New Year on the River Kwai

Liddy
Happy New Year to Everyone

We have been rather offline for the last couple of weeks, enjoying Christmas and New Year with Mike's family. Unfortunately, Sara (Mike's sister) and family were unable to join us due to the snow in the UK which was very sad - all were sorely missed, as were Elizabeth (another sister) and family at home in Sydney
Christmas was on Koh Jum, a very quiet and little visited island off the southern coast of Thailand. We were very relieved to arrive there, leaving the gathering scarlet hordes of  Brits, Russians and various plump and sweaty Europeans on the beaches of the mainland..... (obviously we never perspire or get red....)
We were staying in a small resort of just ten bungalows on an almost deserted stretch of beach...just a beach swing, a couple of deck chairs and a stretch of sand for gathering shells or digging trenches, depending on your preference. Bliss.
We spent one day on a boat trip to a series of three supposedly deserted beaches to snorkel; pulling round the corner into the first, we were greeted by a beach which was completely full of boats - probably thirty moored on the beach itself, another 15 in the bay, and just behind us a ferry full of about 200 people.  Fortunately, as soon as you put on a mask and snorkel, the hordes didn't matter at all - the fishlife was absolutely stunning and we spent happy hours snorkelling around.
From the beach, we moved up to Kanchanaburi, home to the Bridge over the River Kwai. I showed off my travel arrangement credentials by organising the transport between the beach and our next hotel; after two boats, seven taxis / buses / songthaews (big jeeps), one train, two more taxis and the Pleasants family going missing in Bangkok for two hours (rubbish taxi driver), the in-laws were starting to regret having placed their trust in me. Still, we got here in the end.
The last few days have been spent at a small hotel called Xanadu 2008 (highly recommended if anyone is coming in this direction). We've visited WW2 cemeteries, climbed waterfalls, walked over the bridge and pottered.
New Years celebrations were muted - my first adult new year without making it to midnight. The backstory is that Mike and John (brother) decided to have an early celebration on New Years Eve's Eve and rolled back at three in the morning in an ambulance, having failed to procure a taxi but having sweet-talked an impressionable paramedic. By the by, in case anyone is wondering, they spent the night with a couple of lady boys. The one who latched on to Mike was called Fiat but when introduced, Mike thought she said 'her' name was 'Fierce' so he roared and made tiger claws. She clearly thought she was in there and roared back at him. Only later did he discover her name wasn't Fierce after all.
Big news is that Sam has lost his first tooth (isn't this a bit early?).
Tomorrow we start cycling again.....suspect that we may struggle a bit after a few weeks of relaxing and eating.
Hope you all have a good 2011. As for me, my stars in the Thai newspaper assure me that in January I will win the lottery but that I need to release fresh water snails and birds before setting of on a trip in February. In March, Mike is apparently due to develop a skin rash. Watch this space.

Khao Sok

Liddy
We've posted some pictures to give an idea of where / what we've been up to. If this stuffs up the blog such that it now takes forever to load, please let us know so that we can try and sort it out.

We are just back from four days in the jungle, in Khao Sok National Park. It's one of Thailand's largest and home to (allegedly) a wide variety of different wildlife and birds. I can confirm a plethora of leeches and wild elephants, though the latter only because I came across a steaming pile of fresh elephant turd, so I'm not sure if that counts. On the leech front, Mike totally freaked out and wouldn't sit on a rock for a picnic by the river just in case he had a Stand By Me moment (for those of you who haven't seen the movie, the boy gets a leech in the one place that a boy would probably prefer not to get one). Wuss. Meg and me were much more hardy, which was a good job too as we both got them on our toes.

The park itself is gorgeous and we spent three days there, exploring on foot, by boat and by kayak. (Uncle) Alistair is a keen twitcher so we all kept our eyes peeled trying to spot various different species but with only limited success - partly because the jungle is so dense that it is difficult to see anything that is more than a metre or so away, and partly because four young children trying to be quiet are generally anything but. Sam got up close and personal with a monkey one day, when it decided to join him on our bungalow balcony - the rest of us were inside when he let out an almighty scream of terror which brought nervous parents running but which didn't faze the monkey one little bit; he just sat there looking on with interest.

Tomorrow we are off to the beach again before heading off to the Islands to meet the rest of the family for Christmas.

More Pictures.....

First Night on the Road.....truck stop anyone? (Burma)

Hands Up if you are having an adventure

Local Colour

Our First Sunset (Burma)

Bagan (Burma)

Bagan

Bagan

Sam in Bagan

Some pictures

Khao Sok National Park (Thailand) ...check out our big fish

Pleasants Family on cannon at Inle Lake (Burma)

Sam and the laydeez at Inle Lake (Burma)

Liddy and Meg on the move in Burma

Meggles

Inle Lake (Burma)

Inle Lake (Burma)

Sam enjoying 'Happy Land' in Yangon (Burma)

Meg showing how it's done in 'Happy Land'

Don't Ask

Sam and Cousin Mathilda on the boat in Krabi (Thailand)

The Pleasants Tribe in Khao Sok National Park (Thailand)

Khao Sok National Park (Thailand)

Taking a Dip in Khao Sok (Thailand)

Cap'n Sam

Check out the biceps on that

Khao Sok

Meg assisting in the Dam Building Project

Stop Press: Senior Engineers change course of water in Khao Sok

Family Gatherings....

Liddy
So, we are back in Thailand now and have met up with the first part of the extended Pleasants clan that are gathering for Christmas.

We got back from Myanmar about a week ago and spent several days in Bangkok fattening the children up after the rigours of Myanmar and quenching our adult craving for cappucinos and lattes. We also spent a day at Siam City Park which is a massive water / theme park. The idea was just to go to the pool and the waterslides but it turned out that it was a public holiday and everything was free once you had paid to go in, so we couldn't resist going on some rides. Mike was determined to pretend that he isn't pushing forty, and went on the two scariest rides. The second, the 'vortex', he tried to persuade me to go on and I initially agreed to have a go, but after waiting in line for about 20 minutes, watching this insanely scary roller coaster whirling over my head, my stomach literally liquified and I chickened out. I figure that at 35 I am entitled to admit that I no longer enjoy terrorising myself. Mike put a brave face on it, but truth be told, he was a little quiet for a while after getting off.

Anyway, we then boarded an overnight bus and came down south to Krabi where we met up with Kathie (Mike's sister), Alistair (the brother in law), Tilda and Sebastian (the cousins). The kids hit it off within minutes and have quickly become inseperable......clearly Meg and Sam are relishing having company other than each other. Yesterday we went on a long tail boat (read, a long wooden boat with outboard motor) to an island where we spent the day on the beach. It was gorgeous - steep karst cliffs covered in jungle, white sand and beautifully clear, warm water. LUSH. Truly felt like a holiday.

Now our bus has arrived so I have to go....we are off to Khao Sok, a national park. Back in a few days......

Winners and Losers

Mike
So sports fans, scores on the doors [ so to speak ].

Nominations for best Myanmar illness or injury ;

Sammy with 35 [ that’s right, 35 ] mosquito bites attained when Mummy and Daddy decided to slum at a truck stop on our first night cycling up country. He must be very tasty. Oh, and no one else was bitten though we were all on the same bed / futon ?/ very strange.

Meggy with a cut lip and nose caused when she fell over whilst running along a Main St in Nyaung Shwe with both hands in her pockets. She claimed she was cold [ It was 25 degrees at least ]

Liddy with a 4 hour flu [ read ‘Hot Flush’ ] after a morning ride near Inle Lake. Daddy and Sammy suspected this was only a means of facilitating an afternoons’ slumber. She felt ‘OK’ after 5 hours ‘Alone Time’.

Megs’ 24 Hr illness that propagated the saying what goes down must come back up [ violently ]. Mike suspects it was Liddys’ fault asking Meggles to partake of some roadside BBQ fish. I won’t say I told you so. Of course Liddy strenuously denied this was the cause, though the postscript to this is that we have now all had it, one after another, all the way back to Bangkok. Thanks Team.

But the winner is Mike, who managed to sit on a cracked toilet seat in Saigang and gave himself quite a cut on his left buttock for the next 2 weeks or so. It made riding a bicycle very VERY uncomfortable.

Other Casualties & Stats ;

1 Mikes’ shorts. These required regular running repairs [ He finally binned them in Bangkok yesterday, they almost walked to the trash can by themselves ]
600 km by Bike 
32 km per day on actual cycling days [ nice one teams ]
20 pounds per day average room costs [ Sorry, I thought Myanmar was supposed to be cheap _ hmmm rethink ]
12 Punctures [ would you believe 9 in one day : this def requires explanation _ perhaps another time ]
125 Bottles of water [ Not that we were counting or anything ]

3 Bottles of sun cream [ Ohhh and these were scraped from other would be tourists after we lost ours _ so probably 5 would be a better equation ]
1 Watch [ Mike was very annoyed … bugger, bugger bugger ]

4 Bottles of mosquito repellent [ Special mention to Sagaing's little monsters ]
12 Books [ and still going - Mike is keeping a list ]
1 Pair of flip flops [ Mike ]
1 Pair of sandals [ Meg _ probably now adorning the cab of the truck as a souvenir ]
5 Spokes [ tell me again how you break 5 spokes Liddy ? ]
1 Tag along tire [ Now this was a surprise, we woke and there was a massive puncture ]
1 Pump [ & no it was not frustration _ it just broke ]
1 Tag along tire tube [ Mike suspected hotel sabotage at this point or Sammy just didn't want to cycle any longer _ one of the 2 ]
1 Set of contacts [ Classically Mike had left his extra set in Yangon ]
1 Head of hair [ due to Mikes’ inexpert attempt at explaining to a Kalaw barber that yes, short was good and start short from here….. 1 very bald, very very short buzz cut later ]
1 Out of control Oxen last seen rampaging down the Main St of Inthein [ Still running most likely _ that beast was moving and not at all happy ]
1 Out of control horse [ This passed the group on the road from Inle lake and was motoring _ it was finally rounded up a further 3 k down the road with all cyclists keeping a wary eye in case it doubled back ]

 

A Life in the Day of....

Liddy
So, I thought that I'd write up a day from a couple of weeks ago, as a taster of what we have been up to since Mandalay.

We set off in the morning from Kyaukse, a small dusty highway town (where there is no accommodation licenced for foreigners.....we had dealt with this by finding a hotel and then refusing to budge, and in the end the police were called and gave us special dispensation to stay). Our destination was Pindaya, about 100 miles away and clearly too far for us to cycle, so the plan was to ride / hitch and see how we got on. Mike was a little apprehensive, which I thought a bit strange given the gay abandon with which he had embraced being dumped in Meiktila in the middle of the night for our first day of cycling (see earlier post). I was rather less apprehensive - I have this refrain going round in my head that my friend Mango wrote in an email at the start of our trip - 'it is Asia, something always happens'. I figured we'd find something easily enough.

The first 10km or so were on the main highway but we then headed off on a side road. On our map (which has already proven its fallibility by having the scale out by a factor of two) the 'side road' was a major highway and I had confirmed this with the manager of our hotel, who had assured me that yes, it was a red (ie major) road and yes, it was in good condition.

That was a bald faced lie.

The standard of the road was not a great problem at first, and we meandered along dodging the pot holes and enjoying the scenery of lush paddy fields, thick verdant palms and a backdrop of hazy blue hills. After another 10km or so, Mike suggested that we stop for a rest / cup of tea. Just then, a truck pootled in to view (the first that we had seen going in our direction) and we decided to try and hitch a little way. I stopped my bike in the middle of the road so that the truck had no option but to stop and then edged off and looked plaintively in the window and asked for a lift. He looked dubious but I mimed that the kids were very tired and he agreed to take us on to a village called Myo Gyi. The kids and I jumped up front; Mike and the bikes went in the back. This proved to be in the nick of time as the road quickly deteriorated and we lurched from side to side over the rocky surface.


The view from the windows was beautiful and soon we were in a wide river valley with fields of rice on each side. The peace and serenity was marred somewhat by a number of large yellow dumpers and diggers pounding at great speed up the opposite side of the river towards the head of the valley (cue great excitement from the kids). We guessed that they were building a dam or something similar - either way, the access road was clearly in significantly better shape than ours.

After 20-30 minutes we pulled in to a truck stop and the driver indicated that he wasn't going any further. We regrouped and got out a map. The next town, Yengang, looked a fair distance further on and the road was shocking. A young man at the truck stop had greeted us in English; he was travelling to Taungyi (beyond our destination) by car and I collared him to ask some questions. It transpired that Yengang was 35 miles away that there were no buses or trucks that travelled along the road.

By this stage I was a little nervous. It was nearly 10.30 (ie approaching the heat of the day) and 35 miles was pretty much our maximum even on a good road. This one was far from good. But Mike seemed quite cavalier (note the switching attitudes between us!) and we set off. We got through the village and headed out the other side when we heard a lorry coming up behind us (don't be fooled into thinking that there were many of these; this was the first). We decided to try for a lift for a little way so I flagged it down (its always me that does the flagging). They stopped and agreed to take us. Again Mike and the bikes were loaded in the rear whilst the kids and I climbed up front. The cab was immaculate and we were instructed to take off our shoes and climb on to the cushioned seat behind the driver. Decorations covered the interior - blue and yellow tassels around the windscreen, small shiny Christmas decorations, a yellow lacy heart and two plastic owls sitting within a golden plastic heart. We got ourselves comfortable and the lorry started.

For the next 7 hours the kids and I watched the journey unfold from the relative comfort of the cab. Mike had rather a different time out the back but I'll let him tell that story. Suffice to say that he could scarcely move the following day from being so battered and bruised.

Within minutes of the drive starting, the road started to climb and climb. It very quickly became apparent that we would have struggled on the bikes; or to be more exact, we would have had a major problem. The road was appalling and we inched our way upwards, the truck jolting and careering all over the place. Up we climbed, on and on and on, the view mesmerising, of hill after forested hill. We had one near miss when a jeep came rocketing around a corner and the driver had to slam on his breaks; the stop was abrupt and I was nervous about Mike in the rear; grisly images played through my mind, but as he later said, I didn't do anything about them.

There were no houses and no villages - this a first in Myanmar as every other road has had shops every few km where you can stop for bottled water or tea. We thought back to the truck stop - they had pressed two bottles of water, a cake and some bread on to us and wouldn't accept any payment......clearly they had known of the dirth of options up ahead for weary cyclists!

Eventually as we neared the top there was a road side restaurant - we never would have made it all the way on our bikes. A couple of vehicles had passed us going in the opposite direction but in the time that we spent having lunch, no others appeared going either way. We were very relieved not to be stuck half way up (or, realistically, about a tenth of the way up) rapidly running out of options.

Back in the truck and then a little higher until we went round a final bend, past a hilltop temple, and we crested the top, a pass as it turned out. The view was magnificent and dramatically different from that we had passed through previously. On the way up we had seen only densely wooded hills. Now there was a wide plateau, the earth a rich red colour and the fields a patchwork of yellows, creams, greens and red. On each side of the road were stands of big yellow daisies interspersed with avenues of eucalypts. Bullock carts passed us, their drivers standing fully upright like Roman charioteers.

We started to descend and continued to do so for mile after mile. I was hankering to get back on the bikes - the road had improved on this more populated side of the hills, and I vaguely considered asking the driver to stop so we could continue on two wheels. It was a good job that I didn't as the road deteriorated again and the journey went on and on. Eventually, about three hours after we had clambered on board, we arrived in Yengan. Three hours for 35 miles - it gives an indication of the standard of the road.

Luckily the truck was continuing in our direction and the driver agreed to take us almost all the way to our destination. Finally, finally we came to a stop at about 5.15 and the driver let us off, the kids and I all in one piece (except that Meggie had lost a croc), Mike rather less in one piece and in rapidly declining humour. We cycled the last five miles into Pindaya and collapsed into bed, all too exhausted to do anything else.

Hanging with the Yangon Youth

Liddy
On our last day in Yangon we decided that the children needed a 'kid day' so we headed for a water park that we had heard about in an 'off the beaten track' guidebook to Burma. It was a water park, Burmese style - a couple of small pools which might have seen chlorine back in the 60s, no changing rooms, a couple of slides most of which were closed off, very tatty, lots of rubbish and as far as the children were concerned, PARADISE.
It was immediately obvious that the rather foxy (I wish) bikini that I had with me was not the done thing - everyone other girl was fully clothed, as were half of the boys, so I wrapped a sarong around me and headed in with the kids, leaving Mike on the side with our stuff. There were loads of kids around, aged about 10 and upwards, mostly the 'cool gang'.
After a while I got out to sit with Mike where we could watch the children, Sam having befriended a boy of about 9, who was playing really nicely with him, whilst Meg just pottered. A young guy in low slung jeans and a huge cap at a jaunty angle sidled up to us. He asked Mike if we have any rappers in our country.
Mike clearly not in tune with the local youth speak, answered 'Rivers, yes we have many rivers in our country'.
I corrected him then offered MC Hammer which apparently was not a very impressive offering and pinned me neatly as the mid-30s woman that I am.
Mike then tried to come up with some more recent bands but struggled beyond 50 Cent and Eminem (we are soooo hip). They then played with Mike's ipod for a bit before Mike pointed out a guy on the other side of the pool with black nail varnish, tight black jeans and a Nazi badge on the thigh.
'That's a punk' said the rapper.
'What's a bank' said Mike.
'No, PUNK'
'Bank???'
Communication was struggling...I intervened.
Next a girl came over. She must have been about 15 with thick black eyeliner and three nails in each ear. She tried to feed Meg some whisky then ambled off.
'That's a sexy girl', said the rapper. ' S-E-X-Y' (Clearly he realised that he needed to spell difficult words). 'Do you have sexy girls in your country?'.
Mike looked at me and said 'That's my sexy girl' (oooh the romance...)
The guy looked a bit surprised.
'No, I mean sexy girl. You know. A-I-D-S.
Aaahh. Clearly sexy girl had different connotations in Myanmar.

There were loads of different 'gangs'. The sexy girls, the banks (punks), rivers (rappers), the ones with multiple piercings, the ones with dyed red hair, the tattoes, the ones a little bit too old to still be hanging round the pool etc. Every so often they would traipse to the water slides and a macho fest would ensure with each trying to outdo the others coming down the slide. I had a go at one point and my sarong came flying off so that was the end of that. The undoubted winner was a guy in his late teens, very buff and easy on the eye, who could run half way down the slide at full tilt, then slide the rest of the way down before skimming right across the plunge pool.

Rock 'ard.