Pai

Returned to Pai or "Heaven on Earth" as I have heard Nat describe it after not getting our fill on New Years eve. Pai is a really chilled mountain town with a bit of a hippy community. It combines nature and vintage shops so Nat was in her element. We just mooched around on bikes, checking the sights and getting massages before going for a night-time dip in its hot springs. Really doesn't get more chilled.

Before we left, Nat wanted to check a Cafe she had seen on our way to the bus stop to leave last time but when we got there it was empty and all the art on the walls had been ripped down.

Someone is not happy about leaving.

Thailand - Chiang Mai

After over a day of coach travel coming from Pnomh Penh, we arrived Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand where we were set to meet my ex-pat mates Sunny and Jimmy, now living in Australia. As well as heading up to Pai for New Year, we spent the week with them cruising around town on mopeds, checking out the waterfalls, local food and night markets.

The next pictre is me looking like a bit of a plank in a helmet that clearly isn't sufficiently large for my cranium.

There was something of the Waffen SS about Sunny and Jimmy's that made me feel less like a fool though.

Sunny and Jimmy now doing their best "serious" shopping faces. Got to get the bargains.

Below is the bar made from a converted school bus where we went a few nights. The massively camp barman loved me and the lads but barely aknowledged Nat's existance. The kind of lines we had to deal with go along the lines of "I recognise you,  know I do" - "Well i've not been here before, it's my first time in Chiang Mai" - "Oh, it mst have been in my dreams then"

SMOOTH

Without a doubt though the most memorable day has to have been for our trip out to the elephant sanctuary. Nat had already had her brief encounter with baby elephants but no-one else had and spirits were high in the bus, with everyone singing garage hits of yesteryear to the bemusement of the American couple coming with us. 

After feeding, riding and bathing the elephants and getting pretty saddle sore in the process we headed back to town to check a bit of Thai Kickboxing or Muay Thai. A couple of hours drinking beer and watching people fight to a soundtrack of ear peircing snake charming music had got us pretty hyped so left trying to execute pretty tame roundhouse kicks.

After the lads left we spent some more time in Chiang Mai checking out the area around the art college which was nice and chilled. One thing we left with was an urge to learn the Ukele. Nat already had an interest but they were evrywhere in Chiang Mai and seemed pretty easy to play. Below is me trying to learn some chords from the wall chart.

An Audience with a Magic Man

Unquestionably one of the most fascinating encounters on our travels has to have been with the man you see in the picture above. After taking a lesson at the school we were volunteering at in Siem Reap, Jimmy (who runs the school) said he wanted to take us to see the family of some of the kids who lived a little way out of town. With no idea what to expect, all 3 of us hopped on Jimmy's moped and crawled our way to the outskirts of town. When we got there we were met by a veritable motley crew of Cambodian characters but one in particular stood out.

The 2 nights and 1 one day we spent with him and his family was a fair while back now and I feel I wont do his spectacular story justice but let me try and paint a picture of this man from what information my brain still retains. The reason I only call the man him is because I never learnt his name. Its apparently rude to call elders by their name so I just referred to him as Kong or "Grandfather". 

The fact that at 81 he was the father to 3 kids aged 7 to 11 and the husband to a 47 year old wife was remarkable enough but when more of his stories were translated through Jimmy it transpired that he had a fair amount of life experience. As he sat on his wooden platform outside the Government Officials house he watched over, chain smoking relentlessly, we learnt that he had fought with the Americans and South Vietnamese in the Vietnam war before returning to the mountains of Cambodia to study Brahmanism and Sanskrit, circling the border of Siem Reap city on his bike in his spare time, defending it against invaders from Thailand, Japan and France.

Now for some reason he took us a shine to us (Jimmy later told us he had never seen him so animated and that he had been surprised at how genuinely attentive and inquisitive we were) and wanted to help us out in some way. He explained that Brahmanism was closely linked to music and in particular with drums so was keen on what I did with music and Natalie did with her art. It was hard trying to explain that these weren't exactly jobs for us in a traditional sense and that we didn't have managers and such like but the concept was lost in translation and he was keen on concocting something for us anyway and who were we to refuse. We agreed to go back the next day but before that he had time to fit in some predictions based on the Animal signs of our time of birth. The end result of his predictions was that we had a strong relationship and that, rather worryingly, we would have kid in the next 2 years.

We arrived nice and early the next day but no-one seemed to be in any rush to get cracking until they had watched a bit of a cock fight that was going on in the back yard. After this bizarre and slightly grim interlude we went inside the Government officials house to get on with proceedings, which entailed Kong writing Sanskrit phrases on our body before rubbing over them with gold leaf and our perfumes. Apparently different phrases relate to different animals and can assist with different things. For instance, the sign of the Sa-Re-Ga or bird written on the throat can give you a beautiful singing voice and so on. He also gave us both a potion to apply on to hair and arms before meeting important people who we feel can enhance our careers. In addition to this I got some Sanskrit engraved metal for myself and members of my old band which, attached to instruments, will attract an audience to you wherever you play. Natalie got a small concoction in what looked like an acorn shell and was told that when it was running out she could top it up by dipping some fabric covered in menstrual by product into it. I thought it best not to ask any questions at this point but he moved on insisting that we send him names and addresses of people we want to influence so he can help us, saying that he wanted to see if his magic worked on foreigners and that he hoped to make us famous one day.

Cambodia - Pnomh Penh

We spent Christmas in Pnomh Penh checking such festive treats as the S21 security prison and the Killing Fields. As you can imagine none of this was particularly conducive to a Christmassy atmosphere, and no matter how insistently I ran through Coca Cola and Marks and Spencers adverts in my head, I just couldn't shift the thought of a quarter of a countries population being wiped out in just under 4 years in the largest unrecognised Genocide in history. In fact, I mislead you. The slaughter of around 2 million people couldn't officially be declared as a Genocide in any court as it was so all encompassing and not specifically directed against one ethnic or political group. Despite the indiscriminate nature of the killing only the deaths of the Ethnic Vietnamese could be seen as Genocidal. During our stay, some of the perpetrators were up in court finally hearing their cases but to this day most of the instigators live freely, with the Khmer Rouge's leader Pol Pot dying of Natural causes in 1998. 

Imagine for a moment if you will, that whilst you were at home eating your turkey and watching Home Alone or Wallace And Gromit for the tenth year on the trot, we were checking out the site of mass graves and torture chambers. Jingle ALL the way.

My other recollection of Pnomh Penh was indulging in an unashamed Potato Fest. See, after the best part of two months on a steady diet of rice and noodles we were close to breaking point so when we broke, we broke and in style, consuming every kind of potato variation you can imagine. I now think we were trying to replace the lack of a Christmas with a menu consisting of our favourite starchy comfort foods, including Bangers and Mash, Steak and Chips and a Roast Pork Dinner. Boom!

Selected Cambodian Soundtracks

The 2 albums that stick in my head from Cambodia were Faraquet's "The View From This Tower" and Pivot's "Make Me Love You"

Cambodia - Battambong

Pretty unremarkable town on the whole, with very little do to past 9pm at night. Our short time there was spent walking around aimlessly and on a one day Tuk-Tuk tour around some of the temples and sights around the town.

During the day we were taken to the Killing Caves which was our first real glimpse of the horrors that Cambodians saw during the short rule of the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot. It was here that "dissenters" and their families were taken to be killed, with children literally thrown at the walls of the cave and left to die in its dark recesses. In Siem Reap we had spoken to Jimmy about the Khmer Rouge and their affect on the people but it was different to be confronted by it in such graphic detail. 

Towards the end of the day we were getting wound up by our drivers selective understanding of English and his insistence on taking us to points where we had to pay extra for things but after lengthy discussions and nearly calling it off we arrived at the Bamboo train just before sunset.

The train used to be used for traders taking goods to market and rattled its way through the Countryside at a pretty healthy pace. Whatever issues we had were soon forgotten though with a sunset that would make you forgive anything.