not too far from our hotel.

It was hard road system to use because the main city roads try and funnel you on the the express toll roads and as we are on a motorbike we weren’t allowed on to it…
So we had to use alternate roads..
Sometimes even the wrong ones lol…

Eventually we found our hotel The Chana, located in Min Buri which is about 1/2 hour drive from the city…
Upon checking in we find out we are on the seventh floor…
Thankfully this hotel had a lift!
Our room was huge, and had a great view of the local area!!

Night shot from our window….

We later ‘hit ‘ the town to find some dinner.. The town itself is nothing exciting,pretty drab really,not a tourist area, the streets were very busy, people every where, stalls outside shops selling various cooked foods..
The only reason we booked so far out of the city was because we had to meet up and take the bike to PT Cargo ready for shipping to Nepal.
We ended up staying 5 nights at Min Buri!….

There wasn’t a lot to see in this part of the city, so we used our time to relax, get all our bike ‘stuff’ cleaned…plus lucky for us the hotel had a
great pool:)
We even managed to find time to buy some extra spare parts for the bike that we may need on the next leg of the journey…
Plus we sent home 7 kilos of unused items…
We also gave some items to some homeless people we saw on the street.
Hope we won’t need them later on!….

On of the days we ventured into the city to try and get our Chinese visas..
What a waste of a day, the visa staff wouldn’t even look at our application forms…as we were riding a motorbike into china they said it can’t be done! she was one of the most rudest people we have ever come across..
We were queuing for six hours to be told this..
We weren’t the only ones refused..
If you have read our previous blogs you will know that we ended up getting our Chinese visa in Kathmandu…
‘Where there’s a will there’s a way’

The following day We met up with PT Cargo and arranged which day our bike could be dropped off…
Which turned out to be in just a couple of days, which was great because then we had a date of when we could move into the city for some sight seeing, it also meant booking we needed to book another hotel…
Wow hotels are expensive in the city… But you can still find a few gems.. So I booked for 2 nights just incase the hotel turned out to be a dud!
The bike was to be flown to Nepal on the 10th April ..
This could pose problems as our visa expires on the 10th!
Our thinking was we shouldn’t leave Thailand on the same day as the bike just in case anything went wrong…
So we looked into over staying our visa…
By one day, it’s not the best thing to do but the fine is only 500 Bhat each, which is about $10 which isn’t much in the great scheme of things!

So we booked our flights for ourselves for the 11th April! and not forgetting we would also have to get enough cash out to pay Ratchachni from PT Cargo for the export of the bike…
To read about the shipment details for the bike you can do so on our blog soon to come out titled- ‘How to ship a bike from Bangkok to Kathmandu’

A few days later we took the bike to the shipping agent, got all the stuff done and caught a taxi from PT Cargo to Immfusion hotel, we arrived to what from the outsides seemed a small fronted hotel but once inside its goes a long way back…

The deco is Moroccan, with rich warm colours all around, it was a feast for your eyes, we later found out that this hotel is used for wedding photos and has been in several magazines as back drops for model shoots!
I can see why.

After checking in and being shown to our room, (not a dud) we thought we had better book in for the rest of our stay here in Bangkok..

I went to reception and asked if we could stay for another week…
Nooo…
They were booked out for 3 nights after our 2 nights were up, the thing is if we had booked all that time in the first place the hotel would have no doubt been crap!!!
So i quickly checked the net and saw a hotel close by at a similar price…
later that day we checked it out…when we got back to ‘Imm’ I got on line and booked for 3 nights.

With the Hotels all sorted, we went out to explore the local area… We were just a few metres away from the On Nut railway station…

An early night was needed as we were going to go to the Chinese embassy in the morning…once again… We are gluttons for punishment or what… Lol

So the next day came and went with the same outcome from the same woman… Grrr… She’s an angry old woman…lol..
Oh well, we’ll try in Kathmandu!

The next day we had to check out and go the few metres to ‘The Green Bell’ our home for 3 nights until we go back to ‘Imm Fusion’ so with check in after 12pm that was half the day gone, we settled into our spotlessly clean, modern, no windowed room… it was very nice but lacked character and soul.

The following day we checked out the Bangkok rail system works…its fast and on time with plenty of trains arriving about every 10 minutes, which is just as well because they usually only put about 3 carriages on so therefore you are packed in like sardines lol…
We decided to get a ‘rabbit’ card, which we had read about…it gives you up to 15 train rides and works out to be a economical way of getting around,,,,
Well worth purchasing if you want to travel around the city.
First stop was to China town to look for a spare tyre for bike…
After walking around in the unbearable heat we finally found a tyre… not our first choice but will do, because we know in the next leg of our journey we will not be able to carry one….

The next few days were spent exploring a few shopping malls…
BORING some might say but here they are unbelievable…

one in particular had amazing art sculptures all through out the mall, we spent hours there taking pictures and looking around!

The shops didn’t disappoint either they had the most spectacular ways of displaying their ‘merchandise’ truly amazing.

We reckon we found the best cake shop in the world ‘Mr. Jones Orphanage’…

we have never seen so many top range cakes in one shop before..

The biggest problem there was which one to choose!

A message when you had finished drinking your tea….

In between all the excitement of sight seeing we had to move back to Imm Fusion hotel…

Next to this shopping mall was another…shopping is pretty big here ! it was very up market, so much so they had showrooms that displayed…

We didn’t get this one, it was the wrong colour seats…..

Maserati, Porsche, Bentley, Ferrari, Ducati just to name a few…where were the Suzuki’s, Fords and Mazda’s? lol

Some kick arse shoes…

We also took time out to check out an old Art Deco cinema…The Scala Cinema which has one-screen it was built in 1967, this exquisitely maintained movie theatre is worth a look and still has bargain priced seats for $2… everything here has been preserved its like stepping back in time…

Out side is where you can have some shark fin soup……

Even the door handles were fins….

We also went to the science museum which proved fun, shame only half the equipment worked lol…we had fun though…

They also had a display of old planes..

We needed to get a lonely planet book on Nepal and all the knock off books were the other side of the city, so we needed to take a trip on the train then catch a ferry… the train ride was fine but boy we got packed onto the ferry so tightly that it was hard to breath especially in the heat…
No surprise that the ferry didn’t do a safety run through of where the life jackets were etc! We’re there any? Thankfully we didn’t find out…I certainly would not have wanted to fall into the ‘Black’Bangkok river.

We didn’t find the book we were after but purchased one from a book store not to far away from our hotel!
Next we caught the ferry to the terminal closest to the Grand Palace…once off the ferry we were approached by taxi drivers that told us the palace was closed till 2pm and that they would take us to visit some temples close by…yeah right we’re too long in the tooth to fall for that old trick…
Once at the palace we and many other tourists were informed, that because we had shorts on… it wasn’t proper dress code…however the palace will loan you a pair of sexy trousers for men and the most unflattering wrap around skirt for women!!!

But certainly didn’t look as odd as some people we saw!

Sadly couldn’t see the giant green Buddha (which was what we really wanted to see… as there was going to be a ceremony later that day and the temple was closed for the preparation.

The place was huge with some outstanding buildings ….

Some huge cannons…

The Palace is protected by these guys….

After handing back in our newly acquired outfits we left…

We walked around the perimeter of the palace, upon which we could clearly hear a recorded message from within the palace grounds letting tourists know not to believe the taxi drivers about the palace being closed and the message proceed to tell you the opening times etc…. lol…

Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and leave Bangkok…catching an taxi to the airport was interesting, as not too far up the road the boot of the taxi flew open…the driver couldn’t fix the lock so he drove at about 20KLM’S an hour, and every time we went over a bump or hit a pot hole the boot flew back open!!!…at this rate we’ll get to the airport after lunch! finally he pulled over again and searched for something to tie the boot down with…he did find some string…and we arrived at the airport, with all our luggage, checked in, payed Ratachainy and got through customs without a fine for over staying our visa…

Next stop Nepal…

Ancient Cities……and the kindness of Strangers….

Now we have 14 days to get to Bangkok…find a shipping agent for the bike so we can get it to Nepal…source a few items for the bike and somethings for ourselves…

Shipping the bike will take maybe ten days or so we have been told, so with a few days up our sleeves we decided to take the non direct route to Bangkok so we could get in a few more interesting bike roads, instead of the busy and boring main highway to Bangkok….

Leaving Chiang Rai for the second time…straight after breakfast we head towards the road that leads to the town of Nan.
The road didn’t disappoint, lots of twist and turns through some great green valleys and up over some steep hills…

We arrived in the town of Nan hot and thirsty…quickly finding a café and ordered a couple of chocolate frappes…

It was hot riding, with the Mercury topping 40c, so we made another stop at a vendor selling beautiful sweet and cold cut up pineapple was very welcome relief…

We had a town in mind to reach today, Suchothai, which is the old ancient city of Thailand. The roads were now long and straight after we left the mountains around Nan and it looked doable to get there before dark…

We managed to find ourselves on a great stretch of road that was running in the right direction, but I was getting nervous, the fuel gauge was running low and we hadn’t passed a service station for a while…..lucky I carry a spare litre of fuel in a canister which also doubles up for our camp stove…

We passed a huge sleeping Buddha so a quick turn around for pictures…

It was amazing…

Traveling further on down the road the bike started to cough and splutter, I think the combination of it being so damn hot and low on fuel didn’t help…was the fuel was evaporating in the fuel pipes?

Well we came to a complete stop on a piece of lonely road.

No problem, I quickly poured our spare litre of fuel in and we were off….
But not for long though and we stopped again…
The sun now was starting to get low in the sky and after waving a car down, who didn’t have any fuel, we were starting to look where we could pitch a tent..
The only problem was that there were a couple of stray dogs that were eyeing us off…lol

We waved down a passing local on his little scooter and with no words spoken only hand signals he quickly siphoned out some petrol from his bike, we tried to give him some money, but he wouldn’t take it…we had to force it into his hand and i think he was pretty happy

He then signaled for us to follow him…
He took us down a little dusty track through a tiny village, over a half constructed bridge that led on to a another road that had a petrol station 100m down the hill…..
Thanks mate…
The kindness of strangers is working well in Thailand….
With a sigh of relief we were on our way and got into Suchothai just on nightfall…
We booked in for two night, so we could go and explore the old city…

Traditional Thai historians considered the foundation of the Sukhothai kingdom as the beginning of their nation because little was known about the kingdoms prior to Sukhothai.

Most tourists travelled around on these…

We had our own mode of transport….:)

It was quite spread out, with some magnificent structures…

We mucked around and tried to replicate some of the statues….

It was so hot it got a bit to much for this monk…

we found a shady spot with a gentle breeze and tried to take it all in… WOW we have seen some wonderful things on this trip so far…

Running to the border………and White Temples….

Archive for the 27/3/2013

Another early morning…..
Ready and packed for our ride back to Chiang Rai…
We said our good byes to the wonderful family who run Hotel SK11, our new Cornish friends Ellen and a sleepy Keith (he doesn’t do mornings)…
Even though it isn’t a long ride to Chiang Rai we wanted to avoid some of the heat of the day..

Riding back we detoured (this was intentional!!!) so we could avoid the highway, instead we took the twisty high road that led to the town of Fang on the 107 then onto the 109, there was still a nasty smoke haze hanging around, which not only gives you a sore throat but also makes your eyes sting…

Great biking roads….

But being ‘bikers’ we toughed it out!…

Coffee break again…….

The roads started to look familiar we must be close to Chiang Rai….

We arrived back at the Chayadol Boutique Resort and were greeted by the friendly staff, we even got the same room…666…lol

Nice big bed and fluffy towels again……

After unpacking we had a quick swim then made our way to Sizzler for tea.
The following morning we had to get up early, so we could get up to the Burmese border and get another 15 visa permit for Thailand…

The streets were quite due it being early…which was great as we made great time riding down the route 1, coming into the Mae Sai town we passed some grand buildings and some tacky looking Roman style buildings?…..

it looked very odd…also the street lamps were very grand and seemed a little out of place in a border town!….

Now to find some where to park, we noticed a small police station in the centre of the road next to immigration..
The police had no problem when i asked could if i could park there….

We walked over to immigration and got stamped out of Thailand … (we had a fear that they wouldn’t let us back in as we had been in and out of Thailand a few times on this trip… We sure would look stupid if that happened)…

Next over to the Burmese immigration office to fill out some forms and to get a day pass into Burma…

For a visa renewal you don’t have to actually go onto Burma soil, you can just sign out of Thailand get your passport stamped into Burma then apply for a visa to go back into Thailand straight away… Got that!

But we wanted to do some shopping in the Burmese markets so we had to pay $10 for a entry stamp lol…

The first question immigration ask, ‘are you shopping’?, the wrong answer would be to say yes…..
They now know you have extra money on you and try to a extort a bribe out of you, so be warned …
We said no we wanted to just have a look at the town…
We Stuck to our guns and payed the regular fee of $10 each……

They then issue a temporary day pass and just to make sure you return the same day the Burmese immigration, they hang on to your passport….

With all the formalities done we walk across a bridge, passing numerous street people and we headed for the markets in the Burmese town of Tachilek….

Wow… where to start, there are stalls down every street…we’ll be here all week!

As we were there early it wasn’t too busy, which was great as the streets were narrow…
You can buy just about anything here… Just as well we don’t have any space on the bike.

We found a couple of stalls that sold the North Face jackets we were after for when we hit Nepal, one stall in particular had so much choices, we spent ages trying on different styles and colours!
Our minds were boggling with the choice, so we went off for a coffee to mull it over, finding a cozy coffee shop we sat down, even though the two young girls noticed us they still continued with what ever they were doing on their phones..

There seemed to be a lot, young and old with this some sort of paste on there faces?…..

After a while I asked of we could get some coffee, with half a smile she brought us our coffee..
Pretty good as well.. It should be it was dearer that Aussie prices

Next We head back to the store, spend some more time trying more jackets, finally we make a decision…

$80 total for two Gortex North Face jackets…..

We were pleased with our purchases, they seemed to be top notch copies, maybe even seconds, we couldn’t fault them….
We then took a quick look around the rest of the town…..

I dont think so………

Yeah right……..

Then head backup collect our passports and back to Thailand immigration…
Thank goodness for that we’re allowed back in…

We now have 15 days to get to Bangkok and get the bike sorted out before flying to Nepal.

The day was still young so we decided to ride pass Chiang Rai and go to the white temple.
Which was stunning……

As we approached the entrance you can’t help but notice the weird objects around …

Trees with heads hanging off the branches ..

Really quite disturbing!

All off a sudden someone grabbed my backpack, spinning around I was relieved to see it was Ellen, what a great surprise, it took Keith a while to catch up with us he was busy taking photos…
Another coincidence, meet number three…….

After a quick chat we were all allowed to enter the temple grounds, without a ‘guard’ …

Usually tourist have to be accompanied due to some behaving badly here and upsetting the locals!… We must look sensible!!…..

There is a moat around the temple but its not filled with water, it’s filled with scary looking hands coming out of the ground, representing hell, with just one hand that had one nail painted red…..

Keith looking happy….

So leaving ‘hell’ as an attendant told us… we walked across the stunning white bridge towards the stunning white temple…..

Which shimmers with the sun hitting the tiny mirrored tiles that adorn the temple and everything else, taking off our shoes you can then go in side the temple…

Damn no photography allowed

Once inside, there was what looked like a real monk sitting in front of a floor to ceiling painted Buddha on the wall, but on closer inspection I realised he wasn’t real……

As you turn to leave you notice that there’s a Mural on the walls by the exit doors.. With painted images of batman, Ben 10, Spider-Man etc.
What’s this supossed to mean?…

After a look around the immaculate grounds……

They were selling some silver trinkets to hang on a tree with the proceeds going towards the upkeep of the temple, we bought one, but kept the trinket to take home…..

We then decided to go and sample the homemade lemon meringue that we spotted in the cafe near to the temple… Oh boy that was good…

My kind of no Parking…

Yet again bidding farewell to Ellen and Keith, hopefully we will see you in Cornwall.
We then head back to the hotel for a quick swim and to pack for our ride to Bangkok…..

Chiang Mai Part 2…… Patting Tigers……

Archive for 26/3/2013

Mai Hong son….Early by the lake…..

We set of early towards Mae Sariang and soon came across a Japanese war museum, which was about the time they retreated out of Burma and they settled here..

It was a fascinating place…..

The museum displays military equipments, accessories, weapons, clothes, photos etc. of Japanese Army which entered Amphoe Khun Yuam during World War II.

Lots of these laying around…

We arrived in Mae Sariang, found a comfortable place to stay, and by pure coincidence had a email from Keith Hooper who is also riding his bike around SE Asia and he said he just got into town…..
We quickly arranged to meet up for a drink and dinner and had a great time swapping stories from the road….

They were heading back to Chiang Mai, like us and we gave them our guest house address and arranged to meet them there later the next day…

We stopped for a rest near a old bridge and decided to go and have a look, it traversed a deep river gorge ,so we walked across to get a few pictures….

It was not until we were in the middle we looked down and saw how rotten the timbers were…..

Needlessly to say we both made a hasty but careful retreat …..

It was hotter than this town suggested….

It was really hot so we pulled into our favourite rest stop place, you guessed it Amazons for a Mocha Frappe…

Just as we were pulling out our new friends Keith and Ellen were just pulling in….
Thats meeting twice now by pure coincidence ……

As we were close to Chiang Mai they followed us back to the guest house we told them about……

That evening we went out to dinner at the Riders Corner and met up with another travelling couple Jeff and Si who have travelled through India and Nepal on there BMW.

We all agreed to meet up again for breakfast as Jeff and Si were heading off to Laos…

After yet another fantastic breakfast at the Riders Corner cafe… And before we could go and play with the cats, we had to go and collect our passports that now have our Pakistan visa inside from the DHL office in Chiang Mai…

After the collecting the passports we went into the airport shopping mall… Hoping to find the lithium batteries that we have been after for weeks now… We left the mall empty handed…..again….
Maybe some one in Bangkok will sell them?…..

2pm arrived, so me, Clive, Keith and Ellen set off to Tiger Kingdom which is not far from Chiang Mai.

We get to Tiger Kingdom…we quickly parked the bikes and headed up the large staircase and into a impressive foyer…
Something that you would expect to see in a fancy hotel.
First up before we paid we had to decide which tiger we wanted to ‘hug’…
The choice was:
Cub..
Year old..
Young adult…
Adult….
Hmmmm…. which one to choose…as much as a cub would be great to cuddle, the chances of us getting THIS close to an adult Tiger again is very slim, so we all choose the adult, so we paid our Baht ($40), and signed a ‘form’ to say that we won’t sue if we get eaten or hurt while with the Tigers!…….

Then we got a numbered ticket and waited for our turn…we didn’t have to wait long before we were called…. full of excitement…

Once near the enclosure, we had another few minutes to wait, which gave us time to leave any belongings on the shelves provided, then one of the keepers said that when we were in the enclosure with the Tigers that we were not to use flash photography or touch the Tiger’s head…
Yippeee it’s our turn…I don’t think any of us four felt nervous at all, just excitement.
There were four tigers in our enclosure, also two other people and ‘their’ keeper.
We headed over to a Tiger that was lounging around on the grass, two of the other tigers were wandering around doing their own thing!

The the other tiger was with the other couple….

The keeper said for me to go and lay on the Tiger!…..

So while the keeper stood near the Tigers head I went lounged with this magnificent creature…its hard to describe the feeling of being so close to an animal that could harm or kill me at any time…but the strange thing is, it wasn’t scary!….

We all got a turn to ‘cuddle’ the different Tigers in the enclosure, and then all too soon it was over ☹….

We gathered up our belonging and went and had a look around ‘The Kingdom’ at the other tigers here, walking around we noticed one animal that stood out from all the others and that was a male Lion, boy he was amazing……

So handsome…. not sure why he was at Tiger Kingdom…. maybe rescued from a circus?….

So Clive and I went off to see the other tigers…..

They all seemed happy and some were even stalking each other…. there were also some very young cubs in a nursery area…one was even getting his bottom wiped-Messy little cub!…….

Just at that time Keith and Ellen had to leave as Keith was being eaten alive……
Not by the Tigers…but mossies’….

He was covered in bites…. we were all fine!
He must be a unique blood group to be bitten like that.
We stayed for a little longer then unfortunately had to leave.
What a fantastic afternoon this has been…something I would love to do again…our grandkids would have loved it……

Some people may say that these Tigers are drugged…

There is a sign that says the tigers aren’t drugged and that the keepers take offense that anyone one would suggest it…

In our opinion they’re not drugged…

These tigers have been hand reared so are used to people, they are well fed, Cats are nocturnal, so are naturally sleepy during the day…and one incident while we were in the enclosure with the tigers was, one of the keepers walked past on the out side of the enclosure with a load of bushy branches and all the Tigers got up so fast and chased these branches, that there’s no way that drugged tigers could do that….

That evening we went back to our ‘local’ Riders Corner for Dinner and made plans for another ride north to the border with Burma so we can get another 15 day visa extension with Thailand……

Chiang Mai and Some Proper Sausages……Part 1….

Archive for 22/3/2013

While Clive was loading the bike ready to leave Chayadol Boutique Resort…he was approached by one of the staff (Rainee) from the Chayadol….

She was saying how excited she was about our trip, and that she hopes to one day do a similar trip her self…her eagerness was so apparent, that we know there will now be another ‘Traveller’ soon exploring the roads of the world…

Its great to know…(even though our trip is short compared to what other people have done), that we can inspire others…

Now to ride the 236klm’s for our next destination…

Not far out of Chiang Rai we came across the ‘Highest Hot Springs’ in Thailand…

We parked up and walked towards the ‘springs’…. yuk…the springs had a really strong smell of sulphur…

The springs are located along the Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai highway, and if the smell hasn’t put you off by now then why not buy a boiled egg,they sell them here! and it only takes 3-8 minutes to boil in the hot Springs!

Enough smelly stuff and on with the journey…following the twisty roads around the foot hills that lead into Chiang Mai…

The ride didn’t take too long at all…and as we neared Chiang Mai the roads became straight and pretty busy, but as soon as you cross over the ancient moat into the old city, the roads became hectic!…all one way systems…..

We located to the first Hotel that I had researched…. after checking out the room, I made a hasty retreat and made my way back to Clive… I must have been wearing blinkers when I looked at this place on the Agoda…lol…it was awful…enough said!!!

Not far from where we had parked the bike was a small lane, I could just make out a Hotel sign, so while Clive ‘Manned’ the bike, I went off to see if this Hotel was up to my standard!
Yes the SK11 Hotel did meet my needs….

Big clean room, cheap, a friendly family run business, a parking space for the bike, fast Wi-Fi and a great atmosphere but what sealed the deal was ‘another’ hotel with a pool ☺
…I don’t ask for much!!!

Once we had settled into our room, we got changed and went for an invigorating swim…

Feeling refreshed we decided to take a walk around the city…well a small part any way….
Old Chiang Mai city is surrounded by an old brick wall and a moat…

We ended up at the Riders Corner Bar and Restaurant which is biker friendly and run by Ex Brit Phil and his wife, Phil has a wealth of Knowledge of riding around Asia and is always keen to share it with you…

The food and atmosphere was fantastic…the sausages were the best we have had in a long time….

We had them a few times…..

We also met up with Steven, who we first met way back in Malaysia and had a great chat about the adventures we’ve both had since we last met….

Also Gary from our home town in Brisbane, who is enjoying life in Thailand…

We stayed in Chiang Mai for a few days checking out what the city had to offer and decided to go away for three days and ride the Mai Song loop ride, which is famous for being a great bike ride…
So we packed the essentials and our hotel SK II very kindly said we could leave the rest of our things there..

We set off in the direction of Pai which was on the 1195….

There was lots of twists and turns gaining elevation all the time giving us a hint of things to come on this ride….
We saw a sign to some hot springs 7klm down a side track , seeing that we had plenty of time up our sleeves to get to our first stop for the night, we decided to go and investigate….

Well not a lot of people come down here going by the condition of the road, defitnatly not buses….

Arriving at the gate we had to pay a fee, $5.00 each….
So after coming this far down this bad road, we thought we had better take a look, after paying we rode around till we found some where to park.
The place was obviously popular at one stage going by infrastructure, but now its sadly going into disrepair for some reason.

We walked over to a stream that was running down over the rocks, it was beautiful, but testing the water thinking it would be cold we were in for a surprise it was hot!!!
After getting changed into our swimmers and hiring a couple of towels We checked the hot pools, one was too cold, the other was way to hot as soon as you stepped into it you had to step out!!!

But We did find a smaller pool and like goldilocks porridge, it was just right…

Ahhhh….this is the life…the water felt sooo good and seemed to fade away any aches and pains we had…..it didn’t even smell horrible either…..

But eventually even this pool started to feel hot, so we got changed, got back on the bike, and made for the hills!

There’s some seriously tight bends to navigate at really steep angles, 762 to get to Pai, we only got a few glimpses of the mountains through the very thick smoke haze…..pity..

On arriving at Pai the first thing did was stop at was a bakery and had a massive tuna roll with fries and a iced chocolate….I’m beginning to think we should have called this trip Bakery2Bakery…..

With lunch all sorted we went off to find a some where to stay, prices seemed to range from really cheap bamboo huts next to river to out really expensive hotels way out of our budget!

We did eventually find a little complex of individual bungalows set on a few acres of large manicured lawns with beautiful scented trees and bushes,we are the only ones there…
what a gem this was and just just 2 minutes from the main centre of Pai.

After settling in we walked into town, had a beer, checked out the night markets which were selling some really great and unusual stuff!
In the morning I lubed the chain and made a small adjustment on the clutch before we packed the bags and set of towards Mai Song.

There were still lots of tight curves….

and only glimpses of the mountains through the smoke haze, when we stopped for morning tea at the top of one hills…….

A mother approached us and asked for some money to photograph her kids….. no thank you…thats not how we roll…..

We did think about swapping the bike for this ride….

Getting close to Mai Song we passed a National Park, we’re gonna have to check this out later in the afternoon, when we have found somewhere to stay…

Riding through the small town of Mai Song we decided to ride towards the lake and see what accommodation we could find…it wasn’t long before we came across a small Guest House with cozy wooden Huts in the garden…

It was great and had a area where we could tinker with the bike….

And run by a very welcoming family…

After unloading the bags…we set off for the National park that we had passed a few klm’s back.
After paying the entrance fee, we set off to find the ‘Fish cave’…but to get to he cave you walk past manicured lawns reserved for camping……
Walking down the pathway then onto a bridge that goes over a stream full of fish….

Kids having fun diving through tree roots…

walking along with the stream to the right of you for about 15 minutes until you come to some bigger ponds full of these fish, then over another little bridge and you will see the cave (very small indeed).
It was choked up with fish trying to get into the cave…..

We went out for dinner by the lake and the temple was all lit up, very spectacular, a really great place to have a drink and dinner…

Walking around the temple there were these weird bugs attracted by the lights…….

to be continued….