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Our slog up and down heartbreakingly steep mountains rewards us with spectacular views - beyond the Mekong River lies Laos in wait...


Today we've been on the road for two months, having covered a distance of 4000km and having been rewarded by many new experiences, like a game of elephant polo on the banks of the Mekong River this afternoon. We are in northern Thailand, in a small town north of Chiang Rai, poised to cross over into the unknown territory of Laos.


Picking up on the previous blog update three weeks earlier:
After scuba diving the acclaimed reefs of Ko Tao we continued our journey north and discovered the hidden gem of Prachuap Khiri Khan, an unspoilt coastal town with colourful fishing boats anchored in the harbour and housewives doing evening-aerobics on the beach. For three hundred Baht (R60) we rented a balconied room looking out over the sea and emerald islands and indulged in a dinner of fresh, whole-grilled fish for less than the cost of a McDonalds quarter-pounder.

Towards Bangkok the popular beaches of Hua Hin and Cha-am clogged up with more and more foreign tourists and Thai-weekenders, the quality of hotel rooms deteriorating proportionately. We arrived on the outskirts of Bangkok on a muggy evening and were swept along on thick, heavy exhaust fumes towards the glitzy neon. Malcolm, a generous South African, now Bangkok-resident, fished us from the traffic and put us up in his luxurious city hotel. Oh, the delight of clean, white sheets and new towels and room service and the sheer extravagance of club sandwiches and fries and the joy of speaking normal English to a fellow country-man!

We remained in the city for three days, enough time to recharge our batteries under the wings of Malcolm's kindness and hospitality. We also learnt that one can buy anything in Bangkok, spending an evening in the notorious Patpong red-light district, gawking at the macabre circus of ping pong shows and go-go girls.

We escaped Bangkok to the serenity of Kanchanaburi, made famous by the movie 'The Bridge over the River Kwai', where 100 000 locals and 16000 POWs perished building a railway for the Japanese during WWII.

Being so weightless on the road and without anchor, we have a lot of time to think and are beginning to realise what really matters in life. We're homesick.

From Kanchanaburi we cycled north across the central plains, the agricultural and cultural heartland of Thailand, revelling in the vast crops of maize, sugarcane, vegetables, tropical fruit and rice. Sukothai marked the beginning of the mountains and much sweating and gnashing of teeth. Towards Chiang Mai we granny-geared up unforgivingly steep mountains and from here went on a three-day trek in the high jungled mountains of Doi Inthanon. We spent two more days in the city stocking up on medicine, bike spares, new tyres, US dollars, toiletries and odds and ends for the next stage of our journey into the unknown of Laos.

Close to the Mekong River and Lao border we stumbled upon the King's Cup Annual Elephant Polo Tournament. Teams from all over the world compete (but where do they practice???).
It is an enormous spectacle of a game played between teams of three elephants on a side, the referee running scared before the thundering animals.

No, we haven't killed each other (yet)... On a cooking course in Chaing Mai with a Swiss/ Singapore couple.

There are thousands of Buddhist temples (Wats) in Thailand. Yet another wat in Chiang Mai and below a rare 'albino' wat south of Chiang Rai.

The beautiful Karen people - bamboo hut, bamboo mats, bamboo spoons and so on it goes - they have little but seem content living off the bounty of the jungle and the yield of their rice crops.

Our elephant cooling off in a waterfall and below our rickety bamboo rafts on which we poled down the swift jungle river... "there is no life without bamboo"

On the 3-day jungle-trek a lunch-box of fried noodles in a banana leaf tied with bamboo string.
Below bloody evidence of Gill's lost battle against the ravenous jungle-leeches, the wounds bleeding for hours after.

The bugs shimmer like jewels and the snakes command respect! This python was used as a de-ratter on a military base

Trusted noodle-soup breakfast in the rain. And it rained and rained and rained until the roads were flooded and the rivers burst their banks

The central heartland - flat plains of endless rice paddies and fields of maize and sugarcane and the smell of harvesting and planting - the bounty of the earth..."no wolly, enough lice to go alound"

On the left a typical trucker motel and below the hardcore porn of rural Thailand.

Dusk in Kanchanaburi on the River Kwai, the rooms and retsaurants afloat on the water amongst the lilies. We spent the day visiting the war memorials, indulging in a bicycle taxi.

In Prachuap Khiri Khan we climbed the stairs of an old Thai temple and met a friendly local with a handsome command of English. The views were almost as good as from our hotel room!

Beautiful lady Thailand in her corset... a mere 11km of narrow land between the east and western borders.

Thai women fishing for catfish and splitting open coconuts, the workers always swathed in several layers of clothing, petrified of the sun's discolouring rays.