Adventurous Women Thailand Trip

DAY 9 - 24/06/09

It was only a 30 minute ferry ride across to Koh Samui and then a truck ride to our accommodation to Lipa Lovely Resort, which was indeed lovely. Located on the quiter side of the island overlooking the beach....just gorgeous and only 4k from the shopping district of Nathon. So the afternoon was spent shopping, dinner in town overlooking the beach watching the sunset. The next day was going to be the adventurous one!

DAY 10 - 25/06/09

OMG - what can one say - A couple of the girls decided to take in more relaxation and shopping, while four of us took off for the Jungle Canopy Adventure, which was FANTASTIC...what a rush. Although a couple of us were feeling very nervous about this experience we still went ahead with it and were certainly rewarded - I do believe the platforms we were standing on were more scary than flying through the air on the cable over the jungle canopy!!!! The fun didn't stop there for a couple of our adventurers...Danae & Deirdre decided to kick on to the golf course where they had a Zorb experience (Rolling down a ramp and around the grounds in a huge enclosed ball with water). Tracey and I had a BALL just watching them - it was so funny - Danae's hair got stuck to the velcro and lucky Deirdre wore a T Shirt, cause her bathers would have ended up coming off I rekon...I took video footage of it which I will post later.

DAY 11 - 26/06/09

Homeward bound - some very happy ladies who have thoroughly enjoyed their experience!!

Thailand - Adventurous Women Trip

DAY 1 - 16/6/09

We are all very excited as we meet at Perth International Airport, some of us for the first time, so introductions take place and then it's off to check in! All goes relatively smoothly except Thai Airways religiously runs late (ahhh but not TOO late, so can't really complain). Very smooth flight into Bangkok which was great as there were a couple of girls amongst the group who were not good flyers - they coped well.

DAY 2 - 17/6/09

First day in Bangkok and as we left our hotel heading for the Grand Palace we observed a young thai lady squatting bare bottomed in the park just outside the palace - not a care in the world it would seem - we were the only ones who were surprised - she certainly wasn't!! We proceeded to the Grand Palace first which was fantastic and then onto Wat Pho where we had a traditional Thai Massage (brutal....but at the same time invigorating). After that we took a long tail on the river and through the back canals of Bangkok which was really interesting and next it was Tuk Tuk ride back to the hotel (which some of the girls had never experienced before, so it was a REAL TREAT!!!), then into MBK to get the shopping fix out of the way! We split up after that and everyone went their own way as we had a pretty huge day and were feeling tuckered out. Danae and I decided that we needed to go down Koh San Road and check that out - so glad we did, cause we found a great little restaurant down one of the alley's where we had our dinner "Hippee Bar De bar", I had a yellow curry which was just awesome.

DAY 3 - 18/6/09

What a fantastic day - we started out adventure at 7.00am where we were picked up by our mini bus and headed out to a pier where we jumped on board a longtail boat and headed for the floating market. That was an awesome sight where the locals sell produce on longtails in the canals...the girls loved it. From there we traveled on mini bus for two hours to catch the train to Nam Tok. En route to the station we needed refreshments and a toilet stop - haha - its was there we encountered our first squat toilets (a first for some of our crew). Once at the train station we saw the Bridge over River Kwai from our carriage and then onto Hellfire Pass which we also witnessed from the train....Cliffs on one side and river on the other...what an amazing site. Once in at Nam Tok we headed for Hell Fire Pass and the museum, which was to be a very emotional and moving experience for us. To see how the Prisoners of War were treated and the conditions they worked under was really disturbing. We trekked through areas where they were building the railway and saw bits and pieces of railway and memorials of those lives lost. Whilst the scenery was so beautiful, the whole experience was quite haunting. From Nam Tok we drove to another Pier, where we boarded another Longtail, this time bound for Jungle Rafts Resort (which is a floating hotel out in the jungle....magnificent - words cannot describe!!) We saw water buffalo bathing in the river and basking in the sun and heaps of wildlife including kingfisher birds, lizards AND HEAPS OF DOGS... As we arrived at Jungle Rafts Resort we were ushered to our bungalow style rooms, each with balcony, hammock and mosquito nets - every one loved it! This place is really quite amazing as it has no electricity, so food is brought down from the Mon village, showers are cold and refreshing and the only form of light is kerosene lanterns - certainly had an ambiance about it.

Thai Cooking School

I can totally recommend a cooking class to anyone coming to Thailand/Chiang Mai. What a thoroughly enjoyable day we have had starting at 9.30am this morning. We were picked up by our chef "Pot" and taken to the local market, where he took us through and explained all the ingredients we were to use in our cooking for the day. We were then able to wander around the market and sample some of the local produce. The Chiang Mai sausage was to die for and I don't even like sausage normally. From the market we were taken to the school, which by the way is called Siam Rice Cookery School and were guided inside where we were able to help ourselves to tea or coffee served with local biscuits and fruits. After we had relaxed and filled out the guest book it was time to begin our class. We all got to choose 6 items out of 18 to cook for the day. I chose Pad Thai, Hot and Sour Soup with Chicken,Spicy mixed chicken salad, fried mixed vegetables with sweet and sour chicken, yellow curry and sticky rice with mango. YUM!!! I can't wait to show off to my family hehehehe.....I do believe I can cook!!!!! We had so much fun, there was five of us in total and we all had a lot of laughs. Our chef for the day "Pot" and his sister/assistant "Nancy" were just beautiful people who always shared a joke and a laugh. Half way through the class we were all feeling very full so it was time for a little bit of relaxation. We could go for a walk, sit and rest or lie down. Pot asked me if I could ride a motorbike - "of course", I said. He then said if I wanted to I could take their little baby bike (moped style in my language) for a ride. He gave me the instructions for the how the gears were and off I went. To feel the wind in my hair and to be free to ride around the little village amongst locals was fantastic......it gave me a bit of a buzz I must admit!! After our "rest" it was time to continue on with the rest of our menu - Curry and then the sticky rice with Mango. Once we had slaved over a hot stove and then eaten the fruits of our labor, all in good company, it was time to head back to Chiang Mai. We got back in at 4.00pm - What a great day!

Bangkok

Well arrived in Bangkok after an hour's flight delay, made my way straight down to the taxi meter stand, which I heard was the only way to go when not familiar with Bangkok, so I was feeling pretty confident as you can imagine. Jumped in the taxi, driver appeared not to speak any english and didn't really seem to understand where Asha Guest House was. I showed him the address on the confirmation email I had in my hand from the Guest House thinking that this would be suffice....how wrong could I be!! Luckily before I left the house I had jumped onto the virtual tourist forum and found a couple of posts from people arriving in Bangkok and getting transport from the airport. One of the posts appealed to me as it related to Asha Guest House, so I printed it out and had that in my hand in the taxi. In my broken Thai I said to the driver Saphan Kwai Soi Sam........he sort of understood, well I thought he did and off we went. We were scooting down the tollway in the far right hand lane toward the city centre and I saw the exit that we should be taking, so I pointed to it rather anxiously and he ripped the car across to the other side and we managed to take the exit I was pointing to OMG!!!! Then we drove around and around and around whilst he was trying to understand and I was trying to explain. We eventually stopped and asked a policeman, who pointed him in the right direction. FINALLY at 7.30pm arrived safely at Asha Guest House. What a quaint little guest house.....felt like home immediately. My travel mate Tracy had already arrived and was waiting in the room when I arrived. It was really nice to meet her and we immediately got on well. I basically threw down my pack, grabbed my purse and headed for the bar. Her and I had a couple of quite drinks by the pool and a quick bite to eat and got to know each other and then headed for bed. Next morning we were heading off to the Tiger Temple, so check my next post to follow that journey.