Part 3 - Pooh Trekking - NeBo NeTai

"Leave nothing but footprints, Take nothing but pictures, kill nothing but time"

With an early start and our backpackers packed for 3 days (yes mum tried to sneak in her CK moisturiser and seeing Bex and mine's disgusted faces took it out) we headed south east from Chiang Mai towards the boarder with Myanmar in our minivan for 3 hours. Along the way we stopped off at a local market to get the food we would need for the trip. After pausing for a bite to eat at a street food place we started our trek.

We walked for about 3 hours through beautiful scenery. Up to the top of one mountain, down to a river, where cows with bells round their necks were cooling off. Then it was up one very "gradual" hill as Pot (our tour guide) described it, I'm not sure the rest of us agreed. Pot told us lots of interesting things throughout the walk and pointed out loads of different trees, plants and animals. Down by the river we saw thousands of daddy long legs all climbing over each other, it was crazy.

 The destination at the top of the "gradual" hill was the Karen village and where we would be staying for the night. We met our home stay family, a lovely welcoming old couple in the village with a daughter her husband and gorgeous little grandson. we had brought sweets for the kids in the village so we went out to explore and met the villages. They all desperately wanted sweets there is no 7/11 in the mountains.

We could see many western influences in the village, and they were obviously not fazed to see us, but they still had many of their traditions. The older women in the village still wore the traditional dress and lots of jewellery. The way in which they prepared their food and lived is also still traditional, like collecting the water and cooking on a fire, and preparing the vegetables. The government now have a bigger influence on the tribe than ever before. For example they have given them a solar panel per house and this has been used to help light the house after dark. There restrictions on when they can burn their fields in order to prepare them for growing rice again. They also get visited by a doctor once a month to check who is pregnant, had a baby or old and sick. I guess all these are good things, however I can't help keep thinking they survived perfectly well before all these western influences and where very happy and content.

 We spent the afternoon helping to make dinner, chatting to our host family (our Karen consisted of hello and thank you, their English was a lot better, putting us to shame knowing we knew no other languages) and drinking very strong rice wine.

Dinner was a delicious green curry, with pumpkin, and spicy fried fish skins with cabbage as a snack before dinner. During dinner we taught Greg and Verona (the other two members of our group) that we always do best bits and worse bits of our day when on holiday. Greg renamed them the pits and peaks! Due to the lack of lighting and electricity, as the sun goes to bed the village tends to as well. Our mosquito nets were sent up on the sort of balcony on the bamboo hut and the men where taken to sleep in another hut near by. Although with the rice wine continuing to flow they carried on drinking for a while after dark. Us girls huddled down under the stars hoping to get a good nights sleep on the bamboo floor.

We woke up to the sound of the noisy chickens and the sun rising. After breakfast (fried rice) we explored the village a little more and then started our next hike. This one wasn't nearly as bad as the day before as it was a "gradual" slope down to the river, of which we (Bexs and I - check out the selfie pic!) ran down at points too! Once we reached the river we stopped for lunch, noodles which had been prepared in the morning and wrapped in banana leaves. Three men from the village (Lilly, Nikki and Peedontcare - renamed "He don't care") along with Pot helped us along the trail and carried food for us too. They also made us chopsticks out of Bamboo.

After lunch we had a leisurely stroll along the river for an hour or so climbing along the rocks and walking in the river at points too. We then reached the Bamboo camp site where we would be spending our second night in the jungle.

By the hut two rivers met so it was a chance for us to cool off and shower for the first time! It was a lovely chilled afternoon being in the river, sitting contemplating life and then starting to prepare dinner. It was here that we learnt how many uses bamboo can have, the following were made out of bamboo by the village men and Dad as he wanted a go too. Plates, cups, bowls, chopsticks, spoons, knives, pots for cooking rice and the hut we were sleeping in, oh and don't forget the shot glasses for the rum!

That night we had another delicious spread of food, enough to feed the 5000. We had even less light this night as there was no solar panel at the hut, so once the candle made from bees wax which we had found on a tree the day before had run out it and all the rum was gone it was time for bed.

The next day we woke to the sound of the men lighting a fire and starting to cook breakfast. We had Watermelon jam, which was cooked on the fire in bamboo so was the egg in bamboo accompanied by toast and coffee. Pot had been out frog fishing in the night, so I got my first experience of frogs legs. Yum!

It was then time for our final hike. We walked up the small river, weaving in and out of rocks and through the stream. We stopped and Bexs, Dad, Greg and Pot decided to cool off in the stream by jumping in to a deep part. After about an hour or more we reached the bat cave.

A 150 meter long pitch black cave with the stream running through it. We had small torches and three torches of fire to light the way. We ventured in, treading carefully (I nearly stood on a crab) to avoid rocks and deep parts of the stream, we saw a bright green dangerous snake curled up in the rocks and quickly hurried past. when we looked up we could see many bats sleeping peacefully at the top of the cave. Although one did want to say hello and flew right by my head.

After we had escaped the cave it was a long, steep, hot climb to the top of the mountain leaving the cool river far behind us. It was touch and go for a moment as to whether we would all make it but we survived and reached the top just about without fainting!

It was then time to start our journey back to Chiang Mai. We were picked up and jumped in to the back of a pick up truck to drive back to where we had lunch on the first day and our minivan was waiting for us to return us to a shower and bed.

It was a fantastic experience meeting the Karen people and finding out about there lives, it was totally unforgettable and we will all take away such awesome memories of the trip.

With Love from Thailand xxx

Part 2 - Chiang Mai

The Family Watts holiday continues as we fly up to Chiang Mai to explore the north of Thailand. We settled in to our hotel, which to start with seemed nice but the next day was a very different story. Poor Mum and Dad had been kept up by noisy neighbours having a party, so we attempted breakfast to make up for it which was a total disappointment, as everything didn't quite taste how it should. The beds were also like sleeping on the floor, rock hard!! Going back to the night before we looked up an amazing street food restaurant called Lert Ros in the Lonely Planet guide book, which turned out to be delicious Thai food. The family were starting to realise the best meals we had had so far were from cheaper street food places rather than the restaurants. We shared various tasty dishes before heading off to find a place for pancakes!

Our first full day in Chiang Mai was a chance for me to return to the Elephant Nature Park and show everyone the beautiful friendly giants. It was great to go back and see them all again. There was one elephant that at New Year was in the elephant hospital because she had hurt her shoulder, but she is all fit and well again now. That's her below with Mum and Dad!

Mum, Dad, Bexs and Mel loved the day feeding, stroking, washing and getting to know more about each elephants story. Mel even got washed in river too (see picture below and right) as some one threw water on her. The baby elephant was adorable playing in the mud right after he'd been washed in the river!

That evening we went out to explore the night market and buy lots of souvenirs!! We also found another cute street food place to eat just off a side street from the busy market. There was a stall selling locally made lychee wine for 190 Baht a bottle so we took full advantage of this and had a few.

The next day we had planned to visit Chiang Rai and the White temple, but unfortunately it was too far away for us to get back in time for the briefing we had scheduled with the trekking company we were going with the following day. Instead we woke up after a bit of a lie in (skipped the awful breakfast) and rented bicycles for the day to explore the city. We stopped at an adorable Colonial tea room for brunch, also found in the Lonely Planet book (I sound like I'm advertising for them, but they are a great and a very accurate source of information) I don't often drink tea out here as it's too hot and they don't make it quite right, but this tea was perfect accompanied by waffles and fresh fruit, Yum Yum!!

We then cycled down by the river and round the city walls, until it was beer o'clock. The next stop after was a beautiful temple, Wat Phra Singh. Here we got a blessing from one of the monks for good luck, something which was a first experience for me too.

The plan next was to go and get a massage at the Women's Prison where the prisoners are training to be masseuses as part of there rehabilitation programs. However it is a very popular spot and was fully booked for the rest of the day so we found a place near by to have one instead.

That evening we went to the briefing for our trek at the Pooh Trekking office (Pooh is the name of the man who owns the company) We met the rest of our group (Greg from America and Verona from Austria) and our guide for the 3 days, Pot. We collected our backpacks to pack that night and headed off in preparation for an early start the next day. Of course not before we had a little bit of street food in the form of noodle soup.


With Love from Thailand xxx

Part 1 - Watts Family Holiday

After nearly 6 months of being in Thailand the Watts family finally arrived for a holiday!! Being reunited at the airport at 6 in the morning was magically and it was so good to see Mum, Dad and my sister Bexs. They were shattered after a long flight and no sleep (as they watched too many films on the plane) so had a nap before we headed out to explore the Grand Palace in Bangkok. This was followed by their first experience of street food (which they loved) and Chang beer (which they very quickly became addicted to) then off to bed as we had to get up early the next day for our flight to Krabi. Bexs was staying with me at my apartment and Mum and Dad stayed in a lovely B&B next door. 

 It was great having the family visiting as everything was upgraded slightly.....no hostelling for me for the next 2 weeks. We stayed in a gorgeous resort on AoNang Beach. Our flight arrived in the morning, so we had chance to settle in to the hotel and explore the area. We walked down to the beach and had a beer overlooking the Sea. Then we wondered back to for a dip in the pool followed by another first experience for Mum and Bexs of a Thai massage. That evening we ate out for dinner while waiting for Bex's friend Mel to arrive (the one I stayed with in Singapore)

We woke up bright and early to go on a long-tail boat tour of the Hong Islands near by. They were beautiful. We stopped off at 3 different beaches and went in a lagoon. Unfortunately the water wasn't very clear so we couldn't see any fishes with our snorkels. But it was lovely chilling on the beaches and swimming in the cool water. We also had a delicious Thai lunch on the beach. 

Of course being the first day, and despite reapplying the sun cream, a few of us got a tad burnt (not quite to the Koh Chang standard, if you haven't seen the picture check out my birthday blog, it will make you laugh). That evening we had a lovely meal overlooking the beach, Bexs and shared delicious and massive Tiger Prawns. 

The next day was more laid back, we slept in and then wondered down to AoNang beach to get a boat across to Railey Beach only 10 mins away. The day was spent, reading books (Kindle Club!), sunbathing or hiding in the shade to not anger the sunburn further, cooling off in the sea, massages, and chicken wraps accompanied with a Chang for lunch. We ate lovely Thai food again that night down by the beach. 

My camera was accidentally set on vivid mode so this one came out rather colourful!

Our finally day in Krabi was one of my favourite days, after finding it very hard the night before to find a tour company not fully booked to take us we set off to Bamboo Island. It is the most stunning Island I have been to since being in Thailand. The sand was beautifully white and the water crystal clear. We walked around the whole island in the morning, and clambered over rocks to do so, but it was even more beautiful round one side as there were no boats pulling in to drop off tourists so the beaches where empty. The snorkelling was also fantastic, the water was so clear we could see so many beautiful colourful fish. Once we finished snorkelling Bexs and I used our life jackets as seats to chill out and bob in the water.

For our last evening we took a taxi to Krabi Town to explore the night market. They all enjoyed trying lots of different street food snacks from fried coconut milk and fried Ice cream (a new one for me too) to various bits of meat on sticks to go along with our Pad Thai. We then took a very crowded song-taow back to our resort. 

The next day it was time to explore another city and fly to Chiang Mai! 

With Love from Thailand xxx