diary-english3

DIARY

NEPAL - Katmandhu 06.01.03 / 13.01.03

The bus ride to Katmandhu was the scariest in my whole life. We took a night bus to the border, but it was packed of course so we had to sit right in front of the wind screen. I swear you don't want to know what this means in India. I was scared for my life until the bus stopped. There was a real thick fog that night and the driver didn't seem to make any difference in his way of driving. We didn't close our eyes one second. In the morning we passed the border and took another bus to Kathmandu. The way was absolutly gorgeous, driving our way up towards the himalaya. There was a big river flowing through the mountains, it was beautiful to drive along. sometimes we saw school kids running on the carrick-a-rope brigdes, going back home after school.

From Nepal, we unfortunatly only saw Katmandu, as we only had a week time, but we had a big time. We stayed in the best guesthouse of them all, we can only recommend it if one of you is going to katmandu one day ;

MOON STAY LODGE - freakstreet, Kathmandu.
also voted #1 guest house by soeren and Amandine.

This guest house has opened only recently and is run by 2 nepali friends of 21 years old.
many travellers have contributed to the decoration of the place, we offered a world map to them.
We just felt at home with friends there, best atmosphere. We spent evenings playing guitar and singing songs around a fire, they even taught me how to play didgeridoo (well, how to blow in it).
Kathmandu has a lot of charm. We have scanned new pictures so you can have an idea.
We liked the place a lot and we would like to come back maybe for trekking and to see more of the country and the culture.
On the plane to Bangkok, we had a view over the mountains, it was beautiful. The clouds were flowing between the valleys like a river, and in the backgroung stood the highest mountain chain of the world, the Himalaya.

THAILAND - 13.01.03 / 10.02.03

Two hours later, just as we were about to land in Bangkok, we could see from the plane, waiting for us, the thick brownie layer of pollution floating over the capital.
The air is so humid here that coming from the chilly Katmandhu, it felt when we got off the plane, like entering a bathroom where somebody had just taken a hot steamy shower, like in India. But we were so happy to be in Thailand ! You can't imagine how we felt to see a proper airport, washing machines, and our friends the dustmen again...!

The food is really delicious here, mainly noodles and rice dishes, seafood, chicken and a good dose of chilli...the food markets are fantastic, there are plenty of fruits and vegetables we had never seen or never heard of.
In Bangkok, just before we left we went to a market, believed to be the biggest in south-east asia! Yes it was huge, we stayed almost a whole day and we did not see twice the same thing. It was a huge maze of small streets where you could find just about anything, from furniture to snakes and fishes, clothes to books, food, handcrafts... it was great to get lost in there, though a prolonged stay could lead to a claustrophobic reaction, especially when you try to find your way out but it seems getting even bigger as you walk on and get mad.

Then we both decided we needed some fresh air and so we headed south to a national park. It was such a nice experience. We visited the park without guide and it was so much more fun to explore a cave on our own. Before I never liked to visit caves because it involved listening to the boring stories of the guides, but we enjoyed it so much alone. First because we had to hitch and climb to get there and also because it was a total surprise what we were going to find and there was no one else but us. So we saw some very old stalatites and stalagmites, and beautiful petrified waterfalls.

We hitched through the park the whole time, it was so great. Most of the people have these pick-ups cars, and we just hopped on in the back every time and knocked at the window when we wanted to get off. the locals were so kind to us, sometimes they stopped even we hadn't asked for it. The first night, we slept outside, on a deserted beach, under the moonlight, watching the tide going back and the crabs coming out. The next day we went the park HQ. That night was really scary, as we had to share our territory with gibbons monkeys and we had for only protection, a mosquito net! It took us a while to fall asleep, as the smallest noises were making us jump. In the morning, we woke up very early, some curious monkeys came closer to observe us with their round eyes as if we were weird creatures.

When we reached the HQ that morning, the park rangers told us it was a special day for them, they were celebrating the 30th anniversary of the National park. They invited us, and we started drinking in the morning and sang karaoke until late that night! They were all very nice people, friendly and welcoming though their english was often very poor. We got to try a lot of different dishes, and something I ignored existed, rice wine. It was very sweet but interesting to try.
The next day they all said a warming goodbye to us and gave us a lift to the next town. And there we were on the road again.

Kho Pha-ngan was our next stop in Thailand, an island off the east coast. We stayed a week in a quiet place just next to the sea. There we met a couple of nice people. The fisrt night, we went to a rave party in the jungle, can you imagine that? that was fantastic to dance in the middle of the palm trees and to see the moon rising over our heads as the night grew old.
There we discovered for the first time the legendary white sand beaches, and the blue-green colour of the sea...
We rented a scooter for a couple of days. What a cool feeling to drive around the iIsland as free as the wind, surrounded by palm trees, the sun shining over our heads... We saw the differents but all beautiful bays of the island and its waterfalls.
One day, we were looking for seashells on a beach, and what do i see lying in the sand, having a sunbathe? a bank note! oh, and a second one having a bath! oh and a 3rd one! That was our lucky day.