You know what, just Phuket...

So after nine mixed days of relaxing in the bohemian surroundings of chiang mai, we hopped on a plane (our first taste of air Asia!), and headed to the land of the package holiday, Phuket.

Having already blogged twice about Ching mai, I will just tell you about our third cooking course in as many countries.

From Claire and vito's advice, the cooking classes in chiang mai were very much on our list of things to do after glowing reports from them. Plus after completing cooking classes in both Bali and Cambodia we were interested to see the variations in technique, plus you always get a load to eat so it makes for quite a cheap day! The course set-up itself was fantastic, you chose six dishes from six different categories. Shell opted for green curry paste, green chicken curry, papaya salad, hot and sour prawn soup, pad Thai and deep fried bananas. To mix things up (and keep us apart) I went for penang paste, red Penang pork curry, fish cakes, chicken in coconut soup, stir fried prawns in curry powder and mango and sticky rice. We had a really good day, our group was really nice (me and seven English girls!) and the cooking school was big enough to incorporate all students with a cooking station each. The cooking techniques were pretty self-explanatory to the point where our shell has promised an exact replica of her Pad Thai, once we are back home. The anticipation will kill, not least to see shell in the kitchen!

So for all of you who read this and have had the pleasure of being cooked for by us, we now have the experience of three different national cuisines behind us to practice on you once we are yet again, back home. Which in itself seems like some mysterious place we used to live, although its only been three months.

The day of the cooking course was actually our last day in chiang mai and thankfully was the first day that I seemed to have conquered some of the pain, albeit with help from mr tramadol. Lovely man.

So saying farewell to the guys at the guesthouse the next day we caught a tuk-tuk to the airport to catch our midday flight down to Phuket. The flight, although agonising again for me, was another smooth one. The time seemed to fly by, literally, until we landed, fifteen minutes early, in a hot and humid Phuket. Seemingly, with the rest of Thailand, and Europe, and Russia. And maybe Australia. In fact, let's face it, it felt as though the world had descended on Phuket for their Christmas package jaunts, just as we made our way down from tranquil chiang mai, backpacks in hand.

Outside the airport we hopped onto a minibus as the taxi's were criminally expensive, apparently because they belong to the well-known Phuket taxi mafia. The guide books and internet warn you, we were even warned by a hotel owner of a place we booked for Christmas on ko lanta that these guys, especially in peak season which we are now in, are allowed to charge extortionate prices which people, if they need to hire a taxi, have no choice but to accept. Not that the mini bus faired any better. Again, crammed about as full as is humanly possible, we swung down the west coast of Phuket island, dropping people intermittently, most in the truly horrific patong. Thing is, these drivers were so thick that they just looked at my address and nodded, in one of those 'I know this place better than a monopoly board, stop bothering me with your silly piece of printed paper'. Naturally, when we got to Karon beach, then proceeded to pass through it, I had to remonstrate yet again to get the bloke to stop and turn around, he was lost. Winding up back in Karon, he proceeded to wind down his window and ask, no lies here, probably ten people for directions. Until amazingly we crawled past our guesthouse where we shouted at him to get us off the damn bus. A journey that should have taken 45 mins took two and a half hours.

The guesthouse itself was ok but the most expensive place we have had so far. Depressingly, this is pretty much the lowest you should expect to pay at this time of year, all this for a room full of mosquitoes!

On the plus side we have sorted our place for Christmas, a place called baan rao on an island called koh lanta. We managed, amazingly, to get the last place in this b&b for £20 a night. It's at the top of our budget but it's Christmas, so you have to expect to pay prices such as this I suppose. The place is at the top of a hill but it's just up from the beach, with views over the sea and our own balcony with hammock! I can't think of a better way to spend Christmas away from home. From the emails that we have received from the owners, it seems we could well have landed on our feet in a place that actually wants to get to know us, rather than just being another guest.

Anyway back to karon beach. The reason we chose this place was that it wasn't Patong, a place we passed through that confirmed all of our predispositions about it. Truly awful. Instead, we chose karon beach, a little further around the coast and a place we thought, foolishly, that might have more of a cool backpacker vibe, nothing rowdy that you might get on nearby phi phi but a scene nonetheless. Instead what you are faced with is Blackpool. I've got nothing against Blackpool but it doesn't exactly fade into the background. I'm not moaning because the beach is beautiful, but that is obviously only one part of the town and well, their are other people on the beach. I don't quite know how we keep managing to do this but it is full of Russians, I mean absolutely packed. So much so that menus are written in Russian and much like Benidorm, or Blackpool on a warm day (thinking about it-or cold), bald fat blokes walk around in football shirts, but unlike Benidorm these are Spartak Moscow and not Leeds United.

The place is also packed to the rafters with restaurants selling crap food for expensive prices where poor quality, tacky western imitations outnumber traditional Thai twenty to one. In fact we struggled to find anything resembling good thai food at all.

Anyway, this is our second full day on the beach here today and we have no real complaints. How can we! It would be a travesty if we did! The beach is beautiful, pure White sand and crystal blue waters, we've spent the days eating fruit from the local stall, bloody amazing pineapple! We've also got to grips with our foot badminton! Something we bought in vietnam after witnessing the local population playing it everywhere!

We will have another day here tomorrow amongst the Cossacks then make our way over to Krabi on Monday where we have booked ourselves into a wicked place that is inland a little bit but that is central to Railay beach, Ao nang and Krabi town. It's even got a pool!

So, now were off to find Christmas hats, we may even steal some tinsel to put on our rucksacks!

Mui amore, Tommo xxx

More dentists and more night markets in Chiang Mai....

We've now been in chiang Mai for 8 days, the longest we have been anywhere since the start of the trip. We obviously would have moved sooner if it wasn't for the massive inconvenience of having my wisdom tooth removed.

The past few days, since my operation on Friday really, have been incredibly quiet. The pain at times, has been excruciating, far worse than I was expecting! Shell, bless her, has tried hard not to become disillusioned with our time here through four days of me not wanting to do anything but curl up into a little ball. We have managed to go out, walk around the now very familiar streets and try to keep ourselves occupied as much as possible. It's just quite hard when at least one of us is just bloody fed up.

The op itself was ok, apart from the bit when he told me he would have to chisel the tooth into four pieces to get it out as it had partly grown into the adjacent tooth. Apart from the noises and a horrible feeling in my lower jaw as he yanked it out, all was ok, done in 45 minutes. The problem began as soon as I left the building. Pain so bad I wanted to cry, and shell could see this, so we both rushed back to the room.

For the past few days I've eaten nothing but soup, porridge and the occasional Thai curry. To be fair to chiang Mai, those three items are sold everywhere as it surely has to lay claim to be being the vegetarian and health food capital of the world. We've obviously visited a lot of places by now but here, amongst the kinds of people that frequent and own the establishment's here, it's the nearest we have got to being back home in sunny Southsea.

It's something we have managed to do in abundance, to glide effortlessly from restaurant to coffee shop, bar to street cafe, making the most of the free wifi to plan our next few months. This is fine, but usually this kind of thing is interspersed with activities, sightseeing and things do to, stories to accumulate to tell you on here! Unfortunately we have none of that today...

Saturday, to add to the heady mix of painkilling medication and alcohol, was the anniversary of Ady's death, five years to be precise. It's my mum and dad I feel most for during this time, as I have never really had the chance to spend this time with them since his death. So being in Asia, on a hotel roof, drinking beer looking at the mountains, a certain amount of melancholy started to grip me. Of wishing he was back home, insanely jealous of his little brothers whereabouts or actively planning to come and join us. Either way, I just hope he was with us in sprit. If not, then I demand to know where else he would have been!

One of the cool things about staying a little longer here is that it is the King's birthday here on Monday. Normally, as in the UK, this would mean a celebratory coin or box of shortbreads, as an extravagance they might even fly the flag at half mast. Here, the admiration for their Monarch reaches infatuated levels. The entire population have images of the king adorning their walls at home and in the case of this weekend, have images so big of their beloved leader that they make Stalin look like a car salesman. See photo above...

The celebrations for the Kings birthday started some days before with crackles of fireworks heard right across the city, much like chavvies setting off rockets at the end of October back home. On Sunday, the night before the big day, the Sunday walking street returned so we walked the streets for a while, bought another couple of items then once again, headed back home in pain.

Although today went in much the same fashion as the previous days, we did have our first massages of the trip. Shell opted for the back, shoulder, neck and head massage and I went in for the traditional Thai. Although the room and the setting were unbelievably relaxing, my Thai massage was, minus the small polite thai masseuse, what I would expect to happen in say..Guantanamo Bay, or maybe medieval London. She stretched, pummelled and smacked me around for an hour while shell, looking like a scene from a spa brochure, looked a picture of serenity. I have to be honest and say I can't feel a great deal different other than the fact I now know about twelve more areas around my body that will hurt if you press it really hard...

So, stitches out tomorrow! Then we finally get to do our Thai cooking class on Wednesday then fly south to Phuket and the Thai islands on Thursday.

We are both really looking forward to some sun, sand and sea after a few weeks inland but it's December! Where are the grey, frosty mornings and annoying supermarket Christmas carols??

Much love, Tommo xx

Night markets and dentists in Chiang Mai...

Flights scare me, especially ones that are powered by propeller and which are too short to pop Valium. Fortunately for us the flight to Chiang Mai passed as quick as a breeze, despite a fair amount of wobbliness as we came into land. Amazingly, as we passed through immigration, the owner of our new guesthouse was waiting with a big sign that read 'mr tom' in massive letters. The guy was a legend and drove us to the guesthouse, all for free, where we were welcomed like family and shown to our room, a really big and spotless space, all for £6 per night. Back downstairs we were told we could stay as long as we wanted and that we would just have to tell them the day before we wanted to move on. At this point I think we made the fundamental decision that after around 3-4 weeks of constant travelling, pretty much every day, we would like to stay put in one area for a while. From speaking to our hosts we have a lot to see and do here so I think we could easily spend a couple of weeks here and in the surrounding countryside.

That night, as lucky as it may seem, was Chiang Mai's most famous event, the Sunday walking Market. Apparently, people come from all over Thailand to stroll around the markets and as such, were told by our hosts that we were lucky to have this as our introduction to Thailand. I don't believe in luck but I'm glad we came today! The markets were phenomenal, we bought a few little bits (to add to the hoard we need to ship home) and stopped every now and again to feast on red pork curry, Chiang Mai sausage, spring rolls and tiny Japanese pancakes filled with blueberry filling. Needless to say, we were in our element. It's funny that out of the people we have met travelling so far, no one seems to have food right at the pinnacle of importance as much as us. Food has been and will continue to be the best thing about our trip and up to yet, Asia has done nothing but astound us with it's variety and quality.

Anyway, we spent hours walking through the markets, occasionally getting stuck in the maelstrom of people until we got back to the hotel, shattered, at 11pm.

The following day we made our way out of the hotel to find breakfast before the daily onslaught of wats and temples. Chiang mai's old city, where we were based, has numerous temples, almost one on every corner. We spent the entire afternoon visiting some beautifully ornate buildings that if were at the start of your trip, would be staggeringly beautiful. This being the third month now of visiting Buddhist monasteries, you'd be forgiven for feeling the opening pangs of temple fatigue. Unfortunately my day would be completely and momentously overawed by pain. Having got yet more antibiotics and painkillers to try out from the chemist, we were hoping for an end to the pain. It would get worse.

The next morning we found an extraordinary place to eat breakfast that made their own brown bread rolls. To say they were good is as big an understatement as you are likely come across. The rest of the breakfast, big fluffy omelettes, were also exceptional, as was the several coffees. We stayed for hours in this place, writing, making lists and making good use of the wifi to plan our next movements. As time progressed through the day the pain in my mouth was making me dizzy so we decided to see out a dentist, at long last. The dentist was ultra clean, with the best facilities imaginable so put my mind to ease for a little while. Basically the dentist told me, after x-ray, that I have no infection but that my wisdom tooth is growing diagonally against my back tooth. He told me that it needed to come out. So there you go, I will bite the bullet and pay around fifty pounds for the operation but I hope at the end of it I will be pain free once and for all.

From there we took a red-taxi-pick up truck over to central plaza, the big city mall, to try and find some relatively cheap running shoes so that I can hit the streets. We couldn't find any trainers but what we did come away with was two awesome haircuts!! We were both amazingly pleased after getting two haircuts for a tenner that were better than anything that we would have got back home, we should have never have been worried!!

Back in town we had another hankering for Italian so found an amazing little eatery that we had read about and shared the veggie and beef lasagne's, again, absolutely fantastic food and completely homemade. I will never get bored of describing food so If it all sounds a tad repetitive then I apologise!

The next morning, after visiting our favourite place for breakfast, we caught a tuk-tuk to Chiang Mai zoo, a zoo so large that it actually let cars in, so people could effectively drive from the Otter enclosure to say, the lesser spotted Peruvian Tapier...or something like that. The zoo, although a bit rough round the edges, was pretty amazing. Amongst all the usuals we saw a White lion, 2 agile lemurs that looked like a couple of mischievous brummies. We were also lucky enough to see three giant pandas who were brilliant. They were just totally content with stripping pieces of wood and eating a tonne of bamboo. They looked like the happiest creatures we have ever seen. I think shell may have fallen in love with them. I have competition. Anyway, we spent most of the day in this place, mesmerised by the sheer quantity of animals and the impressive view of the city below us as we were now relatively high up the surrounding mountains.

Heading back into town we decided to walk to the night bazaar, a nightly extravaganza of Market stalls, all with the western wallet firmly in mind. Although out of the old city, which is a blessing in itself, the night Market area is the type of south east Asia you hate seeing; mcdonalds, Starbucks, subways all were in place but search a little further and you can find these little nuts and crannies of authenticity, such as the food courts. For three pounds we ate four dishes of fresh northern Thai food before heading off back towards our hotel. On the way back we managed to stumble upon a place doing margarita's for 55 baht so decided to take advantage of that for a while too, one constant holiday...

The next morning and knowing that the following day would be taken up by dentistry we decided hire a scooter. After some initial wobbles and horrified looks from the hotel owner, we were on our way. Chiang Mai is surrounded by mountains to the north of which one of them, Dui suthep, has a temple sat at the top. It also has two minority villages that you can visit.

The roads are fantastic leading up the mountain. We had an absolute blast as we rode up, overtaking all the struggling cars until we reached the temple at the top. It was an incredible ride which took about 2 hours. The temple itself was astonishing, it was encrusted with thick gold and had practising monks in every corner, all with the heavy aroma of incense that burned from the altars. The views from the top were out of this world, almost as if you had been placed on a cloud above the city. From there we headed further into the mountains to check out a minority village. The village itself was pretty dissapointing as the inhabitants had firmly taken consumerism to heart. Almost every inch of an otherwise peaceful and remote village had been taken up with the selling of items. The big selling point though, in fact scrap that, the vastly underused reason for people visiting the village was the huge winter garden that lit up the surrounding landscape with a hundred different types of flower, dad you would love it!

From there we jumped back on the motorbike and swerved our way through through the 6kms of hairpin bends and dirt tracks to another tribal village. This time, in a very secluded spot, the village seemed much more insular than the last. As we drove around, a chap in full traditional gear shouted at us as we rode past so we quickly made our way out of the village and back on to the mountain track to take us the 30kms back to chiang Mai. About 5kms in we pulled up to small coffee shop, sat astride an adjoining coffee plantation, and had two unbelievable cups of the freshest coffee you can imagine, all while looking down on a great view of coffee plants, banana trees and green fields. If the ride to the top was fun enough then the rude back was out of this world. I cannot wait to do it again.

As we got back into town the traffic was atrocious, thousands of cars and bikes all stood in a huge, choking jam. We did as the Thai do and wriggled our way through the traffic until we finally made it back to the guesthouse just before dark. An amazing day and one we will not forget in a while!

Due to tomorrows operation to chop out my wisdom tooth it looks as though we will be here for a while longer yet, not least since I have to go back to have the stitches out next week. You what though, I think were both secretly happy. We both felt like we needed a pit stop of sorts and we have it here. Chiang Mai is phenomenal, the people are great, the bars and restaurants of mindblowing quality and the surrounding countryside mesmerising. A week has nearly gone by here and we haven't a clue where it has gone!!

Much love, as always, Tommo xx

Monks and croissants in Luang Prabang...

As usual, after dropping our gear off in the hotel (very hard to find!) and after managing to completely perplex a laos hotelier with my bolsover brogue, we headed out into the chilly night air to finally explore luang prabang. Although we only saw a couple of streets we instantly got the feeling that we were somewhere special. Luang Prabang is unesco listed which means, thankfully, the town has a ban on cars and busses after 6pm which makes it one of the nicest places you can think of to stroll around. Again, it could be argued, much like Hoi An in Vietnam, Yangshuo in China or Siem Reap in Cambodia, that this is not a fair representation of the wider area, just an artificial tourist bubble. You know what, screw it, it's just bloody great, nevermind if some 'seasoned' travellers say it's not an authentic Laos experience, what do they want? To scrap that in favour of smothering ourselves in mud and eating weeds, just to be 'authentic'. I sound like a bitter old fool but some other travellers you meet are about as annoying as being made to sit in a room with Nigella Lawson or Fearne Cotton, always looking down on other travellers for not fitting into this archetypal traveller who strives to make life as hard for themselves as is humanly possibly....

After eating a traditional Laos meal of Luang Prabang sausage (think coarse sausage meat with a massive hint of lemongrass-truly delicious) and stir-fried beef, we headed back to the hotel, a 15mins walk out of town. Although in Laos, Luang Prabang, by south-east Asian standards anyway, is an expensive place. Due to it's beauty and unesco status it happens to attract an older, more wealthy crowd which in turn has pushed the price of accommodation through the roof. We were staying in a nice place run by lovely people but the best we could do on our budget was quite a walk away. We probably need the exercise after 2 months eating baguettes!

Anyway, the next day, after an incredible sleep, we decided to go exploring, to really get a feel of the place. After stopping for an overpriced and disappointing breakfast we headed off into the ever-warming day. We walked up the large central hill to take in the views and to try and release some birds! Basically lots of women have tiny birds in extremely small wicker cages, hundreds of them, for you to buy and then release at the top, for good luck. It's a terrible sight, these birds can't even flap it's so small. Just another small example of asia's complete disregard for animal rights, it truly is non-existent! I had to fight back the urge to 'liberate' the poor things in a swift but ultimately bold move. Shell told me I couldn't...

After climbing back down we then hit the streets, to search out the river and the numerous temples that surround the old town. As we strolled along the river the smells were unbelievable, like sitting in an English garden on a hot summers day, maybe pint in hand. It's the first time we have been in a climate cool enough for smells like that to appear, it's usually been suffocatingly hot.

Making our way around another huge wat, luang prabang's largest, we were amazed at the intricacy of the tile mosaics that adorned the several temples. We saw yet more giant buddha's (I have a feeling it won't be the last) all in different positions, something we have learned the meaning of. If you have a Buddha at home with arms open, placed on legs, this is meditation. If he has his arms folded, this be enlightenment. And so on...

After catching a very rickety bamboo raft over to the other side of the river we had a drink at a very very cool place that had individual candlelit bamboo huts, almost like tree houses, for you to drink in. We stayed there a while before heading back to the hostel just before dark (bamboo rafts-fast flowing river-the dark-2 Laos teenagers as captain-no ta!). After a good old day sight seeing we grabbed some quick Laos curry, similar to Thai i.e with coconut milk, before heading around the myriad stalls of the nightmarket on the way back to the hotel.

The following morning we were picked up at around 11, along with an english-indian couple from Nottingham, to go to luang prabangs most famous waterfall, around 30kms away. As we drove through the lush Laos countryside it dawned on you just how pretty this country can be. It's almost, I guess, much like being back in an old English countryside summer, in say 1876. Almost like jumping head first into a Constable painting. The waterfalls themselves were immense, around eight different levels in total, slowly climbing to the 45 metre falls at the top of the gorge. It produced the bluest water imaginable and although ice cold, lots of people braved the conditions to jump in! The only thing wrong I guess were the crowds, some of them the most annoying type i.e loud, obnoxious and generally have no clue whereabouts they are. Despite the crowds we had an awesome time which was reinforced by the adjoining bear sanctuary. The bears, all moon bears due to their crescent markings on their chest, have been confiscated from poachers who had used the bears to farm their bile, a popular ingredient in Chinese medicine. Another caring plus point for the medievally insane superpower-to-be. In fact, by reading bits and pieces whilst being here it becomes increasingly apparent that the Chinese play a big part in pretty much all negative aspects of Laos natural environment as millions of hectares of pristine forest are illegally logged every day to satisfy china's ever increasing demand for natural resources. It's an atrocious state of affairs.

Back in town we searched out the same central restaurant for Laos curry before heading back to the hotel to pack and huhum...watch football. It's a sad state of affairs in a way that I've been able to watch more football here in Asia than I ever would have at home. We haven't planned our days around fixtures or anything but because of the time difference we have been able to get back after a packed day and watch a game late at night, I say we I mean me, firmly me...

In the morning we waited outside for our tuk-tuk to the airport but were to be surprised when a small black sports car pulled up playing adele at it's highest volume possible. We were duly told to put our bags in and off we went to the airport! On the way I tried to tell him that a guy his age needed to replace his god awful noise with a bit of rolling stones or at least the Beatles but he was having none of it! Why do we have to export all of our crap!

Arriving at the airport we checked in with no hassles before boarding our propellered plane of dreams that would take us over the border and to chiang Mai, to begin our two month Thailand adventure!

We wish we had spent more time in Laos but I guess we saw the highlights. It's hard but Laos biggest attraction is surely it's natural beauty, which to truly appreciate means heading out into the countryside. Due to Laos having the unenviable title of having the most unexploded bombs and mines of any country in the world, to head out into the interior without proper knowledge and guides is suicidal.

Laos other great asset, it's incredibly mellow people, is something you can experience anywhere. This we did in abundance.

Anyway, onwards!! Feels as though we are late to the Thailand party as lots of friends have been here before to this greatly visited country but we are truly excited about the months ahead!

Love as always, Tommo (with ever increasing mouth pain)