Stage 4 seems like a million miles away now, having just stuffed myself silly at various Christmas/New Year celebrations. Feel a little sad writing this now I am about to embark on my first day back at the office for 2011 but here goes my overview of the best month of my life so far…
The stage started back on a very rainy night in October when Lyndsey, Seve and I were united at Heathrow, all very excited and eager to embark on the journey ahead. After 18 hours and a quick pitstop in Bangkok to sample the sights and sounds of a very busy Khao San road, and the tastiest Pad Thai I have ever eaten, we touched down at Luang Prabang airport. My first impression on landing at the airport was one of pure admiration of the beautiful landscape Laos had to offer, and then secondly I was overcome by giggles at seeing ‘plane spotter Steve’ in the bushes of the airport trying to get a snap of us getting off the plane. The first few days on the trip were relatively easy as the boys of stage 3 needed a well earned break before we headed off on the road. While definitely not the longest of the stages in terms of distance and duration it did have 3 borders which we were more than a little concerned about crossing. We needn’t have worried though. The team at Global link, KPP and the Singapore Civil Defence service did a sterling job of hand-holding us on our crossings through these notoriously busy and difficult borders.
High Point – Swimming in the beautiful Malaysian Sea
Low Point – Missing John Barnes who was just yards away from our hotel
No Point – The Malaysian ‘Pirate’ who robbed us in broad daylight
Over reaction of the day – Seve v the Monkey
So today was our first day off since the tubing in Laos and we were all very excited about the prospect of finally dipping our toes into the sea after being so cruelly teased in Thailand by Krabi, Phuket and Phi Phi. So after saying goodbye to the wonderful team at APP ( who were driving back to KL) we headed out of Georgetown to experience some of what the rest of Penang had to offer. Seve was the navigator for the day and while the rest of us were sleeping earlier in the morning he was busy sorting out our agenda for the day ahead – a prime example of navigation at it’s finest!
High Point – Stumbling across the beach bungalow that was to become our home for the night
Low Point – Sore bottoms from sitting in the back of the cab for hours at a time. Thanks to http://www.motorcyclegelseatpads.co.uk/ for donating gel seat pads to help save our bums. Much appreciated!
Today started on a high with a visit to the ‘Swedish Bakery’ opposite our accommodation in Hua Hin for a quick bit of breakfast. Paul had already had a few sneaky croissants while the rest of us were asleep and so they came highly recommended! To give you some context to our obsession with food in our blogs, Steve has quite rightly imposed a limit on the amount of western dishes we can eat in a week so that we can really experience the local cuisine. So, to get a breakfast of cinnamon rolls and croissants was sheer heaven. Once breakfast was consumed we hit the road.
Low Point – Construction of camp beds! I am officially the weediest member of the stage 4 crew after coming last in the race to construct our beds for the evening.
No point – The boys generally 😉
Today saw the first full day in Thailand and the long drive from Khon Kaen to the national park in Khoa Yai. The drive flew by with the usual chat and rather wonderful mega mix of pumping tunes blasting on the radio ( yep, I was the DJ for today’s drive) :-). Soon the long motorway disappeared and we entered the beautiful Khoa Yai national park which is Thailand’s most popular national park. As we followed the windy road through the park we were all on high- alert searching for the first ‘jungle animal’ sighting. We were rewarded 15mins into our drive through the park when the road opened up and we were suddenly at a viewpoint overlooking the park that stretched out below. Everywhere we looked there were gibbons jumping on cars and the most beautiful butterflies flying around us.
High Point – Finally arriving in Luang Prabang, Laos to see the remaining members of the Stage 3 crew!
Low Point – All highs today folks!
No point – N/A
On the 2nd Oct and after months of planning it was finally the turn of the Stage 4 team to head to Luang Prabang to begin our stint of Follow that Fire Engine! Read more →
