Dec 31st, 2011, Chiang Mai

It's the last day of year 2011. Damn. So have you done things you wanted to this year? I think I'm very satisfied with my year, it's been a good one, a lot has happened. But back to this moment, what has happened in the last couple of days? On wednesday morning we arrived in Chiang Mai after a romantic night with the German guys in the train. On wednesday we were too tired to do anything else than to eat, walk around the town and take a thai-massage. Which was really nice, by the way. Compared to the Burmese one, it was more gentle and more professional. Very nice indeed. Only future will tell us if the Lao or Cambobian massage can compete with this one.

After a long bargaining and mind battle with our hotel receptionist we decided to take a two-day trek from our own hotel, with a very good price. We ended up forming a group with two Dutch girls and five girls from Chile. It was quite a nice group, but such a girl-overpowered group also has a lot of issues. So there was some complaining, waiting and argueing with the guide included in this trek. In the first day we basicly just walked for three hours and then stayed overnight with a local family. It was a very nice and authentic atmosphere. Our guide (Ton) was quite an interesting person, and he thought us with his friend some local games by the camp fire in the evening.



The second day was much more exciting than the first one. At first we went to see the elephants, did some bathing with them and then took a short tour with them. You just have to love those animals! Big as a house, and still so relaxed and chilled out. After that we did some bambu-rafting, which was also relaxing and nice. Zip-wire-thing was also ok, although very lame. You should've been in the jungle doing it to get some excitement out of it. The last mission of the day was white-water rafting. Absolutely amazing, but totally too short. You got the taste of what it might have been, and then it ended. But all-in-all, a very nice day with a lot of sun and fun.



In the evening we still had time to eat very well in our hotel and then head out. We found a really atmospheric rooftop bar in the centre, and spent the night in there. The only unpleasant accident of the night was when I found a huge cockroach climbing on top of my knee in the bar. Not a nice surprise at all..

Today we are flying to Luang Prabang in Laos, where we spend the New Year's Eve.

Dec 28th 2011, Bangkok- Chiang Mai train, Sampo

Aand here we are! I managed to find Olli after a tremendously delightful trip (note to all parents: think twice before taking your 6-month old baby on a 9-hour flight), and I was happy to see him in a lot better shape than I had feared. We had barely exchanged greetings when Olli brought up the idea of not only going to Chiang Mai right away, but also doing it by train instead of bus as previously planned. I wholeheartedly agreed with this, and we soon boarded the new, modern Bangkok skytrain towards the city centre.

Our day in Bangkok went fast. We found our way to the railway station, bought tickets to Chiang Mai, and spent the remaining hours eating and drinking lunch. In the train we ended up in the same compartment with two german guys, Paul and Max. Surprisingly, they were drinking beer when we showed up, and even pulled out a bottle of whiskey afterwards. We got along so well that we even lit up a little candle to warm up the mood. When the AC turned from cold to freezing, Paul macgyverized the fan to make the place livable again, which impressed us in a great deal. Needless to say, we had a nice evening and i expect it to do wonders to my jet lag tomorrow.

My first impressions from Thailand were extremely positive. People in Bangkok were very friendly and seemingly helpful regardless of whether there was money for them to gain, which is rather rare back home. It makes me all the more happy to be on the road again! In a week we'll meet up with the rest of our friends – sadly, one of them is missing though, because he has to visit his girlfriends' parents. So ist das leben.

Dec 27th, Bangkok Airport, Olli

Time for the last post of Myanmar. Yesterday I still had to time to see the home of Aung San Suu Kyi (or actually just the wall surrounding it) where she was kept in house arrest for 15 years. Suu Kyi is the face of the opposition trying desperately to fight against the cruel government to improve the life of normal people. Even though there were elections last year and the military regime doesn't officially exist anymore, it didn't really change anything. The same people who were running the military regime the past decades got elected also to the parliament. What a coincidence. Maybe next time there will be even an honest vote counting also? The last time that happened was 1989 just before Suu Kyi was sent to her first house arrest. At the moment all the money basically goes to the few people in the government and the rest of the people stay very poor.

But despite being poor, the myanmarish (I have no idea how to spell that!) people are very friendly and nice people. They seem to trust you and you can trust them. For example my friend forgot his shoes in a shop where we visited on the way to Inle Lake and was worried if he can ever have them back again, when suddenly the next morning the shop owner just appears to our hostel door and brings back the shoes! And the shop was quite far away and we didn't even buy anything from there. Another good example is the time we got invited to the wedding rehearsal. Some say you shouldn't go to Myanmar because then you just bring more money and support to the government. I strongly disagree. It's quite easy to notice how you can support the normal people. Avoid using any trains, big and fancy hotels, certain Flight Companies etc. Basicly all the buses, small budget guest houses and alike are private, so the money goes directly to the people. Visiting and donating some money to monasteries is also good. Also avoiding big tourist offices and using the services of private people helps. Also all the locals with whom I talked to were happy that foreigners visit Myanmar and were very eager to tell about their lives and were also interested of the world outside Myanmar.

Safety was also not an issue at all, felt very safe all the time. Of course it might have been different for example during the elections. One thing I didn't like though was the dirtyness everywhere. People just throw things away when they don't need it anymore. One weird thing was the local habit of chewing some red stuff in your mouth all the time, and then spitting huge red spits to the streets. Really a nasty habit. Even though our guide explained us what it was, I was at the moment too weak to think and my English wasn't quite good enough to totally understand it. But something like tobacco and nut oil.. or something. As you probably know by now, my food experiences were not the best. I can't even look or smell at the local food right now. I'm a bit worried, because the food in the rest of the South-East Asia is not that different. Hopefully different enough? But to be honest with you, even if I didn't got the food poisoning, I don't think I would've liked the food in here too much.

So was Myanmar worth visiting? Absolutely!

Dec 26th, Yangon, Olli

I have been feeling very bad the last three days, basicly not being able to do anything at all and haven't eaten almost anything. So waking up today and feeling just a little bit better was a great feeling. And I just managed to eat a small plate of pasta, so I am hoping maybe I finally start getting better now after a week. I think I'll go see a doctor in Bangkok just in case (didn't want to go to a local witch doctor after all) before continuing my trip in Thailand. Mom and Dad don't worry though, I'm ok and feeling better all the time! :)

So today is my last day in Myanmar. I spent the afternoon with my turkish friend, we went to see Shwedagon Paya, 2500-year old compound with 83 buildings. Quite a sight, have to admit. We were there at midday, which was a terrible timing, it would've been much more beautiful at sunrise or sunset. I found a movie theater near to my hostel, I think I'll go watch Tin Tin in the evening. Tickets cost 1-1,5 euros, so interesting to see how it is.

Dec 24th, Inle Lake, Olli

Yesterday was a really fantastic day. I rented bikes with the Canadian and Turkish guys, and we spent the day driving around the lake. We didn't have any very strict plans, so everytime we heard or saw something interesting, we went to see what it was. That led us for example to a wedding seremony rehearsal, where we found ourselves dancing with the locals and afterwards they invited us to have lunch with them in a monastery. The table was full of food and they just brought more and more all the time. Lovely people. We also visited another monastery and a school. We also went to some hot springs, and in the evening we took a boat back when it was already totally dark. We only hit one other boat so it went pretty well. After returning to hotel we went to a traditional Burmese massage, which was quite interesting. I felt a lot of pain, but it was still quite good. Four euros for an hour of massage..





Today has not been a good day. I spent the night in the toilet again and in the morning I had a high fever. Once again, I haven't been able to eat anything. I don't know why. Maybe it was because yesterday for the first time I was feeling good and ate a lot in the evening. Anyway, I decided to skip the 16-hour long bus trip back to Yangon and bought plane tickets for tomorrow instead. If I feel like this tomorrow I think I'm going to see a doctor, just in case.

Dec 22th, Inle Lake, Olli

I decided to go anyway, and now I'm happily in Inle Lake, after trekking for three days and two nights. Distance was only about 40-50 km, so not too bad. We had a group of six people, three canadians, one american, one turkish and myself. Our guide was a 28-year old guy from Kalaw, a great guy. On tuesday we left Kalaw around 9 am, and the highlight of the day for me was a stop at a local elementary school. It was a tiny building with only two rooms and a few desks. The children seemed to really enjoy their day, or maybe it was just because we came to disturb their normal day with our cameras. The first night we spent in a small village, where we slept in a floor of a local family. Three of us also played the combination of volleyball and soccer (3-3, a badminton net, 3 touches, only with legs and head, with a ball made of bambu) against the local teenagers. Guess who won? It was dark very early and there being no lights in the village, we spent the night watching the stars and went to bed at 8 pm. Yes, you heard right. We slept (or tried to sleep) on a wooden floor side by side on a matress with a few blankets. The walls were thin as paper and the temperature dropped to almost zero degrees, so the night was freezing.





So I was very happy to get up very early next morning. During the day we stopped in a few more villages, and met for example some chili-farmers and bambu-workers. The second night we spent in a small monastery, which was very interesting. In Myanmar all men (buddhists) have to live in a monastery at least twice during their lives. Once as a novice monk and once in their adult age. In this monastery lived nine novice monks (young boys) with one chief monk teaching them. So in the morning we didn't need any alarm clocks, because the young novices started chanting at 5.30 am. I have to admit, it was a really strange feeling waking up in a Burmese monastery to a sound of nine young monks chanting. Not a bad feeling at all. In the last day we saw some really nice views and after a 4-hour trek arrived to Inle Lake. Before letting our guide go, we still had time to visit an umbrella work shop and see some members of the long-neck tribe.

Dec 20th, Kalaw, Olli

I was really lucky with my flights to Bangkok. On the first flight I didn't have anyone sitting next to me and on the connecting I got to the first row. My first night in Bangkok was also good, I spent a fun night with some other travellers. On saturday I flew to Burma.

Somehow I immediately felt like being in Burma when I stepped out of the plane. I didn't find my luggage, and there was no sign indicating where I should find it. When asking for help, people were friendly all right, but they just kept sending you to the next person until you were talking again to the same person with whom you started to. And finally the bag just appeared somewhere. Next thing that happened was a power failure. All the electricity went off just like that. First time when the flash light was useful, for sure not the last one.

I didn't have any reservations for accommodation, and it was surprisingly difficult to find a room. I spent a lot of time finding a room with an american guy I met in the plane. Finally we did manage to find one, I think it was maybe the sixth place we went to.

The next day we took a night bus to Kalaw, which took 11 hours. The bus was ok, even though the roads were pretty bad. Almost during the whole trip they played (very loud) popular western songs singed in some asian languages. At some point it started to annoy a little bit.. We arrived in Kalaw at 2 am as promised, and found immediately a nice place to stay. So everything was going fine. Until after sleeping maybe for two hours the shit hit the fan. After that I spent the next 15 hours running between my bed and toilet. I am still feeling really bad after all the puking and can't eat or drink anything. I was going to hike to Inle Lake tomorrow, but it seems like I have to change my plans a bit..

Dec 24th 2011, Inle Lake (Myanmar), Olli

Greetings from Myanmar! I have had a great time so far and the trip is going well. I have had a few minor set-backs also but all-in-all everything is good. Internet connections here are very poor and there is no mobile network in the whole country. I will try to update the blog at some point. Now I just wanted to let you know I am still alive and feeling well. ;)

Merry christmas everyone!

Dec 15th 2011, Espoo, Olli

”I have a dream.”, someone once said. I also had a dream last night. Actually, even two. In the first one I was travelling in the Golden Triangle, when I suddenly noticed I was in a middle of a war. I escaped in a train inside a cargo ship. Yep. In the second dream I was with a bunch of kids trying to protect them and run away from the Vietkong. Interesting.

My trip starts today. I hope it’s going to be a little bit different than those in my dreams.. First to Bangkok, one night there, then to Yangon (Burma), one night there and then a night bus to Kalaw. That’s the plan, anyway. Let’s see how it goes!

Here is a very, very rough and inaccurate route map for our trip. Blue stands for flying, brown for busses, trains, boats, walking etc.

Dec 9th 2011, Jyväskylä, Olli

Here we go again!

Old friends, new places. We were six In the US, five in Siberia, now all there is left is us four. So once again, one has dropped out. But it’s understandable, because he had to take his dog out. It’s going to be different this time in other ways too. For example everyone is starting the trip from different places in different times as well as returning to different countries at different times. If we get lucky, maybe we “accidentally” don’t even find each others in Asia at all? Wouldn’t that be great? Well, let’s see how it turns out!

As said before, we are four friends living in different parts of Europe nowadays: Olli (Jyväskylä, Finland), Sampo (Helsinki, Finland), Lauri a.k.a. Peltsi (Riga, Latvia) and Esa (Moscow, Russia). The plan is to travel around Indochina, visited countries will be Myanmar (former Burma), Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The rest of us are travelling around five weeks and Esa is probably staying there forever.

We will update the blog every now and then, depending on where we find internet connections. Hopefully we’ll manage to upload some pics also. Well, enough said at this point, let’s go already! Have fun reading the blog!

Earlier trips made with the same guys (in Finnish):

Trans-Mongolia train (2009), Russia-Mongolia-China-Japan

Road Trip in USA (2006)


Some kind of a preliminary route plan: