South Thailand and then some...

We caught an overnight bus that took way too long at every stop including the dinner breaks at 12h30am to get to Bangkok and meet our mate Liam. We tracked him down at his guesthouse bright and early at 7am and discovered that he had had a rough night on Khao San rd (most probably with the lady boys) and wasnt feeling too hot. To treat his ailing sore head we went and watched a movie at Bangkoks largest shopping complex zone - Siam Square. It isnt even 1 huge shopping center but rather several large malls all next to each other each the size of Sandton City with the crown jewel Siam Paragon reaching up 6 stories. As big as it was it took us almost 3 hours to find the Imax just because every mall has a cinema and we ended up going to several before hitting gold. Wow is that place big!

That night we hit Khao San rd again and enjoyed Halloween Thai style. Basically that means lots of "buckets", these plastic tupperwares are chock full of spirits and red bull and boy do they pack a punch. Hello Halloween! That night Liam had taken out his brand new camera and managed to take almost 200 photos of himself, us and other random people we met on Khao San, the next morning there were even some pics of him smooching what we all believe to be authentic Thai Lady Boys....oops.

After another day of shopping at what must be the worlds largest market - Chanuckanchuc?sp? We had some sore feet, over worked senses, new outfits and a new piece of art that the V had been dreaming about for almost a month and a very sore and lighter wallet for the Mavrix!

After one more uneventfull day in Bangkok we got on the cheapest night bus we found and headed for the South and Krabi. As the cliche goes, you get what you pay for and in this case they should have been paying us! During the night the M found a Thai guy crawling through the aisle while all on board were sleeping, when the M confronted him he pretended to be trying to sleep as well and at the time this seemed half feesible in M's groggy "just woke up" state, but still M held on. After a mini struggle the Thai left and everyone slept clutching their luggage a little tighter. At 5am the bus came to a sudden halt and everyone was thrown off the bus as we would all be getting connections to seperate destinations from here. The speed with which they did this seemed to suprise us all but made perfect sense once we started searching our belongings. They had rifled through almost everyones big bags held in storage while we slept and managed to get away with Liams phone and many others valuables. They also did the peculiar thing of accidentally putting things into the wrong bags e.g. V found someone ELSE's bikini in her bag and was not the only one with such a suprise. Luckily the Mavrix had nothing taken as our bags were mostly locked (M's lock was mostly broken now though) and our valuables were always kept with us, helps to have some South African paranoia once in a while!

As daylight arrived we started to relax as we arrived near the beach and the spectacular vistas of Krabi. Our destination was the little beach of Ton Sai which we would have to catch a long tail boat to. Arriving was like stepping into climbers paradise and the set of the Beach all at once! Here there were beautiful warm waters, white beaches and huge limestone cliffs rising high out of the oceans waters all around. As you walked on the beach you would see climbers trying out difficult problems with the waves gently lapping up against their shoes, as the sun came down we watched one of the most beautiful sunsets we had yet to see, with people Kayaking in the distance and climbing to our rear. Then once the sun was down and the stars were out, firedancers made their way to the beach and danced to Bob Marley and the wailers. This was our kind of place and the next week would be carried out at our kind of pace!

We spent the next day kayaking round the dramatic limestone karsts scattered around the horizon, it was great fun with many overhangs to chill out and catch a nap underneath and many islands and caves to explore. W paddled back with the sun going down behind us and sat silently watching it dip its head behind the blanket of a crimson sea....poetic no?

Next couple of days were all about climbing, Krabi and Ton Sai specifically are world renowned for their climbing so we had to make a plan and get in on the action. The beauty of the climbing here is that you have massive sheer cliffs falling straight into a beautiful ocean down below, many of the climbs are right on the beach and often the exposure is huge and a little daunting. The Mavrixs that we are loved it and had many happy hours pulling ourselves up the walls. We even organised a day of deep water soloing, unfortunately the V was a little sick so the M went off into the sea himself. Deep water soloing basically involves going out into the middle of the ocean on a boat, climbing up onto one of the cliffs that poke out and then when you are so high that you are pooing yourself you jump back into the water. This was great fun for the M but was a touch on the scary side...even Mavrix feel fear...

During this time (a little over a week) we had become seperated from good ole Liam who had headed off to Ko Phang Nyang for some partying. The Mavrix keen to get on the road again and mindful of the short time they had left in South East Asia went back up to Bangkok and straight across to Cambodia same day.

One night in Bangkok and the worlds your ...... 7 - 31 Oct

So after just 31 hours in transit from Miami to Thailand, we touched down in Bangkok with expectation and excitement for the new adventures that would great us, a new country, a new continent, a whole bunch of suprises. Our first adventure was just getting from the airport to our guesthouse without being ripped off by the taxi driver, he did manage to scam us of 100Baht (roughly R30) but it could have been far worse, welcome to Bangkok!

Our first morning we realised we have stepped into a brand new world, there were food stalls with new exotic smells (not always a good smell mind you, just exotic), pretty girls (some with and some without willies), lost and lonely looking types with a beer in hand at 7am (some also have a pretty girl in hand..once again not certain if they have all the standard equipment), orange robed monks with silver bowls asking politely for "alms", 3 wheeled tuk-tuks offering to take you to ping pong show (dont ask), side walk clothes stores selling the coolest stuff youve ever seen at the coolest prices - "Mr, Mr, how much you pay? Hmmm?" and a real understanding that you are now in Asia!

We soon confirmed that "Yes!" Bangkok is a crazy place but it is also crazy cool and we were having a blast! We checked out the weekend market day 1 and had to restrain ourselves from buying EVERYTHING, its all just so good and so cheap but then again do we really need a live squirrel in dungarees? Or a bigger than life size steel sculpted "Predator" or "Alien" figure? We somehow managed to restrain ourselves though and made away with just a couple bags of stuff and a tattoo for the M. This was also the day that we discovered the street food and just how damn good it was! Plus did we mention its super cheap! At R6 for a Phad Thai (stir fried noodles) we were laughing and our tummies were smiling.

But when you travelling you cant hang around gawking at the city like a country bumpkin on his first trip out of the farm for too long so off to Ayuthaya we went. Ayuthaya is the old capital of Thailand and a city of temples and ruins around every corner. Here we rented some old school bikes with fruit baskets up front and little ring ring bells to tour the city and the temples. These ancient structures are amazing, huge spires set on the water, detailed sculptures and roofs, flights of steps up to prayer rooms and buddhas in every pose scattered throughout the spiritual sites. Walking around these monuments you get the feeling of just how large a civilization and city this once was and how advanced they were for thier time. Very cool! We also cycled out to an elephant camp outside of town and got to play with a bunch of big and little elephants for a couple hours during feeding time. These cute but bristly pachederms are considerably smaller than our own African greats but a hell of a lot friendlier with their favourite games mainly being shove the tourist with your head and look for food all over their person with your trunk. Not to mention the occasional sneeze in the V's face (karma for all the times she has done it to M).

Next we took the train to Lop Buri a city known only for its Monkey Infested Temples. The hotel we stayed at was right across the street from the temple and hence was the playground for the monkeys with them jumping on the buglar bars all day and night much to our amusment. Once you step out of the hotel though you realise just how much the monkeys are in charge. They hang out on street lights and electrical cables using them as jungle gyms, they cross the traffic filled streets in packs like a biker gang causing the cars to screetch to a noisy halt and before stealing sandwiches from overly friendly tourists. Basically they are almost as cute as they are a nuisance. We went to the one lesser visited temple and after 3 monkeys climbed all over Vix and nibbled on her head we ended up hiring a 10 year old with a slingshot as protection from the overly eager advances, it was money well spent as the kid was like Richard Gear in the Bodyguard and kept the monkeys friendly!

After an afternoon of watching Super Sport on the telly (its sindicated out here) we got on the worst night train ever and headed for Chang Mai, capital city of the north. The city is built with a perfectly square moat around the old town like many of South East Asias older cities and would be home for another 3 days. Chang Mai has a crazy big night market which our taste buds enjoyed almost as much as the rest of our senses. We also went and watched a Muay Thai fight in the bar district. A slightly sureal experience really because as a "Farang" (foriegner) you sit on a nice couch at ring side sipping your cocktail while the locals crush each other in a frenzy just off to the side in order to get closest to the action. We would sit back an watch as both adults and kids would step into the ring and throw everything they had at each other while the locals cheered with every strike. Then intermission came and we were "treated" to a live cabaret show by the local lady boys dressed up like Vegas show girls sparkeling from head to high heel, we would later see them leaving 2 by 2 on scooters in the exact same outfit, what a bizare sight. Speaking of bizarre sights this was also our first real encounter with the "beer girls" of Thailand and their much older western patrons. Old men with Euros that translate into a fortune in Thailand with much younger girls (very often they dont have the company of just one) hanging onto them, playing pool, drinking cocktails and then late in the night climbing into a tuk-tuk and heading for the hotel after the price has been agreed upon. Here the roles were reversed from the South American standard the Mavrix had experienced, in South America if the V was on her own she would be hassled continually by macho latinos eager for her attention, here the M was in danger of being jumped whenever alone either by the "beer girls" or the "lady boys". Apart from the mayhem of Muay Thai and Lady boys we also did a Thai cooking course in Chang Mai, it was a great fun day when even the M managed to cook up something not only edible but quite delicious too.

Next stop was the hippie town of Pai. This little town nestled amongst rice fields, waterfalls and green mountains is super chilled and hippie cool. An easy place to get stuck! We rented scooters without a license (a fact that none of the rental agencies seem to care about) and learnt the basics on the roads and green hills around Pai driving to waterfalls and hot springs, dodging snakes and finding elephant camps along the way. It was here that we got our first ride (seat optional, we said no to our bums future disaproval and pain) on an elephant. We got a quick up and down tour of the surrounding hills before heading into the river for a bath with the ellie and a game of "lets soak the Farang" which our guide of midget proportions found extremely amusing. Pai also has a great nightlife, almost everywhere has live music, admitedly it's mostly Thais mispronouncing old Creedance Clearwater and Bob Marley songs but good for a laugh. The night market is also great and was where we would meet the worlds most precocious kid - Ping Ping. Her Mom runs a vegetarian street stall and she kidnaps all the foreigners and takes them all over the market using them as her own private mules to carry her, however once she is tired of being carried she makes a game out of running away and hiding in the throngs of people while she giggles maniacly and you sweat to keep up. Cool kid! But what a handfull!!!

Our next port of call was the city of Mae Hong Son where we planned on going trekking in the hills to visit the ethnic tribes of the area. However we met a Colombian couple (Cedric and Natalia) who were doing a loop back to Chang Mai by scooter and had a spare. The scenery was so beautiful and the offer so inviting that we decided to join forces with the Colombians and ride through the mountains for a few days. It was a really beautiful experience, sure the scooters were slow up hill carrying the both of us but that just gave you more time to marvel at the scenery of endless green mountains and rice fields, plus we got to stop whenever we felt like it and take photos or just chill. Once we got back to Chang Mai we received an email, a good friend of ours Liam that we had met in Nicaragua was coming to Thailand and would be in Bangkok in a few days. "Hell lets go see him!" we said, so back down to Bangkok we went!

Next ... Soth Thailand and adventures of Mavrix and the flying Lemo (Liam)

Welcome to Miami and the beaches...7 - 10 October

We landed in Miami on the afternoon of 6 October 08, after having done what seemed like quite an easy check in considering the high security policies and paranoia of the states (although the customs official did ask M to zip up his hoody to hide the offending Che Guvara T-shirt) we settled into the airport with the view of sleeping over for the night and catching the early flight to Bangkok via the via the next morning.



5am has never been the Mavrix favorite wake up time especially after a night spent on the airport floor listening to the all Spanish cleaning staff talk at the top of their Illegal Alien voices over the sounds of their "Made in America" vacum cleaners. So groggy eyed but excited to start a new chapter in the adventure we went off to check in. It is here that we met a very friendly but ultimately very stupid Delta employee who would determine our future for the next few days, here the American stereotypes would play themselves out loud and clear!



This "gentleman" (I use the term loser-ly) looked at our passports, read the Thai immigration code and decided on the spot that he would not be sending us to Thailand as we did not have a visa. We told hm that we had researched this and that we could just get a visa at the airport on arrival just like everyone else in the free world. To cut a long story short he had determined that because we wanted to go for 3 months and the visa you get on arrival was for 30 days we could not go! Sigh...sniff...woe is us!



Over the next 3 days against overwhelming stubborness we managed to prove with the help of the Thai Consulate, who had "Never heard of anything so ridiculous", that Delta was wrong and we were right all along (1 month down the line we have recieved an apology and $150 credit on Delta flights each in the future...whoop-dee-twang).



This did mean that we would spend 3 days in Miami though so we sought to make good on the time we had there and see some of American life...it's scary...



First off let us say that Miami is an anolmaly in America, while it is very much still America, it is also the most spanish city in all of America and therefore has some cultural differences. It is however very much still America! Everywhere you look there are giant and expensive cars, Harley Davidsons, American flags waving proudly, huge pizzas, Paris Hilton dog parlors, Obama Tshirts, fake boobs, fake tans, fake people, yellow cabs, an arrogance that this is the best place in the world and a sense that this is a first world country without the sophistication of Europe but enough rules to keep everyone heading in the right direction. It was however fun for 3 days even if it did hurt the wallet a little i.e. $5 for a slice of pizza, imagine what the healthy food tastes like, no wonder there were so many fatties.

We did get to walk around South Beach though which was beautiful and dotted with Baywatch towers and volley ball courts all the way down and marvel at the art deco buildings that make up the area.

After our obligatory 3 days waiting for our next flight we spent another enthralling night in the Miami airport listening to the PA system anounce every 5 minutes "Welcome to Miami, and the beaches". This time our 5am start was much easier with a smooth check in and a sideline security search for the M (maybe he looks like a terrorist?).

Goodbye Miami, goodbye the Americas...Hello Thailand!