Hill tribes, elaphants and bamboo rafts

worldtrip_20070627_0245.JPG, originally uploaded by mark benger.

Its been raining heavily here in northern Thailand almost constantly since last night, so obviously today was a good day to take a hike into the mountains & ride an elephant – not.

It was dry for the initial hike up to the Mieu village, and only rained whilst we were there, so some pictures will hopefully be on Flickr soon. However as we reached the elephants, the heavens opened, so it was a slightly damp ride through the jungle, with the elephant’s knee deep in mud, and that’s deep mud. After a quick lunch it was time to visit the Karen village, where the rain held off, before heading to see a waterfall once the rain resumed. I’m not sure which got me wetter, the rain or the spray from the falls, sadly no pictures since I didn’t want to get the SLR wet, and I’d left the waterproof camera behind.
Just in case I wasn’t wet enough, there was also the small matter of a ride down river on a bamboo raft – a contraption that barely floated.

Overall I’ve had a bit of a damp day – at least tomorrow I fly off to the beach, here’s hoping that its dry.

White water rafting

Today’s adventure – a bit of gentle white water rafting, something I’ve only done once before, in Canada about 10 years ago.

Put the small camera in its waterproof casing for the trip, so some shots on flickr, but unfortunately the lens misted up a bit. Still you can get the idea.

Set off from the hotel about 9am, thinking that I was going to be the only one, only to turn round two pick up two more people, Alex and Gemma, who’d had a bit of a session the night before. We then had a bumpy ride up the mountains to the start where we were all equipped with helmets, lifejackets and paddles, before setting off down river, one boat with the three of us plus two guides, an another with three more guides, who spent a lot of time larking about – the river must seem quite tame to them at the moment. It didn’t seem that tame to us, but we survived without anyone falling overboard except when the guides deliberately jumped off, and only getting totally soaked.

PS photos now all on flickr - and a better pic put at the top of this post

Bangkok, River Kwai and Chiang Mai

worldtour_20070625_0155.JPG, originally uploaded by mark benger.

Sorry for the delay in updating this, but I’ve been getting up to a lot recently, not to mention not having cheap net connections.

Saturday was a day trip out of Bangkok to the Bridge over the River Kwai, as made famous in the film of the same name. Ok you can whistle the tune if you want. A 2 hour coach trip ended at the very informative Death Railway museum and allied war cemetery (sorry no pictures of either) followed by a visit to the bridge itself. The two centre spans (rectangular) are post war, but the rest is original. There was then an hour long train journey, sadly not over the bridge itself though, followed by lunch and a boat ride before heading back to Bangkok.

Yesterday was spent on the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai – a mere 12 hour journey, so apart from checking into the hotel and a quick meal, that was it.

Having looked at the options, I decided to get dirty this afternoon by taking an off-road buggy trip into the mountains, which I ended up as a group of one, luckily it wasn’t any more expensive doing it that way. Although the trip was advertised as having a chance to have a swim at a waterfall, one look at the water was enough to dissuade me.

Tomorrow is just as adventurous, but less muddy, white water rafting.

Bangkok

worldtrip_20070620_0100.JPG, originally uploaded by mark benger.

Arrived safely in Bangkok well after midnight Tuesday, having taken two trains, two planes and a taxi from Hiroshima. Wendsday started with heavy rain, which soon cleared leaving brilliant sunshine.

I think I've decided that I don't like capital cities - they are too big, noisy and crowded. Bangkok has the added problem that if your heve on your own, everyone assumes your only after one thing, and it isn't sightseeing.

Hiroshima

Another day in Japan, another temple, yet moor deer, an abscence of monkeys and a peace park.

Took the tram into town, wandered around the peace park & associated museam for the morning, before getting on a boat fro the short sea crossing to Miyajima and its famouse floating gate, which unfortnatly I got to a bout an hour after high tide, so it was floating on a mudbank, so I took the cablecar up the mountain to see the vies, which were hazy, and the monkeys, which had dissapeared into the forest to eat.

Tomorrow is my last day in Japan, and my flight out is from Osaka, so I will have to leave Hiroshima at lunchtime, and as I want to have an attemp at re-organising my suitecase I probably won't have a chance to go back. As usual I seem to have too little time in places I like, and too long in places I don't like, but thats life for you.

Kyoto to Hiroshima via Osaka and Himeji

Sorry no photos today - I can seem to do anything on the net but upload my photos using the hotel connection.
More trains today, I caught the Shinkansen (Bullet train) from Kyoto to Osaka, did a bit of shopping (a pair of N Shinkansen) before hitting the train again for Himeji and its famous white castle for a good look round, folowed by some mellowing out in the adjacent Jappenese garden. Another hour on the train saw me in Hiroshima.
Sorry Clair, still no blondes.


Photo added

Koyoto and Nara

Kyoto_20070616_0048.JPG, originally uploaded by mark benger.

I thought todays picture should be differnt - so here's a bambi moment for you. This deer is one of a thousand that inhabit Nara park, about a days drive away from Kyoto, and they are not affraid of people at all, infact the antics of some Jappenese schoolgirls proved that it may be the other way around.
My last night in Kyoto, off to Hiroshima via Osaka and Himeji castle tomorrow, so yet more train travel.

Kyoto Day 2

IMG_6077.JPG, originally uploaded by mark benger.

It's stopped raining at last, but is still overcast, so I managed to get templed out witout gettin too wet. The photo above is of the Golden Pavilion in the Kinkakuji temple, which had to be rebuilt after a monk set it on fire in the 50's. There does seem to be a fair few replicas amongst the temple, althogh to be fair some of the replicas date back to the 13th century.
Quick tip for visitors - wear slip on shoes, and make sure your socks have no holes, since a few of the temples require you to take off youe shoes before entering.

Kyoto

IMG_6049.JPG, originally uploaded by mark benger.

Helo from a rainy Kyoto.
I caught the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto this lunchtime - a big improvement in terms of speed, smothness & comfort over the Russian trains. It was drizalling as I left Tokyo, and tipping down in Kyoto, so I haven't done much siteseeing yet, just a quick wander around the block to get my bearings.
This hotel has high speed net access in all rooms - so its back to being able to upload photos, I may be able to clear some of the backlog, since I think the Geishas will probably be staying inside on a night like this.

Mt Fuji

Today was the day trip out of Tokyo to see Mt Fuji, otherwise known as a day out in the clouds. Another early start was followed by a coach journey up to Mt Fuji, which was shrouded by clouds on the side we were on, so much so that a trip on the roller coasters next to the lunch stop would probably have been more fun. After lunch we headed for next volcano over and the Hakone national park, complete with a lake within the boundaries of the collapsed cone of the original volcano,　and a ropeway (trans Cable Car) up to the top of the newer volcano. Surreal moment of the day was the Japanese idea of pedalos - big pink swans including a full neck at the front, and the fake galleons doing business as tour boats.

A quick trip up to the top followed, which was a bit spoilt by the clouds rushing up to cover the view of Fuji, before heading back down to catch the bullet train back to tokyo. I think our guide was a closet trainspotter, since he was disappointed that we didn't hang around the platform to see some bullet trains pass. Still he did do a passable job as an origami instructor.

I brought my train ticket to Kyoto today as well, so I`m all set for the next leg, and hoping that I can find some wi-fi tomorrow, plus a way to charge my mobile, since japan works on 110v, and my charger wants 240v.

Tokyo

I arrived in Tokyo yesterday, only to find that the most developed country in the world is the first one not to have widespread wifi, so its back to net cafes, at least this one is in the hotel and free as long as you buy a drink.

I had a quick tour around the city this morning, which I ended by catching a riverboat back, since I didn`t fancy the pearl factory tour, not being much into buying expensive jewelry. Tomorrows tour should be an all day trip to Mt Fuji.

Hong Kong

IMG_5841.JPG, originally uploaded by mark benger.

Hello from a wet Hong Kong - I arrived wendsday to overcast skies, and apart from thursday I's done nothing but thunderstorms and rain since.

I've brought myself a Macbook, so I'm finally able to get more of my Photos online, I'ts taking a time to upload them all though, so watch my Flickr site for updates. The above picture was taken on my first night in HK, hence the lack of rain.

Overall HK is a strange mix of the familure, UK style roadsigns and driving on the left, with the exotic, but it is by far the easiest city so far to get arround in, since all signs are in english as well as Cantonese, and the translations have been done by someone who speaks english properly, a welcome change after the chinglish of Beijing.

As for Beijing, I did the usual round of the Forbidden citty (large and red), the Summer Palace (big park) and the great wall (two places, coast & mountains) while HK I did a tour of the major sites, but mostly just been wondering around and doing a bit of shoping - girls would love it here. Since it was very we today I went to visit the Museam of Coastal Defence, which would have been better in the dry, since it is based in an old fort, and a lot of exibits are outside.

Next stop Japan, tomorrow.

Beijing

Sorry for the delay in posting anything, but I've had a busy few days in Beijing, not to mention the day and a half getting here by train.

The train to Beijing was a little bit nicer than the one to Ulaanbaatar, but not nearly as nice as the train to Irtusk, and this time I wasn't the only brit - a large group of twenty somethings doing the Vodka Train trip had caught up with me, so hi to James, Hazel and the rest if you ever get to read this. On arrival at the Chinese border we not only had the usual passport & customs formalities to go through, but we also got hoisted into the air whilst the bogie's were changed beneath the carriages - photos to come soon. The next morning the train wound its way through some mountainous terrain, before arriving in Beijing in the afternoon.

After checking into my hotel, it was time to head over to Ricks place for a meal, some badminton and a swim, before retiring to the nearby pizza restaurant for a late snack, as our opponents, Peter, his girlfriend whose name I've forgotton and Fran hadn't eaten.