I'm baaack

[Chaos Butterfly]

Actually I think this is officially day 3.


Today we did a whole day tour of the River Kwai and floating markets. Our tour guide for this tour was really excellent she knew a lot and was also very funny. Our first stop was to be dropped off for a ride in one of those long tail speedboats as seen in James Bond – The Man with the Golden Gun, this took us along the canals and past the houses of many of the locals. Many of the houses looked like shacks tho’ some did look a bit flash in certain areas of the canals. Some were the local grocery store (of course with the Coke advertising out the front). Everyone gets around by boat, as it is the fastest way to get anywhere. Even tho’ it feels like you’re in this absolute backwater full of shacks, people washing their dishes outside with the one freshwater tap, and bathing in the canal there are still power lines running along the canal, and you’d often passed the most rundown house and spy the huge screen TV inside or hear the stereo blaring. It was an interesting clash of old and new. Every single house also had a little, often ornate ‘Spirit house’ on the property where the people leave offering to the spirits to protect their home.

The speedboats dropped us off at Damernsaduak (means ‘easy way’, years ago the Prince wanted people to be able to get from one riverside to another quickly so he ordered canals to be dug). This is the site of the famous floating markets, so we had time to wander around for a bit. About ? of it is now very touristy but the other ? is still where the locals go to buy their fruit and vegetables etc. There was also a good range of the famous Thai silk items here and yes I did have to buy a sarong.

We then got back on the coach and went to a local craft centre. On they way we passed by salt fields and there seemed to be a snack/fruit stall every few hundred meters. The best part was driving past a large traffic island with grass and trees at a highway turnoff and seeing a most unexpected site. Two mahuts had bought their charges to the traffic island to eat the long grass. So in the middle of this traffic island were 2 elephants quite happily grazing as we drove past.

At the craft centre they make paper out of one of the local plants, but more importantly they do Teak woodcarving and it was really amazing. The carvings are very intricate and detailed; some of the carved furniture was gorgeous. They will have a few people working on a Masterpiece, this can take anywhere from 9 months to a year to carve and they never even sell it, but they are on display and you can take photos, I will definitely try to get one scanned when I can because it is so impressive.

We then went to the Death Railway War museum and found out how and why it was constructed and about the suffering of the POWs who worked and died building it. It was constructed in WW2 by order of the Japanese who needed a safe land supply route to Burma so they built a railway through Thailand to Burma. They used the POWs to build it and 100’s if not thousands of them died as the conditions were so poor. They were most often buried along the railway route and most of the remains have actually been found and relocated to an immaculately kept war cemetery opposite the museum. The museum can even trace relatives who worked on the railway if people want them to.

We moved on to the River Kwai and had a buffet lunch looking out over the river. This area is also where a lot of the sapphires and rubies come from. It was very, very hot by this time of the day. We walked to the ‘Bridge over the River Kwai’ and then walked all the way over it to the other side because no trains were coming. The current steel bridge was built in 1943; the original wooden one was demolished at the request of the locals. Parts of the steel bridge have also had to be restored as the middle bit was blown up. We then wandered around on the lookout for old ladies with red lips and black teeth. This is caused by chewing beetle nuts over a long period of time. An addictive habit a bit like chewing tobacco.

On the way back into the city we stopped at the biggest Royal pagoda, which was basically huge, and there is a tiny little ladder going up it because sometimes the monks have to climb up to the top.

So today I learnt lots about war Buddhism, the King of Thailand and the royal family, markets, the people, the language and the beliefs it was very cool.

Buddha fact of the day, nobody ever actually saw Buddha, so that’s why Buddhas from different countries will look different. The question that bothered me the most is why Buddha was sometimes frowny and sometimes smiley. Today I learnt it is dependant on the sculptor and the state of the country at the time the Buddha was made. So war, drought etc.= [img]frown.gif[/img] Buddhas, prosperity and peace = [img]biggrin.gif[/img] Buddhas.

Our last important task in Thailand was to drink Mai Thais [img]graemlins/martini.gif[/img] at the bar before we left for the airport to fly out at 1am.

So Thailand was a really cool place to visit, I'd love to go back to a different area next time, the beaches probably. I probably wouldn't have felt safe on my own but me and Tarin stuck together the whole time and it was fine.

And I have hopefully finally fixed this post so it doesn't keep repeating itself Weird!

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ September 30, 2003 08:48 PM: Message edited by: Chaos Butterfly ]</font>

[Chaos Butterfly]

Day 4

The flight was about 12 hours and we got to Heathrow Airport about 7am London time. [img]graemlins/sleepy.gif[/img] We had to take the underground to my friend?s apartment where we were staying. It turned out to be quite easy although we were a bit surprised when it turned out that the underground isn?t all underground. This meant we were able to actually see some of the outskirts of London. I was just commenting on how cool it was that in the area we were passing through the houses looked just like those in Bend it Like Beckham a few minutes later we stopped at the Hounslow stop. Doh! [img]confused.gif[/img] (for those who haven?t seen the movie it is set fairly close to Heathrow and the name of the fictional girl?s football team is the Hounslow Harriers, so we were in exactly the same place). We managed to find my friend Jo?s place OK; it had a great view over the Thames. There was still a heat wave it was easily about 29 ?C. [img]graemlins/sun.gif[/img] Once we had settled in we went for a walk, there seemed to be a pub about every 500 meters if that. There also seemed to be a few little neat parks with perfect grass (I wonder what would have happened if I walked on it.) When we got back I found my first major foreign challenge of the day was how do I get the ice out of the rubber ice tray, in the end I had to TXT Jo at work and ask her. Jo and Greg shouted us dinner at a Spanish tapas restaurant.

Day 5

Checked out a wee bit of London today. I was thrilled to find Eddie Izzard DVD?s as well as my favourite old English comedies on DVD; I bought ?Allo ?Allo and Hi-Di-Hi. We checked out the West End, there were so many theatres; we managed to get half price tickets to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. We went to Convent Garden to check out the market and the buskers. We watched a guy called ?Singular Chainsaw? he was quite entertaining, he was a juggler/comedian who also rode a unicycle and somewhere along the line his act involved taking of almost all his clothes and juggling a chainsaw. We went to the Palladium theatre for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, it was fantastic, they had all the gadgets from the movie and a few more. They had real dogs running amok in the sweet factory. The car was awesome it was just like the real thing; they had it floating away from the warship complete with explosions (rather unnerving if your in the front row like we were). And the wings Ohmigod! it was so cool all the hydraulic tricks were so seamless it really seemed like the car sprouted wings and flew. Contiki starts tomorrow Yay!

[img]biggrin.gif[/img]

[Branflakes]

Very cool, very cool. Keep the stories coming.

[Chaos Butterfly]

Day 6

Jumped on the Contiki Coach and met Paul our driver (an Aussie) and Steph our tour manager (Canadian). As we drove towards Dover for the ferry we passed Blackheath, this empty grass area which will never be built on as it is where most of the ?Plague? victims are buried. It is quite a popular park area tho? for flying kites etc. which is interesting in a dark sort of way. We went on the ferry and it was as we stood outside to catch our view of the ?White cliffs of Dover? that I realised I had left my one and only jumper at Jo?s. I hope its warm in Europe, as it was a bit chilly on the ferry. I had my first cooked English breakfast on the ferry; it took a while to get my head round the cafeteria style ?grab your food then go pay? thing. Anyway breakfast was an adventure in itself, I don?t think I even had eggs as both options looked a bit unappealing (probably a good call). I had baked beans, tomato, sausage, bacon and fried bread. Baked beans OK, sausage..er..interesting but edible, bacon impossibly salty, fried bread a memorable experience indeed. I don?t know what everyone else calls fried bread but at home its basically you use a slice or 2 of bread to mop up the left over bacon fat in the pan and fry it in the pan, so its fatty but not too much and really tasty. Fried bread UK style was lets dunk the bread in oil ?til its soaked, then we?ll deep fry it ?til crunchy and golden.? I took one adventurous bite and eeewww! 100% pure fat, Yuck! [img]graemlins/gulp.gif[/img] Yet I saw people eating 2 or more pieces of it. We were informed of our arrival in Calais by the ship announcement system requesting everyone to NOT congregate by the exits; which everyone then promptly went and congregated by. [img]graemlins/sure.gif[/img]

From Calais we drove into Belgium, not that we would have known except that Steph pointed out the tiny sign, which said Belgium. We drove for a while then Steph announced that we were now leaving Belgium. Woohoo! Yay for Belgium! We drove thru the countryside towards Amsterdam it was very pretty. Checked out the BMW/Mercedes cows. They are used for leather car seats as they are in paddocks separated by canals not fences so, no scratched hides. (The things you learn on Contiki) Our Amsterdam challenge is to figure out why all the cows face the same way. On our coach we get our Dutch language lesson, our Amsterdam map orientation and a pep talk for our impending adventures in Amsterdam otherwise known as Basic Substance Abuse 101. We were told which were the reputable ?coffee shops? in town. Told about what was available if we wanted it, and just basically cautioned about the effects, especially about hash cakes as you never know how much is in it and its effects are much slower to take affect. It was just an education so that Steph could avoid, if possible, some of her more interesting challenges as a tour manager which included trying to calm the couple who had locked themselves in their room, absolutely terrified as they were convinced Armageddon was upon them and a girl who ate one space cake then went ?Oh it had no affect? (slow effect of hash-cake) and had another one, the result, one rather traumatised young lady for the rest of the Contiki tour.

Our hotel was quite nice it was right by the marina. This evening we went into town, the soundtrack for our journey in seemed to consist mostly of songs about marijuana. We went for a canal cruise thru the canals. We saw many houseboats, it seems like a pretty cool way to live, I think the locals are pretty used to all the tourists trying to peer in their windows. We passed the Amstel hotel, where the rooms run at a minimum of 800 euro per night. We all waved because the Rolling Stones are staying there right now. Steph took us on a little walk thru the red-light district; it was a bit of an eye-opener, walking past the many windows, the women standing there in sexy lingerie trying to look appealing for the men passing by. Some of them don?t like the tourists too much as they know they aren?t ?looking to buy? a couple of them opened their doors/windows and yelled at us. If you walk past and the curtain?s closed the girl?s not in or she?s ?busy?.

A few of us decided to go to ?The Grasshopper? a famous ?coffee shop?. It has 3 floors, the lower ground floor being mainly for smokers, you?d certainly be pretty chilled out even if you just sat in there for 30 minutes or so, the whole place reeked of marijuana. The other 2 levels were a bar and dance floor. You buy the marijuana at this little window downstairs after perusing the menu (I didn?t realise there were so many kinds). A few of us put money in to buy a couple of joints (White Widows which came in a pretty, shiny package) but we decided to go back to the hotel and sit by the marina and smoke them, mainly a safety thing as most hadn?t smoked pot before so this was just in case we ended up too stoned [img]graemlins/whatever.gif[/img] to find the right bus and our way back to the hotel. We lost a few people when we got back to the hotel but me, Tarin and 2 others met up, Kathy found that the marina was actually really busy as far as people went so we went to the car park (I?m sure no one would have cared at the marina but I think it?s the residual guilt of doing something you shouldn?t be) So Zolt and Kathy are smokers and they?d smoked marijuana, Tarin doesn?t smoke and I?ve never smoked a cigarette in my life. So anyway Tarin seemed to be doing OK but because of my total non-smoker status I was a bit of a disaster, I was coughing all over the place and in the end I gave up as it just burnt too much. (Some of the regular cigarette smokers even mentioned it burned more and they coughed a bit too) So yeah, Smoking marijuana class 102 : FAILED [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Crystal princess]

I'm enjoying reading about your adventures. I especially liked the Amsterdam story(so far). Good on you for getting into the spirit of the trip. Sounds like somewhere I should avoid, or I may never leave! (Not that I'm into that anymore, but think it would be just too tempting!)
I suspect the next installment may be a censored version [img]wink.gif[/img]

[Chaos Butterfly]

I know people keep checking in on this, waiting for the next installment and believe me I'm trying to get it done; I'm just realising I did an awful lot so what seems a paragraph in my notebook turns into a page. I did manage to get Crystal Princess to scan a couple of photos for me in the weekend. And I'm sorry they're huge I tried to make them smaller and it just wasn't happening so I gave up.

OK this should theoretically be a picture of one of those Teak mastercarvings I told you about from Thailand.



And this one should be the houses by the canals complete with their little spirit houses.

[Chaos Butterfly]

Day 7

This morning we went out to Edam for a bike ride. It was very cool cruising down little lanes. We stopped by a windmill for a photo opportunity. We stopped at one of the dams and stood on the dyke to watch a ship come in. As the ship come in from the sea the gate behind it closes and water is pumped out until it reaches the same level as the canal. Then the front gate opens so the boat can continue travelling down the canal. We went to Cheese and Clogs to watch them making?cheese and clogs. We went into town to watch the cutting of diamonds at a diamond jewellery shop.

We split up after that and our little group decided to wander through the flower markets where they sell various flowers, seeds and bulbs the majority of course being tulips. There also seemed to be about 20 types of marijuana seeds. Not far from there was a shop called The Magic Mushroom which we decided to check out, it sold a huge range of drug paraphernalia and herbal concoctions. We hadn?t hit full speed as organised tourists yet so we actually missed the Van Gogh museum and the Heineken brewery but we did manage to go through Anne Frank?s house. I?m sure I had to read the book at school, it was actually really interesting, the house has been fully restored with some original walls still there and various displays including pages from the original diary.

Crossing the road was fun in Amsterdam you never knew if you were about to be run over by a car, tram or bike. Even as we were getting out of the coach we were warned to be careful, as we would step straight into a bike lane and if you were unlucky ?Ding, ding?SPLAT!? [img]eek.gif[/img]

We wandered up to the main shopping street and decided it would be better to wander off on our own. Being suddenly on my own I ended up feeling really homesick, I rang my mum but she was asleep and didn?t wake up so I and went to MacDonald?s to sit and be miserable over a Big Mac and fries with mayonnaise. [img]graemlins/cry.gif[/img]

Steph had been organising our extra activities on the coach and she discarded the dinner option and gave us the option to go to a sex show, which about half of us decided to go to because Hey! We?re in Amsterdam. Why not? So back to the red-light district we went: to a place called the Casa Rosso whose emblem happened to be a leering pink elephant (well it looked like a sleazy elephant to me). We got a couple of free drinks which was just as well as the sex bit was actually really boring and kind of funny, every couple had the same routine. The stripper in between was more entertaining, she had a few interesting tricks. The following has been censored to protect the morals of all readers. [img]tongue.gif[/img] First she???then there was??burning candle?..string of beads??guys from audience??..banana??..guy in a gorilla suit.

None of our Contiki guys would get up on stage when she asked them, chickens! They also had a male stripper who came to grab 2 of our girls, Vanessa and then he was in our row and I was trying to look invisible and he chose Tarin who was sitting right next to me. Well, the first thing Vanessa did when she found herself on stage was to run off as quickly as possible leaving Tarin to completely undress him and rub lotion on him. He had fantastic washboard ab?s and we cheered Tarin on as it all looked a bit dodgy and rather embarrassing but she did great.

We left in good spirits and went to dinner in the red-light district, we saw a few obvious visitors having a bit too much of a good time pass by. We actually passed the same group of guys when we left and one was actually laying paralytic drunk in the middle of the street. We went back to The Grasshopper for a drink and a smoke, by this time I had decided that I was obviously crap and had given up I think I?ll stick to drinking, I just amusingly watched everyone else. Me, Tarin, Nina, Daphne and Sam went and sat outside watching the world go by and having a laugh. Nina had managed to buy a ?hash lollipop? earlier in the day. She kept telling us how disgusting it tasted but we couldn?t prise it off her with a crowbar if we tried. We were actually joined by a stoner local who was just funny because he was so stoned. A couple of English guys sitting near us hassled him a bit; it was very entertaining as half the time he didn?t know what they were talking about. We went to the taxi stand to get a cab back to the hotel and somehow managed to pick the only ?Disco taxi? in Amsterdam. We had already had a great night and this iced the cake, his cab was full of junk, mirror balls, flashing lights, he had a mini DVD player showing Michael Jackson clips, he pumped his stereo up playing disco hits and sang karaoke disco to us all the way back to the hotel. It was hilarious and fantastic. Awesome night! [img]graemlins/party.gif[/img]

[3peanuts]

[img]wink.gif[/img] [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Dan the Goob]

Gorrilla Suit?! [img]eek.gif[/img]

Sounds like quite the adventure, keep the stories coming. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Chaos Butterfly]

Yay! I have my computer back now so I can continue.

Day 8

Nina and I had returned to the hotel before Tarin who had gone with some of the others to a nightclub. We, of course, had the key and couldn?t be bothered returning it to the front desk; so at 2am Nina had to get up and let her in when she came back. This was because I was absolutely fast asleep and didn?t hear a thing even when Tarin tripped over the end of the bed and started swearing. This was to set the scene for quite a few nights on the tour; Nina and I get back to the room first, then quite a few hours later Nina has to get up and let Tarin in because I am absolutely dead to the world, I still can?t believe I slept that deeply. [img]graemlins/sleepy.gif[/img]

Today we journeyed into the Rhine Valley, a wine region in Germany. We passed many vineyards; a lot of them seemed to be on the very steep slopes of the valley. We took a boat cruise down the Rhine River past more vineyards and castles. Some Chinese or Japanese guys came up to say hello to Tarin. She had no idea who they were and their English wasn?t that good. We managed to finally understand them, they said they?d seen Tarin last night (we were like Huh!) then they managed to elaborate they?d seen Tarin in Amsterdam at the sex show. By now I was beside myself with laughter at Tarin?s newfound celebrity status (in a completely different country to the day before, no less). They said they?d recognised her smile and asked if they could have their picture taken with her. I think they were definitely Japanese as they were definitely keen on her blonde hair; she had to take her hat off. I can just imagine what they?re telling their friends back home. *ROTFL*

We cruised past Loreley Rock, in this stretch of the river the currents are very tricky and many ships run aground on the rock. It is believed the beautiful mermaid/sea nymph Loreley used to lure men to their deaths on the rocks. There is even a statue of her a bit past the cliff. Actually 2 weeks after my trip there was a ship run aground at Loreley on the news.
We finally ended up in the little village of St. Goar where we were staying the night. We went to a place that makes beer steins, there were so many different ones including the special Berlin Wall collector?s one which has a piece of the original wall set onto the lid. We saw the world?s biggest cuckoo clock and went to the Steiff Teddy Bear Shop the home of the original Teddy Bear. They were very expensive bears. In the evening we went wine tasting at a little local winery, I bought a bottle of ice wine as it was quite nice. We had a lovely roast beef dinner at the little hotel and of course had to sample the local Abermunstel beer. We finally got around to doing official introductions at the bar so you could finally put a name to the face you?d been chatting to for the last 2 days. There were mostly Australians on our tour and about half our tour was couples but they were cool and mixed a lot with the others rather than go off on their own. One couple had already left their passports under the mattress in Amsterdam, we shall have to smuggle them into Switzerland without passports.

Day 9

Today we travelled to Switzerland. We went to Lucerne to shop Hehe! Did the typical buying of watches, chocolates and Swiss army knives. It is an extremely beautiful area. We walked across the Chapel Bridge, a beautiful bridge over one side of the lake. It had to be rebuilt after a fire, which left only the water tower standing. The paintings depicting the history of the village painted near the ceiling of the covered bridge, were also lost, they too have been replaced. A good part of our coach journey involved looking out for the Swiss Military. Steph is really rather obsessed with the Swiss Military and told us all about them. Switzerland is completely land-locked and likes to remain neutral and they seem rather concerned about being invaded should war happen. Apparently there are facades on the slopes of Mt. Pilatus, which hide missile silos. Military service is compulsory for all men, pretty much for their whole lives. The entire Swiss army can be mobilised in 3? days. Steph had us looking out for firing ranges and landing strips disguised as the main road of little villages, complete with hangars that have grass growing on the roof, so they are less able to be spotted from the air. The roads leading into Switzerland are rigged too; either with hydraulics or something so that a section of the road will move and become a blockade or they are rigged to be collapsed ?tank traps? which make a noise as you drive over them.

We went on a cruise on the beautiful Lake Lucerne with commentary by our Swiss hosts who thought they were comedians. The truth is always the funniest tho? as we discovered the nun?s living on the hillside had a fantastic view of the nudist beach on the other bank. We drove thru windy forested roads to get to Engleberg, it reminded us a lot of New Zealand. Engleberg is nestled in a little space between mountains, it is totally surrounded by them it was so amazing. We had this great hotel, the Bellevue, and we had a great room with a balcony that looked out at the mountains. We had dinner at another hotel around the corner, great service, then we wandered back to find a bar, Nina?s mission: to find Margaritas, [img]graemlins/martini.gif[/img] which was not to be, we settled for strawberry daiquiri?s instead and it is becoming apparent I can?t afford to drink in Europe everything is very expensive.

Day 10


Today we went up Mt. Titlis, [img]wink.gif[/img] *snigger* 10,000ft or 3020m high. First we had to take a 2 stage gondola ride, then switch to a big rectangular cable car, then then switch to the rotair a round cable car with a rotating floor for 360? views. Nina has a problem with heights but she decided to come in the end and she was petrified. There is a huge glacier at the top of the mountain. It was about 0-2? at the top and of course I?d left my one and only warm jacket in London so I was wearing 3 T-shirts and a ? sleeve light jacket. We played in the snow at the top and of course I had to call my family from the top of a Swiss mountain on my cell-phone. The view was really awesome I seem to have lots of photos of Swiss mountains. One of the nearby rock formations you can see from the top is a natural Buddha statue, it was discovered by some Olympic athlete who was training/meditating on Mt. Titlis. In the afternoon I wandered around town. The Swiss really like their dogs they seem to be allowed in many shops and restaurants, even McDonald?s, it seems to be like this in many European countries.

Bought more chocolate (for everyone back home I swear)
[img]biggrin.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ November 04, 2003 04:48 AM: Message edited by: Chaos Butterfly ]</font>