Saturday, March 01, 2003

This is a travel report, written in bangkok in march 2003...

Goodmorning, 'day or evening, depending on your timezone,

Time for another groupmail. A true account of my quest to find the lost Ark of the Covenant, armed only with a wip (hmmmm, seems vaguely familiar, doesn't it?).

I left you just about to leave Australia. I was kicked out of the country fairly swift (not even a 'hope to see you again'), and arrived in Singapore in better condition than recent Space Shuttle crews. Singapore was ... big.. as ever. I also managed to kill my camera by dropping it on the street. Luckily, electronics are actually bred in singapore, and mr. Visa was happy to assist.

After a train ride that officially took 8 hours, but actually 10 (not that bad: 25%... is the same as a 20 minute ride taking 25, and who hasn't done that before), I arrived in Jerantut. Next morning, I took the longboat to the Taman Negara national park. After lunch, I set off with a mixed company of 2 norwegian girls, a kiwi, a swedish girl and her flemish (another one, yes!!) boyfriend. The funny thing was that we couldn't break the habit of speaking english to eachother.

We headed into the jungle, a place that is best described as a sauna painted in different shades of green. My skin actually grew new pores to sweat from, although this is very probably something you did not want to know. We walked on the longest canopy walk in the world, at 40meters high amd 500m long. Made of aluminium ladders, planks, rope, and steel cable where available. Scary!

The next day, we walked to a cave. Unfortunately, the night before, it had rained, which caused thousands of leeches to surface, lying around on the trail, waiting for an innocent soul to pass by. We did. It's surprising how fast pulling leeches of your skin actually becomes habit. In short, all good fun.

After Taman Negara, I took a train leaving at 3:30h in the morning. I have mastered the art of waiting completely now. Visited Kota Baru for one day (some nice museums), and crossed the border into thailand the next day. While waiting for the train to Bangkok (a mere 3 hours), i decided to get a relaxing foot massage. Little did I know that this woman had been expelled from the Khmer Rouge for being too vicious. Pain! I had 20 hours of train to recuperate though.

Bangkok was Bangkok, but Ayuthayah was very nice. Beautiful temple ruins, quite a few Buddha's (a few reclining ones... my favourite position) and a guesthouse with a slightly weird owner. After that, I went to Katchanaburi to see the famous Bridge over the River Kwai. Doesn't look like the movie at all, but then the movie was apparantly shot in Sri lanka. Did go and see Hellfire pass, an impressive cutting into sheer rock, made mostly by hand, named after the fires that were used to see during the 18hour shifts.

Erawan falls are amongst the most beautiful waterfalls I've seen so far (great swimming with tons of fishes nibbling at your feet), and I finally got to ride an elephant (bit of a letdown actually).

And now I'm in Bangkok... AGAIN... taking a flight to Kathmandu day after tomorrow. Talked to a guy who had been in Nepal recently, and he told me it was still as lovely as I remember!

Hope you're all doing fine and are having a great time, whereever you are. Keep me posted !!!!

big hugs for everyone, except the guys for whom a friendly handshake will do ;-),

nico